By Forearms Van Petegem

It may be a month into autumn in the southern hemisphere; however the antipodean host of the road race delivered an Indian summer. It was a windless day in Melbourne and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees centigrade, and I don’t know the equation for Fahrenheit and even if I did, I would not give Michael Moore’s film any further promotion.

Women's Race:
The women got up on time for their 9 am race, and the DP’s correspondent failed to heed the call of daylight saving shift and a hangover, so Liggett was the introduction via the host broadcaster. It seemed some of the peloton had failed to get up early enough to get on the rollers for an adequate warm up as an early break went away and was given more rope than the English fleet in the 17th century.

It may have been tactics versus complacency as most of the big nations were represented in the five women break. Mandy Poitras of Canada, Natalie Bates of Australia, Emma Jones of England, Toni Bradshaw of New Zealand and Noor Alias of Malaysia.
The orders through the earpiece of Natalie Bates were to collect the tickets and just conserve energy and not pull through with her team leaders safely ensconced in the trailing peloton. The gap got up to almost 5 minutes half way through the 100 kilometre race when Nicole Cooke, one pre-race favourite and the sole representative of Wales knew she had to provide the momentum for the chase.

With over two laps to go, Natalie Bates used the Anderson Street ramp which hits over 10% for a hundred metres to launch her attack. It was optimistic with two 11 kilometres laps remaining; yet in addition to her domestique capacities she is known as an accomplished time trialler. Her competitors in the break couldn’t match her when she went; Natalie had conserved her energy while they were driving the pace. So it was a long solo to the finish versus the peloton that was rampaging like a bull in a bear market. The Australians were content to let their compatriot ride away without aiding the pressure from behind. The race was on for the podium.

The peloton caught the detritus of the break with ten kilometers to go and it was a buchie for bridesmaid, a bunch sprint not roses that is. Oenone Wood is the ace sprinter from Australia and led out early and managed to marginally close the door of the lonely rider from Wales Nicole Cooke. Phil Liggett mentioned a Nicole Wood, but I don’t think the genetic engineering has yet reached that point, to Dick Pound’s relief.

Natalie Bates now has a gold medal to match her sisters gold medal in the track point race, and Kate Bates also has silver from the 3k individual pursuit. Soon they will have enough metal resources to be able to melt down their medals and open up the Burkina Faso mint.



The waiting crowd got a ceremony and a suntan in the ensuing hour until the men came to show their wares, where there indeed be wares to sell. Willy Loman would have had more deaths than a cat trying to hock such wares.

Men's Race
Will Walker the Australian wunderkind in the mode of Franky Nunez from Malcom in the Middle had his own non-neutral non-mavic support on the course. It seemed the Brunswick Cycling Club rallied troops with free t-shirts, sausages, warm beer, and the promise of the messiah returning. Alas, it was not to be, we still await the return to the promised land.

This correspondent found it amusing that some of the Walker cheer squad were cheering the South African in the break who wore a green jersey that one could confuse with Australia. Yet his dark tan, Afrikaans sailor’s mouth, alerted otherwise; when Walker is 5 foot with a golden lotus, and more freckles than the freckle himself, Stuart O’Grady. Note the Freckle is called the freckle – singular, because plural does not convey the infinite.

Brian Stephens and Shayne Bannan the Australian coaches have obviously gone to the Johan Bruyneel school of sportive directeurs as from lap one the 6 riders from Australia were lined out in the front of the peloton riding tempo.
Dawson was riding his second scratch race, as he was the first to be used and abused and into the team tent. A little like Christophe Moreau’s usual role in the worlds where he shows his face for the first 100 kilometres and then hits the pits for an early shower. Note Christophe, you don’t win podium girls hearts by winning the inter-Giro at worlds, that is during May.

Note to self: get back on kermesse. Ben Day was the second rider doing tempo work, followed by Aaron Kemps the young Liberty rider who was chewed out during the tour Down Under because he never got instructions through his defective ear piece. Much easier today hey Aaron, just ride tempo for the first 100, thank you very much, say hi to your girlfriend in Oiartzun.

The 5 man break that went in the first lap was given a collective leash of the greyhounds at the Wednesday night Dapto dogs (google it), and stayed out there for the best part of 100 kilometers. Duncan Urquhart the soldier from Scotland was off the front first, as if he had to prove to his superiors at his regiment’s headquarters’ in Glasgow that he really was cycling in Melbourne for the national team so he wouldn’t get a call up for the western front, err Sunni Triangle.

The other four inspired by many Julys watching Jacky Durand were Robin Sharman of England, Dominique Perras of Canada, Jeremy Paul Maartens or Walkers South African doppelganger, and David Kinjah of Kenya.

After the first 100 kilometres when the South Africans wisely let the Australians burn their domestique motors off the front, the attacks started to happen. At this point the peloton was not as small as one would have expected in past races, evidence that the rest of the world outside the insular European peloton is catching up. The hitters all started to lend their imprimatur on the race, and try and drop the anonymous riders from the Isle of Man and other nations one only hears about on trivia nights. Credit to Mark Cavendish of the Male Isle for a great two weeks and a track gold medal.

Hunter, Davis, Walker and Cox all tried their hand but George of South Africa was the only rider to bridge to the lead, but all the attacking was to bring the break back within the lap.

With five laps to go it was the hitters who were left, the South Africans, hoping to spoil the hosts party, Hunter, Cox, George, plus a few fast finishers in Henderson from New Zealand and Fraser from Canada. The Australians still held a few aces in Walker, Davis and Matt “hangdog” Hayman, Steve Cummings of England, and Christopher Froome the albino Kenyan who was clubhouse leader in the time trial for one hour. Mark Cavendish of Male Isle and Roger Aiken of protestant Ireland rounded out the last survivors.

