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And so it begins. Season 2014 has started with the usual blast. The likely candidates are ducking and weaving, who is in form, who is going to have a crack, early seasons predictions and the first appearance of excuses!
Australian Road Nationals
Cadel Evans, Richie Porte, Simon Gerrans, Simon Clarke, Matt Goss, and of course reigning champion Luke Durbridge will all line up for the Nationals.
As usual the race will be dominated by Orica-GreenEDGE and the decision as to who the team will support for overall line honours will not be revealed until the last couple of laps.
To be fair it is a title most would want but for a professional rider with a season’s objectives planned long before now the current positioning about the likely outcome is really a lot to do about nothing.
If I were training for the Giro like Cadel or Richie, the title wouldn’t hurt but it is still a little early and realistically it would just be a confidence-booster.
Neither Richie or Cadel have won this race but I seriously do not think they would go out of their way to change their training specifically for the jersey – they have far bigger goals.
They will both perform credibly and given it is a bike race they may seize an easy opportunity if it presents.
Orica-GreenEDGE do need the crown and should secure it with one of their riders but realistically the event will be a form sharpener for the Tour Down Under.
It’s the first race of the season, the team is on home soil and like all professional teams they need to achieve the best possible outcome for the owners and sponsors of the team.
Tour Down Under
The TDU this year will finally present us with the opportunity to have a good look at the development of local Australian racing.
I have stood on my soapbox for a while about the winner of the National Road Series being allowed to ride at the TDU.
Allowing Drapac to ride is a great first step.
Drapac will be competing for the first time against the premier Australian team and will be pushing as hard as they can for line honours.
Drapac, have invested for many years in local cycling and present an alternative for many of our young aspiring riders outside of the AIS pool.
It is imperative that teams like Drapac and other NRS teams continue to get opportunities to race against the best in the world as will happen at the TDU while continuing to race in the NRS to further develop local cycling.
The stages at the TDU are a lot shorter than most UCI road events so considering the early-season fitness, or lack thereof, of some of the international contingent combined with the heat of the Australian summer Team Drapac will do as well as any other.
For this reason it will make for interesting racing, as there are a couple of ex-Orica-GreenEDGE riders in the team who will want to claim the scalps of ex-colleagues who they know all too well.
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