'You forget what it's like to ride a bike' - Matt Dinham's long road back to racing

Matthew Dinham ran into one of the occupational hazards of being a pro bike rider when he travelled back to Europe from the Tour de Langkawi. Like a number of his Picnic-PostNL teammates, he picked up flu somewhere in transit, but it felt a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

It certainly wasn’t going to prevent Dinham from jetting back to Asia almost immediately for the Tour of Guangxi. While the event marks the end of the season for most of the peloton – and some cases even the last call on a career – the race is part of a new beginning for the Australian, who has spent the bones of two years out of action.

“I think psychologically it’s pretty big for me,” Dinham told Domestique in Chongzuo. “It’s been such a long time already that you start forgetting what it’s like to ride a bike. Just getting back into the routine gives me a leg up, so now I can go home and focus on the off-season and hopefully get some results next year.”

Dinham enjoyed a fine debut professional season in 2023, finishing the Tour de France strongly and then placing a striking seventh in the World Championships in Glasgow, but that early burst of light was followed by two years of near darkness.

In 2024, Dinham managed just two days of racing, abandoning Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The problem was initially believed to be a stress fracture sustained while hiking in the off-season, but when the pain continued even after the fracture healed, it was clear that something more serious was awry.

It reached a point where Dinham was struggling even to walk, and he began to suspect his career was over. Partly to distract himself and partly to prepare for that eventuality, he enrolled in university.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to race a bike again or even do proper bunch rides,” he said. “I think there were a lot of moments where I had of time to sit and reflect.”

Even when the issue was finally pinpointed – accessory veins were causing tarsal tunnel syndrome in his ankle – the proposed surgery offered no guarantees. It even carried risks, but it was his only real chance to return to the peloton.

“We tried all the more passive approaches to try to solve it and there just wasn’t any other way,” Dinham told. “In the end, I think there was a 70% chance that it would stay the same again or get better, and a 30% chance that I wouldn’t be able to race a bike again. I’m pretty glad it worked out the way it did…”

Picnic-PostNL’s high-contact approach hasn’t chimed with all of its riders over the years, but Dinham was grateful for the squad’s constant engagement during his long process of rehabilitation. After spending the bulk of 2024 in Europe in the hope of a swift return to competition, the next phase of his recovery took place in Australia, but he remained resolutely a Picnic-PostNL rider.

“When you’re away from racing, it’s definitely hard, but I always had contact with my personal coach whenever he could help me and obviously the team doctors as well,” Dinham said. “But it’s still not quite the same as being on the races. You definitely get more of a feel for it when you’re back on the races with the boys.”

Dinham counts himself fortunate to have been able to squeeze in a pair of stage races at this late point in the campaign. Simply getting to the start line had the feel of a victory, as well as a concrete step towards 2026.

“Langkawi was obviously a bit of a rush with the prep, and my coach said that if it had been a week sooner, then I wouldn’t have been racing,” Dinham said. “When you consider that, I was very happy with how it went, so there are lots of positives to take out of it. For sure, the form wasn’t there, but that was expected.”

Expectations for the Tour of Guangxi are similarly modest. “It’s just good to get back in the WorldTour bunch,” he smiled. “It’s definitely a different level again.” From China, he will travel home to Sydney and after joining the team training camp in December, he hopes to be back in Australia again for Tour Down Under in January.

Dinham’s striking Glasgow Worlds performance should have been a platform for bigger things, but the 25-year-old knows that he isn’t picking up where he left off so much as starting all over again.

“That was the most frustrating part, because your first season gives you a step up, especially when you do your first Grand Tour,” Dinham said. “I was hoping to carry momentum, but I guess now we start from scratch and see how quickly I can get back there.”

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Dinham is on the road again, and that’s already plenty.