Jayco Herald Sun Tour - A Fangirl Perspective

The best part about having a crit-style final stage is that the riders treat it differently to a normal stage in a stage race. When your day's racing is 10 laps of the same circuit your warm-up seemingly doesn't need to be as intense as for six hours through small towns in country Victoria, because for until 10 minutes before the start of the race nearly all of the riders were relaxing in their team tents in the small square beside Lygon St and mingling with the fans.

Of course, for the true GreenEDGE fan-in-waiting, the number of Australian riders was brilliant. The number of ProTeams there was also pretty awesome. Needless to say, until such time as the racing started I was having the absolute time of my life running around amongst all the team and sponsor stalls, having my photo taken with every rider I could find.

   I was stoked to see the Garmin-Cervelo team scoot past me, so I stopped for a quick photo with larrikin-esque Aussie Heinrich Haussler, as well as current Australian National Time Trial Champion Cameron Meyer. Unfortunately I was too slow to grab his brother Travis riding behind him. Both brothers are riding for Australia's Team GreenEDGE next season.

  

But the fun didn't stop there. I found Cameron Wurf, who was an absolute darling with a lovely smile and quite happy to stop for a quick photo with me.

 I also found Team Garmin's legendary Jack Bobridge, current Australian National Road Race Champion and former World Under-23 Road Race Champion, who recently broke the world record for the 4000m on the track by a full three seconds.  Needless to say, he's also been signed to GreenEDGE next year.

Adam Hansen is, unfortunately, still riding for Omega Pharma-Quickstep, as it's now called, next year. Despite being a very popular rider when I found him he still had a big grin for the cameras.

 Jonathan Cantwell rated a photo because he's Australian (though not WorldTour), but also as the winner of a crit in Ballarat last year.  He beat both Meyers brothers, which annoyed me at the time chiefly because I'd never heard of Jonathan Cantwell.  Can't say that anymore!

 Naturally I eventually tracked down Nathan Haas, the rising star that shone brighter than all others at the JHST this year, taking home all bar two jerseys.  The 22-year-old has been snaffled up for next year's pro season by none other than - guess who - Garmin-Cervelo, who seem to love snaffling up all the rising Aussie talents (until GreenEDGE snaffles them back, of course).

 Steele von Hoff, who like Heinrich Haussler has an awesome European name but looks as ocker as can be, comfortably won the Tour of Gippsland and didn't mind me gatecrashing the 'we're waiting to go onstage and receive our jersey' boy's room to get a photo.
 

 Taswegian Bernie Sulzberger is the older brother of ProTeam FDJ rider Wes Sulzberger.  Had I been able to find Wes, I'd've asked him to pass along a message to Jeremy Roy from his Australian fans.

  Pat Shaw is a Ballarat boy and hometown hero, thus warranting a photo.  But it's not our mutual origins that are the cause of our grins.  No, we're laughing because Pat is hiding the GreenEDGE Cycling cap he stole off my head behind his back.  No need to tell you which team he's NOT riding for next year, then.

I got so excited when I saw this fellow's name on the start list. Marcel Kittel has ridden the Vuelta a Espana and won a stage this year - How to Win Fans and Excite Fangirls. Speaking of stage wins, he took out Stages 3 and 5 of the JHST too - as a cool-down from the Vuelta, I expect.

 It wasn't just individual riders I found floating around, either.  As a non-ProTour team and an international team, none of the cycling aficionados there had any idea who these boys were.  As such the MTN Qhubeka were relaxing together in their tent and all jumped up and joined the circle when I asked for a photo.  Second from the left is current Namibian road and time trial champion Loto Petrus, hence the unusual maillot.
 

Despite having a Russian best friend, I've rarely been so excited over anything Russian as when I saw this uniform riding around.  A real-live ProTour team riding around with Tour de France vets?  I was stoked, even though Giro, Vuelta and Tour rider Vladimir Isaichev was nowhere to be seen.  I did, however, get the above photo taken with Nikolay Trusov on the left, and I was almost speechless to be in the presence of Egor Silin in the centre, who was on this year's Katusha team for the TdF.  The Colossus on the right is, oddly enough for the pro-home-nation team, Belgian Stijn Vandenbergh.

