Worlds to Ocea's

Awesome photo from
Hannah Bayard

So since the completion of the worlds back in August I’ve been up to many things, some a little different to others. I’ve done everything from exams to milking cows even. After the worlds I took 2 weeks fully off the bike followed by a light week of training to try and get the body use to gym sessions and riding my bike again. Since then my training has been full on and non stop with up to 4 gym sessions a week at points to try and up my power so that I can make the jump up form junior to elite to try and post some reasonable results down in Invercargill at the UCI tier one event and the Oceania Champs which are coming up very shortly!

For this build up my coach Murray and myself decided to try a slightly different approach to our usual build up as we both agreed that this being my first ever elite competition I have a lot less pressure to succeed that I have had for a while we would try something different and see what results it gets. So far it seems to be working as I’m constantly pushing out pbs on the track behind the bike and also in the gym would is really good for your mindset if you are achieving these going into a competition like this

I mentioned earlier that I had been doing everything from exams to milking cows and that’s not wrong at all, with school exam season in full swing I’ve had to juggle not just training but also studying for my final exams which went all of your final mark hang on these exams it can be difficult to not let training slag off trying to keep your studying at 100% but thankfully so far I’ve managed to do it and the exams that I’ve sat so far were difficult but I think I handled them well. I’ve also been milking on and off at my Uncle and Aunties farm which isn’t that pleasant when you have to get up at 4am but it’s a good chance to get outdoors and also to make some money.

The instructors and myself after my first
rpm session at the crank

Another thing that I’ve done is in September I was very grateful to be a part of the canteen crank fundraiser help at the cloud in Auckland. It’s a great event where the rpm bikes out of the Les Mills around Auckland are taken to the cloud and set up for hundreds of people at a time to take part in hour long rpm sessions to raise money for canteen which is such a great cause. I was set to ride in front of everyone to participate alongside the Les Mills instructors, I did my session which was defiantly tougher that I thought it would be and then one of the instructors convinced me to do another later on that avo and although I loved every minute of it as it was for a super cause its hurt, quite a lot and left me at times during it wondering why I had agreed to a second rpm class.

Another mega pic of me from Hannah!

I also help a fellow cyclist and friend Hannah Bayard do a photo shoot for her university assignment by myself being the model, it was defiantly a learning experience being in a pretty cool studio and having to pose in static positions for what seemed ages at the time while the lighting levels were checked and lights repositioned to get a perfect shot. I thought this was only for the start of the shoot just to set everything up but I was wrong due to every picture needing its own different lighting meant the process was very lengthy but it was still a fun time with lots of joking around which in hindsight probably added to the length of the shoot. You can see some of these awesome shots on this update and a big thanks to Hannah for the opportunity to do this shoot you can check out some of her other work on her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HannahBayardPhotography

Liv and myself with my
awards from my school
sports dinner

My school sports awards dinner was held in the middle of September and it was a great occasion, this year was my third time at the awards dinner and it was my best one awards wise, I walked home with 8 awards ranging from head of cycling to the two sportsman of the year awards. My sportsman of the year awards made it 3 years in a row for sportsman of the year for and individual sport and the 2nd year in a row for the overall sportsman of the year award. I'm honoured to have received these awards so many times over my years at St Peter's, this leads me to my last day at SPC in October which was a sad occasion to be leaving all my brothers behind but also an exciting day to find out what's to come in the next chapter of my life

Finally I’m looking forward to some good hard and fast racing down in Invercargill and can’t wait to see what times and results I can punch out. Have to say a massive thank you now to Steve and Jess and Cycle City who recently sold the shop, they've

A photo from during the crank
a lot of hurt going on then

been beyond amazing to me over the years and it’s sad to see you guys go but thank you for everything you've done for me. Also if anyone is looking for a good deal on a gym membership to try and get in shape for summer Les Mills is running a deal that if you join now you’ll get till next year free so take advantage of this and head into Les Mills and see the team there!

