Lead up to Oceania Champs

Hi All

Since the camp I stayed on down in Invercargill to continue my build up for the Oceania Champs which my first event is 2 weeks today! I learnt a lot at the camp and it was a good platform to see how my form was leading into Ocies.

I have been on the track 3-4 times a week and have had some good, hard training sessions in the last week or so. The Ocies is going to have all the top kiwi's and some Aussie's all wanting to be Oceania Champion. BikeNZ are using the champs to select squads for this coming track season's World Cup Series. The World Cups are in Manchester, Melbourne, Cali and Beijing, with the World Champs being in Copenhagen in March.

I am hoping to make the squads for one of the World Cups, will be good to measure ourselves against the best track riders in the world! If I do have good form and am selected to go to one of these campaigns I will let all of you know on here! So 2 more weeks of touching up the form then into Oceania Champs which will be my first...

Check this space for updates within the next 2 weeks!

Myron

Track Training Camp

I arrived on Sunday to Invercargill with the rest of the NZ Senior Track Team. The team includes 4 of 5 riders who won a Bronze at the Beijing Olympics, the 6 development riders who were in Belgium/USA this year including myself, the women Team Pursuit Squad and 5 sprinters including the two Junior World Champs from Moscow, Sam and Ethan.

We cracked into the training straight away on Monday with a morning track session, road ride in the afternoon with a meeting in between so was a full on first day! Tuesday followed a similar routine with racing Tuesday night, as did Wednesday. The first 3 days of the camp have been focusing on Madison Racing as Madison nationals are Thursday 8th October down here in Invercargill. For those of you who don't know what a Madison is, look at my previous posts about Madison cup in USA.

Roly throwing Dream in during a previous Madison

Brett Aitken who is a world track champion, Olympic Champion in the Madison in Sydney and Commonwealth Games Champion has been helping us out and we have all learnt a huge amount of skills from him in the first 3 days. Brett is from Australia and has been brought over to help us out for the first week of the 2 week training camp. Carsy and Tommo (Tim Carswell and Glen Thomson) have also been helping out with their madison experience.

So far the weather has been nice down here but a bit cold! We have to leave the heater on inside our unit most of the day and haven't taken leg warmers off since I have been here. Madison nationals tomorrow night will be a hard night but we are all looking forward to it. I am riding with Aaron Gate from Auckland and we have ridden together a hand full of times so we are starting to get a good understanding of how we both ride.

This coming weekend there are over 50 staff and riders attending the track camp so i'm sure it will only get busier! Looking forward to Oceania's in mid November I am pretty happy with where I am at the moment but have a few hard weeks of training ahead!

Myron

Madison Cup and now home sweet home!

So the days leading up to Madison Cup were definately motivational draining! God decided to open the clouds on the Friday of Madison Cup, he seemed to do this a lot and only on Fridays!!!

It rained all morning on Friday, cleared up around lunch time so we did things as usual, had a big pre-race meal at 4.30pm then it rained again so the decision was made to call off Friday and postpone racing to 7.30pm Saturday night... Lying around the house doing nothing for 2 days while the weather was crap wasn't easy! Saturday was foggy all day so we were unsure if racing was going to be on but had to go through the pre-race motions again and to be honest we either wanted it to piss down with rain, or clear up! Funnily enough at about 5pm the fog disappeared and it was looking good to race. So we headed to the track ready for a big nights racing.

Madison cup is a two man event and the overall winner from is crowned from the results of 4 race's. On the programme for Madison Cup was a 50lap Madison (16.6km), a 10lap scratch race, there was 2 heats and each partner went in different heats, and a 100lap Madison (33km). The pairings for us kiwi's were Shane Archbold and Tom Scully, Shem Rodger and Jason Christie, and Aaron Gate with myself.

We lined up for the first race, did 13 laps then a massive thunderstorm rolled in and held up racing by an hour and a half! They had a car on the track trying to dry it while we waited under the grand stand out of the rain, slowly loosing motivation! Finally the track dried and we were back out their finishing off the 37laps of the first Madison, there was a lot on the line of Madison cup. Shane was 2nd in rider of the year just one point behind a Argentinian rider and one point ahead of a Aussie.

First Madison couldn't have turned out any better! Shane and Tom 1st, Shem and Jason 2nd, Me and Gatey 4th, as well as me and Gatey picking up 2 cash primes during it. The Aussie rider who was 3rd in rider of the year got 3rd in the first race so we had to be on our game for the next few race's, but the little Argy rider didn't place which was good!

