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Enlarge textWith the race calendar packed and big changes to the National Championships schedule, Mike Tomalaris wonders if the event is being relegated to second class status.
The men's road race at the Australian Open Championships in Buninyong (AAP)
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The Australian cycling calendar in January has become so congested, I'm
starting to wonder whether Cycling Australia is providing a disservice
to national road championships at the expense of the demands of the Tour
Down Under.
In 2011 the Aussie road season looks like this:
The
Bay Cycling Classic (January 2-5) is immediately followed by the
Australian Open Road Championships (January 6-11) before the week long
festival of the Tour Down Under (January 16-23) takes hold.
There's
no denying the TDU has developed into a world class showpiece and
should never be ignored nor overlooked by Australia's cycling honchos.
Besides, there's no way the UCI will tamper with the Pro-Tour's first event of the year - and why should they?
But
why do I get the feeling Cycling Australia still chooses to throw all
its energies into the South Australian classic, while partly ignoring
its own premier event held in and around Ballarat in the days prior?
In
case you're not across the new schedule for the national road titles -
this summer's event, has been extended to six days (from five) with two
rest days in between.
Two rest days I hear you say?
The
schedule reads like this: The criteriums will be held on Thursday,
January 6, the road races on January 8 and 9 with the Time Trials on
Tuesday, January 11.
The biggest mystery are the TTs - to be held
two days AFTER the men's road race - the event that traditionally
completes the national titles.
In footy-speak, that's a bit like playing a semi final after the Grand Final - it just doesn't make sense!
Every country in the world completes its respective national titles with the men's RR - everyone except us that is it seems.
The method behind the madness is a result of the calendar being so tightly squeezed.
CA
chooses to - understandably - bow to the UCI, but won't make the hard
decision of forcing organisers of Victoria's Bay Series to move their
event to an earlier date?
That would certainly create more breathing space for all involved and no clash or overlap for either event.
Here's a possible scenario which would make life a little easier, perhaps.
Start the Bay Crits on New Year's Eve at say, between 6-9pm, on either Lygon Street Carlton, or on the Geelong foreshore.
This
would allow spectators to watch the race and still allow revellers to
celebrate the arrival of the new year a few hours later?
Stage 2
could be held as a twilight race in Williamstown on New Year's Day for
example, with stages 3 and 4 rounding off the series on January 2 and 3.
Thus
not affecting the Nationals' timetable which has traditionally started
on a Wednesday and ran through to the following Sunday.
I feel sorry for the TT riders as they will have to perform on empty roads on a working day.
It will certainly be an anti-climax to what should be a highlight of the year for many competitors.
As for national TV coverage of the race-against-the-clock - there won't be any!
TV
Producers cannot afford to house, feed and pay production crew in
Ballarat those extra two days as the costs involved can't be justified.
With
all due respect to the TT combatants, I'm afraid they'll hardly rate a
mention on the sports back pages or the TV news bulletins on that
Tuesday night ahead of the tennis and cricket which dominates the Aussie
sporting landscape at that time of year.
It's time for CA to make some hard decisions and look after their own backyard, for the sake of riders, teams and spectators.
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Comments (16)
Previous 10 |
03 Jan 2011 19:05 AEST
From: Canberra
--
Sam of Perth. Your actually not correct when it comes to the ownership of the TDU. It is actually owned by Mike Turtur and does recive some organisational support through SA Major Events which is actually a indepentant company, with the SA Goverment being the majority shareholder
03 Jan 2011 15:10 AEST
From: Melbourne
--
This is all a little hard to digest/believe after reading Mike's articles dissing the credibility and status of the Sun Tour, that and saying the road season is only a few weeks old. Surely we should be propping up all of the established races that happen on our domestic circuit, into a coherent calendar of races.