Worlds

Racing to the line in my second round ride

Well that was a bundle of things all wrapped up into one, a ride of emotions, some good and some bad, the time of my life, one of the most mentally draining days in my life. Nothing can prepare you for that moment when you roll up to the line ready to race, you know you’re next and you can hear and feel the roar from the crowed as the rider before you gets the bell, you give a tug on your zip of your skin suit making sure it’s done up and a final readjustment of your helmet and then you’re ready, to start your world champs, the day that you’ve been preparing for since this time last year. As you roll around the track gaining height your sole mental thought is on how to make yourself go as fast as you can possibly go. By this stage you’ve already done this many times in training and the line is en grained into your brain it just comes as second nature so that as you’re winding up and peeling off the fence all you need to think about it trying to rip the bike in half as you accelerate into the lane aiming to hold the black for the entire 200 meter distance. After you lunge for the line training to gain those small thousandths of a second you look up at the score board and see 10.6, disappointment can be seen on your face as you would have loved to have gone faster, but you know the track is dead and 8^th isn’t too bad. You come off the track and talk with your coach and you feel like all the pressure is gone, but you know you still have a possible 6 rides left that day.

My first round ride, controlling the front

That was my worlds in a nutshell, since I've been home for a week now I’ve had a chance to think about my worlds campaign. 7^th in the world isn’t bad I suppose and knowing that you pushed the eventual winner to 3 rides in your quarter final against him defiantly made me feel a bit better than I did feel being knocked out in the quarter finals.

My time in Glasgow was really cool, the hotel that we were staying at was awesome and it was good to be staying with some many other riders from all different nationalities. We didn’t get to see much of the city but the small amount that we did see, namely the route to and from the track and the view from our hotel room didn't seem too bad.

Worlds for me didn't start until the 4^th day which me I had to wait which was good and bad. Good being I had more time to rest and keep my legs fresh where as my competitors raced which would tire up their legs, the down side to not riding on those opening days was having to sit and watch the racing wishing you were out there and also not knowing what the track was like to race on.

controlling my opponent, keeping him at the fence

My quarter final ride off

My results from worlds was after qualifying 8^th in 10.665 this time is 0.1 of a second off my pb although the track was dead and slow so the time would have been faster in better conditions so the time wasn’t too bad. I wont both my first and second round rides which made me in the top 8 in the world, that night I was racing again in the quarter final, I lost the 1^st ride by not really doing too much wrong, my opponent just had amazing acceleration and power over the top of me. The second ride was a different affair, I went out with a plan and that was to just go out and do a flying 200 in the match sprint, I slowly wound up the pace at the top of the banking so that we were both going nearly full speed at the bell, I drew my opponent into leaving a big gape underneath him and as soon as he looked forward going through the bell I dove for the sprint lane and got the inside run underneath him home, I only just managed to hold him off winning by about 5 centimeters. The third ride I knew I would have to do a similar move by keeping the pace high and hitting him on the last lap, I ran at him well going into the bell, but unfortunately I didn’t beat him into the corner and was then stuck on his hip, in hind sight I should have gone back up the track to give me space to run at him, but hind sight is a wonderful thing and at that moment of hesitation at that point of the race if I had done what I just said I may have potentially won me the race.

Quite a cool pic of one of my quarter final rides

I would like to thank everyone for their help and support, especially my coach’s Murray and Justin, my sponsors for all their help, Les Mills for providing an amazing facility for me to be able to lift weights and gain power to get me going faster, Adidas eye wear for giving me the perfect glasses to help protect my eyes from the wind so I can focus on my riding, Keywin pedals for giving me the best pedals in the world to ride and Cycle City for fixing my bike and making sure everything was ready for me to head off to worlds and lastly my Mum for traveling half way around the world to watch me ride

Next up for me is a big training block here in Auckland as well as catching up on school work and exams. Ill be racing the Oceania championships in Invercargill in late November and this will be my first race in elite as my junior career is now over and I can’t wait for it!

Bye Belgium, Hello Glasgow!!

Last ride in Belgium
with Quinn

So after 3 amazing weeks in Belgium I've finally moved on to my next destination, Glasgow Scotland. I'm going to miss Belgium as I found it to be such a great place and I really loved it there.

