Cadel is Aussie cycling's Great White Shark

My colleague’s children on Monday morning rode to school in cycling kit inspired by the Australian’s achievement.

Images of Evans in the maillot jaune are splashed across every major metropolitan daily in Victoria, as well as the national newspaper.

But not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for the 34-year-old’s feat, which is being lauded as not only a great Australian cycling but Australian sporting achievement.

Journalist Mia Freedman copped a tirade of criticism when she announced on the Today show she wasn’t buying into the story. Her comments came after the show’s talent observed the national anthem, on air, in Evans’ honour.

“I just don’t care,” Freedman said. “I just don’t get it. Do you know what? He’s a man who’s paid a lot of money to ride a bike. Good on him for doing it but to call him a hero, to stand up and sing the national anthem... you should have heard me in the make-up room when you did that, I was doing some quite un-Australian things.

“Did he save anyone’s life? I just think that people who are sports people they do it for their own reasons... I’m not taking away from that but, for the world to stop, we’ve had shocking things happen on the weekend all over the world and all there is in the paper is that this guy won a bike race.

“He doesn’t even live in Australia. He lives in Switzerland,” she continued.

“It could be on the sports pages.”

I personally think it’s admirable that our male, female and under-23 professionals travel so far from home for nine months of the year to pursue what they love.

The fact most of them speak fluent Italian, French or Flemish, to adapt to their surroundings and Euro-centric sport is further testament to that.

Freedman’s underlying argument is that professional athletes should not be revered as heroes.

But this story isn’t about heroes.

Cycling has blasted into mainstream consciousness not because of heroism but a significant and historical sporting achievement.

Evans has become the first Australian to win the Tour de France since its inception in the early 1900s. In doing so the nation is now just the 12th to win the world's greatest cycling race, and the only one from the southern hemisphere.

The victory is representative of not only the 2009 road world champion and his strength of character but all those that have supported him.

It’s a reflection of the Australian cycling industry and the efforts it, and the individuals that comprise it, tirelessly put in to insure the sport's progression.

Freedman certainly isn’t the only Australian to express disinterest. After all, front page cycling coverage in mainstream media here, well, I’ve personally never seen it.

Space in the sports pages outside big events including the TdF, Commonwealth Games, Olympics and our summer season is largely limited.

It’s odd when at the mid-point of the season we have a Tour champion and a Milan–San Remo winner in Matthew Goss at the top of the scroll of results.

Le Tour is the one race on the cycling calendar that attracts a general audience, which generally embraces the sport as quickly as it disregards it until July the following year.

However, I’ve lost count of the number of times this month interviewers, friends, family and associates have asked me to break down the tactics of racing as well as the Tour itself.

Early this morning 2.4 million viewers stayed up until 2.30am AEST to watch SBS's television coverage of the final stage and presentations. That’s four times the number of last year.

The performance of Australians at the Tour this year - specifically Evans but not forgetting the other five men that finished the virtually non-stop, three-week race or the Aussie sports directors planning strategy - has gone further towards cycling transcending specific audiences.

It continues to inspire genuine interest in the sport itself, if not intrigue, and contributes to its ever-increasing profile here.

That achievement is rare and reason enough to applaud, loudly. Heroes and heroics, whatever that means, doesn’t come into it.