Play Sport, Not Politics

Our sporting rivalry with the Brits is famous. The Ashes, on the track, the road…whenever we can, we go up to bat against the Mother Country in the hopes of returning home victorious.

So it seems odd that the Australian Olympic Committee has knowingly handicapped the Australian cycling team’s chances of a gold medal, in either the time trial or the road race. The road race course is billed as a sprinter’s course, and the best sprinter in the world is, of course, Britain’s Mark Cavendish. The race for second is always heated, but Australia’s Matt Goss is always up there giving it his best shot. The obvious choice for the road race would therefore be Goss, and the obvious choice to lead him out would be Mark Renshaw, billed as the best leadout man in the world – and conveniently Australian.

Well, the selectors got Goss right, but it seems to have somehow slipped their minds that Renshaw was available to take ‘Gossy’ to the finishing line. Renshaw was left out of the Australian World Championships team for 2011 as well, sparking speculation that Renshaw is being deliberately shunned. The 29-year-old is known for being a bit explosive and controversial – he was sent home from the 2010 Tour de France after a well-publicised headbutting incident with Kiwi Julian Dean. It has also been posited that Renshaw’s signing with the Dutch team Rabobank rather than the new Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE is the reason the sprinter has been left out of the Worlds and Olympic teams. Interestingly enough, of the five riders selected for the Olympic team, Stuart O’Grady, Matt Goss and Simon Gerrans all ride for Orica-GreenEDGE, Cadel Evans is the first Australian winner of the Tour de France, and Michael Rogers is an all-around Australian favourite. In saying that, almost half of the Australian pros are signed to GreenEDGE, so a certain amount of GreenEDGE-domination is to be expected.

But there’s another glaring omission in the Australian roster – and a GreenEDGE one at that. Luke Durbridge is the reigning Australian time trial champion, and in particular the only Australian to have beaten Bradley Wiggins in a time trial while Wiggins has been in his current brilliant form. 21-year-old Durbridge won the time trial prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné just prior to the Tour de France ahead of riders like Wiggins, World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, French National Time Trial Champion Sylvain Chavanel and, yes, Cadel Evans. Granted, Durbridge is young, but his time-trialling abilities speak for themselves, and he’s proven himself as a domestique throughout his debut season with GreenEDGE.

So why aren’t Renshaw and Durbridge on the team, then? In fact, why is there only one pure sprinter on the team – Gossy – when Australia boasts a pretty good arsenal of sprinters like Heinrich Haussler or Adam Hansen who could help Gossy give Mark Cavendish a run for his money? Australia’s team is simply not geared towards winning a gold medal; rather, each appointment to the team was a political move to pacify and acknowledge Australian cycling’s heads of state. It’s a noble intention, certainly, but someone needs to tell the AOC and Cycling Australia that the Olympic Games is the wrong place for playing politics.

Stage 11: Albertville - La Toussuire-Les Sybelles

Today was the day.  This was the stage we’d all been waiting for, the decider, the bike race to end all bike races.  It happened.  And it was spectacular – spectacularly destructive, spectacularly revealing, spectacularly tenacious.   Stage 11 reminded that this is the Tour de France, of whom only the greatest are worthy, and today we finally learnt who the worthy riders are.

It panned out almost exactly the same as the day before.  Today’s stage began with a large breakaway that formed almost as soon as the riders left the neutral zone.  The 30 or so riders moved fluidly between several breakaway groups ahead of the peloton for the first hour or more, being dropped, catching or attacking in turn.   As the group reached the top of the first climb of the day, the hors catégorie Col de la Madeleine, the 26 riders were 2’55” ahead of the Team Sky-led peloton.

Due to the pace being set by Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, riders were dropping off the back of the peloton as the climbed the Madeleine.  Behind Boasson Hagen, four more Sky riders were waiting in line to do the pace-making, willing to lay everything on the line for their team leader, Bradley Wiggins.  Boasson Hagen’s high tempo had cut nearly a minute off the breakaway’s lead, before Christophe Kern (Europcar) took over the pace-making from teammate Davide Malacarne and began stepping up the speed of the escape group.

