With or without the rainbow jersey, Simon Gerrans will end his 2014 season leading a formidable Australian team in the World Championship road race next Sunday. Enjoying arguably the most successful year of his professional career, the 34-year old rider admitted that recent victories in Canadian one-day events significantly boosted his confidence and a prospect of finishing it off with yet another, big one, is an immense source of motivation.

 

Thanks to his highly convincing victories in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec and Montreal just as much as his well established ability to time his condition perfectly for season’s key events, Gerrans is regarded one of the biggest favorites for the upcoming World Championship road race.

 

Unsurprisingly, the 34-year old Australian admitted that his impressive showing in Canada filled him with additional confidence, although he has been quite certain about his condition even without getting this kind of confirmation.

 

“As far as my condition goes, I am really happy with where I am at,” Gerrans said in a conference call Friday, responding to a question from CyclingTips. “I am as good as I could have hoped to be at this stage of the year.

 

“I have obviously had some great results in the past couple of weeks and that just gives me lots of confidence coming into the world championships.”

 

Regardless of the result obtained in Ponferrada, 2014 season has already been the most successful in his career as he won road national title, Santos Tour Down Under and Liege-Bastogne-Liege before sweeping off the weekend in Canada.

 

Even though the Orica-GreenEDGE rider has also victories in such events like Milano-Sanremo or Tour de France stages in his palmares, he claimed that the world title would be the highlight of his professional career.

 

“If I could win a world championships, it would be the highlight of my career,” he said, savouring the thoughts of possible gold. “I have had some great wins throughout my career, particularly in the last couple of years, but I have always said that a world title is a race I dreamt of winning.

 

“So it would be huge. And I think most professional cyclists would say the same thing.”

 

“Obviously as an Australian the Olympic Games is huge. I think it is huge worldwide,” he accepts, thinking it out. “But you get to wear the rainbow jersey for the following twelve months. That is hugely respected within the sport.”

 

Even though all statistics clearly indicate that the Vuelta serves as the most proven build-up towards the World Championships, Gerrans explained that a long season was the main reason why he has chosen a more flexible way of preparing himself for that event.

 

The reason was, he says, due to the fact that he has already been competing for almost nine months.

 

“I chose to do this one day race programme as preparation for the world championships mostly because I have already had a very long year,” he explained, pointing out just how much he has done in 2014. “I was in top condition in January, then again in the spring, then again for the Tour de France. So to use a Grand Tour as preparation would be a bit of a tall ask.

 

“I think if you are approaching the last part of the year and you have already been in top shape a few times, the Tour of Spain is just too demanding. It takes too much out of you. I would anticipate coming out way too fatigued to be able to be good for the world titles.

 

“So with that in mind, we chose this one day programme where the preparation is very much largely based on training as well.”

 

“When you are training, you have the luxury that if you are feeling a bit tired or feeling a bit flat, you can have an easy day.

 

“There is obviously no obligation to turn around, pin a number on and do a tough Grand Tour stage. So that is the reasoning behind choosing this one day programme rather than the Tour of Spain.”

 

Gerrans is a big favourite to take the world title not only thanks to his superb disposition and tactical astuteness, but extremely strong Australian team he will be supported by. With Michael Matthews and Cadel Evans in the squad, they have a rider for every possible scenario in which the race could develop and they know each other very well since the majority rides for the Orica-GreenEDGE outfit.

 

Even though the 34-year old Australian national champion seems to be their best card to play, he claims to be ready to give up on his personal ambitions if happenings take different turn.

 

“Between myself, Michael and Cadel we have actually got three great options for the various ways the race could unfold,” he said. “Obviously having Cadel there, who is just sort of a real warrior…he is going to be there when there is potentially the situation where there is just a few guys left standing in the race. If the race is a real war of attrition, I expect Cadel to be there.

 

“If the race isn’t so difficult and there is quite a big group coming in to the finish, we have the luxury of Matthews there, who is one of the quickest guys going around at this point in time.

 

“Then myself, I fall somewhere in between that. So, I think with the Australian team that we have got three protected riders, three really good options there.”

 

“I think as a whole we have a really strong unit.”

 

Asked about his biggest rivals, Gerrans wisely acknowledged that due to a nature of the course in Ponferrada, riders of different characteristics might be able to excel in the road race. However, he pointed out to Alejandro Valverde as the one who seems to occupy the podium in the event without any regards to difficulty of the route, weather conditions or geographic coordinates.

 

“I think it is hard to look past the Spanish team, obviously – Valverde and Rodriguez are consistent performers at the world championships. With Valverde it doesn’t seem to matter if it is a really demanding course or one a little bit easier; he is generally up there every year. Then if it is a big tougher, expect to see Rodriguez there.

 

“John Degenkolb has shown some fantastic condition in the Tour of Spain – if it is not such a demanding day, I expect John to be up there going for the win. Then Peter Sagan is a guy a little bit like Valverde; he is strong on all sorts of parcours. Although he was quiet in the Tour of Spain, it will be interesting to see how he comes out of that.”

 

“You obviously have to look to the Swiss with Cancellara and Albasini,” he pointed out. “The Belgians have got a really strong group but no clear leader at this point, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

 

“Then there are a real array of guys that you need to be attentive of, how they race their race. I think at the end of the day, of the guys you see around you in the final laps coming to the finish – you can’t really discount anybody.”

 

Clearly confident about his chances to strip Rui Costa of off his rainbow jersey, the 34-year old Australian made it absolutely clear that upcoming World Championship road race would be his final event of the 2014 season. And that a prospect of finishing highly successful year with a victory he has ever dreamt about inspires him immensely.

 

“At this stage my last race for 2014 is the world championships,” he insisted. “I have had a long, tough season. I have asked a lot out of myself, physically and mentally, in order to stay focussed for this long and to get so many peaks out of my season.

 

“I think it is time to have a rest after the world championships. If I were able to win it, there would be plenty of opportunities next year to be racing in the rainbow jersey.

 

“Like I said, I have been racing at a pretty high level since early January. So as tempting as it would be to line up in another couple of races as world champion, I think it would be more important to have a rest and to start thinking about next year.”

 

“I have probably had the best season of my career this year, so to bookend it [like that]…” he said, considering the possibility.

 

“To win the national championships at the very beginning, then to finish it off with the road world championships at the end of the year…I really couldn’t ask for much more than that.”