The now retired Campbell Flakemore of Australia in his world champion's jersey in Spain last year flanked by silver medal winner Ryan Mullen of Ireland and the bronze medal man Stefan Kueng (Photo: Sirotti)
One of Australia’s most promising young riders and the man who cruelly denied Ireland a gold medal at last year’s World Road Championships, Campbell Flakemore has retired from racing after just one season at World Tour level.
The 23-year-old from Tasmania broke Ryan Mullen’s heart in Spain last year when he beat him to the world title by less than half a second in the U23 time trial.
Mullen had been leading the event until Flakemore blasted up the finishing straight to duck just 48 tenths of a second quicker than the young Irishman.
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Mullen had to be content with silver and simply could not repeat that ride at the Worlds in Richmond this year when rainfall hit some of the big favourites and the Irish hopeful came home in 11th.
However, 21-year-old Mullen has since followed in Flakemore’s footsteps to the WorldTour, having secured a place with Cannondale-Garmin for the next two years.
The withdrawal from top flight racing of Flakemore after completing just one year of a two-season contract underlines how tough the transition is to the WorldTour, even for those who are most successful in their age group.
Flakemore’s maiden season was not helped by a crash in the Tour Down Under in January; breaking his collarbone at a time when a developing young rider needed luck to work for him.
Flakemore up the road on stage 2 of the Tour Down Under in Australia in January. He had just finished in the top six in the road race and TT at the Australian championships and looked set for a great year. But a few miles after this photo was taken he crashed and broke his collarbone and has now opted out of pro racing (Photo: Sirotti)
Flakemore graduated from the Cycling Australia’s WorldTour Academy just last year and has conceded he was having second thoughts even before his BMC stint began.
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He still bagged some very good results despite his problems; including 4th and 6th in the Australian national championships road race and TT respectively in January just before his crash.
And after he came back, his best result was 6th in the TT at the Tour de Romandie in April.
“No regrets really, it’s just nice to be back and see what’s next,” he told Australian reporters from his home in Hobart according to Adelaide Now.
He added he had no plans to race in 2016 but may return the following year.
“I’ve ridden my bike once in the last 10 weeks so I haven’t really got any drive to do it.”
He also said his questioning whether full time pro cycling was for him “wasn’t something that happened overnight”.
“Even last year I was umming and ahhing whether to go another season. Then you get a professional contract and it’s pretty hard to turn down.
“It was something I owed to myself and sadly it didn’t work out but I’m happy.
“Living overseas, missing things back home, it was bloody hard to step up to WorldTour and probably doing my collarbone was the beginning of the end.
“Maybe I was already not quite up to it and then to do that set myself even further back.”
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