Sagan wins while Australia burns
The World Professional Road Cycling Championship was run and won on Sunday night in Richmond, Virginia, USA, the capital of the old Confederacy for…
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The World Professional Road Cycling Championship was run and won on Sunday night in Richmond, Virginia, USA, the capital of the old Confederacy for…
The Australian cycling community have been excited in recent years, and justifiably so, by the exploits of Simon Gerrans. Enthusiasm reached fever pitch early…
Pretty sure Michael Wilson did ride a Tour de France late in his career for a 50th place. Will have to look it up to confirm. His top ten finishes in the Giro would have assured him a ride in my team instead of Porte. The non-selction of Mockridge is a travesty. You can argue his one Tour for 64th place shouldn’t give him a place but there should be no argument that he was a better rider than 90 percent of this team. He was essentially three riders in one He could win a mass field sprint or lead out as circumstances require and he would be a vastly superior all-rounder to Gerrans. His victory in the Tour du Vaucluse in 1955 was a template for the modern stage hunter. Given his standing in the sport selection in this team would have been appropriate.
Of the rest, only Evans, Anderson and McEwan pick themselves and the others are subjective.
Is this Australia's Tour de France team of the century?
Contador was two and a half minutes adrift after the cobbles. I would argue that he isn’t two and a half minutes better than Nibali in the Alps and Pyrenees. Nibs time trials adequately as well. A very good and deserved win and while doping inquiries will always remain surely questioning his victory due to Froome and Contador crashing out is offensive. Nobody questions Merckx’s win in 1971 after Ocana crashed out when leading by eight minutes. Nor have I seen too many critics of Zoetemelk’s 1980 triumph, a victory which almost assuredly would have gone to Bernard Hinault had he not succumbed to knee tendonitis during the race. There are plenty of other examples.
Froome crashed before he even got to the cobbles, silly falls that a rider of his standing and a team of his calibre could have done better to avoid. He looked like a man who was not on his game mentally and perhaps a fear of racing on the cobbles contributed to nervousness and mistakes Contador’s fall too was as much down to lack of concentration as it was to ill luck and one of the skills of cycling is staying on your bike in trying circumstances. Vincenzo Nibali showed his skill as a bike handler and a man of immense ability and class and I was very pleased to see him ride into Paris in the yellow jersey..
Deserved victory for dominant Nibali
I assume you are referring to my comment about Gerran’s abillity when you refer to gross understatement. My opinion of Gerran’s is as relevant as anyone else’s. I stand by it. He is a very good professional rider but below the top tier of competitors in ability.
You can throw Milan to San Remo and stage wins and yellow jerseys at me but there are guys with less ability than Gerrans who have done the same.
It’s merely an observation and opinion of 40 years experience watching cycling. Gerrans is great but the constant padding of his reputation does him no favours.
Cadel's Corkscrew victory ranks amongst TDU's best
I stand by what I said. It doesn’t have to be taken as an insult. Man for man he is not in Evans’ class and has achieved most of what he has through guile and guts. The Tour DownUnder for most of it’s existence has been a beefed up training race that Gerrans has turned up to super fit. It suits his style and at the moment it is a very important race for his team so he races to win, unlike many who make the trip from Europe.
His wins at San Remo was a victory of guile not strength and his Tour wins have been the same.
The difference between being a very good professional rider and a Tour de France was starkly illustrated on Corkscrew Hill.
Cadel's Corkscrew victory ranks amongst TDU's best
It certainly hasn’t knocked the strut out of Greenedge given some of the nonsense coming out of their camp. Evans has always been in a class of his own when the current generation of Australian cyclists are compared. Gerrans, for all his success is but a talented opportunist.
Greenedge have promised to throw everything at Cadel from here but the fact he rode part of the climb in the big chain ring while everyone else pedalled cotton reels suggests Simon and his boys may need a tow rope on Willunga Hill just to stay in contention.
Cadel's Corkscrew victory ranks amongst TDU's best
I’m not sure it does add to the sense of drama. I would have placed good money on Gerrans winning given his usual early season form and overwhelming numbers of team-mates. I would agree that you can’t restrict Aussies from riding their national title but I can see a situation where Greenedge keeps winning it for as long as they like. But that’s just the cynic in me! Thanks for the great articles.
Men's national road championship: simply world class!
And there we have the problem with the current form this race is taking. Greenedge can muscle it as they like. Control it from start to finish as they please and change goals as circumstance allows as the race progresses. As they did yesterday.
It is unbalanced having ten (and sometimes more) international professionals on the one team, dictating terms to the rest. No local team can or will be able to stand against them. This is the scenario from here well into the future and I wonder if it is healthy for the race to continue to be a Greenedge benefit?
That being said, Porte and Evans had every chance but just weren’t good enough on the day. Gerrans looked super fit and the other two a little underdone.
Of course we may never see Evans compete in the race again and realistically, only someone of his quality could take on Greenedge one out and win. But he would need to be fitter than he is in mid-January. An occurrence unlikely to happen.
