Long interview

A delightful, deep conversation with the young Australian brings light on her uncertainties during 2021 and her goals for a 2022 season she kicked off with Nokere and Binda last week.

“It was so nice to return, definitely. Pinning on the numbers again was super exciting. Getting to the pre-race routine with my team-mates, doing the recon, looking at the course, the team meeting – everything felt so nice. ‘This is what we do, again! This is what I’ve been training for for so long!’

“Nokere is probably not my favorite kind of race. It was quite a hectic race, probably the race with the most crashes that I’ve ever done. Even before the live coverage started there were the two biggest ones that I ever saw. I wanted to just get through the race in one piece. I want to get better positioning, and the wants to, and that’s one of the things I wanted to be working at from Binda on. Binda was the first European race that I came into already knowing what was in store. It’s always an unpredictable race. No one knows what’s coming. Also, it reminds me more about the Australian roads, with no cobblestones (laughs), which made it more comfortable.

“The days when I had to stop and go to hospital after the Olympics were the scariest of my life, definitely. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t speak any Spanish. All I knew was I was having this chest pain, which wasn’t nice at all – I thought I was having heart attacks. I was so concerned. In the beginning, I was sad because I was missing the Tour of Norway, then feeling bad about Ardèche coming and me losing fitness – then my mindset changed completely, from ‘Well, I’m missing a few days’ training, this sucks’, to realizing what happened to me (myopericarditis – ed.). It’s relieving to be able to be here and it’s nice to remind myself that I’m now able to ride my bike as hard as I want after what I went through.

“I had to keep my heart rate under 100bpm for five months when I was allowed to move away from hospital. I was on an e-bike or on Zwift, and I was barely pedallng. I remember I had to walk upstairs to get to my apartment, and I wore a watch to monitor my heart rate, and had to stop every, like, four steps! It just left like such a contrast – I’m at the Olympics, then I can’t even walk up a few stairs, and it takes me 10 minutes. Exercising every day is the most fun part of my life, I love riding my bike, I love pushing myself, and then I had to lie down, and see myself losing my muscle, after all of my efforts. I really, really missed it. The uncertainty was the worst part. I wasn’t able to train for almost half a year, and then I didn’t know what would come after that. Finding out that my heart was fine was the biggest relief!

“I’ve never been nervous for training before the Almería camp back in January, and before that first ride with the team, I really felt like it. Even on my final rides in Australia before flying to Spain, I had a 150bpm limit. Then, suddenly, I was doing a lactate test – the first one in my life! I was thinking: ‘Will my body explode?’ (laughs) It was quite fun in the end, and I also got quite good results. I could close that chapter. Even if the Olympics and signing with the Movistar Team were such nice moments, this was really ‘the moment’ for me.

“Being with this team feels like a really big family. When I was talking with Sebastián (Unzué) last year before signing with the team, he was always like ‘cool’ and ‘familia’. And it’s really true. Everyone is really looking after each other. The best thing is that it’s not just the riders. It’s not just the women’s team or the men’s team. Everyone in the organisation cares for each other. Everyone is having a good time – I really love that. Even with the language barrier!

“When I signed in July, I was really busy with university exams, preparing for the Olympics, and it felt like a rush to get my Spanish lessons. And also, living in Girona, it’s harder to really get to practice Spanish, always being around Australians and Americans and so on. Once I got through being really sick, and realising that I’d have all that spare time I’d normally use for training – seeing my TrainingPeaks going down, my muscles disappearing – I needed to think about what I could do. Learning Spanish was a head start to get through that.

“My whole life has been about cycling and studying, in a way that bike racing has felt like a hobby to me, and so, getting to learn Spanish was an easy, nice way to cope with the uncertainty. Also, last year I dropped to part-time university studies, so it’s felt more manageable. However, I just really enjoy it, with the notion of being a break from bike racing. I couldn’t just do that and think about that all day. It’s nice to have that distraction and setting those goals on myself. When things don’t go as I planned at racing, it’s nice to come home and have a different focus, something else you can nail.

“The best thing about signing a three-year contract is spending time with such experienced and strong riders – learning from Annemiek, in particular, is one of the biggest reasons I signed for this team. My biggest goal is to learn as much as I can. Hopefully I can develop into a good stage racer and time trialist!

“I’m not sure exactly about which races I’m doing, but I’m hoping I can get a first peak in late April to get to do well at the Ardennes, and also the Spanish races in May. Then, definitely, I’d like to ride a Grand Tour, the Giro Donne or the Tour Femmes – whichever one I do. With the TDFF being so historical this year, I’d love to do that, but I’ll be happy with either. Maybe the Giro suits me more, but, with the novelty of the Tour – just like last year’s Paris-Roubaix – I think it’d be really cool to line up. I’ll be watching if I’m not there. Also, late in the season, the U23 World Champs coming up – it also sounds really exciting to me!

“I’ve got a lot of room for improvement. European racing feels so different to me. I haven’t really done any. Riding in the peloton is still a big challenge for me. It will all come with time and practice, though. When it comes to physical skills, I’ll never be a sprinter, but when I came to the Movistar Team, we realized I had never done so much sprint training, and those shorter efforts, even the 5-minute ones, are really important in women’s cycling. I feel quite comfortable if we have a one-hour climb ahead, but we don’t have that many long climbs. Becoming a bit more of a punchy rider, being able to battle against another rider in the end, while keeping my strengths as a long climber and time trialist, is a goal for me.“