White, Aussie team plan to upend the expected bunch finish in London on Saturday
The Aussies point toward the pressure bearing down on Olympic hosts and expect a wide-open race around Box Hill
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LONDON (AFP) — Australia National Team director Matt White said his team planned to take an aggressive approach as it sought to shatter Britain’s hopes of early Olympic glory in the men’s road race on Saturday.
The 250km men’s race starts and finishes on The Mall in London, but takes in a circuit, which includes the Box Hill climb in Surrey, nine times.
Fresh from an historic Tour de France victory, Bradley Wiggins is expected to don the cloak of team domestique to make sure the race ends in a bunch sprint for Great Britain’s resident fast man Mark Cavendish.
Although Australia possess its own sprinter in Matt Goss, who was second behind Cavendish at the world championship in 2011, White believes the versatility in his five-man team offers several tactical options.
“Most of the traditional cycling nations don’t want a sprint because they’ve got very limited chances of a medal. I expect the race to be aggressive early; otherwise it just plays into the hands of the Poms (British),” said White. “We’ve got a team that can afford to be aggressive. If it doesn’t work out then we’ve always got Gossy for the sprint, we can work both ways.”
With a pancake flat finish, a bunch sprint will be the favored scenario of several teams, including Britain, Germany and Slovakia, who will bring Cavendish, André Greipel and Tour green jersey Peter Sagan, respectively.
The rest of the field, however, could be looking to throw a few spanners in the works to prevent the bunch all coming back together for the finish.
Australia’s team of Goss, Simon Gerrans, Stuart O’Grady, Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers has been labeled its best ever by O’Grady, who is competing in his sixth Olympics.
“This is the best team Australia has ever had going into an Olympic road race. There is an incredible amount of experience in this team and I think it’s going to be a major factor in the race on Saturday,” said O’Grady.
While Evans is known for his exploits as a former Tour de France champion and a two-time runner-up, he was also Australia’s first world road race champion, in 2009. Evans had a torrid Tour de France campaign this year, but he says that is no reflection of how he expects to race on Saturday.
“I don’t know if outwardly I look relaxed about my disappointment, but in years gone by it’s been the setbacks that have brought me back stronger and more motivated,” said Evans.
Gerrans, meanwhile, believes that the team could benefit from the pressure factor.
“Yeah, definitely, and the fact they (Great Britain) are going in with the current world champion (Cavendish) and Tour de France champion (Wiggins) as well, that’s obviously attracting a lot of attention,” said Gerrans, who underlined his credentials earlier this year when he beat Swiss Fabian Cancellara in a two-up sprint for the prestigious Milan-San Remo title.
“In the past they have seemed to handle the pressure fairly well, but I don’t think they have ever had pressure like this before.”