The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Bobridge stars with cycling win

10th January, 2016
0

Jack Bobridge was hailed as an animal, a machine and incredible after his gutsy win at the Australian road cycling championships.

The 26-year-old’s rollercoaster cycling career reached one of its greatest peaks on Sunday when he won the elite men’s road race for the second time.

Five years after launching a solo break in the last 30km for an epic victory, Bobridge was even more remarkable this time on the hilly Buninyong circuit near Ballarat.

He went clear by himself just after halfway through the 183.6km race in 30-plus heat and stayed away to the finish.

As Cam Meyer finished two minutes 52 seconds behind for the silver medal, he rode up to Bobridge, hugged him and said “you’re an animal”.

Meyer later added: “You had some machine out the front who wouldn’t let us bring him back.”

Pat Lane completed an outstanding nationals for the Avanti/IsoWhey domestic team by taking third place at 3:53.

Along with Bobridge’s epic ride, the other big story on Sunday was Orica-GreenEDGE failing to dominate the race.

Advertisement

Since starting in 2012, Australia’s first WorldTour team had three wins and a silver medal in the men’s elite road race at the nationals.

But two-time champion Simon Gerrans was their only finisher with sixth and Bobridge later questioned his old team’s tactics.

It was a race of attrition, with just 15 finishers out of the 130 starters.

While disappointed with the result, Orica-GreenEDGE team director Matt White paid tribute to the winner.

“It was an incredible ride from Jack Bobridge – we’ve never seen a ride like that in national championships history,” White said.

“It’s certainly a very unpredictable ride from a very unpredictable man.

There is nothing unpredictable about Bobridge’s cycling ability – his two winning rides at the nationals and his world record in the individual pursuit are testament to that.

Advertisement

But Bobridge has had a patchy professional road career, leaving Orica-GreenEDGE after their debut season and departing Dutch team Belkin at the end of 2014.

He was also arrested for drink driving in Spain only a few weeks before the London Olympics and was lucky to stay on the Australian team.

After a season of domestic racing last year, he is now back in the WorldTour with Trek-Segafredo.

He has also had to cope with rheumatoid arthritis after being diagnosed in 2010.

Bobridge’s main aim this year is to be a key member of the team pursuit squad at the Rio Olympics.

On Sunday, he was part of a 21-rider break that went clear on the second of 18 laps.

Bobridge and Bernie Sulzberger then went off the front at seven laps, before Bobridge took off by himself during lap 10.

Advertisement

Orica-GreenEDGE tried in vain to reel in Bobridgea and White defended his team, saying they rode to win.

But Bobridge was critical.

They let the race go by letting that big group go early and not having one of their selected guys in there,” Bobridge said of Orica-GreenEDGE.

“Their tactics today – I dont think they rode the smartest race they’ve ever ridden.”

close