Victorian Jenni King won the elite women’s cross-country race at the Australian mountain bike championships at Adelaide’s Eagle MTB Park on Saturday.

King completed five laps of the challenging course in 1hr 25min 54.1sec to win from Tasmanian Rowena Fry while Queenslander Jodie Willett was third.

It was the eighth win from 10 starts this season for King, who also races on the road with pro team GreenEDGE.

“I didn’t want to go out too hard,” King said post-race.

“I was intending to sit second or third wheel. Then on the second lap I took the lead and I tried to keep consistent lap times and just work on keeping smooth and not blowing up.”

All races were trimmed by one lap when temperatures hit the high 30s by mid-morning, but King appeared unaffected.

“I try not to let things like the heat get to me. As long as you’re prepared, you’re fit, you hydrate well, I don’t think the conditions should make a huge difference,” she said.

Her attention now turns to the UCI World Cup season, kicking off in South Africa March 17-18, with Olympic selection her ultimate goal.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it is looking more realistic for me now and I’ll definitely give it my best shot,” said King.

“I honestly didn’t think I’d be in this position but I owe it to myself to really give it 100 per cent.”

Fry shares a London ambition and says her combination of MTB and road racing will help.

“I head to Europe for the Classics road season in Europe on Monday which will be very, very good for my strength and hopefully come the first MTB World Cup I’m riding a good 10 per cent better,” the Tasmanian said.