ONE of the biggest sporting questions right now is who is going to emerge from isolation the sharpest.
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The impacts of lockdowns are going to show from the grassroots to the elites worldwide.
While it is one thing to have the motivation to stay fit and work out, how to keep an edge in match fitness is a whole different game mostly behind closed doors.
We can ride, we can run within limitations in Australia. We can even have a kick of the footy, which Redan's Zach Forbes told The Courier this week was a vital way to try and keep skills up.
There are the fun team challenges within clubs to promote connection in isolation.
But cycling seems to have the competitive edge.
Ballarat-Sebastopol Cycling Club is three weeks into a Zwift-based racing season, an indoor virtual training tool already popular in this city during winter. The club has embraced real-time racing in its usual competition days.
The best part was this week when club members found themselves racing live against Tour de France riders Phillipe Gilbert (Belgium), George Bell (New Zealand) and reigning Australian time trial champion, crowned in Buninyong, Luke Durbridge.
BSCC president Tim Canny said it was surreal lining up against riders you idolise, knowing they were trying to do the exact same thing as you in isolation at the exact same time.
Such experience boosts training and in turn can only help lift the standard of club riders - just as in any sporting competition when you play alongside or against athletes from a higher level.
Ballarat riders got some of the best to learn from. This was no special promotion, just truly everyone in this together.
Durbridge was locked down in Spain earlier this month. He told Stanley Steel Social podcast of his initial devastation at being pulled from racing in what had been shaping up to be his year. He quickly realised the situation was bigger than cycling or his career.
Zwift has been his way to ride for fun, not knowing what he is training for or when he might be racing.
Ballarat professional cyclist Liam White told The Courier earlier this month the intense program did not allow riders to ease off their intensity. Cycling Australia this week announced it was taking its National Road Series on the platform to start racing in a fortnight's time.
For BSCC, Canny said it was a way to help maintain value for club members. The club encourages riders to take on a club-nominated graded race. While competition might be global, the club was keeping an aggregate tally and is awarded rides of the day - all thanks to community sponsorship.
The club is also preparing to adopt a group-training run via the program, in which no rider can drop off, allowing members to warm up for races and just ride together.
Canny said initially he thought the club race series might be a bit of a gamble but Ballarat riders had a real appetite to be involved and that was a great thing, to have so many people wanting to stay fit.
Retired professional cyclist Pat Shaw said if you have got the motivation and imagination, you will find a way to keep that fitness and competitive edge.
That will be how we sort who really emerges from isolation ready to play.
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