World cycling championships: Australian Dylan George’s tough road to Wollongong titles

This Sydney young gun started 2022 expecting to be watching the world cycling championships from the roadside. Instead he will be racing after surviving a race of attrition in Europe.

It was a tough few weeks for young Australian cyclist Dylan George.

He was racing daily in horror heat, unable to sleep as well as usual on 35 degree nights and Covid was all around him

Making it even worse was the fact rival riders were falling like flies to a nasty gastro bug.

But the teenager from Sydney’s northern beaches not only survived this year’s torturous Tour de l’Avenir, he thrived.

“Under 23 races are notoriously dodgy, lots of crashes,” said George, now preparing for his world cycling championship debut in Wollongong this week.

Young Sydney rider Dylan George in action in Europe. Pic: Supplied

“There was a lot of Covid and sickness, the last three days in the accommodation everyone got gastro. But we were lucky.

“I finished the tour which was great. It was tough. We started with 170 guys and finished with 60.

“It sounds horrendous but it was good preparation. They call it the baby Tour de France and there is no better training than this sort of racing.

“You have to keen your body in good form for two weeks and smash yourself every day.”

Dylan George learned much form the experience of racing in Europe this year. Pic: Supplied

That smashing in an event often refereed to as the ‘Race of the Future’, helped George secure a spot in the Australian under 23 men’s team slated for Friday’s gruelling world championship road race in Wollongong.

“I am pretty excited. Never raced a world champs before so this is a first for me,’’ said George, who also had a nasty crash in Europe on a descent, leaving him with broken teeth and nasty facial lacerations.

“I thought I’ll be first year under 23 and thought I wouldn’t be selected, that the older guys would get in.

Spectators at the world;d cycling championships in Wollongong this week. Pic: Con Chronis/Getty Images

“But it’s been a good year. I was given an opportunity to go to Europe and that’s when things started to come together.

“I was riding with the top guys, it was a real catalyst for a big improvement. You have to adapt to the racing and I got a fair bit better.

“Hanging round riders better than you makes you better.’’

A member of the Manly Warringah Cycling Club alongside teammate Matt Denham, George won the Australian Junior road title in 2021 while still at school and is now studying mechanical engineering at University of NSW.

Friday’s technical road racecourse will take riders through Gwynneville, Mount Ousley, Mount Pleasant, Fairy Meadow and North Wollongong.

Australian riders in the under 23 men’s road race: Matthew Dinham (Manly Warringah CC, NSW), Dylan George (Manly Warringah CC, NSW), Dylan Hopkins (Canberra CC, ACT), Jensen Plowright (Hawthorn CC, VIC), Rudy Porter (Carnegie Caulfield CC, VIC).