My last few training sessions in Belgium went extremely well with me pumping out fast times and also a couple of pb's in the process which is a great feeling to know I'm going that fast only a couple of days out of the biggest event for junior track cyclists in the world.

The team as a whole had a chance to go and look at some preserved trenches from the First World War and a couple of museums. The day out was a great experience for all of us in the team, but defiantly the most moving part of the day was  seeing a cemetery full of fallen soldiers most of the unnamed, just there nationality. There were 18 kiwis buried in that cemetery and its fair to say that I did shed a couple of tears when I came across the kiwis gravestones .

The graves of 3 unknown kiwis, tears were shed over these graves

Dinner in the square for the last night in Belgium

We had a long day travelling to Scotland even though it's just over the English Channel, First we had to catch two trains from Oudenaarde to Brussels airport, after the hour and a half train ride, we had to check in our bags for our 2 flights that afternoon, the first of which was to London. After a quick stop over in London we soon moved onto our flight to Glasgow. The flights though being short were still quite draining and I think we all felt it.

The Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow, such an
amazing track

Our accommodation here in Glasgow is amazing, the hotel has the nicest beds after sleeping in rather hard beds for 3 weeks a nice soft bed felt like heaven. A highlight of my time in Scotland so far has to be sharing an elevator with Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattinson and sharing a bit of small talk with her! We had our first day on the track today as well and the track is simply awesome. Just everything about it is so nice and it seems a very easy track for certain lines but also a very difficult track for certain tactics so it should spice up the racing somewhat




Here is a link to the live streaming of the world champs, ill keep you updates with time of when my races are: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7NFlV830crPa8QkRMJSr33C4xEFx3RgU

Belgium part 2

So after having some time to have a look around Oudenaarde I think I can say I really like this place. Everything here seems to be awesome from the old buildings to the scenery when you're out riding.

The Ghent velodrome

Since my last update I've be able to get quite a few track sessions on the Ghent velodrome and even one session on the new indoor velodrome at Roubaix France. My times in my efforts have been progressing well and the speed is coming fast, over the last couple of sessions especially I've been achieving pb's in the effort types which is really encouraging 2 weeks out from worlds.

The rest of my training has been pretty standard outside of the track work, with some gym sessions and a couple of small road rides just to keep the legs ticking over. Defiantly a highlight since my last update was when the sprint boys and myself when for a road ride and ended up coming back into town along a bike path next to one of the many canals here. The views that you got were quite cool seeing the barges going up and down the canal and also the back drop of the scenery.

Monument at the gate of the
old Roubaix velodrome

The highlight of the trip thus far though has to be getting to not only go to France but to see the old outdoor Roubaix velodrome that hosts the finish of one of the biggest classics races every year Paris-Roubaix and it being on my birthday to made it extra special.

The old Roubaix Velodrome

On one of the rest days, the team went down to the Flanders cycling museum. We got to see the history of another of the big classics races that is raced just before Paris-Roubaix, that being the tour of Flanders a race that goes up the famous Koppenberg climb that I talked about in my previous update. After the short video we were able to walk around  and look at pieces of memorabilia that they had on display as well as other things such as route maps and a wall that was filled up with every winner of the race.

One of the old team cars used in the Tour of Flanders

As for what I'm up to for the next wee while, I'll be continuing on with the hard work at the track and in the rest of my training. I'll let you all know how that's going next week!

Belgium

Oudenaarde my home for the next 3 weeks

After 30 odd hours of travelling I arrived in my home for the next few weeks Oudenaarde Belgium. I passed the time on the flights, mostly by sleeping but also the every few hourly stretching session at the back of the plane kept my sanity. My first impressions of the place were just simply in ore of all the old buildings and the scenery.