The South Africans and Australians neutralized each others attacks until all legs were sapped and the riders were gasping like a Parisian after 70 years smoking Gauloises.
The South Africans Cox and George managed to get away with Mathew Hayman of Rabobank; and it looked like it was the final move after some cold war chess between South Africa and Australia. Any move by Walker or Davis would see Hunter neutralizing the move for a stalemate. Any slacking the pace threatened to bring back Gord Fraser and Hendy Henderson who could be dangerous in a finish if they still had their sprinter’s legs.

On paper Cox and George must have fancied their chances against Hayman, a strong rouleur on the lowlands and cobbles in the continental Peloton; as both have come off a successful Langkawi and the course, though without any prolonged climbs has some punchy bits. That said, the small bergs were not long enough to tax Hayman’s legs, and George had already expended his efforts so the one two tactic was not as potent as it might have been.

Hayman went with 5 kilometres to go and immediately shelled Ryan Cox, soon he had a good gap on David George, as well. He extended that gap and was stomping though keeping an eye on George, who did not give up.
It looked like Hayman hit a wall with one kilometre to go and this hangdog, “lets get some oxygen in to this anaerobic state”, expression came over his face as those quads had more lactic acid than Timothy Leary during the 60’s. It was ironic that this expression was very similar to Tom Boonen’s facial expression in E3 Prijs yesterday when he crossed the line victorious, yet could not blow out a candle. Boonen’s exaltation was more a rock star exhibition than anything else.

George closed the gap marginally in the last kilometer but not enough so Hayman did not get the time to celebrate the last 50 metres in the Melbourne sun. Allan Davis almost managed to bridge the one minute between the leaders in the last ten kilometer lap, but failed just short and rounded out the podium, sandwiching David George that South African but not Walker’s mannequin.

Can happy hangdog Hayman take this form into the Ronde, aka Tour of Flanders in one week’s time, or will he have to do the grunt work for Flecha, Friere, and Dekker? I think his only opportunity will come in a scenario like Lief Hoste found himself in in 2004, getting into an early break as a defensive measure. If Hayman is to step up to be a contender in the classics or semi-classics this is his year, albeit Karsten Kroon can attest to the fact that the opportunities are not necessarily forthcoming on the days the legs say yes.

Overall the race was of a high quality and the little nations’ riders really comported themselves well regarding sporting merits, whether or not they handled their beer is another story altogether. I will deliver a postscript after analyzing the city’s gutters tomorrow morning.



It is a pity the Protour denies this race so much quality, but that's not to take away from the riders who excelled today. One cannot ignore the hypothetical scenario if the big hitters came down to Melbourne. Hammond, Wiggins, Dean, O’Grady, Cooke, McEwen, McGee, Rogers, Evans, and Millar, (well not until July, or since this is a hypothetical, if the gendarmes had not beat the admission out of him in some dank Biarritz cell.) If all those riders came down under, the quality of the field would be more like the national race of Italy. If…

Commonwealth Games Road Race Results:
Women's Road Race 100 Kms.
Results: 2:56:08 - 34.123 km/ph
1 Natalie Bates (Australia) 2.56.08
2 Oenone Wood (Australia) + 3.05
3 Nicole Cooke (Wales)
4 Gina Katherine Grain (Canada)
5 Rachel Heal (England)
6 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand) + 3.07
7 Sara Carrigan (Australia) + 3.19
8 Amy Hunt (England) + 3.21
9 Olivia Gollan (Australia)
10 Rochelle Gilmore (Australia) + 3.24
11 Erinne Willock (Canada)
12 Charlotte Goldsmith (England)
13 Nikki Harris (England)
14 Wendy Houvenaghel (England)
15 Amy Moore (Canada)
16 Toni Bradshaw (New Zealand) + 3.27
17 Sarah Ulmer (New Zealand) + 3.31
18 Kate Bates (Australia)
19 Susan Palmer-Komar (Canada) + 4.01
20 Noor Alias (Malaysia)

Mens 165 km
4.05.09 @ 40.4 kmph
1 Mathew Hayman (Australia) 4.05.09
2 David Harold George (Republic of South Africa) + 0.04
3 Allan Davis (Australia) + 0.12
4 Stephen Cummings (England) + 0.25
5 Gordon Harold Fraser (Canada) + 0.38
6 Greg Henderson (New Zealand)
7 Mark Cavendish (Isle Of Man)
8 Roger Aiken (Northern Ireland)
9 Martin Gilbert (Canada)
10 Peter Latham (New Zealand)
11 Tyler Barbour Butterfield (Bermuda)
12 David McCann (Northern Ireland)
13 Stephen Gallagher (Northern Ireland)
14 William Walker (Australia)
15 Dominique Perras (Canada) + 0.43
16 Ryan Rodney Cox (Republic of South Africa) + 0.44
17 Dan Craven (Namibia)
18 Robert Owen Hunter (Republic of South Africa) + 0.46
19 Alfred Rodney Green (Republic of South Africa) + 0.53
20 Svein Tuft (Canada) + 1.00

Postscript: great to see Duncan Urcquhart out animating the men’s road race. He must have been reading Dailypeloton.com on the time trial wrap. He must be cut from the same cloth as this correspondent, though obviously an Australian centric round-up, these forearms are hewn from nothing but Belgian cobbles.