Cycling

That dopey Spaniard. Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador has been banned for two years, and is now officially just a two-time Tour de France winner, after copping a two year ban for drug use.

Contador was overnight stripped of his 2010 Tour win by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for testing positive to the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol. The Spaniard says he ingested the substance by eating contaminated steak.

Sure he did. The Punch has dined on more than occasion at a delightful tapas bar near our office and we can say with some confidence that both the chorizo and the steak was steroid free.

Continue reading "Other stuff to be angry about today (with chorizo pic)" »

This is not your typical rant of a cyclist against senseless, inconsiderate drivers or a driver against arrogant, lycra-clad cyclists. But don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to rant at the end.

I find myself in a unique position. I cycled a lot – for many years while I was an Olympic rower then a few as a competitive cyclist. I ended up winning the 2009 Tour of New Zealand, then I became the National Time Trial Champion a year later.

But due to a head injury I sustained through a fall at a cycling race at last year’s Tour Down Under, I no longer cycle. And I had to surrender my car licence. I’ve recently been through the medical and practical driving test and have got it back after nine months of not driving.

Continue reading "Warney’s not the only one who needs a road refresher" »

Road cycling has been growing in popularity for the past few decades. This week’s Tour Down Under in South Australia is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people to roadside vantage points throughout the state to watch some of the best riders on the globe contest the opening event of the 2012 World Tour.

Yet for the first few decades of competitive cycling, the track was the Mecca for large crowds of cycling fans. Beginning in Europe, but spreading quickly to the United States, Australia and elsewhere, the close action on the steeply banked velodromes captured the imagination of the public.

Throughout the first three decades of last century, cycling tracks were built in major cities. In the US, track cycling became one of the most popular sports in the nation. As in Europe, sporting stars and celebrities of the era were regular faces in the stands.

Continue reading "Cycling through history to the Tour Down Under" »

It is one of the most anticipated events in Australian cycling. For decades, cyclists, coaches and supporters have dreamt of having a national team at the Tour de France and the other great European races. Now, 98 years after Don Kirkham and Snowy Munro became the first Aussies – and the first non-Europeans – to ride in the Tour de France, an Australian team will join the professional peleton.

The first appearance of the Green Edge team this weekend at the Bay Criterium series in Victoria had been eagerly awaited for months. Although the Bay Crits are a warm-up series for the Australian Road Championships this week at Mt Buninyong, and the first of the World Tour races, the Santos Tour Down Under the following week in Adelaide, they have attracted the cream of the nation’s cyclists for two decades.

As the first races for the summer season, it is fitting that the Green Edge riders are participating in the keenly contested circuit races at Geelong, Port Arlington and Williamstown.

Continue reading "A new true blue crew of Aussie cycling champs" »

What happened
Cleanskin Australian cyclist Cadel Evans had finished runner-up in both the 2007 and ’08 versions of the Tour de France. After a disappointing 26th in 2010, his hopes of ever winning the thing looked cooked. But the 34-year-old Victorian, who was born in the NT, finally tasted champagne and glory on the Champs Elysees on July 24, 2011.

Australians have been tuning in to SBS’s Tour coverage in increasing numbers in recent years, if only to watch glimpses of the French countryside flashing by while drooling over Gabriel Gaté’s delectable dishes.

This year we watched not just as interested onlookers but as fans. As mad barrackers for a gritty little Aussie giving it his all, in an event which is truly one of the grand fromages of world sport. It was a ratings bonanza for the “Soccer, Boobs and Soccer” network, with over five million watching in total and a whopping metro share audience of 32.6 per cent on the final stage.

Continue reading "Biggest moments of 2011 #5 Pedal Cadel, Pedal!" »

The Herald-Sun Tour is Australia’s oldest cycling stage race. As a child, I recall watching the Tour riders travel through the small country town of Rosedale in Gippsland where I grew-up. Sometimes there would be an intermediate sprint in the town. On other occasions we would watch the riders racing up the ridge adjoining our property.

The Tour marked the revival of competitive cycling after the Second World War.

For the first half of last century, track racing and one-day endurance events dominated the cycling calendar. Track racing was extremely popular, as thousands of people flocked to the wooden velodromes to witness closely fought races.

