Jack Hoobin: Australia's first world road race champion

Cadel Evans is not the first Aussie to win the world road title, contrary to the flood of stories about his recent triumph when he won the UCI crown in Mendrisio last month.

"The Australian" has set the record straight. Melbourne's Jack Hoobin won Australia's first world road title in 1950, when he won the amateur crown in Belgium.

Hoobin, who was 22 at the time, who had only one team-mate for support against the might of Europe's top teams, outsprinted  France's  Varnajo by a wheel and Italy's 1947 world road champion Ferrari by half-a-length.

Evans, however, can still claim to be the first Aussie to win the title since the  sport went open in 1995, when the amateur and pro ranks merged.