Special News, September 17


About-face for Sydney Olympics road course

The machinations and deliberations surrounding the road race course for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games have taken yet another turn, with a high level delegation proposing that the races proceed in an anti-clockwise direction, making the course both harder and safer.

There has been no proposal to change the actual layout of the course as such, rather, the power-brokers of world cycling believe that a simple reversal of direction will create a more challenging course with the large bunch more likely to be split up. UCI president Hein Verbruggen was in Sydney this week, along with former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, and reviewed the course with officials from SOCOG (Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) and former Australian professional Stephen Hodge, interim chairman of the recently formed Cyclists Commission.

Ray Godkin, SOCOG's cycling competition manager, told cyclingnews the proposal will be submitted to SOCOG's sports commission, but he added that "we do think it (the change in direction) will happen".

"We've been talking about it for a year," he said, and the proposal with its high level of support "carries a fair bit of weight". Godkin expects the approval will be granted in the very near future. The proposed change in direction to anti-clockwise will mean that the descent into Bronte beach will follow MacPherson Street, which is a wide open thoroughfare that abruptly hits a very sharp left hand turn before a short drop into the picturesque beachside suburb.

The cyclists will then climb the much narrower and winding Bronte hill up to Charing Cross, and along the way "it will pass Frank Conceicao's shop", Godkin said in reference to the bike store along the route owned by a former Australian team mechanic. Indeed, many parts of the course are a popular training route for Sydney cyclists. Godkin said the change in direction also has the support of the NSW Police, who were concerned about the support traffic descending the narrow road down Bronte hill. The local council was still to approve a detour for these vehicles, so the change in direction means another bureaucratic hurdle is removed.

Perhaps more importantly, the proposed change in direction will mean the final kilometres through Centennial Park will be much tighter, while the approach to the finishing straight along Driver Avenue will be slightly uphill, and if a Sydney nor'easter is blowing (the prevailing wind on most afternoons), the riders will face a slight headwind.

This latest proposal comes after a major political storm blew up earlier this year, when a proposal to move the course to the suburb of Bankstown was roundly criticised by former professionals and the UCI. The reason for the move was claimed to be due to compensation wanted by Fox Studios, which occupies part of the land bordered by Driver Avenue.

It was claimed that Fox wanted compensation for the lack of access to its facilities during the Olympics, a claim denied by Kim Williams, chief executive of Fox. It later was revealed that the NSW State Government would have saved several million dollars by moving the course to Bankstown, as the city course required roundabouts (traffic islands) to be moved to improve safety. Subsequently, less than six weeks after the Bankstown proposal was announced, the course was back in the city.


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