The King of the Mountain point was passed without incident by the breakaway, Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff leaping forward for second place in an attempt to regain his polka-dot jersey.  Kessiakoff continued over the top of the climb to attack the breakaway on the descent with Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), one of two groups to do so, splintering the breakaway into three.  The first two groups rejoined in time for the intermediate sprint at Saint-Etienne-de-Cuines, uncontested due to the lack of sprinters, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) leading the second group across the line.

As the leading group began the second HC climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the second group on the road bridged gap, forming a 22-man leading group again.  The group soon began dropping riders, as the third rider of the day dropped out of the Tour de France.  Rabobank sprinter Mark Renshaw joined Vacansoleil-DCMs Lieuwe Westra and Gustav Larsson on the list of riders withdrawn from the Tour’s 11th stage.  Riders continued to yoyo on and off the back of the breakaway as Kern continued the pace-making up front and Sky set the tempo further down.

The expected attack came partway up the Col de la Croix de Fer.  Sky made no reaction as the wearer of the best young rider’s white jersey, Tejay van Garderen, disappeared up the climb.  The reason for van Garderen’s attack was soon evident: a few minutes later, BMC team leader Cadel Evans attacked as well, racing ahead to join his young teammate.  The leading Sky rider, Australian Michael Rogers, began increasing the tempo of the peloton even more in an attempt to bridge the gap to Evans, who was by then sitting comfortably on the wheel of Tejay van Garderen.  He didn’t look comfortable for long, however, van Garderen’s accelerations dropping his team leader off his wheel far too easily.  Even with the assistance of Amael Moinard, dropping back from the breakaway, it was too much for Evans, and the Skymobile came forward to swallow all three back up again.

Thanks to Sky’s accelerations, the groupe Maillot Jaune had been reduced to just 10 riders; team leaders and the best climbers.  There were just seven men in the lead group just over two minutes ahead as the crossed the top of the Croix de Fer, led by Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar).  The riders began attacking each other on the way down, but it was Rolland again who led them over the third and final climb of the day before they reached the mountaintop finish.  A group of three formed at the head of the race as Rolland, Kiserlovski and Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) began descending the Col de Mollard.  The glory was shortlived, however, Rolland crashing on the descent.  Bleeding from his elbow but otherwise unhurt, Rolland was able to remount and try to chase down the leading pair a few seconds ahead of him, catching them 23 kilometres from the end of the stage.

Back together in the lead, Rolland attacked his breakmates, trying to set himself up for a solo stage win.  There were attacks back in the main field, too,  Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) among the four riders who jumped of the front of the peloton.  Forced to chase, Sky super-domestique Chris Froome began setting a pace that dropped all bar a few riders.  Fortunately for Wiggins, one of the dropped riders was Cadel Evans, who had teammate Tejay van Garderen thoroughly confused with his inability to keep up.  Van Garderen also dropped back to pace Evans over the climb, the pair unable to rejoin the yellow jersey group and crossing the line over three minutes behind the winner of the stage.

Froome and Wiggins, meanwhile, had dropped everyone else and were forging ahead to join the breakaway of van den Broeck and Nibali just up the road.  Having managed this, Froome then went to the head of the group and accelerated so hard that Wiggins dropped off the back.  Froome was quickly instructed to stop pace-making and go back to help Wiggins, stranded behind the group of four.  Picking up Kiryienka along the way, the reformed group of seven continued their high pace towards the stage finish on La Toussuire.

But they weren’t the only ones out there.  Pierre Rolland, with a minute over his nearest pursuers, repeated his feat of last year soloed to a mountaintop stage victory, the day after the stage win of his team leader, Thomas Voeckler.  The French fans were in for a bigger surprise, because young FDJ-Bigmat star Thibaut Pinot managed to outsprint Froome to take second to make it a French 1-2, Wiggins rolling across the line two seconds later, one and a half minutes ahead of Evans.