Continue reading "Australian cycling has a rich and exciting history" »

I’m cycling on a side street crossing a major suburban arterial road in Adelaide.

At the intersection, I scan left and the traffic is banked up from traffic lights 300 metres away. To my right is a sizeable gap. Off I go.

A shiny 4WD accelerates towards me, closing the gap faster than I thought possible, but nowhere near fast enough for panic.

Continue reading "Cycling in Aussie cities needs some Swiss velocity" »

There has been some debate over the last few days regarding how excited we should be that Cadel Evans won a bike race.

First things first… can’t we just enjoy the moment and soak up the celebrations before these arguments kick off?

His celebratory champagne had barely stopped fizzing before our collective joy was being rained upon.

Continue reading "Let sport have its moment in the sun" »

Cadel Evans’ heroic performance at the Tour de France is being celebrated around Australia, as it should. I’ve been watching the Tour for a long time, and it’s the best individual sporting performance I’ve ever seen.

Over the past three weeks, between the wee hours of 10pm and 2am, Evans has bought together the previously estranged cycling fans and those who have never ridden a bike to jointly applaud his guts and determination, his enormous heart and never-say-die attitude. All qualities we Aussies love and admire in our sports heroes.

The response has been wholly positive. Almost. Despite Evans’ epic win, some media commentators have still felt the need to roll out the tired “well, I guess this means we have to put up with more lycra-clad clowns on the roads” line.

Continue reading "Share the road safely with those ‘lycra-clad clowns’" »

Yesterday, on TODAY, Mia Freedman showed antipathy towards the Tour de France and its Australian winner, Cadel Evans.

She said she didn’t care, and put forward the idea that maybe he wasn’t a hero to everyone. Ms Freedman followed the interview up with a blog post on her site, Mamamia, explaining she’d been thumped with heavy criticism and cruelty online as a result.

Mia reiterated her stance that she, personally and publicly, doesn’t think sporting achievements make for heroes, and that for her, a hero is someone who toils at their own expense to better the lives of others.

Continue reading "I’m a proud Aussie and I don’t give a stuff about sport" »

Reckless P-platers have often thrown bottles at Cadel Evans when he’s training along the Great Ocean Road near his home town of Barwon Heads, Victoria. Maybe they’ll think twice now, just in case that anonymous lycra-clad figure on the road is a Tour de France winner.

Evans’ Tour de France triumph represents a massive day in Australian sport. Bigger than the America’s Cup victory in 1983. Bigger than anything Pat Cash, Greg Norman or Lleyton Hewitt ever did. Bigger than any of Ian Thorpe’s swims and bigger, yes, than Cathy Freeman’s 400m run in Sydney.

This was not just a victory in the world’s largest annual sporting event, but a victory for everything that we value in Australian sport.

Continue reading "Thank you Cadel, you’ve done us all proud" »

Australians have dreamt of winning the Tour de France for a century. Of all the world’s great individual sporting contests, it has until now remained outside our grasp. Edwin Flack claimed gold on the track at the first modern Olympics; our swimmers regularly beat the best in the pool; and our track cyclists often have dominated the velodrome. But until now cycling’s greatest challenge has escaped us.

Ever since Don Kirkham and Snowy Munro contested the twelfth running of the ‘Grand Boucle’ in 1914, Australians have returned to France in search of victory. Kirkham, a 27-year-old dairy farmer from Carrum in Victoria, had won the Goulburn – Sydney classic in 1910 and 1911 before venturing to Europe three years later.

Munro, also from Melbourne, rode a world record time to win the Warrnambool to Melbourne road race in 1909. Riding over the rough, unmade roads of France, the pair of Australians impressed the locals with their endurance. They eventually finished 17th and 20th respectively before returning to Australia to escape the ravages of the First World War

Continue reading "Tour of dreams: the cycle of longing" »

Welcome to July – a month when ridiculous numbers of Australians forgo rude quantities of sleep to watch a bunch of spandexed bulgers ride bikes in a big circle round a snotty nation on the other side of the planet.

Bitter? Moi? I’d answer “mais oui” but that would be playing right into the hands of le enemy.

