Perth frontrunner to host national road cycling champs

Perth looks set to host the road cycling national championships from 2025 following approval from the City of Perth to fund the flagship event.

The City of Perth has approved the allocation of $750,000 over three years for AusCycling to fund the event, which involves 54 events over five days, including time trials, criterium (short form) racing and road races.

Council documents show AusCycling has applied to run the championships in Perth from January 3 to 7 in 2025, and on unconfirmed dates in January 2026 and 2027.

The event is expected to attract 25,000 spectators and 4,000 participants, including 3,500 interstate visitors and 40 international guests.

The championships are broadcast on national television, with 379,000 viewers tuning to this year’s telecast.

For the last 17 years, the event has been held in Ballarat.

The first major event on the cycling calendar, the championships are part of the International Cycling Union series, and draw the best athletes in the sport from around the country.

The total cost of running the event is $2.1 million, and Business News understands AusCycling has secured the balance of the funding elsewhere.

Races are proposed to take place in Kings Park and the Perth CBD, with other locations to be confirmed.

In its support of the application, the City of Perth’s assessment panel described the Road Nationals Championships (RoadNats) as “a national sporting event of significance with an established profile and community interest”.

“RoadNats will create a strong lead into the January event season and complement the City’s overall calendar,” the panel stated.

“The event will attract good levels of interstate attendance and there is potential to promote Perth as a destination and strengthen our reputation as an events capital.”

AusCycling said while it had been open about its desire to have the event hosted in different parts of Australia, discussions remained ongoing and an agreement had not yet been finalised.