Garmin Dips Its Toe in Australia's Talent Pool

by PopUp Rolen on May 5, 2009 8:44 PM EDT

Garmin-Slipstream has formed a partnership with Cycling Australia to develop the country's impressive roster of young riders into professional cyclists. In the short-term, this means the addition of the much twittered about Jack Bobridge to Garmin's lineup.

Bobridge (only 19-years old!!!!) joins fellow Aussie and trackie Cameron Meyer (21-years old) on the American team.

“This partnership provides an ideal opportunity for Australia’s emerging talent to forge professional careers but to also to pursue their ambition to represent Australia in major international events,” said Graham Fredericks, CEO of Cycling Australia. “We are very pleased to formalise a relationship with a team that shares our philosophy and look forward to working with Team Garmin-Slipstream.”

Seems to me Garmin is stocking its minor league system with a lot of young talent in hopes of building a team like CSC from the ground up, instead of forking over big money to acquire big pieces. I'll be interested to hear what our fellow Aussie PdC'ers have to say about this new agreement.

Full press release.

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Comments

prior comments on Bobridge

we had a number of comments about him at the time just over a month or so ago when he came 2nd to Taylor Phinney in the world champs pursuit race.

some thoughts (not that I’m Australian but I seem to end up paying a lot of attention to Aussie riders for whatever reason):
- interesting quote from JV about Bobridge, “Jack is a phenomenal talent — possibly the most talented rider of his generation” – as mentioned in the prior comments linked above, there could be quite the rivalry between Phinney and Bobridge in future, maybe JV isn’t so concerned about Phinney having jumped ship now that he has Bobridge instead?
-part of the driving force behind the idea of an Australian ProTour team as I understand it from Cycling Australia’s POV is that they wanted some control over Aussies riding races that aren’t necessarily relevant to PT teams but are very important in terms of government funding and places for worlds – ie. riding World Cup track events so you can qualify riders for the World Champs and Olympics, making sure that your country gets a full quota of Olympic/World champs RR and TT slots, often government funding for development programs is dependent on Olympic/World champs results not on any PT races. So, in the absence yet of any Aussie PT team I suppose an arrangement like this with Garmin is helpful for Cycling Australia to ensure that a rider like Bobridge doesn’t just turn pro and then never be seen again on the track.

by guidemd on May 5, 2009 9:32 PM EDT reply actions

Wow...thats all I can say

I mean Bobridge is probably one of the top 3 talents of the next generation…And Australia seems to just be bubbling with talent at the moment (Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Travis Meyer(cam’s brother), etc.)…
If they can keep and develop at least half of the talent that comes out of AIS team then they will be set…especially in the 1 days.

Garmin is probably going to be just as well of with Bobridge as they were with Phinney. That kid is going to be a monster. He will be a dominating force in the one-day races and shorter stage races with a TT. He got second to Phinney in the 4k pursuit worlds and he all ready has experience racing in Europe.

And I bet that Trek-Livestrong is pissed that they won’t be getting of this….

by Vlaanderen90 on May 5, 2009 9:38 PM EDT reply actions

Chill out.. He's just 19!

Crashdan: "Veni Vidi Vici beats Wing Kong Exchange... … and I’ll change my signature to a backwards smile for a month."
Franzoi wins Parijs-Roubaix and I win a date with the VDS of Team Txirrindulariak..

by Frinking on May 6, 2009 9:48 AM EDT up reply actions

Forgot to add... Booooooom!

by Frinking on May 6, 2009 9:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Looking at the nationality makeup, this is definitely "America's Team"

USA – 13 riders
Australia – 4 riders
Holland – 4 riders
Canada – 3 riders
UK – 3 riders
New Zealand – 1 rider
France – 1 rider

by PopUp Rolen on May 5, 2009 10:07 PM EDT reply actions

Only 4 Riders That Don't Speak English as a Native Tongue.

Why do you think they went that route, having so many riders with english as a native language? Is it a benefit to the whole team, as it is easier to communicate, or are those the only riders that they could get.

by profgubler on May 5, 2009 10:15 PM EDT up reply actions

AFter thinking about it,

it may be more that don’t speak english as a native tongue, since the Canadians could be French Canadian.

by profgubler on May 5, 2009 10:17 PM EDT up reply actions

no, they're not

Tuft, Hesjedal, Meier are not French-Canadian

by guidemd on May 5, 2009 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Meier is from New Brunswick and tri-lingual

and english not his first spoken language

by TC_ on May 6, 2009 12:15 AM EDT up reply actions

What's the 3rd language besides French and English?

by tedvdw on May 10, 2009 9:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Because it is a sterotype that english speakers are the best time trialists...

So Vaughters is trying to horde them all.

by Vlaanderen90 on May 6, 2009 1:17 AM EDT up reply actions

+1

Mon coeur appartient à les forçats de la route.

by Josenka on May 6, 2009 2:17 AM EDT up reply actions

Non-anglos would taunt him mercilessly for those sideburns

by Jens on May 6, 2009 2:39 AM EDT up reply actions

1989

Bobridge as one of the most talented Australians or riders of his generation? Both could be true but, wow, 1989 is an absurd talented generation. Where to start! There’s Kennaugh and Degenkolb, the Italians as Ratto, Locatelli and Cimolai, there’s a Venezuelian like Monsalve, the five Basques Garikoitz Bravo, Ion Izagirre, Noel Martin, Mikel Landa and Enrique Sanz, French Fabien Taillefer and Austrian Mathias Brändle, Russian Ryabkin and – oh, chauvinistic excitement – Rasmus Guldhammer. Finally, there’s Australians like Bobridge, Howard and Travis Meyer – that’s not mentioning Michael Matthews who’s from 1990 and whoever I might have forgot.

by Forstoppelse on May 6, 2009 7:34 AM EDT reply actions

Fantastic News

I think this is fantastic. You combine Cycling Australia with their Under-23 team right now and you have some real talents in the works. Adding Bodridge to go along with Stetina and Alex Howes. That is pretty sweet.

by ncmussell on May 6, 2009 9:44 AM EDT reply actions

+1

I love watching development teams develop and I hope that JV stays on top of these guys and helps in fact develop them. I think there is amazing talent on that team and I like that several said THEY chose to stay at that level to continue growing before being fed to the dogs. I know a couple of them had a 2-3 year plan last year to acquire more experience before trying to move up and I applaud that from them. I pray that mentality continues. Let them develop before throwing them into a world they are not yet ready for. :-) In the meantime, we that are already fans get to watch them grow. Very exciting.

I love C, not because he rocks as a cyclist, but because deep down he's a band geek! LOL!

by nikki on May 6, 2009 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Hoping they will be at NVGP

I am just hoping the U-23 team will be coming to the Nature Valley Grand Prix when it comes to town locally so I can check out some of this young talent.

by ncmussell on May 6, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions