As officials made sure Felicity Wilson-Haffenden’s bike was positioned correctly for her time trial at last month’s Road Nationals, Pat Shaw couldn’t resist a cheeky quip.

As team manager at cycling outfit Team Bridgelane, Shaw had been “blown away” from the outset by the raw potential the Hobart teenager had shown.

After just 18 months on the bike after switching from hockey, the 17-year-old shocked herself by winning dual gold medals in the under-19 road race and time trial, after claiming criterium silver earlier at Ballarat.

But was Shaw surprised? Anything but.

“I told one person who was positioning her bike so it was in regulation for the time trial you could put her on a BMX and she’d win it,” Shaw said.

“I was always very confident and I didn’t make it that well known to her, but I told her I always had her back regardless of the result.

“I wasn’t surprised as much as relieved for her, to realise her potential and her capabilities.

“Had she finished 20th I still would have been more than happy. I know what she’s capable of, I know eventually she will reach that potential. but she’s had a taste of what she’s capable of already which is great, because that will inspire her to do more.”

Wilson-Haffenden describes herself as “ultra competitive”. But those around her also say she’s bubbly, uplifting to those around her.

She doesn’t take herself too seriously, but is dead serious about realising her huge potential on the bike.

A regular in Tasmanian representative hockey teams, Wilson-Haffenden only first got on a bike when the sport shut down during Covid.

Her rare mix of power, determination, ability to ride through pain and ability to produce a good sprint shone through immediately.

After showing initial potential her father urged her to attend a Talent ID program at the Tasmanian Institute of Sport (TIS).

The coaches there, Tasmania track cycling legend Belinda Goss and Olympic silver medallist Matt Gilmore, knew instantly they had a possible star on their hands.

“I don’t know if I would have gone all the way with hockey. I was in the state teams and was solid, but definitely there’s more of a career path in cycling,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“I just got on a bike because the hockey season shut down for a bit, to do something outdoors and keep fit.

“I just went on a few rides and Dad said ‘why don’t you go to the talent ID thing’?

“I did a couple of tests and Matt and Belinda were pretty happy with the numbers I put out, but I still had no clue what the numbers meant.”

Goss’ initial focus was adding bike skills to complement Wilson-Haffenden’s natural power and strength.

“She did my program and all my coaching when I first started. She basically told me how to race a bike and taught me everything,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

Wilson-Haffenden will compete at the state track titles at Launceston this weekend, which will be the start of a potentially big year.

There’s the Oceania and national championships, but Shaw wants her to qualify for Australia’s teams to compete at the junior track world championships at Glasgow in August, and the road world championships at Colombia the next month, then choose her preference.

While Shaw and the Team Bridgelane camp are in no rush with Wilson-Haffenden’s development, her efforts at Ballarat turned her into an overnight sensation.

“It’s funny going from being the underdog and no one knowing who you were, and all of a sudden after one week everyone’s talking about you,” she said.

“I’m learning how to deal with that and how to approach races.”

It dawned on Wilson-Haffenden pretty quickly as she progressed through the ranks she could no longer rely simply on natural talent to succeed.

She raced a couple of times for Team Bridgelane last year before coming on board permanently this year under Shaw, who was also her team manager at former team Inform TMX Make.

“Being with the older girls in the team, I learn so much about preparing for a race with nutrition and what to do the night before. It’s pretty incredible,” she said.

“They’re all eating rice and stuff and I’d be eating a chicken schnitty or something.

“I’ve done a lot of things just on athletic ability, but when you get to the top level that doesn’t work anymore. You have to prepare yourself properly.”

FIRST STEP IN A BIG YEAR

Wilson-Haffenden has enjoyed success in the Launceston area before.

She claimed the wheelrace title at Launceston Cycling Club’s annual festival in 2021 and also at the Longford carnival last year.

She is keen to put down some strong times before the Australian Track Championships and Oceania Championships, both to be held at Queensland in March.

“I’ve had some success on the road, so I’m looking forward to focusing some attention on the track and seeing what I can do there,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“I’ve missed a lot of the major track events because I’ve either crashed or got sick, but I’ve had success in the Launnie wheelrace a couple of years ago and across the local carnivals.

“It’s a really good learning opportunity as I get to race the elite women like Lauren Perry there, which makes me think about race craft.

“I’m excited for the state champs. It’s a good opportunity early in the track season to put some good times together.

“My focus is really on the individual pursuit, but I think it’s another month and a half after that before track nationals, so hopefully I’ll put in some good times to build on.

