QUEALLY PEDALS GOLD FOR BRITAIN
Britain's Jason Queally celebrates on the track after winning the men's 1km time trial at the Dunc Gray Velodrome. Picture: Pedro Ugarteepa/AFP
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BEFORE the Olympics, Jason Queally thought aloud about what might have been. He reflected on a youth spent pursuing other sports and lamented that his love for cycling had flowered so late. "Crikey, if I had started at 12 or 13," he said. "I could've been Olympic champion." So now he is, and the wonder of what might have been is even greater.
Yesterday he delivered Britain's first cycling gold since Chris Boardman in 1992, defying the odds in a manner to which we have become accustomed. Queally took the lead in the 1km time trial with just three riders remaining; but one of those was the world record holder Arnaud Tarnant and the other was the local favour-
ite Shane Kelly, who had pushed Queally into bronze at last year's Commonwealth Games.
On the night Kelly's ride carried more threat than Tournant's, but ultimately Queally's ride had been too powerful for all of them. "I just cannot believe it," he said later. "I'm speechless. I came here thinking of a potential medal - maybe a bronze. But it all depends on what happens on the day and something strange happened."
When Queally started riding bicycles seriously five years ago, at 25 years of age, strange things began to happen almost at once. With the intention of attempting a triathlon, Queally joined a local bike club in Manchester early in 1995. Then, one day, he chanced his luck at a 10-mile time trial and did well enough; a few weeks later, in May of 1995, he tried a 1km time trial and his performance was sensational.
On a concrete track at Scale Hall he clocked 1min 9sec: "I didn't know what it meant," he said. "But somebody got a copy of Cycling News and found that the national championships had been won in 1 mine 7 sec. I thought, 'either I'm good at this or the course wasn't a kilometre.'
"At last, I said to myself, I'd found something in life I enjoyed and was quite good at. It needn't necessarily have been sporting, it might have been academic, but it turned out to be cycling. Then I wanted to know how good I could be at it."
It was a question which others were keen to have answered too. Over the following winter Queally was a regular winner of races in a Friday track league in Manchester and by the spring of 1996 word of his reputation had reached the ear of Marshall Thomas, the national squad coach. By May, 12 months after his first 1km time trial, he was included in the national squad's training programme.
Six weeks later, at his first national championships, he confirmed Thomas's judgment, finishing second behind Shaun Wallace. Wallace was selected for the Olympic Games in Atlanta and Queally was picked for the world championships.
Then calamity struck. Leading a race at Meadowbank in Edinburgh he crashed at 40mph. Some of the wooden boards at the track were rotten and the impact of his fall caused two giant splinters to rear up and lodge in his back. The splinters were 18in long, 1.5in wide and 1in thick, tearing wounds which required 70 stitches.
It could even have cost him his life. His early years as a water polo player left a layer of protective muscle around his chest and that was critical.
"If either of the splinters had penetrated my chest cavity rather than the muscle I would be dead. At the time I thought I might die. I sat trackside saying 'I must not pass out, I must not pass out.' It was frightening."
"But the accident did make me realise how much I enjoyed cycling. I've worked nine to five every day so I knew what the real world was like. Getting the bus to work, paying taxes and National Insurance. I think I have a greater appreciation of what I've got."
Astonishingly, he recovered in time to compete at the world championships that August but the psychological scars of the fall remain:
"From that day I've never ridden in a bunch," he said. " The coaches want me to but I keep saying, 'next year, next year.' Every year I tell myself that it's silly and that it's time to get on with it again, but so far I just haven't managed it."
The paradox is that Queally's performances are underpinned by an extraordinary toughness and physical endurance in the most demanding of all cycling disciplines. Just like the 400m on the track the kilometre time trial is a sustained sprint, pushing the athlete into serious oxygen debt.
There have been times after races when Queally passed out; once his exhaustion was so acute that he was unable to take the podium for his medal and had to send somebody else instead.
Asked to describe him once, the British team manager Martin Barras said: "Jason? He's an animal."
The 1997 season passed him by in a sense. He had quit his job as a laboratory technican at Lancaster University to train full time, but funding was slow in coming and he depended on his girlfriend and family to support him.
The grant arrived in 1998 and with a more solid footing an excellent season followed: silver at the Commomwealth games and two British records in the kilometre time trial.
His good form in World Cup races continued into last season, but fifth place at the world championships left him bitterly disappointed. There was some consolation when the British sprint team took silver with Queally riding the anchor leg of the three and driving to the line. As an individual, though, he knew he could do better. And so he has.
The future is full of possibilities: "I hope I can keep going a lot longer," he said before the Games. "Perhaps having come to the sport late I can stay fresh a bit longer than my rivals. I've improved every year that I have been riding and I'd love to go to Athens in 2004."
Can there be any doubt now?
DENIS WALSH
Sunday Times
