It was last year when our man Dave Chapman first spotted Aussie Luke Davison doing the biz in the Flanders kermises; but it was 2007 when he first came to Aussie national prominence as part of the winning squad in the National Team Sprint Championships.
Within a year he was a triple Junior World Junior Track Champion – displaying outstanding versatility in winning the team pursuit, madison and omnium.
The following 2009 season was quieter with just a silver in the Australian National Madison Championship.
There was a fallow year in 2010 and placings in Australian races in 2011 but no stand out results.
In 2012 everything changed; four stages in the Tour of Gippsland; five stages and the overall GC in the Tour of the Murray River; two stages in the Tour of the Great South Coast and the overall win in the Australian National Race Calendar competition.
Season 2013 saw Davison’s versatility shine through again – a stage win in the Herald Sun Tour, gold in the Australian Team Pursuit Championship, silver in the Australian Kilometre Championship and bronze in the World Scratch Championship.
And in the late season World Cup at Aquascalientes in Mexico he pulled off a notable ‘double’ in the team pursuit and omnium.
Rolling the momentum into 2014 he’s taken Australian, World – and now Commonwealth team pursuit titles.
And that’s not to mention fitting in a win in the 200 K UCi 1.2 Omloop der Kempen in The Netherlands in his Synergy Baku colours.
And to add to a great year, Luke has just been given a stagiaire’s ride with ‘super squadra’ BMC.
But he very kindly found time to speak to VeloVeritas before jumping into the World Tour shark pool.
Congratulations on a great week, Luke and thank you for taking the team to speak to us – were you surprised by your margin over England in the final at Glasgow?
“Yeah I was; I think it was a pretty impressive ride by the four of us.
“We had a pretty good idea of where we were at but I think we probably exceeded our own expectations – although the final definitely hurt!”
3:54 – very quick, did you think you’d go so fast?
“It’s a very quick time considering the track.
“We were posting some pretty good times in training and the sensations were very good.
“That said everyone adapts to the taper and the travel differently so it’s always a bit of an unknown.
“I think that time shows that we’re the strongest team pursuit squad in the world at the moment, not just in the Commonwealth.”
Tell us about your preparation for the team pursuit, please?
“The preparation has been very good for all of us on the squad.
“I’ve been racing on the road with Synergy Baku and the National team since March and all of the other guys have been racing some big road tours as well.
“In June we all went to a training camp in Flagstaff Arizona and I think the great roads and great weather allowed us to get in some top quality training.
“After the Flagstaff camp we returned to Europe to polish off the technical side of things as well as adding some hard pursuit efforts to our final run in.
“The preparation obviously worked, although we know that everyone will continue to improve as we head towards the Olympics.”
What was the Synergy team’s attitude to your needing time for the Games?
“Synergy Baku has been incredible.
“The management and my team mates are a bunch of absolute legends.
“The morale at races and camps has been sky high and I’ve had an absolute ball riding with them.
“They’ve been genuinely interested in my track riding and I think they’re pretty proud of my results