1. Robbie McEwen was born on 24 June 1972 and is an Australian former professional road cyclist.
25 Facts About Robbie McEwen
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Robbie McEwen raced as a professional from 1996 until 2012.
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Robbie McEwen competed in the road race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
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Robbie McEwen was 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.
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Robbie McEwen was again selected for Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games as part of the road race team.
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Robbie McEwen was named 2002 Australian Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road Cyclist of the Year and 1999 Male Road Cyclist of the Year.
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Robbie McEwen participated in the Tour de France on 12 occasions: 1997,1998,1999,2000,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008 and 2010.
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In 1999, Robbie McEwen won the final stage sprint in Paris on the Champs-Elysees.
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In 2005, Robbie McEwen won stage 5 to Montargis, stage 7 to Karlsruhe in Germany, and stage 13 to Montpellier.
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In 2006, Robbie McEwen won stages 2,4 and 6 to Esch-sur-Alzette, St Quentin and Vitre respectively.
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Robbie McEwen started the 2007 Tour with a victorious sprint on stage 1 to Canterbury.
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Robbie McEwen injured his knee and wrist but with the help of his team he clawed his way back to the bunch to win the sprint by over a bike length.
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In 2002, Robbie McEwen became the first Australian to win the Tour de France points classification.
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In 2004, Robbie McEwen won the points classification for a second time, defeating Hushovd and Erik Zabel.
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Robbie McEwen had fractured two transverse process in a mass pile up on stage 6 and continued the race in extreme pain, making his stage 9 win in Gueret all the more remarkable.
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Robbie McEwen won his third and final Points classification in the 2006 Tour de France, this time with Zabel second and Hushovd third.
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Robbie McEwen struggled to reach the finishing line of the mountain stages in the gruppetto.
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In 2017,2018,2019 and 2020, Robbie McEwen commentated on the Tour de France's world feed in English, alongside fellow Australian Matthew Keenan.
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Robbie McEwen commentated on the Santos Festival of Cycling for the 7 Network Australia, and joined GCN in March 2022.
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Robbie McEwen then went on to feature on Eurosport's coverage of the 2024 Tour de France as both a pundit on The Breakaway and as a race commentator.
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Robbie McEwen was known as a particularly cunning and tactical sprinter.
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Where many teams would use lead-out trains to secure a stage win for their selected sprinter, Robbie McEwen achieved many of his victories either with one lead-out man, or often none at all, by aggressively and intelligently positioning himself within the peloton in the final kilometres.
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Fellow Australian cyclist Stuart O'Grady considers Robbie McEwen to be "one of the fastest, most powerful accelerators the planet has ever seen".
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In 2011, Robbie McEwen published an autobiography entitled 'One Way Road'.
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Robbie McEwen lived for many years in the Belgian town of Everbeek and is fluent in Dutch.