Teenager Rickardo Broxham learnt many lessons and also reaped some career-changing rewards at the Junior World Track Championships held in Aigle, Switzerland, last week.
Having taken part in three events, Broxham, who has just turned 18, finished 15th in the scratch race, 23rd in the individual pursuit and came sixth overall in the omnium.
He won two of the four events in the omnium, the tempo and points race, while placing 15th in both the other races, the scratch and elimination.
The wins were his major highlights, Broxham said, but he cut his losses and gained a new perspective from the other results.
“If you had told me three months ago that I would have got this far I probably would not have believed you,” he told In the Bunch today, partially also referring to his overall road-race victory at the Junior Tour of Ireland just over a month ago.
“Now, after the champs, I realise that I made a few key mistakes which probably cost me getting a medal.
“In the scratch, those mistakes probably even cost me a gold [medal].”
Teenager Rickardo Broxham (pictured) learnt many lessons and also reaped some career-changing rewards at the Junior World Track Championships last week. Photo: Clement Barre
Broxham, who rode for the World Cycling Centre high-performance team, felt following his stint in Switzerland that South Africa was making good progress.
“I know South Africa in the future will win a medal among the young guys [in the track world champs],” he said.
“It’s looking positive and I’m feeling positive that we can actually compete with these guys [Europeans] now. The gap in the competition is not that great.
“There is a lot of talent moving up and we as South Africans are not too far off anymore. We just need to be there for the big competitions such as the junior world cups, track races and even on the road.”
Referring to the scratch races at the world champs, Broxham said he had first needed to focus on qualifying before getting his mind around the final.
He said he was more than capable of winning bunch sprints on the road, but described a similar scenario on the track as “way different”.
“My sprinting doesn’t really compare with these guys,” he said. “Sprinting on the track, the numbers and positioning are all very different.
“That is why I was told to have an insurance, which is to gain a lap or make an early move.”
Broxham said he used this strategy in the qualifier rounds of the scratch races, where the top 10 riders went through to the finals.
“If four guys go ahead, then there would still be six spots left, so if I was in that breakaway then I wouldn’t have to gamble with the bunch sprint,” he explained.
“I definitely learnt to have that insurance or back-up plan.”
In the final of the scratch race, Broxham felt his downfall might have been that he was over-confident too soon. It was another lesson he had learnt.
“I tried too hard to lap the other guys and get into the early move. I thought they wouldn’t expect a South African to lap the bunch.
“I came close, but I was yet so far. I should’ve been more patient, but at the same time it is a gamble. You have to roll the dice at some time; you cannot just wait for something to happen.
“Unfortunately in the scratch race it didn’t happen for me, but it definitely happened for the Korean rider [Jooyoung Park, who subsequently won]. He had a very clever race.”
Heading into the omnium, Broxham knew the elimination was going to pose a challenge.
“That’s a type of race you need to adapt to,” he said. “It’s such a hard race and it’s flat out from the gun.
“These guys are so at home on the track and it’s almost second nature to them, whereas I have probably only done four eliminations in my whole life. None of those even compared to the speed in Switzerland.
“I could be hard on myself, but I’m still pleased with how it all went,” he said, adding that in the elimination he should not have pulled out when he was already near the front.
“I kind of handed it over to them when I should’ve made them work. I certainly hope the future athletes back home can learn from this, as I have.”
Broxham, who rides locally for ProTouch, said he should have limited his losses in the omnium scratch race as well, then “I would’ve been in contention for an overall medal”.
He was glad, however, to have broken the “unofficial” national individual pursuit record, Broxham said.
The young rider especially lauded his coach Kurt Begemann’s contribution at the track champs.
“He was just so professional and when I got warnings he told the commissaries how to do their work,” Broxham said.
“He’s very experienced and I would like to encourage the younger athletes to work with him. We should not take for granted [the fact] that he is the most experienced track coach in SA.”
Two junior riders will be given the opportunity to represent SA at the Junior World Road Champs in Innsbruck, Austria, on September 27.
Broxham said he hoped he would make the cut, but said nothing was “100 per cent certain yet”. His long-term goal, though, was to represent SA on the track at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
