Riders keep the faith ahead of Jayco Herald Sun Tour

AFTER a dispiriting and destructive year for the sport of cycling, Simon Gerrans has a point - and he is not alone in making it.

SIMON Gerrans has a point - and he is not alone in making it.

After the dispiriting and destructive year it has just been through, it is about time cycling was given some clear air in which to demonstrate why it is a sport with so much going for it - the other, less visible side of a coin that is, yes, badly tarnished, but not to the point where it has lost all its value. Nowhere near that.

That was pretty much the message from Gerrans, the Melbourne star - and yes, he is a star on the world stage these days - who featured on the cover of yesterday's 16-page preview to the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, which starts on Thursday.

He said a new generation of cyclists who had nothing to do with the Lance Armstrong era had been left to pick up the pieces and was determined to get the sport back on its feet.

He is right. Every other senior cyclist I have spoken to over the past six months - at the Tour de France, the Olympics and elsewhere - has said the same thing.

Caleb Ewan off to flying start

It is not, hopefully, naive to suggest that a very different mindset exists these days - they are all hurting - and Gerrans and his peers should be taken at good faith. Unless and until it emerges that nothing has really changed - a most unlikely contingency - the sport should be supported and not endlessly, mindlessly kicked while it is down.

This has just been acknowledged in a very high place indeed, lifting morale internationally.

British rider Bradley Wiggins has been knighted by the Queen in the New Year honours, mostly because he won the Tour de France.

Wiggins, whose father was an Australian cycling representative, won a lot of other things, too, including a fourth Olympic gold medal. But the French marathon is the event most central to the Armstrong saga and it is unthinkable that it would now be Sir Bradley if there was the slightest suspicion his historic triumph might turn out to be fraudulent.

Wells too quick for Hoskins

In effect, he has been appointed and annointed to lead the way forward, which he is happy to do.

Although he won the Jayco Herald Sun Tour three years ago, Wiggins is not in Australia right now, more's the pity.

Because this is where the road forward begins: today - the start of a new year literally and figuratively. Not on the cobbled roads and enormous mountains of France, Italy and Spain, but down by the beach in Geelong.

The 24th edition of the popular Bay Classic criterium will start there in the pleasant twilight sunshine, the 60th Herald Sun Tour takes the baton in Williamstown for four days, the national road championships follow in Ballarat next week and Australia's contribution to the world calendar, the Tour Down Under, starts in Adelaide the following week.

Kiwi Henderson feels right at home

Despite its problems, road cycling has become more and more popular in Australia in recent years, especially after Cadel Evans won Le Tour.

That's because it is tough, difficult, dangerous, colourful and tactically complex, which is what world-class riders such as Gerrans, Stuart O'Grady, Matthew Goss, Simon Clarke and others will be hoping to make the undiminished focus during four very important weeks for their sport.

In every sense, Happy New Year to them.

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Twitter: @Reedrw

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