Photography by Cor Vos

Australian cycling isn’t ready for Cadel Evans to retire

by Scott McGrory - June 2, 2014

When the Giro d'Italia ended yesterday Australia's Cadel Evans told reporters that his eighth-place finish was far from what he was hoping for, but that he wouldn't be beating himself up about it. And while many are asking when the 37-year-old will call an end to his long and illustrious career, he seems to have no immediate plans to retire. As Olympic gold medalist Scott McGrory writes, that's probably a good thing – Australian cycling isn't ready for Cadel to move on yet.

Winning the 2011 Tour de France thrust Cadel Evans through the stratosphere of sporting recognition in Australia. Within the cycling community he was already a star, and well known as an immensely talented rider. But in 2011 he slipped into a special category of people that no longer require a surname. As with Kylie, Madonna and The Don, if you say “Cadel”, the majority of the Australian population know to whom you are referring.

With that recognition has come scrutiny and armchair experts are quick to criticize whenever Cadel doesn’t live up to the lofty heights of his Tour victory. Yet it is exactly these people, with their new-found appreciation for Cadel and the Tour, that are not ready to see him hang up his bike.

The understanding of cycling as a sport is growing rapidly in Australia, but we may not be ready to say goodbye to Cadel, without a successor to fill his shoes.

Cadel’s plan for 2014 was to skip the Tour de France and focus on the Giro d’Italia. It was a plan that made sense off the back of his third place in the Giro last year, and the realisation that it’s unlikely he’d be a podium contender at the Tour in 2014. It was all going to plan early in the Giro and on stage 6 Cadel finally had some luck (or strong team tactics) go his way for a change as he gained time on his rivals after a mass pile up. That was followed by a stint in the leader’s Maglia Rosa and we were all hopeful.

Unfortunately, it was not a fairytale ending to Cadel’s 2014 Giro d’Italia story. And it will forever be the race he was well suited to win, but one that got away from him.

In 2002, riding his first full pro season with the Mapei team, Cadel also had a stint in pink. In his first Grand Tour, his class was immediately apparent when he took over the race leadership on stage 16. It was short-lived though, and the next day, Cadel’s inexperience got the better of him. He went hunger-flat and Tyler Hamilton, noticing that Evans looked fragile, attacked, dragging eventual winner Paolo Savoldelli with him. Cadel’s fate was sealed.

After a couple seasons with the German team Telekom where he was employed to work, reluctantly, for Jan Ullrich, Cadel found a home at Team Lotto, and his Tour de France journey began.

Cadel after winning the world championships road race in Mendrisio, Switzerland in 2009.

It’s often said that many of the big race victories Cadel was capable of were lost to the doctors and laboratories of cycling’s dirty past.

In this year’s Giro though, it was simply a case of arriving at the party a few years too late. His third place last year was certainly a great ride, but by the standards Cadel sets himself, it wasn’t enough. He wanted a Giro victory, and now I feel for him, knowing that it won’t happen. I know Cadel wouldn’t swap his Tour de France win for a Giro anytime soon, but had Cadel’s career started now we could assume there’d be a few more of the biggest races added to his results sheet.

By his own admission he is a fighter, and there are still races to aim for this season. The World Championships course suits him, and the Giro d’Lombardia would be another goal to chase. And perhaps the Vuelta a España becomes a focus, rather than just a lead-up event to the Worlds. He will, as he always does, recover from this loss and look forward to the next goal.

As Cadel has brought cycling in Australia to the masses, during the ’80s Greg Lemond took cycling in the USA to the next level after his three Tour victories. The football-, basketball- and baseball-mad public started to appreciate this crazy three-week bicycle race in the ‘old world’. Some were amazed to discover it was actually bigger than the Gator Bowl. Yet when Greg retired there was somewhat of a lull in US audiences until the phenomenon known as Lance came along.

Of course cycling in the States didn’t disappear in the years between Greg and Lance, but the interest in the big European races did drop off. The local scene was still quite strong — there were several good teams with healthy budgets — and it was probably at its peak during the ’90s, but the general public went back to watching football. Lance’s Motorola squad were picking up results in Europe, his World Title and Tour stage wins for example, but it wasn’t the widespread endorsement that LeMond received.

In Australia we’re also growing the level of our domestic racing and the Subaru National Road Series is improving from year to year. However it doesn’t get any traction in the mainstream media at present, so the only cycling the general public know about is what Cadel and co are doing in Europe.

