HOW does it feel to qualify to represent your country in three different events in the same year but be denied the chance to do so? According to Mark Windsor it feels terrible.
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Windsor, who is one of Bathurst's Living Legends, was set to race at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in New Zealand this November a month after contesting the road race and time trial at the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in Canada.
But the coronavirus has forced the cancellation of the world age group cycling titles planned for Whistler and Vancouver, while the Ironman has been postponed until 2021.
"I had like three world titles this year, so it's a bad time to have qualified for those and I was pretty fired up about them as well to be quite honest," Windsor said.
What makes it even tougher for Windsor is that 2020 was to be his comeback in the green and gold.
He had qualified in his age group for last year's edition of the Ironman World Championships to be held in Nice, France, but a training accident and subsequent shoulder surgery ruled him out.
"So again I miss out for a second year. The first year I missed out on the worlds in Nice because I bloody fell off [my bike] before I went. Now for the second year bloody COVID-19 has put an end to it.
"So I've qualified for the world titles and haven't been able to go for two years now, it's terrible.
"Last year Nice really, really suited me, like I couldn't have made a course that better suited me, so that was such a blow. This year then having three world titles knocked off."
Windsor qualified to compete at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships by taking out the men's 60-64 years division at Geelong in February.
Windsor completed the 1.9 kilometre swim, 90km cycle leg and 21.1km run in a time of four hours, 34 minutes and 12 seconds. That effort was almost 10 minutes faster than his nearest rival and earned him an automatic spot to race at Taupo.
The date for the postponed Taupo event has not yet been released, but Windsor has another triathlon target to aim for if it does not go ahead.
"I was busting to go Geelong and have a crack at the Ironman down there and see if I could win in that and I did," he said.
"But the triathlon is alright, we have another world title in ITU here next year in Queensland. So there is events I can go to, so if Ironman doesn't run it's about trying to qualify for that."
As for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, Windsor qualified for both the time trial and road race with strong performances at the Bathurst Cycling Classic in March.
He was especially keen to see what he could do in the time trial in Canada and said to compete at future world titles may not be an option.
"The time trial is the one I was pretty fired up about. The road race is a bit of pot luck, you've got to be pretty aggressive, so the time trial [was] my one, " Windsor said.
"The thing about the worlds with the bikes is that not many are held in the southern hemisphere.
"They have got the next three or four years worked out, they are all big trips and I'm sort of gradually getting over that, it's a long way to go and it's a lot of money."
