O'Shea back in the Olympics business

The 22-year-old has started to build the foundations of a solid selection case for a spot in the five-man Australian track endurance team for London after a winning campaign at this month’s UCI Track World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The first leg of the world cup series marked O’Shea’s international comeback to the track where he won gold in the individual pursuit, gold in the madison, with Alex Edmondson, and silver in a young and untested team pursuit quartet.

“It’s good to come back and have a bit of success, actually, I didn’t really expect it but you definitely can’t complain when you’re doing well and winning races,” O’Shea told Cycling Central from Spain.

“The main goal was the team pursuit. To come away with other gold medals is pretty good.

“The two weeks before was a training camp in Adelaide, which was just all team pursuit training with the other boys. I guess we were pretty happy with the time (4:01.417) we rode in the team pursuit considering two weeks together isn’t a heap of time.”

The former junior world champion is pushing for omnium selection at the Games but trained specifically for the team pursuit before the world cup. The rider that competes in the omnium at the Olympics will also essentially act as a team pursuit reserve and as such needs to be strong in the blue riband event.

“The omnium is definitely the main goal but also the team pursuit,” he said.

“For me, it’s important that everything is a bit of a goal to give yourself the most opportunity to make the Olympics.

“It’s hard. I’ve never actually ridden an omnium in this format but I guess with the times that I’ve done now in the pursuit I also know what I’m capable of in some of the other events. I think I can definitely be right up there.

“The bunch racing can be a random thing but it’s always been a strong point. I thought I’d have to improve a lot in the timed events but after the individual pursuit in Kazakhstan, if I continue to ride like that it will probably be a strong point of the omnium for me. It’s good that a lot of hard work, trying to improve those disciplines, is starting to pay off.”

O’Shea travelled from Kazakhstan to Spain where he is training for the November 22- 27 Ghent Six Day, which he will ride with compatriot Luke Roberts (Saxo Bank-SunGard). The national track champion is also set to compete at the Zurich Six Day after but is yet to confirm a race partner in what will be his return to the scene since 2009.

It, like almost all of his year on the track and road, is geared around the Games.

“I enjoyed doing the Six Days last time and it’s also just a good way to prepare for the omnium as well,” he said.

“As much as I had goals in the road season - to do well in certain events and hopefully get some results - a lot of my training and some of the races that I did were based around doing well on the track.

“I went to Belgium for six weeks because the racing was flat, it’s hard and it’s kind of like doing a long track race. The Tour of the Murray, I trained all the way through it rather than just racing. I was doing 50-60K extra a day.”

O'Shea celebrated success in Belgium too winning his first race there - June's Erembodegem-Terjoden.

O’Shea’s international track comeback comes after two seasons of health-related setbacks that tested him both physically, mentally and almost pushed him to the brink of retirement.

He was forced to withdraw days before the 2009 world championships, where he was a genuine gold medal contender in the madison, with chicken pox. O’Shea then cut his 2010 January summer road season short and then missed the world track titles with a severe case of glandular fever that more or less sidelined him for the remainder of that year.

He was set to return to the road with his former AIS Continental team at the Tour of Japan that year but broke his wrist days before he was set to fly out.

But O’Shea, in a show and of mental strength and admirable determination, is back and attributes part of his new-found motivation to his contemporaries. He was part of the AIS High Performance group and grew up on the track and road with new GreenEDGE recruits and track world champions Jack Bobridge and Leigh Howard.

“It’s always a bit hard when it feels like, for 12 months, you haven’t been properly fit, you haven’t been able to compete properly and it feels like you’re playing catch-up all the time,” O’Shea said.

“It was a consideration to just give up and let it all go. But I guess the motivation was the people I went through the juniors with, people like Jack and Leigh, having great success, it kind of made me realise I probably still had a little bit left to give and goals to achieve.”

O’Shea this year made the decision to leave his Bendigo, Victoria hometown for Adelaide where he has been able to work more closely with coach Tim Decker and have access to SASI facilities as a scholarship holder.

He is “not yet” part of the AIS program but says the institute has offered support throughout the season.

“Even though I’m not an AIS athlete at the moment they’ve still definitely helped me out a lot. They were a part of sending me to Belgium in the middle of the year and they’re a part of having me over here now doing the Six Day stuff and helping me out towards riding the omnium and hopefully continuing on for next year.”

O’Shea split his time between the SASI and Jayco 2XU team on the domestic circuit this season but is unsure of his movements on the road next season although determined to compete.

“I think it all depends on how I’m looking towards the Olympics,” he said.

“If I’m looking like I could be a good chance to go to the Olympics I’ll definitely have to go somewhere (abroad) to find some road racing just because in Australia the NRS doesn’t really kick in until August or July, which is too late. You need road racing and road Ks in the legs, so I’ll definitely be chasing something overseas. It will most likely be Europe.”

O’Shea says he is feeling healthy again and is up for the challenges that lay ahead of him including the Beijing world cup and possibly the fourth and final London leg as well as the April world championships – the last qualifying event for the Games.

There’s also the small matter of the Australia national team selection race.

“(Michael Freiberg), he’s the current world champion so he’s definitely the main rival,” O’Shea said of his omnium competition.

“Then you’ve got people like Cam Meyer, I think he might put his hand up and have a crack at it, I’m not 100 per cent sure, and then there’s people like Scott Law, who won nationals, so there’s definitely a few putting their hand up.

“There’s probably points where maybe I do have an advantage over some of them and they have advantages over me. For me, I’m just going to worry about myself at the moment and try and get myself in the best possible shape and see how it goes.”

O’Shea plans to race the national omnium and national madison championships in December – the latter with Edmondson – and then compete at the Tasmanian Christmas carnivals for two days before entering another training camp ahead of the Beijing world cup.

“After Beijing I guess decisions will be made about who is going forward towards the worlds and maybe Olympics, so London (world cup) is a bit up in the air,” he said.

“But in saying that, if I’m doing quite well and still get the nod it may be a case of I don’t need to go to London and I’ll stay at home and prepare for the worlds. It’s a bit of a balance act at the moment – see how I’m faring, points, how my body is holding up.

“I’m feeling relatively healthy after Kazakhstan - blizzards and food was interesting. After I finished racing I said my legs felt great but the rest of me feels pretty drained but definitely in terms of glandular fever and all of that I’m healthy and no worries.”

Twitter: @SophieSmith86