How Hicks Found His Destiny In Discomfort

On the bike, Darren Hicks is a beast. In five years on the Para-cycling scene, he’s won road and track World Championships and Paralympic gold and silver medals. In Hicks’ mind, it’s essential to extend his limit at every single training session. That way if he’s only at 90 percent on race day, he still wins.

Hicks is just getting warmed up and you suspect his challengers at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Canada this week know it.

Yet there’s a very different side to the beast. Before his leg was amputated above the knee to free him from the wreckage of a fatal vehicle crash in 2014, he was reserved, even timid at times. The spotlight that’s come with sporting success has also tested his self-assurance. Only in his discomfort zone, on the bike, does Hicks feel a sense of destiny.

“Before the accident I was very much a quiet person and never thought I’d ever go down in history as being remembered for anything,” he said. “I’ve struggled with the confidence of standing out in the crowd.

“But I feel like with cycling I’ve found my place, doing something I can do well and be remembered for and I can have my little spot in history. I want to be remembered as the guy that changed the landscape of the C2, my category. The rest of the world is chasing me, which is where I’d like to keep them.

“I’m still not a super confident person off the bike. I’ve just worked my butt off on it to feel like that’s the place where I’m meant to be and meant to succeed. I’m very lucky in a way to have found that avenue. I enjoy it and I get to travel the world doing it, which is even cooler.”

Hicks is one of several world-beaters representing Australia at the Championships in Baie-Comeau starting on Thursday. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the pandemic and Australia didn’t compete at the 2021 event for the same reason. In 2019 the Aussies dominated, winning nine gold medals to finish on top of the world.

The 2019 World Champions who’ll compete this week are Hicks, Carol Cooke, Paige Greco, Alistair Donohoe and Emily Petricola. Among the 10 Tokyo Paralympians in the team is track champion Amanda Reid, who won gold in the 500 metres time trial C1-3 and will race at her first Road Worlds.

AusCycling’s Para-cycling Technical Director Warren McDonald said: “After the success of the Tokyo Paralympics, I am confident that this team can represent us strongly and continue our status as one of the strongest Para-cycling nations in the world.

“It has been a long time since our last opportunity to represent Australia at a World Championships and I know this team that features world champions, Paralympic medallists and national champions will be one to watch.”

Hicks – who won gold in the C2 time trial at the Para-cycling World Cup event in Quebec last week – sees the World Championships as a chance to start his Paris 2024 qualification campaign, back-up his 2020 Paralympics road time trial gold medal and reclaim his 2019 world title.

“Last year we had to watch the World Champs which was a real shame,” he said. “The guy that came third at the Paralympics is actually the current World Champion, which is a nice thing for me because it should mean I’m in a good position. But in sport you never know.”

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You especially never know when it comes to road racing.

“It’s not like racing on the track, where the distances are exact,” Hicks said. “Courses change, there are hills, the surfaces are different, there’s wind and other factors. That’s a good part about the road. You get to differentiate and find things that work to your strengths and you make the best of what you’re presented,

“It really comes down to being around your threshold the whole race. If you’re not, then you’re doing it wrong. We go into it knowing that you’re going to dip into your reserves a bit for the hills and then hopefully find time to recover slightly in the downhills or easier sections. In the end, hopefully you get a number that’s really close to your threshold and you tick that box.”

By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 10 August 2022