Geelong World Cup
From 2004 - 2007 this was the official website for the Geelong Tour.
The content below is from the site's 2007 archived pages.
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The 2007 Geelong Women's Road World Cup and Geelong Tour will once again bring the fastest women cyclists to Australia.
The 2007 Geelong Tour will take place on February 27-March 1, 2007, and will be followed by the
2007 Geelong Women's Road World Cup on March 3, 2007.
When I first saw this site, I thought this site woud be the perfect for using the Zendesk platform. This is a great paltform for allowing support teams to respond quickly to customers or in this case visitors who want more information at the UCI Women’s Road Cycling World Cup. I work for a company that provides Zendesk support to all sorts of businesses and organizations, so I know first hand how helpful this platform is. The options for organizing content are extremely flexible, which means an organization can provide just about any kind of information for their customers whether it is FAQs, tutorials, schedules legal disclaimers etc. Just saying.....
Geelong Women's World Cup - March 3, 2007
World Cup comes to Geelong for fifth time
Geelong will play host to the opening round of the UCI Women’s Road Cycling World Cup for the fifth successive year when the world’s best elite women cyclists line up on the Geelong Waterfront on Saturday March 3. The race kicks off at 10.30am.
The World Cup is being staged as a feature event in the Wheels on Waterfront Geelong, a two day festival of sport and family activities (March 3 and 4) incorporating the World Cup and the Australian Triathlon Championships
Head to Steampacket Gardens on Waterfront Geelong to catch all the race action live on the superscreen with non-stop commentary and enjoy music, clowns, face painting and much more. For those who want to really get into the swing of things a range of community rides (over varying distances) are on offer for everyone from the recreational peddaller to the serious cycling enthusiast.
The 2006 Geelong UCI Women’s Road World Cup race featured Olympic, World and World Cup Series champions in the starting list and 2007 promises to again showcase the outstanding talent in the women’s professional ranks.
21 teams have confirmed for the 2007 event including the defending World Cup Series Champion and world ranked number one Nicole Cooke (GBR) who will be backed by the Raleigh Lifeforce Creation HB team (SUI). Team Flexpoint (NED) †will be headed by past World Champion Suzanne Ljungskog of Sweden whilst †Germany’s Regina Schleicher, Trixi Worrack and Charlotte Becker will join Lithuanian star Edita Pucinskaite in the Nurnberger Versicherung (GER) team.
Japan’s Miho Oki, second in Geelong in 2006, and Australian pair Olivia Gollan and Rochelle Gilmore will line up for Italian team Menikini Gysko with Italian Sigrid Corneo also racing.
The T-Mobile squad will include 2006 Geelong World Cup victor Ina Teutenberg of Germany and Australians Oenone Wood and Kate Bates.
Olympic track champion Sarah Ulmer will head the New Zealand Team with national teams also entered from Germany, Brazil and Great Britain.
US Based teams Cheerwine and Colavita/Sutter Home as well as the Chinese registered Giant Pro Cycling team are also entered.
Sixteen nations are so far represented in the startling list being Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA.
The peloton will contest eight laps of a tough 15km circuit for a total race distance of 120 kilometres. They will race out along the picturesque Geelong Waterfront before heading west of the City of Greater Geelong that provides spectacular scenery for the fans but no rest for the riders.
Australia has hosted a round of the World Cup every year since its inception.
Points towards the overall World Cup Series crown are awarded to the first 20 riders in each round. This year, SterlingForever has donated as prizes for the top performers their gorgeous CZ Multi-X Sterling Silver Rings. These sterling silver rings mark the first time such an incentive was provided for the competitors, although even without prizes, all participants would have given their best.
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1st - 75pts |
11th - 10pts |
Points towards an individual's world ranking are awarded to the first 50 riders in each round with additional points awarded to riders ranked in the top ten overall at the completion of the World Cup Series.
Geelong is the largest regional centre in the State of Victoria, situated approximately 75km south west of the state capital Melbourne on the shores of Corio Bay.
