Philip Grant Anderson (born 20 March 1958) is a British-born Australian former professional racing cyclist. In 1981 he became the first Australian and the first cyclist from outside Europe to wear the yellow jersey as leader of the Tour de France.
Anderson competed professionally between 1980 and 1994. His major victories included the Amstel Gold Race, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Tour de Suisse, Paris–Tours, Milano–Torino and Tour de Romandie, as well as stages of both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.
Origins
Anderson was born in London and moved to Melbourne, Australia, as a child. He grew up in Kew and attended Trinity Grammar School, graduating in 1975.
He began competitive cycling at around the age of 16. Anderson later recalled encountering a local bicycle race near his home and asking how he could become involved in the sport. He was eventually directed to the Hawthorn Cycling Club, where he attended a meeting and began racing.
Anderson did not achieve immediate success. He later recalled finishing near the rear of the field in his first handicap race, but continued competing and gradually improved. Within his first years in the sport he progressed through junior competition and won a junior time trial championship.
Ted Sanders, a prominent figure in the Hawthorn cycling community, became a mentor to Anderson during his development as a young rider. A Cyclingnews retrospective on Anderson's first Tour de France yellow jersey explicitly identified Sanders as Anderson's mentor when recounting Australian newspaper coverage of Anderson's achievement in 1981.
Future professional cyclist Allan Peiper was another member of Hawthorn Cycling Club. Peiper later recalled Anderson joining the club with his friend Peter Darbyshire, while Peiper and future European six-day rider Tom Sawyer were also among the young riders at Hawthorn.Cycling Weekly, 21 November 1992.
Amateur career
Anderson's performances improved rapidly during the late 1970s. In 1977 he won the Dulux Tour of the North Island in New Zealand.
In 1978 he was part of the winning team at the Australian team time trial championship in Brisbane. That year he also represented Australia at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, winning the men's road race at the age of 20.
Anderson travelled to France in 1979 and joined the Athletic Club de Boulogne-Billancourt (ACBB), one of Europe's leading amateur clubs and an important pathway into professional cycling.
His original ambition remained selection for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and Anderson initially regarded his European racing as preparation for the Games.
During his season with ACBB he raced alongside riders including Robert Millar and Mark Bell. Anderson won several races during the year, including the Tour de l'Essonne and Tour de l'Hérault, and won the amateur Grand Prix des Nations.
His success in France instead opened the door to a professional career. Anderson abandoned his Olympic ambitions and signed with the French Peugeot professional team for 1980.
Professional career
Peugeot and the Tour de France
Anderson became a professional with Peugeot in 1980. His transition to European professional cycling required adapting to substantially longer races, larger fields and the internal hierarchy of a French professional team.
He made his Tour de France debut in 1981.
During a mountain stage in the Pyrenees, Anderson remained with the leading riders rather than dropping back to assist his designated team leader. His performance placed him into the overall race lead.
Anderson consequently became the first Australian and first non-European cyclist to wear the Tour de France yellow jersey.
He held the jersey for one day.
Anderson returned to the Tour in 1982 and established himself among the race's leading general-classification riders. He wore yellow for nine days, won a stage, finished fifth overall and won the young rider classification.
He subsequently finished ninth overall in 1983, tenth in 1984 and fifth again in 1985. Across his career he started and finished the Tour de France 13 times.
Classics and stage races
Anderson developed into one of the leading all-round road cyclists of the 1980s.
In 1983 he won the Amstel Gold Race, becoming one of the first Australians to win one of Europe's major one-day races.
After leaving Peugeot, Anderson joined the Panasonic team.
He won the Züri-Metzgete and Frankfurt Grand Prix in 1984.
The 1985 season was one of the strongest of his career. Anderson won the Tour Méditerranéen, Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Tour de Suisse, Frankfurt Grand Prix and E3 Prijs Vlaanderen. He also finished second in the Tour of Flanders and Gent–Wevelgem.
Anderson finished fifth in the 1985 Tour de France and second in the season-long Super Prestige Pernod International competition.
He won Paris–Tours in 1986 and Milano–Torino in 1987.
In 1988 he again finished second at the Tour of Flanders.
Later career
Anderson joined TVM in 1988.
He won the Tour de Romandie in 1989 and took a stage victory at the Giro d'Italia. He won another Giro stage in 1990 and also won the race's Intergiro classification.
In 1991 Anderson moved to the American Motorola organisation, which had developed from the 7-Eleven professional team.
His move produced a late-career resurgence. Anderson won the Tour Méditerranéen and Tour of Sicily and recorded stage victories at both the Tour de Suisse and Tour de France.
His 1991 Tour de France stage victory came a decade after he had first worn the yellow jersey.
Anderson also won the Tour of Britain during the later phase of his career, taking overall victories in 1991 and 1993.
He continued racing professionally until 1994.
Commonwealth Games
Anderson's international career was bookended by Commonwealth Games gold medals.
His first major international title came in the road race at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton.
Sixteen years later, near the end of his professional career, Anderson represented Australia at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, and won gold in the team time trial.
Retirement and honours
After retiring from professional cycling, Anderson settled on a property near Jamieson, Victoria.
He remained involved with cycling after his competitive career, including through cycling tours, public appearances and mentoring younger Australian cyclists.
Anderson was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 1987 Australia Day Honours for service to cycling.
In 2000 he received the Australian Sports Medal, followed by the Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to Australian society through cycling.
He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2010 and became an inaugural inductee of the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame in 2015.
Anderson's pioneering European career has frequently been credited with helping establish a pathway for subsequent generations of Australian professional cyclists. His 1981 Tour de France achievement in particular demonstrated that an Australian rider could compete at the highest level of European professional road racing.
Personal life
Anderson has been married twice. His second wife, Christi Valentine, wrote the 1999 biography Phil Anderson: Cycling Legend.
Anderson and Valentine married in 1994 and later separated. He subsequently entered a relationship with Anne Newell.
Career achievements
Major results
1977 1st Overall Dulux Tour of the North Island
1978 1st Road race, Commonwealth Games 1st Australian Team Time Trial Championship
1979 1st Tour de l'Essonne 1st Tour de l'Hérault 1st Amateur Grand Prix des Nations
1980 1st Prix de Wetteren 1st Stage, Étoile des Espoirs
1981 Tour de France Held yellow jersey for one day
1982 5th Overall Tour de France 1st Young rider classification 1st Stage 2 Held yellow jersey for nine days
1983 1st Amstel Gold Race 9th Overall Tour de France
1984 1st Züri-Metzgete 1st Frankfurt Grand Prix 10th Overall Tour de France
1985 1st Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré 1st Overall Tour de Suisse 1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Frankfurt Grand Prix 1st E3 Prijs Vlaanderen 2nd Tour of Flanders 2nd Gent–Wevelgem 5th Overall Tour de France
1986 1st Paris–Tours
1987 1st Milano–Torino
1988 1st Overall Danmark Rundt 2nd Tour of Flanders
1989 1st Overall Tour de Romandie Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 17
1990 Giro d'Italia 1st Stage 4 1st Intergiro classification
1991 1st Overall Tour Méditerranéen 1st Overall Tour of Sicily 1st Overall Tour of Britain Tour de France 1st Stage 10
1993 1st Overall Tour of Britain
1994 1st Team time trial, Commonwealth Games
See also
List of Australians who have led the Tour de France general classification
References
Further reading
Valentine, Christi (1999). Phil Anderson: Cycling Legend.
External links
Phil Anderson at AusCycling