In August 2016, Scott Bowden made his debut as a professional road cyclist. The Australian was a relative unknown when national coach Brad McGee named him in the Olympic team alongside Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis and Simon Clarke. Bowden's selection came about because he qualified for the men's mountain bike race and could therefore also contest the road race. While Rio marked the start of Bowden's road career, it also marked the beginning of the end for his career on the dirt.
Inking a deal with Australian Continental squad IsoWhey Sports Swisswellness, Bowden's focus in his single year at U23 level was to secure a move into the Pro-Continental or WorldTour ranks. His season started promisingly over the Australian summer of cycling, but a seemingly innocuous knee injury in February all but wrecked his season. Despite the misfortune of the injury, Bowden has no regrets in making the switch.
"In all honesty, it's been a really challenging 12-months physically from the point of view from the injury but also then mentally trying to deal with that and the frustrations of not being able to race," Bowden told Cyclingnews. "Particularly being a year I wanted to do something a little new and focus on the road and it hasn't exactly gone to plan. It is a long game cycling and all part of it I guess.
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"When you start playing with those kind of thoughts, nothing good can come of it. To be honest, it wasn’t the result of making this choice," he said of the decision to move to the road. "Whether I'd made it or not, I could have very well have had the same injury happen."
Due to the extent of the troublesome knee injury, Bowden explained he spoke with team managers Andrew Christie-Johnstone and Steve Price, and coach Mark Fenner, telling management that he was going to "sit out" the team's European racing programme.
"It was a pretty tough call to make because I knew I wasn't going to be going well enough to even play my role as any sort of teammate in those races," Bowden recounted. "I said I wasn't going to be any help so I may as well just stay at home. It was a tough pill to swallow but I felt it was the best decision for myself and the team."
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