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It’s become cliché to say that cycling has never seen a better time in Australia, but yesterday’s elite men’s National Road Championships showcased the depth and ferocity of the racing that we get to enjoy right in our own backyard.
Yesterday afternoon Simon Gerrans won his second national road race championship in three years, heading up an all-star podium that also included Cadel Evans and Richie Porte. Gerrans’ Orica-GreenEDGE has now won all three nationals road races since the team’s inception in 2012 and Gerrans will take the green and gold bands (not to mention some sparkling form) into the 2014 season.
The men’s road race at the 2014 Australian nationals was always going to be a numbers game — 10 Orica-GreenEDGE riders and 13 Drapac riders lined up at the start and most expected the winner to come from within those two teams.
The ever-aggressive Drapac put four riders in the day’s main break while GreenEDGE had three but just as important to that early escape were Steele von Hoff — one of just two Garmin-Sharp riders in the race — and Adam Hansen — who had joked at the startline about not having to worry about communication breakdowns within his team … of one.
With such riders in the breakaway, not to mention reigning champion Luke Durbridge and pre-race favourite among many, Simon Clarke, it seemed as if the 17-rider escape group might have stayed away throughout. But after a move from the break by Simon Clarke failed to gain any traction GreenEDGE went for plan B — chasing down their own breakaway.
“The plan was always to try and have it together for me in the last lap if the race was anyway under threat”, Simon Gerrans said after the race. “The guys committed to that and brought it back together for me.”
On the last time up the challenging Mt. Buninyong climb, with the break absorbed by the main field, Cameron Meyer marked a series of attacks from Drapac’s Darren Lapthorne and Avanti’s Mark O’Brien. And then it was Gerrans himself who attacked, gapping the field and dragging the biggest names with him.
And in that moment it seemed as if the numbers game was over. Cadel Evans (who had no teammates in the race) and Richie Porte (who had just one) chased down Gerrans over the top of the climb and it appeared that it was going to be a simple case of the strongest riders duking it out. But the wildcard was Cam Meyer.
The 2013 national criterium champion rode across to Gerrans with Porte, giving the former a valuable ally in the fast run-in to the finish. Meyer put in a strategically vain attack, forcing Evans and Porte to chase, tiring the pair ahead of the final sprint while Gerrans got a free ride. And when Porte kicked hard in the finishing straight Meyer chased him down, placing Gerrans perfectly for the finale.
Dropping the wheel slightly Gerrans powered through Porte’s slipstream and left the Team Sky rider and BMC’s Evans in his wake, sprinting to victory by a comfortable margin.
Having Meyer there in the closing stages had given Gerrans an extra card to play. But in reality, Gerrans would almost certainly have won the final kick ahead of Porte and Evans anyway, such is the versatility of the man who outsprinted Peter Sagan to win stage 3 of last year’s Tour de France.
Many people described this year’s field at the men’s nationals road race as the best we’ve ever seen. In the end we got a podium to match. On the top step a Milan-San Remo winner and the winner of a stage in all three grand tours. In second place, the only Australian rider to have won the Tour de France and the most famous cyclist ever to have come out of this country. And in the bronze medal position, the winner of last year’s Paris-Nice and one of the favourites for this year’s Giro d’Italia.
And with Gerrans, Evans and Porte set to take the start of the Tour Down Under in eight day’s time there’s no reason we won’t see the same three riders on the podium there.
And as for Simon Gerrans, the hip fracture he sustained in the Vuelta a Espana in September last year might have been a blessing in disguise. It forced him to bring his off-season and pre-season training forward and he’s hit January in amazing form. The last time he won the nationals (in 2012) he went on to win the Tour Down Under and Milan-San Remo. We look forward to seeing what 2014 brings for the man from Mansfield.
See full race results of the 2014 Men’s Australian National Road Championships and highlights video here.
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- Top left: Will Walker (Baku) speaking to media before the race. Will is a previous National Champion on the road but won while he was still U23 and racing against the Elite (therefore doesn’t receive recognition for the Elite category). Will spent the day in the breakaway but dropped off the pace late in the race. Rest: Cadel Evans (BMC), Richie Porte (SKY) and Patrick Lane (Baku).
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- Robbin Tiffany (aka Teletubby man) wasn’t in his usual form after having a kidney stone removed over the holidays.
