CSC rider Stuart O'Grady put Australian cycling firmly on the world map with his and the country's biggest ever victory in a one-day race at Paris-Roubaix here on Sunday.
There are five one-day races on the European cycling calendar considered to be true classics, and Paris-Roubaix -- the cobblestoned killer which leaves most of the peloton in the did not finish category -- is the hardest of the lot.
Before becoming the first Australian to win the race known as the "Hell of the North," O'Grady's last major victory went back to 2004 when he teamed up with Graeme Brown to win the Madison gold at the Athens Olympics.
On Sunday the man who used to obsess about winning the Tour de France's green jersey for the sprinters' points classification finally ended his drought in style by outlasting a host of bigger name favorites such as Belgium's Tom Boonen to claim his biggest ever road race win.
After switching to CSC following a period in which his career stalled because of a major crash and a failed move to a team which did not materialize, the Australian was understandably delighted.
"Relief is the first word that comes to mind," said O'Grady, who could hardly walk after he finished his day in the saddle by riding into the Roubaix velodrome on his own and with time to savor his triumph.
"It's been a hard 18 months, I've been through a lot. It's a dream come true," he said.
Fellow Aussie and team manager Scott Sunderland was just as emotional as he tried to put O'Grady's "massive" victory after the six-hour, 259km race into perspective.
Sunderland has plenty of experience of Paris-Roubaix, having helped Magnus Backstedt win as a rider when he was a teammate of the Swede's in 2004 and Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara last year when he was behind the wheel of the CSC team car.
And he feels it puts O'Grady's former glories into the shade.
"It's massive. This is the Queen of the classics," he said. "Sprinting and winning stages and green jerseys is all good, but you've seen what it's like out there. It is Hell. That's what they call it."
RSS