“The other states would have their champs around the same time, so it will be good to compare and see where I’m sitting.”

JUGGLING TRACK AND ROAD

Those in the know are confident Wilson-Haffenden can emulate the likes of fellow Tasmanian Georgia Baker and thrive in both disciplines.

I’m hoping to do both as long as I can,” she said.

“There’s some good studies that show doing one enhances the other, and vice versa.

“Georgia did both at the Comm Games and won gold in both. It also depends on what is coming up in the season. In an Olympic year you might concentrate more on track, but it would be good to get a good career on the road because that’s where most of the opportunities are.”

Shaw agreed there’s no need for her to be forced to pick.

“I think she’s genuinely capable of doing both disciplines,” he said.

“A lot of the things transfer and she’s quite lucky in terms of being a strong rider that can also produce a sprint.

“It’s not a common quality and a difficult attribute to gain, and she probably got that from her hockey days I think.

“To be honest in any age really (it’s hard to find). She has to develop it a bit more in terms of executing, but her power output is very impressive.”

While Shaw wasn’t shocked at all, Wilson-Haffenden replied “very much” when asked if she was surprised by her road nationals success.

She has been racing against the boys at TIS for some time and limited racing against her mainland rivals made them an unknown quantity before she conquered them at Ballarat.

“Being in Tassie I don’t get to race against most of the girls all that often. I was hoping to be competitive in the main group but I didn’t expect to win,” she said.

“You always think ‘what are the others doing, am I doing enough?’ But you put that in the back of your mind and trust your preparation.

In some respects training against boys just gives Wilson-Haffenden another chance to bring out the inner ‘mongrel’ every cyclist needs to succeed.

“I’m ultra competitive,” she said.

“Racing the boys is great for training and improving, they don’t take any pity on you.

“I got in trouble for elbowing them at a Devonport carnival (last month).”

EARLY SIGNS OF POTENTIAL

Shaw first saw Wilson-Haffenden in action at the Tour of Gippsland early last year.

He was immediately struck by her mix of power and determination, but also her potential once her bike skills were honed.

“I saw a rider who had incredible strengths and an incredible aptitude to try, but not much idea of how the sport works tactically,” he said.

“When I was with Inform TMX Make racing team last year the National Road Series allows you to race an under-19 rider in addition to your team.

“I made it a key directive when I took on the role managing that team that we would feature an under-19 rider at every race.

“I gave that opportunity to Felicity because it would give me a chance to find out more about her, but I had every intention of signing her for that team the next year anyway.”

Her strengths on the bike are obvious, but Shaw said it’s her character make-up that could set her apart.

“From the first day she just blew me away, in a lot of different ways. She’s quite a unique character in the sense she’s very bubbly and fun to be around, but quite an anxious person too,” he said.

“Every time she’ll give you 120 per cent and as an ex-professional athlete, the number one thing you want from your teammates is accountability.

“Felicity was clearly a good hockey player and she clearly had an incredible team first ethos that I think would transfer to any sport.

“I could easily see her being successful in AFL or A-League, whatever it may be. She’s one of those determined humans and that’s what makes her so enjoyable to be around, she pulls the best out of everyone.

“It sounds silly but her physical qualities probably aren’t her best attributes. It’s probably the characteristics she has in her make up.

“We just naturally built a good working relationship. To see the hard work culminate with a really successful national champs has been very good reward for her.”

FAST ON HER FEET

After Wilson-Haffenden won the road race at the nationals Amanda Spratt, one of the country’s greatest cyclists, walked up to Shaw and said “looks like you’ve got a fast learner.”

Wilson-Haffenden had finished second to Mackenzie Coupland in the criterium the day before her first event on the schedule.

But when they stood toe to toe again for the road race crown, Wilson-Haffenden wasn’t about to make the same mistakes again, outgunning Coupland on the sprint.

“I spoke to Amanda after the criterium and said she made a few tactical errors and the better rider on the day won,” Shaw said.

“For someone that’s still a premier athlete in the world to take the time to say something like that after the road race, it shows the interest in what these young riders are doing.”

Australia has a highly promising crop of under-19 riders coming through and Shaw said that competition will only help Wilson-Haffenden.

“Not only is she absolutely elite, but so are three of four others of her age she’s competing against,” he said.

“It’s very good competition for them all and allows them to raise their bar – we’re in a really good spot in men and women to be honest.

“I think we’ve got the best under-19 women’s group we’ve ever had, and that includes the Spratt, Tiffany Cromwell era.

