The agony of his Beijing heartbreak still lingers firmly in the mind of Australian bike rider Jared Graves.
Racing for an Olympic medal in the BMX final last week the Queenslander was ''perfectly placed'' in third position halfway through his race when disaster struck.
A South African rider, who was narrowly behind Graves, crashed.
The force of his fall resulted in Graves crashing as well when his back wheel was taken out from under him.
All this, just 18 seconds from the finish line where at least a bronze medal was a realistic chance.
Two years of hard work and dedication had amounted to nothing, ending in the cruellest of ways.
But Graves hopes to put all that behind him when he competes in the Mountain Bike World Cup in Canberra this weekend.
Graves will line up in the four cross discipline at Stromlo Forest Park on Saturday as he attempts to claim back-to-back World Cup rounds.
He won the last one in Fort William, Scotland, in May.
The 25-year-old doesn't expect victory in Canberra to erase all the pain from his Beijing tragedy but knows it will help.
''All the training I'd put into the Olympics campaign, all the sacrifices I'd made, to have it all taken away from me by no fault of my own was pretty hard to take,'' Graves said.
''It was the Olympics and my goal was to win a medal and I thought it was a realistic goal, and was shaping to be that way too until the fall.
''I'm still disappointed but there's no real use dwelling on it so I just need to re-focus now on the World Cup and hopefully get back into winning form.''
Graves will swap his BMX for a mountain bike this weekend when he joins a host of world-class athletes in the nation's capital for the World Cup round.
He will be one of 200 competitors in the three disciplines four cross, cross country and downhill contested this weekend.
Among the entrants are Beijing medallists Nino Schurter, Maja Wloszczowska and Irina Kalentyeva.
Toowoomba-based Graves, as well as the majority of the other entrants who competed in Beijing, will arrive in Canberra today for qualifying tomorrow.
Due to his BMX campaign in Beijing, Graves hasn't ridden a mountain bike for three months but is confident that won't be a problem come the weekend.
''It's been a limited preparation obviously but I've competed well in the past with similar or worse preparations so I'm still expecting to perform well,'' he said.
''I love both the BMX and the mountain bikes and I'm pretty used to both so I don't think the fact I haven't been on the mountain bike for a while will be too much of a problem. Fingers crossed anyway.''
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
2008 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round at Stromlo Forest Park including cross country round eight, four cross round six and downhill round six. Entry is free.
For details visit www.mtbworlds.com.au
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