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!