LUKE ROBERTS Q&A
Luke Roberts OAM is a South Australian cyclist who has won Commonwealth,
Olympic gold medals , held the world record and has been a World Championship
all on the Track. He was awarded the
Order of Australia for his services to Australian sport.
Luke has raced professionally since 2002 and has ridden with Team CSC
(2005-2007), Milram (2010) and Saxo Bank (2011-2012). At the moment he races
with Team Stölting. He has been described as one of the best 6-day racer’s,
Australia has ever produced. He always performs highly in his hometown race the
Tour down Under
Luke lives in Cologne with his wife Sylvia and their two daughters
Hi Luke thanks very
much for doing the Q&A
You were an
integral component of Australia’s glory days of cycling where our national
dominated the track. What are your favourite memories of this exciting era?
I have a very special memory from each title we won between 2002 and
2004 in the Team Pursuit.
The first success at the 2002 Commonwealth Games was a surprise win and
an even bigger surprise to take the World Record with it, from there we went on
to take our first World Championship in Copenhagen.
In 2003 we followed up with a title defence in Stuttgart, lowering the
World Record again whilst my wife, her family and some of my team mates looked
on in the crowd.
The home victory in Melbourne 2004 was the most special, a hard fought
final in front of a home crowd and our families.
If I had to pinpoint one particular memory as my favourite then it goes
without saying the Olympic Gold in 2004 would be it, standing on the podium to
receive our medals brought out a completely overwhelming emotion that I didn't
experience after any World Championship win.
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| "The very special medal" |
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The "foursome of awesome" Graeme Brown, Brett Lancaster, Brad McGee, Luke Roberts
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Tell us about your
early days of cycling?
I began racing in 1990 at age 13, I had some success and quite enjoyed
it but continued to mix in other sports such as Football and Tennis. After my
first State representation at the 1992 National Track Championships I decided I
wanted to see how far I could go with Cycling and concentrated solely on that.
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| Another Successful TDU Courtesy AAP |
I believe you come
from a cycling family?
My father raced professionally in Australia and my mother also tried her
hand racing on both the road and track, with both my parents working in the
bike industry I was destined to end up on a bike at some stage.
What was your first Club?
In 1990 I joined the Kilkenny Amateur Cycling Club. After moving to
Melbourne in 1991 I joined the Brunswick CC and in 1993 returned to Adelaide
and joined the Norwood CC.
What was your first bike?
My first bike was hand built by my father under the Pursuit label.
Tell us about your
role within Team Stölting and do you have a contract with them for next year?
My main role at Team Stölting is helping to develop the young riders. I
am under contract as a rider and my priority is to use my experience to guide
the younger guys during the races from within the race, quite important since
radios are no longer allowed.(in races outside WorldTour)
You have been
racing for a long time and I believe you said quite recently you still have the
fire… What keeps you going?
Other than just enjoying the time out on the bike I love the challenge
of setting a goal to work towards and the satisfaction of achieving those
goals.
How often do you
get back to Australia? Are you planning of racing the Nationals?
I try to get back to Australia once a year, I often tied it in with
racing the Nationals and Tour Down Under. Unfortunately the dates clash with
some important 6 Day races in Europe during January so that plan doesn't always
work. I'd like to do some track racing in Aus, perhaps I'll look at a trip out
for the Austral and Bendigo Madison.
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Racing all the time in many different places must be hard with a young family, how do you all cope?
It's a tough life sometimes being a pro bike rider, spending a lot of
time away from home, Skype makes things much easier and I even watched the
birth of my second daughter live on Skype whilst I was away at the Giro. On the
other hand whilst we're at home we don't have an 8 hour working day so we get
to catch up on some quality time with the family.
Not to write you
off the racing books yet but where do you see yourself after pedalling? Do you see yourself being a High performance
coach or a DS?
I would like to work with young Australian riders after my active
career, to pass on all my experiences and knowledge gained during my time as a
rider, I am already working on the necessary qualifications.
Photo courtesy Herald Sun, Getty Images, AAP, AOC and Team Stölting
Follow Luke on Twitter:@lukeroberts77
Team Website: http://www.team-stoelting.com/
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