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“This is the best field ever.”
How often have we heard these words uttered in the days leading up to a cycling event, especially during the Australian summer?
Each year the field at the nationals is touted as the ‘best yet’ and the Tour Down Under continues to go from ‘strength to strength’.
Promoters and race organisers go into overdrive in a bid to entice us to their event and the main selling point of course is the depth of their respective start lists.
My favourite for making grandiose statements is the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic, aka the ‘Bay Crits’.
This plucky little set of races has always claimed that it is the ‘fastest criterium series in the world’ and who are we to argue? The action is always fast, furious and action packed, not to mention lots of fun.
From a spectator point of view nothing beats sitting on the grassy slopes at Geelong’s picturesque Eastern Beach and watching our elite riders chase their own tails around the short and sharp Ritchie Boulevard circuit.
Thrills and spills are the order of the evening and afterwards you are able to mingle with the riders as they pack away their gear. What other sporting event allows you to rub shoulders so easily with some of the world’s best athletes?
That is one of the reasons why the Bay Crits, in particular its opening night on Ritchie Boulevard, remains one of my favourite days on the Australian cycling calendar.
The baby of cycling identity John Trevorrow, the Bay Crits are now in their 25th year. Over that time its popularity has ebbed and surged, but it has survived to become one of the main stays of the cycling season.
Due to the nature of its racing, its honour roll consists mainly of sprinters, not just any sprinters mind you, but some of the biggest names in the fast-man business that this country has ever produced.
Six-time winner Robbie McEwen leads the charge, with Mark Renshaw, Matt Goss, Graeme Brown, Baden Cooke and Allan Davis among the others who have saluted in this thunderbolt of a race.
Young Orica-GreenEDGE hopeful Caleb Ewan first came to notice of the greater populace here three years ago when he knocked over Matt Goss in a couple of sprints as a 17-year-old. He went on to win the event a year later (2013) and remains one of the favourites this year.
But he won’t have things all his own way because according to Trevorrow this year’s field is “arguably the best ever assembled.”
I don’t know about that, but with a record field of 104 riders in the elite men’s events and a world class field of 58 elite women, the riding should be as fast and furious as ever.
As to be expected, the cream of the talent comes from the Orica-GreenEDGE squad. Matthew Wilson, Cameron Meyer, Leigh Howard, Michael Hepburn, Mitch Docker and Damien Howson will support Ewan.
But hot on their heels will be the all powerful Avanti Racing Team, which boasts the speed of national criterium winner Steele Von Hoff, Anthony Giacoppo and Launceston crit winner Neil Van der Ploeg. Supported by hard-riding veterans of the sport such as Patrick Shaw – so long a feature of the NRS – and you have a team capable of upsetting Australia’s pro-squad.
Arch rivals Team Budget Forklifts with track stars Scott Sunderland and Glen O’Shea and Samuel Witmitz (who took the Horsham Christmas track carnival by storm) also have plenty of toe, while WorldTour veteran Greg Henderson will once again make an appearance, this time riding for the New Zealand National Team.
Other names that the casual cycling fan may know include the Morton brothers, Lachlan and Angus, who will ride for Chain Reaction, and former WorldTour rider Jonathan Cantwell who will ride for the Swift Carbon Melbourne Cycling League Team.
The women’s races will be just as hotly contested and an intriguing battle looms between the Wiggle team led by last year’s Bay Crits winner and former world road race champion Georgia Bronzini – who will be ably supported by Chloe Hoskings – and the Roxsolt team which features Kimberley Wells and Tiffany Cromwell.
Throw in Sarah Roy (current Australian criterium champion) and Gracie Elvin (current road race champion), both riding for the Orica-AIS squad, and things get even more interesting.
The heat from the summer sun will be nothing compared to that generated out on the circuits!
Held over four days, and with enough variety within its parcours to keep the racing fresh and interesting, the Bay Crits seem to have hit upon a winning formula. It has certainly stood the test of time and has done enough over its 25 years to justify its position as one of the premier sporting events of the Australian summer.
The race series starts today with the hotdog circuit along Ritchie Boulevard at Geelong’s Eastern Beach. Tomorrow it moves to a longer, more gruelling circuit at Geelong’s Eastern Park. On Sunday the riders face the much feared Portarlington course with its leg-sapping Harding street climb before finishing with its Williamstown street circuit on Monday.
Is it the fastest criterium series in the world? Who knows!
Does it boast its strongest field ever? Probably not.
But who cares? The event is a good one, and that is all that matters.
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