The first few days training wise have been very easy and just really to get the body use to training again after the long travel time. It was certainly an eye opener to ride on the right hand side of the road instead of the left, but I eventually got the hang of it. Defiantly the highlight so far of the trip was being able to ride up the famous cobbled climb Koppenberg which about 2 km down the road from where I'm staying. The climb is one of the main climbs in the tour of Flanders, one of the biggest one day races in the world. It gets up to 25% gradient at some points which is massive to ride a bike up. Below is a video that I found online of climbing up Koppenberg

One of the many rooms in the seeming endless bike shop

The town itself of Oudenaarde is quite a cool little town, the town square has a very old cathedral at one end and a towering castle like building at the other end, there are lots of little cafe type shops dotted all around the town and the occasional bike shop too which are good to have a look through when you have a spare few minutes, although one bike shop that I went into was a labyrinth of different rooms all interconnecting with each other that seemed endless

First ride in Belgium

The first day on the track is tomorrow and I can't wait to ride on the famous Gent velodrome which hosts one of the biggest 6 day races in the year. I'll let you all know how it goes!

Europe bound!!!

Not long now till I fly off to Belgium to start my final preparation for this year world champs. I can’t wait to get on the plane and know that all of the hard work over the last few months is just weeks away from hopefully paying off.

Awesome shot of me starting out of the gate

My training recently has been going well with me reaching pb’s in speeds during roller sprints and in powers during efforts on the track. Some of my track sessions have been hampered due to the weather being freezing cold and raining which pushed me indoors for those sessions making them become days on the erg which tended to result in me not in not the best shape afterwards.

Powering into a start

 Along with my track and erg sessions I’ve been hitting Les Mills in town for some big gym sessions, these have mostly consisted of heavy lifting. My weights in these heavy lifts have been improving steadily recently and I’m buzzing about that as I’m feeling stronger than ever which hopefully will transfer itself over onto the bike come race day!

Aside from the aspect of going over to Europe to train and race at the world champs I’m especially looking forward to getting see and experience some new countries that are so richly entrenched in the history of cycling and to just have fun with the boys

While I’m away ill hope to keep everyone updated on here, so check back regularly to see what I’ve been up to

Another amazing shot thanks to Hannah

Also huge thanks to Hannah Bayard for doing a bit of a photo shoot for me out at the track last week, check her out at http://www.hannahbayardphotography.com/

Training Update

..So it’s been a little while since my last update, but I’ve been hard at work training and making improvements on and off the bike.

I recently had a week long training camp down in Invercargill, it was the first one for the Junior Worlds team as a whole and we achieved a lot as a team on and off the bike during that week, The camp was more of a skills focused camp for the sprinters that a traditional camp where we go and absolutely smash ourselves, so for me it was great fun to do stuff we wouldn’t normally do for a change.

Flying efforts on a beautiful day at the track

Defiantly the highlight for me was on the first day the four of us sprinters rolled up to the fence for our first effort and were told to turn around and ride around the track backwards. It has to be the most freaky thing I’ve ever done on a track, as your mind gets used to riding around the track in one direction and the steepness of the banking doesn’t seem to correlate in your head how steep it really is so it doesn’t faze you, where as riding the track backwards almost has the opposite effect on your brain, the track seems way steeper than 45 degree banking that it actually is.

We also had an amazing team building day that I think everyone got a lot out of it. The exercises were different and I think that helped everyone to enjoy it that much more as it was a real boys day out on a farm and the challenges were physically and also mentally hard as you had to really think about what you were doing.

At the ball with Liv

My training outside of the camp has been going really well, its consisted of lots of gym and erg stuff, but also we’ve managed to keep using the track as the weather has been quite good to which has defiantly helped to keep me motivated as I love to just be able to get out on the track and to just do good hard efforts.

Outside of cycling I really haven’t had much time to be a normal person. I’ve been busy being a top level cyclist as well as trying to be a top student, something that can be difficult to manage at some points. I’ve been lucky that my coach Murray has been a tad lenient lately and let me go to a school ball which was good fun and it was great to have a night off being a cyclist and a student!

Roller sprints, always good fun!

I recently got a pair of Adidas Supernova riding glasses from Adidas Eyewear, I absolutely love them and they are the best pair of riding glasses I’ve ever worn! So if anyone is looking for a new pair I recommend getting a pair.

