By David Nagel
It’s not surprising really that Sam de Riter believes she can win a race against the clock and qualify for the Australian team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The 29-year-old – who built her huge engine room through the hills of Berwick – produced a jaw-dropping performance to win the Elite Women’s Individual Pursuit at the State Championships held at Darebin recently.
De Riter’s time of 3:35.541 was the quickest ridden by a Victorian female since Olympian and World Champion Katie Mactier was in the prime of her career more than a decade ago.
It’s a stunning achievement from de Riter, who only made the switch from road cycling to the track in October last year and overcame some serious obstacles heading in.
“My training was pretty good but I ended up with a virus about two and a half weeks before the race and was bed-ridden until two days before,” de Riter said.
“Of course I wanted to win, that was my goal, but the time I rode in the final was a shock to most people, including myself. Not everything went to plan so it was great to ride that time.
“To ride nine seconds faster than I did at the state titles at the start of the year was really satisfying and definitely a huge motivation to keep on improving.”
That’s the key here for de Riter – improvement – because touching 30 she understands that this is her final crack at the big time. Mactier achieved her prime performances between the ages of 28 to 32, while champion sprinter Anna Meares won gold as a 29-year-old at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
“You can only be an athlete once, and this is it for me, I have to make it count,” she said.
“Females can keep riding endurance until about 36 so I’m looking forward to the next few years and to see how much I can improve. The aerodynamics of the bike, my starts, and riding tighter to the black line; they’re all skills that I can improve on because I’ve only ridden in three races since I started.
“I’m definitely fast enough; my times and my power are fast enough if you look at my testing, so the goal over the next 12 months is to make the Australian team, the High Performance Unit and work with those girls and aim for the Tokyo Olympics.”
To achieve that lofty ambition, de Riter will need to achieve a career-best performance at the 2018 Track National Championships to be held in Brisbane in February next year.
“That’s clearly my number one focus for 2018,” she said.
“No-one from outside the Australian team has podiumed at the nationals before, so that’s my aim, to podium, but to win it would be great. It’s going to be tough because the girls will be in great condition with only eight weeks until the Commonwealth Games in early April. My aim is to ride a 3:30 at the nationals and that’ll have me in the mix.”
With such a heavy training schedule ahead of her, de Riter is relying on a great support cast to keep her going strong.
“My partner Shane, we’ve been together for nine years and he’s been amazing the way he has supported me and pushed me through the ups and downs of cycling,” she said.
“My mum, she’s my biggest supporter, she’s always been there and doesn’t miss a race and my older brother Ben never misses either. They’ve been fantastic and always trying to help me the best way they can.”
Good luck Sam … the clock’s ticking on the ultimate race against the clock!
