America 2K15

Sprint qualifying in T-Town

America well how quick does time fly, just shy of 3 months seemed to go faster than a blink of an eye! 11 race meetings speed across our time there each with its own high and lows and varying success. Straight off the bat 2 of these race meets are the ones that stand out from the rest both due to the success that I achieved in them but at varying ends of the track cycling spectrum, but I’ll touch on these later!

We arrived into America on a brisk morning on the 31st of May in San Fransisco, after an afternoon of exploring what the city had to offer we were off and onto Philadelphia and then onto Kutztown Pennsylvania, home for the next 11 weeks. The first few weeks consisted of UCI tier 1 races trying to gain selection points for this seasons coming World Cups, the second of which is at home in Cambridge! This racing was hard and fast racing with World and Olympic medalists competing, my best result was a 11th in one of the keirin’s and 10th in the sprints. These races may not have all had the desired outcome result wise but they were good building blocks for the coming season and even better were amazing learning experiences for the future, which in my book is nearly as good at winning at this stage in my career.

Getting to have a go in endurance racing is always some fun!

After the UCI races had finished and the elite boys departed the American shores for the sunny location of Majorca we moved onto more endurance carnival type racing and were joined by the woman's endurance team. My first week of this type of racing was once of the more interesting nights of racing I’ve done, I was the stoker on the back of a Tandem, best described as the most exhilarating yet scary amusement ride you can do! We managed to get 2nd in the sprints after only a couple of training sessions riding together. Once this evening had pasted it was time for me to join back up with my team mates in some good proper carnival racing. I managed to win the Omnium on my first night of this racing without winning a single event something that took me a little by surprise if I’m honest. The following week was the biggest night of racing we had had, a total of 7 races over the course of the race night that consisted of 2 big races, one the …… unknown distance and the other the US 10 mile scratch championship. I managed to win the unknown distance as the distance didn’t turn out to be too far, the 10 mile though was long and I’d be pushing myself to the edge of my of the slight bit of endurance I had in my sprinter legs. I found myself on the front with a lap to go, not the most ideal position on a 333 meter track but never the less I tried to progress the lap as best I could trying to be at my fastest at the end of the back straight, as we entered the back straight riders started to come to my outside and get along side me, I was pushing as hard as I could but at that point thought I was going to loss it but all of a sudden my legs managed to find 6th gear and I was off, actually managing to pull a gap and win the race by a comfortable margin! I was over the moon with the result and to top the night off I managed to win the overall omnium for the night. We had 2 more of these race nights before the some UCI racing started back up, the results weren’t as spectacular as the two previous but still solid results none the less.

Racing to 3rd in the final sprint comp

As the trip started to dwindle down we were in our last week and it was a sprint comp. I needed some points to secure my eligibility for the World Cup season and this was one of my last shots to get those points so the pressure was on. In the lead up I had been struggling to find my legs and to just get simple things such as the lead in right for my sprint qualifying. race day rolled around quick as it normally does, i tried something new in qualify and it worked brilliantly, managing to qualify 4th fastest and do the 3rd fastest time i’ve ever done! the racing was hard but I managed to race myself into the semifinal against the guy who got 4th at the London Olympics in this event, racing it was and close he ended up having too much gas for me but I was still pleased with the ride, I ended up finishing 3rd in the event which not only secured me the vital points I required but also was my first elite podium in a sprint competition!

After 78 days we left America to head home. The trip felt no where near as long as 3 months, I think this was due to the changing faces we were around and the stuff we did on day offs to get out and about. A couple of personal highlights for me was in a 5 day break we had i managed to get away and go to Washington D.C. and also to Boston, two city’s that I’ve wanted to go and visit for years. Getting to experience Nascar for me being a big motorsport fan was an experience I’ll never forget and the many other adventures we went on such as roller coaster riding at Dorny park of redding terminal market place in Philadelphia. The trip was defiantly a success in terms of cycling but also off the bike with the people who I met from varying countries and the experiences that were made. America 2K15 was a blast! 

Summer time racing

What a blast the last few months have been! My career as really taken off in the recent months with what seems like non stop personal bests on and off the bike. It all stared last year in mid September at the Bike Nz Cup/Classic.

The first of what would be a full on action

Racing Sam in the Sprint Semi Final

packed three days started off with sprints, I managed to pull off a pb in qualifying to qualify 9th and won my first round ride against my team mate Ethan Mitchell. I raced my way through the rounds to end up 6^th, with this my confidence grew and it set the tone for the for the following two days of racing. The next day was Keirin day, I snuck through the first round straight into the semi final which was that evening. The semi was staked full of fast rider,one that would expect to see at a World Cup let alone a tier one event! I finished 5^th in that after running out of gas putting me into the 7th-12^th final where I would eventually finish 10^th. To say I was pleased with these two days would be an understatement but what would come on the 3^rd day would blow these two days out of the water! It started with a massive pb in the sprint qualifying a 10.397 over a tenth of second off my old one set 2 days earlier! I race Ethan again in the first round and though he pushed me close just managed to pip him on the line. The quarter final was against Eddie Dawkins the man you had just ridden a 9.8 second qualifying that morning smashing the previous NZ record! The first ride his speed was far superior to mine and he easily passed me in the front straight, the second ride I was able to get an opportunity and catch him by surprise and it was just enough for me to be able to sneak out a win and make the quarter final go to a 3^rd and final deciding ride, in the 3^rd I released that the only way to beat Eddie was to use his big gear to his disadvantage and try to get the jump on him again and to my complete surprise I managed to! This win put me into the semi finals that evening and also made me the number 1 seed! The semi was against the current Olympic bronze medalist in the sprint, Australian Shane Perkins. I knew with the caliber of riders I was going to be facing that evening that I would struggle to win unless I pulled something out of the hat again, so I went in the the idea of trying to learn as much as I could. The two races against Perkins really showed my inexperience at this level of racing and why he is the Olympic bronze medalist. The same could be said for my bronze medal ride off against my team mate Sam Webster, he showed his class in both rides and despite me trying to race mistake free the pressure exerted made slight errors in judgment start to creep in and made me in two minds of what I was doing in both rides. The key things that I took home from racing both of these brilliantly tactical riders was the experience and new found tactical knowledge of racing.

