Beijing, Melbourne, Copenhagen and home!

Following Christmas I was again a busy boy... Early January I went into a training camp in Invercargill for the build up to the UCI Beijing World Cup which was my first international experience in the Elite NZ track squad. Build up went well and I was riding the best I ever had. My form lead me to be the "anchor-man" of the team as coach Tim Carswell would put it, in the team pursuit. Qualifying in the Team Pursuit didn't go to plan and we qualified 4.10 for 4km Team Pursuit, which meant we were riding for Bronze.

Me on the front of the Team Pursuit in the final for Bronze

For the final we rode a bigger gear (which meant we would pedal slower, but go faster if we could have the same cadence as on a smaller gear) and the ride felt 10x smoother! We nearly caught Ukraine in the ride off and rode 5seconds faster in the final! We rode 4.05 which was a personal best for all of us (Shane Archbold, Tom Scully, Aaron Gate and myself, we are the U23 Development squad.

Team Pursuit Beijing WC - Bronze

Team Pursuit with Jason Rico on left (Mechanic) and Tim Carswell on right (Head Coach)

The Madison was on Sunday and I rode with Tom Scully. In the morning session we had qualifying, two heats of 10 riders, and one team from each heat would miss out on the final. Early on I was coming around a Russian rider in the corner, 2 laps before the sprint, just about to throw Tom in the next lap and he swung up and took me down! I hit the ground hard and collected a lot of splinters. Carsy (Tim Carswell) picked me up and put me back on my bike. We won the next sprint and qualified first in our heat.

I landed on my left hip and knee, hurt a lot!!

I had about 4hours till the final and Nikki our sougnier (physio, massage lady, and everything else) cleaned me up. I had splinters galore! Even had a 5cm splinter in my leg, f**k it hurt to get out!!!! I stayed at the track, had a nap on the massage table, ate some chinese noodles for pre-race-meal ha and was ready to race again. I was in a lot of pain but managed to race, and Tom and I ended up with bronze, I was stoaked! I was also stoaked to have Tom as a partner, he has had a awesome season with two World Cup Golds and 3 Bronzes in Beijing. Luckily he was riding strong, as my crash knocked me around a bit!

My first World Cup and two medals.... Not a bad start.

Tom and I during a change in our Bronze medal winning race

After Beijing I got sick ( could have been due to the crap food we were eating and picked something up, or could have been due to antibiotics I was on from the crash) and was on the toilet for 2 days! Training stood still for about a week and I turned up to nationals in Invercargill a bit underdone... Less than 2 week after Beijing.

Nationals went reasonably well considering. I started of well in the Kilo, I rode a personal best in 1.03.6 (1minute, 3.6seconds) which got me 2nd behind Eddie Dawkins who rode a NZ Record. I didn't get the Silver medal because I was entered in the Omnium which was 5 events over the 3 days, and not entered in the Kilo individually! Was a bit fuss kicked up about it, but I was just happy with the time I wrote. I ended up 4th in the Omnium over the 3 days of racing! And also won a Gold in the Team Sprint for Auckland.... Not too bad.

Next post will be about what happened after Nationals! Was quite exciting...

Big update! Apologies for waiting so long!

Hi All

Sorry it has been so long since my last update, it has been an extremely busy summer and also some what successful too....

First of all was the Oceania Games. This went pretty well, I ended up with my first Oceania Medal winning myself a Bronze in the Madison along side Aaron Gate ( Picture below )

After the Madison I rode as part of a New Zealand team for a 4km Team Pursuit against the Elite Team Pursuit. We rode a 4.07 (4minutes 7seconds) while the Elite Boys rode a NZ Record of 3.58. 2-3years ago 4.07 would have been one of the fastest rides NZ has ever done, so it looks as though we are on the right track following the Elite Team Pursuit.

After Oceania's I headed over to New Caledonia to race in the 4 Day International Madison. I rode the Madison with my partner Aaron Gate, we have done a few Madison's together now! There was 3-4 race's a night, and the overall winners of the Madison would be determined from the main event of each night, a 100-140lap Madison of a bumpy, outdoor 333m track. After the 4 nights of racing Aaron and I finished up 2nd behind a swiss duo, and I was 2nd best rider overall from the 4 nights of racing.

New Caledonia Madison Podium - Night 2

After New Cali I was chosen to head to Melbourne for Revolution 6 and Australian Madison Nationals. Revolution 6 was a big night of racing on Hisense Velodrome, Melbourne with many top international riders invited to entertain a big crowd. They blacked out the velodrome, had the spot light on riders riding around, big flames for entertainment, was an awesome thing to be a part of! Our highlight of the night was beating Australia's top team in a flying Madison. The kiwi's there were Shane Archbold, Tom Scully, Aaron Gate and myself.

Melbourne Revolution

The following night we raced at another indoor velodrome in Melbourne for the Australian Madison Nationals against one of the best fields in Australia for a Madison ever. It included 5 Professional road cyclists and a number of current and previous world champions, as well as us Kiwi's. Aaron and I had no plan for the race, laps were taken by Cameron Meyer/Glenn O'Shea and also by James Langedyk/Sean Finning. Late in the race with 40 laps to go Aaron and I slipped off the front and no one chased us! So we put the hammer down and lapped the field which slotted us into 3rd place which we held and we were stoaked about!

Australian Madison Nationals - Dec 2009 - Bronze

After the trip to Australia I was home for Christmas and New Year and had a good time catching up with friends and family over this period... But don't worry I kept the training up over christmas!

Next post will be about the start of 2010....