Darren Hicks - Road to the 2024 Paralympics Games

Darren Hicks, 2024, The year so far...

2024 was always going to be an important and busy one!

I ended 2023 with the Track National Championships, held in Melbourne.

Not being a focus, I went into this event without much prep, but also, without much expectation!

I ended up riding a reasonable time in both the 1km Time Trial and also the 3km Individual Pursuit, taking out another National title for the IP and a silver for the Kilo.

I also won the Scratch Race which gave me the overall Omnium Title as well, so a handy 4 Aussie champs to add to the tally!

After this, it was straight home and back into training to prepare for Road Nationals in early January, a last goodbye (at least for a few years!) to Ballarat and Mount Buninyong.

All was going so well, until my warm up on Time Trial race day! As I was riding out to the circuit, my Di2 (electronic gear system) randomly stopped working!!

With the best mechanics in the game there to back me up, I luckily got to sit down, relax a little and let them work their magic. Which they did... until I rolled onto the start ramp, where with only 1 minute until my start time, the same issue happened again. These issues occur so infrequently, that I didn't have a backup bike ready. But luckily the AusCycling commissaires did me a huge favor, and allowed me to start last in my allocated race block, giving us 12 minutes to solve the issue. In the end, the only thing we could MacGyver together to solve the problem was to strap a USB portable charger to the bike with electrical tape to give the gears battery power! But where there's a will there's a way because the fix held for the whole race, a solid ride ended up winning me my 7th Aussie TT title.

Back home in Adelaide, and barely a week later, I was on the start line again, only this time I was not just racing my fellow Aussies, but also the worlds best as I took on the first round of the UCI Road World Cup. Time Trial day this event went far smoother. After sorting the problems with the bike after Nationals, and with some gorgeous weather for TT day, I rode one of my best races to date. The Time Trial was just under 16kms, and I won with an average speed just under 47km/h, a speed that was even a big surprise to me!

The following day was the Road Race, and Tailem Bend delivered a much more "normal" day, with winds of around 30+kmh and strong gusts. It was a 7 lap race, and the first couple were relatively tame, but on the 3rd lap, a couple of attacks were made which separated the bulk of the bunch. Halfway through the lap, the bunch slowed a little and I saw an opportunity to make an attack myself. Following another rider through as he did a strong turn, I jumped around the outside and managed to make a small break, pushing as hard as I could for 2-3minutes gave me a 100m gap. The rest of the race was now a 35km TT, but with each lap, I extended my lead, and ended up winning solo by over 2 minutes.

For only the 2nd time in my career, I had won both races on a World Cup weekend and was now solidly in the overall lead!

The next few months were spent at home and allowed for a couple of big training blocks. After an extremely good 2023, with 3 x Silver medals in my 3 key events at World Champs, I was luckily given the option to choose whether I wanted to attend the Track World Championships in Rio, Brazil. After a few long chats with my coaches, we decided that staying at home and putting in some solid ground work was the better option for what was still to come later in the year. Whilst it was tough to watch the championships happen through the Livestream, I'm happy with our choice.

Fast forward to April, and it was finally time to get back into some racing. The team headed off to Belgium and Italy for the final 2 rounds of the World Cup. I was feeling strong, but the plan all along was still to somewhat train through these 4 races. Both Time Trial days were heavily affected by poor weather, Belgium was luckily only half a day, but Italy was held off for 24hrs. With these delays, the UCI also made the call to halve both race distances, leaving us with 2 TT's under 10km! For both races, the best I could manage were the third step on the podium, with Italy being the closest finish my class has seen in years, only 3.5 seconds separated the top 3, and I lost 2nd by only 2 tenths of a second! Both Road Races were less not the rides I was hoping for, while a fifth in Belgium was not ideal, I couldn't be too unhappy as I pushed as hard as I could. Italy however was just bad luck, I came into the last corner sitting in third place, but a big mistake by the rider in front of me sent him into barriers on the side of the course and gave me nowhere to go but straight into him. A four rider pile up meant the final positions on the podium were taken by riders who were all but out of contention. I ended up 8th, very sore and with a rather broken bike, the only silver lining was that with my results from the first round, the points I earned for 8th were still enough to give me the overall World Cup win and the first of my career!

I'm writing this now as I fly over to Canberra for the official launch of the 2024 Australian Paralympic Team. A somewhat odd feeling given that my place in that team is still unknown, the cycling team is potentially the last to be decided, with the public announcement coming on the 23rd of July.

So until then, I've got my head down and am training hard. Putting in the work and doing all the small one percenters we leave just for this time every four years so I can be my absolute best for the big dance, the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games!

Look forward to updating you all after September, hopefully with some good news and something shiny around my neck.

And of course, a huge thank you to the FE Sports crew for setting me up with what I need as I chase my Paralympic dream.