Anyone who lives in the ACT or NSW is generally familiar with the "Wagga Effect" - the phenomenon that sees certain regional centres produce inordinate numbers of quality sportsmen and women. I think Canberra is challenging these regional centres for the lead in producing top athletes and making a disproportionate contribution to Australian teams and international results, in cycling at least.
Canberra has a long history of producing world class cyclists, but I've just looked at all the Canberrans selected for World Championships this year and its quite amazing how many of Australia's best cyclists started their careers in a city with a climate that could hardly be considered optimal for a tough outdoor sport!
This year, in the Road World Championships long teams, we have one out of 14 riders in the U23 men's team - Tom Palmer; 2 out of 17 in the Elite men - Michael Matthews and Rory Sutherland; and three out of 13 in the Elite women's - Chloe Hosking, Jessie Maclean and Vicki Whitelaw. Then there's the Juniors - one out of nine in Allison Rice; and the Paras - three out of 18 with Sue Powell, Brandie O'Connor and Kerry Knowler (pilot), not to mention Jing Huang competing in the Paras for Chinese Taipei.
For a population of not too much more than 350,000, I think that's a pretty fair effort. Let's hope it converts to some medals finding their way back to Canberra towards the end of September.
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