It makes me wonder what will happen if Cadel does decide to call it quits at the end of this season. As a sport can we afford to lose him? I’m not sure we can just yet!

Cadel Evans, winner of the 2011 Tour de France.

I believe Cadel is capable of doing a few more seasons on the proviso he mentally wants to, and accepts that he’ll have to change his role within his team. He could still go for races like Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico, and the Ardennes and Autumn Classics. But those races may not pop up on the Australian media radar if he’s not gunning for the Tour anymore. And unless the Orica-GreenEdge lads keep snatching a Maillot Jaune or two, we may need riders like Richie Porte or perhaps Rohan Dennis to step up to contender level.

OGE has stated that they are talking to a GC rider, someone that will focus on winning a Grand Tour. That’s exciting from my perspective as I’m a big fan of the OGE outfit. It’s our Aussie team taking on the world and they are the next best vehicle behind Cadel for promoting Australian cycling. There’s speculation as to who this GC rider might be and even Brad Wiggins’ name has been thrown out there by cycling fans.

There are several reason why that is difficult to believe, and it’s more likely to be a future star like Wilco Kelderman that’s in OGE’s sights. Wilco, of course, is not an Australian but regardless, at 23 he’s showing huge potential.

It would be a shame to lose the momentum that cycling is gaining in Australia, but that is a risk that comes with Cadel’s retirement. And with so many road and track riders coming through we’re far better suited to continue the expansion than the US was in the ’90s.

Anna Meares has been chipping away at the mainstream media for a while as well, and I hope her run in to the Rio Olympics is well documented. But the real challenge is to convince the Australian media contingent that there are races outside of the Tour de France that are worthy of covering. In my perfect world, cycling is spoken about by footy fans when they’re settling into their seats before a game.

“Did you see the stage of Tirreno last night? The Aussies were bloody strong, things are looking good for San Remo!”And then the siren blows to start the game.

It’s growing all the time, but cycling is still a niche sport in this part of the world. Sure the Tour has widespread appeal, partly due to the amazing feats of endurance that everyone can appreciate, but maybe more so due to the brilliant marketing ploy by French tourism.

There’s a reason the race organisers employ a guy to drive the course six months in advance, to scrutinise the châteaux, castles and landscape. He compiles a book of highlights for every stage, for the commentators to read out during the coverage.

Cadel was third in the Vuelta a Espana in 2009, behind Alejandro Valverde and his now-teammate Sammy Sanchez. Could Cadel be heading back to the Vuelta this year?

Cadel has said that he doesn’t want to be ‘just a rider’ and if he feels he won’t be competitive in the biggest races, he’ll retire. And when that time comes he certainly deserves to hang his bike up on his own terms. Yet I can’t help but hope it’s not this year, for when I look at the bigger picture of where cycling sits in the Australian sporting landscape, we haven’t quite prepared our succession plan.

A simple way to judge where different sports sit in the hierarchy of Aussie recognition is to look at where they sit on TV. The most popular sports are fought over by the commercial channels, and it’s been interesting to see Channel Nine take on the Tour Down Under in recent years. That has come at the disgust of many hardcore cycling fans declaring it disgraceful that Ch9 ‘stole’ the TDU from SBS Television.

SBS is the home of cycling on free-to-air TV in Australia, while Eurosport broadcasts more races but are a cable or satellite channel. What the hardcore fans don’t realise though, is for cycling to be really successful it needs recognition from a mainstream audience. When that happens the commercial networks will also fight for leverage and we’ll know we’ve made it. I’m happy for it to stay on SBS, but I hopeful of the time when SBS wins broadcast contracts in a battle against the commercial networks.

At the moment that’s not a threat! So until another rider or two pop up and look like becoming true Tour contenders, my fingers are crossed that Cadel at least sees Liege-Bastogne-Liege, or Lombardia as tasty treats and continues for at least another season.

This post first appeared at Scott McGrory’s website. You can read more of his opinion and analysis pieces there.

Tags: 2014 Giro d'Italia, Cadel Evans, Scott McGrory

Michele

For anyone who thinks that cycling has made an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of Aussie Sports followers, you might like to consider the following:

In yesterday’s Sunday Mail [South Australian paper], then were no less than 16 pages on AFL.

There was a 1/2 page piece on the Soccer World Cup. There was 2 small(ish) stories on the French Tennis Open. There was a page devoted to Horse Racing [aside from the TAB guide], there was a couple of articles on Rugby League and Union, and a 5 paragraph article on the State Netball team.

