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

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....

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