An Aussie professional cycling team? Why bother?

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

With the hysteria surrounding the Cadel Evans yellow jersey the topic of an Australian Tour de France team has again resurfaced.

There has been talk that there might be one in play as early as 2010. The question I have is why bother? Why do we need an Australian registered team? What good does it do? When you think about the cycling landscape at the moment Australian riders are not battling to get a start in European teams. There are nine riders in this year's Tour and with a couple who are missing through injury we could have been fielding eleven or twelve. An Australian registered team would be useful if Aussie riders were not getting a crack at racing professionally or were needing a channel to Europe.

The potential sponsors are better off putting their money into the South Australian.com team (Australian Institute of Sport program) to help continue this surge of talent. And let's face it, you couldn't put a team together with the likes of Cadel Evans, Mick Rogers and Trent Lowe because of their career aspirations. Who would lead at the Tour? I'm sure Mick Rogers would not want to ride in support of Cadel and give up his chances of a victory. Likewise our potential GC riders like Lowe are better off in a team that will set them a pathway and not stifle their development. In saying that it might be weird watching Stuey O'Grady from CSC Saxo Bank chasing down a Cadel Evans lead!

Comments (4)

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written by Eric , July 17, 2008

I think it is the next progressive step on the evolution of aussie cycling.... go cadel!!

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written by phil (author) , July 17, 2008

You guys make great points ... coutta you paint a great picture!!

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written by beav , July 17, 2008

i think most are assuming an aussie team means a team of aussies..wouldn't need to be the case at all, and i doubt it would be.
was discovery channel a team of americans?

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written by coutta , July 17, 2008

Picture this. You are racing out the front of the tour trying to get your mate from highschool to the base of the Alp d'huez before anyone can attack. You look resplendant in your BHP Billiton jersey riding your custom made titanium Baum. You keep telling yourself that all you have to do is pull to the base of the climb where your russian team mate Vladimer will then try and control whats left of the bunch for as long as he can. I think your missing the point about an australian team. It's not about getting aussies racing in Europe It's about getting Aussie brands exposure into a bigger marketplace. How many Frenchmen now subscribe to Discovery channel, and ride treks? I think you need to forget about who would be the nine that ride in the tour and realise that it could have the potential to set up a development squad based here in Australia to train up locals who could then race in the big league. Just like everyother team does.

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