Source : ABC NEWS
A matter of days ago, Olympic champions Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn were both embroiled in the fascinatingly chaotic war of attrition that is a multi-stage road race.
Competing in the Q-Tour, the final leg of the six-event ProVelo Super League road race series, Bleddyn was in the hunt for overall series honours.
Leahy was one of his chief lieutenants at the all-dominant Team Brennan, striving to ensure that he did.
On Friday, while battling the elements and unpredictable nature of a 107-strong field around the Lakeside raceway north of Brisbane, the two Team Brennan riders exchanged turns on the front of a rapacious peloton for the best part of two hours, attacking and counter-attacking as rivals looked to pick them off.
Conor Leahy (left) put in plenty of work to protect Ollie Bleddyn (right) during the Q-Tour. (ABC Sport: Simon Smale)
It was successful too — teammate Tom Cornish powered away to win the final sprint on Friday while on Sunday, Bleddyn claimed the overall series victory.
Job done.
But at the Anna Meares Velodrome on Tuesday night, loyal domestique Leahy successfully reformed as a dominant national champion, claiming the Australian individual pursuit title for the sixth time on night one of the Australian track championships.
Not only that, but he broke the national record in the process, completing the 4,000-metre race in a blistering time of 4:04.062 — overtaking road teammate Bleddyn in the gold medal final to boot.
“I have known that I’m capable of doing fast rides for a while but I haven’t really been able to put it together,” Leahy told ABC Sport after his win.
Conor Leahy set a new national record, completing the 4,000m race at an average speed of just over 59km/h. (Supplied: AusCycling/Con Chronis)
“I wasn’t really confident today, qualifying was really hard for me, I qualified second behind Ollie and, you know, in my head Ollie’s been the guy. I knew he was looming and he’s so good at time trialling and so good at prologue.
“But once I got out there and I’d cleared that qualifying ride out my legs and got out on the track, I knew I was feeling quite good and just had to focus on getting on the black line, doing my position and just getting after it.
“I’m just super stoked to get it done.”
The victorious feeling is not an unfamiliar one for Leahy — these green and gold bands are the 10th he has won as national champion on the track across individual pursuit, Madison, Omnium, the points race and team pursuit.
In his six appearances in the individual pursuit at Track Nats, he has never been beaten.
But the pressures of racing for himself on the boards just days after marshalling Team Brennan to overall victory on the road is a sizeable challenge.
Conor Leahy now has 10 national track titles to his name, six in the individual pursuit. (Supplied: AusCycling/Con Chronis)
“I’ve been working for Ollie, and for all the [Team Brennan] boys really,” Leahy said.
“I was lucky enough to have the boys work for me in the Adelaide round of the ProVelo and then I just wanted to return that throughout the series.
“So to go from that sort of worker role where you just have to empty the tank and once you’ve done that there’s not much more you can ask for yourself, to actually having the pressure to get the result yourself, it is different and it’s, I guess, something that kind of just happened when I was out there to be honest.
“I wasn’t really confident, I was a bit tired, I was a bit doubting myself. But then once I got out there and I started getting into it, I was like ‘now we’re racing for me, I’m going to give this a good nudge’.”
Transitioning from one specialisation to another in the space of 48 hours seems remarkable: On Sunday they were celebrating as teammates on top of Mount Mee in the Moreton Bay hinterland, on Tuesday night they were sitting on opposite sides of a velodrome atop matching, vibrant gold-coloured track bikes in direct competition with each other.
Oliver Bleddyn defended the series leading green jersey days before turning his attentions to the track. (ABC Sport: Simon Smale)
“Yeah, it was a pretty quick turnaround,” Bleddyn told ABC Sport.
“Finished [the ProVelo Q-Tour on] Sunday and then yesterday myself and Conor both rode down from the accommodation up north to the track accommodation, woke up this morning and got on the track bike for the first time since October.”
It should be a disorienting change.
On the road, races started with an agreeable if nervous chatter and a clunking of cleats into pedals as the sun beat down upon their backs.
Conor Leahy will ride in Europe for Team Brennan on the Pro Continental circuit. (ABC Sport: Simon Smale)
That all changed though as, throughout three days of energy-sapping accelerations and mind-bending tactical tests, Bleddyn and Leahy had to be alert for over two hours at a time as over 100 riders all fought for the exact same patch of tarmac at the exact same time.
On the track, their rear wheel is clamped in place and an electronic beep counts down the marked seconds before an explosion of maximum effort is required to get their highly geared time trial machines up to speed.
No wind. No rain. No rivals cutting into your racing line. But just a fraction over four minutes of lung-busting solo effort that stands between you and a gold medal.
“[It was] pretty hard to find those track legs again, obviously,” Bleddyn said.
“You’ve got to be straight on it. There’s no time to warm up out there and find your rhythm. As soon as you start, it’s just full gas and it’s pretty savage on the heart and the lungs and the legs.
“It’s good fun. I do enjoy it. Obviously it helps me a lot out on the road, so we both kind of get to switch to the track … we’ve been doing it for so long it’s kind of a bit of a second nature.”
Oliver Bleddyn will aim to win the Oceania road time trial race and with it, an invitation to the world championships. (ABC Sport: Simon Smale)
It is familiar territory for both of them, and fertile for success.
The pair’s golden bikes are reflective of the legacy they established as Olympic team pursuit champions alongside Sam Welsford and Kelland O’Brien in Paris almost two years ago.
Bleddyn admitted he has his sights firmly set on pursuing a career on the road, flying back to South Australia immediately after the nationals to train for the Oceania road time trial championships, set to be held south of Brisbane on April 9.
But he does want to be ready for a tilt at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on the track.
“We had a good show at worlds back in October and then wanted to touch the track again before Commonwealth Games,” he said.
“It has been a pretty big road focus for me, the goal is the road 100 per cent, so I didn’t do the Austral or Track Oceania’s or the Perth World Cup just to really try and put in the hours on the road and really prioritise that.
“But, with ProVelo [in Brisbane] last Sunday, it’s good to just touch point on the track and just keep in touch with it before July.”
Oliver Bleddyn qualified fastest for the gold medal final, but came away with silver. (Supplied: AusCycling/Con Chronis)
He and Leahy will both head to Europe with Team Brennan, who have a ProContinental team licence for this season, the rung below the World Tour.
But Leahy for one still sees his future on the track, exploring more bunch riding.
“I was really fortunate to be able to do almost all the bunch racing in the Perth World Cup [earlier this month],” Leahy said.
“I did the Omnium and the Madison [winning silver with Liam Walsh], which is the first time at that level for me.
“I think it’s just building on that experience and getting more and more confident and hopefully you can apply it in something like the points race and scratch race this week.”
Australia’s team pursuit squad are defending Olympic champions and won silver at the last world championships. (Reuters: Agustin Marcarian)
But he added the main focus is still on dominating the blue riband team pursuit event in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games.
“We’re super stoked for the TP,” Leahy said.
“We’ve been building this momentum — obviously a big highlight was the Olympics, and then even the Worlds [silver] is a good shift for that group that we had.
“So I think just continue to build on that. We want to be dominant and we want to keep the ball rolling with that.
“We’re lucky to have a few package upgrades to apply and tick off the team pursuit — we’ll want to do a good ride and get the win there.
“And then for me, I think based off tonight, I would love to give the IP [individual pursuit] a crack with those upgrades.
“And then, I really love the points race, so to get in the points race and race with some world-class riders and some of my teammates as well will be really good fun and a good opportunity to chase the medals.”
