Reece Homfray reports on why Aussie track cyclist Michael Hepburn refused to give up on his Olympic dream
WHEN Michael Hepburn walked back into the Adelaide SuperDrome last November after almost three years away it felt very much like home, reports Reece Homfray.
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WHEN Michael Hepburn walked back into the Adelaide SuperDrome last November after almost three years away it felt very much like home.
The sliding glass doors, the long blue hallway that winds its way underground to the inside of the track and the echo of voices across the boards of the near-empty velodrome.
He was last there in 2013 as the individual and team pursuit world champion and it was all so familiar again.
Like a high school student on a gap year before going to university, Hepburn had been on a two-year sabbatical from the track to ride the roads of Europe including the Giro d’Italia with professional team Orica-GreenEDGE and now he was back.
But as familiar as his old surroundings were when Hepburn came ‘home’, he also noticed something had changed, and changed dramatically.
He walked into a room of 12 hungry young riders and stared at some faces he had never even met, but who he was now calling his teammates.
And all of them were capable of riding a 4km team pursuit in under four minutes — the mark once seen as the magical four-minute barrier in the sport’s blue riband event.
“I admit I was a little bit sceptical coming in at first and being told there were 10-12 guys in the track endurance program who really had a shot at going to the Olympics,” Hepburn said.
“It’s not the same as heading to London in 2012 when there were only 5-6 guys in the program.
“I only met most of these guys (new teammates) in the last few weeks and after seeing them ride and I’ve done a few sessions with them — and watching Sam (Welsford’s) ride tonight — there’s no reason they can’t be in that squad for the Olympics.
“They’re young and super-motivated and I remember when I was 18, you’ve really got nothing to lose and you just go for it, so these guys are certainly players in the game for the squad.”
When Hepburn did walk away from the track in 2013, 12 months after he was part of the team pursuit which finished second behind Great Britain at the London Olympics, he hadn’t fallen out of love with the velodrome but rather he needed a break.
“I got to a point where I was 21 and really needed to switch over to the road, I’d done it for three or four years pretty flat gas and I needed a break,” he said.
“I never said ‘bye’ to the track even when I left in 2013, in the back of my mind I always had Rio but a lot depended on the program.
“I was more confident when guys like Alex (Edmondson) and Jack (Bobridge) were still there and it was a year before I came back that I started talking with (coach) Tim (Decker) and the team (Orica-GreenEDGE).
“But I said to Timmy back in November I was really enjoying it, not just coming out to the track every day but spending time with the guys.
“Everything is a lot fresher compared to what it was.”
But despite being a multiple individual and team pursuit world champion, Olympic medallist and proven star on the track and road, Decker gave Hepburn no promises that he would be going to Rio let alone next month’s world championships in London.
“That’s (no promises) what I expected,” Hepburn said.
“He (Decker) was probably quite hard on me at the start but I always knew he had the confidence in me and over that month in November and the world cup at New Zealand I proved to him what level I could get to even off a limited preparation.
“But it’s not a given — it’s not a given for Jack to go (to the Olympics) or me or anyone, I’ve still got to continue to prove myself as well as all the other guys and that’s a healthy situation to be in.”
Hepburn was back in the maroon colours of Queensland’s state track team this week competing in the national titles in Adelaide — his first in three years.
Coming off a huge week at the Tour Down Under when he was on the front for hundreds of kilometres as his Orica-GreenEDGE teammates Simon Gerrans and Caleb Ewan dominated the race, he admitted his legs were a little tired.
But he took nothing away from Welsford who was simply too good for him in their individual pursuit final.
Welsford, 20, showed no fear racing against the former two-time IP world champion and beat him by just under four seconds with a convincing display of speed, smarts and power.
The result is exactly what Hepburn is referring to when he talks about the new-found depth in Australian track endurance cycling.
Four years ago Welsford was just 16 when Hepburn was charging towards the London Olympics. Now the emerging young star is one of several lining up to take his spot for Rio.
“For four minutes out there just then I was second guessing coming back to the IP,” Hepburn said jokingly.
“But no not at all, ever since I came into camp in November I was really confident in the structure that Timmy has got and also the guys in the program.
“Unfortunately tonight didn’t go my way but Sam had a great ride and he deserves it.”
A month out from the world titles and six months from Rio, Hepburn is back but it could have been so very different had he, Bobridge, Rohan Dennis and Glenn O’Shea beaten Great Britain in their Olympic final four years ago.
Instead, they stood stony faced on the second step of the podium and had to be content with silver.
“If that had of gone the other way I probably wouldn’t be here right now,” Hepburn said.
“That’s the thing when I started track cycling I really wanted to be an Olympic champion. I’ve got the world titles in the events that I want but we didn’t get gold in London so that’s one of the big driving forces.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Reece Homfray reports on why Aussie track cyclist Michael Hepburn refused to give up on his Olympic dream
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