Robbie McEwen

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Robbie McEwen

McEwen in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Robbie McEwen
Nickname	Pocket Rocket
Date of birth	June 24, 1972 (1972-06-24) (age 35)
Country	Australia
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight	67 kg (150 lb/10.6 st)
Team information
Current team	Silence-Lotto
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional team(s)
1996-1999 2000 2001 2002 2003-	Rabobank Farm Frites Domo-Farm Frites Lotto-Adecco Lotto-Domo (2003-2004) Davitamon-Lotto (2005-2006) Predictor-Lotto (2007) Silence-Lotto (2008-)
Major wins
Tour de France, Green Jersey (2002, 2004, 2006), 12 stages Giro d'Italia, 12 stages  Australia Road Race Champion (2002, 2005) Paris-Brussels (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Infobox last updated on:
September 16, 2007

Robbie McEwen (born June 24, 1972, Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian professional road bicycle racer, specializing in fast sprint finishes. As a triple winner of the Tour de France's spinters' classification, he is considered one of the fastest sprinters in the world.

A former junior Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road racing in 1990 at the age of 18. He was first selected for the Australian National Road Team in 1994. McEwen lives in Brakel, Belgium with his wife Angélique Pattyn, his son Ewan, and his daughter Elena, and speaks Dutch fluently.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Tour de France 1.2 Major victories 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Career

McEwen started his road cycling career in 1992 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra under AIS Head Coach Heiko Salzwedel. He previously competed in the Road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics (placed 23rd) and the 2000 Summer Olympics (placed 19th). 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 selected for the Australian cycling team at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the road race team of Michael Rogers, Stuart O'Grady, Baden Cooke and Matthew White. He was named 2002 Australian Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road Cyclist of the Year and 1999 Australia Male Road Cyclist of the Year.

[edit] Tour de France

Robbie McEwen has participated in the Tour de France on ten occasions, in 1997 (117th), 1998 (89th), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. He has had twelve stage wins. In 1999 on Stage 20 he won the sprint finish in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In 2002 he won Stage 3: Metz - Reims and Stage 20: Melun – Paris. In 2004 he won stage 3 and stage 9. In 2005, he was relegated in stage 3 by race referees after clashing with fellow Australian Stuart O’Grady. He was the victor in stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany and stage 13 to Montpellier. He started off the 2007 Tour with a great victorious sprint on stage 1 to Canterbury but was forced out of the race after failing to finish stage eight within the time limits set by race officials. The stage win was also seen as remarkable as at one point during the race he had to work his way from the back of the pack with the help of his team. From here a sprint to the end was won at the finish line.

As of 2006, McEwen has won the sprinters' green jersey points competition three times in the Tour de France in 2002 and 2004 against rival Australian sprinters, Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady, and again in 2006 against Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd. He was the first Australian to win the overall Sprint Classification of the Tour de France.

In 2002 McEwen won the green jersey with O’Grady third and Cooke fourth in the final sprint rankings. In 2003 Baden Cooke won the green jersey with Robbie McEwen second and Stuart O’Grady seventh in the final sprint rankings.

In 2004 McEwen won the green jersey for a second time defeating Thor Hushovd of Norway 2nd, and Erik Zabel of Germany 3rd, with fellow Australians, O'Grady 4th and Cooke 12th. His win was remarkable when it was revealed that he had suffered fractures to two vertebra early in the Tour and had ridden the rest of the race in serious pain. Three days after the Tour de France he was back in the saddle coming second behind Lance Armstrong in a post-Tour criterium race in the Netherlands.

When asked about his selection for the Australian road team to the 2004 Summer Olympics McEwen said "If I can ride the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Champs Élysées and win the green jersey with a broken back, then one day in Athens is no problem".^[1]

[edit] Major victories

Medal record
Competitor for  Australia
Road bicycle racing
World Championships
Silver	2002 Zolder	Elite Men's Road Race

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Australian Cycling Federation profile
• Robbie McEwen profile

Sporting positions
Preceded by Erik Zabel	Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France 2002	Succeeded by Baden Cooke
Preceded by Baden Cooke	Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France 2004	Succeeded by Thor Hushovd
Preceded by Thor Hushovd	Winner of the green jersey in the Tour de France 2006	Succeeded by Tom Boonen

v • d • e Tour de France Maillot vert (Green jersey) winners 1953 Fritz Schär · 1954 Ferdinand Kübler · 1955-1956 Stan Ockers · 1957 Jean Forestier · 1958 Jean Graczyk · 1959 André Darrigade · 1960 Jean Graczyk · 1961 André Darrigade · 1962 Rudi Altig · 1963 Rik van Looy · 1964-1965 Jan Janssen · 1966 Willy Planckaert · 1967 Jan Janssen · 1968 Franco Bitossi · 1969 Eddy Merckx · 1970 Walter Godefroot · 1971-1972 Eddy Merckx · 1973 Herman van Springel · 1974 Patrick Sercu · 1975 Rik Van Linden · 1976 Freddy Maertens · 1977 Jacques Esclassan · 1978 Freddy Maertens · 1979 Bernard Hinault · 1980 Rudy Pevenage · 1981 Freddy Maertens · 1982-1983 Seán Kelly · 1984 Frank Hoste · 1985 Seán Kelly · 1986 Eric Vanderaerden · 1987 Jean-Paul van Poppel · 1988 Eddy Planckaert · 1989 Seán Kelly · 1990 Olaf Ludwig · 1991 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov · 1992 Laurent Jalabert · 1993-1994 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov · 1995 Laurent Jalabert · 1996-2001 Erik Zabel · 2002 Robbie McEwen · 2003 Baden Cooke · 2004 Robbie McEwen · 2005 Thor Hushovd · 2006 Robbie McEwen · 2007 Tom Boonen

v • d • e Riders on Silence-Lotto Mario Aerts | Volodymyr Bileka | Christophe Brandt | Dario Cioni | Dominique Cornu | Francis De Greef | Wim De Vocht | Dries Devenyns | Glenn D'Hollander | Bart Dockx | Cadel Evans | Gorik Gardeyn | Nick Gates | Leif Hoste | Pieter Jacobs | Olivier Kaisen | Matthew Lloyd | Robbie McEwen | Yaroslav Popovych | Jurgen Roelandts | Bert Roesems | Roy Sentjens | Geert Steurs | Maarten Tjallingii | Greg Van Avermaet | Jurgen Van Den Broeck | Wim Van Huffel | Johan Van Summeren | Wim Vansevenant | Manager: Marc Sergeant

Persondata
NAME	McEwen, Robbie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH	1972-06-24
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH