2022 UCI World Championship Road Race in Wollongong

[MichaelB]

someone's been training the seagulls

Helped Aussies to a podium spot !

Think it was more the seagull was aiming for a chip rather than swooped to attack

[familyguy]

Lot’s of people having a good tine which is great. Would love to be over.

On van vlueten, what hapoened there? She veered right then left and fell. Really seemed like a drivetrain issue to cause that response as it wasn’t a clipped wheel and it look like something with pedalling and the chain slipping or getting stuck.

Saw the damaged bike with the derailluer hanger hanging off. What a shame for the Dutch in the mixed relay.

Seems to be a bit of commentary around this one (and others) being perhaps caused by the Shimano and SRAM adaptive shifting tech/software and the brain deciding what gear to go to next by itself, which sometimes results in it shifting to the big ring and up a cog instead of just going down the cassette. The wheel/tyre looked to be a very secondary issue.

[am50em]

Well that was a great finish!

[LG]

Was a very enjoyable day (apart from the rain). If I had a cracked elbow I'd be at home sooking and feeling very sorry for myself, she is one tough cookie. Full respect!

[Thoglette]

The Guardian reports: Vatican sends holy rouleur Down Under on world road cycling mission

Schuurhuis, 40, is a Dutch-Australian who moved to the Vatican two years ago with his wife, Australia’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro. He has previously ridden for semi-professional teams across Asia, including a year with Australian outfit Oliver’s Real Food. His best results include several top 10 stage finishes at races in Indonesia and Malaysia; he finished 40th in the individual time trial at last year’s Dutch national championships.

[nathg]

Any tips for heading down to watch the mens race tomorrow?
Plan at the moment is to I guess drive south of Wollongong and catch the train back in. What time would you expect the Mount Keira loop to be finished? I’m content with moving around to different areas of the city circuit for the 12 laps and watching the finish.

[DernyDriver]

The Guardian reports: Vatican sends holy rouleur Down Under on world road cycling mission

Schuurhuis, 40, is a Dutch-Australian who moved to the Vatican two years ago with his wife, Australia’s Ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro. He has previously ridden for semi-professional teams across Asia, including a year with Australian outfit Oliver’s Real Food. His best results include several top 10 stage finishes at races in Indonesia and Malaysia; he finished 40th in the individual time trial at last year’s Dutch national championships.

I met Rien in the tour of Tahiti some years ago when he was riding for Olivers. I think he won a stage and finished on the podium ...can't remember, but he went okay. Not really in the same league as the Pros though.

[MichaelB]

AvV is just AMAZING !!

Broken elbow and all !!

[DernyDriver]

Bloody media tart.
Foo

Ain't that the truth !
My son has a media pass, and I have Team Accreditation which gets me into the team tents (and everywhere else).
Was hanging out with my Tahiti team when Matthiew van der Poel walked down the corridor ...we got photos with him and I got 2 rainbow band cycling caps signed by him. I also got a photo and signed cap with Ellen Van Dijk who won the womens ITT ...next day the team went to Alaphillipe's hotel and all got photos with him (I didnt go to that) .... I had today off but tomorrow Im hoping to get some photos signed after the race. Im giving most of the signed stuff away to friends, except for MvdP who I idolise....
Oh and I also got to drive the team car on the course on Wednesday, a lap behind the guys and a lap with the ladies - that was amazing with all the people cheering ...shook hands with Bernard Hinault before the start .... on and on it goes Foo, but no-one likes a bragger do they
Seriously, I am having such a great time.

[elantra]

Well that was a great finish!

Amen to that.
I watched it on TV (Channel 9)
The image quality was very very good, but the ads were long and frequent.

Nothing prepared me for the excitement of the last lap.
I’m sure I have seen some exciting stage race finishes in the past, but this was incredible.

[find_bruce]

& the fashion police were quick to act, fining her for not being sufficiently matchy matchy with her team mates & Illegal sock height

[foo on patrol]

Bloody media tart.
Foo

Ain't that the truth !
My son has a media pass, and I have Team Accreditation which gets me into the team tents (and everywhere else).
Was hanging out with my Tahiti team when Matthiew van der Poel walked down the corridor ...we got photos with him and I got 2 rainbow band cycling caps signed by him. I also got a photo and signed cap with Ellen Van Dijk who won the womens ITT ...next day the team went to Alaphillipe's hotel and all got photos with him (I didnt go to that) .... I had today off but tomorrow Im hoping to get some photos signed after the race. Im giving most of the signed stuff away to friends, except for MvdP who I idolise....
Oh and I also got to drive the team car on the course on Wednesday, a lap behind the guys and a lap with the ladies - that was amazing with all the people cheering ...shook hands with Bernard Hinault before the start .... on and on it goes Foo, but no-one likes a bragger do they
Seriously, I am having such a great time.

Bloody hell, that's some list. Enjoy the day mate, for you never know what's around the corner.

Foo

[ForkinGreat]

MVdP out! apparently got into a punchup last night near his hotel. fronting court this week. Say What?!?!?


