Former Scottish flag-bearer revealed as secret weapon behind Aussie cycling success
A FORMER Scottish flag-bearer who raced with Sir Chris Hoy and Team GB at the Olympics has been revealed as one of the key architects behind Australia’s track sprint dominance in Brisbane this week.
A FORMER Scottish flag-bearer who raced with Sir Chris Hoy and Team GB at the Olympics has been revealed as one of the key architects behind Australia’s track sprint dominance in Brisbane this week.
Ross Edgar, who won medals at Olympic, Commonwealth and world championship level, joined Cycling Australia in September as one of new high performance boss Simon Jones’ first appointments.
Jones was also recruited from the British system which has dominated cycling at the past three Olympics.
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Edgar works side-by-side with sprint coach Nick Flyger and brings the tactical nous from a long racing career to his job with Australia’s top sprinters including Stephanie Morton and Matthew Glaetzer who won sprint and keirin gold on Friday night.
He also made the trip to The Netherlands with Glaetzer in March when the Aussie became the first since Sean Eadie in 2002 to win the individual sprint world championship.
A pedal slip in men’s team sprint qualifying has been the only blight on an otherwise flawless Games for the sprinters so far with Morton and Kaarle McCulloch also winning the women’s team sprint in national record time.
Edgar carried the Scottish flag in the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony but said he had been able to shelve national pride to help Australia topple the Scots in this week’s Games.
“The Commonwealth Games is the one time in four years where it (patriotism) really comes out and it will always have a dear place in the heart but I’m so happy to be over here,” Edgar said.
The 35-year-old said his perception of Australia as a rival cyclist was of a nation with strong team unity and that had not changed since he became a part of it.
“They’ve obviously got different ways of doing things and one of the biggest observations is they are doing everything they can (to get better) and almost over the top, even trying a bit too hard,” he said.
“But these guys are absolutely phenomenal to work with, they make my job too easy.
“This has been a long time in the making, they’ve been at this for a while working with Nick and are in incredible shape, so for my part I’ve tried to bring that relaxed attitude and focus on the things that are important on race day.
“It’s the athletes’ insight of how they see things that I can bring from experience.
“And I knew from the start when I arrived that they were just primed, Matty (Glaetzer) has always been so close at the world level and he was primed for that turnaround.
“So in many ways I’ve just come in at the right time.”
Originally published as Former Scottish flag-bearer revealed as secret weapon behind Aussie cycling success
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