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Australian cycling has a new team for 2018. On Monday 11 December, the line-up for what will be called the Australian Cycling Academy – www.aca-cycling.cc – was revealed. RIDE Media spoke with Ben Kersten to find out more.

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Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is poised to become a base for Australia’s newest cycling team. The Australian Cycling Academy has been a long time in planning and the concept was launched on Monday.

Ben Kersten, a former rider who comes from one of Australia’s true cycling families, is the team’s director and he spoke to us to explain the genesis of the idea. (See below for a Soundcloud file of our interview as well as a transcript of the discussion.)

 

Kersten talks about the line-up and the full list is as follows:

  • Leigh Howard
  • Kelland O’Brien
  • Sam Welsford
  • Cameron Scott
  • Daniel Fitter
  • Mitchell Wright
  • Michael Potter
  • Amarni Gates
  • Elliot Schultz
  • Aidan Kampers
  • Toby Orchard
  • Ashley Mackay
  • Alistair Mackellar

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Click the link above to listen to our interview with Ben Kersten.

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RIDE: I’ve got Ben Kersten talking to me on FaceTime. I thought we’d give him a buzz and talk about 2006 when he rolled around the floor (of the Hisense Arena in Melbourne after winning the Commonwealth Games ‘kilo’) in front of millions of Australians…

Ben Kersten: [Laughing] “Thanks for bringing that up.”

 

Well, by way of introduction that was what happened when he won the Commonweath Games gold medal in Melbourne in 2006. A lot has transpired since then. What have you been up to? You’ve got some news that you want to share with Australia. What’s going on?

“Yeah, I do… I’ve just recently finished up with the New South Wales Institute of Sport and moved up to the Sunshine Coast and I have started a new project up here called the Australian Cycling Academy at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

“So I’m really excited to finally get this off the ground. It’s a big thing and a lot of work but I’m super excited.”

 

So it’s an amalgam of road and track? Or what’s the approach going to be?

“It’s a full road program and obviously that’s a good space at the moment with limited opportunities in Australia. We’re really excited to be of some use, I guess. And we will have some track riders from the CA high performance unit in our team but we’re not a track team, we’re just a road team.”

 

Is this sort of a result of what happened with the change of format in funding that came about through Simon Jones arriving as high performance director?

“Not really. We’ve been working on this for quite a while and it just happened to be the direction we were going and how we wanted to be linked up to the council up here, the Sunshine Coast council. They are really keen to make the Sunshine Coast the cycling mecca of Australia. That didn’t really involve track racing, that involved riding on the roads up here and seeing what the terrain had to offer and the beautiful mountains and ocean and everything in between.

“It started off in that respect and over time [we] ended up with Simon Jones’ decision and hopefully we can really fill that void [created by funding being directed mainly towards the track cycling program in advance of the Tokyo Olympics]. We’re not being asked to or anything like that but, as I said, hopefully we can be of a great use and service.”

 

Noosa has got a rich history with sport, triathlon in particular. And I know you’re closely linked with the reasons why – and by that I mean you’re married to [former Noosa Triathlon director] Garth Proud’s daughter. Can you just give us a little bit of history [about] Garth and his input into what you’re doing now even though he’s now no longer with us?

“Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. It is a bit of a sad story. He passed away recently, cycling – doing what he loved in Spain.

“Garth and I really thought of this project as his next evolution of bringing even more bike riders to the Sunshine Coast.

“He started the Noosa triathlon and USM Events, which now Ironman own, and the Mooloolaba World Cup triathlon, and he’s been heavily involved in sport – cycling and triathlon – for 30 years.

“This was our next project to make Noosa even more on-the-map for cycling.

“Sadly he won’t be around to see it come to fruition but it’s happening and he’d be really proud.”

 

Just to go complete family circle, your wife has a twin sister and she’s married to Matt Wilson who, I understand, is also involved with your project. Is that correct?

“Yeah, definitely. We’re very lucky to have the experience of Matty, my brother in law. He still very much works for GreenEdge but we’re very happy that he’s guided me with a lot of the set up here. He’s just a ‘founder’ now on this thing – he’s been guiding me through the process. He’s a good person to be able to call and ask for advice along the way but now I guess it’s all up to me to make sure I run it right.”

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The team has already had a few training camps on the Sunshine Coast…

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You’re bringing many threads together. I know Matt Wilson as a former Australian champion but also a key member of the FDJ team for many years. One of his colleagues – or team-mates – at the time was Brad McGee and you’ve been working with him for a while. Is there going to be a link between Ben Kersten and Brad McGee moving forward into 2018?

“I think with cycling if you can be linked with Brad it’s always going to be helpful. He certainly knows what he’s doing and I’ve been very thankful – and it has been a great privilege to be able to work with him, or under him, at NSWIS.

“Hopefully I’ve learnt enough to set this up properly and I’ll always be able to pick up the phone and we can only hope to grow to a stage where we are working with the national road coach at some level. At the moment, it’s just a phone-a-friend situation…”

 

We could keep going with the six degrees of separation until we end up talking about pretty much everyone in the cycling community but how about we at least cover the basics and you can tell me [about] some of the riders on your roster.

“Yeah, I guess we can start with the track guys because obviously they’ve come from a great program and it really helps us prop up the team.

“So we’ve got Leigh Howard – which has really been fantastic.

“We’ve got current world champions Sam Welsford and Kelland O’Brien from the teams pursuit.

