Le Flohic – “God of the Trikes’

I will remember my Athens Paralympics experience for being fortunate enough to share it with an athlete I coach, Mark Le Flohic.

Mark has to live with the constant day to day frustrations of an acquired head injury. He was hit by a car when he was 18 years old. It's very hard for him to just perform basic day to day tasks. He has legitimate excuses not to exercise. He has to ride a Tricycle/three wheeler for the stability. Mark's balance, is not good. Mark is an ex motocross rider of some distinction, and as a result gets the ‘red mist’ happening when he throws the leg over the race bike! Picture the chariot scene from the movie Spartacus.

When it comes to riding a trike, he excels. Why? Because he loves it! Its as simple as that. His passion for the sport is unmatched. Riding a trike gives him freedom, dignity and an opportunity for him to show the rest of the world how good he is at the sport of cycling.

How good is he? The best. He won both of his events at Athens and what most people wouldn’t realize is that he is markedly more disabled than his competitors. He, by his own choice, elects to compete in a higher disability category than he should be in, because its more competitive.

Road Race:- Mark was extremely nervous for this race. He has had indifferent performances in the two years prior and was a bit anxious about being able to remember all of the instructions about the strategy we had for the race. (Mark's short term memory is not the best). The layout/design of the course, in my opinion, was ridiculous for CP athletes. Try an off camber corner at the bottom of a hill with a limestone wall on the other side of the corner!! Anyway, we had Mark all set up with communications and with a team of advisors, talked him around the course for the race. For the first two laps Mark dictated terms, going slowly, by his standards, to get down the hill safely. At the end of the second lap, I instructed Mark to put the ‘hammer down’ for a short effort to test the field out. It did a bit more than that! A pack of eight became one and the real race between Mark and his nemesis in recent times, from the USA, began to unfold. Again Mark was instructed to take it easy around the ‘dodgy’ corner and then attacked again to see what eventuates. He gapped the athlete from the US. He caught back up to Mark and they stayed together till the start of the climb on the last lap. An attack came from the other athlete at the foot of the hill that very quickly opened out to 15-20 metres. Mark countered and by the top of the climb had opened up a gap of 15 metres. Mark kept the speed on down the hill, much to our horror, negotiated the killer bend and the ‘fat lady’ was in full chorus. I cannot begin to describe to you how good everyone felt about Mark winning this race. All medals are a great result but some are extra special. The journey is that little bit harder for some. This medal, in my opinion, is extra special.

Le Flohic was going off at the medal ceremony! You can always guarantee that.

I watched him on the 45 minute bus trip back to the athletes village with his wreath stuck firmly on his head, gold medal in left hand, bouquet in the other muttering every couple of minutes, ‘this is #@%*en awesome’!. It was priceless.

The highlight for Mark was the next day, when I took him to the Acropolis. The plan was to get a photo of the newly named “Le Flohic – God of the Trikes" to get his photo taken in front of the temple complete with medal. We did this and then he was the man. All tour groups wanted a photo with the newly appointed God and didn’t he love it!

Time Trial:- Mark had a great TT. He went around the one lap/5.5km circuit like he was on rails. He won by 5 seconds from the South African and ended up with a silver medal as a result of the combined category format. This is result of too many categories racing with too few medals to be awarded. After the TT a reporter from SBS interviewed Mark and delivered a baited question. It went like this …… ‘Mark, how does it feel to ride the fastest time and end up with a silver medal?’ (pregnant pause from Mark) Mark's reply; ‘Well initially I was a little disappointed, then when I noticed Dirk's face (Belgian athlete who was awarded the Gold) and how happy his mother was, I thought, that’s nice’

I couldn’t believe how well he said it and also how gracious he was. It stopped the reporter cold. I think he was expecting something else?

Mark, you are a legend bro’ and an absolute inspiration. It is an honor to be involved in your adventure and I look forward to sharing more very eventful trips with you in the future. Beijing, here we come!

Andrew Budge