Soph’s Worlds round up

Hi everyone,    

 Its now time to have a bit of a reflection on the season and it made it pretty obvious that I wouldn’t have been able to have had such a successful time with so many great experiences without your support, so I cant thank you all enough!

As you will all know my trip really started when I went overseas in June with a few of the boys from the track squad for some racing and training on east coast of America!

 This first bit of buildup was an invaluable period where I was able to race in some of the elite American national series. I was racing against some of America’s best riders and managed to hold my own relatively, keeping myself in the top 5 for all 6 of the races and squeezing in for a couple of podium places and even a win. After a very quick month we were joined by the rest of the junior track team which included the rest of the girls in the team (as now I was starting to feel like a boy having hung out with them for a month! Turns out they are pretty good company). We spent the rest of the 3week in Kutztown, training on the quiet hilly roads and racing on the velodrome. The next part of the build up was to be spent mostly in Invercargill with a short few sleeps in our own beds to prepare us for it. It’s the most important part of the build up as it is where you fine tune your form and if you’ve done the hard yards already, the training gets shorter (but definitely not easier!). Unfortunately for me I was still feeling a little tired from training and I had to constantly adjust my taper. Race day I didn’t feel my normal self however I was motivated to just forget about how my legs felt and race how I had planned to 6months ago, to get two silvers was an improvement from last year and I would’ve been over the moon with it then, however I couldn’t help but feel like I had some unfinished business,.On the race nights though, I had done all I could & couldnt ask for more.

 This experience only fed the fire for Road worlds where I was pretty determined to make sure I had my best race form. I was forced to forget the time trial as an early decision was needed and I wasn’t sure of form since the track preparation had prevented me from riding my time trial bike. It was a good thing in a way as I only had the road race to focus on and limited time to prepare in a foreign country with lots of other new things to take on board so it wasn’t a bad thing. The training for the next 3weeks was spent (minus one weekend) on the course I would race on. I was out doing hill repeats, motor pacing and sprints along the fast roads so that I was completely at home on the course. I was lucky enough to have some local help after we bumped into the Physio/Soignier for the U19belgian team on the course in our first day, he was really keen and helpful and ended up pointing us in the right direction for a lot of things. His mate ,Johan ,at the local bike shop was even nice enough to motor pace me on his wee scooter during his lunch break! He then locked up his shop on race day so he could come cheer for me.

 It all paid off on the Friday of my race, my legs and head were both good. My attempts to split the race up were to avail as no one else wanted to take a risk, it ended up a bunch sprint falling right into the hands of the defending champ who had struggled up the hills but help from her team mates kept here there and  gave her an impressive leadout to finish. I managed to sprint to 4^th coming up fast on 3^rd. Initially I was annoyed as the race hadn’t played out how I wanted but that’s racing and you can never control what others do. On reflection,I thought 4^th in the world wasn’t too bad and it encouraginly left room for improvement. After that nice ending it sounded about time to put the feet up and watch some epic racing from the worlds best riders.

So it was a whirlwind few months and it doesn’t feel quite right sitting here in Alexandra, studying…but it has to be done and I now get to look forward to a perhaps even more exciting year ahead!

 I will keep you posted on what lies ahead for me, I’m hoping some more foreign lands!

 Thanks again for supporting me right the way around the world! I know I’m pretty lucky to be able to chase this dream!

 Cheers team

 Soph

 P.S. sorry for the novel, I found it hard to keep short! So much to say 

 

 

 

Race Eve

Hey everyone, sorry about the lack of updates from the last few weeks, it’s been a fast, fun and hard few weeks! now ready to rip up the track over the next week

Liam’s races: Team pursuit (wednesday ), points race (saturday)

Sophie’s races: Points Race (thursday) scratch race (friday)

We’ve heard that sky sport 7 are covering the racing but not necessarily live, but    Cycling Southland website will have regular updates and live feed etc so you’ll be able to catch a bit of the action there if your missing out.

Also thanks to Josh Donelly for joining 100club!

The winners of the 100club draw are

Alister Forbes

Mercer Family

thanks guys! and hope you enjoy the prizes..

will keep you posted with the good news!

L&S

Back Down Under

The last week of the USA phase went about as fast as all the M&M cookies in the girls house went… 3,2,1 gone and didnt even get any?..The monday-tuesday-wednesday were 3 days of legburn with erg,gym, track racing and the last training day in the hot PA sun.. the bumpy 333m track turns into a oven plate in the middle of the day, mixed with the dry breeze it made for some thirst wretching efforts, the gatorade,lollies and ice bath that followed were lights at the end of the tunnel..which often extended from 10-1 finished off with a group spin home from the drome. the real rewards hopefully to come a bit later on..

Thursday was a well earnt rest day , not everyones ears could handle racquel and alyshas high pitched screams that came with the trip to Dorney theme park so a few opted for some slightly Lower HR activities for once and tried their swings and a bit of golfing and managed to wing a ride in an Armish cart plus a bit of go-karting to spice it up. Dorney Park was a heap of fun and not going to lie there were some times when the line was drawn and having two feet on the ground was comforting. we were also lucky enough to have scored some decent time out in the sun and ended up being 5 red-as-cherries bodies that PM..Pop’s ice cream was just about the only thing that could cool us down.