“We have Cameron Scott who I used to coach back at NSWIS. He has come from a track endurance and he’s recently been picked up by [national track endurance coach] Tim Decker with the HPU, which is fantastic.

“And then we’ve got a bunch of young riders. It’s an under-23 team except for Leigh Howard and Stu Shaw, the rest are all under 23.

“We sort of worked on my old register of NSWIS and NSW athletes and picked up young Michael Potter from mountain biking; Daniel Fitter who we all should know – he’s a power house from up in Queensland. He had a horrible injury this year and had a back operation so we’re backing him to get back into form.

“Aiden Kampers from Wollongong, a very tall, lean climber.

“Armani Gates, you might have heard that name before because of his step dad, Nick Gates.

“Toby Orchard from the southern highlands. We’re leaning a little bit towards New South Wales here…

“And also Ashley Mackay from over in Perth.

“Young Mitch Wright from NSWIS.

“And another local Elliot Schultz from Queensland, the under-19 champion.

“That’s the roster.”

 

It’s a good little overview. Will all of these guys be moving up to the Sunshine Coast and going to university? Is that part of the program?

“The long-term plan for us is to have a full live-in environment here. It’s part of the structure that Garth and I and Matt thought of: what would be the best thing and why are we doing this?

“One was just the location. Where would you want to train?

“The second bit was having high performance services available too. So the university, which we very much have alongside – we’ve got all the facilities and staff here available…

“And then third [element] was to have access to that.

“You can’t just sign 13 riders straight up and move them all here but we do have three or four that are relocating, which is fantastic and we’re investigating their university studies – we’re really excited about that.

“And then there’s another bunch here that already live in the area so we’ll be here training and we hope to make it an AIS sort of hub where they can just come and access the staff and the education and the services here whenever they want.

“The CA guys, the teams pursuiters, they’ll come in for the big blocks of [training] camps to utilise all of [the university’s facilities] as well.

“Eventually we’ll keep rolling on and rolling out and layering it with even more people living here and make it a big hub.”

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The Glasshouse Mountains provide great training terrain for the team.

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You’ve lived the cycling life pretty much your entire life courtesy of your brothers and then your involvement as an athlete and now manager and team director. What’s the highlight so far – and there’s a whole lot more yet to come…

“Matt and I sat down years ago and said, ‘What could we do better for young cyclists…? What are they missing out on?’ And the fact is, if we get one rider out of this team signing pro, that’s a really good result.

“But then there’s another 10 that don’t so what could we do for them to help their careers and better them as people? This whole set-up, this whole environment – having career mentors, having access to education, providing all these services … not just turning up to a race with bikes – there’s more that we can do for them. And it’s actually happening.

“We’re really proud about that; just being able to offer more for them as people than a race program.”

 

The NRS is in a state of flux. You’ve been living closely with the machinations of that in the last few years with your role with the New South Wales Institute of Sport. Do you think, number one, that there’s longevity for the series? And number two, your team is going to have much involvement with it?

“Yeah… the first thing we want to do with this is support cycling in Australia and support Cycling Australia, so we’re definitely going to have a vested interest in the NRS.

“You’re right, it has been fairly sketchy the last few years but I am confident in the changes that I’ve seen happening. There will be a resurgence and I think Kip Kauffman is doing a great job at the moment with that.

“As with anything, it takes time.

“We’re not prepared to go anywhere else so we have time. But to compensate for that, is why we have a UCI license and why we’re going to race overseas as well because there isn’t enough racing – or long enough racing… but there’s still a nice quality of it that we can really take part in and supplement our race schedule.”

 

Is there reason to be irritated by the politics of Australian cycling?

[Laughs] “Not comment…”

 

Ah, I thought I’d just throw that one out there. You’ve been through a lot. I know that Olympic selection had you down in the doldrums for a little while all those years ago when you were racing. But you still stay with the sport and you don’t seem to be able to ride away from it – it’s very much part of you…

“Yeah, it is part of me and I think… I guess there’s politics in all walks of life. And you just walk away when it gets hard, I think that’s the easy thing to do.

“I think as long as you put the athlete first – and [understand] why we want to do it – it’s bigger than that. And I’m prepared to go through it.

“I think there’s a lot of good people with a lot of good ideas and the reasons that they’re doing it are there. And they are the right reasons – as long as well all keep doing that [we’ll be okay].

“There are a lot of other people doing the same in the NRS like ACJ (Andrew Christie-Johnson] and what he’s doing with IsoWhey and that…

“There’s lots of people doing it and so long as they all keep doing it then these riders will benefit.”

 

It’s the old premise of community and making sure that one looks after the other. Everyone involved as a piece to play in what is a greater puzzle, isn’t it?

“Yeah, I think so.

“And I think when you start turning against other people you get frustrated about them doing it better or different and you start to separate when there’s a problem. And I think at the moment you see a lot of unity with the teams and also with the NRS and CA.

“I think everybody is just trying to do their bit and that’s when we’re going to see success.

“I see a bright future anyway.”

 

Well that’s good. Let’s round out this conversation with the concept of a bright future. I wish you all the best with what you’re about to embark on. It’s an exciting time and I hope that we can continue telling the story of everything that you’re getting involved with Ben.

“Yeah, thanks a lot… I’m really looking forward to the next few years involved with the Sunshine Coast Council and the University of the Sunshine Coast.”

 

 

– Interview by Rob Arnold

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