THE sport of cycling in TT continues to thrive post-pandemic.
Over the past year, TT's cyclists have had to pump their pedals harder to remove rustiness caused by a lengthy two-year pause in training and competition, owing to covid19 restrictions.
But with smart planning by the TT Cycling Federation (TTCF) and its member clubs, local cycling events hit the ground pedalling a-pace after national sporting organisations were granted permission to resume domestic sport in mid-January.
The past 12 months were hailed a 'success' by TTCF president Rowena Williams, who was elated to have the event-starved local cycling community back out in full force.
Headlining this year's competitive performances for TT, however, was Switzerland-based flying 200m world record holder (9.1 seconds), Nicholas Paul, who had his best season yet as an elite cyclist, despite prematurely bowing out in October because of a collar bone injury.
Ironically, Paul's season started with a setback as he crashed out of the men's sprint semi-final at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Scotland, in April. There, he suffered a fractured collarbone in his first event for the year.
After his ten-week recovery, Paul went on to win medals in every meet he competed in for 2022. He rebounded by winning the sprint and keirin gold on his return meet at the UCI Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia, in July.
There was no stopping the speedster as he went on to become the first TT cyclist to capture a complete set of Commonwealth Games medals, gold (keirin), silver (sprint) and bronze (1km time trial) in England, in August.
Days later, he pedalled to triple gold in each event at the Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Peru.
The next two months, Paul planned to use to train at his World Cycling Centre base in Aigle, Switzerland, ahead of the World Track Cycling Championships, scheduled for France, in October.
In September, Paul was one of two members of the cycling fraternity honoured with a national award on Republic Day. The other was former national cyclist Michael Phillips. Paul received Humming Bird Gold.
In 2018, he received Humming Bird Silver, alongside retired two-time Olympian Njisane Phillip, Kwesi Browne, European-based women's pro road cyclist Teniel Campbell and swimmer Dylan Carter.
However, in early October, during a routine training session, Paul damaged his collarbone once more and was ruled out of competition for the remainder of the season. His omission saw him miss out on World Champs and UCI Champions League.
At that time, he was ranked second on the UCI Rankings in both sprint and keirin.
For his immense contribution to TT cycling, Paul captured TTCF's most outstanding cyclist accolade at its awards on December 17. He, alongside 2020 Olympic debutants Browne and Campbell also received a special award from the fraternity for their performances in Tokyo.
CAMPBELL INJURED
Campbell also had a fair season but was also h
