A conversation with Phil Anderson, the first Australian in the maillot jaune

Moving on

Part driven by the frustration of his 1983 Tour he moved on to the Dutch-based Panasonic team in 84, under the demanding control of Peter Post, a master tactician and a task master who reputedly broke as many riders as he made.

“For me it was exciting. The team was, well, a lot less French. Having Peter Post at the helm, he was a very strong character and the riders all clicked in to his plans. At Peugeot the team meetings were all in French and I was pretty much left out.

“With Post (the meetings) were a lot more disciplined team; if I punctured there’d be seven or eight guys waiting for me, not like at Peugeot. For me that was critical, I needed that support.”

Things had moved on in cycling, and English voices were becoming very prominent in the pro peloton of Europe by the end of the eighties, many of them were the rookie American voices of the 7-Eleven team.

“I’d always wanted to be on 7-Eleven and the opportunity came up. I hadn’t re-signed yet with TVM, and Jim Ochowicz caught me in a lift in Montreal and asked if I’d ever thought about coming to the American team. I was excited at the prospect.”

There was limited history and protocol to draw on for a maverick and evolving set up like 7-Eleven.

“I really looked forward to joining a non-European team, and an English-speaking team, and the freshness, and not being bogged down with tradition. It was good in some respects, and bad in others; there were a lot of things they didn’t understand.

“It was quite a big difference. They were mostly all American, not like the more recent incarnations (U.S. Postal, RadioShack), so it was a lot more relaxed. The training and approach to racing was totally different, a fresh mentality.”

Evans’ win was some 30 years in the making; from his pioneering yellow jersey to an Australian rider actually winning the Tour. Many thought that Evans would never quite manage to step up to the top of the podium.

“You could see he was on form from day 2 (The TTT). He’d never had a crack team like that before, and they put him up there. On day 4 you could see he was really on his game; the way he just rode up to Contador. He was very confident. He could have taken the yellow jersey then, and had it through the Tour. But he wisely allowed Europcar to take it, and saved his team for those critical moments.”

Over the edge

As Australian cycling continues to go from strength to strength it also prepares to launch its first ever World Tour team, GreenEdge. Having seen the teething problems with Team Sky how are they likely to shape up?

“It’s exciting. An Australian team has been talked about for some time. Finally it’s going to fly. I think they’ll do a great job. I’d liked to have seen a team develop over a number of years rather than just jump in. But they have good management and structures there.”

FILED UNDER: News TAGS: Phil Anderson / Steve Thomas