The Coffee Ride #109, with Reece Homfray
VICTORIA’S iconic Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic is set to be cut back to three days for the first time in its 27-year history in January.
Cycling
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cycling. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
BAY CRITS CUT TO THREE DAYS
VICTORIA’S iconic Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic is set to be cut back to three days for the first time in its 27-year history in January.
The race will be scaled back from four days to three to fit in with the other major events on Australia’s summer cycling calendar.
Organisers of the Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Herald Sun Tour are yet to announce their 2017 dates.
But The Coffee Ride can reveal the Bay Cycling Classic will start on New Year’s Day and run from January 1-3 in a break from its traditional four-day format.
Event organiser John Trevorrow said four days of racing was not possible because it had to fit in with other major events including the national championships in Ballarat, which follow the Bay Crits.
And he said he could not start the Bay Crits any earlier because that would mean starting on December 31, 2016, and many teams would have different riders, sponsors, bikes and kit the following day.
Trevorrow said it had been decided where the criteriums will be held but he was not ready to make an announcement.
While Cycling Australia is believed to have nominated preferred dates for its major events next summer, it is up to individual race organisers to officially announce when they will be on.
DIVING INTO THE GIRO
STILL on John Trevorrow, the Herald Sun Tour race director has just returned to Australia after a trip to the Giro d’Italia with Orica-GreenEDGE.
The highlight was spending time with OGE’s latest star Esteban Chaves and the lowlight was dropping his phone in a swimming pool during a rest day which meant he lost all his contacts and numbers.
“The opportunity to travel with the team was just brilliant,” Trevorrow said.
“To get to see Chaves and the type of guy he is - he is a leader.
“It’s not just his smile that wins people over it’s his strength of character and personality.”
Trevorrow said one day during the Giro Chaves felt he had let the team down by not taking his opportunity so went back to the car and fetched water bottles for all his teammates - a duty usually reserved for a domestique not a team leader.
VAL & CADEL RECON LE TOUR
THE Advertiser sports journalist Val Migliaccio has spent the past week riding the Swiss Alps with Australia’s Tour de France champion Cadel Evans.
This year’s Tour includes three days in Switzerland - Stages 16 and 17 - which are separated by a rest day in Bern.
Evans is now an ambassador for BMC Racing and the ride was hosted by Switzerland Tourism.
The trip included 10 journalists from around the world who went on a two-hour ride as part of Stage 17 from the ski resort town of Gstaad.
Despite heavy rain, Evans was in good spirits and did his best to pick everyone up at the back of the bunch and help them get up the climbs.
That night Evans hosted a dinner where he talked about retirement, his role in cycling and the Tour de France and the following day went to Zurich to watch a mountain bike race.
Migliaccio travelled to Switzerland as a guest of Switzerland Tourism.
You’ll read more about this trip later in The Advertiser.
AVANTI HEADS TO EUROPE ON A HIGH
BURGEONING Australian cycling team Avanti-Isowhey heads into its first European campaign this week on the back of a spirit-boosting win in the Tour of Japan.
Bendigo rider Sam Crome won the final stage of the UCI 2.1 ranked tour in Tokyo, which was the biggest victory of his career.
Crome, 22, is in his first season with the team after crossing over from Charter Mason in the off-season.
“I saw him last year as someone who was still developing and with a bit more help we could give him the opportunity to take the next step,” Avanti-Isowhey boss Andrew Christie-Johnston said.
“And Sunday was proof that he’s got what it takes.”
Crome was in a 10-man break for most the day, followed all the right moves and was quick enough to win the 112.7km stage.
Avanti riders were flying from Japan to Europe on Monday where they will embark on the team’s first European campaign.
Two squads from a group of 13 riders will race for seven weeks before returning to Australia when the National Road Series resumes.
“It’s never been done before (taking our team to Europe),” Christie-Johnston said.
“And secondly there is a bit of a gap in the NRS and we thought it would be a good opportunity to head to Europe.
“I needed to make a lot of calls to get race starts and we were quite surprised at how many we got, we’ve got quite a heavy calendar.”
Avanti-Isowhey’s first race on European soil is on June 16.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“The results speak very highly of the team and the sense of community within Australian women’s cycling has been outstanding. It has been a conscious and considered effort by all of our riders and I must credit their performances.”
- National women’s road coach Martin Barras after the UCI confirmed Australia would have the maximum quota of four (road race) and two (time trial) in Rio.
“I haven’t raced for the good part of a month-and-a-half and I’ve flown under the radar so much this year. No one has even mentioned my name.”
- Richie Porte after his second place behind Alberto Contador in the opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.
“I had four days in bed where I couldn’t really move.”
- Nathan Haas tells Cyclingnews.com of his recovery from a crash in Paris-Nice.
TWEET, TWEET
Trying to imagine my legs aren't hurting.....It didn't work 😆 #Dauphine pic.twitter.com/3BlFk4NBjN
— Chris Froome (@chrisfroome) June 6, 2016
- Even the greats aren’t immune to pain riding uphill. Chris Froome during this week’s Criterium du Dauphine.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #109, with Reece Homfray
Ranked: Who should really be named SA’s top sporting hero?
We’ve named the top 100 athletes, teams and sporting icons from South Australia. But did we get it right? Rate our full list here.
Great Ocean Road Race: Aussie team produces stunner in scorcher
The mercury went above 40 in the men’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, and it was an unlikely Swiss sensation who delivered glory for an Australian team in the sweltering heat.