Thanks Avanti

I would like to let everyone know that Avanti Plus Waipuna and Avanti have decided to help me out with a bike! They have got me on an Avanti Quantum 3, I will post pictures soon.

Thanks heaps to Del and the team at Avanti Plus Waipuna. If anyone needs any help I'd recommend the team at Avanti Plus Waipuna.

Only two weeks till I head off to USA, am looking forward to it!

Myron

Next phase - USA and Belgium

I recently found out I am heading over to USA for 4 weeks, then onto Belgium for 8 weeks.

I will be heading away with the BikeNZ squad and doing some track racing and crits in USA and all road racing in Belgium!

In USA I will be living in a small town about 2hours West of New York, called Kutztown.

In Belgium I will be living in Blauberg, which is about 50km North-East of the capital, Brussells.

I also recently found out I am on the Commonwealth Games Short-List! Was pretty happy with that...

Watch this space for updates and other news on my upcoming trip.

Ciao

The Link!

http://www.purefutures.co.nz/myron-simpson.aspx

Please vote!

Hi Everyone

Steinlager Pure are doing a competition to help out young people trying to achieve their goals! I would hugely appreciate if you could take the time to vote and possibly let your friends or family know about it too.

http://www.purefutures.co.nz/myron-simpson.aspx

Thanks so much!

At the moment I am getting back on the bike and into some serious training. I recently had a minor surgery on my toe but I'm good to go again! Next stop, USA. June 11th!

Melbourne, Bendigo, Copenhagen!

After Nationals I had a week or two on the road before I got a phone call from Tim Carswell who said I was going to Australia for two weeks to do some madison racing with in Melbourne then up to Bendigo for the famous International Bendigo Madison.

In Melbourne we raced the Melbourne Madison. Marc Ryan and Tom Scully got 2nd behind an experience German pairing, and Hayden Godfrey and I got 3rd, we were pretty happy. On the same night Marc won the Sid Patterson wheel race. The next night at the same Velodrome, Shane Archbold (who was peered with an Aussie the night before for the Madison) won 4 from 4 races! Was some sweet team riding from us.

From Melbourne we drove up to Bendigo which was about 150km North. The first few days in Bendigo we had awesome weather then as the week went on the rain came, and decided to stay... The Bendigo Madison was definitely the focus of the 2 week trip for all of us. Tom and Shane were paired together, and I was going to ride with Hayden. Marc went home after Melbourne to start training in Invercargill with the Team Pursuit for the World Champs.

The Bendigo track is a 413m and is uniquely shaped like a "D". It is one of the hardest Madison's to race in the world and is around 80km! Unfortunately for us the rain stuck around and forced the first ever cancellation of the Bendigo Madison, we weren't impressed!

I arrived home on Monday afternoon to an email from Carsy (Tim Carswell), asking me down to the pre worlds training camp in Invercargill the next day, and they had planned a Omnium "Trial Day" on Saturday against Hayden Godfrey. Hayden had a crash with a car while out training in February and had to have surgery which wrecked his worlds prep. The staff were unsure of his form as Bendigo Madison was rained out so we had a trial against each other on Saturday.

Training during the week was hard, no easy days! We were going into the trial after some hard training, so we were definitely not "fresh". I had a good day and beat Hayden in all 3 timed events that we did, a 200m Sprint, 3km Pursuit and finished with a 1km Time Trial. The coaches forwarded the times onto the National Selectors and I waited about 4 hours at the hotel before my coach Stu MacDonald came to me and confirmed I was the last rider to be chosen to go to Copenhagen for my first senior World Champs!!

It was Saturday, and I was to leave the following Saturday, while the rest of the team went over on the Wednesday, 3 days before I went over. My preparation for the World's wasn't ideal, as I found out so late, but I spent a few extra days in Invercargill because once you get to the Worlds, countries are allocated track sessions and these can be very busy and extremely difficult to do specific efforts!

I flew over by myself and arrived to Copenhagen on Sunday 20th March, with no wallet, and no suitcase, argh...... My wallet fell out of my pocket of my track pants when I stood up to get off the plane, and my suitcase, well god knows where that was! Luckily I had my shoes, helmet and a skinsuit in my carry on luggage, and a nice bunch of guys in the team that let me borrow some jocks and riding kit. I spent 4 days without a suitcase before it turned up the day before I rode the Kilo, which was Friday.

I did the Kilo for a bit of a blow-out before the Omnium on Sunday. In the Kilo I was first off and rode a personal best of 1.03.6 (1min 3.6seconds), with the winner, Dutchman Teun Mulder riding a sea-level world record! Eddie Dawkins finishing up best of the kiwi's in 5th, also with a personal best.

Sunday rolled around and only Lauren and I were racing, I basically had all the staff to myself! The Omnium consists of 5 events: 200m Time Trial, 7.5km Scratch Race, 3km Individual Pursuit, 15km Points Race and finishes with a 1km Time Trial. The events are broken up into 3 in the morning session, and 2 in the afternoon session.

The day started well, I rode a personal best 200m TT in 10.6 seconds, finishing up 4th in the first event of the Omnium. The scratch race is a bit of a lottery and I ended up 11th, at this stage there was no clear leader! It was close... My Individual Pursuit was probably the hardest event, I pushed myself but only managed 11th. I went back to the accommodation in between sessions, it was about a 500m ride!

3km Individual Pursuit - Copenhagen

I came back to the track and needed a good points race to put me back in contention. The plan was to wait until the 2nd half of the race but unfortunately for me it all happened in the first half of the race! I definitely need to work on my points races, but finished the 15km points race in a disappointing 15th! The kilo was next and I rode a 1.04.2 which was 6th. After the big day and my first Senior World Championships I ended up 10th overall in the Omnium, I was pretty happy with my first Worlds, but know where I can improve for next time!

Omnium Kilo - Copenhagen

Since worlds I had 2 weeks off the recently had a minor surgery on my foot. I am about to get back into my training and my next update will be what is planned for the year!

Thanks for reading