New SBS Cycling Commentary Team

SBS has unveiled its new team of cycling commentators comprising Matthew Keenan, Bridie O’Donnell and Simon Gerrans alongside David McKenzie, Christophe Mallet, Kate Bates, Gracie Elvin and Mark Renshaw.

The cycling calendar begins on SBS with the Tour of Italy tomorrow, followed by Vuelta of Spain, Tour de France and Tour de France Women with Zwift – over 810 hours of live cycling content in 2022.

SBS Sporting Director Ken Shipp said: “SBS is incredibly passionate about our commitment to cycling – we’ve been giving Australians a front row seat at the world’s biggest events for over 30 years, and our goal continues. to be to deliver the best of cycling to the Australian public.We are delighted to have a trusted team of presenters and experts at the forefront of our coverage, bringing a range of perspectives and providing entertaining analysis and complete.

“The Tour of France, Tour de France Women with Zwift, Tour of Italyand Vuelta of Spain are among the biggest annual sporting events in the world. They are at the heart of SBS’s sports programming and each year we provide extensive coverage to millions of fans across Australia. As Australia’s cycling network, we look forward to investing more in the sport to further expand our coverage in the years to come.

The new team follows the exit of former commentators Robbie McEwen and Michael Tomalaris who left in recent months with few details from SBS, raising some concerns among sports fans.

Matthew Keenan, known for his encyclopaedic knowledge of world cycling, world hour record holder and Australian time trial champion, Dr Bridie O’Donnell and Simon Gerrans, whose illustrious cycling career includes victories in Liège, provide expert commentary and reliable analysis on SBS cycling coverage. -Bastogne-Liège, Milan-San Remo and stage victories in the three Grand Tours, plus a stint in the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de France. Former Giro d’Italia stage winner and longtime SBS presenter David McKenzie and SBS French Radio’s Christophe Mallet will continue to provide highlights and fan engagement with the popular ZWIFT SBS Cycling podcast. A multiple national track and road champion, Kate Bates brings extensive racing experience and a talent for broadcasting to the team. And rounding out the SBS cycling presentation team are Gracie Elvin, two-time national road champion and founding member of the first-ever independent international women’s cycling union, and Mark Renshaw, internationally renowned sprinter and training specialist.

The Giro d’Italia is “the toughest race in the most beautiful place in the world” and the 105th edition of the magnificent Italian race will be no exception. Starting tomorrow until Sunday May 29, the 2022 Giro d’Italia kicks off in Hungary, with the picturesque Lake Balaton as a backdrop.

Australian stars Richie Porte and Caleb Ewan are set to feature with Porte looking to contest the battle for the overall win, while Ewan will be looking for stages in a race where he already has five stage wins in his career.

All 21 stages of the Giro d’Italia will be broadcast live on SBS On Demand with television coverage on SBS beginning at the crucial stage moment later each evening. There are two linear opportunities to catch the daily one-hour show on SBS: 7:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. AEST (4:30 p.m. on weekends).

With catch-up replays as well as extended previews and analysis videos via SBS On Demand throughout the three-week race, SBS is home for all things Giro d’Italia.

In July, the Tour de France and Tour de France Women with Zwift come to SBS for a jam-packed month of cycling encompassing the biggest and best races in the world. The 21 stages of the Tour de France and the eight stages of the Tour de France Women with Zwift will be broadcast live and for free on SBS and SBS On Demand, with daily highlights and much more. More details on the SBS broadcast schedule will be revealed soon.

Dr. Bridie O’Donnell
Dr Bridie O’Donnell graduated valedictorian from the University of Queensland Medical School. Between 2000 and 2006 she was a rower and competed in the Ironman triathlon, finishing the Ironman Hawaii World Championships in 2006. In 2007 she started road cycling and in 2008 after winning the national time trial title she raced for the Australian national team, and then professional Italian teams in Europe and the United States, representing Australia at three world championships between 2008 and 2012. From 2013 to 2017, Bridie managed and raced for the team Women’s Rush in the Cycling Australia National Road Series. In 2016, she broke the UCI hour world record. In 2017 she was appointed as the first Director of the Office for Women in Sport and Leisure by the Government of Victoria and in 2018 her memoir Cycling: ‘Life and Death’ was published, detailing her experiences as a professional cyclist in Europe.

