Gillow, Hosking, Spratt to London in women’s events
A Tour de France champion, two Milan-Sanremo winners, a three-time world time trial champion, and a Paris-Roubaix victor – these are the five men set to represent Australia in the upcoming summer Olympic games in London.
With five spots for the road race and two for the time trial, Australia will be represented on the men’s side with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), Matt Goss, Stuart O’Grady and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), along with Michael Rogers (Sky Procycling).
The Olympic road course will likely dictate that the Aussies set up either Goss or Gerrans for the sprint finish, while it would appear likely that Evans and Rogers will take the two spots that Australia has been allotted in the men’s time trial.
Eventual protected riders and specific race strategy is just speculation for now, as Australia men’s director Matt White would not give anything away.
“The selectors have chosen a team based on our race strategies for London – but we won’t be going into detail about what those strategies are for obvious reasons,” White stated. “What I can say is that we’re definitely in the hunt to challenge for the top step of the podium.
“This has been one of the most difficult team selections in Australia’s cycling history because we really have enough talent to field two teams of Olympic standard,” White explained. “We have more than 30 Aussie riders in the ProTour and they’re major contributors to their respective teams. It’s a great position to be in and we’re really pleased with the riders we’ll be putting on the start line.
“The team has a lot of experience with Stuey, Cadel, Mick and Simon – all having raced at the Olympics, or five Olympics in the case of Stuey. Matt might be an Olympic debutant but he’s already notched up some solid big race experience.”
All five will be riding the Tour de France, with Evans in the hunt for a repeat yellow jersey. They will organize as a team in Paris as soon as the race finishes, according to White.
“The riders will come together the day after the Tour to prepare as a team,” he added. “It will just be a matter of maintaining the form they’ll have from the three weeks of racing in France.”
On the women’s side, the three women set to represent their home country are Shara Gillow, Chloe Hosking, and Amanda Spratt. As preparation, all three are set to ride the Giro Donne – Gillow and Spratt for GreenEdge-AIS and Hosking for Specialized-lululemon – beginning on June 29th.
Gillow will also take part in both the road race and the time trial in London.
“I always ride to win. I have high expectations,” she stated. “I love riding time trials and this one is one I would love to win gold for Australia in. In the road race I will be working hard to achieve our team goal and follow the plan we go in with.
“Selection for me is an honour and a wonderful goal to have achieved. I think every cyclist would have the Olympics as one of their major career goals.”