The Roar
The Roar

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'Killer' Kwiatkowski and how cycling and cockroaches will survive the apocalypse

Poland cyclist Michael Kwiatkowski (Source: Wikipedia Commons)
Expert
13th March, 2014
7

Is there a more resilient sport than cycling? I really doubt that there is.

Here is a sport that, instead of suffering mere setbacks, goes the whole hog and almost destroys itself with major catastrophe after major catastrophe, and yet still manages to capture the imagination of its adoring public and pack in the crowds to its major events, especially across its ‘newer’ frontiers in the US, Britain and Australia.

Just take a quick look at footage of the USA Pro Challenge, the Tour of Britain or the Tour Down Under if you don’t believe me.

Spectators standing shoulder to shoulder, sometimes several rows deep, tell a story of popularity that defies all the bad publicity that cycling has brought upon itself over the past few tumultuous years.

In Australia we have seen cycling begin to tackle the mainstream sports. Our national road racing championships are now a world-class event boasting an extraordinary depth of talent and crowd support that is both enthusiastic and plentiful.

The Tour Down Under has experienced similar growth and has gone from being little more than a training ride for largely unknown teams and riders to a fully blown WorldTour event featuring some of the world’s finest fighting it out for early season points and form.

All this has been achieved against the back drop of doping scandal after doping scandal. One by one we have watched the sport’s biggest names fall – Hamilton, Basso, Ullrich, Landis, Contador and of course the biggest of them all, Armstrong.

And yet during this time we still tuned into cycling telecasts, primarily SBS’s coverage of the Tour de France.

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So keen were we to watch the action emanating from Europe that SBS were able to up their coverage from brief highlight packages to complete Tour broadcasts – every stage from prologue to the finale on the Champs Elysees beamed live into our lounge rooms.

Of course, it wasn’t rosy everywhere. While SBS were increasing their coverage, German television all but deserted the Tour, refusing to give airtime to a sport it considered beyond repair.

But even their tough stance is now beginning to thaw with the continued success of Andre Greipel and the emergence of Marcel Kittel being a source of national pride.

But how would Australia deal with one of it’s favourite sons being sullied by a doping scandal?

Its television coverage wouldn’t be at threat, that’s for sure!

With the Stuart O’Grady doping incident receiving a surge in publicity due to the release of his book, one would have thought that cycling in this country might have taken something of a hit.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case, especially not behind closed doors at the undisputed home of cycling coverage in this country – SBS.

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No sooner had O’Grady begun promoting his book Battle Scars than SBS announced that it would be bringing live coverage of every stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia to our TV screens.

Can anything kill this sport?

I guess if cycling can maintain its popularity in the USA after the Lance Armstrong affair (and it has if crowd numbers are to go by) then it is virtually invincible.

I can picture the post-apocalyptic Earth now, crawling with cockroaches and skeletally thin cyclists.

There is of course enormous Australian interest in this year’s Giro, with our greatest ever road cyclist leading what in all likelihood will be his last Grand Tour team.

Cadel Evans, as prickly as he can sometimes be, has earned the respect of his countrymen and kept it (not an easy thing to do here) so SBS are virtually guaranteed an audience due to his participation alone.

But while Evans’ success may have lured many Australians to cycling in the first place, it is riders like Polish rising star Michal Kwiatkowski who will keep them coming back for more.

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The sight of Kwiatkowski and Slovakian wonder boy Peter Sagan going head to head at last weekend’s Strade Bianche was thrilling.

Kwiatkowski was the only rider able to go with Sagan when he made his move just a handful of kilometres from the finish and at one stage the two were shoulder to shoulder as they took on one of the final climbs.

It was brilliant stuff.

To watch the usually cocky Sagan being stalked by Kwiatkowski on the Via Santa Caterina, the double figure gradient ramp that comes before the final descent to the finish, was fantastic theatre.

Sagan was like a rabbit in the headlights as ‘Killer’ Kwiatkowski produced his ‘finisher’ on the steepest part of the gradient, sweeping past the Cannondale rider like he was doing a track stand.

It’s not often you see Sagan drop his head, but it happened at Strade Bianche.

These riders are the future of our sport. Young, ambitious, eager to please, tough and uncompromising. It makes for attacking riding which in turn leads to great viewing.

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This makes us the winners and at the same time contributes to the sport’s resilience. After all, a top notch product is hard to ignore.

We should be forever grateful for the investment that broadcasters such as SBS make in cycling. It would be a most frustrating sport to follow without them!

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