Bradley McGee (Francaise des Jeux) (Image credit: Sirotti)
With a longer than usual stay in Europe this year, Brad McGee found the time to compete at Revolution 14 last week. The Sydneysider was happy to answer a few questions when Cyclingnews' Ben Atkins caught up with him before the action started.
Most Aussies have flown south for the winter by now, but this Sydneysider is hanging around for longer than usual - allowing him to ride some fun events like the Revolution 14 at the Manchester Velodrome. This extension to the usual European tour is an indication that the McGees are beginning to put down more roots in the Northern Hemisphere; "We made the decision a long time ago to stay , mainly because our little girl's in school now, and we didn't want to be flying her out. I didn't expect to stay so long, but then these sort of things keep cropping up, you know; I'll stay for that, stay for that, stay for that, why not..."
Despite enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the Revolution meeting, he's not tempted to have a go at anything more competitive at the moment. One might have though that the UCI Track World Cup event in his home town may have been tempting if he'd gone back at the usual time, but that's not the case; "Even if I'd been there I wouldn't have been riding the World Cup. I am looking at doing the Moscow World Cup later on [December 15-17]."
Despite a usual start to his season, things have begun to fall apart for McGee, with reoccurring back problems returning to blight what should have been the time to hunt results. "Well, it was about as bad as it gets really. It started off normally, but then by about April, May, I started having all these problems with my back, with sciatica," explained McGee. "I struggled through for a few months before fixing it properly in early June, then it took until the middle of August to come back with things right. In doing that I learned a lot and I've cured a problem that's been lurking around for a few years now. So, from May on this year was nothing but unpleasantries."