I did ask if I could take the sign-on board home as a souvenir, but apparently Lord Mayor Robert Doyle got first dibs on behalf of the city of Melbourne.  Sigh.  The perks of power.

 In the meantime, I was tracking down the SBS journos - Anthony Tan, SBS Cycling Central columnist and post-stage dissecter for the Tour de France.

 

Even cooler - Matt Keenan commentates the first half of each Tour de France stage, before Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen bring it home.

 This familiar face first appeared to me in my press room at the Road World Championships in Geelong last year.  Mike Tomalaris, fresh off the set of a live edition of SBS Cycling Central at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour.  Is there a higher aspiration?

 

Saved the most special for last...that GreenEDGE Cycling cap goes remarkably well next to the fellow who's bankrolling the whole venture - Gerry Ryan, owner of Jayco Caravans, has promised funding for GreenEDGE for the next three years.  Three years of sheer delight and excitement for me.  He more than deserves a photo for that.

A Fangirl's Fantasy

I found this stored in my archives of journalism and writing this morning, a discarded more casual version of an article from last year, and decided to give it a bit of polish and share it. Hope you enjoy!

***

 “I’m off to interview Matti now,” the Danish journalist said to me as she passed my desk.  “Would you like me to tell him hi for you?”

A few days earlier I would have flipped out at a question like this, but several hours working in the Media Centre had made me very blasé.  “Yes, please,” I told the journo as she pushed open the front door.  “Good luck!”

The ‘Matti’ the journalist was off to interview was Matti Breschel, a Danish rider with the Pro-Tour team Saxobank and one of the top cyclists in the world circuit.  As a true cycling fangirl, usually just the mention of Matti Breschel’s name would be enough to set me squealing, but when you’re a volunteer at the UCI World Road Cycling championships, running into the world’s best journalists and cyclists is just a matter of course.

My first ‘Eureka!’ moment, I’m very ashamed to say, only occurred on my second day of working as a Press Conference Co-ordinator in the Media Centre set up for the event.  One of the 100 or so journalists floating around walked passed my desk, and I noticed the colourful Hawaiian shirt he wore only because he’d had another Hawaiian shirt on the day before.  This guy sure loves his Hawaiian shirts, I thought, he’s been wearing them two days in a row…hang on, that rings a bell….didn’t they mention something on the SBS Tour de France coverage who loves wearing Hawaiian shirts…oh my gosh, YOU’RE Rupert Guinness!

Given that I’d been up til 2am every night of the Tour, pinching and kicking myself to stay awake and dooming all my uni assignments to hell in the process, I should have remembered the face of the guy who reviewed each night’s stage while we waited for the day’s presentations.  At least I didn’t embarrass myself that way when it came to Mike Tomalaris.  Well…almost not.  Having cleaned the coffee machines, kitchen and refilled the fridge for about the 10^th time that day, I decided it was about time to make myself a coffee.  Halfway through the cappuccino creation process, I turned around to see which country the journo behind me was from, only to recognise the distinctive hair of the SBS coverage’s host.  I actually managed not to lose all ability to speak at the sight of one of my journalistic heroes as I told him of my 2am escapades and how much I loved watching the Tour.  “Could I get a photograph with you please?”  I asked him nervously.  “My mum is going to love this.”

He was very good about the whole thing, even asked me my name, and it was all I could do not to scream out loud as he went back to making his coffee.  I shoved my cappuccino under the machine and hit the milk button, buzzing with excitement.  My Eddie McGuire or, well, whoever else commentates the footy these days was standing right there behind me!  In fact, I was so absorbed in discreetly watching him leave that I turned around to find my cappuccino overflowing all over the bench.  I could only thank my lucky stars that of all the journalists standing around in the kitchen, Mike Tomalaris wasn’t there to see me right then.

I actually saw that Danish journalist again before I finished my final shift on Sunday night.  I thought she’d like to know that I’d finally gotten my chance to take a photo with Matti Breschel.  As the silver medallist in the elite men’s road race, Matti took his place on the podium in my press room for the post-race press conference with Thor Hushovd and Australia’s Allan Davis.  The journalist smiled when I told her.  “Hopefully we’ll see you in Copenhagen for next year’s World Championships, then.”

Oh, I wish I could.