Australian Triathlete — December 2017

58 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

Dan Wilson

with Willy

TInkeR

while re-watching old tapes of the 2001

Tour de France, tutting at how those

nay-saying Frenchies could dare doubt the

Armstrong story. Surely they should just

have a little faith, after all, how many

times must the man reiterate that he is

clean? Clearly, my ability to pick a lying

psychopath was about on par with my

ability to stick with a peloton of 14-year-

old Queenslanders...

I

t was the day before the State Cycling

Championships, a big deal for the

then 14-year-old Wilson.

My lack of natural talent, combined

with conservative (i.e. sensible) training

protocols for a youngster had meant

that I had copped an absolute thrashing

anytime I had toed the line with my

lycra-clad contemporaries. Seemingly,

the entire pack was either more talented,

more mature, trained harder, or a sinister

cocktail of all three. As such, I’d spent all

season getting dropped like a bad habit

from the junior bunches around QLD.

Finishing by myself, minutes in arrears

was beginning to get a little bit old. Like a

lone grape at the bottom of the bag, I

yearned to have my place in the bunch. I’d

lifted my training in response, upping my

wind trainer set from 45 minutes to 60,

text by dan wIlson | photogrAphy by shutterstoCK.Com