COMPIEGNE, France: Mat Hayman knows he is in the form of his career, and he has heard the whispers that he is a dark horse to win the Paris-Roubaix classic on Sunday. He also knows how rare it is in cycling for all the stars to align and provide a rider with that sort of opportunity.
The tall and powerful Canberran spoke to the Herald this week about how each year he longs to take on the challenges of the 258 kilometre Paris-Roubaix race - dubbed the Hell of the North - but danced around that talk he might win it this year.
As he did so, it was clear he held firm to his belief that there are bigger things in life than winning one of the world's legendary bike races - for which the trophy is a mounted cobblestone.
Ask anyone in cycling about Hayman, of the Sky team, and first they smile. Then they speak of commitment, loyalty, a work ethic and a strong sense of right and wrong.
Hayman announced last year that he would not take part in the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, where he was to have defended his 2006 road race title, because of health and security fears. He did not base his decision on pre-Games headlines and news bulletins predicting chaos, sickness and terrorist attacks.
As one insider said: ''He was thinking about the Games in Delhi months before the rest of Australia was talking about it in public. He was almost in tears as he spoke about it, too, and of how he still didn't want to let the Australian team down.''
Last week, Hayman was named a recipient of the Commendation for Brave Conduct for his courage on December 11, 2008, when he and a woman saved a father of two boys caught in a rip off Mollymook on the NSW south coast.
Then last Sunday, a few minutes before the start of the Tour of Flanders in Belgium, he considered pulling out because of his concerns over his wife, Kim, pregnant with their first child. She was having contractions, and he would be unable to attend the birth.
After she convinced him all was fine and that he should race, Hayman rode on to finish 21st. The result, which came after a spring season that included a third and a fourth respectively in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen races in Belgium, disappointed him.
Immediately after Sunday's Tour of Flanders, he checked his messages. His wife had called. ''She watched the race, so she was encouraging and knew I would be a little disappointed,'' he said. ''But no news of a baby.''
Hayman still drew enough positives from the day, in which he burned up ''just over 6000 kilojoules in work'' at an average power of 250 to 260 watts (or, he says, 340 watts ''normalised'' - an equation that takes into the account the amount of time spent not pedalling) and a heart rate that recorded a maximum of 184 beats per minute for the 258km, six-hour race.
That, as well as his presence in an important midrace chase group, indicate that Hayman could produce a rabbit-out-the-hat ride in Paris-Roubaix.
As this week passed, Hayman prepared for the Paris-Roubaix he continued to await that call from home, in Belgium's Veldwezelt. The baby was still all important. ''I want to be there, and I am willing to miss Roubaix for it,'' he says.
Hayman eventually admits to having heard his name as a Paris-Roubaix contender, but is quick to put several teammates in the frame as well.
''My confidence has grown I guess since last year for all of these races,'' he says. ''I know Flanders is a Belgian race but I think teams tend to forget about Sky often. Like they talk of the other big teams. We are happy for that. We go into the races as a little bit of an underdog.
''But we had two guys in the finale at Flanders [Juan Antonio Flecha and Geraint Thomas]. We have been on the podium in most of the races. It's not just myself, but the whole team has latched on to the classics - Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard, who are both young British riders who have found a new passion for these races … and even old British racers like Jeremy Hunt, who did a great job on Sunday.''
Still, if Hayman were to win a major classic such as the Paris-Roubaix, there would not be a dry eye at the famed finish line in the Roubaix velodrome.
Hayman says a rainy day will serve his cause.
''It's been dry for a lot of years now,'' he said of the weather during recent races. ''The first few years … I was riding - one wet, one dry one. They are totally different races. I have a pretty good track record in the rain … I don't enjoy riding in the rain, but I'm not too bad at it.
''I won't pray for rain because there is not a lot of fun in it, and there are a lot of crashes. But if I get up and it's raining, I'll turn that into a positive. That's probably my better chance if it is wet.''
Hayman also recalls the advice of a former teammate, Marc Wauters, on the Dutch Rabobank team. Nicknamed ''The Soldier'', the now-retired Wauters was not a superstar, but come Paris-Roubaix he was always a leader because he was so suited to the demands of the race.
''The only piece of advice he gave - and he said it every year - was, 'Never give up. Always keep riding. Always keep riding …' '' Hayman said. ''You can be out the back, but there can be so many things happening … After the race the team bus is a buzz of excitement. There are eight stories … You never now who is in front or behind. It's pretty chaotic. A big tip is to keep believing.''
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