“They’re all friends, that’s the really cool thing about it. Our job is to ensure they all make it and they don’t burn out.”

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Wilson-Haffenden loves watching Georgia Baker race.

“She races a similar style to what I see myself hopefully being,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“She does the track and road and is built similarly to me in the sense she’s a very powerful rider and not a pure climber, but can get over the hills and has a good bunch finish.”

Shaw said she also has an innate ability to ride through the pain barrier.

“Either you can hurt yourself, or you can’t. A lot of people say ‘that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’, but they wouldn’t know what hard was,” Shaw said.

“This girl, I don’t even know if she knows what hard is. She just goes straight through hard and out the other side.

“You don’t find these type of individuals very often. We’re lucky to be on the ride with her.

“All the foundations for Felicity are there. It’s probably more about making sure we have an environment that allows her to grow, and that’s what we do best I think at Team Bridgelane.”

Her rise has been fast, but Shaw and the team are in no rush at all for Wilson-Haffenden to realise her full potential.

“We just have to step through it at a nice pace and let her grow,” he said.

“The huge thing is she still has a massive amount of development to go. It’s only toe in the water stuff at the moment.

“If she goes to worlds and gets a good result, that’s fantastic. But if she didn’t go to worlds at all it wouldn’t be any different to me, because I know our long term plan is to make her enjoy the sport, and get her as much success as possible by letting her be the best athlete she can be.”

MASTER TEACHING APPRENTICE

Goss has witnessed the highs and lows that come with such a gruelling sport, and can now hand those lessons down to the year 12 Guildford Young College student.

The 39-year-old is the only Australian to have won three consecutive world championship track medals in the scratch race, and was inducted into the Tasmanian Institute of Sport Champions Club in 2013.

“When she tested initially she had exceptional power results. The tricky part with Felicity is transferring that power onto the bike, and now she’s bearing the fruits of that,” Goss said.

“She came into it quite raw, not being involved in cycling at a younger age. It’s been a steep learning curve but she’s taken it in her stride.

“She’s very adaptive and listens, and makes those changes. Sometimes you forget how little time she’s had in the sport.”

Goss hopes her road nationals success is the early boost of self belief that will spur Wilson-Haffenden on.

“As an athlete you have to have that inner confidence, but now she’s got it on paper and put her hand up and said ‘here I am’,” Goss said.

“Her data from day dot has been exceptional. We knew she could achieve that result but it’s believing that herself now.

“She has the confidence she can take it to the next level now she’s achieved the results.

“Being a female in Tassie, there’s still that lack of competition down here.

“She’s had to adapt to that and train with the boys often, so getting to the mainland is great for her to be around females and compete at that level.

“But that’s not a bad thing, for the boys to push her along. It’s probably worked in her favour.”

TALKING THE TALK

Wilson-Haffenden had already been asked to be a speaker at a function for stakeholders held in conjunction with the road nationals.

Not many in the room would have known a lot about her before she won the road race earlier that very day.

She would later be named the rider of the championships.

“She’s so unassuming when you meet her, you don’t think you’d get two words out of her,” Shaw said.

“She brought the house down, you could have sold tickets to it.”

Wilson-Haffenden said she is indebted to Shaw after her future was uncertain after Inform TMX Make’s demise.

Team Bridgelane’s women’s program was revived by crowdfunding, including an anonymous $100,000 donation.

“I was always in touch with Pat and he was pretty keen to put me on if the team did eventuate, which was a big if early on,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“If Bridgestone didn’t work I was prepared to go solo and fund myself and see if anything popped up later in the year.

“When Pat became confident the team would come together, it happened pretty quickly but I’m very grateful it did.

“I have complete trust in Pat. He’s one of the most passionate people in cycling and especially women’s cycling. He’ll go above and beyond to support me.”

LOFTY GOALS

She’s only just starting to explore her potential, but Wilson-Haffenden admits it’s tough not to dream.

“Even the 2026 Commonwealth Games (in Victoria) is a nice little target to possibly think of, but that will obviously depend on what my times look like,” she said.

“ And 2032 (Olympics) in brisbane, it’s always going to be in the back of your mind.

But it’ll be in the back of a lot of young girls’ minds as well, there’ll be a bit of competition I reckon.”

As for hockey? Wilson-Haffenden still has a passion for the game, but said her days of picking up a stick are over for a while.

“I’m still involved in the hockey club (Canterbury) and my sister plays. But I think I’ll be in a bit of trouble with cycling if I play.”