The scratch races were interesting, and ended up being that riders who we knew wouldn't keep up in the last Madison and didn't get any placings in the first Madison were all going for the win while we were watching the riders who were up for rider of the year and who we knew would be dangerous in the final 100lap Madison. We scored points in both scratch races so we were still in the lead overall with Shane and Tom.

Around came the final Madison and we were sitting well to take Madison cup and rider of the year with Shane but the 100lap is a long race and anything could happen! The first 20laps of the race were pretty controlled, Aaron and myself picked up a few early cash sprint primes. Shortly after the second sprint the pace went on and the gaps started to appear with groups forming around the track. All 3 Kiwi teams were in the front group, along with a few other strong teams. Shem and Jason took a lap solo about half way into the race with Shane and Tom winning points on sprint laps through the race... Shane/Tom along with Shem/Jase were first and second, so it was up to Gatey and I to keep the front of the race together and make sure we looked after the other two kiwi teams. Shane/Tom initiated an attack and Shem/Jase followed along with two other teams who we knew weren't up to win Madison cup or rider of the year so we were safe! Aaron and I sat on the front and let them get a lap.

Shem/Jason won the overall night of Madison Cup, Shane/Tom got 3rd overall and had enough points to win rider of the year! Aaron and myself rode for the other two teams picking up cash prizes along the way so all and all it turned out to be a almost perfect night for the kiwi team!

After Madison Cup we packed up our gear, spent a night in New York and hoped on a plane to Los Angeles, then from Los Angeles to Auckland and I was finally home after a long but enjoyable 5 months!

Since being home I have been catching up with friends and family, training and also some lab testing over on the North Shore at the Millenium Institute of Sport! In less than 3 weeks I will be heading down to Invercargill for a Elite Track Camp which is 2 weeks long, then I will continue my build up to Oceania Games in Invercargill on 11th November.

Until something exciting happens, take care!

Pictures are easier than words!

These photo's are the main street of Kutztown which is where we live. They are taken just on our front door step which is West Main Street, the main street of Kutztown.


In between the white/green and grey coloured building is a alley way down to our old apartments, we had two and the front rooms have two windows ground level either side of the walk way. We were here for 6 weeks


View down to main street with shops



View down West Main street




Our new pad, Dayle's old apartment. Upstairs above the Oral Surgery. All in the white building

View up West Main Street, towards Kutztown University

View down West Main Street

Plans for the rest of 2009

At the moment I have been running through what my plans are for the rest of the year once I get home... We arrive home on September 2nd then only have a month until we go into a training camp in Invercargill on October 4th. The month in between arriving home and the camp I will spend catching up with friends and family, and of course get back into my training for the track camp in October which is 2 weeks long, then Oceania's which are in Invercargill mid November.

I have decided to set up camp at my second home in Invercargill at the Swain's house (thanks Wendy and Murray) when the track camp finishes, until Oceania Games in November. So looks like i'm going to be spending 6 weeks in Invercargill to try and find some good form for track Oceania's which are going to be full and fast fields with everyone gunning for spots at Track World Cups with the Elite Track Squad. After Oceania's I am hoping to make the squad for world cups but this is going to be extremely tough! I also know there are other trips on offer for teams to travel to so I am hoping for good form to try and get some overseas racing and experience under my belt!

Back to what i'm up to at the moment... Tomorrow night is the final night of track racing at the Valley Preffered Cycle Center Velodrome in Trexletown and the biggest night, Madison Cup! On the programme is a 20km Madison, 2 scratch races so one partner in each heat of the scratch races, an elimination and then a 40km Madison to finish up the night! It will be a tough night as Shane is only 1 point of winning 'Rider of the year' at the track and it has come down to the last night to possibly win it! I am riding with gatey (Aaron Gate) from Auckland and we will be riding to try and win but if there is an opportunity for any of us to help Shane get points for rider of the year we will try! Would be a bonus to win as a $1000cheque is presented to the overall winner of rider of the year...

Next update will be on Madison cup but could be coming from New Zealand as we arrive home on Wednesday morning! Am looking forward to a bit of mum's cooking and a Sunday roast!

Thunderstorm warnings

The thunderstorm that cancelled Tuesday night track

Has been a pretty full on week here, unfortunately track racing on Tuesday night was cancelled due to sweet thunderstorms. The rain only started at 7.30pm which is when the racing was scheduled to start but we saw the huge dark clouds rolling in from about half an hour before racing started! Not very good motivation to warm up when thunder and lightning are surrounding the velodrome...





