Dear Rouleurs,

I don’t know how to say this…but Australia had a realy sucky Olympics when it came to road and track cycling.  Of the 42 medals on offer, Australia won just 2.  Boo hiss…  So MMT wonders what will occur to the pot of cash Cycling Australia receives in the next round of funding for Olympic Athlete development.  Before dwelling in some really disappointing detail, contragulations are in order for Anna Meares, Bronze in the Kerrin and Messers Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn, Sam Welsford and Alex Edmondson, Silver in the Men’s Pursuit Team.  Here are some photos pilfered from other new outlets illegally of the only happy Australian cyclists at Rio in September.

Bronze Medallist, women’s Kerrin event, Anna Meares.	Anna Meares in action on velodrome.
2016 Rio Olympics, Silver medalists for the Teams Pursuit .	The men’s Pursuit team in action on the velodrome.

So lets look at the results for road and track cycling.  In the road events, the clear winner was the Netherlands who won 3 medals from the 12 on offer.  The rest were spread around fairly evenly.  Whether Australia’s Richie Porte would have figured in the results, after crashing out of  the road race, will remain idle speculation. Similarly Rohan Dennis must be kicking himself for going out too hard in the time trial. So bottom line, Australian cycling zero medals.

The Track results were dominated by Team GB who won 7 of the 10 gold medals on offer.  Overall they scooped up 11 of the 30 medals on offer.  No other team was even close.  Here are the results and league tables.  The Womens Pursuit team were valiant in even competing on the track given the horrific training accident the team had 5 days before the event.

Before signing off, MMT will take time to reflect on the amazing career and palmeres of Anna Meares, who became the fourth Australian track cyclist to line up at four Olympics.  Meares claimed her first of 11 World Championship titles in the 500m time trial in the months leading into her Olympic debut. She backed up her flying form at the Athens 2004 Games winning gold in the 500m time trial before going on to win bronze in the sprint.

Meares made one of the great comebacks in Australian Olympic history when she won a silver medal in the women’s sprint cycling at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Seven months out from the Games she broke her neck in a race crash and after months of intensive rehab ensured she was back on the bike in Beijing. She progressed through to the final where she went down to long-time rival Victoria Pendleton to win the silver medal.

Four years on and Meares had her chance to turn the tables on Pendleton at the London 2012 Games. Meares beat one of the sport’s all-time greats backed by a boisterous home crowd to calim Gold. Along with five Olympic medals and countless World Championship podiums, Meares has also won eight Commonwealth Games medals, including five gold, across four Games.

Until next time, ride safe.

Marv