Stage 12 is a medium mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs close to the start and a long flat towards the finish.  This is the kind of stage that encourages breakaways, and would definitely suit the skills of a rider like Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or maybe even Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD).  It’s unlikely to see the big GC contenders try anything one a stage with such a flat finish, but being the Tour de France, anything could happen.

Has Wiggins Blinked?

It was always going to be a showdown not to be missed. Two superbly matched rivals, competing at the top of their game. Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans, vying for the Tour de France crown.

But with the first week of the Tour de France behind us, it begs the question: has Wiggins blinked already? In the silent psychological battle raging between the Briton and the Australian, has Wiggins inadvertently lost the advantage to the defending champion?

It began on Stage 1. As the teams raced towards the finish and the dangerous last few kilometres of the stage, Team Sky was nowhere to be seen, leaving Wiggins to fend for himself in the peloton and try and stay out of trouble. Wiggins was seriously displeased with his team’s lack of support and had words with them at the end of the day, causing them to be far more attentive on Stage 2. Already the team was in the black books.

It got worse on Stage 3. A crash took out Wiggins’ Sky teammate, Kanstantin Sivtsov, and suddenly Sky was one rider down with a team of eight – the first team to lose a man. It hasn’t helped that the World Champion, Manxman Mark Cavendish, is now racing for Team Sky and has been pressuring the team for more and more support in his quest for stage victories. Even Norwegian champion Edvald Boasson Hagen was too busy sprinting for stage placings or leading out Cavendish to look out for Wiggins. The team is slowly fracturing between the individual goals of its members. The line-up that was initially the most formidable in the Tour de France is now looking like Wiggins’ biggest weakness.

A touch-and-go team is one thing, but Wiggins himself seems to know that he’s already on the back foot strategically as well. On Stage 3 Wiggins employed a rather reprehensible tactic saved only for the desperate. He maintained his position in the GC that day after all time gaps in the front half of the peloton were neutralised due to a crash in the last few hundred metres of the stage. But here’s the kicker: Wiggins had nothing to do with the crash.

Wiggins was riding a fair way down the peloton and was going to lose time on rival Cadel Evans, who was racing for a placing behind Peter Sagan. So when a Vacansoleil rider crashed over to Wiggins’ left, instead of veering right to go around it, Wiggins turned his bike left into teammate Michael Rogers and forced both of them to stop behind the crash. It wasn’t an accident. Wiggins’s intention was clear. The road in front of him is open, but instead he leans left into Rogers, slows and puts his foot on the ground. The tactic worked. Commissaires deemed Wiggins and Rogers impeded by the crash and awarded them the same time as Evans.

Leaving aside the moral implications of such a strategy, the real question is: why was it necessary? To put it simply, they made a mistake. Wiggins and Team Sky slipped up. Sky should have done what BMC did and moved Wiggins up to the front of the peloton, clear of crashes and time losses. Sky’s failure meant that Wiggins had to get creative in order to ensure he stayed in competition and didn’t surrender any advantage to Evans.

Small potatoes, perhaps, but this year’s Tour de France was always going to be about the small stuff. Consider Cadel Evans’ Tour de France so far: he’s raced the perfect opening week, remains as calm as the proverbial eye of the storm, and in general is looking just like the Cadel Evans we remember from last year – the Cadel who won the Tour de France. It’s true that Wiggins is making up for missed time in the second week of the Tour, dominating in the Stage 9 individual time trial and gaining precious seconds over Evans. That doesn’t change the fact that Wiggins’ opening week doesn’t look nearly as sparkly, and it’s worth asking the question – has Wiggins already made a critical mistake?

Tour Down Under - Stage 5

This was it - the queen stage.  The one all the riders had been waiting for.  The one everyone said would be the decider - Willunga Hill.