France’s annual Tour de Tighty Pants brings mixed emotions for those of us who pedal pushies about the place on a daily basis. And by mixed emotions, I mean a seething combination of bitter and twistedness.

Continue reading "Je n’adore pas le Tour de Bifurcating Buttocks" »

It is a cold, dark evening in wintry Melbourne. As the peak hour traffic thins, a group of cyclists gather at one end of the Kew Boulevard.

Within the space of a few minutes, a group of 50 to 60 riders have gathered for the weekly ‘Tour de Burbs’ – an hour and a half high speed dash through the eastern suburbs adjacent to the Yarra River.

With flashing red tail lights, they set off, reaching speeds of up to 50 to 60 km/h. At the rear are a few 15 and 16 year olds, light as jockeys, but already capable of staying with the older group. As they ride, their dreams are half a world away with the stars riding in the Tour de France.

Continue reading "Aussies are serious players in the world’s biggest bike race" »

One of my favourite quotes from the movie Anchorman is the following line from Ron Burgundy:

“I won’t be able to make it fellas. Veronica and I are trying this new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it’s jogging or yogging. It might be a soft j. I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.”

Every time I read that I nearly fall off my chair laughing. The point is, in Ron Burgundy’s world, jogging sounds like a complete waste of time.

Continue reading "Le Tour de France is a beautiful dance" »

Cyclists are the worst. They dress up like extras in an MC Hammer video, then they act like they own the bloody road. They are rude, cliquey, sanctimonious and, very, very ugly. Did we mention that they look incredibly stupid in lycra?

But one day, not all cyclists will be like that. One day, and possibly very soon, scores of ordinary people in ordinary clothes will ride ordinary inexpensive bikes to work. That’s the dream of people like Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who is set to announce more cycleways any day now. In an age of rising petrol prices and sedentary workers looking to get fit, it’s a perfectly reasonable dream.

Right now, the cycleway knockers have it much too easy. It’s money for old bike chains when your opponents are hippies, lycra warriors and leftie ideologues like Clover Moore. And don’t the shock jocks know it. They rail against the traffic chaos caused by the narrow green bike lanes as though the green is some kind of toxic ooze.

Continue reading "Build the cycleways, and the riders will come" »

Today Tony Abbott leads his platoon of pedallers into Armidale in northern NSW, and onto what some see as a calculated ambush of the local federal member, independent Tony Windsor.

This is his Pollie Pedal, the two-wheeled cavalcade of middle-aged men and a few women in bicycle-fetish garb which has become part of Abbott’s annual state-of-the-nation tour.

Well, part of the nation, anyway. The bits you can cycle on the east coast, at least.

Continue reading "Abbott has the strength and will to go the distance" »

Across Australia today a familiar push and shove is taking place as cyclists vie for space with the ever increasing numbers of cars on our roads. It is a pattern that is repeated throughout our towns and cities; a symptom of our car loving culture and sense of road entitlement from drivers and cyclists alike.

Drivers resent the packs of Lycra warriors when they take up entire lanes and invent their own road rules, and cyclists understandably fear cars which are often wielded like 100 tonnes of road clearing debris.

Neither party is blameless in this dangerous game of chicken, but it is up to state governments to appreciate the differing needs of commuters and adjust their infrastructure accordingly.

Continue reading "Ensuring safe passage for our Lycra warriors" »

Taxpayers deserve to know what they’re forking out to sporting stars.

In South Australia, Premier Mike Rann - despite his reputation as a master of spin - has made a poor judgment when it comes to not disclosing how much Lance Armstrong is paid to appear at the Tour Down Under.

The State Government has continually refused to say how much it has paid the seven-time Tour de France winner to appear at the TDU, even claiming the information was commercial in confidence, thus putting the details out of the reach of freedom of information requests.

Continue reading "Governments stupid to stay silent on sports stars" »

Like the rhythm of the turning pedal, the professional cycling season has followed an annual pattern for a century.

As the European winter evolves into early spring, riders take their bikes from garages and leave the velodromes to venture back onto the roads in preparation for another season. Riding at first in the slush and ice of melting snow, their thoughts turn to the warmth of the Mediterranean Sea.

Known as the ‘Race to the Sun’, the professional season traditionally commenced with Paris to Nice, a weeklong race from the French capital to the southern holiday resort.

