Robbie McEwen

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**Robbie McEwen**
Personal information
Full name	Robbie McEwen
Nickname	Pocket Rocket
Date of birth	June 24, 1972
Country	Australia
Team information
Current team	Predictor-Lotto
Professional team(s)
1996-1999 2000 2001 2002-2004 2005-2006 2007-	Rabobank Farm Frites Domo-Farm Frites Lotto-Domo Davitamon-Lotto Predictor-Lotto
Major wins
3x maillot vert (2002, 2004, 2006) 11 stages Tour de France 11 stages Giro d'Italia 2x Champion of Australia 3x Paris-Brussels

Robbie McEwen

Robbie McEwen (born June 24, 1972, Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian professional road bicycle racer, specializing in fast sprint finishes. He is considered one of the fastest sprinters in the world.

A former junior Australian BMX champion, McEwen switched to road racing in 1990 at the age of 18. He was first selected for the Australian National Road Team in 1994. McEwen lives in Brakel, Belgium with his wife Angélique Pattyn and his son Ewan, and speaks Flemish fluently.

1 Career
- 1.1 Tour de France
- 1.2 Major victories
2 External links

[edit] Career

He was selected for the Australian cycling team at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the road race team of Michael Rogers, Stuart O'Grady, Baden Cooke and Matthew White. Previously competed in the Road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics (placed 23rd) and the 2000 Summer Olympics (placed 19th). Also included on the Australian team for the 1994 UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Italy, and the 2002 UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Belgium where he won a silver medal.

He was named 2002 Australian Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road Cyclist of the Year and 1999 Australia Male Road Cyclist of the Year.

[edit] Tour de France

Robbie McEwen has participated on the Tour de France on nine occasions, in 1997 (117th), 1998 (89th), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. He has had eleven stage wins. In 1999 on Stage 20 he won the sprint finish in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In 2002 he won Stage 3: Metz - Reims and Stage 20: Melun – Paris. In 2004 he won stage 3 and stage 9. In 2005, he was relegated in stage 3 by race referees after clashing with fellow Australian Stuart O’Grady. He was the victor in stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany and stage 13 to Montpellier.

As of 2006, McEwen has won the sprinters' green jersey points competition three times in the Tour de France in 2002 and 2004 against rival Australian sprinters, Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady, and again in 2006 against Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd. He was the first Australian to win the overall Sprint Classification of the Tour de France.

In 2002 McEwen won the green jersey with O’Grady third and Cooke fourth in the final sprint rankings. In 2003 Baden Cooke won the green jersey with Robbie McEwen second and Stuart O’Grady seventh in the final sprint rankings.

In 2004 McEwen won the green jersey for a second time defeating Thor Hushovd of Norway 2nd, and Erik Zabel of Germany 3rd, with fellow Australians, O'Grady 4th and Cooke 12th. His win was remarkable when it was revealed that he had suffered fractures to two vertebra early in the Tour and had ridden the rest of the race in serious pain. Three days after the Tour de France he was back on the seat coming second behind Lance Armstrong in a post-Tour criterium race in the Netherlands.

When asked about his selection for the Australian road team to the 2004 Summer Olympics McEwen said "If I can ride the Pyrenees, the Alps and the Champs Élysées and win the green jersey with a broken back, then one day in Athens is no problem".