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- Alan Iacuone, 1994 National Champion giving it a crack 20 years later at the age of 40. To many, it was the most inspiring ride of the day.
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- The break of 17 riders reached a lead of just over three minutes but were kept in check by the main peloton.
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- Drapac was the underdog going into the race and it was Orica-GreenEDGE’s race to lose. Neither team took any chances and had multiple cards to play up in the early breakaway of 17 riders which looked to stay away.
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- To give you an idea of the depth in this year’s National Championships, over 20 riders in the field were WorldTour calibre, and approximately 60 professionally registered (i.e. WorldTour, Pro-Conti or Continental).
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- 2007 National Champion Darren Lapthorne waited comfortably in the main bunch while his Drapac teammates did their work in the break.
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- 2013 National Champion Luke Durbridge was driving the break hard all day. But as Matt White said after the race, “Clarkey was one of the best in that front group, but there were faster sprinters in the break, so we weren’t willing to go to the line with those blokes still there. To have a chance at the win, Durbridge and Clarke knew that they had to go solo with two or three laps to go. It didn’t happen, so we decided to go with the safer option and bring things back for Gerro.”
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- Rhys Gillet (African Wildlife Safaris) was in the early move and use his climbing abilities to earn him the KOM jersey by the end of the race.
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- Adam Hansen joked in a pre-race interview about how there would be no danger of miscommunication among his teammates with him being the only Lotto Belisol rider in the race (referring to the mess-up between him and Mick Rogers in the 2009 Championships when Peter McDonald beat the duo). Hansen tweeted after the race “I tried. I failed and I will be back next year. I just want to win this damn race. Must speak to Lotto Belisol to sign some more Australians.”
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- Bottom: (left) Jeff Provan holds up his Australia jersey which is in the process of being signed by all the winners. Right: John Trevorrow (1978, 1979, 1980) and Wayne Hildred (1982, 1986) hold up the jersey and reminisce about all the others they should have won.
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- Richie Porte on the descent.
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- Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing Team) who just came off the Bay Crits overall win leads a withering bunch up the base of Mt Buninyong.
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- Orica-GreenEDGE driving the pace to bring back the break.
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- Orica-GreenEDGE make their way to the climb in the closing laps while chasing down the break.
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- The story of the race: Alan Iacuone racing the National Championships 20 years after he first won it in 1994. Al wasn’t just there to sit in. He made the break and hung in there until the finish. Top effort for a top bloke.
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- Orica-GreenEDGE Sport Director Matt Wilson said, “Our plan today was to put the right guys in the break, and that’s what happened with Clarke, Durbridge and Docker up there, that put us in the box seat behind. The break was very strong for a lot of the race, but things didn’t really pan out the way we had hoped and we didn’t feel like the situation in front was guaranteed for us. “
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- Matty Lloyd who just signed with US based team Jelly Belly appeared comfortable in the main bunch for the entire race but wasn’t able to match the pace once it lifted in the final lap.
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- Fans lined the roadside of Mt Buninyong where all the action took place. However, there weren’t as many people on the hill as last year. Many people I spoke to opted to stay at home and watch the race on television.
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- Simon Clarke (OGE) starts the fireworks on the base of the climb on the final lap and Will Clarke (Drapac) follows
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- Simon Gerrans attacks straight after Meyer stirs things up before the KOM and blows the race to pieces.
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- Simon Gerrans wins his second National Title ahead of Cadel Evans and Richie Porte. He said after the race, “I wanted the guys to set a fast pace to keep it together going into the bottom section of the climb, so that I could attack towards the top,” explained Gerrans. “There was already quite a small, select group left by the time we got to the last ramp of the climb, and there was some foxing going on. Cam had slipped off the front a little bit, and then I attacked in the final few hundred metres of the climb to really try to get rid of the other contenders. We got over one by one: myself,then Cadel, then Cam, then Richie. Over the top, the four of us came together again, and that’s how it stayed until the finish.”
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- Richie Porte 3rd, Simon Gerrans 1st, Cadel Evans 2nd. Three of the best bike racers in the world, all in our backyard.
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- The second one of these for Gerro.
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- Orica-GreenEDGE director Matt White said after the race, “What goes around comes around,” White added. “Everyone gets their chance in this team and we saw that with Durbo last year, but Simon Gerrans is very very reliable.”