In the near future I’m heading back down to Invercargill for another camp over Queens

Birthday weekend before I head off to Belgium for worlds build up, but I’ll be updating you all on my progress before then! See ya!

A big thank you to everyone!

So with the news today that i will be travelling across to the other side of the world to a town called Glasgow  in Scotland to compete in the World Champs, I thought I would upload this video that Buzz(Justin Evans) gave me of my first round ride in the Gold medal ride off at the nationals for the sprints. It's my way of thanking everyone who has helped me and supported me over the years that hasn't been able to watch me race often, I hope you enjoy!

Nationals wrap up

Nationals! What a ride that was! After the problems of spraining my ankle less than a week out from racing my nationals was amazing.

It all started the first day with the kilo, probably my favorite event just because of the sheer brutality of it. I was off in the last heat and in the front straight. My start wasn’t the greatest as my rear wheel spun at the start which took away my momentum meaning that the first pedal stoke was almost useless. I quickly regrouped though and was soon going all out. Its funny because when I’m racing I never hear anything, the crowd, my coach, nothing, but the one thing I heard the entire ride was the commentator saying “he’s flying, he’s absolutely flying!” this gave me that little bit extra that I needed to be able to give it that little extra to push on. I blew to bits on the last lap, going through the last corner I was starting to see 3 black lines and my legs were shutting down. But I was able to hold on just enough to secure the bronze medal and a new PB of 1.04.607 minutes.

My coach Murray any myself after my
win in the sprints

The next day was keirin day. It started off well, I won my heat and progressed straight into the semi where I had the dream run off second wheel and won the semi. The final however was a different matter, I became stuck on the outside with two laps to go and it was all over from there. I managed to fight on to a 4^th place, but it was gut wrenching to know that I had the speed to win it and to get one spot off the podium gave me motivation for the following day.

That following day was sprints day. I qualified second with a 10.767 second 200 meter time trial. My first round ride was good; I controlled the race and was able to win the race comfortably. That night in the semi I had to verse my team mate Quinn form the youth Olympics, I rode both races from the front and rode it to my strengths. I managed to make it through to the gold medal ride in two rides against Quinn, but they were extremely close rides. The final I had Jem another team mate from the Youth Olympics. The first ride I knew that I could get him if I forced him into a mistake which is what I did. Coming through to the bell I let Jem try and push me up to the fence but at the same time I slowed down the pace just enough to be able to get an opening underneath him but without him realizing it and it worked. I shot underneath him and bet him to the bell and ultimately won that ride. The second ride was similar from the first with Jem taking the front and me in 2^nd wheel, as we exited the back straight on the 2^nd lap I tried to draw Jem up the track and as he came up I dove underneath him and opened up the sprint. I just edged him out in a close finish but it was enough for me to win the 2^nd ride and the title. This was my first national title on the track and I was over the moon with it.

Me making the decisive move in the first round of
the gold medal ride in the sprints

The final day of the national champs saw me line up in the team sprint. I rode from second wheel and after a number of false starts and crashes in our heat we finally got our team sprint away and qualified fastest with a 47.955 second team sprint. That night in the final we rode off against Tasman we won the final and bettered our time to 47.520 seconds. With that I had my second title of the nationals.

I returned home to the week after racing the Auckland champs for a bit of fun, I walked away with 3 gold’s from 3 events, the kilo, keirin and the sprint which I was stoked with.

I have to say a huge thank you to my coach Murray for getting me into some amazing form for the nationals; I couldn’t have done it without him. Also thank you to two guys who helped me out massively at nationals by taking the time out on race days to give me advice and tactics that ultimately helped me to win the national title in the sprints. Those two guys are Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster

Going around the final banking going full noise
in the gold medal ride of the sprints

I now have a few days left off the bike before I start back into some serious training. My next event will hopefully be the junior worlds in August, but I have to wait for a nervous couple of weeks to find out if I’m going.

Australian Youth Olympics Wrap Up

What a blast that was! Sydney was more than what I expected; the whole experience was completely mind blowing. It was nice for a change to be in a team that wasn’t just cyclist, their was 100’s of other kiwi athletes that were competing in a vast array of sports.

