Australian cyclist

Robbie McEwen AM (born 24 June 1972) is an Australian former professional road cyclist. McEwen is a three-time winner of the Tour de France points cl*ification and, at the peak of his career, was considered the world's fastest sprinter.

He last rode for Orica–GreenEDGE on the UCI World Tour.

A former Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road cycling in 1990 at 18 years of age. He raced as a professional from 1996 until 2012.

McEwen retired from the World Tour after riding the 2012 Tour of California and is now a cycling broadcast commentator on the Tour Down Under and the Tour de France.

Contents

• 1 Career
  • 1.1 Tour de France
  • 1.2 Commentating
• 2 Sprinting style
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Major results
  • 4.1 Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline
• 5 Recognition
• 6 References
• 7 Further reading
• 8 External links

Career

McEwen at the 2006 Bay Cycling Cl*ic

McEwen was born in Brisbane. After four years of moving through the regional, state and national levels of cycling, he started at the Australian Ins*ute of Sport in Canberra under road cycling coach Heiko Salzwedel. The first signs of his sprinting prowess on the international stage were at the Peace Race, winning three stages for the Australian national team.

McEwen competed in the road race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (23rd) and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games (19th). He was also included on the Australian team for the 1994 UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Italy, and the 2002 UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Belgium, where he won a silver medal. McEwen was again selected for Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games (11th) as part of the road race team.

McEwen was named 2002 Australian Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road Cyclist of the Year and 1999 Male Road Cyclist of the Year. After spending 16 seasons racing for foreign teams (Dutch: Rabobank & Farm Frites; Belgian: Lotto; Russian: Katusha; USA: RadioShack), McEwen signed for the new Australian GreenEDGE team in September 2011 after it gained a ProTeam licence for the 2012 season.

Tour de France

McEwen participated in the Tour de France on 12 occasions: 1997 (117th), 1998 (89th), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Over the years, he has won 12 stages. In 1999, McEwen won the final stage sprint in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In 2002, McEwen won stage 3 (Metz–Reims) and stage 20 (Melun–Paris). In 2004, McEwen won stages 3 and 9. In 2005, McEwen won stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany, and stage 13 to Montpellier. In 2006, McEwen won stages 2, 4 and 6 to Esch-sur-Alzette, St Quentin and Vitré respectively.

He started the 2007 Tour with a victorious sprint on stage 1 to Canterbury. The stage win was seen as remarkable as he had crashed with 20 kilometres (12:mi) to go. He injured his knee and wrist but with the help of his team he clawed his way back to the bunch to win the sprint by over a bike length. The injuries he sustained from this crash did not prevent him from continuing but eventually he was forced out of the race when the Tour entered the Mountains, his knee injury became worse and he failed to finish stage eight within the time limit.

In 2002, McEwen became the first Australian to win the Tour de France points cl*ification. By 2006, McEwen had won the Tour de France green points jersey three times in this race – in 2002, 2004 and, again, in 2006 – defeating rivals such as fellow Australians Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady, and international compe*ors like Erik Zabel of Germany, Tom Boonen of Belgium and Thor Hushovd of Norway.

McEwen's first win in the 2002 Tour de France saw him win the green jersey from German legend Erik Zabel, with O’Grady third and Cooke fourth. In 2004, McEwen won the points cl*ification for a second time, defeating Hushovd and Erik Zabel. McEwen had fractured two transverse process (vertebrae) in a m* pile up on stage 6 and continued the race in extreme pain, making his stage 9 win in Gueret all the more remarkable.

McEwen won his third and final Points cl*ification in the 2006 Tour de France, this time with Zabel second and Hushovd third.

In 2012, he announced that the Tour of California would be the last professional race of his career. He struggled to reach the finishing line of the mountain stages in the gruppetto. He humorously said after his arrival on the final stage in Los Angeles: "This was a good race to pick as my last because I suffered so much this week I won't miss it." He was awarded the "Most Courageous Rider" jersey at the end of the race to commemorate his last day of professional cycling. After retiring from racing, McEwen remained with Orica-GreenEDGE as a technical adviser and sprint coach.

Commentating

In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, Robbie McEwen commentated on the Tour de France's world feed in English, alongside fellow Australian Matthew Keenan.

Sprinting style

McEwen was known as a particularly cunning and tactical sprinter. Where many teams would use 'Lead-Out Trains' to secure a stage win for their selected sprinter, McEwen achieved many of his victories either with one lead-out man, or often none at all, by aggressively and intelligently positioning himself within the peloton in the final kilometres.

Fellow Australian cyclist Stuart O'Grady considers McEwen to be "one of the fastest, most powerful accelerators the planet has ever seen".

Personal life

McEwen lives in Australia with his Belgian wife, Angélique Pattyn, his son, Ewan, and his daughters, Elena and Claudia. In 2011, McEwen published an autobiography en*led 'One Way Road'. McEwen lived for many years in the Belgian town of Everbeek and is fluent in Dutch.

McEwen has two brothers, the eldest is Ross and is getting into Triathlon, the youngest, Cam, is a Scrum Master at Telstra and a car enthusiast.

