Ballarat cyclist Nick White is hopeful of racing overseas again next year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
White said events in Asia and Europe were on the agenda for his professional outfit Team Bridgeland.
The 24-year-old first ventured overseas in 2018, but missed out this year owing to COVID-19 restrictions.
"So much is going to depened on how countries repsond to COVID.
"Hopefully international borders open up and we can get racing again overseas," White said.
He said if everything went to plan Taiwan in March would be the first trip, followed by Malaysia.
"That'd be a nice way to get back. Taiwan is where I last raced overseas. Then depending on how daring we are, there's a race in China in late March."
White won the 2020 Tour of Taiwan, which included a stage victory, after winning a stage of the race in 2019.
He said the plan was then to go to Europe in April or May.
He last raced in Europe in 2019, with that visit culminating in the prestigious under-23 Tour de l'Avenir in France and World Under-23 Road Race Championship in England.
While White is as keen as ever to get back into a routine of constant racing, he has gone through ups and downs this year - describing it as anti-climatic in the testing environment of COVID-19.
It did not start out he planned.
White decided to take a break from cycling to allow him to freshen up mentally and physically.
"I started doing a lot of running and fractured a foot, extending my break."
Ultimately with COVID-19 again impacting, a large part of his year was taken up working and studying.
Cycling took a back seat, limited to what was basically riding to allow him to maintain a base fitness.
"My motivation did drop off at different stages, but that has changed in the past few months.
"I've ramped things up with some racing at lclub evel in Melbourne. I'm fresh and the motivation's certainly back and I'm ready to have a crack," White said.
That was on show with his 14th in the return of the National Road Series in Queensland earlier this month.
He will have his last serious hit-out before the AusCycling Road National Championships in Ballarat next month in the two-day bay crits at Geelong on January 8-9 - an event in which he was equal second when it was last held in 2020.
White is hopeful this will give him a sound foundation to the national road criterium championship in Ballarat.