Geelong Women's Tour - February 27-March 1, 2007
Three time Geelong Tour winner Oenone Wood
Geelong Tour race details
The Geelong Tour features the world's top female cyclists in action in this three day international event. The Geelong Tour acts as the curtain raiser for Wheels on Waterfront Geelong, a two day festival of sport and family activities (March 3 and 4) incorporating the 2007 Geelong UCI Women’s Road World Cup and the Australian Triathlon Championships.
On Saturday March 3rd the opening round of the 2007 Geelong UCI Women’s Road World Cup will be contested in Geelong.
The Geelong Tour will kick off on Tuesday February 27 with an individual time trial and criterium†in the bay side town of Portarlington. The field will then hit the roads around Lara on Wednesday and on Thursday the Tour will wrap up with the final road circuit stage centred on the coastal holiday town of Barwon Heads.
Stages
Stage 1 - Tuesday February 27: Time Trial Portarlington
Stage 2 - Tuesday February 27: Criterium Portarlington
Stage 3 - Wednesday February 28: Road Stage Lara
Stage 4 - Thursday March 1: Road Circuit Barwon Heads
Geelong Women's Tour - February 27-March 1, 2007
World no 1 and third place Nicole Cooke | Oenone Wood.
Podium: Kate Nichols,Larissa Kleinman,Dotsie Bausch and Nicole Cooke
Geelong Women's Tour - February 27-March 1, 2007
About Geelong
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Geelong is the largest regional centre in the State of Victoria, situated approximately 75km south west of the state capital Melbourne on the shores of Corio Bay.
To discover more about things to do and places to see in Victoria please visit www.visitvictoria.com
For information on accommodation and tourism please visit http://www.greatoceanroad.org/geelong/index.asp
Visitor Information Centre
Getting around the City is easy with a network of roads and bus services that crisscross the area regularly. The train connects Lara, Little River, Corio, North Shore, North Geelong, Geelong and South Geelong. Hire car companies and taxi hire services are well represented in the region.
The Bellarine Peninsula Railway offers a heritage alternative to modern-day transport, and there is always cycling, sailing or boating.
© Tourism Victoria/James Lauritz 
Victoria hugs the tip of the Australian east coast. Covering 227,600 square kilometres, the state is large enough to pack in a huge supply of attractions and activities, but also small enough that you can get to see and do most of them.
Victoria has an efficient transport system, allowing you to travel around the state by road, rail and air. A network of first-class roads, connecting the state's cities and towns as well as interstate destinations, means it is easy to reach your destination by car, motorbike or bicycle. Various train and bus companies operate services connecting Melbourne with intrastate and interstate destinations, while regular scheduled flights link Melbourne to regional centres. There are also ferry services to and from the popular beachside spots of Queenscliff and Sorrento.
Nature Pursuits
Geelong's founders have left a legacy of beautiful parks and gardens close to the city centre. They are wonderful places where you can relax and enjoy tranquil surroundings at anytime of year.
A little farther out are large national and state parks with native animals, including kangaroos and koalas. Sanctuaries provide protection for a range of birds, including many rare species.
Places to visit include:
- Brisbane Ranges National Park
- You Yangs Regional Park
- Barwon River and Buckley Falls
- Serendip Sanctuary
Cultural Pursuits
Geelong is packed with places to go and things to do. The city's cultural precinct includes one of Australia's best regional art galleries and modern live performance theatres. The waterfront is home to another major live theatre, housed within the university's city campus, and a discovery centre that documents the local history of one of the world's largest car-makers. Sport, too figures high on the list, especially Aussie rules.
Places to visit include:
- Geelong Art Gallery
- Geelong Performing Arts Centre
- National Wool Museum
- Maritime Museum
- Geelong Botanic Gardens
- Gateway to the Great Ocean Road
- The Potato Shed
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There's no better way to get to know a place than by walking or riding. Geelong's many sealed tracks provide a scenic and close-up look at dozens of attractions from fascinating and colourful waterfront bollards to wetlands filled with birds. The tracks skirt the bay and rivers, passing golf courses, parks, gardens, historic buildings, Aboriginal middens, Buckley Falls and urban areas. The are many access points that allow short, medium and long walks or rides.