Continue reading "Chasing the sun all the way to Australia" »

As the field swept into Geelong from Melbourne last Sunday for the first of eleven laps that decided the World Road Race Championship, they passed one of the few reminders of the man who put Australian cycling on the world stage three-quarters of a century ago.

A neon sign advertises ‘Oppy’s Bistro’ at a hotel in Norlane, a reference to the man who represented the electorate in the Australian Parliament for 18 years after retiring as the nation’s greatest cyclist.
It is appropriate that the name of Hubert Opperman remains associated with a commercial venture. He was a professional throughout his long cycling career. Together with his friend and business partner, Bruce Small, Oppy had made Malvern Star the choice of bicycle for hundreds of thousands of Australians in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Continue reading "The Malvern Star and Oppy, heroes of the cycling world" »

In the world of professional cycling, the rainbow jersey represents the pinnacle of achievement. It is awarded to the winner of the World Championship each year. For ever after, the victors are entitled to wear the rainbow colours on the collar and armbands of their racing jersey, a lasting reminder of having been the best cyclist on the globe in each event.

This week’s World Championships in Geelong are special for Australians. Not only is it the first time that the event has been held down under, but the Australian, Cadel Evans, is the defending champion in the blue riband event, the elite men’s road race.

The championships have drawn the best field of cyclists to Australia since the Sydney Olympics, and none more so than the three-time winner, Oscar Freire. The diminutive Spanish sprinter burst onto the world stage when he finished second in the under 23 road race championship in 1997. Two years later, he claimed the elite event at Verona. He repeated the feat in 2001 and 2004. Since then he has won a series of events, including the Milan-San Remo classic thrice and the green jersey for the leading sprinter in the 2008 Tour de France.

Continue reading "Forget France, the cycling world is watching Le Geelong" »

It was on this day in 1958 that Russell Mockridge, one of Australia’s most talented cyclists, was hit by a bus in Oakleigh and killed when just three kilometres into the annual Tour of Gippsland.

Mockridge’s remarkable career began in Geelong where he rode regularly on the roads that will host the World Championships next week. In a cycling career that has all the features of an enthralling movie, the quiet youngster from Newtown rose from obscurity to a world class competitor in the space of just two years.

While the Mockridge story ended in tragedy, it had a fairytale beginning. Like many teenagers, Mockridge, and his brother Graham, rode their bikes around Geelong, ferreting in the Ceres hills and racing to their parents beach house at Torquay.

Continue reading "The death of a sporting hero we never immortalised" »

The great French cyclist, Laurent Fignon, who died this week from cancer, aged just 50, recalled being recognized by a man in the street.

“Ah, I remember you: you’re the guy who lost the Tour by eight seconds.” “No, monsieur,” Fignon replied, “I’m the guy who won it twice.”

After losing the 3,285 kilometre race by a few seconds in the time-trial on the streets of Paris in 1989, it is little wonder that Fignon is most remembered for that year of the event. 

Continue reading "As long as he breathed he attacked" »

Television viewers of this year’s Tour de France will recall an advertisement for a well-known bicycle brand featuring Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. In it, each one claims to be better than the other, whether in power output up a climb, or consuming more sports drink.

This week, the friendly banter in the advertisement will turn into one of the great duels in professional cycling, as the two riders battle for supremacy over the leg-sapping mountains of the Pyrenees.

For the next three days, Schleck and Contador will race over nine cols along the French-Spanish border before the second rest day of the Tour. Then on Friday they will tackle the mountains for the last time in this year’s race, finishing the stage atop the Col du Tourmalet, the 2115 metre monster of the south.  If they are still close, a 52 km time-trial will decide the eventual winner.

Continue reading "Glory awaits over the Pyrenees" »

With the news that Cadel Evans had lost the yellow jersey on the Col de la Madeline stage of the Tour de France, Australians could be forgiven for thinking that this has been the most crash-prone edition of the Grande Boucle. Nursing a broken bone in his elbow from a crash two days before, Evans surrendered eight minutes to the leading riders.

His crash followed the elimination of two other Australians, Adam Hansen, and Simon Gerrans, who had suffered a series of tumbles before a broken arm finally ended his tour hopes.

