The Coffee Ride #83, with Reece Homfray
LEGENDARY cycling commentator Phil Liggett believes Richie Porte has made the right call to leave Team Sky to test himself as a leader with BMC next season.
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PORTE HAS MADE RIGHT CALL TO MOVE: LIGGETT
LEGENDARY cycling commentator Phil Liggett believes Richie Porte has made the right call to leave Team Sky to test himself as a leader with BMC next season.
Porte will miss this weekend’s UCI road world championships with a hamstring injury but his decision to leave Chris Froome at Sky and join BMC will be one of cycling’s biggest off-season transfers.
Liggett says it’s still unclear whether Porte can win a Grand Tour but he believes the Tasmanian has made a bold decision to find out.
“Sky run a very strict regime, everyone has a set place in the squad and I’m a bit surprised that Richie survived as long as he did with Sky because it’s such a regimented team in many ways and I think he’ll find a much more friendly and relaxed atmosphere at BMC,” Liggett told The Coffee Ride.
“And if he’s got it in him to win a big race like a Grand Tour then this is where he has to go to find out.
“He’s become a personal friend of Chris Froome and I would have thought they would have discussed this move together.
“I think logically Chris would have said ‘if you want to be one step higher than you are then you’ve got to change teams and find out’ and I think ambition and drive has probably taken the place of money (being offered).
“It would be quite hard for Richie because he was such a big help for Chris.
“And we saw with Mark Renshaw we thought he would win a lot of races if he left the side of Mark Cavendish and he couldn’t, he went back to Mark Cavendish, so who knows the wheel may continue in that direction for Richie but I think he’s got to find out and he’s done the right thing.”
Liggett says Porte’s arrival at BMC will make for interesting leadership selection alongside Tejay van Garderen next year.
“He still runs the risk of becoming No.2 to Tejay van Garderen - who himself has not yet proved himself in three weeks of a Grand Tour, he always cracks after the second rest day at the Tour de France,” he said.
“Between the two of them they might go and dominate you never know but we’ll wait and see.”
The Tour on Stage - Coming to Adelaide
Phil Liggett has covered 42 Tours de France and is teaming up with two of Australia’s top cyclists as well as much-loved German Jens Voigt to bring their insight into the sport Down Under.
Liggett and Voigt will be joined by Rohan Dennis and Simon Gerrans for ‘The Tour on Stage’ which will be held in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in November.
The four will discuss the world of professional cycling with the audience including a Q&A format and will share vision of some of the sport’s biggest moments.
“It will be a bit of razzamatazz, my view is to have the first half where we do the talking and after interval we’ll have crowd participation and get the best out of people like Jens Voigt,” Liggett said.
For dates and ticket prices visit lateralevents.com
ROWNEY RARING TO GO AT WORLDS
LOREN Rowney has been one of Australia’s best-performed female road cyclists for the past two years while maintaining a relatively low public profile.
The 26-year-old Queenslander is taking terrific form into the world championships after two victories in France in recent months.
It continues an impressive couple of years for Rowney, who has won stages of La Route de France, Trophee d’Or Feminin, and the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardeche.
“I started off well in the non-UCI races in Australia, like the Tour Down Under, which really set me up for the spring,” she said of her 2015 campaign.
“I felt the strongest I’ve ever felt in the spring and was on track for a big result before I crashed out in Holland and it’s taken me a while to get back to that same strength and confidence I had earlier in the year.
“(But) I’m just glad it’s all come together at the right time of year.”
With Tiffany Cromwell and Rachel Neylan headlining the women’s road team, Rowney expects to play a support role in Richmond.
“I’ve had brief chats about the race with the head coach Marv. My role I think will be of a worker’s role, covering the start, and middle of the race,” Rowney said.
“We’re sending a really strong all-rounded team and the course really suits our strengths. It’s a course that suits aggression and really you have to be in the right place at the right time - all the time as the last 5km is technical.”
Like Cromwell, Rowney has also had to find a new team for 2016 with news her current squad Velocio-SRAM would wind up at the end of this season.
Rowney is yet to reveal which team she’ll be riding for next year but it’s understood there is a chance her and Cromwell could find themselves together at Orica-AIS.
