Another Cycling Australia Coincidence??

[Red Ace]

Anyone surprised by the announcement that suddenly foreign riders are now not allowed to ride the Aussie Nationals the year that GreenEdge forms.

It is important for a Pro Tour/World Tour team to win their Home National Jersey (and this focus adds prestige, and is healthy for the sport). Yet the steer numbers of Australian Pros in GreenEdge will see them strangle the race to death to get someone like Gossy or Gerro etc in the jersey for 2012.

Sure we will have a worthy Champion, but the coincidence that suddenly Aussie Pros from other teams outside GreenEdge cannot bring out a team mate to assist them in the championship in 2012 after Aussie Nationals being an "Open Title" for so long is dodgy; and again suggests Cycling Australia strong ties to GreenEdge.

I am not debating the decision, more the timing - for selections and management Issues Cycling Australia need to establish some independence from GreenEdge.

 

[patterson_hood]

Same thing happens with Sky and I'd assume Katusha, Astana and any other country where only one team exists/is dominant at that level. I don't think there is much you can do about it and certainly I agree that it should only be Aussies who race it. The faxct is the best Aussies will probably be snapped up by Green Edge, same way the best Brits are taken by Sky (Cav pending) so its likely that the winner will be the best rider. That said it'd be nice if they varied the course a bit.

 

[hatcher]

What was the reason for it being open in the first place?

Probably GE influence, but it seems Australia has more than enough quality riders to make it a decent race.

 

[patterson_hood]

What was the reason for it being open in the first place?

Probably GE influence, but it seems Australia has more than enough quality riders to make it a decent race.

I think it was the lack of Aussies road pros and the need to try and make the event more high profile. I think Cadel winning the tour would have been a big influence as well, Aussies like winners and I can see a lot more getting into cycling because of it.

 

[BigChain]

The Aussie pros have been calling for the event to be closed to internationals for a long time - just like many National races overseas. Robbie McEwen and a few others have been very vocal about it and fair enough too. The main two arguments are that (1) it is the National Championships, so internationals should not race it - a pretty straight forward argument and (2) it is argued that many internationals end up riding in support of their Aussie team mates which is not really fair to all cyclists. I doubt it has anything to do with GE, more the fact that there has been lots of lobbying previously to ensure it reamins just for Aussie Nationals.

 

[WillemS]

At the end, I think nationals should be national. Not open. It might be a strange coincidence to do this now, but at the other hand, GE signals that Australian cycling might be mature enough for an all-Australian nationals.

Other countries have nationals dominated by one or a few teams as well, although that does not always lead to a title for the dominating team (Rabobank missed out on the Dutch jersey the last two years, being defeated by a lonely rider from Milram two year ago (Terpstra)).

 

[Ferminal]

Garmin have done it for the past two years, so at least it will be an Australian team this time around.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I think Ben Swift rode the Aus nats this year if my memory serves me correctly. Same with Grabsch.

 

[Tuarts]

Koen de Kort, the Dutchman from Drapac and Swift were the ones who rode it. Possibly the Malaysian too. Doesn't matter, this is a conspiracy its the Aussie Nats streamlining into the same as the other Nations. USA changed theirs last year or the year before. There is no conspiracy, those that say so are either delusional or fishing.

 

[42x16ss]

At the end, I think nationals should be national. Not open. It might be a strange coincidence to do this now, but at the other hand, GE signals that Australian cycling might be mature enough for an all-Australian nationals.

Other countries have nationals dominated by one or a few teams as well, although that does not always lead to a title for the dominating team (Rabobank missed out on the Dutch jersey the last two years, being defeated by a lonely rider from Milram two year ago (Terpstra)).

Something similar happened a couple of years ago when Peter McDonald (Drapac) beat Adam Hansen and Michael Rogers (both Columbia) in the sprint to take the title.

Hansen and Rogers didn't help themselves by mixing up their sprint though

 

[movingtarget]

Not every decision is the result of a conspiracy. More than anything this decision acknowledges the depth of Australian cycling. Why shouldn't younger Australian guys be allowed to race instead of foreign riders ? It's a team based sport so I don't see a problem. It's nothing new.

 

[LukeSchmid]

I highly doubt it was the emergence of GE that lead to the change but even if it did it certainly a case of the right decision being made even if it was the wrong reason. However GE might get beaten, Haussler is one who could win.

 

[the_kman]

I highly doubt it was the emergence of GE that lead to the change but even if it did it certainly a case of the right decision being made even if it was the wrong reason. However GE might get beaten, Haussler is one who could win.

internationals should never have been allowed to race. it shouldnt be about teams foreign or domestic. it should be the best aussie wins.

also: HAUSSLEERRRR!!!!
def wanna see him win!

 

[ansimi]

Is Haussler the only Aussie left at Garmin next year? Did he ever participate in the Australian nats back when he was officially foreign?

