Canberra cycling corner

The men’s elite road race at the Australian National Road National Championships starts today.  Several ACT riders are amongst the favourites to take out the event.  Michael Matthews (Rabobank) and Nathan Haas (Garmin-Cervelo) may well support each other to counter the strength of the GreenEDGE boys.  So I thought it would be a good idea to have a look at recent news involving riders from the ACT. 

1.                  Adam Phelan – Ambassador for wearing helmets?

Drapac Porsche’s Adam Phelan is known for his big attacks at the front of the peloton.  We saw this during last year’s Herald Sun Tour and also the Skoda Men’s Grand Prix Criterium series at Wollongong.  Porsche Boxster has a smaller engine then Phelan.  But a training accident after the Tour of Bright saw Phelan use skid lid as his brakes.  So no National Champs for Phelan while he fully recovers from the accident.  Surely the helmet sponsor for Drapac Porsche should be using Phelan as their new ambassador in their marketing campaign.  All the best in your recovery, Adam.  Can’t wait to see you back at the local crits in Canberra and then donning those Drapac colours around Europe and Asia.  Cycling needs more of those exciting attacks!!

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/cycling/injured-phelan-a-frustrated-spectator/2410530.aspx

2.                  Is Pat a dick?

Chloe Hosking made worldwide headlines when she called UCI president Pat McQuaid a ‘bit of a dick’ because of the president’s head in the sand comments that women did not deserve a minimum salary.  Rather than support her, Cycling Australia forced her to apologise to McQuaid.  She did, but the sentiment has not changed.  It will be a sad day if Cycling Australia takes any disciplinary action against Hosking for her outburst.  Giorgia Bronzini, Italy’s world champion has also been making similar noises.  May be Cycling Australia can take a leadership role in tackling the issue.

Do not let this one go Chloe.  The UCI needs to be more progressive in promoting women’s cycling.  Maybe, they should take a train across to Lausanne and see how UEFA promoting women’s football.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jan/02/australian-cyclist-badmouthing-president

3.                  Can GreenEDGE be stopped?

Canberra’s triple world TT champion, Michael Rogers will be leading Team Sky to unseat GreenEDGE bid to take out the national title. The GreenEDGE girls have the bragging rights at the moment.  Rogers will have the support of Sutton, Porte and Hayman.  But will it be enough? Breakfast will be interesting in Ballarat this morning.  I wonder if Team Sky, Garmin-Cervelo and Rabobank will be sharing a caffe latte to discuss just how to beat the GreenEDGE boys.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rogers-looking-to-upset-greenedge-assault-on-australian-championships

Aussie cycling fans sit down to watch top class cycling, but the screen is blank

The New Year ticked around and every aussie cycling fan was eager to see new World Tour team GreenEDGE in action for the very first.  We mowed the lawn early in the day, took the dog out for a walk and finished all the tasks around the house, so we could sit down and watch the Jayco Bay Cycling Classic and some of Australia’s hottest cycling talent.  But surprise, surprise, there was no live race coverage of the event.   Apparently, the TV rightsholder was going to pull together a highlights package of the race.  Europeans would be shocked that a classic event like this was not telecast somewhere on free to air telecast in this country.  

Cycling in Australia is currently in a growth phase, partly on the back of the historic win by Cadel Evans in the 2011 edition of the Tour De France.  In August 2011, the Australian Bicycle Council’s National Cycling Participation Survey revealed that in a typical week around 18% of Australians ride a bicycle for transport and recreation with around 3.6 million people riding for recreation, leisure or sport and 1.2 million people making at least one transport journey.  In 2010, it was also reported that Australian bought more bicycles than cars. 

Yet, these figures have not translated into greater TV coverage of Australian cycling events.  This would not happened if it was AFL, rugby league or rugby union.  

Cycling fans are treated as the sporting poor cousins compared to other sports fans.  We need to rush to the computer and get racing updates from twitter feeds or text messages from friends at the event.

Late last year, we were confronted with the news that Channel 9 bought the TV rights of the Tour Down Under, outbidding SBS.  Judging by comments on twitter and facebook, cycling fans were outraged by this decision, as everyone remembers what Channel 9 did to the coverage of the FIFA World Cup in 2002.  However, competition for sporting events brings innovation in sporting coverage.  But Channel 9 coverage in 2012 will offers nothing new for cycling fans.  According to its media release - ‘the Broadcast partnership will see the final weekend of the Santos Tour Down Under broadcast live on Channel Nine in 2012, with the remainder of the event shown in a dedicated highlights package each evening. These live stages will also be streamed live on the Wide World of Sport website’.  

Cycling fans are being ripped off again.  There is no added coverage of the TDU under the new Channel 9 contract.  It is just replicating which existed under the previous television partner.  It appears that the new television partner was brought in for financial reasons and to push SA tourism to the global market rather than get more cycling fans in front of the television set. 

But don’t get me started on SBS either.  I was sitting down watching Cycling Central yesterday.  It was publicising SBS coverage of the National Road Championships in Buninyong.  Maybe, I misunderstood, but it appears that SBS will only be covering the Men’s Road Race live, and only the last 2 hours.  No different to last year!!!!  I was hoping that SBS would step up to the plate and cover more races at the Nationals.  We will hear the same old excuses; it is expensive, difficult to schedule the coverage, blah blah blah.  Italian network RAI, did not have any issues with televising their national championships.  But then again, Europeans do have a cycling culture that is not in existence here.  Surely, SBS could use some of the funding freed up from missing out on the TDU rights to boost its coverage of the Nationals.  

The cycling summer season has well and truly started in Australia. Like previous years, cycling fans will again have to rely on alternative media for our cycling coverage as there is very little live cycling coverage on TV.  TV rightholders continue to bundle up highlights packages because they do not want to disrupt their normal crap summer programs.  God forbid, showing cycling live in Australia might actually get some additional TV viewers at a time when most Australians are at the beach.  But, we will never know!!!!