The opening ceremony was an amazing feeling, just hearing New Zealand read out over the speakers in the arena and hearing the crowd roar has to be one of the greatest moments of my life, from what I heard NZ was second only to Australia in the roar scale but not by much!

Me on the front during my lap of the team sprint final

The racing on Dunc Gray which was the track used for the 2000 Sydney Olympics was spectacular and for the small team we had over there, we defiantly left our mark. First up was team sprint day. I warmed up with the boys incase something happened with warm up and then I would be shuffled into the team. The boys did an exceptional job in qually and got into the gold medal ride off. So at this stage I change down my gear to warm down and started my warm down rountine on the rollers, but then with maybe 15 minutes to the gold medal ride our coach JR came over and said stop drinking your protein shake. I initially though what am in trouble for? He then came back over to me and said you’re in; it was amazing that I would get to race. I did feel for Callum as I thought he deserved to ride the final, but he had done a stella job in qually so he wasn’t being replaced more rested for the rest of the week. The final when well, Quinn pulled out an 18.2 start lap which is incredibly quick, so he gapped me at the start and I used him as a carrot to chase for the start lap. This meant that I did a 500 metre time trial which was a lot more painful than what I remembered it to be. In the end we were beaten by 0.1 of a second by the Aussies.

The next day was kerin day. It was going okay till the semi final, I wasn’t decisive as I should have been, it was a mistake that unfortunately cost me a spot in the final. In the 7-12^th I learnt from my mistakes and fixed it, however the result didn’t come.

The team after racing
hanging out in Darling Harbour

Sprints day was next, the 200 metre time trial went okay, I did a 10.799 which is the 2^nd fastest time that I’ve ever done which I was happy with but I would have liked to go into the 10.6’s. I qualified 5^th. I drew a Malaysian who I rode a decisive sprint against and rode him on my hip to the finish. In the quarters I drew Jem, its always harder to race against your team mate, especially Jem as we have been at training camps together for just under a year now and know how each other races. The first ride I laid off too much and couldn’t come around him. In the second ride I time the run at him much better and he pipped me by a tire in the end, I was disappointed as I wanted to be in the finals the next day but I was happy that at least a team mate went through and not someone else.

After the last day of racing we all went into darling harbour and saw the world’s largest rubber duck! Jem, Chad and myself went on a racing simulator. It was extremely realistic and initially we had a practice around Bathurst which was awesome to drive that track as it’s my favorite track. We then did a 5 lap race on teratonga since Jem was the only one of us that knew the track. I was leading till 2 to go when I braked too late for the last corner and spun spectacularly off the track.

So after all that fun, it’s time for nationals and boy is that going to be a blast. I cant wait to rip it up on my favorite track in the world, invers!

Australian Youth Olympic Festival build up

So tomorrow is the big day, well one of many big days over the next couple of weeks. I fly out to Sydney tomorrow to compete in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival. Its going to be amazing experience having to live with people from other codes for a change and I cant wait for it! The comp is a good chance for me to see where my form is at leading into nationals which happen to be only 10 days after I arrive home from Sydney.

My Build up has gone really well with my form seeming to be coming right when it should be, which is making me really excited for the coming weeks. I have my coach Murray Grace to thank for that.

We recently had trials for the Auckland team sprint for at the national Champs, the trials went well, it was just a bit of a shame that they happened to be close to Sydney as I couldn't do some of the efforts that the selectors wanted me to do due to my build up but I'm hoping that what I did was enough to get me in.

Thanks to Giles Potter for taking this awesome
 pic of me from after the kerin final at Oceania's 

I would like to give a big thanks to the team Les Mills Britomart for deciding last week to continue to sponsor me and in doing so helping me to further progress training wise. Without them and their amazing team my build up wouldn't have been      so smooth gym wise

I'll try to keep you all updated on my progress in Sydney as best as I can, but results will be available on the comps website: http://ayof2013.olympics.com.au/results