The last thirty years has seen a massive growth in the sport of road cycling in Australia.
Australians have always gone over to Europe and tried their luck in this tough discipline and while there was always a fair degree of success in track racing, road wins were few and far between. Until 1981.
Phil Anderson became the first Australian to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. In fact he was the first man from outside of Europe to wear it and he, and I daresay the Tour organisers of the time, probably never realised that this was the first step in the globalisation of the race and set it on a course from which it has never looked back. The race has only gotten bigger and is now not just an icon of European sport as it has been since 1903, but an international phenomenon with millions watching from around the world, many late into the night as satellites beam it to all corners of the planet.
While road racing in Australia has always been plentiful, track racing was where Aussies made their name and the string of champions from that side of the sport became the gods and legends of cycling downunder.
Post World War 2, track cycling was a popular sport and many great European champions were brought out to face the locals in the heat of summer on the city board tracks and the country bitumen ovals where the likes of Mockridge, Patterson etc would put them to the sword and burn into the minds of Aussie cycling fans the idea that our track cycling scene was the best in the world.
I was told many times that if you could do a turn at the front during the warm up at Carnegie track where our great four time world champion Sid Patterson was based then you had the makings of a good bike rider such was the depth and talent of those who trained and raced out of there.
Even back in the mid 1980’s when I first started racing bikes the track scene was still relatively strong even if the glory days of the 1950’s were just a memory and those racing bikes in the cash ranks were professionals in name only.
The Melbourne to Warnambool road race was the one to win during the winter but it was the Austral Wheelrace, or Latrobe or Burnie or any number of other two mile wheelraces on the track where many of us dreamed of victory.
Only a few thought about trying their luck in the hotbed of Europe and those who did usually rode the track scene with varying degrees of success although there were always a few trying their hand on the road.
It was Phil Anderson and his success that really opened the door and Australian cyclists flooded into European trade teams on the back of his fame, some with much success, others coming home with cap in hand, condemned to normal Australian working life having failed to acclimatise to the rigours of the world’s toughest professional sport.
Of course Australia began to have success at The tour de France and other major races. More Aussies lead the Tour and won stages and other iconic events were claimed by men from downunder, even a world road title and of course,finally, the culmination of all Australian effort over the last thirty years, a Tour de France victory for Cadel Evans who should rightly be able to claim his place as the greatest Australian name in the history of the sport.
But there has been a flip side.
Track cycling, as far as I’m concerned, the most spectator friendly component of the game is dying a slow, painful, gruesome death which no one in the admistration or promotional side of the sport seem prepared to do anything about. And it’s a tragedy.
There are many reasons for the decline of track racing. Phil Anderson’s success began the slow process of turning our eyes fron the local scene towards European riches and the first step in the sidelining of our own great events.
Criterium racing, which consists of racing multiple laps around short road circuits made it possible to ride and race all year round without having to specialise during the track season.
Summer road racing was introduced and the old professional ranks where cycle racing was promoted for the benefit of cyclists was combined with the amateur body where only the elite of the sport matter and the Olympics are king.
As a result of all these combined forces the powers to be took their eye off the ball and track racing has lost popularity to a point where it really is specialized and the glory days of velodrome racing live only in the tattered yellow pages of old cycling magazines.
The Austral of course still exists. It is the oldest cycling race in the world but is only a footnote for the followers of the sport now, most of whom only have their eye on the next big road event.
The desperate state the track scene has fallen into has just been driven home to me today as I checked the entries for the annual Wangaratta Wheelrace carnival.
This event was one of the most prestigious and coveted races in Australian cycling and many of the greatest champions have won it and many great champions haven’t been able to which only reinforces how hard it was to win.
Alas the entry for this years edition has fallen to a paltry 36 riders. Tragic.
And to rub salt into the wound the governing body of the sport has sanctioned the Australian Track Cycling Championships to be run at the same time ensuring anyone of class and value who may have felt like venturing to Wangaratta will be trying their luck elswhere. So much for protecting traditional events!
Australian cycling has got a lot going for it at the moment. A big international name winning the sport’s biggest event with plenty of local coverage as a result, a terrific little stage race in South Australia which deserves all the attention it gets and seemingly plenty of cyclists.
But the downside is the death of many races that have been highlights in the local cycling calendar and the unwillingness of Cyling Australia to protect the domestic cycling scene and help these races perhaps return to their former glory.
There is space for a great domestic scene and we should be encouraging cyclists to race the track and be aware of the heritage of that side of our sport where so many of our greatest champions have resided.
It makes me want to quit my job and become a promoter, if only I had the ability.
So this weekend I will be off to Wangaratta to witness what will probably be the last rites of a once great sporting carnival and be a party to the dying of the light, the death of domestic Australian track racing.