The break went fairly early, and by the time it reached the township of Willunga, which the race would pass through five times during the day, nine kilometres from the depart, the six riders - Stuart O'Grady, GreenEDGE; Nathan Haas, Garmin-Barracuda; Thomas de Gendt, Vacansoleil-DCM; Andrew Fenn, Omega Pharma-Quickstep; Takashi Miyazawa, Saxobank; and Kristof Goddaert, AG2R La Mondiale, had a minute on the peloton.  O'Grady in particular was popular with the Australian crowd, eliciting a loud cheer as he rode past in his GreenEDGE jersey.  They continued picking up time on the unconcerned peloton, building up a lead that continued increasing as they made their way around the first lap.

The other teams were taking turns on the front of the peloton, BMC prominent in protecting the ochre jersey of Martin Kohler, as well as Movistar, clearly setting up their man Alejandro Valverde for a stage win and boost in the GC, and Rabobank.  The teams were having a minimal effect, though, as the six leaders raced through Willunga again with a lead that had ballooned out to seven minutes.  BMC clearly wasn't happy with this and put their collective foot down, stringing out the peloton as they reached Willunga and turned towards the beach on lap two.

Meanwhile, the leaders were reaching the first sprint point, but no-one was particularly interested in taking the points, Goddaert leading the break across the line to take first place with Fenn and O'Grady filling out the top three.  Despite the lack of sprinting at the sprint point, the gap to the peloton was still increasing, by now eight minutes ahead.  The peloton let it get out to almost 8:30 before they finally put the pedal down and started bringing the break in, Team Sky also joining the work at the front of the peloton, and by the time the leaders reached the feedzone in Willunga on lap three the gap had come down to around six minutes.

The leaders racing through their final lap of Willunga and McLaren Vale, Rabobank set up shop on the front of the peloton and increased the pace so much there were riders falling off the back.  Lampre-ISD had a small scare when their GC contender, Matt Lloyd, who was also a chance of winning the day's stage, fell off the back with the other riders, and his teammates had to drop back to help return him to the peloton.

There were only five in the break by the time they reached the second sprint point, Goddaert having fallen off the back with a mechanical problem, and this time it was Thomas de Gendt who rolled over the line first, again no-one in the break interested in contesting.  As O'Grady and Fenn agained clean up the top three points on offer, the gap continued going down, the only respite when the peloton swept through the feed station.  It was down to about 2:30 as the breakaway started up Willunga Hill for the first time, the race finally getting exciting as the peloton tried to catch them in time to set up the showdown that everyone was anticipating between the major GC contenders.

It was Nathan Haas who made the first move, attacking the break on the way up the hill and holding a lead of a couple of hundred metres as the peloton entered Willunga for the first ascent of the hill.  Thanks to the high pace-making from teams like BMC and Rabobank the peloton was now in two with a gap between and Steele von Hoff in no man's land between thanks to a crash.  On the front of the peloton Movistar's David Lopez attacked, taking GreenEDGE's Simon Gerrans and Lampre's Matty Lloyd, amongst others, with him as he tried to bridge the gap to the breakaway.

Lopez and entourage managed to catch the four poursuivants, Haas remaining defiant off the front of the bunch and claiming the maximum points for cresting the first King of the Mountain point in the lead, his chasers 50 seconds behind.  Still refusing to give up as the peloton rippled and shifted into groups behind him, Haas kept fighting until the nearest group of 30 riders, including Gerrans, race leader Martin Kohler and other favourites for the stage finally swamped him.

Then it was back around to Willunga for the final race up the hill, UniSA's Rohan Dennis making a storm as he escaped from the front group in a breakaway with Sky's Danny Pate, Radioshack Nissan Trek's Hayden Roulston and Movistar's Jose Ivan Gutierrez.  The breakaway soon dissipating on the slope, it was Dennis and Radioshack's Tiago Machado leading the way on the final climb up Willunga, before the front group of eager stage contenders caught them just as Simon Gerrans made his move, shadowed by Movistar's Valverde.

