The World’s have been run and we have a new champion to wear the Rainbow Jersey through the 2015 season.
There was much talk and rumour in the lead up to Ponferrada about the chances of Simon Gerrans, who was on form and who had just about his whole trade team there to support him. On paper it looked good for Aussie chances.
There is no doubt that Simon has developed into a very credible rider; certainly for ORICA-GreenEDGE his successes have been critical. His recent wins in Canada placed him as one of the riders to beat in Spain.
While the Aussie team took some responsibility to chase for a lap or so towards the end of the race, at some point it had to be Simon himself to take initiative and prove himself to be worthy of the talk.
Simon is an opportunist, and a very underestimated rider in the peloton. He has achieved some very remarkable wins against outstanding competition with his ability to sit in the pack, wait, and pounce intelligently.
He has worked hard on his sprinting in recent times to maximise his chances, but with the Aussie team missing the break away, it was a risky move for Simon to sit back with the remaining favourites expecting to be delivered to the line.
This was particularly the case, as the Aussie team didn’t appear to take all that much responsibility for the chase despite hoping to rely on Simon’s sprint for the win.
The alternative might have been to confidently launch an attack of his own in an effort to take the win that he wanted rather than relying on the safe odds of a podium place.
Sprinting for a win in the world’s, or for a yellow jersey, as was the strategy for OGE in the Tour de France, is an extremely risky proposition at any time, even for the best sprinters in the world.
As improved as Simon is, the job of prevailing in a bunch kick might have been better left to young Michael Mathews, who did exactly that at the Geelong U23 World Championships in 2010.
Alas, we have a new world champion in Mick Kwiatkowski, and Gerro came only ever so close. Unfortunately, in cycling, only the winner is remembered by history. I have a number of seconds to my name. They were important races to me; I wanted them badly but as I couldn’t make the top step of the podium, I’m probably the only one to still remember them.
The Polish team buried themselves lap after lap to bring back the break away back, in what was a very long day for them.
I remember well turning up to such races, riding for a notional outfit instead of my usual trade team, and not knowing my teammates names let alone having a strategy. For a while I wondered if the Polish team was working for another country – it is occasionally done.
But as the Polish team covered every break, the Aussies didn’t, and valuable resources were spent to bring Simon up to the front group at the end, leaving him isolated at the pointy end of the race.
All through the day Kwiatkowski was soft-pedalling behind his team, protected.
Simon also received full support, but ultimately Kwiatkowski’s team worked harder than the Aussies for the win, and his confident attack to the line showed that he was not prepared to leave victory to chance.
A few years ago, Cadel Evans fielded a lot of criticism for not being attacking enough. His World Championship victory in 2009 was taken in the most emphatic style to silence this criticism.
Simon is a completely different rider to Cadel, but perhaps his time will also come when he has the confidence to attack for a win, putting everything on the line for the top step of the podium, rather than relying on cunning and the inevitable positioning to place well in the final lottery.
Simon constantly surprises me, and this latest round of late-career success is unexpected. But I, and I think many Aussie fans, would love to see him and OGE try some different strategies this year, to broaden their hand and to try some bolder racing.
For me, a victory of such making would put the finishing cap on Simon’s career and rounded abilities as a racer.
In any event, congratulations to Mick Kwiatkowski, and with the World’s over for 2014 and just a few minor races remaining in the season, I look forward to watching 2015 kick off at our very own Pro Tour race and Simon’s specialty, the Tour Down Under.
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