Australian Team for Grand Tours

[David Brown]

This years TdF has highlighted the opportunity that Australian cycling is wasting in not having an Australian team for the Grand Tours. Before the TdF, Simon Gerrans misses out because he is not Spanish, during the TdF Heinrich Hausler identifies that he has ridden under a German licence because Milram's aim is to support German riders, during the TdF Silence Lotto (is relieved?) to identify that next year they will have Belgian leader for a Belgian team. For the next TdF, the Poms will have a national based team (supported by the UK based American Rupert Murdoch) to give their up and coming crop of riders a solid base for success. Instead of being cannon fodder for other national teams they will ride for each other and make the most of their abilities. The USA recognised this years ago - does anyone think that Lance Armstrong would have won seven tours (or even one) if he was riding for Silence Lotto or some other non American team? Time to pull the finger out and fund the team.

 

[auscyclefan94]

iT would have to be a sprinters team. couldn't be for gc. it would be a vey powerful sprint team though with the likes of mcewan, brown, lancaster, davis, Haussler etc and guys like Rogers, Ogrady, Meyer, Bobridge etc. to chase down the breakaways.

 

[Martin318is]

Except of course that Rupert is actually an Australian that took on US citizenship...

 

[David Brown]

My point remains Australian riders wont get the opportunities that their skills and abilities deserve while playing support roles for European teams. I would think that over time O'Grady will feel disappointment that his Trojan like efforts were influential in defeating Evans in 2008, Gerrans will regret a missed year (you don't get a lot of chances), Whitey will feel his mentoring is being used to develop American riders and Bobridge will domestique for an up and coming European.
ps while Rupert was born in Aus, he is a USA citizen by choice and a UK resident by career. Bankrolling the UK team next year is a great financial decision using a great pool of exciting talent. He could have done the same for Australian cycling 10 years ago, the talent was there, the opportunities for success were there, but the financial return? Aus Cycling has to look for supporters and sponsors who have an interest in the Aus brand.

 

[unsheath]

Don't know why someone wouldn't approach Tourism Australia to back a team. Surely Ruddy can pull $10M out of his a*se!

The precedence is there. Malaysia with Carlton FC and Tassie for Hawthorn, and wasnt there a SA.com/AIS squad? Why not push it to an international audience?

 

[elapid]

I am not sure I agree. Gerrans and Davis not riding in the TdF were unfortunate, but someone has to miss out and that's just sports. I definitely do not think the likes of Stuey will regret one minute his decision to ride for CSC/SaxoBank. He is a hard rider and will ride hard for anyone. His reward was Paris-Roubaix. He was a legend in Australia before this, but will now always be a legend in anyone's circle because of this magnificent win. Haussler wants a classic win and, other than O'Grady, there is not a great team to build around him for this. O'Grady and McEwen are getting long in the tooth, and Cadel and Rogers are getting to be on the wrong side of their age peak for GTs. There are a lot of young potentials like Lloyd and Davis, but they need to learn the ropes from seasoned professionals and I do not think we have the depth to do this, especially considering that I very much doubt Stuey will move from SaxoBank. Look at how the Sky team is developing - the British riders are not flocking to them just because they put their banner up. I like the concept, but that's where I think it will remain for a while.

 

[martincov]

I reckon that, as the new Sky team is likely to be only 50% Brits, it's likely we'll need some Aussies to help. Stuey for his experience? Cadel to help Wiggo in the mountains??

 

[yourwelcome]

I'm Australian but to be honest, I wouldn't really like to see an Aussie team.

I really like the way cycling teams are relatively* broad churches in terms of nationality. It takes the edge off the flagwaving nationallst 'us vs. them' stuff we see enough of already. I quite like seeing the Australians distributed throughout the peloton, even if CE is having a bad day, Renshaw wasn't, etc. Anyway, the worlds is the appropriate place for an Aussie team already.

Plus imagine how ugly the green and yellow team kit would no doubt turn out to be, unless we were save by a sponsor like Telstra who could do something Rabobank like with orange and blue. I'll add a ;-) so you know I'm kidding here.

* yes I know, only relative to full scale national teams, but still.

 

[yourwelcome]

Don't know why someone wouldn't approach Tourism Australia to back a team. Surely Ruddy can pull $10M out of his a*se!

The precedence is there. Malaysia with Carlton FC and Tassie for Hawthorn, and wasnt there a SA.com/AIS squad? Why not push it to an international audience?

Because the tabloids and talk back radio guys would have a field day complaining bitterly about taxpayer money going to an effete sport for the much-maligned 'elites'?