By JARROD POTTER
CROSSING the line was the main battle to overcome for Berwick cyclist Sam de Riter.
De Riter, 26, could not believe her seventh place finish at the recently held Cycling Australia National Road Race Championships considering the previous year she has gone through.
She has battled bravely through a torturous 2014 spent mostly in rehabilitation rather than pumping the pedals, as she has struggled to rein in a number of medical set-backs.
She has undergone treatment for a bulging spinal disc, MRI and brain scans to determine the cause of leg numbness, which was eventually diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy – a condition which affects nerves and the messages her brain sends the rest of the body.
“It is a little like phantom limb pain – peripheral neuropathy – where the brain is over-sensitised and sending the wrong messages to her body,” de Riter said.
“I was spending about five days a week in physio, doctors and massage appointments and two-three hours a day doing rehab for eight months and I’m still doing the rehab and physio.
“Basically you just have to work through it, and I worked through it, and think I’m a much stronger person for it today.”
Despite the arduous rehabilitation just to get back on the bike – let alone compete at the elite level – de Riter does not regret the battles she’s gone through to return to competitive cycling as it has made her a better person.
“It’s been great – I guess a little bit was unexpected and a good surprise,” de Riter said.
“Nationals was a little bit of a surprise for me as I had the whole year out, so I hadn’t raced a road race since the 2014 road race and was literally 12 months without racing a road race.
“More than anything I was relieved – to finish – seventh is amazing and any other year I think I would have been completely stoked.
“It sounds stupid that I wasn’t, but it was such a big lead up and I didn’t know that I’d make it so I was just relieved.”
2015 is panning out a lot better already for de Riter as High5 Dream Team took a chance and signed her up for this year’s National Road Series, despite an horrific 2014 off the bike – a signing that de Riter could not be more grateful to receive.
“It was pretty exciting – I found out in October when I still wasn’t able to train properly and I thought it was a joke,” de Riter said.
“I hadn’t ridden all year, hadn’t raced and was asked to race on the best NRS team in Australia… it was a massive shock.
“It’s so exciting and I don’t even know how to explain it – they’re putting so much faith in me and giving me the opportunity as there are so many other girls who would be absolutely rapt to get on this team and they’re giving me the chance over other girls who have been racing and know they can put results down on paper.”
Her first race for High5 will be the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race starting 31 January.
