2011 - The Year That Was

It has been a massive year for Australian cycling, both internationally and in the domestic scene. In my last post for the year I thought I would offer some statistics that really put the years events into perspective:

• Of the 26 UCI World Ranked events, 5 of them were won by Australians
• Cadel Evans became the first Australian to win the Tour de France. His wins at the Tirenno-Adriatico and the Tour de Romandie helped him to finish 2nd on the UCI world rankings, beaten only by Phillipe Gilbert (who had an outstanding season)
• In terms of country rankings in the UCI World Tour, Australia placed fourth (this is calculated by adding the individual points of a country's top five riders). This is a massive achievement, Australia finished ahead of many cycling powerhouses such as America, France, Britain and Germany
• At the World Championships Matthew Goss placed second, narrowly missing first place from Mark Cavendish. This means that in the last three years Australia has taken home 1st (Cadel Evans 2009), 3rd (Allan Davis 2010) and 2nd (Matthew Goss 2011). Never before has Australia experienced a time of such continued success on the world stage. 
• Australia lead the final medal tally at the 2011 UCI Track World Championships, taking home 8 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze
• Interest in cycling in Australia has boomed. The Tour de France gave SBS its highest viewer ratings of the year, in total, 5.37 million viewers tuned into watch the Tour De France nationally, up 33 per cent on 2010 which saw 4.03 million viewers tune in
• Over 1.2 million bikes were sold in Australia, outstripping car sales again
• The National Cycling Participation Survey found out that this year, more than 4 million people ride a bike each week, with Victoria the most active cycling state boasting 1.08 million weekly rides. 

This is just a snapshot of the situation in 2011, I'm sure I could easily triple the size of this list if I did a little more research! I know that womens professional cycling, our elite mountain bikers and our professional riders on the Aussie pro tour have all had bumper seasons also.

I look forward to following cycling, in all its different shapes and forms, in 2012 - and then writing about it! I also look forward to attempting to conquer my own cycling goals for 2012, which include competing in a mountain bike 24hour and winning a club road race! I also look forward to some new bike purchases which will hopefully take my riding to a new level. Happy New Years All!