It's something he's done for the last decade, but rarely at the same time as a national road race is being held.

The event north of the border doubled as the Queensland state road championships for elite men, under-23 men and under-19 men.

But the ongoing border closures around Australia have prevented Conway and fellow Port Macquarie teammate Will Pender from racing. That's been the case for the last 18 months.

Rather than feel mixed emotions about Rees' stage one win, Conway was thrilled for his teammate.

The trio are all members of newly formed national road series cycle team NCMG Criterion Racing which started at the end of 2019.

"I'm really happy that they did what they did. It's so good for the team and a huge congratulations to them. It's so cool to hear," Conway said.

The Port Macquarie cyclist has alternated his time between the road up North Brother to a Zwift training program that enables him to link a turbo trainer up to a computer, iPad, iPhone or Apple TV.

"Recently North Brother Mountain has been open again in Laurieton so that's where I've been doing a lot of my training," Conway said.

"But I love climbing and it's been my training ground ever since I was a young kid in school about year 10."

The uncertainty surrounding Public Health Orders and border restrictions has allowed Conway to delve into other pastimes.

"It's been a remarkably different current world, but the good thing is it has given me more time to work and more time to save and keep my home clean and things like that," he said.

"It's also put everything into the unknown. That would be the best way to say it. You don't really know what you're training for sometimes and you're not sure what's going to happen.

"Nationals could be on or it couldn't be on."

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