That’s it. No cycling. No report on Friday night’s ITT which put an end to Evans’ tilt at a second podium finish at the Giro. Nothing. At. All.

The ITT did make it into the Sports Results page. All 1.5 inch by 2 inches of column devoted to the second biggest Grand Tour of the year. Arguably the best 3 week race of the year.

At least there was some [not much] space given to OGE winning TTT and Bling wearing the Maglia Rosa during the early stages of the Giro..

However, in the meantime the Advertiser / Sunday Mail HAS printed [other] cycling stories every second day. These appear towards the front of the paper and you can guess the nature of these articles. The result of such news pieces? An even bigger chasm between motorist and cyclist. And less respect between the two.

Probably paints a good picture of what Cycling is to mainstream Australians.
- Sean
  
  Completely agree, cycling is very much a fringe sport in this country.
- Scott McGrory
  
  It’s a bitter pill for the hardcore cycling fans to swallow Michele. Awareness of Cycling as a sport has grown, but we are a long way behind the big sports here in Aus. And I totally understand that! We know how good cycling is as a sport, so as long as we keep chipping away at the mainstream sports fans, eventually cycling will get more attention. I doubt it’s ever going to get even close to Football, or Cricket, and that’s cool, we live in Australia and our sport is a niche one. And all of this is exactly what my article is about.
  
  There was an entire chapter I could have written about Germany! Jan Ullrich was their Cadel, and Team Telekom almost overnight took cycling to one of the highest profile sports in the country. Until Telekom came along cycling was an known amateur sport only seem during the Olympics, sound familiar…? When I was living there, those guys were superstars matched only by the biggest football players. And as it was built overnight, so it crashed overnight after the doping scandals. Germany now only has one good Pro stage race, and the Criteriums that were very popular and lucrative, have all but disappeared. Doping is not an issue in the Australian model, but until there are Aussies to take over from Cadel at the very top, Le Tour, I do worry about ongoing recognition, considering where it’s at now as you have pointed out.
- Steel
  
  Agreed with this and Scott’s article.
  
  There are few guys at work who ride a bit and follow the pros at the periphery. But had they heard of Gerro’s LBL or Rohan Dennis’ second in the Tour of California? Nup.
  
  Ogrady’s Roubaix is one only for the fans. Richie Porte’s Paris Nice likewise. Robbie McEwen and Cadel in the Tour are where it stops and starts really.
  
  The local Herald Sun tour gets a bit of coverage, but I can’t help but feel the Tour Down Under is too far off broadway to get the attention it deserves.
  
  Increasing cycling’s profile on the above the line media categories - TV and daily newspapers is fine. But I can’t help but feel that cycling should use its relatively low profile as an advatage and take a risk by going down a different route. TV’s are increasingly connected to the internet and we’re slowly getting high speed internet across Aus. Do a deal with Google to have all cycling events live streamed through youtube or something. Get in ahead of the big cumbersome, sports codes because once they move, cycling will be playing catchup again.
  - Scott McGrory
    
    A good suggestion Steel. Google as far as I know, are putting some money into Global Cycling Network (GCN), but they haven’t stepped right up to compete for broadcast rights,
  - nicklothian
    
    “TV” coverage is tricky. Cycling Australia had to pay SBS to have the NRS race highlights shown last year, but they ended up in a dispute over payment.
    
    Streaming live on Youtube would be good for the fans, but it costs money to shoot. Google will give you some ad revenue but I doubt it’s enough to pay the costs.
    
    OTOH the Tour of California went the streaming route (not on Youtube though). That seemed to make the fans pretty happy.
De Mac

Nice article and certainly food for thought. Hoping all the best for Cadel Evans - he is a fantastic athlete and ambassador for the sport. I’m sure he’ll keep going until he decides and won’t be dictated to by others. I wonder whether now isn’t the best time to try and really agitate for more to join the cycling community - particularly when traditional Aussie sports, such as AFL (which is now almost working against its grassroots) are providing an opportune void , waiting to be filled. I hope the impetus increases towards getting more people onto bikes in this country - we have a fairly fantastic place to cycle, for most of the year ’round. Michele - I reckon it will come, it will simply take a while…
- Michele
  
  I’ve really enjoyed his pre-stage comments, and how accessible he was at this year’s Giro. Matt Rendell managed to catch up with him most days. Well, everyday I was watching any way.
  
