Sherwin swelters in China
IT WAS a gruelling ride for 26-year-old Matthew Sherwin at the World University Games in China recently, but the young cyclist still accomplished his dream of representing Australia, competing in the road race and time trial.
IT WAS a gruelling ride for 26-year-old Matthew Sherwin at the World University Games in China recently, but the young cyclist still accomplished his dream of representing Australia, competing in the road race and time trial.
The 160-kilometre race got the better of Sherwin, who told The AJN: “The conditions were absolutely brutal, so I never actually finished.”
“I was cramping with about four laps to go because I dropped my drink bottle, so I had to pull out.”
The team time trial proved only marginally better for Sherwin, who, despite being unable to finish, rode the majority of the race with his group, which was already a man down. “This was a brutal race too,” Sherwin said.
“Conditions were once again incredibly hot and humid, and the ice bags we stuffed down the backs of our skin suits minutes prior to the start had melted by the time we started.
“But we would never be able to compete with the time trialling might of the Russians and Germans, who averaged close to 55 kilometres an hour to take gold and silver respectively.”
But the former University of Melbourne and Holmesglen student was still happy with his efforts in making the Australian team, and is now content with his current cycling career, on a temporary hiatus to
pursue his career in construction management.
“I’ve really achieved all I can at this point, and now with a full-time job my training regime has changed completely,” Sherwin said.
But he still has big events on his agenda. “I really want to go to Europe to ride within the next two or so years, but definitely represent the community at the next Maccabiah games,” he said.
Sherwin’s build-up to the event was extremely challenging, riding between 600-800 kilometres a week, something he said was “totally different to any kind of training for football or cricket”.
“You have to do work on and off the bike, but I was extremely dedicated and motivated to achieve, and I did that.
“But you just can’t prepare yourself from a Melbourne winter to a hot southern China, where it was always 30 degrees and 90 per cent humidity.”
The balance between his studies and his riding was also a crucial aspect of his preparation for the games. “It was really important and I guess really hard, because I was riding for most
of the week, up to 30 hours in fact,” he said.
Sherwin described the games village, which housed all the athletes, as “a great set up, very similar to the Olympic village in Beijing”.
“Apparently the Chinese Govern-ment contributed $1.2 billion, and it showed with hospitals, shops, four-storey buildings and a huge dining hall, which had a McDonald’s.”
The fast-food outlet proved a life-saver for Sherwin, who said: “At first I thought why is this here, but after we ate the same food up to four times a day, we just had to have something different.”
ASHLEY SHENKER
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