Narrabri cyclist more determined than ever after earning silver at Queensland masters state champs event

From leading premiership-winning Narrabri representative cricket sides as their captain to featuring in Group 4 Rugby League and Central North Rugby Union grand finals as a first grade player, and many more brilliant sporting successes in between, Lachie Cameron has always been a winner.

His talent comes naturally and he works incredibly hard to be the best he can be in anything that he does, whether that’s in the sporting arena, his workplace at the Phoenix Two390 gym, or as a parent.

So when he took up a new sport at the age of 35 last year and started from the back of the pack, struggling to keep up at times, he found himself in quite unfamiliar territory.

Fast forward a year, and the Narrabri cyclist is making a name for himself and is setting some huge goals.

Cameron is a part of the renowned St George Cycling Club and even gave up cricket to give himself the chance to fully focus on his training.

It was a tough sacrifice to make for a strong batsman who was dominating at club and representative level, but it is one that is starting to pay off.

Earlier this month, Cameron lined up at the AusCycling Masters Track Championships – Queensland, which was contested at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane.

He competed in the pursuit event first up on Sunday, December 11, and then earned a silver medal in the 1000-metre time trial last Tuesday, December 13.

Track time trial is an event in which cyclists compete individually against the clock to record the fastest time across the specified distance from a standing start.

The 1000-metre event is a four-lap race, which Cameron has labelled as his main cycling event. He competes in a division for cyclists aged 35-39-years-old named MMAS2.

He was thrilled to earn the second medal of his career last week but was even more pleased with his time.

“The medal was great and getting second was obviously a good feeling, but the whole process at the moment is more goal-based around my times,” he said.

“It’s the old cliché of me versus me.

“It was a pretty big PB for me, and it moved me closer to some of my long-term goals.

“I hit the line and they actually had the wrong name up there for me, my time was next to someone else’s name.

“Seeing that ‘Raymond Smith’ had recorded the time I did, it was just a really good feeling.

“I’ve now taken nine seconds off my time in 12 months, which is quite large in a race that lasts a minute and 10 seconds.

“As I said, coming second was just a bonus. I was three seconds off the winner, and that guy was the silver medallist last year at the nationals, so he’s pretty fast.

“Being competitive with those kinds of guys is a long-term goal, but at this stage at 12 months in, I was ecstatic to get that close.”

Cameron’s short-term goal is to race the 1000-metre time trial in less than one minute and 10 seconds, and he came within less than a second of achieving that last Tuesday. He eventually wants to get that time below a minute and eight seconds.

He has also declared that he would like to become competitive in the elite division and crack a top 10 finish at the state championships in elites.

Being the ultimate competitor that he is, he also has gold medals in the back of his mind.

His silver medal in Brisbane last week was his second medal since he began racing a year ago. Last season, at the NSW Masters Championships, he went home with a bronze.

“It was great to win that medal,” he said.

“It wasn’t in my chosen event, which was a bit weird.

“It was a funny field too. There were two very big standouts that were a long way ahead of the rest of the field, and I guess I was just the best of the worst, so I sneaked my way in there.

“But I was proud of myself because I felt like I got that more out of guts than anything else.

“It was a case of I was nowhere near the third-best cyclist there, but I really wanted it more.”

The Narrabri cyclist has improved significantly since he first jumped on the bike at a competitive velodrome track event last year.

Remarkably, he has not yet arrived home from an event without a time that was quicker than what he had previously achieved.

While the majority of that comes down to his own determination and training, he said the St George Cycling Club and head coach Morgan Ho had a significant role in his progress, as has a fellow Narrabri cyclist.

“To have someone like Damon Marshall, with his experience, to pick apart my races and provide me with more technical knowledge from his experience on little things that I can do to improve the little technical things, like in starts and taking the bends at the velodrome, is just huge,” Cameron said.

“We are actually trying to fast-track experience because I’m up against guys that have been doing it for a lot longer.

“He’s helping me knock off time just by being a more skilled bike rider, as well as obviously the physical part of it too, by helping me become a better athlete.”

Cameron now has his sights set on next year’s AusCycling Elite Track State Championships – NSW, which will be held at Sydney’s Dunc Gray Velodrome in February, and then the 2023 AusCycling Masters Track State Championships – NSW, which will be held at the same venue in March.