  He seemed like a contented man, who is comfortable in his skin; something he hasn’t always been throughout his long, successful career.
  
  Of course, we were still privy to some flashes of his quirkiness. But more power to him I say.
MattF

The premise of your opinion is that improving the mainstream media coverage of the sport in Australia is one of the criteria that Cadel will consider when determining his next step. I would suggest this is a fairly low level consideration on his part. Professional sports people are inherently self centred. It comes with the territory.
- Scott McGrory
  
  No MattF that is not my premise whatsoever.
De Mac

Nah, not at all MattF - if my comment was the one to which you refer. I was merely reflecting upon the fact that now is a great time - generally - to try and take advantage of the football-fatigue that appears to be occurring. I have no doubt that Cadel Evans will do what he considers the best thing for himself and his family (rightly) and that it will most likely not involve direct input into the raising of cycling’s profile - more than his exploits already have, to be fair - in Australia. cheers
- MattF
  
  No I wasn’t referring to your comment De Mac, rather the original article. What you have said is fair enough.
baines

Why is there a baby boomer like obsession with coverage older television and news paper media? It is not at all representative of modern day peoples consumption and is akin to saying that 100 best selling songs ever sold are the best ever written. Old school media is exactly the same as opera it homogenises voices to make them all sound the same and thus if you aren’t the same you are never going to be in the opera. If anything now is a greater time than ever to start covering races in real time and broadcasting 5 minute highlight shows (better still get Cosmo Catalano and his HTRWW series to do it) for free and charge for live coverage via youtube(or apply a freemium model to the racing). Youtube pay $1 usd per 1000 views (or more if they can find a market for advertising to surround the show.) Aside from the fact the Australia national road racing season has the huge advantage over Europe and north America that its summer co insides with Europe’s winter off season it also means less to compete with from cycling fans. I remember speaking to a wealthy investor during the 2008 crash and asking him is this meant there would be less money around to invest in new companies, his words were ‘never, the problem is never finding the money for investment the wealthy have literally never been wealthier than they are today so investing smaller figures in the hundred of thousands not millions is reletively easy. Its the return on investment that is difficult.
JP

We will always struggle to generate genuine interest in far flung bike rices because the psychological gap between ourselves and what goes on in these European is too great. We just don’t get the brutality and mystique of these races, and the vast majority of Australians are unlikely to, ever.

From my recollection, the only bike race outside of the Tour Down Under which channel 9 broadcast recently was a bunch of criteriums that were held in Cronulla (one of which was won by Caleb Ewan) and incidentally featured a women’s race. The standard was a bit of a mish mash, featuring a bunch of amateur club riders, NRS dudes and a sprinkling of protour guys. However it does show that we need that local connection to generate interest, so I think the path to commercial success and recognition of cycling in Australia is through development of the NRS. I’d even go far as to say if the teams were “branded” as cycling clubs (say SKCC or St George) rather than just the primary sponsors we would get a lot more interest because a lot more people could relate; think state of origin in Rugby League for example, and the benefit of that “authenticity” with that product.
Bradley Tompkins

Unfortunately Cadel’s time has come and gone…..if he were smart he would stage hunt in the grand tours from now forward. Recovery during a three week tour is just too much to ask at his age, you have to be a much smaller framed person to manage (see Chris Horner).

I wouldn’t be so downtrodden about it though…..with the likes of Rohan Dennis, Nathan Haas, Lachlan Morton, Michael Matthews, and the rest of the OGE boys all hope is not lost. I would say all the better to have a young crop of talent rather than a single old goat. Don’t make the mistake of overlooking young talent by longing for the stars of yesteryear. I think we made that mistake in the States’ by hanging on to Lance and making him the one star, rather than spreading the love to our younger talent.
- Scott McGrory
  
  I totally agree, we have plenty of good riders coming through. But none of them will step straight into Cadel’s shoes. It will take some time, and that fine, there’s no rush for those riders to do anything other than what they want in their time frame.
  
  Alas, in the meantime the threat of not having a rider/s garnering mainstream attention is my only concern. I’ll continue to enjoy all of the achievements by Aussies at any races around the world, personally I don’t need to read about them in the Herald Sun, The Age or Sydney Morning Herald, I’ll already know the results before they make it into the papers. But oh do I hope to see those results in those papers!
Robert Merkel

The first point I’d make is that cycling isn’t a “mainstream sport” anywhere in the world - except maybe parts of Belgium and the Netherlands.

