On a transcendent sun drenched afternoon along the beach in Mordialloc, I sit down with promising cyclist James Rendall at a local cafe and discover that his attitude towards two wheels is more than a passion – it’s a way of life.
It’s not hard to notice that Rendall is a cyclist. He fits the bill perfectly with his slender athletic frame, and legs toned as a result of long hours spent pedalling.
Hailing from the New South Wales country town of Albury, which sits on the Murray River, Rendall has transported himself from the solitude of the bush to the Melbourne metropolis to further his cycling career.
When asked how the change from the country to the city had affected him, Rendall said it had minimal effect but it was something he had to do.
“It’s been very easy, I think mine has been a lot easier than other people,” Rendall said. “I have all my aunties and uncles that live down here.
“The main reason why I moved down here was for cycling and to open a few doors and gather some contacts which was the best move for me.”
While his exuberant enthusiasm for the sport of cycling is hard to deny, he admits that he fell in love with it by accident.
“My dad actually got me into it as he tried to get me into something in the off-season of soccer so that I could just stay fit before the new season came around,” he said. “I started cycling and started to get into it and loved racing. I eventually stopped soccer and kept cycling so it was that simple. I loved it that much that I wanted to keep doing it.”
Although Rendall doesn’t follow cycling in the media ‘religiously’, he acknowledges that Orica-GreenEDGE team rider Simon Gerrans had a profound impact upon him which tickled his interest.
“He seemed to be one of those riders that didn’t have the pure natural talent – even though he is a fantastic cyclist – it was more the fact that he just worked his butt off to get to where he is,” said Rendall.
Shortly after uprooting his life to Melbourne, Rendall’s most important assignment was to find a team willing to give him a shot in pursuing his cycling ambitions.
That came in the form of the oddly titled African Wildlife Safari (AWS) cycling team, headed by Steven Cameron, which was established in 2012.
The team competes in the National Road Series – the feature series of road races in Australia.
“They plan and organise different holidays and itineraries for people to go and do safaris in Africa, South America and Antarctica as well,” Rendall explained of AWS. “His son also rides as well and when he started to ride he thought he would get a team started, which is where the name comes from.”
Rendall decided to throw his resume into their office earlier this year and hoped they would understand his tremendous potential as a rider.
African Wildlife Safari’s inaugural season was a foundation year in terms of building the team and their brand, but the wheels towards a brigt future have started to turn in 2013.
“In the first year it was quite hard to get a good team established and to all gel together,” Rendall said. “But this year we have really gone leaps and bounds, and this is obviously when I came in and they started to find new riders.
“We’ve got some very strong riders and we’ve started to show some good form this year. A few riders who have really started to find some form in some of the races especially in the latter half of the year.
“This year we finally got our first podium in the Tour of Tasmania and that was with Rhys Gillett. That was really the turning point of the team where we really started to see ourselves as a contender for other races later in the year and heading into next year.”
Being accepted into the team both on and off the bike was integral to developing Rendall’s cycling capabilities.
After previously competing as an individual before joining AWS, the task now was to adjust to the team based approach.
“When I look at this year, I more look at my mental state on the bike in terms of how I’ve ridden as a team based rider,” he said. “This year has certainly been a turning point in terms of myself as a person, but also how I ride and thinking about other people – especially the people in my team.”
In terms of personal results and individual achievements, it is now all about the team according to Rendall.
After performing one selfless act for his team, they were able to finish first in Stage 5 of the Tour of Tasmania in October, although a podium finish for himself would be a welcome achievement.
“For myself personally, next year I would love to get a podium [finish] in one of the stages in the National Road Series,” said Rendall. “Also to be able to say that I have given my best with the training that I have done and finish every tour is something as an individual I can be proud of.”
Asked about what motivation he views as the most important to exert the best out of himself, Rendall confesses that Cadel Evans’ remarkable victory at the Tour de France in 2011 was just what he and Australian cycling needed.
“It was huge. It’s easy to say the first Aussie cyclist is going to uplift the cycling community in Australia but it really did.
“The amount of people who decided to go out and buy a bike and the amount of everyday cyclists on the road increased. It was a huge feat and it’s obviously huge to win the Tour, but to be the first Australian is something very special.”
As for the current state of cycling both in Australia and globally, Rendall concedes that the numerous doping scandals have indeed tainted cycling’s image.
But with Cadel Evans and other clean riders showing you can win without performance-enhancing drugs, there is tremendous upside.
“Give us another 10 or 20 years and we’ll certainly have a good support and fan base of people. We are winning gold medals at the Olympics which is amazing for a cycling nation as small as ours, so the only way we can go is up.”
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