Friday was our last time on the track and thankfully the rain clouds that rolled over chucked it down else where and the track stayed relatively dry, the girls points race being the only thing that was interrupted. It was Kerin Cup night and Tom Beadle was the only NZ JWteam member to race in it, managing to roll 3rd i a classy field after a bit of unwanted close calls and shoves.
saturday and sunday were full of cleaning and packing although a few uptown coffee shop spells were managed aswell, we were pretty occupied just packing up bikes, clearing out and cleaning the appartments before the students turn up. some had never done so much vacuuming and found it was all so taxing that an afternoon kip was needed. Dylan was all wrapped up in his sheets by 3pm with lights out for abit..

Back home to the cold temperatures in Alex now with just photos and some persistant sunburn to remind us of the summer days of Ktown..after a coupke days flying we now have a restfull week in our own beds before we turn the heat down some more and welcome the freezing southerlys of invers we love..Making the most of the next few weeks!

Ktown antics..

Mr Food purchases (local dairy)

ironhill

a potential outfit from the second hand store down the road-The Attic

when it rains..it pours

lunch at King of Prussia mall

the girls apartment

KU fountain-”soul searching”

beaut wig..some characters at the gas station!

just brushed!..sorry racquel

farmers market/bits and bobs

best section..

not so sure..

JG’s birthday cake made by the girls!

pool rooms just down the street fill in some time

ironhill podium

liam warming up the legs before friday night track

the whole crew warming up

 

Back on the track

so we’ve had our first week in Kutztown with all the troops here and we had racing down at the track on friday night.

both boys and girls were put into teams for the racing-where they help each other go for primes and final sprints and split the cash at the end..My team was hamish and tom. We managed to get hamish some points to finish 3rd overall, Tom also collected some primes along the way. Was a good night of racing- the other team managed to put kenny up for the overall omnium win (most points accumulated through all the races over the night).

The girls teams were split up into two teams of 2 and me by myself so I was just riding my own race. alysha and racquel showed some good speed and team work taking he first scratch race sprint. I ended up wining the elimination- tons of practice with that race last year on this track was pretty handy, i manged to get the omnium win at the end of the night aswell so both the mens and womens overall prizes were taken out by kiwis!

on a funner note we went to the 2nd biggest mall in America yesterday and spent some money-ofcourse buying presents for back home..we all then piled in the cars and hit up the outlet mall close by! . after a full on rest day of walking around shops and sitting in a car , we celebrated JG’s (John Green) birthday (the girls had baked a brilliant looking and even better tasting cake the day before for a treat). Kutztown Tavern is just a few steps out the door so we went there and had a lovely dinner!- anything beats cooking for ourselves really..the free ice tea refills are just a bonus

We have another donation to the 100club made by the Mercer family so thanks a heap guys!

we are now up for another week of hard training and looking forward to some more racing on the track!

keep you posted..we’ll be putting up some photos soon!

L&S

Ktown

Arrived in Kutztown after a 7hour drive pretty tired from a hard weeks training and preparing for a crit in 40degree heat scheduled tomorrow night!- Ironhill criterium in downtown West Chester!

Ohio training was hard to say the least, a few easy rides which turned into 2hour rides in the hot sun and some indoor training-in the sauna..but we did meet some interesting characters, got a few good jokes and stories to tell back home!-maybe not mention on the blog..(big thanks to the John and his  family for hosting us, really generous)

Also it was 4th of july while we were there, john set up a sweet bbq and we just hung out by the pool waiting for the fireworks..which didnt happen .Thursday was the bucket day with compu-trainer efforts in the morning followed by a worlds bunch ride (taken litterally by one person..) which ended up being a good 3hour ride, the snow cones john shouted us at the end went down a treat.

We had day in  Kutztown before race day, Ironhill crit was another evening race, the girls race was delayed because of a threatening lightening storm but it only brought a bit of rain unfortunately causing a we crash which I (sophie) came down in ( on the the same corner as my crash last year :/ ) but i was fine so i just took a lap out and then got back in, I made a couple of attacks with one finally sticking and rode away with another rider, was ideal because we were able to pick up all the primes along the way! and in the final lap it was just a sprint between the two of us and i managed to get the edge over kate to take the win, so i was really happy with my first win in the states!-keen for more

check out the wee write up in cyclingnews http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/usa-crits-iron-hill-twilight-criterium-2012/results

Iron hill was rather interesting for me (Liam). The pace was on right from the start, with 50 laps all up this was probably one of the hardest crits ive done. After a not so great start i managed to get to the front after 15mins and try to hold my position as time passed i found myself towards the end of the pack i moved up with 10laps to go and managed to finish mid bunch .Well done to Piet Bulling (under 23 National team) for getting 5th after a problem with his bike. Overall it was a good hard race and i gained some valuable experience from it.

Its great to have the whole enduro squad here, boys and girls, should be a fun three weeks will keep you posted!

L&S

 

more photos

hosts sweet house!

the bike shop/johns garage.uuuge!

the pool.tasted like salt but not salt water pool?..only once

another awesome sunset at the pad in Ohio

the burger tee! lycra aswell..

wall mart.what should we get?.. 

Computrainer races 

Kutztown Farmers market