The Coffee Ride #82, with Reece Homfray
ORICA-GreenEDGE is hellbent on ending three years of pain at the world championships on Sunday by claiming an elusive gold medal in the team time trial.
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AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
OGE DESPERATE TO END THREE YEARS OF PAIN
ORICA-GreenEDGE is hellbent on ending three years of pain at the world championships on Sunday by claiming an elusive gold medal in the team time trial.
The Australian team has finished third, second and second in the event since it returned to the world title program in 2012.
In 2013 OGE finished second to QuickStep by a mere 0.8 of a second after 1hr 4mins of racing (57km) and last year fell 31 second short of BMC over the same distance.
“It’s mind boggling really that we lost a world title by 0.8 of a second over an hour of racing in 2013, that’s seven metres,” OGE director Matt White said.
“That was heartbreaking but it shows how competitive it is.
“It’s a big driver for us, this year we’ve got Jens Mouris who is leaving the team and Svein Tuft we don’t know how many more years we’ll have him for.
“Most of the team was part of it two years ago and three have been involved the past three years so it’s a core group of guys who are very motivated to win this world title.”
To win the elusive world championship, OGE will have to get past defending champions and hot favourites BMC.
Unlike previous years when the course has been almost 60km long, organisers have opted for a much shorter 38km route this Sunday.
“It will be fast from the start and stays fast,” White said.
The prestigious six rider per team event opens the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, US, this weekend.
Other heavy hitters are expected to be Etixx-QuickStep, Sky and Trek.
BMC are the defending champions but they’ll be without Tejay van Garderen who crashed out of the Vuelta a Espana with a broken shoulder.
Equally as big a loss is Richie Porte at Team Sky who will miss the world titles with hamstring tendinitis.
Trek won the most recent TTT at the Tour of Alberta while BMC triumphed at the Vuelta and Tour de France but don’t read too much into OGE’s 22nd place finish in the Tour given the team was decimated by injury and simply trying to survive.
Here’s a look at how the team time trials have finished in some of the major races this season:
TTT at Tour de Romandie (19.2km)
1. Team Sky
2. Orica-GreenEDGE +0.063
3. Katusha +05
4. Etixx-QuickStep +14
5. Astana +17
TTT at the Giro d’Italia (17.6km)
1. Orica-GreenEDGE
2. Tinkoff-Saxo +07
3. Astana +13
4. Etixx-QuickStep +19
5. Movistar +21
TTT at the Tour de France (28km)
1. BMC
2. Team Sky +01
3. Movistar +04
4. Tinkoff-Saxo +28
5. Astana +35
TTT at the Vuelta a Espana (7.4km)
1. BMC
2. Tinkoff-Saxo +01
3. Orica-GreenEDGE s/t
4. LottoNL-Jumbo +08
5. Etixx-QuickStep +10
TTT at the Tour of Alberta (19.6km)
1. Trek Factory Racing
2. Orica-GreenEDGE +0.074
3. Katusha +08
4. Bora-Argon +23
5. Giant-Alpecin +25
2015 UCI Road World Championships schedule:
Sunday, September 20: Team Time Trial (men and women)
Monday, September 21: Junior women, under-23 men TT
Tuesday, September 22: Junior men, elite women TT
Wednesday, September 23: Elite men TT
Thursday, September 24: Rest Day
Friday, September 25: Junior women, under-23 men RR
Saturday, September 26: Junior men, elite women RR
Sunday, September 27: Elite men RR
HEPPY BACK ON THE BOARDS
IF YOU missed the news yesterday, Michael Hepburn is returning to the track to bolster Australia’s team pursuit on the road to the Rio Olympics.
Hepburn is poised to sign a new contract with Orica-GreenEDGE which will see him link up with Australia’s men’s track endurance squad after the road world championships in the US this month.
It will be the first time Hepburn has raced the track since he was team and individual pursuit world champion in 2013.
You can read the full story and what he had to say HERE.
JACK BACK ON THE WORLD TOUR
THE other big news yesterday was Jack Bobridge returning to the WorldTour with Trek Factory Racing.
The 26-year-old has signed a contract to return to the sport’s top-tier in 2016 but says he remains totally committed to Australia’s team pursuit program heading towards the Rio Olympics.
COMMENT: IT MAKES NO SENSE TO MOVE TDU
THE UCI’s management committee will meet at the road world championships this week to discuss a ridiculous notion that the Tour Down Under be moved to February.
It’s all well and good to want to shorten the WorldTour season but what meaningful difference would two weeks make?
If the season is to be shorted it must come from the back end and the season should end with the road world titles in September.
The overwhelming success of the TDU in its 17-year history is not due to the riders, not the teams or the fancy cars and bikes that take over the city — it is the people.
Hundreds of thousands of people who pack Victoria Square to greet the riders, line the roads to cheer them on and fill cafes, restaurants and the towns across the state to create an amazing festival atmosphere.
And the reason the majority of them can do it is because the week-long event is held in January when kids are on school holidays and adults are enjoying time off work.
