The Coffee Ride #35 with Reece Homfray
AUSSIE Jay McCarthy was kicking back on the beach in Barcelona enjoying a few days off last week when he spoke to News Limited about his Giro d’Italia debut.
AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
McCARTHY STEPS UP BIG TIME
AUSSIE Jay McCarthy was kicking back on the beach in Barcelona enjoying a few days off last week when he spoke to News Limited about his Grand Tour debut in the Giro d’Italia.
The 21-year-old Tinkoff-Saxo rider gives an intriguing insight into his third place on Stage 17, the emotion behind Michael Rogers’ two stage wins, what Oleg Tinkov is like behind the scenes, what’s next on his program and where his contract is at.
You can listen to some of the audio from the interview (excuse the background music from Barcelona) below and read the story here.
The aftermath of the Giro ...
“I was lucky during the race not to have any issues but as soon as it finished on Sunday, I’m not sure if it was my body telling me something, but I came down with a stomach bug.
“Your body shuts down a bit after, I was going to try to keep it going and get out on the bike then have a few easy days but I wasn’t quick enough by the sounds of it.”
Was set to race in Norway before a last minute Giro call up ...
“I had it in the back of my mind for about a month and I’d been to all the pre-Giro camps because I was first reserve.
“Of course I was pretty hungry to do it and I was happy to get the call up but it wasn’t a massive surprise.”
Third place on Stage 17 ...
“Before we started Bjarne (Riis) had us all gee’d up and it was a pretty hectic start because we weren’t the only team that thought the breakaway might stay away.
“Coming into the line I got pipped even for second place and it was a little bit disappointing but it was a great opportunity to get up the road in my first Grand Tour.”
Sense of belonging and Mick Rogers’ success ...
“I’ve always enjoyed being in the team but the Giro was the best team spirit I’ve ever had since
I’ve been a part of Tinkoff-Saxo.
“He’s (Rogers) gone through a lot and as you can imagine he was ecstatic.
“He’s done everything but never had a victory in a Grand Tour stage and to do two in I guess you can call it the ‘Mick 2.0’ after his unfortunate incident last year in the wrong place and the wrong time, he’s gone through a lot and it’s great to see him come out.
“I stay close with Mick during the season and he gives me a lot of advice so I was very excited when he was able to do that.”
Team owner Oleg Tinkov ...
“He’s a top guy and he has his opinion on Twitter and that’s fair enough, but as a person and as a mate you could say he’s a really good guy and cares about his team.
“He just really wants to get the best out of us but it’s great to have him come up after a stage and we might have been out there for six or seven hours busting our balls basically and all he wants to talk about is his 150km he did by himself.
“It’s a bit of fun and great to have a joke with him after a stage ... I think he got a lot of enjoyment out of the Giro and it was great for me as one of the young riders in the team to actually get to know him on more of a personal level.
“That’s the best thing about cycling, you get to meet a lot of different people and not just with a cycling background but those guys bring so much knowledge to the sport and he’s a very full on character but he’s perfect for cycling.”
What’s next ...
“I race again on June 19 in the Route du Sud in France and I’m a bit unsure if I do the Tour of Austria or Tour de Wallonie in July.
“For me it’s focusing on day by day and on to the next race.
“As for the contract, I am up this year and I’ve started talking with the team but nothing's been set yet. Hopefully I’ll let the legs do the talking.”
BRAD’S EPIC RIDE ENDS WITH TEARS FOR A MATE
THERE were two distinct moments for Brad Ellis as he rode from Adelaide to Perth when the symbolism and magnitude of what he was doing truly hit home.
The apprentice electrician’s 19-day and 2700km journey by bike to honour his best mate Mitch Gillam who died in Bali in 2010 came to an end last week when he arrived safely in Perth.
“At the very end of the ride I went back to the primary school where Mitch and I used to go together to do a bit of a speech and I just lost it,” Brad said.
“I was reflecting on going to school with Mitch and I was talking to all these kids and it all caught up with me.
“The ride itself wasn’t too bad, I was too buggered to be emotional, but being back at that primary school just got me.”
The earlier moment arrived during the ride when Brad came across a wedge tailed eagle on the roadside.
“There was this big eagle on the side of the road and as I got closer I realised its mate had been hit by car and had died.
“But no matter what went past — it wouldn’t move for anyone. Not me on my bike, a car or any road train, it just stayed there and I thought that was quite symbolic for what I was doing as well.”
Aboard a bike he bought on Gumtree, Brad averaged 150km a day to raise money for the Mitch Gillam Project which helps Balinese people in need in memory of Mitch.
“I had a heap of people coming up to me saying ‘what are you doing?’ and one guy even pulled up next to me and gave me $200 out of his pocket
“He didn’t know me from a bar of soap but he said it’s the Australian way to help others.”
Despite only riding seriously for the past 12 months, Brad said he handled the physical demands of the journey quite well.
“The legs pulled up well and physically it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he said.
“There were a lot of headwinds in the second week across the Nullabor but it never got to a point where I thought I wasn’t going to make it.”
TEAM PURSUIT BOYS HEAD TO THE US
AUSTRALIA’S men’s track endurance riders have gathered in the US for a pre-Commonwealth Games training camp.
While the track sprinters were in Adelaide for the team announcement yesterday, the team pursuiters were already three days into a training camp which is similar to what coach Tim Decker put them through before the world titles in March.
“We haven’t been there (US) much before and want to experiment being there in the lead up to Rio (2016),” Decker said.
“Preparations have been really good, all the guys have done a big roadblock of racing at a higher level than what we did last year.
“The biggest result was Luke Davison’s win in Omloop der Kempen.”
Decker admitted it was tough deciding on the final team for Glasgow in which some past and present world champions missed out including Mitch Mulhern and Alex Morgan.
