Tim Decker: The Wimmera coach behind Australia's Olympic cyclists

That was the situation Australia's men's pursuit cycling team were in when the handlebars on Alex Porter's bike inexplicably snapped during the team's first time trial at the Tokyo Olympics.

Australia's cycling head coach, a former Horsham cyclist Tim Decker, said it was one of the hardest moments in his coaching career.

"My first concern was his well-being, how was his head? Then the question was whether (Porter) could go again. We had half an hour to go again, to do our qualifying time," he said.

"We had our team manager stretch it out as best as possible, while we checked in with Alex, we checked in with the other team members as well, because they were a bit shocked."

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"Our whole strategy had to change. Before the crash, Alex was one of our stronger riders, one of the guys that we had planning on finishing.

"But we could see that he was shaken and wasn't going to be able to get through. So I had to change our lineup, change roles, which meant the riders had to change their mindsets.

"We did everything we could to get back onto the podium. It took every bit of our emotional energy over the three days to get to that point."

While the team fought back to secure bronze, prior to the crash the pursuit team had arrived in Tokyo among the contenders for gold.

The road to the Olympics had already been rocky, with the pandemic disrupting training schedules, and Decker having brain surgery in September 2019 after a cycling fall of his own.

"There were certainly some challenges along the way," Decker said.

"We didn't get any international competition from March 2020 through until the Olympics... it wasn't smooth sailing, the last year and a half. Athletes up and down at different times.

"Our priority was always the team pursuit, because we knew we were in with a chance... Unfortunately sometimes you get dealt a different hand of cards."

But Decker is never one to shy away from a challenge.

"That's just how I am as a human, I find a way to make it happen," he said.

From humble beginnings in the Horsham velodrome, Decker moved to Bendigo when he was 21 to pursue cycling further, but coaching was always something he was drawn to.

"I started coaching my brother when I was about 17, he was about 10 or 11. I was in love with cycling, and I helped motivate him to train," he said.

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"That led me to coach other great athletes from around the region, Todd Wilksch, Mark O'Brien and Sam Witmitz.

"When I left Horsham, coaching was always there, there was always a part of me wanting to help people be better."

Decker, now a father of two based in Adelaide, eventually became Australia's lead endurance track coach.

In 2018, after coaching the men's pursuit team to a world record win to claim gold at the Commonwealth Games, the boy from Horsham Tech was named Cycling Australia's coach of the year.

However, the moment the handlebars on Porter's bike gave way, through to the podium, was his biggest challenge yet as a coach.

"It was certainly the toughest three days in my coaching career, but I'm extremely proud of how they turned it around. We got a group of guys to stand on the podium that faced possibly the biggest adversity they'd faced in their whole careers, and faced it on the biggest stage," he said.

"But the hardest thing is that the team never got to show their full potential at the games.

"As a coach you're trying to have an influence and develop your athletes. There's no prouder moment than seeing them perform and you're not holding your hand."

As a performance, coming back from disaster to claim a spot on the podium isn't a bad one, and Decker couldn't be prouder of the riders under his tutelage.

"The most rewarding part about being a coach is the journey you go on with your athletes and seeing them be successful," he said.

"As we've seen at the Olympics, success isn't always crossing the line first."

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