Australian Olympic team drowning in a sea of riches

A few weeks ago we were waiting patiently for the teams to announce their Tour de France line ups. This week involved a second round of team announcements (the kind you only get every four years), and those en route to the Olympics have been determined.

The members of the men’s and women’s teams for the Olympics road race and time trial were revealed, and on first glance they certainly look strong.

The women’s team of Shara Gillow, Chloe Hosking and Amanda Spratt picks itself, with both the current National road and time trial champions making the final cut.

Seeing off challenges from other riders such as Tiffany Cromwell and Alexis Rhodes and proving how deep the Australian women’s cycling talent is quickly becoming.

The five man men’s squad consists of Simon Gerrans, Cadel Evans, Stuart O’Grady, Michael Rogers and Matthew Goss.

Which, with a combined palmares that includes multiple World Championships, stage wins at every Grand Tour, two Milan San-Remo’s, a Paris-Roubaix win, gold medals and a Maillot Jaune it’s certainly the strongest Australia has ever fielded at an Olympic games.

Both teams are talent rich and genuine medal chances however… what alternate option existed? Especially in relation to the men’s squad.

One more stat that all five riders have in common is that they will all be competing at this years Tour de France.

A race which has been seen by riders such as Tom Boonen as being too taxing and meant that the (shorter) Tour of Poland, which starts on the 10th of July, will have a more star studded field than it’s experienced in recent times – with that being seen as the less draining preparation for the 250 kilometre Olympic road race.

This raises the question, how fresh does this mean the riders will be? There is only 5 days between the end of the Tour and the road race. As excellent as Cadel’s recovery is known to be, is he really up to the demands less than a week after the defence of this Tour de France title is complete?

What of Michael Rogers? Best case scenario for him is Bradley Wiggins has the Maillot Jaune secured and Sky allow him to depart the Tour a day early. But then would Mick pass up the opportunity to ride into Paris as a member of the winning team? I doubt it.

Both of these riders were picked with the time trial in mind. Whilst there is no doubt one of the two should go (in this case I’d sway more towards picking the three times World TT Champion) there is certainly a viable alternative in the form of the 2011 U23 World Champion (and current National TT champ) Luke Durbridge.

Since being advised to step away from the track Team Pursuit team ‘Turbo Durbo’ has accounted for nearly every big name in time trials – most recently ripping the Criterium du Dauphine prologue apart and placing 7th in the stage 4 TT.

He is not the complete package yet, however why not bank on at least one rider not recovering from the Tour. One who appears to be asking “when” not “if” he’ll win either an Olympic or World Championship gold medal and, if not because it would make for some poetic justice, would not be underserving on a place after so gracefully stepping aside from the track squad.

Unless of course you buy into the conspiracy theory that he is being kept in reserve for the team pursuit team, after the recent events involving two of its members. Rendering one of them still unable to train.

Then there is the question of Matthew Goss. Rumour is getting stronger that Mark Cavendish will not see out the Tour. Yet all signs from Goss so far point to him being keen on both completing the Tour and making a serious push at winning the Green jersey.

When your main rival, in the event the race does come down to a bunch sprint, is reported to be pulling out by the half way point surely that is something you would want to give serious thought to? Gerry Ryan is also quoted as saying that any GreenEDGE riders chosen for the Olympics will “probably take the Tour a bit easier” as “Olympics is a priority”.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of the GreenEDGE team bus in the event of Goss leading or being within striking distance of the Green jersey come the start of the third week of the Tour.

Simon Gerrans I would also ask a question of. Do you pull him early from the Tour to ensure he’s fresh for a course that the likes of Taylor Phinney admitted (via CyclingNews) that might not necessarily finish in a bunch sprint? In which case ending the chance of him take a stage win like he famously did in stage 15 of the 2008 Tour at the summit of the Prato Nevoso.

Stuart O’Grady’s choice I do not question. He will be leader on the road, a fact made all the more important given there will be no race radio. He’s also been an outstanding athlete for Australian cycling and deserves to represent his country at his fifth (yes, 5!) Olympics.

Whatever the case, it’s a wonderful issue to be faced with – one of “enough talent to field two Olympic standard teams” (according to selector Matthew White). Time will tell if the right choices were made.