A new approach to training and racing paid dividends for Ryan when he took out the national title last week.

Ryan finished 8.9 seconds clear of second placed Edward Parker from the Lidcombe Auburn Cycling Club with Victorian rider Stefan Kirsch from the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club a massive 22.3 seconds from Ryan in third spot.

Recording an average speed of 45.3km/hr he covered the 15.5km course in 21 minutes, 51.3 seconds.

Speaking about his training regime Ryan said: “I knew where I was and I needed to change a couple of things so I’ve done more racing than I’ve ever done”.

“(I’ve done) a lot of two day races, racing day after day to get used to it and cut down on training while racing.

“At the start of the year I was doing 600 or 700ks a week and cut back to some weeks of less than 300ks but all at high intensity, looking for speed and strength,” he said.

Ryan was the second rider to set off on the time trial course leaving him with a long anxious wait before the title winner was decided.

“It was ranked, I’’m not exactly sure how they worked it out, but I recently came second in the NSW titles and somehow was ranked 18 out of 20 (in the national field), the 19^th guy didn’t show up so I was the second rider to go,” Ryan said.

“As each rider came in they called out the times, it got done to three and then I knew I had the bronze and then the silver and then a gold.”

The win capped off a big couple of weeks and year of cycling for Ryan, who is a member of the Bathurst Cycle Club.

In July he was the powerhouse in the Bathurst Cycling Clubs Masters Team at the NSW Team Time Trial Championships with the team taking out gold defeating Randwick Botany and the Illawarra Cycle clubs.

In September he finished the Cycling NSW Masters with three medals winning silver in the individual time trial and criterium and bronze in the road race.

Alongside his individual time trial win at the National titles, Ryan finished in 16th spot in the criterium and in 10th position in the road race, in a pack of riders who all finished 18 seconds from the winner Alexander Davey of the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club.

While the time trial win was a highlight, he produced his best ever power figures in the road race with his watt meter showing he was exerting 400 watts for more than 20 minutes straight, enough wattage to power your fridge at home for 30 minutes or your laptop computer for one hour.

“Criterium’s never been my thing,” he said of his result in that event.

“It was a flat, technical course, unless you do them regularly it’s difficult, I was pretty much cooked by then,” he added of the event which was the third of the three events he competed in.

“The time trial was on Thursday, a day off on Friday, the road race on Saturday and then the criterium on Sunday.

“The road race was a hard day out, it was very solid,” he said of the event.

“I’d been training specifically around town for it, I knew it was short sharp climbs and they’d be smacking it up the climbs.

“From the start it was a steady climb and then a steep technical decent but they cut that out, it would’ve been chaos.

“So the first 5ks was neutral and then once everyone was back together they went. It was along the edge of a river and then went up a hill similar to Cowra’s hospital hill and by the time we had got to the top of the hill we were all on the edge and we’d only gone 8ks.

“The course, they called it undulating, but it’s about as undulating as Cowra is,” he said of the 77km course.

“We tried and tried to get away (in a break from the field),”  he said.

“Unfortunately when you have a time trial the first day out and you have first, second, third, fourth and fifth (place) written down on a bit of paper you end up with a target on your forehead.

“I tried to get away, but every time I looked like going they were straight on to me.

“At about the 50km mark two Victorians attacked, I was third wheel (the next rider) but I had to slow down or I would’ve had nothing at the finish.

“So they went and no one chased them,” with one of the riders, Davey, holding on for the win.

Asked what was next Ryan said “low intensity, I’m buggered, I started with the Three Peaks Challenge in March, it’s been high intensity since then”.

The national titles were held in Metung near Lakes Entrance in Victoria.

Read Also:

Bathurst team takes out team time trial

Ryan’s three medals in NSW Masters