Robbie McEwen

McEwen at the 2013 Tour Down Under
Personal information
Full name	Robert McEwen
Nickname	Rocket Robbie
Born	(1972-06-24) 24 June 1972 (age 51) Brisbane, Australia
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb; 11 st 0 lb)
Team information
Current team	Retired
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Sprinter
Professional teams
1996–1999	Rabobank
2000–2001	Domo–Farm Frites
2002–2008	Lotto–Adecco
2009–2010	Team Katusha
2011	Team RadioShack
2012	GreenEDGE
Managerial team
2012–2013	Orica–GreenEDGE
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France Points classification (2002, 2004, 2006) 12 individual stages (1999, 2002, 2004–2007) Giro d'Italia 12 individual stages (2002–2007) One-day races and Classics National Road Race Championships (2002, 2005) Paris–Brussels (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) Scheldeprijs (2002) Dwars door Vlaanderen (2003) Vattenfall Cyclassics (2008) GP de Fourmies (2005)
Medal record Representing  Australia Men's road bicycle racing World Championships 2002 Zolder Road race

Robbie McEwen AM (born 24 June 1972) is an Australian former professional road cyclist. McEwen is a three-time winner of the Tour de France points classification and, at the peak of his career, was considered the world's fastest sprinter.^{[citation needed]}

He last rode for Orica–GreenEDGE on the UCI World Tour.^[1][2]

A former Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road cycling in 1990 at 18 years of age. He raced as a professional from 1996 until 2012.

McEwen retired from the World Tour after riding the 2012 Tour of California^[3] and is now a cycling broadcast commentator on the Tour Down Under^[4] and the Tour de France.^[5]

Career

McEwen was born in Brisbane. After four years of moving through the regional, state and national levels of cycling, he started at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra under road cycling coach Heiko Salzwedel. The first signs of his sprinting prowess on the international stage were at the Peace Race, winning three stages for the Australian national team.

McEwen competed in the road race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (23rd) and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games (19th).^[6] He was 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 again selected for Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games (11th) as part of the road race team.

McEwen was named 2002 Australian Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road Cyclist of the Year and 1999 Male Road Cyclist of the Year. After spending 16 seasons racing for foreign teams (Dutch: Rabobank & Farm Frites; Belgian: Lotto; Russian: Katusha; USA: RadioShack), McEwen signed for the new Australian GreenEDGE^[1] team in September 2011 after it gained a ProTeam licence for the 2012 season.

Tour de France

McEwen participated in the Tour de France on 12 occasions: 1997 (117th), 1998 (89th), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Over the years, he has won 12 stages. In 1999, McEwen won the final stage sprint in Paris on the Champs-Élysées. In 2002, McEwen won stage 3 (Metz–Reims) and stage 20 (Melun–Paris). In 2004, McEwen won stages 3 and 9. In 2005, McEwen won stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany, and stage 13 to Montpellier. In 2006, McEwen won stages 2, 4 and 6 to Esch-sur-Alzette, St Quentin and Vitré respectively.

He started the 2007 Tour with a victorious sprint on stage 1 to Canterbury. The stage win was seen as remarkable as he had crashed with 20 kilometres (12 mi) to go. He injured his knee and wrist but with the help of his team he clawed his way back to the bunch to win the sprint by over a bike length. The injuries he sustained from this crash did not prevent him from continuing but eventually he was forced out of the race when the Tour entered the Mountains, his knee injury became worse and he failed to finish stage eight within the time limit.

In 2002, McEwen became the first Australian to win the Tour de France points classification. By 2006, McEwen had won the Tour de France green points jersey three times in this race – in 2002, 2004 and, again, in 2006 – defeating rivals such as fellow Australians Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady, and international competitors like Erik Zabel of Germany, Tom Boonen of Belgium and Thor Hushovd of Norway.

McEwen's first win in the 2002 Tour de France saw him win the green jersey from German legend Erik Zabel, with O’Grady third and Cooke fourth. In 2004, McEwen won the points classification for a second time, defeating Hushovd and Erik Zabel. McEwen had fractured two transverse process (vertebrae) in a mass pile up on stage 6 and continued the race in extreme pain, making his stage 9 win in Guéret all the more remarkable.

McEwen won his third and final Points classification in the 2006 Tour de France, this time with Zabel second and Hushovd third.

In 2012, he announced that the Tour of California would be the last professional race of his career. He struggled to reach the finishing line of the mountain stages in the gruppetto. He humorously said after his arrival on the final stage in Los Angeles: "This was a good race to pick as my last because I suffered so much this week I won't miss it." He was awarded the "Most Courageous Rider" jersey at the end of the race to commemorate his last day of professional cycling.^[7] After retiring from racing, McEwen remained with Orica–GreenEDGE as a technical adviser and sprint coach.^[8]

Commentating

In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, Robbie McEwen commentated on the Tour de France's world feed in English, alongside fellow Australian Matthew Keenan.^[5][9]

In 2021 he featured on SBS Australia's coverage of a number of cycling races,^[10] but his contract was not renewed for 2022.

He commentated on the Santos Festival of Cycling for the 7 Network Australia,^[11] and joined GCN (Global Cycling Network) in March 2022.^[12]

Anna Meares, Phil Liggett, and Robbie McEwen co-hosted the Seven Network broadcast of the 2023 & 2024 Santos Men’s Tour Down Under used by Peacock in the US.^[13][14]

Sprinting style

McEwen was known as a particularly cunning and tactical sprinter. Where many teams would use lead-out trains to secure a stage win for their selected sprinter, McEwen achieved many of his victories either with one lead-out man, or often none at all, by aggressively and intelligently positioning himself within the peloton in the final kilometres.

Fellow Australian cyclist Stuart O'Grady considers McEwen to be "one of the fastest, most powerful accelerators the planet has ever seen".^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

McEwen lives in Australia with his Belgian wife, Angélique Pattyn, his son, Ewan, and his daughters, Elena and Claudia. In 2011, McEwen published an autobiography entitled 'One Way Road'. McEwen lived for many years in the Belgian town of Everbeek and is fluent in Dutch.

McEwen has two brothers, the eldest is Ross and is getting into Triathlon, the youngest, Cam, is a Scrum Master at Telstra and a car enthusiast.

Major results

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

Grand Tour	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Giro d'Italia	—	—	—	DSQ	—	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	—	DNF	DNF
Tour de France	117	89	122	114	—	130	143	122	134	114	DNF	119	—	165	—
// Vuelta a España	—	DNF	DNF	—	139	—	—	—	—	DNF	—	—	—	—	—

Recognition

In 2015, he was an inaugural Cycling Australia Hall of Fame inductee.^[15] In 2019, inducted into Sport Australia Hall of Fame.^[16]