RIGHT in Ballarat, elite athletes are setting the tone for what we can expect in the year ahead. A rocky return to playing fields, contests gripped in uncertainty, the utter epitome to be on your game when it counts.
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AusCycling Road National Championships are arguably the biggest meet so far this year on a national level without hubs. This comes days before Australian Open action as the world's best tennis players emerge from quarantine bubbles in Melbourne.
Sport is all about the unknown, competitors all starting with the knowledge anyone could win - just some are more probably to capture victory than others.
On the back of a tumultuous year there truly is no telling what we are going to get, which athletes have been able to best manage unprecedented conditions and who is going to show up in the heat of action.
It was uncertain whether four-time elite men's time trial champion Luke Durbridge would make it to the start line in time to defend his RoadNats' crown on the opening day's action.
A trip to Western Australia after the Festival of Cycling in Adelaide made it tough for Durbridge to be cleared to reach Victoria following the latest Perth COVID-19 outbreak. He arrived the night before.
Such is the new world of sport.
Durbridge, chasing a third consecutive time trial title, still produced a strong showing only to finish 43 short of 20-year-old Luke Plapp, who was the same age as the West Australian when he won his first in 2012.
Plapp is a deserving winner - his training was sound and he felt the adrenaline when he could sense his winning potential. This is an Olympic and Paralympic year and many are fighting for spots in Tokyo.
In sport there are little room for errors.
When it comes to the Australian Open, Wimbledon singles finalist and long-time commentator Judy Dalton has told The Courier she was unsure what to expect at Melbourne Park this month - and that was before added COVID-19 uncertainties.
Players like Ash Barty have been off the professional circuit for about a year. Serena Williams has been couped up in hotel quarantine with her three-year-old daughter amid her hungry quest to equal Margaret Court's grand slam singles record. Others players were strictly locked down.
Dalton said there was no substitute for match practice and how the Open unfolded could be quite telling - but it was hard to exactly gauge athlete's fitness.
Cycling had the edge on most other sports amid iso lockdowns. From the elites down to grassroots riders in Ballarat, virtual platforms like Zwift were the place to be for competitive racing on simulated courses. Cyclists could continue to fine-tune their race game.
But the constantly changing pandemic landscape seems to keep moving sporting goals. AFLW action kicked off last week with Adelaide and Greater Western Sydney barely finished when squads were bundled into South Australian quarantine, having travelled from Perth.
No-one said this year was going to be easy but it certainly sets new standards in physical and mental sporting hurdles.
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