The Oceania Championships: does anyone even care?

It’s Sunday morning in the bushy outskirts of Canberra. The sun is out, the temperature is on the rise and the wind is blowing.

All in all, it’s a good day for a bike race.

During the preceding three days the Oceania Championships have been in full swing. Men and woman from U19, U23 and elite ages have battled it out in time trials and road racing.

Nestled in the hills on the outskirts of Canberra, the Tindbinbilla National Park and surrounds have provided decent roads, great views and challenging terrain.

So far the event has been well run and very enjoyable.

As we gather around a gravel car park and await the start of the men’s road race, however, I am force to make a concession.

When it comes to these events, these ‘championships’, no one really seems to care.

The riders, yes we want to race. As far as individual or team rewards, and depending on which category you fall into, there are UCI rankings to consider and world championship berths on offer.

The volunteers and officials, yes they too have worked hard and want to see the fruits of their labour.

The police, the team managers and the dedicated parents, of course they all care about the 150 kilometres of exciting cycling that awaits.

But that’s about it.

The crowd? Non-existent.

The press coverage? Aside from great coverage by Cycling Australia themselves, no one cares.

Are there raging forum discussions over the highs and lows of Cameron Meyer’s victory in the Elite and Damien Howson’s victory in the U23? No.

Why not? Because again, nobody gives a s**t.

Some drop dunnies, a bake sale and a sausage sizzle tends to sum it up. This was simply not a big event, not by anyone’s reckoning.

And let me be clear, none of this is aiming to undermine what was the running of an excellent event. It is clear, however, that the event on the whole lacks stature or importance to an irreparable degree.

The Oceania Championships really highlighted to those that competed how devoid of meaning the region as a whole truly is. Australia, New Zealand, Guam and Fiji. That’s it for the Oceania Cycling federation.

Does anyone wonder why nobody cares?

In fact the prestige is so overwhelming that only one competitor from New Zealand even bothered crossing the ditch for the elite men’s road race.

But it’s not all bad. It was fantastic to see Tracey Gaudry, the new president of our almighty cycling region, at the events.

And to her full credit she was interacting with riders, being friendly and approachable yet all the while maintaining an air of professionalism. She’s a good cookie. But I suspect she’s been dealt a dud hand.

The next step is a deeper examination of our options. Join Asia, or try to rebuild Oceania.

To fully discuss these options requires another article for another day. But the purpose here is to simply look at the results before us.

We have a championship that no one cares about, for a region that no one outside of our little pocket of the world even knows about.

Change is the only way forward. I just hope said change involves doing everything possible to join the Asian federation and be done with this Oceania nonsense.