By REBECCA BILLS
LOCAL Selby professional road cyclist Simon Clarke is back in town for his pre-season training after a year full of success in Europe.
The 27 year-old made a grand start to his Grand Tour career in 2012 when he won a stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Spain and this year competed in his first Tour De France.
“I was part of the GreenEDGE team and we won the team’s time trial, stage four and had the yellow jersey in our team for four days,” Clarke said.
“It was my first Tour De France and to have such success in my first edition was spectacular.
“The media frenzy that goes on in the Tour without having success is crazy and to have the success that we did was just something that I hadn’t experienced before – it was incredible,” Clarke said.
Moving to Europe at the age of 16, Clarke has spent the last 11 years splitting his time between Melbourne and Europe.
“I basically spend February until October there every year and come home for the off season,” he said.
“In Europe, winter is about to start, so most of the Aussies pack up and come home for the summer – to train in the snow is not easy on a bike.
“My family also still live here, so it’s good to be home to see family and friends,” he said.
Spending a lot of his time now training in the newly launched Monbulk Aquatic Centre gym, Clarke said he was thrilled to be at the centre and described it as a serene place to train.
“This new complex is unreal, I use to swim with the Monbulk club back when I was in primary school and now to see how they have developed it and added in a gym is just great,” he said.
“They have gone out and got the best equipment, so in terms of gym sessions you couldn’t have it any better.
“I like to be able to support things in the hills and a gym like this is perfect for my pre-season, and I’m glad I can come down and make the most of it.”
Looking into the future, Clarke said he hoped he can successfully compete in a few more Tour De Frances over the years and was excited about next year’s event.
“The course hasn’t been released yet, but no matter what the course is, I’m pretty keen to go back there and try and do well again next year,” he said.
Mr Clarke said after the success of Cadel Evans, cycling had really picked up in Australia and he loved coming back and meeting his Australian supporters.
“Although Europe is eight hours behind, you would be surprised how many people stay up here in Australia and watch the live coverage of the race,” he said.
“They basically don’t sleep for the month of July, so I think they do it just as hard as I do racing.”
Mr Clarke is now gearing up to kick off the Australia summer season with the Tour Down Under in Adelaide in the third week of January and then the Herald Sun Tour in Melbourne 10 days after before heading back to Europe.
