Six-year ordeal leads cyclist to Canada Games

On a mild December day in 2011, Timothy Austen had the urge for a bike ride in Ottawa.

Why not? There was no snow on the ground, no time clock involved and no medals at the end. Just a fun, end-of-year outing. Moving smoothly under the Alexandra Bridge, his life suddenly changed in an instant.

Out of nowhere, he hit a patch of black ice and crashed to the ground.

“I rode home. But I don’t remember riding home,” said Austen, then 15, recalling the moment that would sentence him into darkness, shut down his budding cycling career, but would later be the underlying motivator for bringing him back to the sport after an unsuccessful experiment with a winter sport.

In a period of six years, Austen, 21, has come full circle as a cyclist and today is a Team Ontario member preparing for the two-week 2017 Canada Summer Games, which begin Friday in Winnipeg.

When Austen crashed on the bridge, he suffered a concussion. He didn’t know it at the time or have the advantage of following today’s detailed protocol for recovery from such serious head trauma. Instead, he was advised to stay in a darkened room in his Ottawa home for more than a month. He only went out for medical appointments.

“It was really hard. It was a long time ago, but I still think of it every day,” he said.

Fortunately, he discovered Dr. Kristian Goulet, a pediatrician in Kanata who specializes in pediatric sports medicine and concussions. Goulet offered an active approach to concussion recovery.

But after four months of no training and six months without sports competition, Austen decided to leave cycling and focus on becoming a full-time crosscountry skier after graduating from Glebe Collegiate Institute. His concussion played a big role in his decision to abandon cycling.

Austen ventured to Canmore, Alta., to begin serious training. But after 18 months of mediocrity, he realized cycling might be his best path to athletic achievement as he enjoyed training on his bike.

In retrospect, he felt he should have stuck with cycling, even though it was about developing friendships and not the results in his early teens.

“Quitting something you love because you get a concussion is never a good reason to do that,” said Austin, who often is his own worst critic.

When he returned to cycling in the fall of 2015, he told his coach, Nicholas Vipond, he wanted to compete for Ontario at the 2017 Canada Summer Games. They both knew that was a big goal and would require a huge effort. Austen came close to making Team Ontario for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, serving as second alternate for the Nordic team.

After some success as a category men’s senior 3 rider in the spring of 2016 and moving into the elite class competing for Ottawa-based Ride with Rendall presented by Biemme, Austen has had some motivating moments this season. He called the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay “really special,” because he was riding at a high level and “felt like I belonged there.”

Despite not finishing the road race at the Canadian championships in Ottawa for the second straight year, he did place 31st overall in the senior men’s time trial.

But Austen almost didn’t make it to the Saguenay races and the national championships because of another “concussion-like” moment. On May 19, he crashed during a race in Belgium and fractured a bone in his left elbow.

“That experience of the crash and concussion has (been with me) for six years,” he recalled. “I’m definitely better for it. When I broke my elbow in Belgium, there was no point thinking I was going to quit. It was better to ride.”

And it will take him all the way to Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games.