OSI meets Amanda Spratt

Amanda Spratt

Amanda is 25, a member of the Penrith Cycling Club (NSW) and current Australian Road Champion.

This is not her first title tho, Spratty, as her friends call her, won also the National individual time trial title (2008) and a National title team pursuit on the track in 2007.

And not to forget the O Cenu Ceskeho Svycarska, a 5 days Czech Tour in 2011.

I am pretty sure we can add more wins to this list before the end of this season.

I had an appointment with Amanda at the Holiday Inn Express in Ghent the evening before the ‘Le Samyn’, a 1.2 UCI ranked race.

I was a bit early, as I sat down Wayne Nichols (GreenEdge mechanic and former pro in Belgium) came in. We brought back some memories with a coffee.

Few minutes later Amanda joined us at the table and Wayne went back to work.

Time to fire questions.

Like everyone else does on January the 1^st you must have picked some goals for the new roadseason. Few days later you became National Champ. Changed this the plans?

A.: Not really, cause the National title was my first goal of the season. I worked and trained hard in the previous months just to have a condition peak for the road race. Also the Ronde van Vlaanderen is a race I want to perform good.

Returning to this title race, three laps to go you jumped away, did you think ‘this is it’?

A.: O no not at all, I didn’t think I would stay away. But it just worked out well. I had some teammates in the chase group and they did a good job there too. With Tiffany behind me, keeping an eye on Rachel Neylan, I felt a bit safer.

The atmosphere around the circuit in Ballarat was also incredible.

Is Victoria THE cycling state? More then lets say NSW or SA?

A.: next question please (smiles). There is always a big crowd at Ballarat, maybe a little different then when the titles were in Adelaide.

Are you more relaxed now you had already a big win?

A.: Certanly not, another big race should be added on the list this year, for me and for the team. I keep working, no time to sit back and watch.

In a previous interview I read that you was dreaming of a European team?

A.: Yea, right, but that was untill end of last year when I could sign for GreenEdge. No need to dream longer, cause this is a great team with an European program and European team members.

But before all this I had a great time and great support from the AIS too.

Now I can learn a lot from the experience of the Euro girls.

This changed the way of racing?

A.: We work as a team, we are a happy family.

For example last saterday, in the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, I would have been trying to sit in the front of the bunch right from the start. Loes (Gunnewijk) told me not to worry the first 40km. That is experience of someone who knows the race, who did the Omloop before. She knows where will be cobblestones or the hills.

I saw you in the race doing a lot of work in the break? For Loes.

A.: Yes, together with Tiffany (Cromwell) we did what was necessary to stay away with our little group. We had three girls in the break, we had to work so we could save Loes for the end. Which worked out perfect. She attacked at the Lange Munt (Amanda pronounced it in perfect Flemish!!), on her way to the victory.

But the next race it can be someone else who will be looked after.

Is GreenEdge changing things for Australian women cycling?

A.: Sure! With this team as a model, other Australian teams and sponsors may follow. It is up to us to show women cycling is not what it used to be. We are not riding around, we race!

Up to us girls to get more publicity, TV coverage. The rest (money, DVH) will follow. But that is not fixed overnight, it will take time. With GreenEdge we certainly move many steps forward.

You started cycling at 12?

A.: In fact I rode my bike first when I was 9, as a BMX rider. I rode Nationals, Worlds etc...

Then I picked up track and road. First I wasn’t going that well, but with hard work it got me where I am now.

Strongest and weakest points?

A.: favourite races and where I am at my best, are the Classics. Break aways are my thing too. Sprints with small groups, I don’t dislike.

But I am working hard on my hill climbing. Once again not the ones in the classics I am afraid off, but mountains like the cols in the big Tours are not my cup of tea.

Last one: Where do we see Amanda back in the final of a race?

A.: Tomorrow, and the Ronde van Vlaanderen!

I am pretty sure we will see her in lots of finals, the way she talks is with love for the sport,

ready to work if necessary and take her chance to win whenever she can!

Girl to follow!

Cheers!

