By David Nagel
Surviving the school of hard knocks has made her first national championship all the sweeter for Berwick’s Sam De Riter who took home the Elite Women Individual Pursuit gold medal in Brisbane recently.
De Riter smashed her best time in qualifying for the 3km final, tearing around Anna Meares Stadium in 3:32.006, before bringing her coach Nick Owen to tears with a dominant gold medal winning performance.
The three-time Victorian title holder, and runner-up in the 2019 nationals, said the exhilaration she had dreamed of never quite came to fruition when she crossed the finish line.
“It’s something I have been working towards for a very long time,” a satisfied De Riter said.
“The overwhelming feeling was just how much of a relief it was. You would think it would be super exciting when you achieve that aim but it was just a feeling of ‘thank god’.”
“But I’m in a position to reflect a little now and it’s exciting that the hard work of everyone around me has finally paid off and we got the result we’ve been looking for.
“I rode a three-and-a-half second PB, which is pretty insane because training before the event was a lot different than what it normally is. I had high expectations on myself but to ride a 3:32.006 was next level, it was great for it all to come together in a big moment.”
De Riter – who went to Berwick Primary, Beaconhills College and St Margarets – was on the cusp of Olympic selection in 2018 when she moved to Adelaide to join the Australian Podium Potential team.
Entering the prime of her career, and an elite environment, the now 32-year-old was expected to blossom and push for national selection.
Instead, her trip to Adelaide became a horror story.
“I had a shocking time over there,” a reflective De Riter explained.
“I was living with others and was constantly unwell, and towards the end we realised it was an allergy that was causing all the problems. I got run down and caught everything, and then we went to Hong Kong and I got really sick from drinking the local water.
“That took months to fix itself, then we went to Belgium and I got sick again.”
It was at that stage that De Riter questioned her own career.
“I’d had enough, it’s pretty bad for coaching staff when their athlete is always sick and that was me, and I’d never been that person before,” she said.
“It was really frustrating for me and obviously for them as well. In Belgium I basically sat in a house and didn’t ride my bike for four weeks, it was very frustrating.”
Sam eventually hit rock bottom, being exited from the Adelaide program at the end of 2019 and moving back to Melbourne.
“Adelaide was my big opportunity, it should be all about forward progression, you are not supposed to go backwards,” she explained.
“I came back to Victoria, not sure what to do, and got exited from the state program as well…that was a real kick in the guts.”
De Riter’s misfortune didn’t end there, crashing and ending up with a brain bleed and severe concussion and being out for three months. This came a week after hitting the pavement and having stitches in her elbow.
Her and her team had a choice to make – soldier on or throw in the towel.
“My coach (Nick Owen) said he would help me if I wanted to keep going but Covid was about and there was only online racing at the time, “ De Riter remembers.
“But I thought I would keep going as long as I was enjoying it.”
Due to Covid, De Riter had no access to the track so stayed fit by hitting the road during 2020, riding the Summer of Cycling and then the Road Nationals for the first time in five years at the end of February this year.
The track nationals were only six weeks away.
“It was a pretty big thing to go from road to track, they don’t really transfer, and I didn’t want to underperform and have people say ‘that’s why we exited you from the program’.” De Riter said.
“We qualified through the State championships and then my coach wanted me to do a 2km training run at the Masters, two weeks prior to Brisbane.
“I broke the world record for my age group by eight seconds and rode a 2:21 which meant I was in pretty good shape.”
De Riter’s road preparation had left her six kilos lighter than normal, with no regular gym sessions to keep her muscled up, but things – for the first time in a long time – seemed to be on track.
Her qualifying run in Brisbane gave her even more confidence heading into the final against Tasmania’s Lauren Perry.
“I knew I needed to run a 3:34 to qualify and rode to that schedule, but with four laps to go I felt good and picked up two seconds and rode a 32,” she said.
“Lauren went faster but I knew she had gone deep and I might have a bit more left in the tank.
“I wasn’t 100 per cent in track form but I hadn’t missed a session and I knew I would be happy with my performance regardless of the result. Everything just fell into place.”
De Riter’s desperation to win her first national title saw her shy totally away from her regular plans during the race for gold.
“How I rode the final is how I would tell someone to never race it,” De Riter said with a laugh.
“I was listening to the track commentator, I wasn’t listening to my coach, I just got carried away with the emotion of everything. After everything I’d been through, I really wanted to win and I lost my focus a fair bit.
“Listening to the commentator helped me forget the pain and my coach didn’t care because we knew we had it won by then and he was crying anyway.”
So what does the future now hold for Berwick’s newest national champion?
“I’m content with the result but I’m pretty sure that I’m going to keep riding until after Tokyo and see where that takes us,” she said.
“We don’t know what opportunities are around the corner, there is the potential of opportunity but it will be another step up and I’m sure there will be some huge challenges along the way.”
But if there’s one thing we know about Sam De Riter – she can overcome the school of hard knocks.
