GOLDEN GATE
Aaron Gate had burnt enough matches to set the tinder-dry Warwick countryside ablaze.
He then lit the flame of desire one last time to extinguish the gold medals hopes of those who had ridden with him for 160 kilometres in the men’s road race on the penultimate day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The New Zealand cyclist won his record-breaking fourth gold medal of the Games with a performance in the men’s road race that not only had to be seen to be believed, but actually beggared belief.
Gate, whose excellence on the track was illustrated by his wins in the men’s individual pursuit, team pursuit and points race in the fledgling days of the Games in London, defeated a string of worldclass road specialists when he had no right to after doing the majority of the donkey work.
When he found himself alone in a breakaway group of 15 early without a fellow Kiwi, Gate described it as ‘‘a really bad situation’’.
‘‘With three English riders and a couple of very strong South Africans, I couldn’t let the wrong combination go because I knew that would be the race over,’’ he said.
But Gate isn’t a stranger to bad situations.
At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, he broke his collarbone when he crashed during the men’s team pursuit, not only ending his dreams of a medal in that event but the rest of his participation in the Olympics, scheduled to include the madison and omnium races.
Gate has his collarbone plated, but later needed another surgery to get it removed because of infection. So while his pluck was never in doubt, he was still a second-tier professional surrounded by riders with bigger teams, bigger contracts and bigger reputations.
As the breakaway group whizzed through the laps, talk of who was going to win buzzed through fans and experts. Probably Geraint Thomas, of Wales – winner of the Tour de France in 2018 and third late last month in road cycling’s blue riband event.
If not him, then maybe South Africa’s Daryl Impey, the South African noted for his dogged finishing burst and with a Tour de France stage win to his credit.
Certainly minimal talk of Gate, the track speedster, who was being punished like a rented mule as he endeavoured to plug every breakaway after being part of a four-man one himself.
If it didn’t feel like Aaron Gate against the world, it was undeniably Aaron Gate against the Commonwealth. In cycling terminology, to burn too many matches is to work too hard, leaving yourself without spark at the end.
Gate went through Beehive boxes galore and the fans roadside could have built a replica Raging Bull from the spent sticks before the victor reached the finish line.
‘‘I was definitely cramping up multiple times in those last two laps following all those moves,’’ Gate said.
‘‘I was like ‘ooh, this one could just push me over the edge’, and it was too late to try and play catchup with hydration at that point. I was a little bit nervous that when I started to open my sprint that my legs were just going to lock up – but luckily I was able to drive the bike to the finish line.’’
Thomas sprinted 2 kilometres out and the wise heads nodded. But he was reeled in. Impey got into perfect position and sanity seemed set to prevail.In the end, no one could stop Aaron Gate.