How Wollongong looked on TV in Europe during UCI bike race

"When I told him that I was from Wollongong, the first thing he mentioned was the World Championships," Mr Simkin, a UOW PhD student who moved to Belgium to live with his fiance last year, said.

The Illawarra cycling enthusiast said talk of the Wollongong 2022 championships among Belgians reached fever pitch in recent weeks, even before Remco Evenepoel won the men's road race on Sunday.

When he won, "the reaction here was awesome, I know a lot of people that were up early watching it and they were very happy with the result", Mr Simkin said.

Read more: Cycling star pleads guilty, fined $1500 for assault

"There has even been talk in the media about the king organising a homecoming event for Remco at the Grand-Place in the centre of Brussels to celebrate his win in the Vuelta and the World Championships," he said.

"Wollongong is a happy place to talk about in Belgium."

He said seeing Wollongong on TV was "surreal".

"It's so weird to see such massive names in the sport cruising around the residential suburbs of the Illawarra," he said.

"It's been televised very well over here, I think Belgium has 3 TV stations covering it and the results of each race are on the news every morning and the full stages are also broadcast live."

He said Wollongong's roads were wider than in Europe, and looked very different to the villages and cities of European cycling events.

Read more: Illawarra could cop 100mm of rain before the week is out

"I've watched a lot of cycling and it's not often you see such a massive race doing laps of suburbia," he said.

"Wollongong is a great city for a bike race, there are lots of flat, straight, windy, uphill and downhill sections. The variety of terrain is really good and makes for exciting racing."

Mr Simkin said he expected the exposure to do big things for Wollongong in the years to come.

"The results might not be felt straight away, but from my perspective, over here the city has been broadcast to an entire continent of people who love riding bikes and will travel the world looking for new climbs to conquer and epic scenery," he said.

"It's a massive global profile boost to the whole city and in this respect, the tourism benefits might not even be cycling related, as people see the nice beaches, rolling mountains and the escarpment and mark it as a potential travel destination for a normal vacation that doesn't even involve the bike."

Read more: Ukrainian UCI team taking the support of Wollongong back home

Before the world championships, it was estimated by organisers that 200 million people would tune in in some way to watch.

Mr Simkin said he thought millions of these viewers were in Europe.

"It's not just the coverage on TV either, there are so many YouTube channels, podcasts, blogs, all with millions of viewers/listeners/readers in French, Spanish, German, Italian +many more languages, that are talking about the city and now know that Wollongong exists," he said.

"For me personally, when everyone in Europe says "where are you from?" and I say 'Wollongong, Australia", instead of saying "Where's that?" they now know where it is and what it looks like. That's the best way I can put it."

"I think Wollongong has to try and leverage this momentum and push cycling further," he said.

"More facilities, more bike paths (to keep the relationship between road users and cyclists a happy one) and even smaller races like criteriums that attract professional riders."

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Illawarra Mercury website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.