Sun Tour: Heralding a new era

There was no greater affirmation of the growth of the Australian domestic scene than what transpired last week at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, writes Anthony Tan.

It was a tough ask for Jayco Herald Sun Tour race director Michael Hands, who, after pushing for a February calendar slot in 2010 due the staging of worlds in Geelong and its wont to collaborate with the Tour Down Under, was denied the opportunity by the UCI.

Said its president, Pat McQuaid, before the start of the 2010 TDU: "The UCI would not be very keen on moving another race closer to this race in order that the two races end up competing with each other, which is what would happen.

"That doesn't serve world cycling any good; it doesn't serve Australian cycling any good."

McQuaid added: "At the end of the day, it's up to every race organiser to make his race attractive."

With the move vetoed, Hands found himself isolated and was forced to sit out his race – that until then had run for 58 straight years and was, by some margin, Australia's oldest stage race – in 2010, hoping – perhaps even praying – it would make a speedy return.

"Look, there's no doubt that with a year off, things disappear from consciousness a bit," Hands told me in Sorrento last Saturday, before the start of the queen stage to Arthurs Seat, "so in some ways, we're reintroducing the race, if you like, to the public eye this year, and just reminding them of 59 years of history."

The agreeable, good-natured former public servant with the Victorian Major Events Company said that while he feels "the logic's still there" to work with the TDU, he's basically given up trying.

"The other thing that has happened in the world of cycling is the Tour of Beijing. So from our perspective, it is what it is, and with the Tour of Beijing," Hands said, "going forward, [there] will be an opportunity for us to build a package with them. And we've also had some good conversations with the Japan Cup, which is about a week later [after the finish of the Sun Tour].

"So… you just move forward," he said.

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This time of year is difficult to stage a world-class event. Riders from ProTeams are tired and many want to go home to their families and wind down, not up; there's also the tyranny of distance, coming all the way to Oz for a five-day bike race, only to catch a 24-hour flight back home again, should one live in Europe.

Not to mention the fact that the Continental calendar begins on 1 October: even after Sun Tour race revelation and its 59th winner, Nathan Haas, had partied well into the Melbourne night with his Genesys Wealth Advisers coterie, Hands still hadn't received official confirmation of the race date!

"Our race doesn't get looked at and decided on and the date confirmed by the UCI till the 30th of September. So, the actual way the calendar is set up means that races that are very early on in the new calendar, from October 1, are in a really odd position.

"It probably needs to be revisited. It means that races that are early on at the start of the season fall in a crack," he said, adding that he's taken up the issue with the UCI and Cycling Australia mandarins.

* * *

Unlike its South Australian cousin, the Herald Sun Tour does not operate on the same financial model – the TDU is a government-owned and operated tourism event – meaning not only did Hands have to tell prospective commercial partners the race was back on, but that the race was worth backing, and it was worth a lot.

And while the TDU derives more than half its funds from the taxpayer, the Sun Tour does not. "Private sector funding is a little more than government funding, so we are heavily driven by commercial sponsorship," said Hands, who ostensibly told me this year's race would not turn a profit.

From an organiser's point of view, however, the race went down a treat this year.

Besides Haas' overall victory and the sprint and young rider classifications to boot (he was also part of the winning team), there was a stage win from a ProTeam rider (Katusha's Igor Silin); two stages by a Pro Continental rider (Skil-Shimano's Marcel Kittel); a stage win from an Australian Continental team (Drapac's Rhys Pollock); and a stage from an overseas Continental team (MTN-Qhubeka's Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg).

The decisive stage to Arthurs Seat was a ripper – as good as any high mountain finish and for the spectator, far more accessible. (The only inaccessible part came when the car I was travelling in broke down; I found myself stuck on 'Bay 13' with Cycling Tips' Wade Wallace, a pair of fluoro-green 'mankini'-clad men and assorted other 'specimens'. At least I had an excuse for filing late...)

"Mount Buller is lovely, Falls Creek is lovely. But they're a long, long way away, and not many people are up there," said Hands. "And Australian cycling is not quite at the point yet where people hop in their cars to drive five hours to see it. Arthurs Seat is within an hour's drive of four million people."

* * *

Hands also told me he's recently signed a deal with the UCI's commercial arm, Global Cycling Promotion (GCP), to create a package of three races – the Tour of Beijing, Herald Sun Tour, and Japan Cup – that will feed off each other. "We'll have a long-term relationship with those two [other] races. And I'm really happy to engage with Asia, just because I think it's a really exciting market."

Does he accept, though, that governance and race promotion should be separated?

"There's no doubt that if governing bodies want to be commercial bodies as well, they need really strong governance processes; really strong demarcations. Because, if they want to keep the integrity being the umpire, then [the UCI] need to make sure their commercial venture is a really separate thing.

"They're not mutually exclusive but if you do it, you've got to have really clear processes, really clear rules – [including] examples of where conflicts of interest might arise and [where] people can withdraw themselves from the vote [if required]."

At the 2010 Tour Down Under, McQuaid also said only one race in Australia will ever be a WorldTour event. Is Hands comfortable with such a hard and fast rule?

"We've never wanted to be on the WorldTour. I say it emphatically: I do not want to be on the WorldTour. Because, if we do that, then we can't support the Australian teams. So, my model is races like the Tour of California, where you have 4, 5, 6, 7 ProTeams, and then support your local teams as well.

"And I actually think that's the model we will stick with always. Supporting Australian teams is part of developing Australian cycling. And, if it's good enough for the Tour de France to give the French teams outside ProTeams a ride, then it's good enough for me.

"So, never wanted to be WorldTour, and will not want to be WorldTour."

What about on a strategic level, though, for ProTeams whose sponsors demand a global presence? (GCP director, Alain Rumpf, cited a lack of exposure outside Europe and the US as an extenuating factor in the demise of HTC-High Road.)

"Strategically, the WorldTour doesn't mean much to us," Hands said, "because there are five or six ProTeams that have a real merit in Australia; like Sky and Saxo Bank, teams with a strong Australian presence. But the others don't really make much of a difference.

"So, if we can have a mix of these great teams and then put them with the Australian Conti teams and teams from interesting places like Japan and China and South Africa this year and so forth, then I think that's a really good strategic decision."

If, like Mitchell Docker and Richie Porte a few years ago, William Clarke last year, and Nathan Haas this year, one or two gems come out of the Australian domestic woodwork annually – rather than through the more selective channel that is the Australian Institute of Sport – then who's to argue with him?

Follow Anthony on Twitter: @anthony_tan