Christophe Mallet
Christophe is a long-time television presenter, podcast host and executive producer of the French program for SBS Radio. In 2017 he was awarded the National Order of Merit – he was incredibly honored to be presented as Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite in France. During his more than 10 years at SBS, Christophe has been involved in numerous projects, including hosting the Tour de France highlights show alongside Kate Bates, and has been heavily involved in coverage of the Dakar Rally. by SBS. He was also responsible for producing over 4,200 radio shows on the SBS radio network.

David McKenzie
David McKenzie brings nine years of experience as a professional cyclist to SBS, providing in-depth analysis of the race, the riders and everything viewers need to know about road racing. Beginning his career on the track, David made his first appearance for Australia aged just 16. He joined his first professional cycling team in 1997 after a stint at the Australian Institute of Sport and in 1998 won the Australian National Road Championship. On the professional cycling circuit, David has competed in Australia and across Europe for various teams, winning stages at several events including the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Japan and Tour Down Under.

Gracie Elvin
Gracie is a two-time national road cycling champion. She represented Australia at the Rio Olympics in 2016, competed in two Commonwealth Games and competed in eight separate road and mountain bike world championships. Gracie was part of the GreenEDGE pro team for eight years. She won UCI races in Europe, finished second in the Tour of Flanders and was team captain in numerous team victories. She is also a co-founder of the first-ever international women’s cycling union – the Cyclists’ Alliance – and cares deeply about gender equality and ensuring that she leaves the sport in a better place than when she started. .

Kate Bates
Kate Bates is a world track champion, two-time road and track Olympian, Commonwealth Games track gold medalist, national road champion and World Cup winner on the road. It has a track record and distinctions worthy of a racing team. For this, she was inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame. One of the best cyclists in the world in the 2000s, Bates represented Australia on the track at the Athens Olympics in 2004 in the individual pursuit, and on road and track at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Bates has made the points race his own, winning double Commonwealth Games gold in the discipline in 2002 and 2006, a host of World Cup and national victories while also reaching the world title in 2007.

Marc Renshaw
Mark Renshaw is a retired Australian cyclist, who raced professionally between 2004 and 2019 for teams Française des Jeux, Crédit Agricole, HTC–Highroad, Belkin Pro Cycling, Etixx–Quick-Step and Team Dimension Data. During his 16-year career, he was best known as the main point guard for fellow countryman Mark Cavendish, helping him win more than 20 Tour de France stages. His most notable victories are the overall overall victory in the 2011 Tour of Qatar, the stages of the Tour Down Under, the stages of the Tour of Britain and the stage victory of the Tour of Turkey, and the race of a Clásica de Almería day. He participated 10 times in the Tour de France and in 2004 he also participated in the Athens Olympics in the track points race.

Matthew Keenan
2022 will be Matt’s 16th year commentating on cycling’s biggest event, the Tour de France. After two seasons of amateur racing in Europe, Matt turned to commentary, having since commentated on the Commonwealth Games, Tour of Spain, Paris-Nice, Giro d’Italia and Tour of Qatar. Known for his supreme cycling knowledge and ability to recall detailed information about individual cyclists, Matt is internationally recognized as one of the industry’s leading commentators.

Simon Gerrans
Simon Gerrans holds the unique position of being the first Australian to win a stage in all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. He discovered competitive cycling as a teenager at the suggestion of Australian cycling legend Phil Anderson, who was then living on a property near the farm of Gerrans parents in country Victoria. Anderson, who viewed Gerrans’ cycling as rehabilitation from a serious knee injury after a motorcycle racing accident, encouraged him to pursue the sport competitively. Simon has been a proud ambassador and active fundraiser for the Chain Reaction Challenge Foundation since 2010 and was the founder of the Victorian Inter-School Cycling Series.

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