|
1999 Race ReviewBy Jeffrey Jones |
|
To begin with, this year's race was one of the fastest on record, with the winner of the event Slovenian Gorazd Stangelj, averaging 42.49 km/h for 1007 kms. This is fairly quick considering some of the terrain but reflects the fact that the race is made up of very short stages. Stangelj did not take over the yellow jersey until after stage 7 (Bateau Bay to Gosford via Bumble Hill). However, he laid the foundations for it during the second stage, when he finished third in the four man break that gained over a minute on the bunch. The other members of that break - Jeremy Hunt (UK, Sportscover), Piotr Wadecki (Pol, MROZ), and Bart Hickson (Aus, Caravello) all lost time on the subsequent stages and only Hickson maintained a position in the top ten (6th at the end). Eventual second place getter, Raimondas Rumsas (Lit, MROZ) must have cursed his luck when his "non-climbing" teammate Wadecki made the stage 2 cut, although it is easy to say this with hindsight. Both MROZ and the Slovenians made it clear from the outset that they were riding very hard for the overall win. They did not care which one of their teammates was in yellow, as long as one of them was. Both teams' depth meant that they had 3 potential winners out of 5 riders so they could place a man in just about every break. This was in contrast to the Australian (or Australian headed) teams, who were generally riding for one person only. Jonathon Hall (Festina), Scott Sunderland (QANTAS) and to a lesser extent, Bart Hickson (Caravello) were their team's top riders - if they missed the break or had a bad day, then that was it. Also, it meant they were often isolated in the harder stages. An exception to this were the Casino Canberra team, who had great depth but not quite the individual star to take control of the race. As they are a fairly young team, this was expected. This separation of Australian talent has occurred since the "disbandment" of the official AIS team two years ago. The AIS always used to put their best squad in for the race, but now it's more a case of splitting various riders amongst different teams. The 1996 race, won by Nick Gates, was beautiful to watch from an Australian perspective. Heiko Salzwedel's extremely well drilled outfit (Nick Gates, Matt White, Jay Sweet, Rod McGee, and Paul Brosnan) were able to dish out the type of punishment they had so long received from the other foreign teams. They dominated the criteriums and finally managed to crack their German rivals on the the third last stage, to hand Nick Gates the win. This earned them a great deal of respect from the Europeans, and they were set for a bright future as a professional team. However, lack of support from the ACF and sponsors, combined with Salzwedel's sacking led to the team's collapse, much to the disappointment of Australian cycling fans.
In terms of rider potential, Casino Canberra's Michael Rogers and Cameron Jennings clearly stood out. Rogers for his try at the KOM jersey and valiant attempts to win a stage on the final day, and Jennings for his long break (with Tom Brook) on stage 6 and his overall result of 11th. It should be noted that Cameron's brother, Warren finished 3rd in last year's Classic after some excellent riding in the hills. The two are currently pursuing university studies but are certainly well equipped with the talent to take things further. As to my personal experience, it was the first time I had worked as a cycling journalist in the full sense of the word i.e. watching the race from the media bus (giving plenty of hindsight!), taking photos and writing reports after each stage. Not as straightforward a task as I'd imagined, but manageable providing all the equipment worked... Combined with the rest of the "normal" cyclingnews stuff, it quickly became apparent that sleep was highly overrated. To see the race from the "other side" was an interesting experience - you'd be surprised how harsh journalists can be when there's a) not much action and b) they've got hangovers (the journos, not the riders). It was a little like giving the thumbs up or down to slaves in Roman times. As a bike rider, I tried to be a little sympathetic.
Speaking of the future, what are some of the options for this race? The aim is to increase its stature on the UCI calendar and make it more popular, while still being an event for developing Australian riders to show off their potential. Its format now is fairly uncommon compared to other international stage races: short morning road stages (~100 km) combined with short afternoon/evening criteriums (30-35 kms) on most days. Normally, stage races only have one long stage per day. This format works fairly well in Australia where cycling is a much less popular sport than it is in Europe. Having short, fast circuit races in the evening is one of the best ways of attracting crowds to the event, even though such races don't greatly influence the overall race standings. The large time bonuses (20 seconds) for stage wins can offset this, but as Max van Heeswijk said, "it's a cheap way of winning". To keep the crowds entertained, one option is to have the riders do several laps of a finishing circuit at the end of a longer afternoon road stage (150-200 km). This would keep the race's integrity while still allowing people to view the riders more than once during the stage. Some of the criteriums should be kept of course, especially Coogee and Terrigal which have fantastic crowds and atmospheres. This combined with the addition of more climbs and a longer time trial, may help to give the Classic a higher rating on the UCI calendar. It is currently 2.4, but certainly has the potential for an upgrade to 2.3 or 2.2 in the near future. This would, in turn attract stronger international teams who are interested in points at the end of the season (and an Australian holiday!) and more crowds to boot. However, Australian interest in the race is also fuelled by Australian success in it. A dichotomy arises when you introduce the top teams who can crush the less experienced, albeit highly talented opposition. Many Australians in this race do not get much exposure to international racing, and it tends to show in the results. The last Australian to win this event, Nick Gates, was part of the Giant-AIS team who had been racing in Europe for most of the season. Again, it is time to reformulate the concept of a top Australian professional team. The race shouldn't become exclusive of course - a balance between Australian riders with potential, the more experienced Australian professionals and a strong European contingent should be maintained. Many of Australia's current top flight professionals have had their start in this race, as have many European riders. For example, and there are many others: in 1993 the winner was a certain Jan Ullrich, while Robbie McEwen took out the sprint king. I am sure the event will continue to grow as it has over the past few years to become a big event on the UCI calendar. I would certainly look forward to covering it again for cyclingnews to help the race reach a worldwide audience. My only small request would be for a media bus with brakes.
|
