Summer Training

So after a long summer of training the time has now come to start my final phase of training before the national champs which are in mid March on the new home of cycling the Avantidrome in Cambridge after riding on the track I can say it is an amazing facility and the track itself is perfect. It's different to the only other indoor track we have in New Zealand, that being Invercargill so it will be interesting to see how times compare between the two tracks.

Managed to squeeze in a
cheeky gym session in Karapiro

My training over summer has been tracking along well, the introduction of a new coach seems to be paying dividends, with strength and power going up in rates previously unseen. The training itself is similar to training I have done previously but in a different approach. That combined with a new diet is what I'm backing on to try and gain myself success at the Nationals in three weeks times.

Riding in the match
sprint in Wanganui 

I recently got back from a trip down to Wanganui where I got the opportunity to race against the best sprinters from New Zealand and also one of Malaysia's and one Australians best sprinters as well. The racing itself was top notch and due to the number of countries involved the UCI decided to declare it a tier 2 event which meant that for me the sprints and the keirin had points on the results which are important for not just world rankings but also for start points which allow you to compete at a World Cup event. I'm still a long way off the 90 required to start at a World Cup but it was still good to get a few points in the bank this early in the season.

Wanganui is an outdoor wooden track which for me was a very weird feeling to ride on as I have only ever ridden on concrete outdoors. I managed to pull out a 10.83 second 200 meter time trial in the sprint qualifying to qualify me in 7^th position which made me the only rider not riding for their national team to qualify in the top 8 booking myself a spot in the quarter finals of the sprints. The sprint didn't exactly go to plan and I was unfortunately beaten by a faster and better rider in Simon van Velthooven who is an Olympic bronze medalist. I also raced in the keirin and managed to get 4^th in the heat, I was a little disappointed with this but the caliber of the riders that beat me in my heat did in some way compensate for the loss, in the b final I managed to pull of a 2^nd place which put me 8^th overall which was pretty good considering I had my saddle snap going round the last corner.

A really cool panorama of Wanaganui Track, during a training session the day before racing

Wanganui was a good hit out for me and I'm pleased with how it went, even more so considering the wind was horrendous and it was hard to keep the bike in the sprinters lane when you were going full speed. Now it's down to the fun part of training being the speed work and I can't wait to race again especially on a new track like Cambridge.

On a side note, if anyone is looking to loose a few pounds they put on over the Christmas break or just generally wanting to get fit go and check out the Les Mills Britomart facebook page for all the latest deals on the best gym in Auckland, Richard and the team there will look after you and sort you out: https://www.facebook.com/lesmillsbritomart?fref=ts

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/