Cyrus Monk's day turned from fury to something fantastic when he won the under-23 road race at the Australian championships.
It is the biggest result of his emerging career.
But Monk was angry when organisers slashed Saturday's race program at Buninyong, near Ballarat, because of the extreme weather.
The temperature was forecast to reach 39 degrees and the wind was blustery.
The Gran Fondo amateur event was cancelled and the under-23 race cut by four laps, from 139.2 to 92.8km, so Saturday's program was done by 11.30am.
As late as Saturday morning, Monk was lobbying race officials to reverse that decision.
"I was probably the least happy of the whole peloton, initially," the 21-year-old said.
"I was pretty furious and trying to get my managers to complain to Cycling Australia.
"Even this morning, I was asking if they could change it.
"I really wanted the longer distance, to wear the riders down."
But the shortened race played perfectly into Monk's hands.
While he's not a climbing specialist, the heat nullified the long ascent that is the key feature of the Buninyong circuit.
With two and a half laps left, Monk went off the front of the main group and soon had the lead.
"Two-and-a-half laps from the finish, no-one wants to spend all their bikkies there," he said.
"So it's often a time you can sneak off the front.
"I wasn't happy to be out there but I just thought 'now I've got to try and make it stick'.
"I threw all the eggs in that basket and luckily I was able to hold them off."
The Drapac development team member from Gippsland in country Victoria won by 26 seconds, with James Potter winning a three-rider sprint for silver and Michael Potter taking third.
Monk should now gain a start with the composite UniSA team later this month at Adelaide's Tour Down Under.
The heat meant the under-19 road races started at 6.30am, before the under-23 men.
Sarah Gigante won to scoop the three women's under-19 titles, while Tyler Lindorff took out the men's junior race.
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