She's a big one....
A quick wrap up on the last night of Oceania's in Adelaide before talking about the Melbourne World Cup.
The final night of racing at the Oceania's was the Saturday, with the Team Pursuit and possibly the Madison as well. I was thinking about riding the Madison but didn't confirm it until about 2hrs before the race, as there was a good chance I would be riding it in Melbourne at the WC. The Team Pursuit in Adelaide went well for our first race as a team. The team was me starting, Aaron Gate riding 2nd, Shane Archbold 3rd and Cameron Karwowski 4th. In qualifying we rode 4.10, with Australia, the World Champions, riding 4.06. In the final we went out a bit harder, and rode a 4.08 with the Aussies ride 4.02, we were pretty happy with our first rides together, picking up the Silver in the TP.
I decided to ride the Madisonas there was now 8 teams (at first there was only 3 entry's) and would be a good chance to getsome more racing into the legs before Melbourne. Gatey and I rode together, deciding not to dotoo much and just get some racing in our legs. We were up against Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard of Australia, the World Champions in the Madison. We had a good crack,rode well picking up some points because the Team Sprint boys go good but couldn't keep up with the World Champs as they got a lap up on us. We picked up the Silver in the Madison. 3 Silver medals at the Oceania Championships in Adelaide.
We flew to Melbourne on Sunday to prepare for the World Cup starting on Thursday. We had a few days training on the Hisense Arena before we raced, trying to get use to the track and riding together in the Team Pursuit. Aaron and I were given the nod to race the Madison on Thursday night, the first night of racing.
There were 13 starters in the 40km Madison, 160laps of the Hisense Velodrome with sprints every 20 laps. We started well, taking out the first sprint, following that the pace was on! From there on, the race was a bit of a blur... All I remember is the Aussie World Champ pair of Leigh Howard and Cam Meyer took a lap, the Dutch pair chased and eventually took a lap. Gatey and I slipped off the front with Hong Kong and pushed the pace. We got over half a lap on the bunch before the Aussie's realised we were about to get a lap, which would have put us into the lead of the race because we had more points than Australia. They hit the bunch and as we got our lap they were off the front going for another lap, which they eventually got and sealed the Gold medal for them. Aaron and I picked up Silver which was our best result to date.
Gatey and I during a change
Podium
NZ 2nd, AUS 1st, NED 3rd
Shane "Novie" Archbold rode the Omnium over the first2 days of racing, Thursday and Friday. We knew he had good form, but the way he rode over the 2 days of racing was incredible. He was consistent, strong, smart and fast! He didn't finish out of the top 5 in 6 different events, and riding to Personal Best times in all 3 timed events to win the Gold.
The Team Pursuit was on Saturday, the last day of racing. The team was Aaron Gate, Cameron Karwowski, Shane Archbold and myself. Shane, Aaron and myself won Bronze at the Beijing World Cup in January in a timeof4.05.We were in the 5th to last heat, and before us the best time was 4.05. The goal was to ride to a 4.04,I started,Aaron rode 2nd, Shane 3rd and Cam 4.
The same order as below, after the firs 3/4 of a lap...
Team Pursuit Melbourne World Cup
Team Pursuit Melbourne World Cup
The ride went well, and we rode to a personal best for all 4 of us, 4 minutes and 4 seconds, top qualifier with 4 teams to go. Great Britain went out extremely hard but blew up, they still managed to ride to a 4.02. Australia, the reigning World Champs rode 4.00 while Russia surprised a few and rode themselves into the Gold/Silver ride with 4.01. We were up against Great Britain in the ride for Bronze.
We knew we would have to step up if we wanted to beat GB, and I knew I had plenty more in the tank for the final... We hit out harder than in the qualifying but knew it would come down to the last 4laps. The Brits went out super hard and had over 2 seconds advantage on us with 6 laps to go! We rode consistently as they blew up, the gap was coming down... Cam dropped with 1km to go, and Gatey opened the throttle and pulled 2 huge laps to finish the ride. We missed out by less than 2tenths of a second...Was unreal to look up at the scoreboard and see 4.01.602, with GB riding 4.01.456. Unfortunately we didn't get the Bronze, but we were all stoked with our time. Australia had a super impressive ride, 3.56... Next goal for me, ride under 4minutes.
Team Pursuit Melbourne World Cup
From Melbourne the whole team flew to
Invercargill for a
Pre-Cali training camp, the next world cup in Colombia this week. On Tuesday 7
th December was the Elite Madison National Champs, and I was again riding with Aaron Gate. The local paper lined us up as "
Firm Favourites" (click on the link). The field was strong, with most of the NZ squad riders there. We knew we had to watch Shane and Marc Ryan, Sam
Bewley and Jesse Sergent, Wes
Gough and Cam
Karwowski. The plan was to get the early sprints then follow the others when they tried to take laps.
We started well, winning the first sprint. Following the 2nd sprint, I straight away pushed the pace and I slipped off the front of the field. My legs were feeling good, so we decided to hit the bunch hard and it worked. We strung out the bunch and it was in one's and two's all around the ILT Velodrome. It took just over 20laps but we took a lap on the field... Solo...
Catching some riders just before I caught the bunch
We took the lap early, we still had 100laps of the race to go, a lot could happen... A number of the other teams tried to attack us, but the way we were both riding, it seemed nothing was getting away from us tonight. We were in the box seat and all we had to do was follow and defend, which we did well! It was a fast race, 40km in 44mins, and we came out on top, the only team to lap the field, and we scored the most points! It was our first Elite National title for both Aaron and myself, it felt good!
2010/11 Elite Madison National Champs
An article in the
Southland Times the following day
"click here".
The next 2 nights was "The Festival of Speed". It was a full Omnium format, with 6 race's over 2 days. I posted 2 Personal Best times, in the 'Flying Lap' and '3km Individual Pursuit', my form was good. I won the flying lap, got 11th in the Scratch race, won the Elimination, got 2nd in the Individual Pursuit, 3rd in the Points Race and then won the Kilo. After the 6 events I finished in 3rd, with the Scratch race really letting me down. Aaron Gate got 1st, Marc Ryan 2nd. Some images from the racing below....
Thats all from me now. At the moment I've got two weeks off the bike, living it up, enjoying the summer and company of my mates. Next stop, Melbourne for the Bay Crits.
Cheers for reading
Myron
