New-look SBS cycling commentary team

SBS has unveiled its new-look cycling commentary team including 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 Giro d’Italia tomorrow, followed by the Vuelta a España, Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – more than 810 hours of Live cycling content across 2022.

SBS Director of Sport, Ken Shipp, said: “SBS is incredibly passionate about our commitment to cycling — we’ve been giving Australians a front row seat to the world’s greatest events for more than 30 years, and our goal continues to be to deliver the very best of cycling to Australian audiences. We are excited to have a team of trusted presenters and experts fronting our coverage, bringing a range of perspectives and providing entertaining and comprehensive analysis.”

“The Tour de France, Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a España are some of the world’s biggest annual sporting events. They’re at the heart of SBS’s sporting line-up and, every year, we provide extensive coverage for millions of fans across Australia. As Australia’s cycling network, we look forward to investing further in the sport to make our coverage even bigger over the years to come.”

The new team follows the exit of former commentators Robbie McEwen and Michael Tomalaris departed in recent months with little detail from SBS, prompting some concerns amongst fans of the sport.

Providing expert commentary and trusted analysis across SBS’s cycling coverage are Matthew Keenan who’s 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 at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Milan-San Remo and stage wins at all three Grand Tours, plus a stint in the leader’s yellow jersey at the Tour de France. Former Giro d’Italia stage winner and long-standing 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. Multiple national champion on the track and road, Kate Bates, brings a wealth of racing experience and broadcast talent to the team. And rounding out the SBS cycling presenting team is two-time national road champion and founding member of the first-ever independent international women’s cycling union, Gracie Elvin, and internationally renowned sprinter and lead-out specialist Mark Renshaw.

The Giro d’Italia is ‘the toughest race in the world’s most beautiful place’ and the 105th edition of the magnificent Italian race will be no exception. Clicking into gear tomorrow until Sunday 29 May, the 2022 Giro d’Italia starts in Hungary, with the picturesque Lake Balaton as the 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 on the hunt for stages in a race where he has five stage victories already in his career.

All 21 stages of the Giro d’Italia will be live in full on SBS On Demand with television coverage on SBS starting at the crucial time in the stage later each night. There are two linear opportunities to catch the daily one-hour highlights show on SBS: at 7.00am and 5.00pm AEST (4.30pm on weekends).

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

In July, the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift are coming to SBS for a cycling-packed month encompassing the biggest and best races in the world. All 21 stages of the Tour de France and all eight stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift will be live and free on SBS and SBS On Demand, with daily highlights and much more. More details about SBS”s broadcast schedule will be revealed soon.

Dr Bridie O’Donnell
Dr Bridie O’Donnell graduated as Valedictorian from the University of Queensland Medical School. Between 2000 and 2006 she was a rower and competed in Ironman triathlon, finishing the Ironman Hawaii World Championships in 2006. In 2007, she began road cycling and in 2008 after winning the National Time Trial title, she raced in the Australian National Team, and then Professional Italian teams in Europe and the United States, representing Australia at three World Championships between 2008-2012. From 2013-2017, Bridie managed and raced for Rush Women’s Team in the Cycling Australia National Road Series. In 2016, she broke the UCI Hour World Record. In 2017, she was appointed the inaugural Head of the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation by the Victorian Government and in 2018, her cycling memoir: “Life and Death” was published, detailing her experiences as a professional cyclist in Europe.

Christophe Mallet
Christophe is a television presenter, podcast host and long-time Executive Producer of SBS Radio’s French program. In 2017 he was awarded a National Order of Merit – he was incredibly honoured to be introduced as a Knight of the Order of Merit in France. Over the course of his 10+ years at SBS, Christophe has been involved in many projects including hosting the Tour de France highlights show alongside Kate Bates, and has been heavily involved in SBS’s coverage of the Dakar Rally. He’s also been responsible for producing more than 4,200 radio shows across the SBS radio network.

David McKenzie
David McKenzie brings nine years’ 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. Starting his career on the track, David made his first appearance for Australia at 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 pro-cycling circuit David has competed in Australia and throughout Europe for various teams, winning stages at a number of 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 2016 Rio Olympic Games, has been to two Commonwealth Games, and competed in eight separate world championships in road cycling and mountain biking. Gracie was a member of the GreenEDGE professional team for eight years. She won UCI races in Europe, took second at the Tour of Flanders, and was team captain at many 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 making sure she left the sport in a better place than when she started in it.

Kate Bates
Kate Bates is a track world champion, dual Olympian on the road and track, Commonwealth Games track gold medallist, road national champion, and road World Cup winner. She boasts a list of achievements and accolades worthy of a team of riders. For this she has been inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame. One of the world’s premier cyclists in the 2000s, Bates represented Australia on the track at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in the individual pursuit, and on the road and track at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Bates made the points race her own claiming dual Commonwealth Games gold in the discipline in 2002 and 2006, a host of World Cup and national victories while also surging to the 2007 world title.

Mark Renshaw
Mark Renshaw is a retired Australian racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2019 for the Française des Jeux, Crédit Agricole, HTC–Highroad, Belkin Pro Cycling, Etixx–Quick-Step and Team Dimension Data teams. During his 16-year career, he was most well known as the main lead-out man for fellow sprinter Mark Cavendish, helping him win more than 20 Tour de France stages. His most notable wins are the overall general victory in the 2011 Tour of Qatar, Tour Down Under Stages, Tour of Britain Stages and Tour of Turkey stage victory, and the one-day race Clásica de Almería. He raced in the Tour de France 10 times and in 2004, he also raced in the Olympic Games in Athens in the track cycling points race.

Matthew Keenan
2022 will be Matt’s 16th year commentating 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 recognised internationally as one of the leading commentators in the business.

Simon Gerrans
Simon Gerrans holds the unique position of being the first Australian to have won a stage in all three Grand Tours – the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. He found competitive cycling as a teenager on the suggestion of Australian cycling legend Phil Anderson, who then lived on a property nearby Gerrans’ parents farm in country Victoria. Anderson, who saw Gerrans cycling as rehabilitation from a serious knee injury after a motor bike racing crash, encouraged him to take up the sport competitively. Simon has been a proud ambassador and active fundraiser of the Chain Reaction Challenge Foundation since 2010 and was the founder of the Victorian Inter-School Cycling Series.