You have to have to hand it to Dave Sanders, the man charged with moulding the seven riders chosen each year to form the UniSA team at the Tour Down Under.
Since 2001 Sanders has been Cycling Australia’s guiding hand in helping expose their up-and-coming riders to the top level of competition.
Sometimes the team is all new professionals, sometimes it’s a combination of youngsters and established pros without a WorldTour contract. But whatever the make-up, the team continues to deliver thanks to Sanders’ brilliant management style.
He says just enough to fill the guys with the confidence they need, and of course he’s a shrewd tactician.
Yesterday’s win for Steele von Hoff was UniSA’s second for the week after Jack Bobridge cleaned up in Stage 1. Bobridge also had two days in the ochre leader’s jersey and is now leading the king of the mountains classification.
UniSA now has an impressive eight stage wins to its name, which works out to a tad over eight per cent of the total stage wins on offer.
They also have a general classification winner in Patrick Jonker (2004), and four young rider winners: Gene Bates (2001 and 2003), Rohan Dennis (2012) and Jack Haig (2104).
UniSA has also won the king of the mountain classification on three occasions: Gene Bates (2005) Luke Roberts (2011) and Rohan Dennis (2012).
Twice they’ve won the best team award – in 2004 and 2006 – and twice riders have finished second on GC: Karl Menzies (2007) and Allan Davis (2008).
And on numerous occasions, riders have taken out awards for being the most competitive on a stage.
Their 8 stage wins ranks only behind Lotto Belisol (and its various other Lotto guises including Davitamon Lotto, Predictor Lotto, Silence Lotto and Lotto Adecco) which has a massive 19, and Team High Road which recorded 9 stage victories before it folded in 2011.
Continuity certainly helps but when the team is completely new each year to be so consistent is a testament to the management.
What people love about UniSA is their attitude to the race. The team is never overawed, they just get stuck in. Look how many times an early break goes up the road. On so many occasions it’s a UniSA rider who’s responsible.
And as Jack Bobridge showed on Tuesday, they know how to handle the real pressure on the road when the finish line is looming large and there are instant decisions to be made.
Because the Tour Down Under is a WorldTour race, it’s not automatic that a team like UniSA can compete. The UCI has had to create a special rule to allow them to ride. The same applies for Team Drapac.
Some people say that UniSA only succeeds because the European riders are generally not at their peak and a team of Aussie riders will always be competitive. That may be true in part but then the same rule applies to all the Aussie riders regardless of their team allegiance. And no one says anything when riders like Simon Gerrans, Cadel Evans or Richie Porte win stages.
It’s vital that European riders win here so that the TDU remains an attractive destination for the best riders, but just as importantly our young riders needs access to this level of competition.
The experience these riders gain is invaluable and in the case of Steele von Hoff, wins like yesterday put him back in the faces of the WorldTour teams who decided he wasn’t worthy of a new deal at the end of last season.
This is a blatantly parochial point of view but watching the UniSA guys taking it up to the established WorldTour riders on a regular basis shows a fundamental characteristic of the Australian ethos: “just having a go”.
The Tour Down Under wouldn’t be anywhere near as good without Team UniSA.
Don
Roar Rookie
The Uni SA invite is covered under a different UCI law from the Pro Conti one, that allows organisers to invite a national representative team in the interests of cycling promotion Rule 2.15.154 - No I'm not a rule geek, I just saw it quoted somewhere recently and looked up the story. Apparently the same thing happens at Tour of Poland and the Canadian one day classics. This explains why Uni SA race in the green and gold hoops, and why it's used as an opportunity to promote promising young riders (er, plus Jack and Steel VH looking for second chances) But yeah, I'd like to see a second ProConti invited too - it was a smaller than average peloton.
Matthew Boulden
Roar Guru
Okay, this might a reading comprehension fail on my part, although the way it reads makes it sound (to me) like Drapac play by the same rule as UniSA. Since they stepped up from the Continental ranks to Pro-Continental in 2014 they can get a wild card invitation to the Tour Down Under and other World Tour races in much the same way other Pro-Continental teams get wild card invitations, as per the regulations. Between regaining Pro-Conti status in 2014 and the last time they held it they were a Continental ranked team and inadmissible under the regulations which govern who can and cannot participate in a World Tour ranked race and weren't involved if my memory is correct. Heck, unless the UCI isn't following its own documented regulations (it happens), if there is any more hotel room space in the Tour Village in Adelaide Mike Turtur could even consider inviting more teams to compete if he wanted to. Considering MTN - Qhubeka will be in Australia for the Cadel Evan Great Ocean Road Race and the Herald Sun Tour and also have quite a few talented riders who could perform quite well on the race route it is a wonder they didn't put any feelers out to see if they would be interested in coming over earlier with Goss and co. (Unless they did approach MTN - Qhubeka)