Dirk Van Hove

Omnisport International

Tibute to Ted Harrison

Tribute to Ted Harrison (° Bairnsdale, July 15^th, 1932 - +Melbourne, February 21^st, 2012

I had the pleasure of meeting this charming man a few times. I will remember him as a very

peaceful person. As I am always interested in the career of retired bikeriders, specially when they raced before the 70s. And Ted was certanly one of them, he started in 1946.

Not that he rang me up to tell me the whole story, not at all. He was a modest man.

My wife, Lieve, and I stayed in West Essendon with Barb and Ron Neiwand (another cycling family), when we met Ted for the first time. Of course tea was served at the Neiwands with enough sweets to sit down and talk about cycling. I must admitt that Ted said a few things, but still he was the most quiet person around the table.

You can imagine my surprise when Ted turned up, two days later, with his scrapbook on his career under his arm.

And then the stories followed. Together with his mate Ron they went full on. I had no time to write everything down.

He started at the Bairnsdale Professional Cycling Club in 1946 at the age of.....14 !! Yes, you read well, at 14 year old he was a pro cyclist.

This got all to do with the strange situation in those days of Australian cycling. You had to make up your mind when you applied for a licence, eather a pro or an amateur one.

So he joined a pro club. Only because his dad and his uncles were members. In 1951 he moved to Melbourne and joined the Footscray Club. Being pro cyclist in those days didn’t mean you didn’t have a job. Ted was a “chippie”. We would call it a carpenter in Europe.

First as a trackrider he became one of the better riders, he teamed with Sid Patterson, John Perry, Clive Middleton in madisons and sixes.

On the road Ted was a scratch rider, which means he was a great rider, one of the best.

In 1957 he started in the Midlands Tour, the race he always wanted to win. The scratch group was only 4 men big. Ted, Russell Mockridge, George Goodwin and Jim Taylor. He always

Believed that,  that was the year he could have won, cause Russell broke away in Blackwood just before they caught the bunch and went through the field to win. If he could have stayed with Mockridge a bit longer, that would have been his chanche.

Bad luck followed Ted several times troughout his career. One of those bad days was when his handlebar snapped during the Warrny 1955. He was in the final, in a group of 6 riders.

Another time, he was co leader on the last day in the 1955 Sun Tour, when he punctured, lost time and never came near John Geddes who won the Sun Tour.

And in 1958 everything went wrong when he was selected for a trip to Europe with an Australian team that was put together by Russell Mockridge. They had a contract for the Giro in 1959. Unfortunatly Russell Mockridge got killed in the 1958 Tour of Gippsland.

That year he also became a fireman.

After he stopped his pro career in 1964 he won gold and silver medals at the World Police and Fireman Games.

Many riders of the next generation knew Ted as their manager in several Sun Tour teams.

A nice man, a great bikerider, i am glad that he came to visit us in 2006 in Ghent.

He was on the road with his mate Ron and stayed a few days in Destelbergen. A beer, a bbq, and again the stories came.

(on both pics, you see Ted with his friend Ron Neiwand, in their race days and in 2006 in Destelbergen)

Here are some of his best results:

1948 : 1^st Victorian 50mile TTT championship, country section

            2^nd  Victorian 50mile TTT championship

1954 :  1^st stage 4 – Sydney to Melbourne

            4^th 50mile, Geelong

            5^th 60mile, Ringwood

1955 : 1^st 80mile Bacchus Marsh

            1^st 80mile, Hallam

            2^nd 50mile, Ringwood

            3^rd 50mile, Colac

            7^th Sun Tour (leader for 7 days!)

1957    1^st 1mile final, Melbourne Olympic Velodrome

            1^st  5mile scratch Burnie

            1^st 5mile scratch Devonport

            1^st 3mile pursuit championship

1959    10^th six days of Melbourne

1960    5^th six days of Melbourne

1961    1^st 150mile Victorian Championship

            6^th six days of Melbourne

            7^th six days of Sydney

1962    1^st 3 day Tour Footscray

            1^st 3 hour madison Melbourne

1963    1^st 27 hour madison Melbourne (with Sid Patterson and John Perry)

Ted rode from 1955 untill 1959 for Repco Cycles.  

Ted Harrison past away last tusday, he has had troubles over the last weeks with heart and circulation problems resulting in the amputation of a leg last week.
R.I.P.