The Coffee Ride #47 with Reece Homfray
CADEL Evans is ruing the loss of the famous ‘Corkscrew’ from next year’s Tour Down Under route as he plots a way to avenge his one-second loss to Simon Gerrans.
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TURN THE ‘SCREW’ - CADEL HOPING FOR HARDER TDU
CADEL Evans is ruing the loss of the famous ‘Corkscrew’ from next year’s Tour Down Under route as he plots a way to avenge his one-second loss to Simon Gerrans.
Evans tamed the Corkscrew Rd climb in stunning fashion this year when he attacked Gerrans and Richie Porte on the way up, then descended like mad on the way down to win Stage 3.
His daring raid on the leader’s ochre jersey was one of the most memorable moments in the race’s 16-year history but it will not be repeated next January.
Race director Mike Turtur has put Corkscrew Rd in mothballs for a year and replaced it with a new uphill finish to Stage 3 on Torrens Hill Rd at Paracombe.
“The Corkscrew which is my favourite climb from 2014 won’t be in it and I just hope it will be replaced by something that is equally if not more challenging,” Evans said on the weekend.
“(Last year’s) race was made to suit the sprinters better, so to lose (by one second) after five days of racing was a bit disappointing but also Simon was riding very well and Orica build up really well for this.
“And sometimes you just have to accept that someone is better than you.”
The January 17-25 TDU will be Evans’ last WorldTour race after a glorious career netted him the 2009 world championship and 2011 Tour de France.
He will retire on February 1 after a farewell tour which also includes the national championships in Ballarat and the Great Ocean Road Race named in his honour which starts and finishes in Geelong.
The 37-year-old told The Advertiser he was barely having an off-season as he plans an all-out assault on three races within a month.
“I’m back into training flat out until the end of January,” Evans said.
“The build-up is still pretty similar but because I only do one month of the season in 2015 I don’t have to worry about over-doing it.
“I’d like to think I started (my career) off well so I’d like to finish my career like that as well.
“I’ll put in everything — I’ve got one more tour of competition to do for the rest of my life and of course I’ll give my best and do everything I can.”
Evans spent the weekend in Adelaide where he rode with BMC teammate Rohan Dennis on Saturday, and Snowtown in the Mid North where he led a local bunch ride for technology giant Siemens, which officially opened the state’s biggest wind farm on Sunday.
Asked about Dennis’ potential after the Adelaide 24-year-old joined BMC mid-season and helped it win the teams time trial at the world championships, Evans spoke glowingly.
“I’m looking forward to racing with him. We’ll have three (with Campbell Flakemore) at the nationals and have a bit of fun,” Evans said.
“He’s got a big talent and a big engine, and he was pretty unlucky with the weather for the time trial at the Vuelta (a Espana) this year.
“He was there to win it and unfortunately things went against him but he’s going to have plenty more chances yet and a world title is not something that will be forgotten quickly.”
Evans is an ambassador for Siemens, which helped deliver 90 turbines as part of the new $450 million wind farm at Snowtown, and is passionate about global sustainability and renewable energy.
He joined SA Premier Jay Weatherill in inspecting the site and was given an aerial view by helicopter.
“As Mr Weatherill said, this is leading the way and setting an example for other communities and other parts of our country,” Evans said.
“It’s something we have to be realistic about for the future and that’s why I’m here today and part of the Siemens company.
“We all hope for our future generations and we have to think in the long-term.”
TRACK CYCLING’S ‘GENERATION NEXT’
AUSTRALIA’S next generation of world class team pursuiters will be unleashed in Mexico this week when the nation sends a baby-faced squad to track cycling’s season opening world cup.
Teenagers Dan Fitter, Alex Porter and Sam Welsford - all current junior world champions - will make their senior world cup debut in a changing of the guard for Cycling Australia’s high performance program.
With mainstays of the team Alex Edmondson, Luke Davison and Jack Bobridge sitting out the meet in Guadalajara and the likes of Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn now long gone to the road, Glenn O’Shea, 25 and Miles Scotson, 20, will be the most experienced of the lot in Mexico.
In a sign of just how much the team has changed, O’Shea was the coach of the talent identification program that unearthed Porter in 2011 as a rider with potential.
And now they’re teammates taking on the world.
But Fitter, Porter and Welsford are far from merely ‘development’ riders after they combined with fellow young gun Tirian McManus to set a scorching 4mins 1sec to win gold at the Oceania Championships last month.
That was essentially Australia’s B-Grade team pursuit recording a time that was only two seconds slower than a Bradley Wiggins-led England in qualifying at this year’s Commonwealth Games.
The magical four-minute barrier is now the benchmark for Australia’s team pursuiters regardless of age or experience in the line-up.
“Now that they’ve done that 4:01 here at Oceanias the benchmark is four minutes and well under,” Australian coach Tim Decker said.
“This world cup will be good exposure for the younger guys coming through and they’re probably our next generation of great team pursuiters and I’m looking to them for the future.
“This is the beginning of the road for them and we might not see the fruits of this right now but hopefully we will in a couple of years’ time.”
Queenslander Fitter, South Australian Porter and Western Australian Welsford are all current junior world champions in the team pursuit after their triumph in Korea this year.
