04/09/2026
This is a favourite image of mine from the last several years of being involved in bike racing here in South Australia. It's from a couple of years ago when we were able to help the Santos Tour Down Under to provide a extra night of racing for the Women's World Tour riders with arguably the biggest crit Pakapakanthi/Victoria Park has seen to date.
Right now, you have the opportunity to make a submission to both DIT and the City of Adelaide and share your thoughts on the recently announced redesign of Victoria Park and other parks in the Eastern Parklands.
Since the Supercars racing returned to the park a few years ago, Norwood Cycling Club and AusCycling - SA Clubs and Community have met multiple times per year with the SA Motorsport Board about our use of Vic Park, advocating for as much use as we can possibly get while working around their bump in and out, and also ensuring what we do get to use is as safe as possible. After the announcement that MotoGP would be coming to Adelaide, SAMSB brought us in for an initial discussion, and more recently we met with them to discuss their proposed course design and how the venue could meet their needs while maintaining its status as the most-used cycling venue in the state. We're also meeting with them and DIT next week to be presented this updated redesign, and we'll be providing written feedback after that, as will Norwood CC.
I encourage all cyclists, members and otherwise, who use Victoria Park to complete the submissions to both DIT and COA.
Some facts you mind find useful while considering your response:
- nearly 1 in 5 event participations across all cycling disciplines per year in SA takes place at Victoria Park.
- more than 1 in 3 road cycling event participations per year takes place it Victoria Park.
- it is the ONLY traffic-free, cycling-specific venue for road cycling in SA, when club- and AC-run road racing has never been more expensive to organise on roads, this is more important than ever.
- places to ride your bike without worrying about cars aren't just important for racing and pathways development - research has repeatedly shown that the biggest reason people give for not riding their bikes is a lack of confidence in their own skill, something that's much easier to develop away from live traffic than on the roads.
DIT design information and consultation: https://dit.sa.gov.au/infrastructure/projects/circuit-redevelopment/design
City of Adelaide information and consultation: https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/adelaide-circuit-redevelopment/
We'll be at Vic Park on Sunday kicking off the Super Series, with 300 riders across a range of Junior and Senior racing, maybe we'll see you out there!
- Jake Thomas, State Operations Manager SA & NT, AusCycling
(Photo credit: Andy Rogers, Fame & Spear Photography)