{"id":406686,"date":"2026-01-13T16:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:12:08","slug":"that-ones-for-you-mate-australian-rider-dedicates-national-title-to-worldtour-team-boss-who-gave-me-the-flick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406686\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That one’s for you, mate’ \u2013 Australian rider dedicates national title to WorldTour team boss who ‘gave me the flick’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former WorldTour<\/a> pro Patrick Eddy playfully dedicated his victory at the Australian National Road Championships on Sunday to the Picnic PostNL team boss who he said \u201cgave him the flick\u201d at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

Eddy, who now rides for Australian Continental squad Team Brennan, spent the last four years of his career with the Dutch team, riding for their WorldTour set-up in 2024 and 2025. The 23-year-old\u2019s contract was not renewed for this season.<\/p>\n

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On Sunday, Eddy outsprinted three-time national champion Luke Plapp<\/a> (Jayco AlUla) to win in Perth, having hunted down the breakaway leader Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla).<\/p>\n

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The victory marked the first of his career at pro level.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few months ago, I felt like most of the cycling world gave up on me. But there was just those handful of people around me who just kept believing in me, kept telling me to keep at it, keep hustling. This is for them,\u201d Eddy told Australian broadcaster SBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old also made a tongue-in-cheek dedication to his former head coach at Picnic PostNL. \u201cI told Rudi Kemna I\u2019d make him look a bit silly when he gave me the flick, so that one\u2019s for you, mate,\u201d he said, winking to the camera.<\/p>\n

After two years on Picnic PostNL\u2019s development squad, Eddy graduated to the WorldTour team in 2024, and went on to compete in marquee races like Paris-Roubaix<\/a>, the Tour of Flanders<\/a>, and the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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His new national crown comes seven years after he won both the junior road race and time trial titles. His latest win, he told SBS, \u201cmeans everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve pretty much won nothing since I won the junior nationals. I lost myself as a rider for the last few years, and just saw this as an opportunity to get back to racing aggressive, having fun,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve found myself again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plapp, the race\u2019s runner-up, said Eddy was a \u201ctrue champion\u201d who had \u201cgone through a lot\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Likewise, on Instagram, Eddy\u2019s partner, British Continental rider Libby Smithson, paid tribute to the new Australian champion, who she explained had had a sleepless night during the week caring for her after she was struck by a car driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no words for how proud I am,\u201d Smithson wrote. \u201cOn Tuesday night Pat slept in the hospital with me and got zero sleep even though his biggest goal of the year was in a few days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just one example of all the selfless things he does for me and everyone in his life. He’s been through so much this year, but he’s never stopped showing up for everyone else. No one deserves it more I wish I could properly put into words how f****ing amazing you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decathlon CMA CGM rider Oscar Chamberlain finished third in the men\u2019s road race at the Australian National Championships.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s elite title was won by Liv AlUla Jayco<\/a>\u2019s Mackenzie Coupland ahead of her club teammate and 2024 champion Ruby Roseman-Gannon. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Felicity Wilson-Haffenden (Lidl-Trek<\/a>) won the elite time trial titles last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former WorldTour pro Patrick Eddy playfully dedicated his victory at the Australian National Road Championships on Sunday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-406686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}