Robbie McEwen is an Australian
former professional road cyclist. He last
rode for Orica-GreenEDGE on the UCI World
Tour, and is now a technical advisor for the
team. As a triple winner of the Tour de
France's green jersey sprinters'
classification, at his peak he was
considered one of the fastest sprinters in
the world.
A former junior Australian BMX champion,
McEwen switched to road racing in 1990 at
18. He was first selected for the Australian
national road team in 1994. McEwen lives in
Australia with his wife Angélique Pattyn,
son Ewan, and daughters Elena and Claudia.
He retired after riding the 2012 Tour of
California.
McEwen started
road cycling at the Australian
Institute of Sport in Canberra under
the A.I.S. road cycling coach Heiko
Salzwedel. The first signs of his
sprinting prowess on the
international stage were at the
"Peace Race", winning three stages
for the Australian National team.
He competed in the road race at the
1996 Summer Olympics and the 2000
Summer Olympics. He was also
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. McEwen was again selected for
Australia at the 2004 Summer
Olympics as part of the road race
team of Michael Rogers, Stuart
O'Grady, Baden Cooke and Matthew
White.
McEwen was named 2002 Australian
Cyclist of the Year, 2002 Male Road
Cyclist of the Year and 1999
Australia Male Road Cyclist of the
Year. McEwen has participated in the
Tour de France 12 times, in 1997 and
enjoyed 12 stage wins. In 1999 on
stage 20 he won the sprint in Paris
on the Champs-Elysées.
