Scott striving for positivity as early targets disappear
CALDER VALLEY cyclist Rob Scott has opened up on the mental challenges posed by the sport’s ongoing coronavirus shutdown.
Scott, the 2018 British under 23 champion, had been targeting a breakthrough season and a move to a top tier World Tour team for 2021 after switching from the now defunct Wiggins development team, run by the former Olympic champion Bradley, to Canyon Dhb.
But with the spring programme - which included several of Scott’s primary targets, including this weekend’s Ghent-Wevelgem under 23 Nations Cup race in Belgium and May’s Tour de Yorkshire, which had been scheduled to pass his Colden home on day three - now wiped out, and no clear picture of when racing will resume, Scott has been left in limbo.
“A lot of it is definitely inside the head, a mental battle,” said Scott.
“To be honest, when you look at the bigger picture, there are days when it’s difficult to be too bothered about cycling.
“I think a lot of riders are finding the same thing; it’s hard to motivate yourself to train properly when the goals you worked towards have disappeared from the calendar.
“It would have been GhentWevelgem this weekend. I was fourth there last year and the aim was to go back there and try to win.
“The uncertainty makes it difficult. I believe we will get back to racing later in the summer, maybe in July or August, but no one really knows.
“There are still some big goals to potentially look forward to the Tour of Britain in September for one - but they seem a long way off.
“I’m trying to be positive and treat it as a bit of a second winter, a chance to build on some good training and make more improvements, but that’s tougher some days than others.
“It’s not easy, but it’s not easy for anyone at the moment, is it?”
How this season impacts on Scott’s long-term goal of a lucrative World Tour deal remains to be seen, with his final year in the under 23 ranks - where the biggest teams look for the next generation of professional stars - at least partially lost.
“The way the timing has happened, because this year was so important, is the most disappointing thing,” he said.
“Hopefully, there will be the chance to try and get some results to put in front of teams.
“If not, it’s going to be a case of trying to show how I’ve progressed since I moved out of the juniors and convincing them what this fourth year would have looked like without everything that’s happened.
“But there are potentially going to be a lot of riders trying to do the same thing, so it’s not going to be easy, even though I’ve got some good results to fall back on from previous years.”