Having big national teams definitely puts other riders at a big disadvantage at nationals but hey, road racing is a completely unfair sport and that's part of the fun

I hope Greenedge does a nice job on their champions' jerseys. They'll have the Canadian one that Tuft's Spidertech teammates gifted to him after beating up on other strong Canadians like Rollin, Meier, and Veilleux who didn't have any teammates I hope they don't try to add a green edge to his red and white kit.

 

[luckyboy]

Won't there be less riders there than in recent years seeing as GreenEdge have around 15 Australian riders? There's a no. of riders per team limit right?

 

[ansimi]

Won't there be less riders there than in recent years seeing as GreenEdge have around 15 Australian riders? There's a no. of riders per team limit right?

Don't know about Australia/GreenEdge but Katusha, Spidertech, and Movistar had huge teams at their nats - more than 15. I don't think there was any limit on Sky at Brits either.

 

[Martin318is]

Its technically not a 'teams' race I think so greenedge can send as many riders in the same kit as they like. Up against them will be around 10 strong local teams of various sizes and a number of smaller teams and solo riders. Part of the reason for closing the field is that for the last few years there have been enough Aus riders to make it a hard race and as some have pointed out, there has been a lot of opposition to non-Australians riding.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It's the right move but it was the right move last year and the year before and the year before and it didn't happen. The only thing that has changed is that there's now a "superteam" with extremely strong links to Australian cycling officialdom. It would greatly surprise me if the timing wasn't influenced by a desire to have the national champion on the Green Edge team.

The Irish national championships work as a race because the four strongest riders have no team and then you have two Conti teams who send actual teams, which has the effect of balancing things out and making things exciting. But this is basically a fluke. National championships with one overwhelmingly dominant team are a complete waste of everyone's time 9 years out of 10. The main effect of banning international support riders in the year when there will first be one overwhelmingly strong team will be tedium for everyone.

 

[greenedge]

It's just the fact our system was outdated. It shall be better now.

 

[Red Ace]

Not every decision is the result of a conspiracy. More than anything this decision acknowledges the depth of Australian cycling. Why shouldn't younger Australian guys be allowed to race instead of foreign riders ? It's a team based sport so I don't see a problem. It's nothing new.

There are some strange comments in this thread. The foreign riders are not taking young Australian riders spots, anyone can enter the Nationals. This is about one team racing a heap of individuals.

As I said before it is not the decision, it is the timing of this decision. This “Open Title” situation has been around for many years, however it gets changed this year, when finally there is real reason to have the foreign riders and make a real race for the jersey.

So you understand the reason why GE is favoured by the decision – They will have more than a dozen pros riding as a team, allowing them to team up on the other “non GE” Australian Pros who will be pretty much racing “one-out”. For example lets imagine Cadel is interested (he is somewhat suited to the course) but as a BMC rider wouldn’t have a chance now as GE would tow a sprinter back up to him all day, while someone like Haussler will have a GE train sitting on him taking turns to counter attack. Clearly for these riders to make a race of it they need a team mate.

Yes as I said before we will have a worthy champion, I reckon that it will be great to have Gossy in the jersey, but surely you all realise that the winner will now be decided in the GE team meeting before the race.

Think about it!! There is a young super talented non GE rider who was a very big chance at next year’s nationals with just a little bit of support; but he will have no chance now unless he buys some help!!

 

[Andy99]

If anything it's actually strage that it ever was an 'open' event.

I suppose the majority of other nationals are held on the same day in June, so it may have simply been that the opportunity was there to sell the race to foreign pro's that may have been wintering in Aus.

I think nationals shouldn't be 'open' events anyhow.

 

[Night Rider]

Won't there be less riders there than in recent years seeing as GreenEdge have around 15 Australian riders? There's a no. of riders per team limit right?

No limit. Potentially you will see every Australian GreenEdge rider line up at Ballarat. And I would imagine they will be under orders to all turn up.

Sure is a coincidence the rules get changed now.

I will stop short of saying it's a conspiracy though, if it was a conspiracy the course would have been changed to 200km dash down the Freeway lol

Let's hope Haussler or Lloyd turn up on form.

 

[daveinzambia]

Not sure it is going to have that much impact. From memory Ben Swift and Koen de kort where the only non aussies in last years race and just really using it as a warm up to TDU.

no matter who is dominant team and the resulting impact on excitement I personally do not believe in having non national riders in national championships. very good decision.

 

[El Pistolero]

No limit, at the Belgian nationals you always have two huge blocks that dominate the race. OPL had more than 15 guys in the race as did QS. It's been since 2006 since some other team won the Belgian nats.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Hopefully the strong riders without a team will team up for the race. Otherwise, the Australian championships will be pointless for a while to come.