Major results

1994Peace Race1st Stages 3, 6b & 91st Stage 1 Tour de l'Avenir19951st Stage 4 Regio-Tour1st Stage 6 Tour de l'Avenir19961st Luk-Cup Bühl1st Stage 4 Vuelta a Murcia1st Stage 2 Rheinland–Pfalz Rundfahrt1st Stage 3b Regio-Tour1st Stage 4 Tour de l'Avenir4th Overall Herald Sun Tour1st Stages 1b, 8b & 10b19971st Overall Geelong Bay Cl*ic Series1st Stages 1, 2 & 4Ronde van Nederland1st Stages 2 & 3a1st Stage 2 Four Days of Dunkirk1st Stage 3 Tour de Luxembourg4th Trofeo Alcúdia5th GP Stad Zottegem10th Overall Danmark Rundt19981st Stage 1 Vuelta a Andalucía1st Stage 5 Geelong Bay Cl*ic Series9th Overall Ronde van Nederland1st Stages 3a & 519991st Overall Geelong Bay Cl*ic Series1st Stages 1, 4 & 51st Stage 20 Tour de France1st Stage 2 Tour de Luxembourg1st Stage 1a Route du SudHerald Sun Tour1st Stages 3 & 62nd Trofeo Luis Puig4th Dwars door Gendringen9th Overall Ronde van Nederland1st Stage 220001st Trofeo Alcúdia1st Stage 6 Tour Down Under20011st Trofeo CalviaHerald Sun Tour1st Stages 3 & 4 (ITT)International Uniqa Cl*ic1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 2 & 31st Stage 2 Ronde van Nederland1st Stage 2 Tour Méditerranéen8th Overall Tour de Wallonie1st Stage 48th Nokere Koerse20021st Road race, National Road Championships1st Overall Étoile de Bessèges1st Stage 11st Overall Circuit Franco-Belge1st Stages 2 & 31st Scheldeprijs1st Paris–Brussels1st Delta Profronde1st RaboRonde HeerlenTour de France1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 3 & 20Giro d'Italia1st Stages 4 & 10Paris–Nice1st Stages 2 & 7Tour Down Under1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 1, 3, 4 & 62nd Road race, UCI Road World Championships2nd GP Rik Van Steenbergen3rd Tour du Haut Var3rd Veenendaal–Veenendaal4th Omloop Het Volk20031st Dwars door VlaanderenGiro d'Italia1st Stages 4 & 111st Stage 2 Tour de Suisse1st Stage 3 Tour Down Under1st Stage 4 Étoile de Bessèges3rd Veenendaal–Veenendaal4th Grand Prix de Fourmies6th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge1st Stage 37th Delta ProfrondeTour de FranceHeld after Stages 1–5, 18 & 1920041st Gouden Pijl1st Memorial Samyn-Fayt-le-Franc1st Profronde van OostvoorneTour de France1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 2 & 9Held after Stage 3Giro d'Italia1st Stage 5Held after Stage 5Tour de Suisse1st Stages 2 & 42nd Overall Tour Down Under1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 1 & 42nd Overall Tour of Qatar2nd Scheldeprijs2nd Delta Profronde2nd Veenendaal–Veenendaal4th Overall Circuit de la Sarthe1st Points cl*ification8th Spark*en Giro Bochum20051st Road race, National Road Championships1st Overall Bay Cl*ic1st Stages 1 & 41st Paris–Brussels1st Grand Prix de FourmiesTour de France1st Stages 5, 7 & 13Giro d'Italia1st Stages 2, 6 & 10Held after Stage 2Held after Stages 2–3, 6 & 10–12Tour Down Under1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 1, 2 & 61st Stage 4 Tour de Suisse1st Stage 5 Tour of Qatar1st Stage 4 Niedersachsen–Rundfahrt3rd Grand Prix d'Isbergues4th Paris–Tours20061st Overall Grande Prémio Internacional Costa Azul1st Points cl*ification1st Stage 11st Paris–Brussels1st Down Under Cl*icTour de France1st Points cl*ification1st Stages 2, 4 & 6Giro d'Italia1st Stages 2, 4 & 6Held after Stages 4–121st Stage 1 Tour de Romandie1st Stage 7 Herald Sun Tour2nd Overall Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen1st Stage 22nd Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen3rd Overall Tour Down Under4th Grand Prix de Fourmies5th Road race, UCI Road World Championships20071st Paris–BrusselsTour de France1st Stage 1Held after Stage 1Giro d'Italia1st Stage 2Held after Stages 2 & 41st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie1st Stage 1 Tirreno–Adriatico1st Stage 5 Tour de Suisse1st Stage 5 Tour Down Under1st Stage 3 Jayco Bay Cl*ic1st Stage 3 Eneco Tour2nd Scheldeprijs3rd Schaal Sels4th Milan–San Remo6th Gent–Wevelgem6th Paris–Tours8th Overall Circuit Franco-Belge9th Omloop Het Volk20081st Vattenfall Cycl*ics1st Paris–BrusselsTour de Suisse1st Stages 3 & 41st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie3rd Scheldeprijs6th Paris–Tours20091st Down Under Cl*ic1st Trofeo Cala Millor1st Stage 3 Tour de Picardie20101st Trofeo Palma de Mallorca1st Stage 1 Eneco Tour2nd Scheldeprijs2nd Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen4th Overall Tour Down Under6th Grand Prix de Fourmies7th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens20111st Overall Tour de Wallonie-Picarde1st Stages 1 & 41st Stage 4 Tour de Wallonie2nd Tour de Mumbai4th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen5th Scheldeprijs8th Grand Prix de Fourmies

Grand Tour general cl*ification results timeline

Recognition

In 2015, he was an inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductee.In 2019, inducted into Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

References

Further reading

• McEwen, Robbie; Pickering, Edward (2011). One Way Road: The Autobiography of Three Time Tour de France Green Jersey Winner Robbie McEwen. Sydney: Random House. ISBN:978-1-86471-258-2.

External links

• Australian Cycling Federation profile
• Robbie McEwen's profila at Cycling Base
• Robbie McEwen at Cycling Archives