Choose to Smile!

A cycling 'mindfitness' story emphasising how smiling can induce a more positive outlook.

We were the newly funded Australian Institute of Sport AIS Road Cycling Team in its first international representation. A special guest invitation to start in this rather difficult elite road tour of NZ with many hopeful (and desperate) Olympic representatives from the two countries making up half the 60-strong field for the week-long cycling tour.

Our AIS team-mate Patrick Jonker from Adelaide was on the attack 30 seconds up the road and loyally all went to the front in a team effort to 'shut down' the racing pack and deter any responders from chasing. This was one of the first times I learned about intimidating team tactics to try and beat the overseas cycling world which were generally and characteristically always better than the 'faraway Aussies' of that era. We were in the process of changing the way international teams saw Australians that year - it was the beginning of what we now observe on tv in the Tour de France and such races as ultimately a very competitive nation at road cycling.

The weather was dreadful, raining and windy every day, and on day 6 in this photo I was tired of suffering in the bunch and withstanding the constant surging from attackers trying to escape. So when our own attack specialist finally got away, we were only too happy to come to the front and 'block' to slow the bunch down for Patrick in an aim to ensure the win for him. If anyone came past our front line, one of us would immediately chase and sit on him and become a passenger that didn't help their efforts. The Kiwis were good at this strategy too and won some big races overseas by keeping together in a strongly united front. Two years later we helped the very same NZ riders to win against the Italians and Germans while overseas.

But we weren't able to totally over-throw the rest of the field on this day, except to say, the comical attitude of us Aussies was apparently enough to dishearten the well-practiced Kiwis into what's often called a 'GO-SLOW' where the field conceded and just rode along at easy speeds for the next 30km before the chasing finally began!

I was ambivalent at the time with the arduous annual program of living and training in Canberra and constantly traveling to overseas races for the ensuing 2 years until Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. However, the passing of my dear mother, Ceryl (just 6 months earlier before this photo) drove me into such a fearful avoidance mindset that I generated half a decade of desperation-fuelled elite performances in the sport, basically in an effort to 'run away' from home. Our last bedside conversation was filled with her revving me up to seriously try out for Olympic Team selection, so when she then passed away it absolutely set the scene for me to ride very fast indeed.

Ceryl always had this infectious smile on her face, which was often recognised in my facial expressions by friends and family - she'd passed on many fantastic attributes inclusinjhg very strong legs. So this was me in the photo, having some gregarious cheek to wave while trying to balance on the wet roads in the midst of cold and slippery Kiwi-style race conditions. Mum was known for typically choosing to see the fun side of any situation, and so I guess I learned to just smile and wave like at the cameras throughout my career in a kind of salute to being resilient, whenever the conditions were rugged enough to tempt us all into feeling a bit down ; )

Bravo to Ceryl, I say!

Waving in the rain while racing on the front at the Tour of Wellington, New Zealand, May 1991.

post script *

special mentions of other Australian Olympic Squad riders in the front rows here include > from left gun sprinter Marcel Lema from Uruguay, Jamie Kelly in his formidable sprinter race-form of the 90's, Tasmanian AUS team captain Grant Rice (second row), then me being a clown much to the chagrin of fellow Kiwis (particularly the yellow-kitted guy behind me who later told me to STFU! hilarious), and lastly our most loyal hard-working team-mate, super domestique workhorse Queenslander, Wally Lancaster at right side of photo.