At only 29-years-old, Edmondson is a veteran of the Australian Cycling Team.
She has been in the elite ranks since she was a teenager and now comes into her eighth elite track world championships with a wealth of experience and a glittering trophy cabinet.
There are few as experienced or respected within the Australian set-up, and it was a shock for some earlier in the year after winning the national road criterium title when Edmondson announced that she was planning to retire post the Tokyo Olympics, saying at the time “if the Games are on, that will probably be me done”.
Ten months later, and Edmondson is still looking to build her form and perhaps make a last hurrah at the world championships and the Track Champions League, to be run soon after the track world championships and also shown on SBS.
“I’ve been open to being finished,” said Edmondson in an interview with SBS Cycling Central.
“I think the postponement of the Olympics put things in perspective for me and made me think I was close to being finished. But, I’ve never retired before, I don’t what to expect or what to feel, so I’ve always kept the door open.
“The plan was to be very successful at the Olympics and come home with some bling and I think if I had done that I would probably be satisfied. Because I didn’t get what I wanted at the Games, I’m still here and having another crack at worlds.”
Edmondson finished seventh in the Madison with Georgia Baker, and ended up 12th in the Omnium after a fast start with third in the opening event, the scratch race. The South Australian was part of the team pursuit squad that finished fifth at the Olympics, after previous campaigns that saw the squad finish fifth in Rio after a training crash cruelled their prospects, and a very close run fourth in London as they just missed contesting the gold medal ride and then lost the bronze medal by the barest of margins.
With another long cycle preparing for the chance at gold in Tokyo, Edmondson wanted to get more out of all the work that she’s done.
“For me, it’s more about making the last year and a half worthwhile," said Edmondson. "It’s been a great journey and I’ve enjoyed it, but it has been challenging and I want to make all that hard work worth it. For me, that’s to come home with some bling.”
The chances for medals abound at the world championships, but there are questions about whether the team will be able to compete at its best. The squad is severely diminished, with only Europe-based riders able to compete and a small support crew on the ground to assist. Most significantly, the team hasn’t yet secured equipment on which to ride during the track world championships.
“We’ve had a very strange, mixed prep,” said Edmondson. “About a week or two ago, we found out that we’re going to come to Mallorca to do some track training, but there’s been a few issues with equipment as there’s an ongoing investigation with Bastion. So, that’s thrown a spanner in the works and we’re still sourcing equipment to race on.
“It’s been a very… relaxed feel, but actually I like that and it’s nice to go in more relaxed and just appreciate the opportunity to be here.”
Bastion Cycles was the provider of the ‘cockpit’ for the Australian bikes, models that were supposed to give Australia an edge over its competition for gold in Tokyo. As it turned out, there was a failure in some part of the equipment during the men’s team pursuit qualifying, Alex Porter’s handlebars snapping off mid-race and sending the rider crashing to the boards.
An investigation was launched soon after by AusCycling into the incident, with no announcement from the results of that enquiry as yet.
AusCycling provided a statement in response to questions from SBS Cycling Central on the lack of equipment provided for athletes to compete in the 2021 Track World Championships.
"AusCycling can confirm that the Australian Cycling Team will have their bikes available for the Track Worlds in Paris," the statement said.
"There have, however, been some delays due to the previously-announced investigation into the equipment failure at the Tokyo Games.
"Equipment deliveries have also been delayed by the impact of the pandemic of shipping and customs processes."
For Edmondson and the rest of the five-strong team composed entirely of endurance event riders, the problems don’t stop there, with only a limited selection of events on offer at this stage, with Edmondson slated to ride the omnium, while Baker and Alexandra Manly will tackle the Madison.
“We only found out a few weeks ago which events we’d be able to ride because Australia hasn’t been able to travel to events and qualify,” said Edmondson. ‘So we didn’t have any spots and had to wait for the UCI to announce quotas.
“We managed to get starts in the omnium and the Madison, both men and women. It’s great that we could get a start, it’s a shame because I did have my heart set on some different races. I’ve done the Omnium at most world championships, same with the team pursuit, and I do know it back to front.
“We’re lucky to get a spot but we’ll go to the manager’s meeting on the Tuesday beforehand and we’re going to try to get in. It’s another unknown, fingers and toes crossed we can race.”
There are clear difficulties and in airing them publicly, some level of complaint is being levelled by Edmondson, a right she's earned with her long career. She also recognises her privileged position of being able to race and is looking forward to the opportunity in the Roubaix velodrome.
“We’re just so happy to have the chance to race because it’s been a long time without any races,” said Edmondson. “It’s been a long time, but any time you line up to represent your country is special. With COVID, and especially knowing that we can’t have our teammates here, we’ll be riding with them in our hearts as well.”
For the full interview, check out the video above. To catch Annette Edmondson in action in potentially some of the last races of her professional career, you can tune into SBS On Demand daily from October 21-24 for the live action from the UCI Track World Championships, and then later SBS will be bringing you the new UCI Track Champions League in which Edmondson will feature.
