Cycling: Wheel of fortune spins full cycle for Dean

By TERRY MADDAFORD

What was shaping as a year to forget suddenly became one of the most memorable for Julian Dean.

After spending as much time off his bike as on it, 27-year-old Dean hit form at the right time, culminating in a fine 10th place in last month's world championships and with it the renewal of his contract with Spanish-based Danish team CSC-Tiscali.

That in turn leads to the very real prospect of a start in next year's Tour de France and, as one of the team's best sprinters, the chance of a stage win in the famous race.

But for a time this year, the Tour and any other races were a distant dream for Dean.

After riding the Tour Down Under in Australia, he and his wife Carole returned to their base at the Spanish village of Oliva. "On my first week back I developed tendinitis in my left knee which forced me off my bike for six weeks," Dean said.

Worse was to follow. On his first training ride back he had an unusual accident.

"I was coming back to our house when I fell and landed awkwardly. It was not really painful and I was able to get up and ride the 2km home. The next morning it swelled up and I was hobbling."

X-rays showed his leg was broken in two places.

Dean was left with a make-or-break decision on his future.

"I spoke to three or four surgeons who came up with various opinions. Some wanted to operate; others said the injury should heal itself, in time.

"It was a dilemma for sure. There was a 50-50 chance either way. If I had the operation I would be out for the rest of the season which, in turn, meant I would not have had a contract for next season.

"On the other hand, if I left it to heal there was a good chance I could be back racing before the end of the season," Dean said. "I opted for that and by the end of June I was back racing."

But that was not the end of the bad luck for the former New Zealand track champion.

In his first race back, the five-day Tour of Sweden, he crashed on the opening day and rode the rest of the race with his hand in plaster.

After being pencilled in as a likely CSC rider for the Tour de France, Dean was forced, yet again, to watch the race on television.

While the world's best slogged their way around France, Dean churned out the training kilometres, but still found racing tough as he recovered from so much inactivity.

His team stymied any chance he had of riding at the Manchester Commonwealth Games which, in hindsight, might have been a blessing.

"It was not until the end of September I was competitive," Dean said. "Like other riders who have missed so much, I wanted to get out and win every race. In reality, I remember how terrible I felt."

Slowly the good results returned. He had a run of five or six second-placings, but no wins.

A solid ride in the Paris-Tours race a week before the world championships in Belgium gave him some confidence.

The championships, ridden over 20 laps of a relatively flat 13km circuit, was a torrid affair.

"It is a huge team race with riders having a rare chance to represent their country rather than ride for their pro team," said Dean, the highest-ranked New Zealander on the world road circuit.

"There was no real break until midway through the last lap. Being the only New Zealander in the race, which had 201 starters, meant I was left very much alone.

"I tried to ride in the top 10 over the last three laps. In the final sprint there were 30 or 40 riders, with the Italians doing most of the work in setting it up for Mario Cipollini, who duly won. I never got enough space to unwind a big sprint.

"My initial reaction was one of disappointment, feeling I could have done better in the sprint. I felt I could have been in the top five."

His CSC team were obviously impressed, immediately handing him a second-year contract and hinting that he featured prominently in their plans.

Now back in Rotorua to "summer over" during which time he will jump on his mountain bike to ride through the redwoods and his road bike for distance work, Dean looks keenly ahead to next year.

"I will race in Australia in January and head back to Spain after that."

After years as a domestique in the US Postal team where he slogged away for Lance Armstrong, Dean now has his chance - one he is set on making the most of.