My first Euro season...

(Written in August)

As the junior world cycling championships loom ever closer my mind races back to the 20th of July last year when I took to the start line of my first major international race, the U19 women’s world road race championship in Cape Town, South Africa. I placed 37th, a bitter disappointment after two years of sacrifice and preparation.

The year since these championships has truly been a rollercoaster ride. If I had been asked when I crossed the finish line in my first, and hopefully not last, World Championships where I hoped to be in 12months time I would never have thought it possible to be where I am now. It’s been a year of contrasts, the past 12 months have left me a little shocked and still struggling to comprehend what I have achieved.

I made the decision after the World Championships to put my bike to the side and focus on completing my year 12 studies. Three months later I graduated with top marks, no fitness and a mass of cobwebs covering my bike.

What was to follow was a long and gruelling process of attempting to get back to where I had been in July. It was by no means an easy process. As my coach so wisely said to me one of the many times I whined about my general lack of fitness, how much the bike clearly hated me, and what was the point of all this: it takes no time lose it, and twice as long to get it back.

After numerous races where I struggled to finish, if I finished at all, I began to find my legs at the Bay Criterium Series held every year in Geelong during the first week of January. My participation in this event was even in doubt as people were reluctant to put me in a team after my lacklustre performances in the months leading up to the series. Nevertheless, I finished third overall behind current Australian Criterium Champion, Kirsty Broun and World Omnium Champion, Josie Tomic.

However, the National road race Championships held the following week reinforced that I still had a long way to go, I only completed 5 of the 10 laps.

As I watched Lauren Kitchen, a fellow team mate who raced the Junior World Championship with me, jet off to the Middle East to compete in the Women’s Professional Tour of Qatar with the Australian National team I was left to ponder my future.

I made the decision that 2009 would be the year to make or break me as a cyclist. I would train harder, longer and with more intensity than ever before - and then I would go to Europe.

Europe is the Mecca of the cycling world. Cyclists from around the world take the pilgrimage there to race in the hope of being noticed by the elusive and illustrious professional teams. I found a small Dutch club team with a stellar race programme that would have me, and I booked my flights.

What was to follow was a flurry of results that launched my name onto the international cycling arena. Wins in top ranking UCI races in New Zealand and China propelled me into the top fifty female cyclists in the world overall, and in the top five for 2009. I was less than 5 months into my first season as a senior rider and I was already making a name for myself.

My first two races in Europe were big. Cervelo, Columbia, Flexpoint, Lotto-Belisol, DSB Bank. Wild, Gilmore, Vos. Just some of the teams and big name riders that call the European peloton home were all there. They fuelled the fire that I had lit in January when I decided this year was the year.

I finished 6th and 4th in my first two UCI European races. I’d left people asking, who the hell is this Chloe Hosking girl? Literally. Dutch cycling websites set up forums titled Who is Chloe Hosking and where did she come from?

I’m Chloe Hosking; 18, short, stocky, fiery and from Australia. And I just made a splash.

Numerous professional teams approached me, wanting me to sign in July to race the remainder of the season with them. The offers were incredibly tempting. However, under the guidance of my coach, the Australian coach, my parents and Harrie van de Horst, a man who has come to be a mentor to me since I arrived in Europe, I graciously refused the offers. Knowing that I still had a lot to learn before cycling became my job, rather than just a hobby and hoping that other offers, bigger offers, would come along.

Six European podiums and 12 months since I crossed the finished line in Cape Town and everything has changed.

In December of 2008 I couldn’t finish the New South Wales Criterium Championship, and was lapped in a local Criterium in Wangaratta. Now, I finish on the podium with world class riders, in world class races.

On paper I am one of the most successful riders of the 2009 season. My world ranking rose from nothing to 79th in March, and then from 79th to the top fifty in April. Currently I am ranked 17th, the second Australian, behind Rochelle Gilmore and the only 18 year old in the top 100.

In August I was added as a trainee to the roster of the number one women’s team in the world, Team Columbia-HTC and will race the Giro della Toscana in September as a Stagiaire for them. A little over 8 months ago I couldn’t find a team to race for at the Bay Criterium Series.

In December of 2008 Oenone Wood said to me that ‘the door is well and truly open’ for women’s cycling in Australia. I listened, I wanted to take advantage of that opening.

In the year since I crossed the finish line in 37th place at the Junior World Championships a lot has happened. The year has been full of unbelievable surprises and unexpected twists and turns. I’ve come further than I ever could have imagined, and I don’t plan to stop.