Simon Gerrans out of Nationals, Tour Down Under after training crash

by Matt de Neef - December 22, 2014

Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) will miss the chance to defend his Australian National Road Race and Santos Tour Down Under titles in January after crashing in training yesterday.

Gerrans broke his left collarbone while mountain biking, having finished a training ride on the road earlier in the day.

“About half way through my mountain bike ride I became a little unstuck, came down and landed pretty heavily on my left side,” Gerrans explained in an Orica-GreenEdge press release. “I knew straight away as I hit the ground that I had broken my left collarbone.

“From there I had a little bit of a walk to get down to a point where I was picked up by a four-wheel drive and went directly to Mansfield hospital to get cleaned up and have the x-ray to confirm.”

Gerrans will undergo surgery this afternoon and is expected to spend between a week and 10 days off the bike.

Way to much fun! Thanks to @scottsports for hooking me up.

A photo posted by Simon Gerrans (@simongerrans) on Dec 12, 2014 at 3:58pm PST

The injury comes at arguably the worst time of year for Gerrans, who had a third Australian National Road title in his sights. He would also have started the Santos Tour Down Under and Jayco Herald Sun Tour as the red-hot favourite, having won the former three times (including in 2014) and the latter twice.

Orica-GreenEdge Sports director Matt White said the injury was a huge blow for Gerrans and the team ahead of an action-packed summer of racing in Australia.

“As always he had worked very hard to get himself into peak condition and that is disappointing for him to have it go somewhat to waste”, White said via an Orica-GreenEdge press release. “But he is the ultimate professional; he will be back on the bike in no time and hunting down his next victory before we know it.

“In terms of the team this summer, there is no doubt it is a huge hit, but we have some really motivated guys who are looking really strong. Now it is their chance to step up and deliver in a very important period for us and we are really confident they can do that.”

Simon Gerrans will now shift his focus to the Spring Classics which begin in March.

ACID

speedy recovery to Simon Gerrans
http://thewannaberacer.com The Wannabe Racer

Blessing in disguise? Hard to be up in January, again in April/May, and once more in September. Makes for a really long season. Even though Gerrans handled it really well in 2014, a little break might help with an even better season in 2015.
OverIt

Just a discussion point to readers, and not being critical, but is/was it wise for such an important team leader to be undertaking ‘potentially’ risky activities, (though I’m sure he can handle a MTN bike pretty well)? For sure he could just as easily fallen off on the road bike.

Do other elite sports discourage activities, that may risk team results etc?

Otherwise, an unfortunate mishap, and I hope a speedy recovery!!
- Michele
  
  F1 Drivers are known to do some ‘risky’ activities which could jeopardise their career. Case in point: Robert Kubica.
  
  I personally don’t have any problems with Gerrans mountain biking. Offseason, riders tend to do something a little different to get their base level of fitness up. Europeans are lucky; they can do a lot of cross-country skiing - again that has its risks.
  
  The name escapes me [someone might know], but I recall an athlete [may have been an AFL footballer, not a cyclist], years ago preparing tea in the kitchen. They dropped a chopping knife which landed point first in their big toe - they were barefooted. It caused some ligament damage and ended up having a lengthy rehab.
  
  Sure, riding a mountain bike has more risk associated to it then a chopping knife, but everything we do has some level of risk attached to it.
  
  Prior to his crash, Renault had some reservations about Kubica doing rally driving, but team management believed the pros far outweighed the cons. I’d suggest it would be the same for Gerrans.
- Lach
  
  I am pretty sure Red Bull told Mark Webber he could no longer ride a MTB in the off season after he injured himself with not much time to spare for recovery.
  - Michele
    
    No he continued to do it. Granted, more road cycling than MTB, but the crash didn’t deter him.
    
    I remember watching Webber and Alain Prost going mano-a-mano up Alpe d’Huez a couple of years ago. Prost won. They then had a race down it.
    - http://conza.tumblr.com/ Conza
      
      Who won the downhill? ;o
      - Sean
        
        Webber got dropped at the start.
      - Michele
        
        Prost won. Webber complained that the Frenchmen was given a more earodynamic bike.
        
