Australians took a long time to crack the Tour de France
WELL before Cadel Evans won the Tour de France in 2011, Australia had a long, proud history of involvement in the Tour going back to 1914, before the outbreak of World War I.
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AUSTRALIA’S Orica Green Edge team will line up in Mont St Michel tomorrow, hoping to emulate Cadel Evans, the only Australian to win the Tour de France. But even before Evans gave us our first win in 2011, Australia had a long, proud history of involvement in the Tour going back to 1914, before the outbreak of WWI.
Australia wouldn’t send any more cyclists until 1928, the year Australian cycling was put firmly on the world map thanks the great Hubert “Oppy” Opperman who was dubbed “Le phenomene” by an adoring French public. Oppy tried to crack the Tour again in 1931, coming a respectable 12th, which would be the best result by an Australian until Phil Anderson finished 10th in 1981.
In 1914 the Tour de France was only 10 years old but it already had an international reputation, enough to prompt a team of Aussies to make their way to Europe as part of the Ravat-Dunlop Wonder team.
The team was captained by Warnambool cycling star Iddo Robert “Snowy” Munro, whose main claim to fame was that he beat a steam train from Warnambool to Melbourne in 1909.
Also in the team was Duncan “Don” Kirkham, the son of a Victorian dairy farmer and well-known sportsman and a friendly rival of Munro. Charlie Snell, George Bell, Charlie Piercey and Fred Keefe also made the trip to compete in preliminary races but only Munro and Kirkham qualified for the Tour.
They soon found that the Europeans were not great sportsmen, lodging protests for foul riding in the first stage.
The language barrier also proved a problem for Munro, who tried to ask for water during the race and got a bowl of cologne to wash with, which he promptly drank. He overcame that to finish 20th and Kirkham ran 17th, not bad for two antipodeans.
Two weeks after the race finished, France was at war and the Tour would not run again until 1919. Both men returned home to relative obscurity. Neither competed in the Tour again. Munro gave up racing but became a race administrator and worked on improving cycling equipment.
Kirkham returned to dairy farming but made a comeback in 1920. However, his racing career was ended in 1924 when he was hit by a car while riding home from a race and contracted pneumonia lying out in the rain waiting for help.
Instead he took to mentoring a promising young rider named Opperman and was on hand for his assault on the Tour de France in 1928.
Opperman was born in Rochester, Victoria in 1904. He honed his cycling skills riding as a delivery boy for the post office. At 17 he came third in a major race, winning a Malvern Star bicycle, made by a small cycle workshop in Malvern, Victoria. The owner of the shop, Bruce Small, saw enormous potential in Opperman and offered him a job as a salesman, leaving him plenty of time to train.
In 1924 he became Australia’s road cycling champion, popularising Malvern Star bikes. Cycling fans believed Oppy was a good chance to win the prestigious Tour and a newspaper campaign saw funds raised to send him along with Ernie Bainbridge, Percy Osborne and New Zealander Harry Watson to Europe to compete in 1928.
But it was not to be their finest cycling moment. Osborne had a puncture and damaged his bike but made repairs only to be penalised for accepting a spare part. Opperman was fined for getting a push from a pedestrian at the top of a hill, but finished 18th overall in the race.
He won many other races while in France, including a valiant win in the Bol d’Or 24-hour classic that ended with him being cheered “allez Oppy” by the audience in Paris.
Opperman took another team to France to race in 1931 but was plagued by mechanical problems and dysentery. He had to be satisfied with 12th overall, but later went on to win the prestigious Paris-Brest-Paris race.
In 1937 he was slated to become captain of a British team but withdrew before the race, citing a lack of strong riders to complete his team.
Opperman’s career was interrupted by World War II and he retired soon after. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see Evans win the Tour in 2011, dying in 1996.
Originally published as Australians took a long time to crack the Tour de France
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