Richie Porte’s stage win and second overall at last week’s Criterium International, coupled with Simon Gerrans’ stage victory at the Volta a Catalunya, brought to a close what has been perhaps one of the most successful months of elite road racing in the history of Australian cycling.
It began with Tiffany Cromwell, the Orica-AIS rider from Stirling in South Australia, winning the Belgium classic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in Arctic-like conditions at the end of February.
And while the poor weather continued into March, so too did the success for our Aussie riders thanks to two Tasmanians.
Matthew Goss outpointed the best sprinters in the world to claim stage two of the Italian race Tirreno-Adriatico for Orica-GreenEDGE, while north of the border Porte danced on his pedals across the French countryside during Paris-Nice to claim not only two stage wins, but overall victory as he rose to the challenge of leading the powerful Team Sky.
His success at the Criterium International quickly followed, with compatriot Gerrans saluting on the same day at Catalunya.
Cadel Evans’ Tour de France victory aside, it is perhaps the most significant period of racing for Australian cyclists since the 2010 Giro d’Italia.
Ah, the 2010 Giro.
For Australian fans, the 2010 Giro was a mouth-watering feast of stage wins, podium finishes and specialist jerseys as a record 14 Australian riders rolled off the starting ramp at the opening individual time trial in Amsterdam.
Right from the start it was obvious this was to be a special race for the boys from down under.
Cadel Evans (BMC) finished third on the first day, just two seconds behind Bradley Wiggins and only a fraction of a second down on teammate Brent Bookwalter.
The following day Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) finished second in a sprint behind Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions), while Evans became the race leader.
Day three saw Graeme Brown (Rabobank) also finish second, succumbing to the late Wouter Weylandt (Quickstep), who was to tragically die of injuries sustained in a crash at the Giro just one year later.
And day four saw Matthew Goss once again mount the podium, as HTC-Columbia were third in the team time trial.
It was a promising start to the Giro and we all hoped for more, but not even the most ardent of Australian cycling fans could have predicted the glory that was to follow.
In stage six, riding for OmegaPharma-Lotto, Matthew Lloyd, the sometimes controversial climber from Melbourne, broke away with Rubens Bertogliati (Androni Giocattoli) on a day of medium mountains.
With 11 kilometres to go and their lead being quickly eaten into by the chasing pack, Lloyd surged ahead of his companion to solo the rest of the way over the Bedizzano and claim the stage.
Grand Tour wins don’t grow on trees and this was one to be celebrated, but barely had the euphoria died down when Cadel Evans produced one of the most memorable pieces of riding in the modern era.
Just one day after Lloyd’s triumph, Evans found himself slipping and sliding over gravel roads that had been turned to mud by torrential rain.
This epic stage, from Carrara to Montalcino, finished over the famed Strade Bianche, and images of mud caked riders brought back nostalgic pangs for a time past, when riders wore their spare tyres around their shoulders and finished unrecognisable because of dust and mud.
Evans, his world championship rainbow jersey turned to brown by the splattering of mud and grime, fought a gruesome battle with Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini).
The three perilously spun their way to the top of the climb, dropping other contenders as they went, and began the descent into Montalcino.
Evans nearly overcooked a corner, but recovered to out sprint his rivals to claim victory. It was truly momentous and had our Giro success ended right there, we would have still been more than adequately satisfied.
But the Australians weren’t finished exerting their influence over this race just yet.
On stage nine, just two days after Cadel’s gutsy win in the mud, Matthew Goss sprinted to glory over Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) and Farrar to give Australia three wins in the space of just four days.
Three Giro stage wins in four days! It was a remarkable performance.
And then the unexpected happened. Two days later the peloton, in what was a bizarre lapse of judgement, allowed a breakaway to accumulate a lead of 20 minutes.
The breakaway was unusual because of its very large size. At one stage it contained over 50 riders, one of whom was an unknown neo-pro from Tasmania called Richie Porte.
Porte was riding for SaxoBank and ended up crossing the line 21 seconds behind stage winner Evgeni Petrov (Katusha) but more than 12 minutes ahead of the pink jersey wearing Vinokourov.
It was enough to rocket Porte to the top of the general classification.
Journalists and cycling fans worldwide were busily googling Porte’s name as he stepped on to the podium to become the new leader of Italy’s most prestigious race.
He held the lead for three days, eventually surrendering it to David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) at the end of stage 14.
The race had finally reached a pinnacle for the Australian contingent. Spread across the pro-teams, they had done themselves proud.
Evans recorded another three second placings, including a brutal battle with Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) up Monte Zoncolan.
While Basso was the eventual winner of the 2010 Giro d’Italia, it was the Australians who carried away the other major jerseys.
Evans claimed the points classification, Lloyd took home the mountains classification and Porte was the best young rider.
Evans finished fifth overall, while Porte was a credible seventh in his first Grand Tour.
Statistics don’t always tell the full story, but on this occasion they do. From an Australian perspective, this is how the race panned out.
Three stage wins (Lloyd, Evans, Goss).
Five second placings (Goss, Brown, Evans x 3).
Two third placings (Evans, Goss).
Four days in leader’s jersey (Evans x 1, Porte x 3).
Three classification leaders (Evans – points, Lloyd – mountains, Porte – young rider).
The 14 riders spread across ten teams were:
Cadel Evans (BMC), Richie Porte, Baden Cooke (Saxo Bank), Adam Hansen, Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia), Cameron Wurf (Androni Giocattoli), Luke Roberts (Milram), Matthew Hayman, Chris Sutton (Sky), Cameron Meyer, Jack Bobridge (Garmin-Transitions), Graeme Brown (Rabobank), Matthew Lloyd (OmegaPharma-Lotto) and Robbie McEwen (Katusha).
Despite the current popularity of cycling in Australia and the depth of talent coming through, it will be a long time before we have another race like the 2010 Giro d’Italia.
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