A Shepparton cycling prodigy is off to Europe

Admittedly, that opening sentence might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but the Goulburn Valley will be keeping a close eye on how one of the region’s most exciting cycling prospects fares during his first few international road races.

At 17, Edwards boasts an impressive junior career in track cycling, having represented at state, national and international championship levels.

At the Track National Championships, Edwards came second in the 500m time trial event and third in the sprint.

Nonetheless, this promising young cyclist has recently changed gears and turned his attention to road cycling to maximise his sprint and endurance capabilities.

“I wanted to do a bit more endurance and on the road you get a bit more freedom and you get to see a bit more than just indoor or outdoor (tracks),” Edwards said.

“I just like the endurance and then I have the sprint as well, which helps me out towards the end and I can do the road sprint, which is good.

“I’ll be racing for one of the Belgium teams, Avia-Rudyco.

“They are going to look after me for the six or seven weeks, so they will provide me with races and give me the opportunity to get some international racing under my belt and race some of the big UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) races as well which will be good.”

Edwards and his father Anthony will leave for Belgium on June 10 and, from then until the end of July, Edwards will be working almost full-time as a road cyclist.

Train, prepare, race, repeat.

In the lead-up to Edwards’ international cycling expedition, his routine of training every day, for 16-17 hours a week in total (20 hours during the holidays), will continue as the young gun looks to make the most of this golden opportunity.

“I’m most excited about getting to go over there and prove myself to the international Europeans,” he said.

“Because if you can go well over there, you have got a chance to go pro, and you have got to go overseas to turn pro.

“It would be nice to get big teams to notice me or something like that to line up something in the future.”

In terms of what kind of cyclist Edwards aspires to be, the answer is clear after finding out who his role models are.

“Jasper Philipsen, who is a road sprinter,” he said.

“Kaden Groves is a road sprinter from Australia.

“Sam Welsford is another sprinter.

“I want to be a road sprinter, so I look up to those guys and it would be cool to achieve what they have achieved.”