Frank Schleck, Vladimir Karpets and Christian Vande Velde have all ended their Tour on the bitumen, while the sprinters Robbie McEwen and Tyler Farrer survived high speed collisions to ride another day.

Continue reading "A brief history of crashes at the Tour de France" »

Australian cyclist Cadel Evans has the yellow jersey smack on his back but the question is: will he crack or will he stay tough to claim this year’s Tour de France?

If he can ride into Paris, retaining the colour he has aspired to wearing most of his life, Evans must overcome his greatest opponent - himself.

After stage eight on Sunday, Evans survived a fall, injuring his shoulder and wrist. And to everyone’s amazement, Evans gritted his teeth through his pain and finished the mountain stage in sixth place and shot to the lead in the overall standings.

Continue reading "Cadel’s greatest opponent on the road to Paris is himself" »

Lying in front of the first stage of the Tour De France in a semi-catatonic state on Saturday night I found myself wondering why I was watching this thing. I love Le Tour de France more every year, but why?

Having just come from watching Germany’s spectacular destruction of Argentina in the World Cup, it was clear I wasn’t watching these guys in lycra and creepy sperm shaped helmets like I had been watching the soccer. It was sport but didn’t feel like sport. In fact it wasn’t even called the first stage, like a book or an opera, Le Tour has a prologue. 

When Gabriel Gate appeared on the screen in his tour cooking segment with some Dutch dessert it dawned on me how this telecast was actually being consumed: it was in fact a really good lifestyle show.

Continue reading "Le Tour isn’t sport, it’s a great lifestyle show" »

At the outset I declare that I am unashamedly pro-bike.  Cycling is a great sport, a clean form of transport, and has undoubted health benefits for those who regularly ride.

Most years the annual “pollie pedal” route is through my electorate – as was the case this year.  Had I not been heavily pregnant, I would have ridden with the team again (albeit for a short distance).

But I have to say: what’s the deal with designated bike lanes?

Continue reading "A cycle of illogical decisions" »

Salary rorts in the NRL, Oscar winning performances on the soccer field, underage Olympic gymnasts and drug-cheats in the cycling peloton.

It’s all cheating and, as an elite athlete, I’m angry.

Not only at those who cheat, but also those around them who allow it to happen.

Continue reading "Time to bring back lifetime bans for sports cheats" »

If you have an aversion to thousands of riders in brightly coloured lycra, it’s not for you. If, however, you are a keen recreational cyclist who delights in an outdoor adventure, the Great Victorian Bike Ride is one of the ‘must do’ events in life.

First conducted in 1984, when 2,100 people cycled from Wodonga to Melbourne, it has grown into one of the great cycle touring events in the world. Last week, 5,000 people rode from Portland in the west of the State, via Cape Bridgewater, along the iconic Great Ocean Road to Geelong.

Averaging 70 kilometres a day, the huge peleton spread for kilometres along the coastal road. There was every shape and size of human imaginable, battling headwinds from Port Fairy to Port Campbell one day, and then the long climbs to Laver’s Hill and over the Otways the next.

Continue reading "The cycle of your life" »

In July 2006, I was standing in a queue at Charles De Gaulle airport with my wife and daughter when I heard a slightly high-pitched, Australian voice behind me.

Looking around, I recognised the man whom we had watched the day before finish fifth in the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysees.

He was later elevated to fourth in that first “post-Lance” tour after the winner, Floyd Landis, was disqualified for using drugs. It was the best result ever for an Australian, eclipsing Phil Anderson’s two fifth placings in La Grand Boucle.

Continue reading "Cadel Evans’s humility hid his brilliance from critics" »

I don’t like cyclists as a general rule. I don’t like the way they clog up my local cafe on Saturday mornings and clip-clop around the joint in their pixie shoes.

And I sure as hell can’t cop the sight before breakfast of a middle-aged lawyer on his third wife wearing a lycra jumpsuit more in line with Cirque du Soleil.

But even I’ve stopped swerving at these road vermin this week long enough to ask: how good is Lance Armstrong?

Sure it’s early, but the 38-year-old Texan was given less chance of winning this Tour than beating the testicular, brain and lung cancer that nearly killed him not so long ago.

Continue reading "The one cyclist I actually like" »