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A Brief History...
There’s one character
trait road cyclist Nathan O’Neill has in abundance: toughness.
He proved that beyond doubt in 1995
by winning a silver medal in the road time trial at the Oceania Titles
while nursing a broken pelvis. Throughout his cycling O’Neill has always
been a winner. Even at his first event he came out on top.
At the suggestion of a friend, O’Neill
attended a 16 kilometre handicap race in 1989. The race began at 6:00am
before school and O’Neill won it. Within two years he was winning gold
medals at the Australian Junior Championships, and in 1992 won a bronze
medal in the 4,000 metres teams pursuit at the World Junior Championships.
Health problems forced O’Neill into
temporary retirement in 1993 but he came back the following year to claim
the Australian Road Time Trial gold medal at the national titles in his
first year as a senior. O’Neill also won the mountains classification of
the Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic in 1994.
He was invited to join the Australian
Institute of Sport road team in 1995 but a series of misfortunes, culminating
in his broken pelvis, made it a forgettable year. O’Neill missed selection
for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta but was added to the Olympic Athletes
Program with an eye on his potential for 2000.
In 1998 O’Neill trained with Australian
track endurance squad in Mexico and joined Australia’s under 26 contingent
in Italy under the guidance of national road coach Shayne Bannan. Despite
this, he missed selection for the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
At the beginning of 1999 O’Neill
finished second in the Tour of Tasmania behind compatriot Cadel Evans.
Evans, who is in the mountain bike team for Sydney, was obviously impressed,
inviting O’Neill to join him in America where Evans rides for the Volvo
Cannondale team.
O’Neill was a guest rider for the
team during the Redlands Classic and was impressive, riding shotgun for
Evans and finishing seventh overall as well as winning the King of the
Mountains classification. That ride presented O’Neill with a dilemma. He
was convinced his future lay in Europe, but was offered a contract with
the American team Mercury.
Eventually he knocked the American
deal back, and his decision proved wise so after when he won a two-year
contract with the Italian Panaria-Gaerne team beginning in January 2000.
That offer came after O’Neill won the time trial stage of the amateur Tour
of Italy.
In his first event for his team,
the Tour of Malaysia, O’Neill was fourth in the time trial and helped his
team-mate Julio Perez to the mountains jersey and second place overall. |
