THE record contingent of cyclists set to represent Tasmania at next month’s Olympics have vastly contrasting motivation to perform on the ultimate stage.
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Richie Porte, Amy Cure and Georgia Baker are well aware that they are following in distinguished tyre tracks.
Along with hockey and rowing, cycling has long been a mainstay of Tasmania’s contribution to Olympic Games.
From the time Jim Nevin blazed the trail in Helsinki and Melbourne more than 60 years ago, a steady stream of Tasmanians have followed whether on a road, track or mountain bike.
Tasmania’s first Olympic champion Michael Grenda (Los Angeles 1984), Danny Clark (Munich 1972) and Tim O’Shannessey (Atlanta 1996) delivered a complete set of medals and an endless source of pride to their respective home towns of Scottsdale, George Town and Burnie.
They have been joined on the state’s honour roll by Kevin Morgan (1968), Micheal Wilson (1980), Grant Rice (1992), Sid Taberlay (2004), Mark Jamieson (2008), Matt Goss and Cure (both 2012) while Tasmanian-raised Matthew Gilmore added a madison silver medal in 2000, albeit for the country of his birth, Belgium.
This year’s state contribution to the cycling program in Rio de Janeiro exceeds all before it, and could yet grow larger if Scott Bowden makes the cut in mountain biking.
Like Grenda, Clark and O’Shannessey, Porte, Cure and Baker hail from regions of Northern Tasmania tailor made for cycling training and similarly the townships of Hadspen, West Pine and Perth will doubtless be tuning in at ungodly hours to follow their progress.
Each rider will feel they have a point to prove.
From the day the former triathlete jetted off to the amateur ranks of Italy with little more than a dream of cracking it as a cyclist, Porte has had to take the road less travelled.
Bypassing the traditional breeding grounds of sporting institutes, he has a catalogue of stories about spending hours at train stations or airports while better supported rivals were whisked away in team transport.
Having shared both rooms and Grand Tour victories with riders of the calibre of Alberto Contador, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, Porte is now a team leader and genuine contender for the world’s biggest races.
Never one for doing things the easy way, the 31-year-old’s career has been plagued by setbacks from punctures and penalties to accidents and ailments.
Four years ago Porte helped Australia qualify a second spot in the Olympic time trial, was overlooked to fill it and then watched on as it ultimately went unclaimed.
Providing he emerges unscathed from the Tour de France, Porte is in line to contest the road race and time trial in Rio. Both are hilly, gruelling and ideally suited to him. He can’t wait.
The same goes for Cure, who also left unfinished business in London in 2012.
Cure was just 19 years old when she achieved her dream of becoming an Olympian, but that was to be as good as it got in the English capital.
Already a quadruple junior world champion, her talent was undisputed but as the youngest member of a five-rider team, she was destined to be the spectator as her teammates finished fourth.
That disappointment has since become her drive.
Being forever destined to compete against older riders due to her birthday being on New Year’s Eve served to toughen up an athlete whose 172-centimetre, 63-kilogram frame can keep pace with not just older but taller and heavier rivals.
Junior world titles have been upgraded to senior, including individual success in the 2014 points race, and the Commonwealth Games yielded silver and bronze medals, the former achieved while helping teammate Annette Edmondson to gold.
Eight medals were amassed at world titles between 2013 and ’15 as well as four elite Australian titles.
But in her own words, everything Cure has done since London has been with a view to reaching the Rio Olympic Velodrome, where she will line up alongside Baker.
Like Cure four years ago, the former swimmer, runner and netball player arrives as the youngest member of the female track endurance squad after presenting an impossible-to-ignore case for selection.
Barely on the Rio radar at the start of 2015, Baker has since added the individual pursuit and omnium Oceania titles, Australian madison title, New Zealand world cup, Tour of the Goldfields and Westbury criterium to her three junior world titles.
In the same period she had to deal with the death of her father Patrick from a heart attack which she said made her so frustrated and angry that it had the perverse effect of improving her performances.
Another irony arrived in the location for Australia’s team pursuiters to finalise their preparations being Los Angeles, the city where Tasmanian Olympic history was made in the same event 32 years ago by the father of Baker’s boyfriend Ben Grenda.