“I’m pretty much all sorted for the 2016 season - a move that I’m really excited about,” she said.
The women’s road race is on Saturday and the men’s road race is on Sunday in Richmond, Virginia, the US.
5 THINGS IN 5 MINUTES - BRETT AITKEN
MONDAY marked 15 years since Brett Aitken teamed with Scott McGrory to win gold in the madison at the Sydney Olympics.
On Saturday he was featured in SA Weekend’s ‘Headspace’ column in which he shares five of his favourite things at his Salisbury Heights home.
1. 2000 Olympic gold medal. It was one of those pinnacle moments and for me there will always be a before and after that gold medal with Scott McGrory in the madison in Sydney. Up to that point my whole life revolved around trying to win one shiny, little medal and it was the reward for a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I don’t look at it much but after Sydney I got a profile with all my medals and it replicates everything I’ve achieved on the bike.
2. Photo of daughter Ashli. We had this photo blown up after she passed away in 2009 and we proudly hang it on our wall. It resembles one of the happiest moments that we see in Ashli. Firstly it’s a stunning photo of her and highlights how gorgeous she was, but also shows her doing what she loved, which was swimming and being in the water.
3. Piece of velodrome. It’s actually part of the finish line of the Hamar track in Norway which was built for the 1993 world championships and torn down afterwards. That was the track where we won Australia’s first-ever world title in the team pursuit and in world record time. I rode with Stuart O’Grady, Billy-Joe Shearsby and Tim O’Shannessy. Two years ago when I was getting back into cycling and coaching Ray Godkin, who was president of the Australian Cycling Federation at the time (1993), walked up to me with a plastic bag and pulled out this piece of track.
4. A 120-year-old book. This book was given to me by an old friend who is no longer with us but he gave it to me as a bit of inspiration. It’s by Orison Swett Marden and was first published in 1895 so it’s 120 years old. It includes a lot of inspirational quotes, anecdotes, history and people who have dealt with adversity and overcome obstacles in their life. It’s the sort of book you can open to any page, start reading and get something out of.
5. Track bike. Yes, that’s the bike from Sydney 2000. The only thing that’s been changed is the saddle and the wheels. I’ve ridden it a couple of times since Sydney but never raced it - I wouldn’t ever race it again even if I could. It’s a bit of a Mack truck compared to what they ride these days, it would be around 9kg where as the legal weight now is 6.8kg. It shows the early history of the BT’s which Australia still rides to this day. We didn’t start riding carbon fibre bikes until 1994 and the shape gradually evolved over six years to what it was at that point.
NEW TEAM FOR SIMON CLARKE
STAND by for news on Australian cyclist Simon Clarke and his new team for 2016.
Clarke is poised to leave Orica-GreenEDGE at the end of this season and an announcement is expected any day.
The 29-year-old Victorian is in Richmond for Sunday’s UCI road world championships. In 2009 Clarke played a crucial role in helping Cadel Evans to victory in Switzerland and this weekend he’ll be hoping to do the same for either Michael Matthews or Simon Gerrans.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“Everybody was really impressive today, but Rohan Dennis absolutely carried us. He is kind of on another level.”
- BMC’s Taylor Phinney on Australian teammate Rohan Dennis as they won gold in the TTT at worlds on Sunday.
“There’s also a bit of sadness because this is the end of the team but we’ve ended on a good note and that’s great. We couldn’t have asked for a better ending to this team.”
- Kristy Scrymgeour on her team Velocio-SRAM winning its fourth straight women’s TTT world title before coming to an end this season.
“Back-to-back bronze medals, two years in a row, I’m pretty happy with that.”
- Anna-Leeza Hull from NSW after winning a bronze medal in the under-19 women’s time trial in Richmond.
“It’s definitely possible. I have the form to do it and I have the team to support me. I have to have a bit of luck on my side but hopefully the preparation and the dream comes together.”
- Michael Matthews tells website cyclingnews.com of his ambitions for the road world titles.
TWEET, TWEET
Bit groggy after surgery on my shoulder earlier. #hospitalbedselfie https://t.co/Tl2kg7owpg pic.twitter.com/UpsCyEJq4o
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) September 21, 2015
- Mark Cavendish out of this week’s world titles after shoulder surgery.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #83, with Reece Homfray
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