CYCLING: Australia’s men’s road cycling team have settled into their team’s base in Ipanema, one hour south of the Olympic Park precinct, and are preparing for what is being hailed as the toughest and most unique Olympic road course in recent time.
The Australian quartet of Richie Porte, Simon Clarke, Rohan Dennis and Scott Bowden will be one of Australia’s first medal chances when the road race is held on the opening day of competition.
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games road race will take in Rio’s most iconic backdrops. Both men’s (237.5km) and women’s (136.9km) course will start and finish in Flamengo Park, and pass through the picturesque coastline and the cities of Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra and Reserva Beach.
The scenic stretch will give the riders much reprieve from the two testing circuits located at either end of the course.
Riders will first take on the ‘Grumari Circuit’ which features two climbs - 1.2km at 9% and 2.1km at 4.5% - which will be completed four times for men and once for women.
The race is expected to explode at the second ‘Canoas/Vista Chinesa Circuit’, which is punctuated by an 8.9km climb and a 6km descent. This will be tackled a punishing three times by the men’s field, and once by the women.
“Yes,” remarked Simon Clarke when asked if the course was going to be as tough as expected.
Clarke, received his first Olympic nod when dual Olympian Simon Gerrans was forced to withdraw after suffering a broken collarbone following at crash at the Tour de France. Clarke got his first look at the course at the official test event in August last year.
“Definitely is a unique race that we don’t usually see in Europe, so I think it is going to be really tough,” said Clarke, who believes this is the most unique one day race he has seen.
“It has got so many different aspects, with the flat sections we do first the cobbles and then the steep climbs and saw a lot of incidents and things holding up the test event last year, so it will be an obstacle to get over safely.
“Once we are through that, to tackle the eight kilometre climb three times, well there are never three climbs of this length in a one day race.”
Off the back of a fifth place finish at the Tour de France, Richie Porte is buoyant ahead of his Australian Olympic team debut.
“Why not, in the Tour I think I showed I was one of the better riders there,” said Porte when asked if he can win on day one of competition.
“I think coming out of the Tour it is always a hard one, but I think I have done all I can do to get here fit and healthy.”
Porte, who suffered a series of mishaps including punctures, crashes and a urinary tract infection during the Tour, grabbed Australia’s fourth ever top 10 finish at the Tour.
“Fifth in the tour, the form doesn’t evaporate in a few weeks,” said Porte, who along with the majority of the men’s Pro Tour, fine-tuned his Olympic preparations at the 220km Classica San Sebastian one-day race in Spain last week.
“In San Sebastian it was key for me to get out of it safely, another 220km race in the legs is perfect preparation for this race.”
Tasmania’s Porte is considered one of the event’s favourites alongside Chris Froome (GBR), despite the pair having never bagged a major one-day race win.
“Froome, also coming out of the Tour, he is in fantastic condition, the Italian and Spanish teams are the strongest teams here,” said Porte, pointing to his former Sky teammate.
Alejandro Valverde (ESP), Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) and Dan Martin (IRE) are also being labelled as firm contenders in the 144-rider field, yet such is the ferocity of the course, Porte was not willing to pick a winner.
“I think it is going to be a tricky and everyone has a great chance to win, there are some huge favourites.”
Despite a training mishap which saw him take off some skin after hitting the bitumen while testing the road course on Tuesday, Rohan Dennis is ready for his Olympic road debut.
After winning silver on the track four years ago in London, the South Australian will contest both the road race and time trial in Rio and believes the rest of the world will be keeping an eye on Australia in Sunday’s race.
“We have Richie and Simon, Richie just came fifth in the Tour and Simon has been there for numerous World Championships when we have performed well, so they are going to be watching us for sure,” said Dennis,
who despite not contesting the final week of the Tour de France in order to concentrate on his Olympic Games preparations, is feeling strong ahead of his schedule.
“Initially I was a little bit worried about not getting the last bit of training block from the last week of the Tour, almost considered doing the last week full on at home. But I have come up good, even yesterday after the crash I felt really good,” Dennis added.
Tasmania’s Bowden, 21, who will take the fourth road position, is still pinching himself ahead of his Olympic debut.
Bowden, who was initially selected as Australia’s second mountain bike rider, received a late call up into the men’s road team after Australia chose to allocate one position from the men's road group, to the men’s track team pursuit team.
“An amazing opportunity for me and I am pretty honoured to be stepping into the role to do a job for Australia,” said Bowden, who will contest the road race on the opening day and the mountain bike event on the final day of competition.
A field of 144 will line-up for the road race on day one of the Games at 9.30am Saturday August 6 (10.30pm Saturday August 6 AEST).
AMY McCANN
olympics.com.au