The two were neck and neck as they turned the final corner, the home crowd cheering enthusiastically for National Champion Gerro, only to have their hopes disappointed as Spanish sprinter Valverde's bike wheel pipped Gerro's by half a length.  Sky's Michael Rogers, trailing the pair since they left the group, chased them across the line for third.

But the real enigma of the win was the times of Gerrans and Valverde.  While Gerrans began the day four seconds ahead of Valverde in the GC, Gerrans only received a time bonus on the finish of six seconds, four seconds less than Valverde.  As such the two were on equal time at the end of the day's stage, but the ochre leader's jersey will go to Gerrans, as Gerrans placed higher than Valverde within the bunch on the previous days' stages, and Valverde must outplace Gerrans to take the jersey.  So the question rests for tomorrow's final stage at the crit in Adelaide: will Valverde attack in the hopes of gaining a few more seconds tomorrow, or will GreenEDGE's defence of Gerran's ochre prove too strong?

Tour Down Under - Stage 1

Today was, for Australian cycling fans, a rather exciting day - the beginning of new Aussie ProTour team GreenEDGE's first World Tour race.  The Adelaide suburb of Prospect's streets were gratifyingly full, and the crowd was two or three people deep along the fence as the race started, some of cycling's big names rolling off as Eddy Merckx fired the starting gun.

It was a horribly hot day - Marcus Burghardt's description of its effect on human beings was 'boiling' - and as such sitting in Clare waiting 5 hours for the peloton to arrive didn't seem advisable.  Instead I offer a selection of photos from today's stage as well as the elite men's road race at the National Championships last weekend.

 

(In case you don't recognise them, the photos above are: with Stuart O'Grady from GreenEDGE at nationals; Mick Rogers from Team Sky signing on at nationals; GreenEDGE leading the peloton to the KOM at nationals; with Jeremy Roy from FDJ-Big Mat at TDU; with Jens Voigt from Radioshack-Nissan-Trek at TDU; with Hayden Roulston from Radioshack-Nissan-Trek at TDU; with Jesse Sergent from Radioshack-Nissan-Trek at TDU; with Geraint Thomas from Sky at TDU; with Mathew Hayman from Sky at TDU; Jens Voigt and Linus Gerdemann from Radioshack-Nissan-Trek prepping for stage one at the TDU; the beginning of stage one at TDU.)

Keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow's post from the stage two finish at Stirling!

The Tour of Britain 2011

The Tour of Britain is just a baby on the ProTour circuit, a mere eight years old, but given the rise to prominence on the circuit of the British riders - think Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish here - and, of course, the quality of the riders racing it, the course is worthy of a mention.

It was only a week before the beginning of the Tour that Mark Cavendish announced that he would be riding his national tour for his ProTeam of HTC-Highroad.  Such an announcement probably struck fear into the heart of his competitors, and with good reason - Cavendish took an easy win on Stage 1 from a bunch sprint with Aussie teammate and lead-out man Mark Renshaw second.  Of course, the other perk of taking a victory on the first stage of a week-long tour is taking the leader's maillot as well, leaving Cav in the yellow at the end of the first day.  He was lucky enough to keep it the next day as well, but through less clement circumstances.  Due to dangerously strong winds along the coast generated by Hurricane Katia the stage was cancelled, and instead the riders took part in a ceremonial two laps around Kendal, the starting town of the stage.

Though the cancellation of stage two meant Mark Cavendish had to forego the honour of finishing his 'home stage' in Blackpool, the beautiful sunny weather of the following day meant the race was back on!  Even with the still-windy conditions the riders were up to all the usual games, but thanks to the hard work and steep pace set by American team HTC-Highroad, no-one who left the peloton could stay away.  This set the stage for Rabobank's Michael Matthews to springboard Lars Boom to a sprint win on the uphill finish, taking the yellow jersey from Cav in the process.

