Luke Roberts
Luke Justin Roberts (born 25 January 1977) is a sports director and former Australian racing cyclist specialising in both track cycling and road bicycle racing.
Roberts in 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Luke Justin Roberts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 January 1977 Adelaide, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 71 kg (157 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Stölting-Ruhr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road and track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Pursuit specialist/Time Trialist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Professional teams | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2002–2004 | Team ComNet | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2005–2007 | Team CSC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2008–2009 | Team Kuota | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2010 | Team Milram | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | Saxo Bank–SunGard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2013–2014 | Stölting-Ruhr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major wins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic Team Pursuit (2004) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he resides both in Adelaide and in Cologne, Germany. Coming from a cycle racing family, he started competitive cycling at the age of 13, and turned professional in 2002. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. and a member of the Comnet Senges team (2002–2004), and of Team CSC from 2005 to 2007. As a team and individual pursuit specialist, holding an Olympic gold medal and World record with the Australian Pursuit team at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he contributes particularly to the success of his team in time trial events.
In 2003 he was awarded the title of Australian Male Track Cyclist of the Year. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Australia medal in the Australia Day Honours List. In 2002, 2003 and 2004 he was a World Champion Team pursuit, and won the silver medal in 2002 and 2003 for the World Individual Pursuit Championship.
At the Olympic level, Luke Roberts has competed as part of the Australian cycling team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. In 2000 he came 9th in the Individual Pursuit at the Olympic Games. He improved his performance 4 years later in Athens, coming 5th in the Individual Pursuit. As part of the Australian pursuit team with Graeme Brown, Brett Lancaster, Bradley McGee, (Peter Dawson and Stephen Wooldridge were also part of the team), Roberts won gold and set a new world record for the 4000m Team Pursuit of 3mins 56.610secs, breaking their previous world record set in Stuttgart in 2003.
At the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Roberts achieved a gold medal for the Teams Pursuit, a silver medal in the Individual Pursuit, and came 8th in the Points race. Four year later at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Roberts won gold in the Teams Pursuit and 4th in the Individual Pursuit. His 2010 road racing team, Team Milram, folded at the end of that season, and he signed to ride for a proposed Australian team known as Pegasus: this team, however, failed to obtain a UCI license. After riding with UniSA in the 2011 Tour Down Under, Roberts signed with Saxo Bank–SunGard, a continuation of the squad he was with from 2005 to 2007, for the remainder of the season.