The photo finish of the Austral

In the month of December in the week before Christmas a group of 5 kiwi riders including myself traveled across the ditch to Melbourne to have a crack at the Austral Wheel race, this being the 117^th edition of the race, which happens to be the oldest bike race in the world! There were also tier one sprints and Keirins on offer. I managed to qualify 8^th just allowing me to make the cut as it was top 8 through, the first round was a one off ride and I drew one of the fastest men in the world at the moment Matthew Glatzer with what seemed like a couple of stomps on the pedals he was around me in the backstretch on the last lap and she was all over. The night though would take an interesting and very unexpected twist though, I had managed to win my heat for the Austral and therefore qualify for the main event that evening. I had been given a generous handicap of 105 meters. The race was 8 laps in length, I quickly caught up to the front markers and sat on a wheel to try and save myself for the last few laps. A train of riders came round the group with about 3 laps to go and with a bit of bumping and barging managed to get onto the back of them, before I knew it the bell was sounding and I was in far from an ideal position, 6-8 back and 3 wide not the best spot to start a sprint from, never the less I decided to give it a go. By the time we were half way around the last corner I was gaining at a rate of knots on the lead riders and just as we crossed the line managed to roll two riders in a close photo finish! The result was astounding and I still find it hard to believe, I managed to become only the 3^rd Kiwi to win this big race and the first for 50 years.

The Austral Trophy

Me in second during the Team Sprint in Cali

After the Austral I traveled home for Christmas but there was no let off in training with a camp coming up that had selection for the 3^rd World Cup on the line there wasn't much of a break to be had. The training in the camp and the trial days went as good as i could have hoped for and I was selected to go off and race in Cali Colombia for my first ever World Cup. After 2 and a bit days of getting on and off planes I finally arrived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in Cali, I had a few days training there getting used to the track and making sure I was in the best possible condition for racing. I rode in the team sprint on the first night of racing, it was my first time I had ridden 3^rd wheel so the nerves were a little high. We managed to finish 9^th which considering two if the three members of the team were 19 or younger made it a pretty good result with everyone pulling out awesome times in their respective laps. I then had a day off before my second and final event of the race meeting, I rode the sprints and managed to smash out a pb and a big one too, 10.3 dead. I was over the moon with the time but made a mistake during the ride which cost me time. Cali is a very unique track it's extremely tight in the corners with long straights, it has no walls and only a roof so you quite often find yourself riding in a head wind, but the thing that was my undoing during my ride was Cali has a pretty big bump halfway trough the last corner which tends to spit you out to above the red if you're not careful and I unfortunately wasn't careful enough which led to me riding the majority of the last corner above the red, but it was still a pb so I couldn't be too annoyed at myself.

During my flying 200

A week after I flew back from Cali it was time for the last event of the season for me, the Nationals. First up was the kilo which I was uncertain about, the whole week leading up to the Nationals after Cali my legs seemed to have not decided that they wanted to come back from Cali so I wasn't exactly lighting the boards a light with fast times. Thankfully though they arrived the day of the kilo and I managed to smash almost 3 seconds off my pb to go 1.01.67 which got me 4^th, just 2 hundredths of a second off a bronze medal. The next morning followed with what seemed like during the ride my best ever flying 200, everything seemed to click and it showed in the time with another pb this time 10.271 that qualified me 5^th, after a pretty straight forward ride in the first round I drew Ethan which seems to always be the way of late. He rode a brilliant race and I made a few mistakes so he managed to blow past me like I was standing still and that was that. I then had to front up in the ride off for 5^th to 8^th, I ended up 7^th after leading out and running out of gas in the closing stages. The Keirin was next, the heat went perfectly, I rode from the front and ran away with the race which put me straight into the semi, that however didn't go to plan and it left me in the 7^th to 12^th ride off which I managed to ride away with the win and secure 7^th place. The final day was the Team Sprint and I had to slot in behind the two current world champs in their favored positions in the team them being Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster. In qualifying I was dropped and had to ride the whole race by myself off the back, we still managed to qualify first by 0.1 of a second which I was stoked with. I knew for the final that evening that if I got on we had a good chance of winning and I managed to do that, we won by 0.3 of a second and went 0.8 of a second faster than in qualifying giving me my first ever elite national title which I was over the moon with.

The Start of the Team Sprint at the Nationals

It's be such a cool and amazing last few months and I can't wait to see what the next few months and beyond have lying in wait!