It is said that elite athletes have to be incredibly selfish to succeed. I was thinking about that as I wheeled my bike out the door and said goodbye to my pregnant partner, who was due in a few days, and our two-year-old son, who was screaming “I want Daddy”.
It was early Friday morning and I was driving one hour south of Sydney to Helensburgh, where the elite women’s and men’s road races will start on the weekend of 24-25 September. The women will cover 164.3km with 2,433 metres of climbing while the men will do 266.9km with 3,945 vertical metres. The route includes the tough Mount Keira climb which is 8.7km long with an average gradient of 5% but pinches at 15%.