The second thing to appreciate is that the media landscape has changed forever; while we are not yet at the point where we can pick and choose whatever sport somebody is pointing a camera at from anywhere in the world as easily as watching network TV, it’s clearly not far away. As far as audio and textual media, we’re there. The local newspaper as the gatekeeper of access to information is all but dead.

The “battle” for professional cycling is to gain enough attention from people - in whatever medium they choose - to get value for sponsors.

As for Cadel, he will continue to attract more attention in lower-profile races than others because of what he’s done, but the broader public will soon figure out that as an athlete he’s past his best; once that happens he can probably do just as much for the profile of Australian cycling off the bike as he can on it.

If his name can get the proposed “Cadel Evans Classic” up and running with a top-quality field, that, by extending the Australian leg of the pro season, that will do more for the long-term health of Australian cycling than just about anything else IMO. It’d be better if it ran somewhere close to Sydney than Melbourne (and I say this as a proud Victorian) but even down Geelong way it’d be a big thing for the sport.
dsinghe

Really wonderful piece. I am a Cadel fan. He’s a truly hard dude, but unlike most stoic types, he’s got real emotion and is totally unafraid to be a bit idiosyncratic in expressing it, never mind the criticism. There’s something punk rock about Cadel Evans that I can’t quite explain. It won’t be the same peloton without him.

It just really sets me off that in the 00′s, his massive talent and determination were overcome by the blatant cheating of others. Loved seeming him on top 2009-11, and I think there’s something for us aging weekend duffers to really draw from in watching him battle to the end over the last few years.

Also, I thought the analogy to Greg LeMond was well-spotted, as I think there are some deep parallels there; ambassador for the sport, huge talent from a “new” pool, ruffles feathers, well spoken. LeMond was fortunate to peak before and get out during the rise of the designer drugs of the mid-90′s, even if he had two years robbed by a gunshot. Evans peaked during the final and most sophisticated phase of that drugs culture, which was unfortunate. Also, the Evans-TVG handoff at BMC seems a lot less toxic than the Hinault-LeMond handoff at LVC!
- Steel
  
  Great post. I’d like people to keep this in mind when they talk of mitigating circumstances around PED use in the 90s and 00s.
- Scott McGrory
  
  Thanks dsinghe, it’s funny but my wife said I lost her a bit when I spoke about Greg and the US, but she’s not that into cycling now that we don’t live and breath it like we did when we lived in Europe.
BBB

I think Australian cycling is ready for Evans to retire. I think its much better that people remember him on top rather than sliding down the ranks despite the (much admired) never say die attitude. We have live coverage of bike races on SBS and large numbers getting out on the bike for regular riding, whether for a gentle cruise followed by coffee or training for events like the Alpine Classic or Three Peaks. And importantly, for a nation of 22m people we significantly punch above our weight when you look at how our professional riders perform on the world stage. I doubt Evans retiring will affect these three things, with cycling in Australia being significantly more engrained than in the US/LeMond example following his retirement in 1994.
LeMond is probably apt. He probably rode a season or two too many and his performances really dropped off, with his final race in 1994 finishing with him in the broom wagon. Evans probably wants to avoid this fate. And his performances have dropped off. From the high of winning the TdF in 2011, he had an illness ravaged 2012, a recovering from illness 2013 and has made a pretty good fist of it in 2014, though sliding from 3rd in the Giro in 2013 to 8th in 2014. At 37, where is the room for improvement? He time trial is not what it is used to be and the high mountains now expose weaknesses. Unless Evans is prepared to set aside personal ambition and ride solely in a team captain type role (if he is suited to this?), then I think he should hang up the bike rather than hang on for another year or two.
Cycling in Australia will cope fine and while it may not be a marque sport in this country ala the AFL, it will continue to thrive.
- Sean
  
  He should hang ‘em up at next years TDU.
Paolo

Cadel is the best OZ ever had. Nothing wrong with retiring at 37 and enjoying life. He doesn’t owe anyone anything. All non-traditional cycling countries need a Tour der France star to make cycling popular and when he retires or stops interest in the sport goes down again. Just look at Germany. Ullrich was some sort of god and now there are no big teams or races left. If Cadel hangs up the wheels and there is no serious TDF contender interest in cycling in OZ will decline. Gerrans can win as many San Remos or LBL’s as he wants. The Tour stands way above any other race regarding public acknowledgement.