Wednesday came around and I decided to do a double day, just under 2 hours in the morning then close to 3 hours in the evening. Every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning there is a bunch ride that leaves from the velodrome, it is called the Derby and the last 25km is basically a race back to the track. It is extremely fast and averages about 40-45kmh! I was out on the bike for just over 4 and a half hours so was a good day. Riding home from the track we were riding into dark grey clouds which soon turned into a huge thunderstorm, only 15km from home and I was riding through the scariest thunderstorm I had ever seen! Lightning was stricking less than a km away from us and thunder so loud I was scared! Haha...





Thursday I knocked out 4 hours with Shem so a fairly big 2 days for me then Friday 21st we had a track madison training session as Friday night track racing wasn't on because once a month they have a break from Friday night track racing. Track started at 12 so it was stinking hot and we were doing motorpaced madison's behind the motorbike training for Madison Cup which is the final Friday night racing at the Valley Preffered Cycling Center Velodrome in Trexletown. Following track we rode home and once again rode into a huge thunder/lightningstorm! The rain was almost horizontal and coming straight into our face, it was quite refreshing after a hot track session but was hurting my bare arms and face as some of it was hail!


Tomorrow is Saturday and we have a criterium about 100miles from us, so if we ride together as a team hopefully can win a bit of money as we are running a bit low not having track racing on Tuesday or Friday night! Hopefully the thunderstorms stay out of the way but ya never know around here... It can be 35degrees at the track then 10minutes later can be pissing down with huge thunderstorms!





Next blog I will let everyone know what my plans are for when I arrive home (about 10 days now!) and for the rest of the year... Hope all is well with everyone back home and around the world.





Myron

What a week! NZ has 3 new World Champions

The last week has been a busy and exciting week for myself and many other kiwi's! As you would have heard Sam Webster from Auckland won 3 world titles at the Junior World Track Champs in Moscow in the week just gone, winning the team sprint along with Ethan Mitchell and Cameron Karwowski! Coming out the next day and winning the Kierin undefeated, then over the last two days of racing he became the the fastest ever kiwi in the flying 200m and winning Gold in the match sprints on the final day! Sam seemed to be unstoppable and became the most successful junior rider in New Zealand ever.

Over here in Kutztown it has also been pretty full on with training, racing and making a day trip to New York! I worked myself pretty hard this week, making the most of training while i'm here. The weather here is very unpredictable and this showed on Wednesday when the sun disappeared and we rode into a huge lightning thunderstorm, but its not like home because its still 20-25degrees which is like having a bath!

Friday night racing was a good night for us 6 young lads who live, train and race together! It was different to most Friday night racing and the prize money was on individual events, and not the overall Omnium points. We pretty much dominated the night, winning almost every sprint prime during the races which were for money, beer and socks (we had to swap the beer for cash because we are all underage!). Shane and Shem got 1st and 2nd in the Super Sprint Elimination, won all the intermediate cash primes and then Shane got 3rd and I got 6th in the final 5mile scratch of the night! All and all a successful night, pocketing a bit of money extra to enjoy the next week...

The atmosphere around the house has got a bit busier as Hayden Godfrey and Josh England have turned up in Kutztown in between some big racing blocks for them. Hayden is living with us and his brother and flatmate are also visiting Kutztown so quite often the lounge is full but it is always good to see some more kiwi faces. Gemma Dudley leaves to go home this week so Shem, Hayden and I have to move out and figure out some accommodation for the final 2 weeks here but it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

While out training this week I have seen many Amish horse and cart's so I thought I would let everyone know a bit about them as we live in an Amish community! The Amish (pronounced Ar-Mish) are known for their simple living style, plain dressing and resistance to many modern technological changes. There are approximately 227,000 Old Order Amish living in USA and they basically live off the land growing products which they sell at places such as farmers markets. We have a farmers market near us every Friday and Saturday and their are heaps of fresh produce such a fruit and vegetables at a price better than supermarkets. They buzz around on their horse and carts on the majority of the roads around here just keeping right so they don't hold up the traffic too much. Generally they are dressed in all black and are friendly enough to wave back when you give them a wave while out riding.

That is pretty much all I know about them, bit of a history lesson for you all out there! Haha... I learnt all of that after leaving school which is pretty impressive I thought.

So congratulations to all those who were at Junior Worlds in Moscow, Ethan Mitchell, Cameron Karwowski and Sam Webster are World Champions in the team sprint, and Sam Webster is also World Champ in the Kierin and Sprints! You legends... Watch out for these names in the future. Will be good catching up with Sam and Eth when I get home as I am good friends with them both so will be good to share stories of our trips overseas!

Stay tuned....

Track Racing... A big report

Kia Ora from Kutztown.

