The lawns can wait — father of two Pat Shaw to debut in TDU at 29, riding for UniSA

PAT Shaw might have expected to be working in the family bike shop and mowing his lawns at home this week — instead he’s making his WorldTour debut at the Tour Down Under.

TOUR DOWN UNDER CLASSIC East End Adelaide. Uni SA rider - Patrick Shaw. photo Sarah Reed.

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PAT Shaw is a 29-year-old father of two from Ballarat who ordinarily this week would be working in the family bike shop and mowing his lawns on the weekend.

Instead, he’s making his WorldTour debut in the Tour Down Under in one of Australian cycling’s great fairytale stories.

The journeyman, who rides domestically for the Avanti-IsoWhey Cycling Team, booked his spot in the UniSA-Australia wildcard team by winning a stage of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic and finishing 10th in the road race at the national championships this month.

But more so it’s recognition of more than a decade spent toiling away in the sport — first as a winner and in recent years as a loyal teammate and domestique.

“I never expected to see this side of cycling again, or this level — when I came back from Europe at the end of 2009 my wife and I decided we’d start a family and move on with the next stage in life,” Shaw said.

“Several times I taunted with giving the sport away but people talked me out of it each time.

“It’s not as easy to step away from something you enjoy so much as you think.”

Shaw, who has a four-year-old son and four-month-old daughter, has been a mainstay of the Herald Sun Tour and spent two years in Europe racing for an Italian amateur team.

The closest he ever got to WorldTour was an invitation to attend a HTC-Colombia training camp, but received a phone call just days before telling him he was no longer required.

“At that point I said ‘stuff cycling’,” Shaw said.

“I’d given it a red-hot shot, I lived in Italy for two years racing and I had always said I didn’t want to be the 28 or 29-year-old guy plodding around just making up numbers — but here I am.”

When he returned to Australia he continued cycling but his focus shifted to helping others and he sees his invite to the TDU this week as something of a thankyou from the sport.

“I’ve put a real lot into cycling as a sport, not only in Australia but when I lived in Italy I gave back to the people who supported me,” he said.

“The work I’ve done with the Avanti-IsoWhey team to build it with the owners, it’s almost like this is my thankyou from cycling for what I’ve given it.

“That’s not an arrogant thing, I know I’ve done a lot to help develop young Australian talent and I enjoy it.

“That was the hardest transition — going from the guy getting results to working for someone who might (initially) not even be as strong as you but when you help them, they’re stronger than everyone else.

“I got a lot of reward out of that.”

That said, Shaw still managed to win a stage of the Bay Classic and was one of just 15 riders to finish the road race at the Ballarat nationals last weekend.

“People say ‘oh finally he’s broken through’ but it’s not so much of a breakthrough for me as I stopped trying to break through. I concentred on trying to help everyone else, to make sure the team won,” he said.

But he admits his red-hot start to 2016 may change his plans for the season to include some overseas racing with Avanti-IsoWhey, which has a UCI continental licence.

“But I still owe it to my family to make sure I’m home as much as I possibly can,” he said.

“It will be about what fits and for me, starting this season all I wanted was to see the team continue to develop.”

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Originally published as The lawns can wait — father of two Pat Shaw to debut in TDU at 29, riding for UniSA