Fans at the 2009 Tour Down Under got a glimpse of the frightening potential of Jack Bobridge when he launched an all-or-nothing attack in the final 30 kilometres of the opening stage.
The then under-23 national road race champion quickly established a 1:30 lead but no one, not even Jack on his home roads north of Adelaide, was going to stay away from a charging Andre Greipel, and he was swamped near the finish.
Dutchman Lieuwe Westra (Astana) was second and Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEDGE) was third.
Followers of track cycling had known about Jack for a long time before he began making his mark on the road.
By 2009 he was already a multiple senior national and junior pursuit world champion, and expected to follow a similar path to another South Australian cycling legend in Stuart O’Grady.
Two years later Bobridge was the national road race champion and on the books of pro team Garmin Transitions.
The sky looked the limit, especially when Bobridge signed with Australia’s fledgling pro-team Orica-GreenEDGE in 2012. Instead, everything kind of came crashing down.
A mix of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, some poor decisions and health problems put Bobridge at a career crossroads, a place several Aussie riders have found themselves in recent times. Given the talent he had it was a worrying time, so Jack left the team.
“I was getting comfortable in that environment,” he said.
“For my future and the way I was going about things I had to go somewhere else.”
But despite leaving Orica-GreenEDGE for Belkin, late last year it seemed Bobridge was still at risk of losing everything.
Winless with Belkin, in fact without a victory since the 2011 nationals, Jack seemed headed for the file marked ‘whatever happened to…’ but then he made a courageous decision.
Instead of chasing another World Tour deal after Belkin understandably refused to offer him a new one, Jack came home and changed focus.
Away from the pressure of the World Tour and with a first-born child to provide for, Bobridge decided to refocus on his first love, the track. From now it would all be about gold in Rio. After all, a fourth place in Beijing and a silver medal in London meant he still had a rather large box that needed a tick putting in it.
Turning his back on the potential riches of the World Tour can’t have been easy, especially when you have as much talent as Bobridge, but he seems comfortable with his decision to join Team Budget Forklifts (although at the TDU he is riding for Team UniSA, the official Australian national team in the event).
The national road series team has formed a partnership with Cycling Australia that’s seen them sign most of our men’s pursuit team. The road to Rio will now be the same for all of Team Budget Forklifts and surely a boost to our medal chances. And Bobridge will still be able to race on the road.
“I’ve done five years in the World Tour but the World Tour is not for everybody.
“The first few years I enjoyed it thoroughly but the last few years I lost a little bit for this kind of racing in Europe.
“It was a decision I wanted to make, I talked to (coach) Tim Decker about going back to Australia and joining a team so I could focus on Australian racing and the track 100 per cent.
“And with my experience from the World Tour I can give a massive amount to Budget Forklifts and the road racing they do in Australia, Asia and America.
“It’s a win, win for both parties.”
Watching Jack Bobridge tear up the road in Stage 1 of the Tour Down Under, winning an intermediate sprint, then the climb, before taking the victory was an incredible thrill. He’d shown similar form in the nationals when he picked up bronze in the time trial and finished sixth in the road race.
With coach Tim Decker as his mentor Jack seems to have grown up and set his goals.
Who knows how long he can hold onto the Ochre leader’s jersey this week, because the next two days are very hilly stages. Regardless, Bobridge will be perfectly primed for his next big target, a shot at the world hour record on January 31 in Melbourne.
The target is 51.82 kilometres but the world individual pursuit record holder is confident he can do better:
“At this point I can see myself beating the current hour record but it’s how much further I can go that will be decided on the day.”
What Bobridge is doing is even more remarkable when you consider that in 2010 he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which requires weekly medication.
“Training was nearly unbearable and I was constantly sleeping because my body was so worn out.
“Most of the time you don’t know you have it. For some reason there are random days where it does flare up and is quite painful.
“It will get worse over time but very slowly, it’s manageable and doesn’t get in the way of my training or racing with medication.”
It’s a sensational comeback by Bobridge because getting back your best isn’t something that all elite athletes manage to do. I always despair at Matthew Lloyd who for whatever reason never built on his stunning win in the 2010 Giro d’Italia.
And Allan Davis, the 2009 TDU champion whose career faded away despite signing for Orica-GreenEDGE in their debut season. You could even argue Baden Cooke didn’t go as far as he might have done after winning the green jersey at the 2003 Tour de France.
And then there’s Matthew Goss. Will his 2015, away from the spotlight at Orica-GreenEDGE, revive his career as Jack Bobridge seems to be doing or will he too head for the ‘whatever happened to…’ file?
Australian cycling is incredibly blessed to have so much young talent set to delight us over the next decade. Caleb Ewan may be getting the biggest headlines at the moment, but for me, the story of 2015 is the re-emergence of Jack Bobridge.
How far can Jack go? The question is, how far does Jack want to go?
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