Interview Alicia Reynolds

When your friends are soaking up sunshine on the beach, you are slogging through snow, thousands of kilometers away from home. That's the brave adventure that Alicia Reynolds has lived in the past few months. After a long plane flight, the 17-year-old Australian arrived in Europe to challenge herself on some of the most challenging courses in the sport. Her talent got rewarded by a selection at the most recent World Championships cyclocross. In this interview, she tells more about her own Olympic dream, and she also shares her insights on how we can bring more Australian talent to the World stage of the sport. Get to know a rider with a very interesting story to tell, and many beautiful dreams to achieve. 

How do you look back at your past cyclocross season?

My past cyclocross season (2025/2026) had its ups and downs. The State and National series competition was going well for me, with some challenging races and solid results. However, at the Australian National Championships in Ballarat, Victoria, I had a bad crash and injured myself during course recon. This meant that I couldn’t compete, and more importantly, couldn’t obtain any UCI points for the rest of my season. This was a significant setback for me.  My injury resulted in a tear in my calf and damaged ligaments in my left ankle. This disrupted my training and preparation for the remainder of my races in the latter part of the year.

My European season started in the UK in September, only a couple of weeks after the crash, which wasn't the smartest move, but we couldn’t cancel the flights. I gave it my best, considering the condition my body was in. I didn’t have much time to get up to peak fitness for the season, so I started a bit underdone. Having lost UCI points for not competing at Nationals, I was placed at the back of the field in every subsequent UCI race. This is a big deal for Aussie cyclists because we have so few opportunities to gain UCI points and improve our ranking and our starting position on the grid. In the UK, I earned UCI points in the 4 races I competed in, so I was pleased with my efforts.

Moving forward, I was mainly making sure my preparation and training during the Belgium period of my season were consistent. I raced mainly in Belgium for 2 months from early December until the end of January. I stayed at the Flandrian Hotel. During this period, I competed in 5 cyclocross World Cup races (Elite women): Hoogerheide, Koksijde, Dendermonde, Benidorm, and Gavere; 2 UCI races, Gullegem and Zonhoven; and 2 local races. I then finished with the World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands. I really enjoyed the cyclocross season and gained a huge amount of experience despite some struggles with my fitness and the cold weather. I felt that once I got into a routine, I kept improving every race. My best result was Benidorm World Cup, finishing on the lead lap and beating some back markers, coming 26th. I did some new courses that were both technically and physically challenging, like Zonhoven and Hulst. I learnt many new skills, and with each race I kept improving my racecraft. Overall, I learnt a lot from this trip and have improved my cyclocross racing both mentally and physically.

How would you compare Australian and European cyclocross?

Very different, I would say. Australian cyclocross is best compared to the Benidorm World Cup (but without the stairs, hills, and long sand pit). A lot of the courses are dry, fast, and sometimes undulating. I have competed in every National Series round for 2 years, racing at the National level in cyclocross across South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland. I have experienced most of the main Australian cyclocross courses. For my age group (JW), there are often only 2 to 3 other girls in the race. Compared to Europe, where every race had between 15 and 50 competitors. In Australia, we don’t have the numbers and the interest that Europe does. We also don’t have many obstacles in our courses, such as stairs, long technical descents, bridges, or really muddy sections. I think that is mainly because of the effort and money it takes to create a cyclocross course, and the weather in Europe is truly winter weather. Europeans are a lot more invested in cyclocross than Australians at present.

What are your ambitions in the sport?

If cyclocross becomes an exhibition sport at the Winter Olympics in 2030, my ambition is to represent Team Australia.  Regardless, I want to keep racing cyclocross at the highest level and continue improving my skills and ranking to become more competitive.

How did you discover cyclocross?

Before I started cycling, I got picked up by this development project run by the West Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS). They wanted to pick up kids at school who might have the genetic ability to make it to the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane. It was called the Talent Identification program and was targeted at getting more kids into 3 sports: track cycling, kayaking, and rowing. I got selected for track cycling. Before getting selected, I could barely ride a bike. From there, I went to track cycling nationals, then to road cycling nationals, then to Triathlon nationals (swim, bike, run). During this period, I was offered the chance to try cyclocross, and the WA cyclocross community was so welcoming. I really enjoyed racing against the elite women, and it also helped improve my technical skills. I travelled around Australia for it, then in the 2024/2025 cyclocross season, I went to Belgium as a first-year junior for a month, doing 3 World Cups. I was also picked up by the UCI to attend the cyclocross intensive training camp in Aigle, Switzerland, at the World Cycling Organization headquarters, alongside other riders from around the world. From then on, I loved the sport and tried to get more people into it, especially from Australia. I kept training and then headed back to Europe for the 2025/2026 season, competing in the 2026 World Championships. I started doing cyclocross in 2023, so I am still constantly learning. 

How did it feel to be months from home to practice your sport (on and off the bike)?

It is definitely tough sometimes, being so far away from home. In a place that does things a bit differently from what I am used to, like Europe (for example, they drive on the other side of the road compared to Australia). It was also hard getting used to the cold and snow. I think finding social connections is important. I met other girls along the way and built connections with the other riders, which was especially important for me, since I am a social person. I would say that you have to go into the European season open-minded, and sometimes there will be good days and bad days, but have social connections, whether it's friendships or a coach, to help you get through the bad days when you’re so far away from home.

How could Australian cyclocross be better supported to grow the sport domestically and enable more riders to race abroad?

It is hard because Australia is on the back foot for cycling, especially cyclocross. Because we are so far away from Europe, it is very expensive to buy plane tickets (for 2 bikes), insurance, accommodation, car rental, and more. It would be highly beneficial for junior athletes' development to have Auscycling funding for travel. Cause at the moment there isn’t any support, and that is the reason why there aren't many Australian cyclocross riders.

It would be good if UCI continued to run cyclocross training camps so Australian athletes can learn from them. Still, it would also be very important for Auscycling to run cyclocross training sessions and camps around Australia. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen at the moment, but it does for other disciplines. Cyclocross needs more attention, especially if it gets into the Winter Olympics, and Australia needs it, which, at the moment, unfortunately doesn’t happen that way.

The other thing is that I am very lucky to have a cyclocross specialist coach who has been assisting me during my trips over to Europe. He has also been my training partner, which has been such an important part of my cyclocross development, especially in technical skills. That is Ward. He runs the Cxtrainingenward session for skill development in Belgium, which has helped me a lot.

What are your hobbies outside of sport?

My hobbies outside the sport are that I love spending time at the beach, I also play the piano and flute, which l enjoy. Right now, I am studying to become a primary school sports teacher, which l am excited about it.