Chaos on the Cobbles: Paris-Roubaix 2011

One of the oldest and most well-known Pro-Tour races traditionally ridden by all the world’s best riders, the ending to this year’s Paris-Roubaix was a little less expected.  This year the three favourites for the title were two-time previous winner and world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara, world road race champion Thor Hushovd, and multiple Paris-Roubaix top-ten finisher Juan Antonio Flecha.  And predictably enough, when three riders split from the peloton to form a chase group (the poursuivants) behind the breakaway group one minute ahead, they were Cancellara, Hushovd and Flecha, along with BMC’s Alessandro Ballan.  When Cancellara made his first attack, Flecha dropped back, and Ballan was forced to chase Cancellara and Hushovd to keep up.  The three closed the gap on the leading group of around 17 riders to 20 seconds, but this soon ballooned out to 40 seconds when Cancellara stopped leading.  Both Hushovd and Ballan had riders from their teams in the lead group, and with both riders sitting on his back wheel and refusing to do a share of the work, Cancellara chose to simply stop chasing rather than help his rivals to an easy victory.

It was at 14 kilometres to go that Cancellara chose to make his move.  A group of four riders had gone off the front of the leading group, and Cancellara couldn’t wait any longer if he wanted to have a chance.  Hushovd gave chase, and Ballan and Flecha followed them down the road, blowing past the scattered remnants of the leading group.  Soon it was just Cancellara and friends chasing three riders out front, who were in turn chasing down Johan van Summeren, the fourth leading rider who had made a break of his own.  That was when Cancellara went for it again, and this time Hushovd couldn’t follow.  Cancellara caught the three riders ahead with only one kilometre to go, but even Johan van Summeren’s flat tyre at the five-k mark didn’t slow him down enough for Cancellara to catch him before he entered the Velodrome at Roubaix and secured first place.

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.”

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.