“Cycling you are fcked but I love you,” was a line from an Instagram post by Matilda Raynolds earlier this year.
It wouldn’t seem unreasonable if she was leaning into the negative side of this love/hate relationship with the sport right now. This week she was meant to be lining up at the Lotto Belgium Tour, having staked a huge amount of training, time, effort and money into utilising the race as a potential opportunity to launch her dream of becoming a European-based professional cyclist.
The Australian picked out the UCI 2.1 five-stage race, scheduled June 14 to June 18, as one where she could potentially make an all-important mark in Europe, pretty much a necessity to catch the eye of a team that could offer a professional contract and the opportunity to become a full-time cyclist.
Raynolds, who has plenty of impressive results to her name in Australia, had found a team to race with that had an invitation to the event. She travelled to Belgium early, so she wasn’t launching in cold but could race a string of crits in the lead-in, which are not necessarily races that suit her but did provide a good bit of run-up competition between reconnaissance rides. She’d even knocked back a start at the Giro d’Italia Donne as she was so convinced that the Lotto Belgium Tour was the event that would best showcase her strengths.
Raynolds was all-in, but then, just over a week before the planned start date, the race was cancelled.
“This was such a shock that the Belgium Tour has been cancelled,” Raynolds told Cyclingnews over the phone as she grappled with the decision of what to do next. “I’d been training through all the races that I’ve done so far. This was the goal. This was really why I was over here, why I chose this team.
“But the experience has been fantastic,” added Raynolds, who is not one to overlook how fortunate she has been to have had the opportunity to chase her dreams and currently be injury free so she can continue to do just that. “I’ve loved where I’ve been in Belgium, but now it’s just really about trying to take stock and look at what’s in my control.”
Raynolds had planned to race the Lotto Belgium Tour with club team Keukens Redant. While her teammates could just hop on a train and return home to friends and family when the Tour was cancelled, it wasn’t such an easy decision for the Australian, who currently resides in New Zealand. Home and the support systems that come with it are an expensive 20-hour-plus flight away.
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