Day 4 was not much of a surprise, to be honest.  If I say it was a bunch sprint at the end of a stage with mountains, who springs to mind?  If your answer is the God of Thunder Thor Hushovd then yes, you would be right.  After the three-man breakaway was reeled in with a few kilometres to go, Hushovd stormed home, with Lars Boom tight on his wheel.  Though Boom missed out on a second stage victory, he increased his lead on the yellow jersey by 12 seconds over local boy Geraint Thomas, the home-country favourite.

Stage 5, not so expected.  There are really only two names that jump to mind when you think of bunch sprints.  But when it came to this bunch sprint, you'd be a day late if you said Hushovd, and wrong if you said the Manx Missile.  The 12-man breakaway was reeled in a little way out, and when it came down to a bunch sprint, Mark Cavendish came second to his own lead-out man, Mark Renshaw.  The rider famous as the world's best lead-out man was keeping mum afterwards about why him and not Cav.

Lars Boom must have been happy on Day 6.  He seemed a little miffed about coming second to Thor Hushovd on the fourth stage to Caerphilly, despite the fact that Boom was, you know, leading the GC and all, but an outright victory in Wells probably helped improve his mood.  The peloton can't have been impressed, though, after letting Boom slip through their fingers early on and jump ahead to the breakaway from which he was later able to springboard his win.  The stage didn't go so well for home favourite Geraint Thomas, though, dropping down the GC leaderboard following a crash.

The theme of successful breakaways continued onto Stage 7, when virtual unknown, Lithuanian Gediminas Bagdonas, took the stage honours within the breakaway of six and Mark Cavendish led the peloton home in seventh place.  Little change in the GC, but for Lars Boom, still in the leader's maillot, the game was still on for Day 8, the double-doozy combo of a short time trial followed by a 10-lap crit on the same roads.  Boom showed he could hold his own in the time trial, coming in just five seconds behind winner Alex Dowsett, who was resplendent in his lovely new white skinsuit of the British time trial champion.

But of course Cav had to have the last word, especially in his national tour, and promptly pipped everyone else to the line to take the last stage victory, clearly wanting the matching set of first-and-last-stages for his trophy cabinet.  Lars Boom played it safe and finished comfortably in the bunch, securing his nice yellow jersey as he enjoyed his first trip to Britain.  Leopard Trek had two top-ten finishers, Australia's Michael Rogers took out 11th and Cav finished a respectable 13th, right behind Geraint Thomas in 12th.

The Media Cycle

This is an old article,  written whilst working as the Press Conference Co-ordinator in the Media Centre at the 2010 UCI World Championships in Geelong, Australia.  Bon appetit!

The Media Cycle

"I'm off to interview Matti now," the Danish journalist says to me on her way out the Media Centre door. "Shall I say hello to him from you?"

She is, of course, talking about Matti Breschel, a cyclist on the Pro-Tour team of Saxobank and one of the top cyclists on the world circuit.  I give the journalist a very enthusiastic ‘yes’ as she pushes the glass door open in front of her and heads off to her interview.

This particular journalist is only one of around 100 journalists and photographers floating around the Media Centre at Deakin University’s Waterfront Campus in Geelong.  Reporters from all over Australia and many more from countries as diverse as Luxembourg, Brazil, Italy and Japan have gathered here to watch the 2010 UCI Road World Cycling Championships, the most prestigious event in world road cycling, second only to the Tour de France itself.  Like all the rest, she has been here since Monday or Tuesday; like all the rest, she won’t be leaving until everything is over and the news has moved elsewhere, late on Sunday night.

