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An innocuous training crash has dashed Simon Gerrans’ hopes for another massive January and robbed Australian cycling of one of its biggest drawcards.
The newly-crowned Australian cyclist of the year broke his left collarbone in a mountain biking accident on Sunday and was due to have surgery on Monday afternoon.
His Orica-GreenEDGE team have ruled him out of any competition next month, meaning he will not defend his Australian road championship and Tour Down Under titles.
It also denies event organisers a dream head-to-head matchup between Gerrans and Cadel Evans before the Tour de France champion retires from competition on February 1.
Orica-GreenEDGE will now have to completely overhaul their tactics for the January 11 elite men’s Australian road championship race and the January 18-25 Adelaide Tour.
A broken collarbone is a dime-a-dozen injury for a professional cyclist, but the timing of this crash could not be worse for Gerrans.
“Once we’d worked out what kind of break it is, we ruled out any chance of trying to salvage the Australian summer,” said Orica-GreenEDGE team director Matt White.
“It’s not going to work for Simon to achieve there what we want to achieve with him – and that’s win.”
Gerrans was training near his home town of Mansfield in country Victoria when he fell and landed heavily on his left shoulder.
“About half way through my mountain bike ride I became a little unstuck, came down and landed pretty heavily on my left side,” Gerrans said.
“I knew straight away as I hit the ground that I had broken my left collarbone.
“It’s a big blow not to be able to line up in the national championships and Tour Down Under and defend my titles.
“They are races that I really enjoy and I know how important they are to the team.”
Gerrans also won the nationals and Tour Down Under in 2012.
After his superb opening this year, he went on to become the first Australian to win the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic in late April.
He was primed to win another Tour de France stage in July, but he crashed at the end of stage one and eventually had to withdraw from the race.
White said Gerrans’ latest injury was a “huge hit” for the team.
He added Orica-GreenEDGE were now working out alternative plans for the big January races.
“We’re going to have to think about it over the next 24 hours and then we’ll make a decision,” he said.
Gerrans’ absence will mean much different tactics for all the contenders at the road nationals.
White noted that the two options are for the winner to come from the early breakaway or to wait until the last lap of the hilly Buninyong circuit.
“If Simon Gerrans isn’t there, then obviously we’re a lot more content for that breakaway to go, because we don’t have so much of a Plan B,” White said.
“The chances of a breakaway will increase dramatically, because someone like a Richie Porte, they have to gamble on being in the break as well.
“Once that right combination goes, then there’s no-one to bring it back.”
Simon Gerrans in January
* Won 2012, `14 Australian road race titles
* Won Tour Down Under 2006, `12 and `14
* Only three-time Tour Down Under champion.
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