A quickly growing sport

The announcement by the Luxembourg 'team without a name' of the signing of Will Clarke is yet another pointer to the health of road cycling in Australia.

The announcement by the Luxembourg 'team without a name' of the signing of Will Clarke is yet another pointer to the health of road cycling in Australia.

A couple of weeks ago it was Cameron Wurf signing with Liquigas. Today it was fellow Tasmanian, Clarke.

At this rate how long before we have an all Tassie ProTour squad? The Sulzberger brothers, Wesley and Bernie, Richie Porte, Matthew Goss, Clarke, Wurf.....am I missing any?

Its been said before but if the Apple Isle isn't the world's greatest producer of cycling talent per-capita it has to be close to the top.

Both Wurf and Clarke are latecomers to the sport, with Wurf abandoning an elite career in rowing with the national squad to chase a different dream and Clarke beginning at 22.

Saxo Bank's Richie Porte was himself was a latecomer to cycling - with triathlon's loss, Bjarne Riis' gain.

All proving that these days, living in Australia is no barrier to success as a professional cyclist and that there are many pathways to Europe.

This is important in the context of a debate we have had this week here on Cycling Central, with Michael Drapac, principal of Drapac Professional Racing making some strong points about the Tour Down Under and the national racing calendar.

Of Drapac's statements the one that caught my eye was his point about the development of a 'vigorous teams based culture' in Australia.

"The second point, you'd have kids who could stay home," said Drapac. This is one of the great tragedies. Look at how many kids today in Australia who are 18 years of age are full-time bike riders. Look at how many of them had to go and try their luck in Europe."

"If we had a vigorous teams-based culture in Australia – in other words instead of going backwards from 10 (teams) to four in the past few years it went from 10 to 15, you'd have a number of kids who could stay home, be paid, be developed in their own country and be in career development, tertiary education."

Agreed! And Clarke's projection into Europe is one example of how this would work.

Riding for the local Genesys Wealth Advisers Pro Cycling Team team, Clarke was allowed the time and space to develop, learn his trade and post some results, important as a latecomer to the sport.

From there a 'stagiaires' contract with Ag2r was offered, and now a ride with the looming powerhouse of professional cycling following the intervention of Stuart O'Grady.

As Genesys manager Andrew Christie-Johnston said on the team's website following the announcement of Clarke's late season ride with Ag2R: "This is great for Will, he belongs in the Pro-Tour so hopefully this will see him gain a contract for 2011.

"Genesys Pro Cycling is a development team, this is what we are all about. We have always been happy to see our riders grow and go on to bigger and better things and it just proves that we are succeeding in our mission and the ten years of hard work are starting to bear fruit."

As I see it Australian road cycling is performing at a very high level.

The National Road Series is developing (fans really should follow this great racing closely, this past season has been an absolute cracker), Drapac, Jayco, Genesys, Budget Forklifts, Virgin Blue RBS Morgans and the still in stealth mode Pure Tasmania team are doing their part to develop a structure and riders, and Cycling Australia working with all parties to continue this success.

We have a ProTour event in the Tour Down Under and are this close to having our very own ProTeam. The glass isn't just half-full, it is full to the brim - though sometimes it may not look like it from the coalface.

More importantly though the riders are highly motivated and that's where success begins.