Collegiate Track Nationals

After a painstaking 14hr car drive back to St. Charles from Colorado Spings I have an opportunity to update you on how the nationals went. Along with 4 other Lindenwood riders, I arrived in Colorado Spings Wednesday afternoon in time to loosen the legs after the trip and test out the track. Thursday morning we had the 3km individual pursuit (for those unfamiliar with track racing it is a race where two riders start on opposites sides of the track and each rider goes as fast as they can for 3km.) I was the third Lindenwood rider to start after 'Diamond Dave' and Chev, both these riders had completed the ride in 3min 55sec so it was up to me to join the 3fifty5 club, and somehow I did it. Don't ask me how we all managed to get exactly the same time! Although this was my first 3km pursuit I was still pretty dissapointed with this relatively slow time.


Thursday afternoon the 1km time trial, or 'kilo' was scheduled. Unfortunately, and as I was told earlier Colorado's weather can be extremely fickle, it started to rain, the saying that "It never rains but it pours" rang true and it didn't ease up until Friday afternoon. This meant the kilo, teams pursuit and points race was all pushed into the Saturday morning session. As my biggest goal for the weekend was the 3km teams pursuit I decided to pull out of the kilo in order to save myself for this event. I should also note this is where one of the biggest lows of the week occured. For those unaware my good friend and Lindenwood teammate, Paddy Kilmurray, has been training his ass off over the last year in preparation for this one event, the kilo, at the very beginning he pulled his foot out of his pedal. This was a devastating blow as this means RACE OVER. As some Aussies might recall Shande Kelly did this at the 1996 Olypic games. Although this is an awful thing to happen I know that he is more focussed then ever to perform in this event next year. Even though he may not yet realise it, I reckon this was a good thing to happen to him as he will be able to draw so much from it.


So Saturday morning it was time for the 3km Teams pursuit, each team is allowed 4 riders and once again must ride as fast as they can. As a team we could not have rode any better and everything went excactly to plan, I was the designated rider to only do a bit over 2km and it was my job to give it everything I had with 1km to go and do a full turn on the front and leave the remaing distance up to the other three boys. We ended up finishing in 3min35sec which was the fastest ride of the day at the time. With one heat to go we were holding onto 2nd postiton but unfortunately we were knocked down to fourth at the end. We were still all very pleased with how we went and we have made it our goal for next year to rock this race and take home the gold.

My next race was a 15km points race heat, with the opportunity to qualify for the points race final later in the evening. This was one of the hardest races I've ever done and was shattered afterwards. I didn't make the final but Owen did and in the following heat Paddy also made it through.


We ended up 5th in the omnium pointscore and this was without any girls riding for us. It has given me an idea of what to expect next year and I can tell you now we will be a force when it comes round.



So after two long but often hilarious bus trips I'm back at uni. As all racing has finished over here until next year I have decided to take 4weeks off the bike and use the time mainly to discover the St. Charles night life and live like a real uni student for a couple of weeks. I will keep you updated on how it pans out. Live the dream

Gateway Cup

After being told I need to re-enter the blogosphere after being absent for a while I thought I should probably update you on my experiences over in the US of A. Last weekend I had the Gateway Cup which was held over 4 days on the Labour Day long weekend in various locations of St. Louis. The first race was a totally new experience for me; not only was it the first big race I have done since being over here, it also started after my usual bedtime. It was a night time crit with 140 starters around Lafayette Square, starting at 10.15pm and with only the four corners with any significant light on them. You can read Chev's humorous blog to find out how he thought the race would pan out. So after the "The Star Spangled Banner" had been played to the riders and the crowd of thousands and me only having a rough idea of what song was being played at the time, the starter fired his gun and we were off....well almost, after i got around a crash that occurred 2 meters into the race, I thought Chev's predictions could come to fruition. The pace was fast but easily manageable, I tried to stay as close to past Australian Road Race Champion and current pro, Henk Vogels as I could as I knew he would be the man to watch. The race went for 60min+5laps and with 5 laps to go I was in the top 10. With 2 to go though I lost a few positions and ended up finishing 27th whih I was very happy with. Let me tell you the last 10min of the race was terrifying, sitting on 50+kmh through pitch black ares, not recommended.

The rest of the races were all pretty fast and although I only finished 2 out of the 4 races (the 2nd day I pulled out intentionally and the last day it was extremely hot and humid and the heat smashed me more than anything.) But I did find some form in my legs...finally which is a good sign for Nationals which start 2 and a half weeks after Gateway Cup.

The weekend just gone the four of us Aussies all travelled to Inianapolis again for a final workout on the track before nationals. I think we came away with a lot more of an idea of the track form we have got and how we will perform at nationals. We leave tomorrow morning for a 8hr drive to Kansas City and then another 6hrs on wednesday to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Competition starts on Thursday so hopefully if I have access to the net I will be able to update you daily on how we are going. Until then, cya