When the men’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race rumbled to a close on Sunday afternoon, it didn’t just signal the end of Australia’s international summer of racing. It also concluded the career of one of Australia’s longest-serving and most respected riders: Simon Clarke.
After more than two decades in professional sport, multiple Grand Tour stage wins, a world title on the track, two Olympics, and 12 Road World Championship appearances for Australia, the 39-year-old crossed the final finish line of his career on the Geelong foreshore, less than 100 km from where he grew up in the Dandenongs Ranges east of Melbourne.
“I’m happy,” he told reporters just after that finish. “I can’t complain with the career I’ve had, and to do it with such a great team (NSN) and a great group of boys, it’s just a great way to finish.”
A career in brief
Clarke’s time at the highest level of the sport started in the early 2010s, but you can trace his connection with cycling back much further than that. Riding bikes as a kid, taking part in the iconic Great Victorian Bike Ride three times with his dad, racing on the track and the road as a junior – it all paved the way for a long and successful tenure in the pro ranks.
By early 2008, Clarke was Australian U23 road race champion, he’d been racing in Europe for a few years already, and he was on course to join his first European team the following year. He signed his first WorldTour contract with Astana for the 2011 season then, in 2012, he joined the new Australian outfit Orica GreenEdge in its debut season. He immediately delivered on the significant potential he’d shown in the years prior.
Clarke winning stage 4 of the 2012 Vuelta.
In late 2012 Clarke won a stage of the Vuelta a España and the KOM jersey in what was his first of 20 Grand Tours. In 2013 he was part of the Orica GreenEdge squad that won the team time trial at the Tour de France.
After four years with GreenEdge – and after wearing the maglia rosa of Giro d’Italia leader in 2015 – Clarke departed for Cannondale-Drapac in 2016 (now EF Education-EasyPost) where he’d race until the end of 2020. The 2019 season was one of the best of his career, with a strong early season culminating in a second place at Amstel Gold Race, as Mathieu van der Poel took one of the greatest wins of the modern era.
Post COVID, Clarke found himself on Qhubeka NextHash, and when that team folded in spectacular fashion, Clarke went into the start of 2022 without a contract. He’d trained the entire off-season as if a last-minute ride was possible, and in the end, it was. Israel-Premier Tech found a spot for him in January and Clarke was saved from early retirement.
He repaid that trust with one of the great comeback stories.
On stage 5 of the 2022 Tour de France, on a visit to the infamous cobbles of northern France, Clarke fought his way into the early breakaway and settled in. He was dropped at one point, but battled back to the front of the race over the pavé.
Clarke ended up winning the stage with a perfectly executed bike throw, claiming Israel-Premier Tech’s first-ever Tour de France stage win, six months after being convinced his career was likely over.
Clarke (right), moments before the bike throw that saw him take the biggest win of his career.
In May 2025, after more than three years with Israel-Premier Tech, Clarke announced that the 2026 Australian races would be his last.
One final season
Coming into his final month as a professional, Clarke did what he’s always done. He came back from Andorra to Australia once the 2025 season was done, to see family and friends and to prepare for the early season races ahead. This time, though, he approached his training a little differently.
“I decided this year to not really have an off-season, considering I’ve got a life of off-season ahead of me,” Clarke told Escape with a chuckle, just hours before the start of the 2026 Santos Tour Down Under. “I didn’t have to do the traditional, big winter rebuild. Normally you put on a few kilos, and you’re working flat-out to get them back off again, and obviously that wasn’t the case this year. I’ve actually quite enjoyed it.”
This year’s Tour Down Under was Clarke’s 15th. Only one rider, Mark Renshaw, has more starts in Australia’s biggest race, with 16. If Clarke was feeling the significance of racing on home soil for the final time, he didn’t show it.
“I’m just as focused as always,” he said. “I’m not trying to overdramatise the fact that it’s the last one. We’ve got a team plan and a team strategy, and I’m going into this week to help the boys execute that strategy as best as possible. The only difference is I just want to try and enjoy it as much as possible, knowing that it is my last one.”
NSN’s original plan for the race had been to target the GC with former winner Stevie Williams, but a pesky knee injury prevented the Welshman from coming out to Australia. Instead the team brought out English sprinter Ethan Vernon, and on stage 4, with Clarke playing a vital role in the lead-out, Vernon sprinted to the team’s first victory in its new colours.
Looking back
After so many years spent racing as a professional on the road, Clarke has much to reflect on as he rides into the next phase of his life. But when asked about the moments that stand out most to him, it’s clear he’s given this some thought.
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