Robert Power (Australian cyclist)

Robert Power

Power at the 2016 Tour of Britain.
Personal information
Born	(1995-05-11) 11 May 1995 Perth, Australia
Height	184 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Team information
Current team	Orica–Scott
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climber
Amateur team(s)
2014–2015	Jayco-AIS World Tour Academy
Professional team(s)
2016–	Orica–GreenEDGE

Robert Power (born 11 May 1995) is an Australian road racing cyclist. He currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Orica–Scott.^[1]

Career

Amateur career

As a child, Power was a rugby player; his brother Leon played for the Brumbies and now plays for Oyonnax Rugby. At the age of 13, however, Power suffered a knee injury. The rehabilitation from the injury involved a lot of cycling on the velodrome at the Midlands Cycling Club in Perth. Power joined the group rides and, a year later, rode in the national championships. He continued riding in the various age-group categories over the subsequent years.^[2]

Power joined the National Junior High Performance Program in 2013. During that season, he won two races (a stage of the Giro della Lunigiana and the Trofeo Buffoni one-day race) as well as recording several other high placings.^[2][3] He was then selected to ride in the junior road race at the Road World Championships in Florence. He attacked on the last lap of the race in an attempt to catch a leading group but was caught and finished in the main bunch in 19th place.^[2]

At the beginning of the 2014 season, Power competed in the under-23 national road race, finishing second behind Caleb Ewan. He then made his professional debut in the 2014 Herald Sun Tour, where he finished fourth in the youth classification.^[2][4] Power's next race was the Oceania Cycling Championships road race; he came second in the elite race won by Luke Durbridge and won the under-23 classification.^[2] The points he won in this race would earn him victory in the 2014 UCI Oceania Tour rankings.^[5][6] Following this result, he was signed to ride with the Jayco-AIS World Tour Academy and achieved a podium finish in his first race for the team.^[2] Other victories followed over the course of the season, as well as a seventh-place finish in the professional-level Tour d'Azerbaïdjan.^[7] During the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan, Power was described by Ewan as "unbelievably talented".^[2]

Power competed for the Australian team at the 2014 Tour de l'Avenir, the most important under-23 stage race on the cycling calendar. He had five top-ten stage finishes, including a second-place finish behind Miguel Ángel López in a two-man sprint on stage 6.^[7][8] He finished in second place overall, 30 seconds behind López.^[9] Power's final race of the season was the under-23 road race at the Road World Championships; his teammate Caleb Ewan finished second, while Power finished in the main bunch in 35th place.^[10]

Professional career

Power made his UCI World Tour debut at the 2015 Tour Down Under, riding for the UniSA-Australia team. He was the youngest rider in the race; he finished 41st overall and 10th in the youth classification.^[1][11] During the race, it was announced that he had been signed by the Orica–GreenEDGE team for the 2016 season, alongside Jack Haig and Alex Edmondson. He was described by Matt White, the team's sporting director, as "one of the most exciting climbing talents we've seen in Australian cycling for a very, very long time".^[1] Power then rode the 2015 Herald Sun Tour. He took the lead in the mountains classification on the first stage after attacking early on in the stage, then went on to win the young riders classification, take second place in the mountains classification and finish sixth overall in the general classification.^[11][12]

After a season of racing in junior races in Europe that included a stage victory and the overall win in the Giro della Valle d'Aosta, Power was selected for the 2015 Tour de l'Avenir, where he was considered to be one of the favourites for overall victory. He was forced to pull out, however, in the week before the race due to a knee injury.^[13] Early in 2015 it was announced Power would sign with Orica–GreenEDGE for the 2016 season,^[14] but in November 2015 he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone marrow edema^[15] that meant he only made his debut with the team in August 2016.^[16]

Major results

References