Cycling | Luke Deasey on the countdown for racing return

But three months later the brakes were applied to everything.

Now as the COVID cloud starts to lift, Deasey is refocusing and building for what is expected to be a long racing season.

"I'm just really motivated," he said.

"You don't know how much you miss it until it is taken away."

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Before the pandemic hit, the big race on his radar was the Oceania Road Championships.

Only a couple of weeks away when racing was suspended, Deasey admits the news that not only were the Oceanias - the event he had tailored his training to peak for - cancelled but there would be no racing in the foreseeable future was "pretty hard to take".

Particularly with how he was feeling.

"My form was really good and my headspace was really good," Deasey said.

"I was really ready to race the Oceania Championships. I had a good nationals and was excited to see what I could do at the Oceanias."

After taking a couple of weeks off initially just to refresh his body and mind, he has been supplementing his training with some online racing.

Recently he was part of the State Of Origin series, which was conducted via Zwift. He has also been doing some time trial racing through FulGaz.

It's not as good as the real thing but "as close to it as you can get", and a good training tool.

Deasey has also been using the time to work on a few technical things and his "mental game", looking to come back not only physically but also mentally stronger.

With around five months worth of racing lost and so much still up in the air Deasey isn't sure at the moment what his schedule will be. It's a matter of just playing it by ear.

The Oceanias are still likely to be his main target with the championships expected to be rescheduled. No date has been finalised but Deasey's understanding is they will be attached to one of the National Road Series tours.

He is hoping to do a couple of the NRS races, but what racing he does will also be dependent on his HSC commitments.