South Australian cycling legend Stuart O’Grady is a leading candidate to win the TDU race director’s gig
Scott McGrory, Scott Sunderland and Patrick Jonker have all attracted interest for the soon to be vacant Tour Down Under race director’s job alongside Stuart O’Grady.
Tour Down Under
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tour Down Under. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Inaugural Tour Down Under champion Stuart O’Grady is in the box seat to win the race director’s gig.
The South Australian cycling legend appears destined to taken the baton from the TDU’s only race director Mike Turtur.
Turtur dreamt and built the event from being a category two stage race in 1999 to becoming the first race outside of Europe to secure World Tour status, guaranteeing the planet's top teams.
Turtur, 61, announced he would be stepping down from the race director’s role in January, saying he hoped to be involved in helping choose his successor.
The 22nd edition of the race is a little more than seven weeks away and sources claim the new race director could be on the job alongside Turtur, learning the ropes before taking over in 2021.
O’Grady told The Advertiser “he would love to do it” (becoming race director), adding he wasn’t aware of when an announcement would be made, or who the leading candidates are.
He has a vast array of contacts with the best bike riders on the planet and clearly understands the World Tour’s intricacies and the key logistic requirement of this huge event.
O’Grady, 46, is currently race director of Revolve24, a 24-hour endurance cycling challenge held at The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend.
It’s understood there are a number of prime candidates with mandatory race director’s qualifications apart from O’Grady.
Scott McGrory, 49, a Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist and race director for the Herald Sun Tour and Cycling Australia’s national cycling championships and Melbourne to Warrnambool, said he hadn’t been approached about the TDU’s race director’s role.
“The legacy of the Tour Down Under is such that simply it has to have someone who knows every aspect of the sport,’’ McGrory said.
”They’re big shoes to fill.”
“Mike Turtur was my coach in SASI when I was at the AIS.
“I would be honoured if they gave me a call and asked me to apply.”
Michelton-Scott’s performance director Kevin Tabotta – a former performance director with Cycling Australia – is according to sources also considered.
Australian Scott Sunderland, 52 - race director of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Belgium’s Tour of Flanders - has strong credentials.
Dutch-born and SA-based 2004 TDU champion Patrick Jonker said he had applied for the race director’s role.
“I made an inquiry more than three years ago when I had an idea that Mike Turtur had planned to step down from the role,’’ Jonker said.
“He has done a great job for the past 21 years and really lifted the profile of road cycling in Australia and beyond.”
O’Grady won gold at the 2004 Athens Games, raced in six Olympic Games, competed at 17 Tour de France stage races and was the first Australian to win Paris-Roubaix in 2007.
He won four Tour de France stages also wearing the coveted yellow jersey for a total of nine days plus winning the TDU twice (1999 and 2001).
In 2013, O'Grady confirmed he had taken EPO prior to the 1998 Tour de France stating the arrests around that Tour scared him off doping for the rest of his career.
O’Grady was named in the French Senate report detailing EPO use 21 years ago before he retired.
He was adamant he never used EPO, or any other banned substance again.
Events SA has been contacted for comment.
Originally published as South Australian cycling legend Stuart O’Grady is a leading candidate to win the TDU race director’s gig