        Actually Alain Prost weighs 3 Kgs less now than he did when he raced; he attributes it all to his road cycling.
    - Dave
      
      RBR certainly banned him from participating in his adventure race in future years.
      - Michele
        
        Jenson Button is actually a very accomplished triathlete. During F1’s month-long summer break this year, he participated in a 70.3 triathlon in Philippines.
        
        Came 2nd in his age group and think came 10th or thereabouts overall from about 1600 odd competitors. He takes them very seriously.
        
        Dave
        
        Yes, I remember keeping track of that to see how he’d go in his first shift up from Olympic distance to 70.3.
        
        He’ll be eligible for a new age group in a year or two.
      - JBS
        
        Tried to ban him, but failed. He still competed, although he only did some of the stages later on.
        
        Dave
        
        The event did have to be shifted to the off-season for that to happen, and the stages he was allowed to compete in were very carefully selected by RBR.
        
        2010 with the MTB crash was the last time that he was allowed to race for himself anyway, with his role in 2011-13 being just to help develop the car for Seb and top up the points needed for the constructors’ championship. If he hadn’t had the MTB crash he probably would have won the 2010 world championship and entered 2011 as RBR’s number one driver.
  - JBS
    
    Trying to ban him from his MTB was a bit rich on RBR’s part considering Webber was hit by a car on the road (granted he was riding a MTB at the time).
- MattyP
  
  Back in the 90’s Michael Jordan & Scottie Piippen were astounded & little annoyed Luc Longley went bodysurfing (a normal activity for a Perth lad, but not for the leaders of the team) in LA one time when the Bulls played there. He got himself a shoulder injury as a result, potentially impacting the teams chances. Don’t think it had a long term impact though that season - Longley came away with 3 ring’s. Not sure if there’s a clause though for nba players as to what activities they can participate in.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Remember, Gerro used to race motocross and his knee injury brought him into cycling. He can probably handle a mountain bike better than most of us.
Adam

Cadel’s or Ritchie’s best chance to nab the national title, as the course suits Gerrans the best.
- http://cyclingtips.com.au Matt de Neef
  
  True. But as Gerro said here (http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/11/cycling-australia-announces-2015-road-nationals-schedule/) it would kinda be a shame if Cadel won and the green and gold jersey of the national champ wasn’t seen in Europe all year.
  - Dave
    
    I think Cadel loves Australian sport too much to damage the credibility of the national road championship by winning it.
    
    He’ll ride for Rohan Dennis and roll in with the bunch, or maybe make a big bid for second place if there’s one rider clear for the win.
    - Bob
      
      It’s really silly to say that Cadel would damage the credibility of the national road championship if he wins it. And I think it was cheap for Gerro to say that it would be a shame if Cadel won. I’d much prefer a great champion of Australian cycling who has given so much to the sport and to our country to win it, and not see it again for another year than for a sniper to win it. It would be a great way for Cadel to go out. Seeing the yellow and grey jersey in europe doesnt change my life.
      - Dave
        
        I’m no Gerrans fan either, to trash Evans in that way was entirely predictable from such a trashy bogan.
        
        I don’t think it would be a shame for Evans to win, but if that was to happen I would call for CA to award the champion’s jersey to the next-placed rider from the championship race for the remainder of the season after his retirement on February 1.
        
        FlashingPedals
        
        It’s pretty rare for top level riders, to exit the sport, on their terms. Cadel has won some great races, so a national title, then retirement, well why not?
        It’s up to others to take the title if they want it. Whether that’s Cuddles, or some other hungry for success racer, so be it.
        Win it and wear it (national champion Jersey) in your own right, not a handout from CA because the 2nd placed rider didn’t win.
  - longtimereader1sttimecomment
    
    do you think if gerro won the worlds would forfeit nationals, just so we can see Aussie jersey in europe?? No chace!! #gocadel