Ballarat paracyclist Christian Ashby’s rehabilitation and revival

Almost seven years ago Christian Ashby was lying in a coma. Now, after a long road to recovery, he is dreaming big.

Christian Ashby will be competing in RoadNats 2023 at the weekend. Picture: Jay Town

It’s been nearly seven years since triathlete Christian Ashby was knocked off his bike at Lake Wendouree.

Having been “pretty banged up”, not to mention comatose for three weeks, the Alfredton father’s priorities shifted during his extensive rehabilitation.

“Life was just basically trying to get back to walking, then trying to get back to work,” Mr Ashby said.

“Exercise was really a secondary thought: I didn’t really give a stuff about exercise because my life was more important.”

For some time he focused on setting small goals and then raising the bar each time he reached one.

When exercise became more feasible, Mr Ashby’s injuries allowed him to seriously partake in only one aspect of his former triune hobby – cycling.

“I can’t swim effectively; I can hardly walk,” he said. “Of all the exercise modalities, it’s the only one I could do.”

“It’s really ugly to see me get on the bike … but that’s life now.”

He said he needed to “embrace it somehow”, acknowledging it wasn’t going to change.

“The biggest problem is actually adapting your lifestyle. When your life’s turned upside down it’s really tough to reinvent yourself.”

Christian Ashby recovering at the Epworth Hospital in Richmond in 2016. Picture: David Caird

Soon Mr Ashby was back on two wheels and keen to employ his competitive spirit.

He was assessed for the C2 paracycling category, the second least-abled of five such categories.

“I sort of got into it by default,” Mr Ashby said.

“I had a physiotherapist in Ballarat and he said, ‘Would you like to get into paracycling?’

“I didn’t really know what paracycling was, and he did an assessment and I qualified and I took it from there.”

Since then, Mr Ashby has competed in several consecutive RoadNats competitions, nabbing a national title in 2020.

“After my accident, life wasn’t great,” he said.

“There wasn’t much to look forward to, and this has really given me new purpose.

“Bike riding’s physical, but it’s also mental and social, and that was the biggest thing I missed.

“I suffer from a fair bit of PTSD on the bike now: I get on the bike and clip in and think, ‘Am I going to come home alive today?’ because of my ordeal.

“But you’ve got to live life, you’ve got to continue doing the things you love, and there is a risk involved – but there’s a risk involved in crossing the road.”

Mr Ashby with his children, Patrick and Eliza. Picture: Jay Town

Mr Ashby will compete in RoadNats again at the weekend and hopes to find success thanks to new coach Dr Ryan Worn.

“I realised I can’t do it on my own,” Mr Ashby said.

“All these years I’ve done it, I’ve just done my training on my own and it hasn’t really been as successful as I’d like.

“I’m seeing big improvements in training and just hope they correlate over to racing.”

He said his dream was to represent Australia at the Paralympics, despite joking he was getting too old for it.

“The best thing in paracycling is my respect for my competitors,” he said.

“Not only are they great athletes, but what they’ve been through in their life is absolutely phenomenal.

“Everyone’s got a story.”