It has been a good week for us kiwi's on the track in Trexletown. Tuesday night racing on the track for the Pro Men and Women is run as an omnium for all the events throughout the night. So if you want to win prize money (which is what we survive on!) you have to be consistent throughout the night and try get places in every race you do. The omnium works well for us as we generally have 6 of us so we can ride for the best placed riders from the first few events of the night. Big Shem Rodger was the man on form on Tuesday so Jason, Tom and myself rode for him. The feature race for us was a 60lap/20km points race, the race was together for the first half and after 30laps I decided it was time to make the rest of the field along with the big Polish sprinters who can ride a pretty bloody good points and scratch race (for sprinters, both went to the Beijing Olympics riding for Poland) really hurt!

I made the first move then Bobby Lea who rides for professional road team Ouch along side Flloyd Landis came with me. Shem knew he had to come across cause he was up in the Omnium points for the night so he did along with Jason and we stayed away till the end. Shem won the points race, Jase second and I got 4th. Overall Shem won the Omnium series for the night which meant a bit of money to survive on for the week! Gemma also had a good nights racing, picking up a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th which meant she got 2nd in the Omnium for the night!

Following Tuesday night I had to knock out a few days hard training on the road and erg before racing again on Friday night at the track again. Also to fill in a bit of time I went to the local cinema here to watch Transformers 2 on Wednesday night with Canny and Shem. I personally think it is better than the first one and was worth the $5! For the size of Kutztown there is actually quite a lot of things you can do to fill in time, movies, mini golf, the pools, Pops ice cream store is quite often where its at in K-Town...

Thursday night and good old pot luck kiwi dinner at a friend of Dale Tye's who lives in Topton only 4miles from here. Dale's friend Katie owns the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life, I would almost call it a small horse. Major, is a Great Dane that weighs 160pounds (72kg) and he is only 1 year old! Some of the boys decided to do a bit of a dressup as seen in the photo's with Major. He is expected to only get bigger as well... But all and all it was a good kiwi dinner with plenty of food and dessert the night before track racing!

Friday came around quick and there was only to be 4 guys at the track again because Novie and Gatey (Shane and Aaron) were off to Charlotte for the weekend to race 2 of the biggest money paying crits in the States. The night started well with a 30laps points race, I had a good race and it ended up being that the top 5 riders all had 8 points! And I was 5th on countback, and Jason 2nd so was a good start to the night. Unfortunately for Gemma in her first race of the night as soon as the gun went to start the race she got out of her seat to accelerate and pulled her wheel which meant her chain dropped and she fell off! Luckily for Gemma she only had scrapes and bruises and a cracked helmet but nothing more.

Our second race was a 10lap scratch race, we got a bit of a kiwi team pursuit going in the last 5 laps to get across to a little break and I ended up getting 3rd in that race, with Shem 4th. And many of the top 5 from this race were different to the first race so the overall Omnium results were still wide open with the last race a 24lap scratch race still to race. As we lined up on the fence the commentator said first rider to lap the field gets a $100 bonus, many of the riders in the field just heard "che cheng!"... Big Rodge (Shem) initiated one of the early breaks with 2 other riders, they got half a lap on the field pretty quickly before the pace in the field started to pick up. Each time a kiwi got to the front we would slow it down and disrupt the chase which meant Shem was edging closer to taking a lap. Big Rodge was driving the group to take a lap and get another $100. With 7 laps to go Shem was 30meters off the back and the rider infront of him lapped up so Shem hit them with all he had and it was a sprint between him and Michael Freiburg to get onto the back of the bunch! (Not very often would you see that, but for $100 it was definately worth it!) I dropped to the back of the bunch and watched Shem get in contact with the last rider of the bunch by only half a bike length infront of Freiburg! Straight away I took Shem to the front and sat on the front with Shem 2nd wheel for the last 5 laps. I slowly ramped up the pase in the last 2 laps to make sure no attacks could go and the race was between Shem and Freiburg so it was my job to make sure Freiburg didn't beat Shem. I lead out Shem until less than half a lap to go and Freiburg was no where to be seen, so Shem won the race and ended up getting 2nd in the overall Omnium points for the night! Jason got 4th and I got 6th so was a good pay day for the 4 of us.

Today I woke up late, had a late breakfast, watched Jaws on the movie channel and decided I should do something productive with my day so wrote this! Outside it is thunderstorms so I may wait until they clear up and re-evaluate my training for the day! We have been planning a trip to the big apple (New York) for a while now and may do that tomorrow! We are about 2hours inland so it's not too far and it is always enjoyable to be a tourist for a day and go to Time Square, see the Statue of Liberty and yell out "taxi" in New York Central City.