Porter got a last-minute call up for next week’s senior world cup as a replacement for Tirian McManus who was selected in the squad but crashed in a local race last weekend and fractured his wrist.
“They’re exciting prospects. Alex Porter is relatively new to the sport after coming in from the SASI talent ID program and has only been involved for two-and-a-half to three years,” Decker said.
“Dan Fitter is reasonably new to the track, coming from Queensland probably thinking he would be more a road time triallist and road rider, and this year Queensland got him on to the track and he came down and did a successful national championships and we’ve given him a pathway.
“And Sam Welsford has been involved in the track for a while now and is an exciting prospect not just for pursuiting but also the omnium. He tends to be quite crafty in his bunch racing so we’ll look at him for both options.”
O’Shea is the elder statesman of the group having been part of Australia’s silver-medal winning team pursuit at the 2012 London Olympics.
“If you look at some other countries they have the same four or five riders in team whole time (season) where as we probably have 10 guys putting their hand up,” O’Shea said.
“They make me feel pretty old though - Alex Porter came through the talent search program that I coached back in 2011.
“But they’re all good riders and keen to learn. I haven’t done a lot of riding with them but you’ve only got to look at times they’ve done to know they won’t have trouble handling themselves at a world cup.
“And in a few months’ time, some of them might be pushing for worlds selection.”
Australia’s women’s track endurance team is also showcasing new talent in Mexico with Elissa Wundersitz, 19, and Georgie Baker, 20, joining the more experienced Annette Edmondson and Rebecca Wiasak for the team pursuit.
“The aim is to ride a PB,” Australia’s women’s coach Gary Sutton said.
“The best this team has done is 4:30, and that was at altitude, so that’s the benchmark. We’re aiming for that or better.”
The world cup runs from November 7-9.
WILLUNGA HILL IN THE BIG CHAIN RING
PATRICK Jonker is supposed to be ‘retired’ but after his effort in Amy’s Ride on the weekend he clearly isn’t slowing down.
A gear malfunction at the start on Sunday meant Jonker had to ride the 125km from Adelaide to McLaren Vale in the big chain ring only.
And that meant climbing Willunga Hill in the big ring.
But even at the age of 45 Jonker showed he’s still got it, riding 9mins 49secs which was good enough for top 35 on Strava records.
Dutch pro Robert Gesink has the Strava record up Willunga Hill with 7mins 39secs, while Luke Roberts (7mins 55secs), Cam Bayly (8mins 08secs) and Jack Haig (8mins 15secs) are also on the leaderboard.
“My gear lever failed so I had to do all the climbs in the big chain ring which was a challenge,” Jonker said.
“If you tell a cyclist you’ve got to climb Willunga in a big chain ring, nine out of 10 might say it’s not possible but it’s quite surprising what you can do.
“I was trying to follow Rhys Gillett who was driving a ridiculous pace and went up half a minute quicker than me.
“It was a fun day and with 3000 participants you can see how cycling is growing and growing every year.”
THIEVES TARGET THE GONG
THIEVES targeted the finishing area of the MS Ride to the Gong just hours before 9000 cyclists made their way to Thomas Dalton Park in Wollongong on Sunday.
In the early hours of Sunday morning they stole food, soft drink and beer from marquees which was to be used to feed the riders who had pedalled 88km from Sydney to raise money to fight multiple sclerosis.
It was a double blow for organisers and volunteers who were kept busy on Saturday night erecting tents after a heavy storm swept through the area.
But it didn’t dampen the spirits of the thousands of riders including former cycling star and now national coach Bradley McGee, who is a ride ambassador.
Together they have helped raise $3 million and fundraising is ongoing for the rest of the month. To donate visit msgongride.org.au.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“It was like he hit a wheelie bin, not a human being. I looked up and the truck was not too far away. I know you shouldn’t move when you’ve had an accident but I didn’t know how far it would take to stop so I had to get up and scramble off the road.”
- Tasmanian junior world champion Macey Stewart after she was hit by a car while training last week.
“I knew after 30 minutes that I was going to succeed.”
- Austrian Matthias Brandle after breaking Jens Voigt’s hour-record last week.
“It’s something I’ve been targeting the last four years, trying to become a professional, and finally I’ve achieved that but it’s going to be a big step up next year doing the big tours in Europe.”
- Under-23 TT world champion Campbell Flakemore tells Tasmanian radio station 7HO about turning professional with BMC next year.
“When I finished my motorcycle career I still needed a competitive outlet and cycling seemed like a good fit because the harder you work the greater the reward.”
- Shannon Johnson speaks to the Sunshine Coast Daily after winning the Noosa Criterium on the weekend.
“For sure at times it was very tough and maybe I underestimated how big a step it was going to be but it was definitely tough and I had some moments where I was just struggling to cope with the racing.”
- Calvin Watson tells Cyclingnews.com of his first season on the WorldTour with Trek Factory Racing.
TWEET, TWEET
Great time in Nashville. Country music is really growing on me.
— Tejay van Garderen (@tejay_van) October 30, 2014- Not sure whether to take Tejay van Garderen seriously or not after that Tweet.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #47 with Reece Homfray
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