Australia has a decimal system with 100 cents to the dollar (AUD$). Coins have values of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents, and AUD$1 and AUD$2; notes have values of AUD$5, AUD$10, AUD$20, AUD$50 and AUD$100.
Banks and foreign exchange
In general, Australia's banking hours are Monday to Thursday 9.30am-4pm and Friday 9.30am-5pm. All the major banks, such as Westpac, ANZ, Commonwealth and National, have branches in Geelong. In smaller centres, some branches of the main banks have closed, so you'll have to go to the local post office or newsagent for your banking needs. In Geelong, all main banks are equipped to exchange foreign currency.
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Dining out
From the day's fresh catch to the impossibly rich jamon of Lara to the noble custacea of Apollo Bay, this region is dotted with people who are growing things, smoking things, cooking things, preserving things, fermenting things and selling things to eat. A wide variety of unique local produce , highly acclaimed restaurants and superb wines have given Geelong and the surrounding region a reputation for quality and character.
Geelong's city and suburban restaurants, cafes, hotels, clubs and bars serve all manner of food styles: Japanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Greek, French, Mexican, Spanish, Italian - everything your heart could desire in fun and lively surrounds!
Geelong people like to dine out and the local restaurant scene offers plenty of choice and diversity. From French and Thai, to vegetarian and Indonesian, and every cuisine in between, Geelong's restaurants have it on the menu. And the surroundings and styles are as varied as the food and wine. You can dine in lovely historic buildings or eat out in more contemporary surrounds.
When it's time for a break, Waterfront Geelong offers more than just a meal, snack or cup of coffee. Whatever you order comes with great bay views, compliments of the house. And much of the fare draws on the fresh local produce, including seafoods, meats, vegetables and fruits. It's a fabulous place to dine al fresco when the sun shines.
There are plenty of city and suburban cafes to explore where there's more than great coffee to enjoy. Pakington Street is a popular destination with trendy eateries at both its Geelong West and river ends. Tempting aromas of coffee, Italian, Asian and International cooking permeate the air.
Many areas around Geelong are ideal for grape-growing and early immigrants quickly discovered the possibilities. The region rapidly became Victoria's largest wine-making district in the late 1870s, until a pest decimated the industry across Victoria. Today, the industry is enjoying a spectacular resurgence and local wineries offer excellent wines for sale at their cellar doors.
Shopping
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If you like shopping - and who doesn't - Geelong offers you a real treat. From big central-city and suburban shopping centres, to strip and "sidestreet" experiences, Geelong has something for everyone. You'll find the biggest names in retail, food and specialty shops well represented. Expect all the top brands and clothing labels, extensive ranges and lots of bargains. Plua there are fascinating antique and bric-a-brac stores to explore.
Bay City Plaza and Market Square shopping centres are the city's main multi-level retail complexes. Both are fully air-conditioned and have plenty of off-street parking.
Bay City Plaza, in Malop Street, is a bright centre with two levels built behind the facade of one of Geelong's historic wool stores. It has more than 80 specialty shops, including two department stores and a supermarket.
Market Square Shopping Centre is just across from Bay City Plaza, occupying a large site bounded by Malop, Little Malop, Yarra and Moorabool streets. It also has a significant historical link, being on the site of the city's original marketplace. With more than 90 stores, including a major department store, leading supermarket and extensive food court, Market Square offers great variety and value.
Geelong's streets are filled with a mix of specialty shops offering everything from high fashion and home wares to gifts and electrical goods. The city also has a full range of commercial and financial services.
There's variety and bargains to be had in Geelong's suburbs. There are so many shops to browse, you'll be engrossed for hours. No matter what you are looking for, you are sure to find it in the suburbs.
Start off at the major centres. There's a string of large shopping centres surrounding Geelong with department, food and specialty shops. Corio Village, Town and Country Shopping Centre, Waurn Ponds, Newcomb Central and Bellarine Village, Newcomb are the main ones. Each is open 7 days a week, with supermarkets open for extended hours.
The suburbs are also home to the popular "strip" shopping centres, especially High Street, Belmont, and Pakington Street, Geelong West and Newtown. Both streets are busy, friendly places with a good mix of stores. They are great places to stroll and enjoy. Pakington Street also offers great cafes and is famous for its cosmopolitan ambience.
