Tim Williams will race the time trial at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships in Nottwil with the rainbow jersey on his shoulders… and all the pressure that goes with defending a world title.
“Of course there is pressure but most of that comes from myself,” says the H1 athlete who surprised more than a few at the Worlds in Greenville last year, finishing over 21 seconds faster than his closest rival South Africa’s Nicolas Pieter du Preez.
“I flew under the radar last year. I wasn’t expecting to do that well.”
If he surprised himself and his fellow competitors in 2014, it was because he was relatively new to the international para-cycling scene. Williams was 19 years old when he broke his neck playing rugby in 1995. The accident left him quadriplegic but it was not long before he took up wheelchair rugby, winning silver as part of the New Zealand Wheel Blacks team at the 1998 IWRF World Championships in Toronto.
After a break to spend more time with his young family (wife Jo and children Katie, born in 2000, and Noah, born in 2007) he took up handcycling in 2008 with no great competitive ambitions: “It was just a way of keeping fit. I would go out on my bike in my jeans, ride a few kilometres and that was my lot.”
But once a sportsman always a sportsman, and Williams started setting himself little goals: 10km a day… 4000km a year… a local race… Before he knew it he had been invited to a development camp which opened his eyes.
After success at the 2013 NZ Club Road Nationals, he went on to represent New Zealand for the first time at the 2013 Para-cycling Road World Championships in Baie-Comeau, Canada. It was a fantastic experience but he was no serious threat to his fellow competitors. But just one year later he was H1 time trial World Champion and, despite mechanical problems, bronze medallist in the H1 road race.
Absent from the first two rounds of the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup, the 39-year-old will begin his World Cup campaign in Elzach, Germany, just one week before the World Championships. In the meantime he has been closely following the racing in Italy and Switzerland to get an idea of the competition.
“One year before Rio, there will be more people around. It’s going to be tough but I’m training hard and will do the best I can. I feel I am improving, and at the end of the day, if you come second but you’ve done your best, you can’t have any regrets.”
Living in Ngatea, a dairy farming area of the North Island, Williams has to share his training routes with trucks, and milk tankers. “It can be quite fun!” he says with a hint of irony in his voice. “I am lucky that Jo comes riding with me. She keeps an eye out and keeps me well fed.”
His children, among his most ardent supporters, have not yet shown an interest in cycling themselves. Katie prefers netball and rowing, and Noah plays hockey.
“They don’t have that killer instinct,” observes their dad. “I’m hoping they will come for rides with me at some stage but I’m too fast for them at the moment!”
Williams is fortunate to live less than 100km from Cambridge, which houses New Zealand’s new cycling Centre of Excellence with state of the art facilities including the Avantidrome track. His gym sessions in Cambridge give him a chance to catch up with his coach Jono Hailstone and draw inspiration from the atmosphere of a high-performance centre, home to the country’s national cycling and triathlon organisations.
“It gets you really hyped up. There is a real buzz there.”
The immediate goal is to retain the UCI rainbow jersey, but further ahead is the lure of the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
“Yes it is one of my goals. It is the ultimate for any para-cyclist. I will be 40 in 2016 and it will be 21 years since my accident. I would love to be there, but I don’t want to get too excited about that yet.”