First combined Oceania Championships to be held in Brisbane

Cycling is making the most of an increased appetite for Brisbane hosting major sporting events in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics, with the announcement that the city will host the first combined Oceania Cycling Championships from 27 March – April 11, 2022.

MTB, BMX Freestyle and road cycling will all feature in the revamped Oceania Championships format. Source: Getty Images/AusCycling

It will be the first time the Oceania Championship titles will be contested across the eight disciplines of BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, Mountain Bike Cross Country, Para-cycling (road and track), Road (time trial & road race) and Track. The Oceania Gran Fondo Challenge will also be contested as a non-championship event.

Over the last four years Brisbane has become increasingly prominent in hosting cycling events, including the track cycling at the Commonwealth Games, the Australian Track National Championships since 2017, a UCI Track World Cup in December 2019, the International Six Day series final as well as the growing Brisbane Cycling Festival.

Most of those events have been on the track, staged out of the newly-built Anna Meares Velodrome, but the Brisbane Cycling Festival features a wider array of cycling and has significant government backing to help grow the event as the city looks forward to hosting bigger and bigger events in the lead-up to the Olympics. The dates for the announced combined Oceanias event look like they'll be incorporated into the Brisbane Cycling Festival.

The Oceania Championships, run by the Oceania Cycling Confederation, aren't normally a high-profile event, the last two editions of the Oceania road and BMX championships have been cancelled without much fanfare, and the whole set of championships in 2021 weren't run. The UCI Continental Championships are the highest-ranked UCI sanctioned international Championships in cycling after the UCI World Championships in terms of UCI points, but it rarely feels like it ever reaches greater than domestic competitions.

However, adding in the ability for fans of the sport to take in the many different disciplines of cycling all in the same place does point towards an increasingly more relevant and engaging edition of the event.

The Brisbane Cycling Festival also has a lot of other events and avenues for participation, and it appears to be building upon the recent trend towards multi-discipline events, with the Santos Festival of Cycling and the cancelled Sea Otter Festival in Canberra both embracing the whole gamut of cycling. 

AusCycling CEO Marne Fechner talked of the multi-faceted nature of the event, also a topic that she addressed in a wide-ranging interview with Cycling Central. 

"We are pleased to be providing a unique inter-disciplinary competition opportunity that will feature all of the Oceania Championships together," said Fechner.

"We thank the Oceania Cycling Confederation, Tourism and Events Queensland and Brisbane Economic Development Agency for their support to bring this incredible event together."

Queensland Tourism and Sport Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe, meanwhile highlighted the connection between major sporting events and the Olympics, saying the combined Oceania Cycling Championships was one of many international events heading for Brisbane in the years ahead.

"We're looking forward to welcoming high calibre sporting events like the Oceania Cycling Championships as the countdown begins to Brisbane's 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"Queenslanders have worked hard to manage the health impacts of the global pandemic which is giving sport's governing bodies the confidence to commit to significant events.

"With world-class sporting infrastructure and excellent tourist experiences, Queensland's capital is the place to be for quality, elite events such as the Oceania Cycling Championships."

2022 Oceania Championship Schedule

Mountain Bike (XCO) – 27 March

Track (inc Para-cycling) – 2–5 April

BMX Racing – 9 April

BMX Freestyle – 10 April

Road (inc Para-cycling) – 10 April, Time Trial (inc Para-cycling) – 11 April

Gran Fondo Challenge– 10 April

Details of the Oceania Championships for Downhill Mountain Bike Championships are currently being finalised and will be announced in due course.