The final men’s endurance squad heading to Glasgow is Jack Bobridge, Luke Davison, Miles Scotson, Alex Edmondson, Glenn O’Shea and Scott Sunderland.
“It’s difficult because we’ve built up a good establishment of numbers,” Decker said.
“We want to have good competition and we need to have the numbers to try to raise the bar.
“It can be unpleasant for the people who miss out but it can also make it a bit more challenging having more depth because you’re dealing with different facets of how they work together in a group.
“But I’d rather have more depth than the other way around.”
Although Great Britain is forced to split into separate nations for the Commonwealth Games, Decker said England would remain strong.
“They still have Ed Clancy, Steve Burke and Andy Tennant who went to the London Olympics in the team pursuit squad,” he said.
“New Zealand will be good across the board in the men’s endurance and men’s sprint.
But unlike the Olympics when the men’s endurance program is almost entirely based on the team pursuit alone, the Comm Games presents a challenge for Australia to contend for a range of events including the individual pursuit, points race and scratch race as well.
GLASGOW BOUND
CYCLING Australia yesterday named its team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in what promises to deliver another successful campaign.
Here are a few talking points from the team:
WHAT an overhaul for men’s sprinting. None of the three riders who won gold in the men’s team sprint in Delhi in 2010 are defending their crown with Jason Niblett (now a pilot rider for Keirin Modra), Scott Sunderland now in the endurance team and Dan Ellis narrowly missing out on selection.
It means Matthew Glaetzer, Nathan Hart and Peter Lewis will make their Games debut together along with the experienced Shane Perkins who was described by one teammate on Tuesday as “the veteran” of the team at the age of 27.
GUTSY call for Brad McGee to go with Caleb Ewan and Caleb Ewan alone as the lead sprinter on the road team. Yes, Mark Renshaw is there and can sprint as well but he does his best work as a lead-out. And yes, Simon Clarke and Nathan Haas are fast finishers, but if the 168km race comes down to a sprint it’s 19-year-old Ewan who will be in the box seat. The good news is that Ewan has more than proven he can handle big stage.
THE women’s road team is loaded with talent and it might well come down to who’s in the right place at the right time. Chloe Hosking won a sprint finish to a UCI race in The Netherlands in April and the course should suit her but everyone else in the team can certainly deliver if they get the chance.
SUDDENLY Tim Decker is loaded with options. When Mitch Mulhern (2014 world champion) and Alex Morgan (2013 world champion) are overlooked for selection, you know team pursuiting in Australia is beginning to establish some real depth. It’s great that Jack Bobridge is back but he’s expected to race the scratch and points races only. And kudos to Scott Sunderland who has transformed his body from world class sprinting to world class endurance riding.
Don’t forget you can catch our sprint team in action at the ITS Adelaide series — three UCI sanctioned race meetings at the Adelaide SuperDrome from June 18-22.
WORLD CUP AS BIG AS JUNIOR WORLD TITLE: BROSNAN
TWO-TIME junior mountain bike world champion Troy Brosnan has had a breakthrough result on the senior circuit by winning his first UCI World Cup in Scotland.
The Adelaide 20-year-old who rides for Specialized beat fellow Australian Sam Hill and Great Britain’s Danny Hart in the final at Fort William on the weekend.
“My run was really good, I just kept it smooth and hit all my lines, near the bottom I could hear everyone screaming so I just pedalled harder,” Brosnan said.
“To win a world cup really means a lot, I have been training really hard and to see it pay off is a big thing for me.
“(It) is right up there with winning my two junior world championships. The riders in elite men are all riding so fast and anyone in the top 20 could win.”
Brosnan’s season continues with another world cup in Austria this weekend.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“It’s very tempting. I came from Queensland, it would be very nice to go out in Queensland, but it’s a lot of commitment as well so my focus is these Games in Glasgow, ultimately Rio in 2016 and I’ll make the call after then.”
- Anna Meares responds to reporters’ questions about whether Gold Coast 2018 could be on the cards after Glasgow and Rio.
“I will be the one making the decision on who is in that team. I speak with our performance team, the riders can offer an opinion but they don’t select the team and they never will.”
- Dave Brailsford responds to tension between Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky’s line up for the Tour de France.
“I’m happy to do a Grand Tour, even finish one first, maybe target a time trial or a key stage; to be one of the key domestiques, to learn, to see what it’s like to be at the front at the pointy end, when it’s necessary, and then grow further. Then to think bigger.”
- Rohan Dennis tells SBS website Cycling Central of plans to develop his Grand Tour aspirations.
“Some people actually thought that I was a solo breakaway rider and cheered me on towards the final kilometres. That was fun.”
- Team Tinkoff-Saxo owner Oleg Tinkov on riding his bike like the pros during the Giro d’Italia which finished last week.
“We want to treat it as a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France. So I will definitely be going for as high a GC (general classification) position as possible, try to test my limits a little bit, and test out the team, making sure we are all working well together.”
- BMC’s new top dog Tejay van Garderen on the team’s approach to the Criterium du Dauphine en route to the Tour de France.
“In all honesty, after that first week I didn’t think I was going to make it.”
- Australian Nathan Haas tells Cyclingnews.com he feared he wouldn’t make it to the finish of the Giro d’Italia after two early crashes.
TWEET, TWEET
No joke! Latest sports science says that we have to cool our bodies with ice (cream)! I love science!!! http://t.co/pFKYt52zvB
— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) June 7, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: No joke! Latest sports science says that we have to cool our bodies with ice (cream)! I love science!!! http://t.co/pFKYt52zvB— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) June 7, 2014
— German sprinter Marcel Kittel finds an excuse to eat ice cream and lots of it.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #35 with Reece Homfray
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