Oarsman Osborne: Switching to cycling with Olympic gold
DPA
· 28.12.2020
"I'm going to the Olympics in Tokyo to win gold," the 26-year-old lightweight rower from Mainz told the German Press Agency. Before he pursues his second sporting passion as a professional cyclist, the Mönchengladbach-born rower and his partner Jonathan Rommelmann will be chasing their dream of precious metal at the Summer Games, which have been postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"I've been to the Olympics before - if you don't win a medal, it's somehow only half as much fun," says Osborne, adding: "Now, with European Championship silver and World Championship bronze in the double sculls, I have completely different ambitions to 2016. Anything other than a medal would be a disappointment - I'll be honest about that." In 2018, Osborne rowed to World Championship gold in the non-Olympic lightweight single sculls.
After the Tokyo Games, Osborne's next goal is on the agenda: Switching to professional road cycling. "I'm really up for it," he says and adds confidently: "I'm up for it. My stats are absolutely good enough to ride in the WorldTour." His big dream: "To take part in the Tour de France, that would be great."
The son of a German mother and a British father proved that Osborne can pedal hard on a bike at the E-Cycling World Championships, which were held for the first time at the beginning of December. On the virtual training platform "Zwift", he beat almost 100 competitors after 50 kilometres on the Smart-Trainer during a rowing training camp in Portugal. On his ride into the virtual rainbow jersey, Osborne left road greats such as Rigoberto Uran (Tour runner-up in 2017), Alberto Bettiol (winner of the Tour of Flanders 2019) and two-time European time trial champion Victor Campenaerts behind him.
"The Zwift World Champion title has already opened a few doors for me in cycling. Word gets around," says Osborne, not without pride. The first interested parties have already knocked on his management's door and he is confident that he can also gain a foothold in cycling. Long cycling sessions have been part of Osborne's training programme for many years.
Osborne has already proven that he can also keep up with the professional cyclists on the road. He has twice taken part in the German individual time trial championships. In 2018, he finished eighth, and a year later he came sixth, just 1:27 minutes behind four-time world champion Tony Martin. "I see myself as an all-rounder as a rider. I can time trial well, but I can also get up the mountains well. I think I would be a good helper," is how Osborne describes himself.
At first glance, the signs for the switch from the boat to the bike seem good. "Primarily, you can only judge physiological performance. In the Zwift races, he showed that he can definitely deliver this and that the prerequisites are there," says Dan Lorang, coach of the top German team Bora-hansgrohe with Emanuel Buchmann and top star Peter Sagan. "But you can't predict how he will move in the peloton, for example, how he will manage his strength and how quickly he will find his feet in a race. That's always the big unknown with such lateral entrants," adds the Luxembourger.
There are several role models for lateral entrants. Former ski jumper Primoz Roglic won the Vuelta for the second time this year after 2019. At the Tour de France, the 31-year-old Slovenian only had to concede yellow to his compatriot Tadej Pogačar on the penultimate day. Former middle-distance runner Michael Woods (Canada) won two Vuelta stages and finished third in the 2018 World Championships. "Roglic and Woods are definitely role models, but almost more so Cameron Wurf," says Osborne. Like Osborne, the Australian Wurf (34) was a rower and an Olympic participant in the lightweight double sculls in 2004. He switched to cycling in 2007, tried his hand at triathlon from 2015 and returned to the world-class Ineos team in 2020.
If the cycling project doesn't work out after all, Osborne already has plan B ready: "If I realise that nothing is going to work, the back door to the 2024 Olympics is still open." Contrary to initial plans, lightweight rowing will continue to be an Olympic sport in Paris. But Osborne has no doubts that the switch to the saddle will not work out.
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