The Tour of Britain was Luke Durbridge's first race since he was forced to abandon the Tour de France following a heavy crash on stage 1. The Australian made the most of his enforced lay off over the summer, confirmation coming via three stage wins for Orica-Scott teammate Caleb Ewan and a top-ten in the stage 5 time trial.
The Tour crash was the second time in 2017 the 26-year-old was forced into a break from racing but Durbridge is on track for a strong finish to the season.
"Since I crashed out of Roubaix I've been on and off, injured and out of races, and crashes so it was nice to put eight days solid together. It was really nice to come back with the team and also a bit of confirmation I didn't waste my time when I had eight weeks off," Durbridge told Cyclingnews from Norway. "I stepped back into racing pretty well. I was obviously lacking some race legs but I stepped back in at some decent level to be able to compete and do my job for Caleb and also a half decent TT."
ADVERTISEMENT
The comeback was important for Durbidge to regain consistency in the season but also in terms of the World Championships next week where he will be a key rider in the team time trial for Orica-Scott and the road race for Australia. While Durbridge, a former U23 time trial world champion, has ridden the individual race against the clock in previous years, he explained the race comes too soon in his recovery process.
"I don't think I had the time. Obviously, I am stepping back into racing and going quite well but there is a difference between lining up for the Worlds in the individual time trial with great form," he said with his ankle 'pretty much back to normal.' "I am not quite at that level. I need more time to arrive there so I didn't really bother asking to do the individual because it would be selling myself short. I'd rock up and do my best performance and maybe be top-30 or something, but I needed an extra four weeks or something to get that engine going."
During his July and August lay off, Durbidge took the time "to do some cool things and different things I normally couldn't do. I went swimming, played around some diet stuff and a few different things while having to have time on the couch." Principally, Durbridge invested in exploring his nutrition as to "best understand your body." With his extra curricular activities, Durbidge expressed reservations regarding his decisions but believes it will pay off.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2h0JfqK
No comments:
Post a Comment