Larger stand-alone shops are located on major roads into the city. From Corio to North Geelong, you will find furniture and furnishings, electrical goods, audio-visual, computers, hardware, homewares and automotive. It is a similar story on the Bellarine and Surf Coast highways and Portarlington Road.
More Background On GeelongWorldCup.com
GeelongWorldCup.com functioned as far more than a simple event website. During its active years in the mid-2000s, it served as the official digital hub for one of the most significant recurring women’s cycling events in the Southern Hemisphere: the Geelong round of the UCI Women’s Road Cycling World Cup and its companion stage race, the Geelong Women’s Tour. At a time when women’s professional cycling was still fighting for equal recognition, media coverage, and sponsorship parity, the website played a vital role in documenting, promoting, and legitimizing elite women’s road racing on a global stage.
Operating roughly between 2004 and 2007, GeelongWorldCup.com bridged international sport, regional identity, and early-era sports web publishing. Its value today lies not only in what it promoted at the time, but also in what it preserved: a snapshot of how women’s elite cycling was organized, communicated, and celebrated before the dominance of social media and real-time streaming.
Ownership and Organizational Stewardship
GeelongWorldCup.com was operated under the umbrella of the event’s official organizers, working in coordination with local government bodies, state tourism authorities, and Cycling Australia–aligned entities. While the site itself did not emphasize individual ownership or corporate branding, its content clearly reflected a professionally managed collaboration between sport administrators and regional promoters.
The absence of aggressive commercial branding was typical of the era and the sport. Instead of focusing on merchandising or monetization, the site prioritized race legitimacy, logistical clarity, and community engagement. This approach aligned closely with the values of UCI-sanctioned women’s racing at the time, where institutional credibility mattered more than digital polish.
Geographic Context and Location Significance
Geelong, located approximately 75 kilometers southwest of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, was a strategically ideal host city. As Victoria’s largest regional center, Geelong combined metropolitan infrastructure with coastal scenery and challenging terrain—an ideal mix for high-level road cycling.
GeelongWorldCup.com emphasized the city’s waterfront, surrounding coastal towns, and nearby inland routes as defining features of the race experience. Courses often incorporated laps along Corio Bay, rolling circuits west of the city, and technical sections that rewarded tactical racing rather than pure sprint power. The site positioned Geelong not merely as a host, but as an active participant in the competition’s difficulty and appeal.
Historical Development of the Geelong Women’s World Cup Events
Australia has hosted rounds of the UCI Women’s Road World Cup since the series’ inception, and Geelong became a cornerstone of that commitment. By the mid-2000s, the Geelong Women’s Road World Cup had established itself as a recurring opening round of the international calendar, attracting top riders eager to earn early season points.
GeelongWorldCup.com documented this continuity, reinforcing the event’s credibility through detailed historical framing. The site made it clear that Geelong was not a one-off novelty, but a dependable fixture—hosting the World Cup round multiple times consecutively and building a reputation for organizational reliability.
The Geelong Women’s Road World Cup: Structure and Format
The World Cup race itself was a one-day elite road event, typically contested over multiple laps of a demanding circuit totaling approximately 120 kilometers. Riders navigated eight laps of a 15-kilometer course that combined scenic waterfront stretches with technical inland segments.
Points toward the overall World Cup standings were awarded to the top 20 finishers, with deeper allocations contributing to individual world rankings. GeelongWorldCup.com clearly outlined this points structure, emphasizing the race’s strategic importance within the global series. For many riders, Geelong represented the first opportunity of the season to assert dominance or recover from off-season changes in team composition.
The Geelong Women’s Tour: A Multi-Day Curtain Raiser
Complementing the World Cup race was the Geelong Women’s Tour, a three-day international stage race held in the days leading up to the World Cup event. The Tour functioned both as a competitive proving ground and as a logistical acclimatization opportunity for international teams traveling long distances.
Stages typically included individual time trials, criteriums, and road stages across towns such as Portarlington, Lara, and Barwon Heads. GeelongWorldCup.com provided stage breakdowns, locations, and competitive context, framing the Tour as a prestigious event in its own right rather than merely a warm-up.