01 Jan 2011 8:42 AEST
From: Perth
--
Langkawi invites local asian teams to the event which helps cycling across asia. They don't pay big names to the event but still get some very good racing (better than the tdu) and some decent riders race there. Oman was also an alright race this year also. I don't really compare Oman & Qatar with the tdu because TDU is a Protour race. Langkawi is a better race that TDU. Yes I do think the tdu is not helping australian cycling.
31 Dec 2010 18:54 AEST
From: Adelaide
--
Sam, I'll ask you the same question as I asked Robert. How do you compare the TDU with Oman, Qatar and Langkawi? - Do you still the TDU is not good for cycling in Australia?
31 Dec 2010 15:41 AEST
From: Perth
--
Jane from Adelaide, I don't see how cycling in oz would be in the doldrums without the Tour Down Under. Tour Down Under hardly supports australian cycling as the organisers do not invite the local teams. Tutur is all about making a dollar for himself. The reason so many big names come out is because they are paid to ride. Can someone tell me how this idea of paying riders to ride helps the race in the long term? Having a race that nearly every stage is decided in the last 200m is not a great way to advertise cycling to the general public who know little about cycling. For some stages that is fine but having those types of stages all the time is not good at all.
31 Dec 2010 10:35 AEST
From: NEWCASTLE
--
what a joke some of these comments are!@Jane in Adelaide, If you race and you go to any event and you don't give 100% because your to "tired" you either want to start training a lot harder or get off your bike!and the only reason the "top" names would come to the TDU is because thier being paid to come or they are using it as a training run while they have a holiday!The reason cycling in Australia has never really "taken off" is the fact that (1)football is cosidered the no1 sport here, and (2)the truely good riders in this country have for many years been forced out the "back door" because they were not in "the family",I had a mate who was 19 when he broke the Newcastle to Sydney and back(214 miles not km's)a record which still stands who ended up "forced out"because of internal politics(my son races so he is on the squad before you)that was in 1977 and I bet you don't know his name even though the person that held the record was sir Hubert Opperman.Like I said before,99% of cyclists in this country only look like thier doing it hard because they are having coffee withdrawls,and by the sound of it your one of them!
30 Dec 2010 16:23 AEST
From: Wollongong
--
In most cases, the sport of cycling plays second fiddle to the lure of tourism dollar it generates. The Tour de France is a classic case. Television viewers generally watch the race because it has so much more to offer than simply the pushing of pedals. Is that a crime Robert?
30 Dec 2010 13:47 AEST
From: Perth
--
Robert has come up with some excellent points. The TDU is owned by the SA governemtn & it has become too much about tourism & the economy. What good does paying armstrong 2 million dollars each year to come out and ride in the tdu do for the long term of the event? I don't think it does much good. We actually are one of the very few national tours do not invite one of our national teams. That is not countring UNi SA because they are a mixture of riders from many teams.
30 Dec 2010 11:52 AEST
From: Sydney
--
Complete rubbish Robert. Pegasus's sponsorship problems stem from geographic problems... only Australian companies that want a presence in Europe would look at sponsoring an Australian team there. It has nothing to do with the TDU. People head to Adelaide to watch cycling and participate in South Australian tourist activities. Even if their primary motivation is a trip to the Barossa, they still get exposed to cycling at it's highest level. This helps with tolerance with our presence on the road, encourages kids to hop on a bicycle and increases the participation rate in cycling as a whole.
30 Dec 2010 9:52 AEST
From: Adelaide
--
Robert. If I had known any better, you're simply throwing the bait out so people like myself can bite. How can you expect the standard of cycling at TDU to be as high as many of the European races at this time of the year? If the TDU is a lousy race, how do you rate events such as Tour of Oman, Qatar or Langkawi? The season is long enough and hard enough as it is. What more do you want. You're seem to be extremely hard to please.
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Stay in touch with the ProTour road cycling season with SBS's cycling blog, featuring race reports, video highlights and blog coverage of every race of 2010, as well as details of SBS's racing coverage
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