3 and a half weeks until i'm home and in my own bed again! But still have plenty of racing to do before we hop on the plane back to little old NZ...

Will keep ya posted...

Birthday Blog

Quite a lot has happened since my last blog actually! While out riding I have seen a deer walk in front of me while out riding, a dead snake on the road, a house that looks like it is out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or some scary movie! Seen groundhogs, squirrell's and chipmunks all on my rides near Kutztown! I have also had 2 birthday's because thats how I roll....

Well actually my birthday is today (July 30th) but it was yesterday (NZ time) so I have had birthday wishes for two days now which has been pretty cool! One year older and so much has happened in the past 12 months, I have gone from being cripple after Junior Worlds last year where I broke my collarbone, to getting on the podium in Europe and now racing in USA where some of the best track riders in the world have raced. One downside about having my birthday in USA is that I can't even enjoy a birthday beer with my dinner! (I turned 19, drinking age here is 21...) We are going to go to the local tavern/restaurant for dinner as they make some decent sized meals for a good price. Us cyclists eat a lot of food so a big meal is the norm in our house!

For those of you that thought I may have had a day off the bike, think again... I decided to do vO2 efforts on the erg! (High cadence efforts) I probably chose the best time of the day to do them as well, try 1pm when it is the hottest part of the day. This was not my choice, we only have one Erg so have to book it and Novie (Shane) had booked it from 10-1 so I decided I would be next in and do them outside in about 30degrees! I always enjoy the erg, I know it is going to be hard, but only as hard as you want to make it... It is probably one of the most punishing, and beneficial cycling tools made! The photo's and video's are of me doing my birthday erg efforts thanks to Shem, he was pretty sweet camera skills as you can see in the video ha!

Unfortunately I haven't recieved any big parcels in the mail from mum or any friends but i'm hoping they have been lost in the mail and will turn up soon haha!

We have track racing tomorrow night which is called "Tandemonium Night" where the highlight event of the night is the tandem racing, unfortunately i'm not going to be participating! I have seen some of the tandem's and they tend to get a bit flexy in their old age, who knows what might happen if ya chuck two big kiwi's (like myself) on one of the old tandems, so i'm happy to watch! There are other races for the Pro Am grade which is what we race in so am looking forward to getting on the track again, hopefully with the weeks training and efforts i've been doing I will be able to find some good legs and enjoy the track again!

Will update ya on the racing and hopefully get a few snaps of the racing too...

Over and out from the birthday boy

First week in T-Town

Hi all this is my first post on my new blog , still a bit shaky on how this thing works but I will give it a crack!

Arrived in New York at JFK Airport last Thursday 23rd July but my travelling wasn't done there, had to catch a bus to Kutztown which is about an hour and a half inland from New York but took well over 2 hours on the bus! Finally arrived in Kutztown which is where I will be living for the next 6 weeks.

Was straight into it on Friday and went for a wee roll around the area then had track racing that night at the velodrome in Trexletown (T-Town) which is an outdoor 333m concrete track! Some black clouds decided to roll in and cover the track but fortunately for us it decided to move on and let us ride our bicycles around in circles. It was a good feeling to be back on the track, the last time I rode my bike was March at track nationals in Invercargill where I ended up hitting the deck (once again) in my last race the Kierin final, I was a bit worried but decided to harden up and light the racing up with the rest of the kiwi boys!

There are heaps of kiwi's living here in Kutztown and racing the crits and track in the area. 6 of us moved on from Belgium with the BikeNZ Development Squad and met 2 other kiwi girls here Gemma Dudley and Jaime Neilson who we are living with. We had a good first night on the track , Shane Archbold won the overall omnium series for the night winning 2 races and getting second in another. My body was tired from all the travelling but I pulled up OK and helped the other boys out where I could!

Saturday was a 30mile (50km) crit about 45minutes from home. The weather was good hitting about 30-35degrees, we need air conditioners instead of heaters like back in NZ at the moment haha! Went well for the boys, Aaron got 2nd, Shane 4th, Jason 5th and Shem 7th. I was in the break with Jason and Shem but hit the wall with about 4laps to go so decided to shut it down and pull out, I don't want to push myself too hard in the first few days otherwise I will put myself into a hole and won't be able to find form for the rest of my time here!

Other than that all is going pretty well, settled into USA way of life pretty well. It is a bit easier than Belgium as they speak the same language and many of the foods are similar!

Will try keep the blogs coming if I remember!

Catch ya'll later