Australians have always gone over to Europe and tried their luck in this tough discipline and while there was always a fair degree of success in track racing, road wins were few and far between. Until 1981.
Phil Anderson became the first Australian to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. In fact he was the first man from outside of Europe to wear it and he, and I daresay the Tour organisers of the time, probably never realised that this was the first step in the globalisation of the race and set it on a course from which it has never looked back. The race has only gotten bigger and is now not just an icon of European sport as it has been since 1903, but an international phenomenon with millions watching from around the world, many late into the night as satellites beam it to all corners of the planet.
While road racing in Australia has always been plentiful, track racing was where Aussies made their name and the string of champions from that side of the sport became the gods and legends of cycling downunder.
Post World War 2, track cycling was a popular sport and many great European champions were brought out to face the locals in the heat of summer on the city board tracks and the country bitumen ovals where the likes of Mockridge, Patterson etc would put them to the sword and burn into the minds of Aussie cycling fans the idea that our track cycling scene was the best in the world.
I was told many times that if you could do a turn at the front during the warm up at Carnegie track where our great four time world champion Sid Patterson was based then you had the makings of a good bike rider such was the depth and talent of those who trained and raced out of there.
Even back in the mid 1980’s when I first started racing bikes the track scene was still relatively strong even if the glory days of the 1950’s were just a memory and those racing bikes in the cash ranks were professionals in name only.
The Melbourne to Warnambool road race was the one to win during the winter but it was the Austral Wheelrace, or Latrobe or Burnie or any number of other two mile wheelraces on the track where many of us dreamed of victory.
Only a few thought about trying their luck in the hotbed of Europe and those who did usually rode the track scene with varying degrees of success although there were always a few trying their hand on the road.
It was Phil Anderson and his success that really opened the door and Australian cyclists flooded into European trade teams on the back of his fame, some with much success, others coming home with cap in hand, condemned to normal Australian working life having failed to acclimatise to the rigours of the world’s toughest professional sport.
Of course Australia began to have success at The tour de France and other major races. More Aussies lead the Tour and won stages and other iconic events were claimed by men from downunder, even a world road title and of course,finally, the culmination of all Australian effort over the last thirty years, a Tour de France victory for Cadel Evans who should rightly be able to claim his place as the greatest Australian name in the history of the sport.
But there has been a flip side.
Track cycling, as far as I’m concerned, the most spectator friendly component of the game is dying a slow, painful, gruesome death which no one in the admistration or promotional side of the sport seem prepared to do anything about. And it’s a tragedy.
There are many reasons for the decline of track racing. Phil Anderson’s success began the slow process of turning our eyes fron the local scene towards European riches and the first step in the sidelining of our own great events.
Criterium racing, which consists of racing multiple laps around short road circuits made it possible to ride and race all year round without having to specialise during the track season.
Summer road racing was introduced and the old professional ranks where cycle racing was promoted for the benefit of cyclists was combined with the amateur body where only the elite of the sport matter and the Olympics are king.
As a result of all these combined forces the powers to be took their eye off the ball and track racing has lost popularity to a point where it really is specialized and the glory days of velodrome racing live only in the tattered yellow pages of old cycling magazines.
The Austral of course still exists. It is the oldest cycling race in the world but is only a footnote for the followers of the sport now, most of whom only have their eye on the next big road event.
The desperate state the track scene has fallen into has just been driven home to me today as I checked the entries for the annual Wangaratta Wheelrace carnival.
This event was one of the most prestigious and coveted races in Australian cycling and many of the greatest champions have won it and many great champions haven’t been able to which only reinforces how hard it was to win.
Alas the entry for this years edition has fallen to a paltry 36 riders. Tragic.
And to rub salt into the wound the governing body of the sport has sanctioned the Australian Track Cycling Championships to be run at the same time ensuring anyone of class and value who may have felt like venturing to Wangaratta will be trying their luck elswhere. So much for protecting traditional events!
Australian cycling has got a lot going for it at the moment. A big international name winning the sport’s biggest event with plenty of local coverage as a result, a terrific little stage race in South Australia which deserves all the attention it gets and seemingly plenty of cyclists.
But the downside is the death of many races that have been highlights in the local cycling calendar and the unwillingness of Cyling Australia to protect the domestic cycling scene and help these races perhaps return to their former glory.
There is space for a great domestic scene and we should be encouraging cyclists to race the track and be aware of the heritage of that side of our sport where so many of our greatest champions have resided.
It makes me want to quit my job and become a promoter, if only I had the ability.
So this weekend I will be off to Wangaratta to witness what will probably be the last rites of a once great sporting carnival and be a party to the dying of the light, the death of domestic Australian track racing.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 