ABOUT

The name Cadel Evans is synonymous with Australian road cycling, with the Victorian riding to become the first Australian to win the elite men’s road race world crown (2009) and famously the Tour de France (2011).

However fifty years before Cadel became a household name, Jack Hoobin, another Victorian cyclist, was making waves across the cycling world, notably by becoming the first Australian to win the World Amateur Road Cycling Championship (1950). 

CYCLING BIO

Most sporting fans can fondly remember Anna Meares winning Australia’s first-ever women’s track cycling gold medal at the Olympic Games in 2004. However, while they were taking their very first pedal strokes, Sydney’s Julie Speight was paving the way for Meares and the future of Australia’s women’s cycling during an international career that spanned three decades. 

CYCLING BIO

In 1999, twenty-five-year-old Katie Mactier quit her office job at a Melbourne advertising agency to pursue cycling. Within seven years she had become one of the world’s most decorated cyclists, boasting a world record, Olympic silver medal, world title, Commonwealth Games gold, plus four individual pursuit national titles remarkably bookended by two national crowns on the road. 

ABOUT

Any nation or team would be proud to boast Olympic gold in a five-medal haul from four Games campaigns, two world crowns, five Commonwealth gold medals, and having worn all three Grand Tour leader’s jerseys during that period.

 Now consider these outstanding achievements came from just one person, Sydney cyclist Brad McGee, who between 1994 and 2008 wrote one of the sport’s most glittering resumes.

 In 2017, McGee will be inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame at the Annual Awards in Melbourne on 17 November.

CYCLING BIO

Alf Goullet will be posthumously inducted for 2016, recognised for his globetrotting, world record setting career. The winner of more than 400 races, including 15 Six-Day wins, before retiring at 34 in 1925. Goullet also holds the record for the most distance covered in a six-day race – 4,440 kilometres which is 1,000km more than the Tour de France in 15 less days. He was inducted into the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame in 1968.

Major Achievements

PALMARES 

CYCLING BIO

As Cadel Evans forged his career on the dirt in the last 90s, so did Mary Grigson, a dual Olympian who boasts Australia’s best mountain bike result in Olympic history with a sixth at the Sydney 2000 Games. The only Australian to have won a World up race - which she did twice, she also netted five national titles, Commonwealth Games bronze and was crowned the 24-hour world mountain bike champion in 2001. “It is an honour,” said the US-based Grigson, now Daubert.

CYCLING BIO

The first Para-cyclist to be inducted into the Hall of Fame will be Queensland’s Chris Scott, who represented Australia in cycling at four consecutive Paralympic Games. Scott, claimed 10 Paralympic cycling medals, including six gold medals and was named as captain of the Australian Paralympic team in 2004. “It feels surreal to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I grew up idolising people like Sir Hubert Opperman and Sid Patterson who are not just legends of Australian cycling but the cycling worldwide,” said Scott.

CYCLING BIO

Iris Bent is considered one of Australian cycling’s first female heroes. Beginning her career in 1945, the Victorian won 16 Australian titles on the road and track, and was crowned the Champion-of-Champions three times at the Nationals including sweeping the 1951 titles. “I am very humbled, I didn’t think it would ever happen to me,” said the spritely Dixon, who at 85, still rides three times a week. “I didn’t realise at the time that I was a trailblazer, I just raced.”

CYCLING BIO

In the mid-2000s, Wood was widely regarded as one the best in the world on the road. Although a late starter into the sport at age 20, Wood’s success lead her to the Athens 2004 Olympic Games where not only did she play an integral role in securing Sara Carrigan’s gold for Australia, but she finished fourth in the road race and sixth in the time trial. A dual Olympian, Wood was also a dual World Cup Series winner, Commonwealth Games champion, and a five time national champion by the age of 25.

CYCLING BIO

At the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, ‘Flyin Ryan’ launched himself into Australian sporting folklore when he became the first Australian track cyclist to win two individual gold medals at the same Games. 

While nearly as much was written about his eating habits and relaxed attitudes, West Australian Bayley showcased his trademark kick to claim famous victories in the sprint and keirin at the 2004 Games.