Matt Goss, Stuart O'Grady look to lead Australia at unpredictable Worlds
Defending champion Cadel Evans has tipped Matt Goss as the Australian team’s best bet at the UCI Road World Champions, held in Geelong and Melbourne, Australia from 29 September
to 3 October, if the race is to end in a bunch sprint. Evans had previously named his former teammate Philippe Gilbert as a favourite as well, while Filippo Pozzato tipped Irishman Nicolas Roche for the title.
"It might be in our interests for Mark Cavendish not to get to the finish," said Evans. "But if Mark can get there, it also means that Gossy can get there and I think of all the guys people have been speaking
about, Gossy is the one who's showed he can really do something."
The course in Geelong is one that is equally likely to result in a bunch sprint as in a breakaway, which has left the Australian team unable to firmly assign roles.
"It's a question of whether there's three guys left in front or whether there'll be 40 guys left in front. I don't know what's going to happen, but nobody does, so everyone's in the same boat."
Allan Davis has agreed with Evans that they young countryman Goss could prove the best option for the team in the finale.
"He's got the ability too, he's got the form," Davis said. "He's got everything and for Gossy it's a huge experience for him and this could really set up his career."
Stuart O’Grady, meanwhile, can’t be written off as a possible leader in the Australian team. He and Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck were expelled from the Vuelta a Espana by Bjarne Riis after allegedly
breaking the rules of Team Saxo Bank by drinking the night before the 10th stage. O’Grady has maintained that his form hasn’t suffered and his training hasn’t slackened.
"You always take positives out of indifferent situations," said O'Grady. "I went back home to Monaco and probably in the last two weeks did the best training I've done in a long time. I put in a lot of
work behind the motorbike, did a lot of race simulation and I'm feeling really fresh."
Most competitors in the World Championships have gone this week to Australia, with Nicolas Roche being a rare exception. The Irishman knows it’s a gamble to go to the event less than four days before it
begins, but he has said he is better off that way.
“I have been away for two Grand Tours and have done a lot,” said Roche to VeloNation this week. “Mentally, I feel that I needed to stay at home and spend this week there, then go there at the last minute
and stay focused there. The alternative is to go there early and spend ten days thinking about what is going to happen. I didn’t want to be in Australia going around in circles, thinking, thinking, thinking. I don’t think that would have suited me.”
26-year-old Roche will be leading a three-man team at the road race, but he is known for getting nervous before a big race, which is certainly the case here. On top of that, most of the top riders who
competed in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, as has Roche, including World Number One-ranked Joaquim Rodriguez, will not be competing at the Championships.
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