The UCI, or l’Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union in English), is the official governing body of world cycling, both track and road.  Its most well-known role is as the administrator of the Road World Championships, the annual contest of the best riders in world cycling competing for cycling’s second most coveted prize, the Rainbow Jersey.  Though the UCI was founded in April 1900, making its headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, the Road World Championships were first held in 1927, with the individual time-trial championships being added in 1994.  Since then there have only been 11 winners of the time trial - Jan Ullrich took out two titles in 1999 and 2001, but this year all eyes were on the only two riders who are three-time World Time-Trial Champions: Australia’s own Michael Rogers, for the first time riding the Championships on home soil, and Switzerland’s defending champion Fabian Cancellara, each hoping to secure an unprecedented fourth title for his country.

Rogers certainly didn’t disappoint the home crowd, whipping around to finish his two laps of the course in one hour and 34 seconds and take the leader’s position from Spain’s Luis-Léon Sanchez.  The excitement built a second time as Australia’s final rider, Richie Porte, left the start line two minutes before Fabian Cancellara, but the Swiss proved too fast for the two Aussie boys and showed the world once again why he is the Time-Trial Champion.  Finishing in just over 58 minutes, Cancellara entered the history books as the first rider ever to win four world titles in the time-trial, as well as the first rider to win two world titles back-to-back – twice (2006/2007, 2009/2010).

History is another major aspect of the race for the media.  As the results came through for the under-23 men’s road race, the television commentators became rather confused.  Though the gold medal had undoubtedly gone to Australia’s Michael Matthews, and no-one disputed that Germany had won silver, the bronze medal was a lot less clear.  “We’ll have to wait for the official announcement, but it looks like they have the same time on our screens,” the distinctive voice of Phil Liggett intoned on the live broadcast.  Media directors sent volunteers scrambling for the books as journalists began clamouring to know the last time in world cycling history that a dead heat had been called for a podium position.  Such an event is so rare that even the official Media Guide, a publication distributed to journalists with profiles of the riders and details of the course as well as tables and statistics for all previous years and winners, didn’t have a listing for it.  The USA’s Taylor Phinney and Canada’s Guillaume Boivin made history in under-23 men’s cycling with their identical time.  The following day, the Media Centre had copies of the photo finish available for distribution to the journalists, showing the wheels of the two bikes both nudging the line.

By Sunday morning, the day of the biggest and final climactic race – the Elite Men’s Road Race – the desks in the Media Centre were littered with similar sheets of paper, proclaiming the winners of all the previous races, detailing the histories of the winners, and advising the media of progress in the doping investigations.  Even as the world’s best competed for gold in Geelong, four Spanish cyclists, including current Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, were implicated in illegal drug use, with three riders being suspended and Contador under investigation.  For the journalists who have followed cycling for several years, it was shades of 2006, where the winner, America’s Floyd Landis, eventually admitted to doping in the Tour and was stripped of his yellow jersey, which was instead handed to the runner-up, Oscar Freire Gomez of Spain.  At a press conference the previous day, the president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid, refused to answer questions about Contador’s case.

“There’s an ongoing result management process happening that I can’t comment on; let’s just wait for the result,” he replied to the insistent questions of the media.

Should Contador be found guilty of doping and stripped of his title, the honour of the yellow jersey would fall to Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck, the winner of the white jersey competition for the past three years and one of the favourites for the Tour de France title, along with the 2009 World Champion, Australia’s Cadel Evans.  Winning last year’s World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, barely five minutes down the road from his European home, this year Cadel is back to defend his rainbow jersey, just 20 minutes down the road from his Australian home in Barwon Heads.  Though losing his chance at Tour de France glory this year from a fractured elbow in a crash, his form has otherwise been very good, and for the home crowd excited to see the World Championships on Australian turf, there is but one question on everyone’s lips: can Cadel do it again?

The morning after our first meeting, the Danish journalist passes the Media Centre reception desk again.  “How’d your interview with Matti go?  Was he nice?”  I ask.

“Oh, it went OK,” the journalist replies.  “He was really cool about it.  Matti has a great sense of humour.”  She grins at me, knowing my particular interest in the Danish rider.  “You should have come along!”

I smile.  “Oh, if only I could have.”