GO BLING!! Go AUSSIES!!!
200km to go

[ForkinGreat]

Bronze for Bling in the Men's Elite Road Race - Fantastic Result for him and the Australian Team

[davehirst]

Was a funny sight watching the second group stuff around for the placings, when the peleton screamed around the corner and ruined their day.
Kudos for channel ,9 getting those cheap adds in every 2 km, didnt spoil the excitement at all

[stevenaaus]

Laugh, Channel 9 was kindof pathetic. Bling sprinted in for Bronze, then they went straight to an ad, and afterwards no replay, overhead or interview with him at all.

[neild]

Bronze for Bling in the Men's Elite Road Race - Fantastic Result for him and the Australian Team

I guess it was better than nothing but I don't understand why they leave it to ~2km to go to catch up? I don't race or ride bunches and understand you want to conserve your energy until the end but so many teams with potential winners just sat up so far to go. Wouldn't it be better to burry your domestics to catch up and make it a sprint rather than let someone solo for 25km and easily win? And I understand it was an incredible ride but still???

[warthog1]

The coverage reminded me why I don't watch commercial tv.
Solid stream of ads with a sprinkling of cycle coverage in between it seemed.

Ridiculously strong by Remco after his Vuelta win.

[familyguy]

I went down, took a bike, hit 6 or 7 locations for the final 10 laps, including a last lap sight of Evenepoel a minute ahead as he came through Fairy Meadow. Didn't really try to get any closer than 500m from the start line, crowds were certainly healthy. The Ramah St climb was raucously good.

[AUbicycles]

Good result and as the chase group realised (and said), they pokered too long. But van Vlueten pokered and came through.

I didn’t see a briadcasted Bling interview in the nedia zone though not sure if channel 9 had their own content.

The coverage without ads was pretty good and Eurosport / GCN are usually pretty good with timing.

Timing was certainly tough viewing from Europe.

[MichaelB]

The coverage reminded me why I don't watch commercial tv.
Solid stream of ads with a sprinkling of cycle coverage in between it seemed.

Ridiculously strong by Remco after his Vuelta win.

Flew back in from Gold Coast mid arvo and after unpacking, noticed the telecast on the TV so hit record to watch it later. There was an hour to go, so thought I’d catch a fair bit.

Nope.

An hour to go and they had 2.7km to go !!!

And commentary was rubbish.

Well done channel 9. Not

[ironhanglider]

& the fashion police were quick to act, fining her for not being sufficiently matchy matchy with her team mates & Illegal sock height

That one was particularly odd. Yes the sock height exceeded the specifications, but a commissaire friend of mine passed a comment that a fine isn't one of the prescribed punishments for a clothing infringement. Apparently he only options are a disallowed start (until rectified) or a disqualification. (I haven't looked it up, but I have a vague memory of disqualifications in minor races in the past)

You could imagine the furore if they had disqualified AVV after such an epic race. The UCI gets enough flack as it is, but that would have been on another level. You wouldn't want to be the commissaire making that call.

In this case the aero socks wouldn't have been a significant difference, however had her tactics been a more typical (for AVV) long breakaway like in Yorkshire, it would have been arguable that illegal socks were offering an advantage and disqualification would be on the cards. Maybe an alternative penalty is in order.

Cheers,

Cameron

[Retrobyte]

Missed the live coverage thanks to a trip to ED (broken rib from a clipstack mishap - the fence won that battle), so sat back to watch the 2 hour finish on 9Now last night - every ad break was the same 3 ads, every 10 minutes ... glad I was on endone or I might have thrown the TV out the window.

[Sharkey]

I stayed at a friend's in Moss Vale on Saturday night and went for a Sunday morning ride around the Southern Highlands. We came home via Wollongong and watched the last 7 (I think) city circuits. Managed to get a great spot and also streamed the coverage on my Samsung tablet using GCN+ and a VPN, so avoided the terrible channel 9 coverage. The speed they came up the hill towards us and turned the corner was incredible and seemed to get faster each lap. A well deserved win by Remco.

[vosadrian]

Great day out yesterday. Decided to tackle it in the car and walk, and it was much better than I expected. Thanks for the tips @Derny!

First location was Mt Keira.... was able to park about 1km walk to the first left turn on the Mt Keira climb where there was an ampitheatre of spectators.

Then over to the city circuit climb. Was able to park a couple hundred metres from the top of dumfries. Saw them come over there on the first lap. Then walked up Ramah St to just before the barriers starting. Great spot. I've been to a TDF Alpe d'Huez finish, and this was up there! Even has some locals serving us cheese and crackers which was much appreciated. Stayed there until about 3.

Then drove into town. Went down a local access only road and found someone leaving a sport that we took, and walked about 7-800m into the finish area. Ended up in a good position just before the roundabout for the final turn to watch until the finish. Then went over to the podium presentation which was way overcrowded to see much.

Was a great day, and doing it by car and walk was much better than expected! Best part was definately the Ramah st climb. I did not stay there long enough to see Remco's attack which was right where we had been 30 minutes earlier. Maybe I should have stayed there!