Many may be happy to see the national jersey on the back of a member of one team from here to eternity, but I for one think that restricting the number of riders from one team may be worthwhile. After all, it is the Australian Road Title. A more equitable race would be desirable as the rise of Australian cycling continues.
Men's national road championship: simply world class!
Orica-Greenedge will send someone up the road and it will come down to who is prepared to chase. If it is all together with a lap to go it could be anybody’s race. Realistically Evan’s is better than the rest but Gerrans in his usual early season form could be a handful. It may be a fascinating race.
The rise and rise of the national championships
Yes. The Channel Nine boys carry on like schoolboys having their first look at a pornographic magazine. If ever a sporting broadcast was in need of an overhaul it’s this one. I was desperately hoping Channel 10 would win the rights just to bring a fresh team and outlook to the Test series. It will be interesting to see how well the rival commentary team does during the BBL.
One come only hope that when and if Richie returns he can grab this lot by the ear one by one and drum into them the art and subtlety of television commentary. Unfortunately at 83 the doyen of commentators is well past his best and I fear we will end up listening to these fools laughing like jackals from here to eternity.
Channel Nine force feed more noise - just let cricket speak for itself
It’s the most unsportsmanlike English team I’ve seen. Trying to out-Aussie the Aussie’s it seems. How I wish for a bit of the bad old days. Would love to see Ryan Harris under Joe Root’s nose asking him if his mother knows he is out playing cricket with the grown ups. Would love to see Siddle questioning Alistair Cook’s parentage after slipping one past the outside edge. And what is the go with Matt Pryor appealing for edges when you could drive a train between bat and ball. Intimidating the umpire? You bet!
Swings and roundabouts friends. What goes around comes around and the boys from DownUnder will be on top again one day and will take back what is rightfully theirs. And we won’t forget England, 2013 when it happens.
I hate the way England play Test cricket
I’d like to see Rod Marsh and John Inveraraity dropped from the selection panel. The lingering smell from their recent faux pas still pollutes the air in the Australian dressing room.
I like Ed Cowan. I like his attitude. But he isn’t good enough to be a Test cricketer. I can only think that he is a selection panel favourite. Khawaja may not be the second coming of Ricky Ponting but it’s a disgrace that a guy like him is getting piles from the amount of time he spends sitting in the dressing room while an inferior player like Cowan keeps going through the motions.
Throw Khawaja in. He couldn’t do any worse than Cowan and I think he will probably do better. Caress him as much as they have done to Ed and let’s see if he fires.
ASHES: The big talking points from day one
There was a guy from Tassie called Michael Wilson who had a fairly low profile but was a terrific rider. Top ten in the Giro a couple of times, stage win in Vuelta. A challenger for this list too.
Our top six road racers since 1980
Anderson should be number 2, McEwan 3, O”Grady 4. To be honest I think Porte is better now than either Gerrans or Rogers but I’ll take them at 5 or 6 for the moment.
Our top six road racers since 1980
I’m in! Where do I sign? Give SOK a chance!
Usman Khawaja has an army, where is Stephen O’Keefe’s?
I found the race a little underwhelming to be honest. A little predictable. There seems to be some lack of depth nowadays in the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix. The Grand Tour riders, the only ones who could give Cancellara a run for his money have long bypassed the cobbled classics, pausing only briefly at the Amstel Gold, Fleche Walloon, Liege-Bastogne-Liege week to show their wares before performing their annual duty in July. How we get them to make an appearance in the most famous one day classics of all, I don’t know but it would make these races more exciting.
Classy Cancellara rules the Ronde
Micky Arthur needs to be held responsible for his handling of Khawaja. Surely the essence of the coach’s job is to prepare his players and team in the best possible manner his ability allows. That Usman has been allowed to chill on ice without decent cricket for so long is a disgrace. In some ways it may have a flipside as sitting on his rear-end for months must have a detrimental effect on form. If he went out in the 4th Test and got a pair it would no doubt be held against him and, given the way he has been treated, cast doubt on his participation in the Ashes tour.
I only hope someone in Queensland queries what is going on as it, along with the non-selection of Steve O’Keefe, one of the mysteries of the summer. These two guys seem to need someone in their corner.
Australia staring at whitewash in Delhi
You have written a good article Cameron and articulated your thoughts well but I feel it may be an opinion which is far too black or white for this particular story.
It’s also true, in delving into military history, that many armies going into battle seemingly well prepared, have suffered disasters due to miscommunication, bad staff work, overconfidence in their own abilities or simply by managing resources badly.
Professionalism seems to be the byword coming from the powers that be in Australian cricket today but many of our leading managers of the game seem to have trouble understanding the word.
We have a rugby union player as a High Performance Manager who announces to the waiting national media that the Vice-Captain of Australia is not a team man at times. We have a selection panel which doesn’t feel need to pick some of the best performed players in the country. A coach who wants to gut the team just at the moment we need everyone on deck and a captain who appears incapable of getting along with half the people in Australian cricket.
There is a lack of professionalism in the halls of power in Australian cricket and only a series of defeats at the hand of the English may change it. Just like a defeated army replaces it’s commanders.