As race director Mike Turtur said this week, the TDU was a tourism event which became a bike race, not the other way around.
“It was designed that way from the beginning — the event was pitched to the government as a tourism event first and foremost and it happened to be a bike race which worked,” Turtur said.
“It wouldn’t make sense to me to jeopardise the success of the event based on the fact that both elements have been successful, tourism and a bike race. “
There is also strong evidence that riders can launch their season at the TDU in January and enjoy outstanding seasons.
Ryder Hesjedal rode the TDU then went on to win the Giro d’Italia in 2012. Simon Gerrans won the TDU in 2012 and 2014 and dominated the spring by winning Milan-San Remo and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
And this year alone Rohan Dennis won the TDU then wore the yellow jersey at the Tour de France while Tom Dumoulin was fourth then just this week ran sixth at the Vuelta a Espana nine months later.
Team Sky and Lotto Soudal both have 28 riders on their roster, Tinkoff-Saxo (30) and Ag2R-La Mondiale for example have 30. If WorldTour teams can’t find seven riders who are willing and able to ride in Australia in the second-last week of January then I’d be very surprised.
But more damning is that it would be one giant leap backwards for the sport’s globalisation.
A NEW BREED OF CYCLIST
IF YOU haven’t seen it, take 40 seconds to check out this amazing video of a robot riding a bike.
The ‘Primer V2’ designed by Japanese roboticist Masahiko Yamaguchi rides a bike like a human and even waves to the crowd — including a double handed salute — like a real professional crossing the finish line.
It maintains its balance using a gyroscope and its operator can instruct it to pedal and put its feet down to stop in a skidding motion. Check it out.
LAPTHORNE BOWS OUT
THE career of former national champion Darren Lapthorne came to an end in Canada on the weekend.
Lapthorne, 32, was in the break at Grand Prix Montreal before losing touch in the final race of his professional career.
The Drapac rider was national road race champion in 2007 and retires after a 10-year career.
FATHER & DAUGHTER TAKE AIM AT 970KM RIDE
FATHER and daughter duo Andrew and Charlie Jarman are gearing up to ride 970km from Adelaide to Melbourne next month but not surprisingly they are opting for different preparations.
Charlie, 24, is physically preparing for the week-long ride by actually training.
Andrew, 49, is hoping mental toughness will make up for fitness he may found to be wanting while on the open roads.
“I’m doing the physical activity while dad is mentally preparing for it,” Charlie said.
“We’ve done one ride together up Norton Summit and he was ready to go home.”
The pair will saddle up for the inaugural event dubbed ‘Road Raise’ which runs from October 11-16 and aims to raise funds and awareness for CanTeen.
“I’m fine tuning the mind for a brutal ride, don’t worry about the Tour de France, this will be tougher and harder,” Jarman said.
“Forget the Lycra, I’ll be wearing my footy gear and sandshoes and I’ll do 170km a day and they’ll just sit behind me.”
While Jarman was more at home on a football field with the Crows than he ever was on a bike, Charlie has added motivation to train for the ride given she’s signed up for a half-ironman triathlon in November.
But as much as the two are enjoying the friendly banter leading up to Road Raise, they are both passionate about supporting a good cause.
“I work with a lot of people in the age bracket that CanTeen supports so it’s quite meaningful for me, and I have family members who are battling cancer so for me riding to Melbourne is easy,” Charlie said.
Jarman added: “We’ll build some friendships and have a few laughs to support an outstanding organisation”.
For more information and to help with fund-raising, visit www.roadraise.com.au
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“If someone said after the Giro d’Italia I would finish fifth in the Vuelta a Espana I wouldn’t believe, if they said I would win two stages, I wouldn’t believe, that I would wear the red jersey for six days, I wouldn’t believe, I need to pinch myself for this.”
- Orica-GreenEDGE’s Colombian star Esteban Chaves after finishing fifth overall in the Vuelta on the weekend.
“The plan was to go hard and to go early at the bottom corner, which I did, and I was a bit surprised nobody came with me. After that I didn’t look back, it was the longest twelve kilometres of my life.”
- Victorian Kate Perry after winning Stage 2 of the Amy’s Otway Tour on the weekend.
“I was trying to focus on eating well, going to bed early and all the other stuff involved in the ‘regime’, all to try and be my best.”
- Jack Haig tells website Cyclingtips.com.au about his build up to the Tour de l’Avenir where he was second overall last month.
“Off the back of the Tour of Britain and with another month of training going into the Europeans, we want to get down as close as possible to 3:50 by the time we get to Rio.”
- Bradley Wiggins tells Cyclingnews.com about Great Britain’s plans for Rio.
TWEET, TWEET
2day we ride with a @Lotto_Soudal ball #13. Its @krisboeckmans lucky#,the 13th day of the month & my 13th GT in a row pic.twitter.com/InNNG1a9Rt
— Adam Hansen (@HansenAdam) September 13, 2015— Congratulations to Aussie Adam Hansen on his record-breaking 13th consecutive Grand Tour which finished on the weekend. How many can he do?
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #82, with Reece Homfray
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