Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

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In July 2006 I was standing in a queue at Charles de Gaulle with my wife and daughter when I heard a slightly high-pitched Australian voice behind me. Looking around, we recognised that it was the man whom we had watched finish fifth in the Tour de France on the Champs Elysees the day before. He was later elevated to fourth in that first post-Lance tour after the winner, Floyd Landis, was disqualified for drug use. It was the best result ever for an Australian at that stage, eclipsing Phil Anderson’s two fifth placings in La Grand Boucle, as the French call the famous tour.

For the next few minutes we chatted to Cadel and his Italian wife, Chiara. He was looking forward at that stage to returning to his European home, having spent the previous 21 days riding more than 3,500 kilometres around France at an average speed, including going up mountains like Alpe D’Huez and Galibier, of some 40 kilometres an hour. Although he was obviously tired, he was relaxed and happy to talk to a few Aussies at the airport. Indeed, he enthused about returning to Barwon Heads over the Christmas and summer break. Before he left, Chiara offered to take a photograph of us, a photograph which I treasure even more since he has won the Tour de France.

It was the first time that most Australians had heard of him. If an Australian cyclist was known it was more likely to be Robbie McEwen, who had stood on the podium in Paris as wearer of the green sprint jersey on three occasions, or Stuart O’Grady, the prolific winner of track and road races, including Olympic medals. Many people even had difficulty in pronouncing his Christian name when they first heard it. But in the next two years he would come tantalisingly close to winning the tour. Somehow his Belgium based Lotto team did not seem to have the right support riders. Other teams seemed to protect their climbing stars, helping them over the high passes in the Alps and the Pyrenees. Cadel often seemed alone fighting odds beyond his control. But it did not affect his easygoing personality. At the following year’s Jayco series in Victoria, he participated in Amy’s Ride with thousands of recreational cyclists. Amy’s Ride, of course, commemorates the life of Amy Gillett, who was tragically killed in a training accident in Germany. The Amy’s Foundation works towards doing two things, addressing safety on our roads, particularly for cyclists, and assisting up-and-coming female cyclists.

On that day, after assisting legendary commentator Phil Liggett, Cadel chatted with fans, signing autographs and having his photo taken with many of them for an hour or more. I remember another occasion when we were fortunate to meet him and how he chatted away for about 10 minutes encouraging my youngest son, who had just taken up racing.

The high hopes of an Australian winner crashed the following year when Cadel finished 30th. Something clearly troubled him in that tour, but apart from some cryptic comments he kept it to himself. He also had bad luck in Vuelta a Espana, the Tour of Spain, losing valuable time with a puncture at the foot of a steep climb, yet he fought back to finish third in a tour he thought he could have won. Interestingly, at that stage many critics wrote off Cadel and said he could not win the Tour de France—he could only ride at one pace, he did not have the brilliance of Lance Armstrong or Alberto Contador and he had not won a major one-day classic. Indeed, prior to the 2009 World Championships, the Swiss champion Fabian Cancellara dismissed Evans’s chances in the road race.

Much of that criticism was put to rest in five kilometres at Mendrisio, Switzerland, in September 2009. Approaching the last hill in the 262-kilometre World Championship road race, Cadel simply rode away from some of the best cyclists on the globe and in doing so he became the first Australian winner of that prestigious world championship event. Michael Rogers had won the time trial three times and Stephen Hodge, who rides with us here in Canberra, had twice won the amateur race which was regarded previously as the unofficial world championship for time trialling, the Grand Prix de Nations. Then, of course, we had Robbie McEwen’s second placing, which was the closest otherwise in coming to wear the rainbow jersey in the road race for any Australian. It was a very fitting outcome for an understated champion who conducts himself with modesty and humility.

In 2010 Cadel had more bad luck. He crashed, he had a hairline fracture in his elbow and he finished a disappointing 26th in the event. All that turned around this year. He won one of the first races of the season, the Tirreno-Adriatico. He then followed that up by winning the Tour de Romandie. He finished second in the Criterium-du-Dauphine. Of course, as we all know now, he came out and won the Tour de France.

Australians have dreamt of winning the Tour de France for a century. Of all the world’s great individual sporting contests, it has remained outside our grasp. Edwin Flack claimed gold on the track of the first modern Olympics. Our swimmers regularly beat the best in the pool and our track cyclists have often dominated on the velodrome. But cycling’s greatest challenge has escaped us. Ever since Don Kirkham and Snowy Munro contested the 12th running of the Tour de France in 1914 Australians have returned to France in search of victory. This year they have found it, and I am sure that Cadel’s victory will encourage the many hundreds and thousands of young cyclists in Australia to seek to emulate him in coming years. I am sure that the Australian victory and that great occasion when he was on the podium on the Champs Elysees with the Australian Tina Arena singing the national anthem will not be the last occasion that we see an Australian win the Tour de France. Congratulations, Cadel.

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