There are bigger problems in this team that need to be resolved than those created by some recalcitrant players failing to do their homework. Let us hope cricket Australia steps in and corrects these faults before the bough breaks and we look like a total incompetents when pitted against the English.
Mickey and Pup throw a well deserved elbow
It really is a good idea Jono but, as I’m sure you are aware, the sport isn’t driven by forward thinking, adventurous administration. Too many personal agendas, too many dinosaurs.. Keep chipping away though. You can only plant the seed and who knows what may happen.
Build the NRS from the Tour Down Under up
I certainly believe Hussey should have been included in the one day squad as my own modest opinion is that the best team should be selected and Hussey is still, after Clarke, probably the best batsman in the country. But I can see where the selectors are coming from in regards to the World Cup.
I think the question is, why discard Hussey and include Haddin if current selection is based on preparing a team for the World Cup? Hardly looking to the future is it?
Let's get it right - Mike Hussey was dumped
You have hit the nail on the head Glenn. The conditions which created Armstrong still exist and there is a very real possibility that it will be “business as usual” inside the peloton after this debacle fades in the public memory.
You only have to read the pronouncements from the Tour’s current king and study his training regime which includes multiple and prolonged training camps on the doper’s island paradise, Tenerife and the feigned surprise of his team management when it was pointed out that one of their doctors had run a doping program at another team to see that the sport has a very long road to hoe before there is a decent grip on this problem.
If there are not moves to strip the administration of the sport down and rebuild it and it’s reputation then we will see more scandals down the track and the scourging of Armstrong will have been in vain.
A new day, a new dawn for cycling?
I think it’s worth mentioning that the points race, madison and individual pursuit were all omitted from the Olympic program this year. These are events where Australia is very strong and it’s not inconceivable that three gold medals could have come from these events had they been retained. That being said, I don’t think a review of how things are being done is ever a bad idea after an Olympic campaign.
I think track cycling is unfortunately getting too specialized and road riders who use to cross over to the velodrome just for the games are being marginilized in favour of younger riders who will stay with the program as required. I think this is an area which needs to be looked at and a solution found if possible.
Also, domestic track cycling needs to be promoted with more vigour. Australian track cycling was once very strong on the local scene but has been pushed into a corner by the explosion of criteriums and summer road racing. Who knows how many young champions could be found if only we encourage promoters to stage bigger events on the track and put our domestic wheelraces back in the spotlight where they use to be. There is plenty of talent out there it simply needs to be harnessed.
Overall, considering what a juggernaut British cycling is at the moment I think we did the best we could at the track and it wasn’t a bad effort.
Time for Cycling Australia to review its elite program
Thanks for your forthright comments Phil. Nice to hear someone of your stature say what he really thinks rather than be held in the thrall of the Greenedge “backslapping club.”
ANDERSON: Giro becoming a better race than Tour de France
I’m afraid I have to disagree with those pushing the Porte/Durbridge/Rogers bandwagon and raise my hand for the Tour champ. I think he should be the first picked for the time trial and road race.
Cadel Evans is our best cyclist and probably the best Australian ever to grace the game and it is inconcievable to me that he wouldn’t be picked. With all due respect to Australia’s other fine riders, Cadel is in a class above them.
Porte would be my second choice as he has a good recent track record at World Championships and stage races in the Time Trial and for my money it is one Olympics too soon for Durbridge and Rogers hasn’t shown any real time trial form since the last of his championship victories some years ago and would be a risky bet.
I know there are some who subscribe to the theory that you can’t judge time trial form at the end of a three week tour. I disagree and believe if Cadel Evans can find the form that he had at the end of last year’s Tour de France then he will be in the mix in London. He was only seven seconds down on Tony Martin in the long time trial at the end of the Tour last year closer than anyone else, including Wiggins, got to the German all year.
My last thought is a fervent hope that politics and favouritism, a cancer that has plagued Australian cycling selection policy for many years, doesn’t rear it’s ugly head yet again and the best team possible is on the road in London and not at home watching it on television.
Evans must get Olympic time trial spot
I disagree. I think he is still suspect in the third week of a Grand Tour. 4th in the Tour a couple of years ago was a great result but he definitely weakened in the last week as he did in the Vuelta last year with everything running in his favour.
Cadel is a worry but he may be going better than he looks to be. If he can find the form he had last year I think he will win again but if he is a couple of percentage points down on that, look out for Wiggins.
I’m not completely convinced that Andy Schleck is out of the reckoning just yet but the first mountain climb in the Tour will make things a lot clearer for all of us.
Wiggins shapes as biggest threat to Cadel's Tour success
Man for man he is fifth in the pecking order at best but with illness, crashes and unforseen bad form always a factor he may scrape onto the podium. But he will need some luck. Thought Pinot would be his superior but he looks to have run his race before the first week is out. I wouldn’t count out Nibali yet but Contador looks cooked. Watch out for the other French hope Barguil, he may be a revelation.
Can Van Garderen make the Tour de France podium?