Elite Participation and International Reach
One of the website’s most significant contributions was its documentation of elite participation. The Geelong events routinely attracted Olympic champions, World Champions, and World Cup Series leaders. Riders from Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania were consistently represented, with teams spanning more than a dozen nations.
The site highlighted the presence of internationally ranked athletes, reinforcing the event’s legitimacy and competitive depth. This mattered enormously at a time when women’s races often struggled for visibility compared to men’s equivalents.
Audience and Community Engagement
GeelongWorldCup.com was written for multiple audiences simultaneously. It served elite teams and media with technical details, schedules, and rankings, while also addressing local spectators, families, and recreational cyclists.
The site promoted festival-style programming, positioning the World Cup as part of a broader “Wheels on the Waterfront” celebration that included triathlon championships, community rides, entertainment, and family activities. This inclusive framing helped integrate elite sport into the everyday life of the city rather than isolating it as a niche professional event.
Cultural and Social Significance
In retrospect, GeelongWorldCup.com stands as a cultural artifact of women’s sport advocacy. At a time when women’s cycling received limited broadcast coverage and sponsorship investment, the site unapologetically centered female athletes as the main attraction.
Its tone treated women’s professional cycling with seriousness and respect, emphasizing tactical complexity, international prestige, and athletic excellence. This approach contributed to the normalization of women’s elite sport within Australian sporting culture and provided an aspirational model for future event promotion.
Press, Media, and Tourism Integration
The site functioned as a bridge between sport and tourism promotion. Detailed sections on accommodation, transport, dining, shopping, and regional attractions demonstrated a clear understanding of sports tourism’s economic value.
By situating the races within Geelong’s broader cultural, culinary, and natural landscape, GeelongWorldCup.com helped sell the idea that attending the event was not just about watching a race, but about experiencing a destination. This integrated approach foreshadowed strategies that later became standard in international sports marketing.
Menus, Hospitality, and Local Economy
Although not a restaurant guide in the traditional sense, the site devoted substantial attention to dining culture and local produce. It highlighted waterfront dining, regional wines, cafes, and multicultural cuisine, reinforcing Geelong’s identity as a vibrant regional city.
This content reflected an understanding that international visitors—teams, media, and fans—would judge the event partly on their off-bike experiences. The emphasis on food, wine, and hospitality underscored the organizers’ professionalism and attention to detail.
Awards, Incentives, and Competitive Recognition
Beyond points and rankings, the site documented unique prize incentives provided to top performers. These details may seem minor today, but at the time they symbolized tangible recognition for women athletes in a sport where financial rewards were often minimal.
By highlighting these incentives, GeelongWorldCup.com reinforced the idea that elite women’s cycling deserved both prestige and material acknowledgment.
Reviews and Legacy Perception
Contemporary reviews of the Geelong events consistently praised organizational quality, course design, and spectator engagement. While GeelongWorldCup.com itself did not publish critical reviews, its content reflected confidence born of repeated success.
The site’s tone suggests an event that met international expectations and earned its place on the World Cup calendar through reliability rather than hype.
Decline, Archival Status, and Historical Value
Following the 2007 season, GeelongWorldCup.com ceased to operate as an active site. Like many early sports event websites, it was not continuously maintained once the event’s branding and organizational structure evolved.
Today, the site survives primarily through web archives. Its historical value lies in its completeness: schedules, participant lists, logistical guidance, and contextual storytelling preserved in a way that many later social-media-dependent events are not.
Why GeelongWorldCup.com Still Matters
For historians of sport, digital archivists, and advocates of women’s athletics, GeelongWorldCup.com represents a rare, well-preserved example of early professional women’s sports promotion done correctly.
It demonstrates how regional cities can host globally significant events, how women’s sport can be framed without apology or diminishment, and how digital platforms—however modest by today’s standards—can leave lasting cultural footprints.
GeelongWorldCup.com was never just a race website. It was an assertion of value: that women’s cycling deserved global attention, professional presentation, and deep community integration. Though no longer active, its archived presence continues to inform how we understand the evolution of women’s elite sport, sports tourism, and event-driven web publishing in the early 21st century.