Walking on water | Cyclingnews

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(Image credit: Mark Gunter)

An interview with William Walker, February 1, 2006

It was around this time three years ago the name first caught my attention. One of my colleagues enthusiastically told me a 17 year-old schoolboy by the catchy name of William Walker had taken out one of the Bay Series races in Victoria, a series of criteriums held a week before the Australian open road championships and fiercely contested by some of the best riders in the country. That he won was amazing in itself, but it was also the way he won that really got people talking.

"I haven't really thought about it, to be honest," says the voice next to me, as I catch a ride home with this young prodigy after the third stage of the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under. "It doesn't seem that long ago; I was on a pretty good level, and I've trained similarly since then. I've done lots since, though - I've been to Europe for a whole year and experienced a bit of the world, and my cycling's improved because of it."

Arguably Australia's most prestigious one-day race, the Melbourne-to-Warrnambool Classic is a leg-sapping 299 kilometres, which makes it the longest UCI-classified single day event in the world. A teenager is not meant to be able to win a race of this length, but the then 18 year-old made the decisive nine-man split 110 kilometres from the finish, before he and his team-mate Jonathan Clarke attacked a tiring group with eight kilometres to go. His fast finish in a small group made victory elementary.

The Walkers moved from Subiaco, Western Australia, when William was two, where he enjoyed a brief country upbringing in Victoria's Gippsland region before moving from Sale to Melbourne at seven years of age. The second eldest of four brothers - "we're all in four years of each other, so a lot of fighting was going on - still is," he says, grinning - Will was the first in his family to take up the sport, encouraged by a friend at high school.

"Davo [Dave Sanders, head coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport] started chatting to me and gave me a training program. I learned how to train and how you have to go a bit harder than what I thought, because you never really know if you've got nobody to tell you. Ever since then, I've gone pretty well. I was about 16 when I first started being helped out by him, and since I was 17, I've been pretty strong."

Last year, Walker spent an entire season in Europe with Rabobank's feeder team, made up of hungry, aspiring professionals, where he lived alone in cycling's heartland that is Belgium, based in a town within the hilly region of Limburg. Asked if he found it tough spending so much time on his own, he replies, "I'm not really the type of person that gets into feeling [homesick] or missing people or anything like that, so I just kind of felt like I was in Melbourne; I was in Europe for nine months and didn't really care less."

Making the decisive split on the third day of the "race of the future" (the Tour de l'Avenir is restricted to riders aged 25 and under) moved Walker into an excellent position on GC, occupying fifth place. But two days later, in the all-important individual time trial, he appeared to pay the price for his efforts, losing more a minute and a half to stage winner Christian Müller in 22 kilometres. Still, he bravely held on to finish the race seventh behind winner Lars Bak from CSC, placing him in good stead for the world's.

Against the world's best under 23 riders, Ukrainian Dmytro Grabovskyy was a cut above the rest, riding away with around 15 kilometres to go. However, Walker and countryman Chris Sutton also showed their star potential, as they boldly counter-attacked the best of the rest until the former escaped with two kilometres to go, and held off the field for Australia's first under 23 silver medal at a world road championship.

"I was always finishing in the top 30 [last year], but I'd rather work on a better level. I've got plenty of time: the Rabobank team's really good, and they didn't put too much pressure on me when I wasn't going that well last year. They just let me do what I wanted, so they're pretty cool and all the guys on the team are good. I'm chilled out and try and have another year with quite a lot of wins in slightly easier races."

Apart from trying to make the Commonwealth Games team and wanting another crack at the Tour de l'Avenir and the under 23 world road title, Walker doesn't really have any other objectives this year. "I'm just going to try and go well in every race I do - it's as simple as that. I'll probably have a bit easier time in July in terms of training, but [my objective] is just go well in every race. Except for the ones with cobbles... I'll take those ones easy," he smiles.

As Brosnan pulls the car into the tour village opposite the Adelaide Hilton, I quiz him for his prediction on the final podium here at the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under. He tells me his predictions are more scenarios he'd like to see, but regardless, he accurately forecasts Simon Gerrans winning, Sanchez second and McEwen third. Regardless, it was a valiant effort by Will up Old Willunga Hill the following day, where he was using the outer chainring up much of the seven and a half percent climb.