Tour De France

The professional career of one of Australia’s greatest cyclists, Robbie McEwen, will come to an end this Sunday afternoon in down town Los Angeles. For the 39 year old Queenslander, stage 8 of the Tour of California will be his last professional race.

When McEwen climbs off his bike after a major race for the last time, he brings to an end the palmeres of one our most illustrious riders.

While McEwen’s race marks the end of an era, another one is starting half way across the world in Italy. There his team-mates on the Orica Green Edge team are competing in the Giro d’Italia, the first Australian team to ever contest one of the three Grand Tours.

Continue reading "A sporting legend who was always ahead of the peleton" »

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)" »

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!" »

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’" »

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" »

This week’s article by George Galanis in The Punch was an interesting read. But, I’m afraid to say, it mistakenly perpetuated the myth that somehow it is medically safe to use performance enhancing substances in sport. 

Doping has been around as long as competitive sport itself. However, in modern history one of the major catalysts for the prevention of doping in sport was the deaths of athletes resulting directly from doping.

The reality is that athletes have indeed died during and straight after competition because they have doped. The death of Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen during competition at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome (the autopsy revealed traces of amphetamine) increased the pressure for sports authorities to introduce drug testing.

Continue reading "Allowing doping in sport would put lives at risk" »

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" »

It’s Thursday at The Punch

A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month! It’s also the anniversary of the first ever Tour de France bike race that took place on this day in 1903.  Got something else you want to share? How many people are starting Dry July today and what strategies have you got in place to help you stick it out?

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" »