Canberra cyclist Rory Sutherland overcomes year from hell

All the while recovering from a horrific broken leg.

And then your father dies. On the other side of the world, back in your home town of Canberra.

It's been a tough year for Rory Sutherland.

On top of all that, the 38-year-old has to decide whether he'll retire at the end of the season or ride on when four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome joins his Israel Start-Up Nation team.

Sutherland finally made his debut for the team in the Milan-Sanremo, where fellow Canberran Michael Matthews finished third, eight months after he broke his leg riding a scooter in the lead-up to the team's launch last December.

If the leg wasn't enough, his father Alistair's battle with illness ended in June.

Sutherland was thankful for his brother and sister back in Canberra, who took care of everything with the coronavirus travel restrictions complicating things as he approached a return to the World Tour.

"It all comes in hits sometimes, everything together. But he was sick for quite a while," Sutherland said.

"My mother passed away from cancer five years ago and since then he's been on the downward spiral.

"It just happened it all kicked off in the middle of the pandemic and makes it near impossible to travel back."

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

While chatting with his siblings back home, he was able to put in perspective exactly what life was like during the height of the COVID-19 virus.

Spain was one of the hardest hit countries, with more than 28,000 deaths so far and a seven-week total lockdown.

Sutherland wasn't allowed outside to train. His kids weren't allowed outside to play. The police patrolled the streets searching for people who were breaking the rules.

"It was hard mate. It's really hard to understand it from the perspective of people in a different country," Sutherland said.

"I'd speak to my brother and sister in Canberra and they'd say, 'We're in lockdown'. You're not in lockdown. You have no idea what lockdown is.

"My kids couldn't leave the house for seven weeks. They literally weren't allowed to go outside.

"And there's police driving up and down the street all day. If you went to go to the shops or something you had to have a document with you to show why.

"And they would stop cars and if you don't have a receipt or the shopping in the car then you get fined.

"It was a big, big deal in Spain ... as professional athletes you weren't allowed to go outside and train or do anything."

In a way, Sutherland felt it helped his recovery for the broken leg that resulted in him needing a metal pin in his hip and another running down the length of his femur.

The pressure was completely off being ready for a particular race.

He'd initially set his sights on doing the Tour de France, which is normally in July.

But with the World Tour shutdown due to the virus, he was able to just focus on getting himself right.

The Tour's on his radar again now, but he could ride the Veulta a Espana instead.

"Specifically for me with the injury [the lockdown] probably helped to be honest and that's what helped me get through the situation," Sutherland said.

"I had to stay in a controlled environment and I couldn't overdo it training wise because I had to train indoors."

Sutherland will spend the next few months deciding whether he'll race on in 2021 or call an end to a career that started with Rabobank almost 20 years ago.

Adding some extra spice to the decision is the arrival of Froome from Team Ineos in the off-season.

The chance to ride alongside one of the greats of the sport - especially in the 2021 Tour - was a massive carrot dangling in the future.

"It brings the team up because there's more at stake ... it makes everybody work harder to strive for a higher level of everything," Sutherland said.

"Having Chris on the team next year makes you question which direction I want to go, but the deal I have at the moment with management is we're waiting.

"From what I understand from my agent is they'd like me to continue as a rider, but it has to be a decision I make.

"That's what I'm going to find out from these next couple of months - whether the fire's still in there."