Now that Track Worlds are over, this blog will revert to a Canberra based Para Cycling updating tool with an occasional inclusion from further afield no doubt!
So what do all aspiring Paralympic cyclists do after a long hot summer working towards World Championship medals? Sleep in every morning for a week? Take a well earned break on a tropical island? Sit back and catch up on a month's worth of TV, DVDs or emails?
No, in fact none of these. Well not the Canberra contingent anyway. Because of the timing of various championships, the focus turns immediately to road racing. In addition to getting back into their full time day jobs, everyone is straight into training for the Australian Para Road Championships in Queensland on 9-10 April, then the following weekend, the Oceania Para Road Championships. These championships are very important because they're an essential stepping stone to a place at the Road World Championships a few short months away in Denmark (in September).
The timing is so tight, with only three weeks to find their "road legs", Brandie, Kerry and Sue all raced last weekend in local club competition. I can't say there was immediate success but the outing certainly helped remove the last vestiges of jet lag and provided a wake up call to the bodies that yes, in fact track season is over and now you no longer have to keep pedalling all the time you're moving like you do on a fixed wheel track bike!
At the Road Championships next month, the track trio will be joined by Jing, who is C2 above knee amputee and Richo, who is transferring from wheelchair racing to hand cycling, so the ACT will be well represented.
Stay tuned for more progress reports and results from various events. Can't guarantee as regular blogging as the last three weeks, but hopefully regular enough to sustain interest!
Sunday 20 March 2011
Wednesday 16 March 2011
Post Script..
For those who haven't read the CA press release, Australia finished 3rd on the medal tally, beaten only by Great Britain and China. For further detail go to http://www.cycling.org.au/
Sunday 13 March 2011
All over bar the shouting
The 2010 World Track Para Cycling Championships are over. Yes, that's right these championships were officially the 2010 edition after they were postponed from late last year.
Montichiari must be sad to see us go because the weather has turned very un-Spring-like, with howling winds and lashing rain! It made packing all the bikes and gear into the truck a lovely soggy job, but that's how it goes.
But enough talk of the weather, and on to what you've really tuned in for - the final wrap up of competition.
This afternoon we had the Women's C4 500m Time Trial. Sue was our great hope in this event and didn't fail to please, with a gutsy ride on a near empty fuel tank to finish with a silver medal, beaten for gold by the Chinese world record holder in this event. Neither rode anywhere near their personal best times, indicative of how the weather impacts on performance.
The new kid on the block, Alex, finished sixth, but managed to go very close to, or possibly better, her PB, showing a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in the future.
Jayme rode her 500m TT solo again, with no other entries in her category. In a fine performance as Australia's last appearance on the track, she was only 1.5 seconds off the world record. Hopefully she'll have some opposition in the future so that her achievements can be formally recognised.
Here are the results for each team member, in no particular order other than ladies first, of course:
Felicity and Stephanie (tandem) - Gold medal 1000m TT, 11th place 3km pursuit
Alex (C4) - Bronze medal 3km pursuit, 6th place 500m TT
Jayme (C1) - 1st 3km pursuit, 1st 500m TT
Brandie and Kerry (tandem) - 8th 1000m TT, 6th 3km pursuit
Sue (C4) - Gold medal 3km pursuit, Silver medal 500m TT, 8th team sprint
Bryce and Sean (tandem) - 10th 1000m TT, Bronze medal 4km pursuit
Kieran and Scott (tandem) - 9th 1000m TT, Gold medal and world record 4km pursuit
Michael (C5) - Gold medal and world record 4km pursuit, 12th 1000m TT, 8th team sprint
Andrew (C2) - Silver medal and (briefly) world record 1km TT, 8th team sprint
So that's it from me for this trip. We leave Montichiari at 7am tomorrow for the long haul home. Thanks for checking in and I hope everyone enjoyed the reports as much as I enjoyed putting them together.
I'll leave you with a few final photos from the last day of competition and a big thank you to Hotel Faro for the excellent internet access that's made this blog possible.
Ciao, ciao.
Montichiari must be sad to see us go because the weather has turned very un-Spring-like, with howling winds and lashing rain! It made packing all the bikes and gear into the truck a lovely soggy job, but that's how it goes.
But enough talk of the weather, and on to what you've really tuned in for - the final wrap up of competition.
This afternoon we had the Women's C4 500m Time Trial. Sue was our great hope in this event and didn't fail to please, with a gutsy ride on a near empty fuel tank to finish with a silver medal, beaten for gold by the Chinese world record holder in this event. Neither rode anywhere near their personal best times, indicative of how the weather impacts on performance.
The new kid on the block, Alex, finished sixth, but managed to go very close to, or possibly better, her PB, showing a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in the future.
Jayme rode her 500m TT solo again, with no other entries in her category. In a fine performance as Australia's last appearance on the track, she was only 1.5 seconds off the world record. Hopefully she'll have some opposition in the future so that her achievements can be formally recognised.
Here are the results for each team member, in no particular order other than ladies first, of course:
Felicity and Stephanie (tandem) - Gold medal 1000m TT, 11th place 3km pursuit
Alex (C4) - Bronze medal 3km pursuit, 6th place 500m TT
Jayme (C1) - 1st 3km pursuit, 1st 500m TT
Brandie and Kerry (tandem) - 8th 1000m TT, 6th 3km pursuit
Sue (C4) - Gold medal 3km pursuit, Silver medal 500m TT, 8th team sprint
Bryce and Sean (tandem) - 10th 1000m TT, Bronze medal 4km pursuit
Kieran and Scott (tandem) - 9th 1000m TT, Gold medal and world record 4km pursuit
Michael (C5) - Gold medal and world record 4km pursuit, 12th 1000m TT, 8th team sprint
Andrew (C2) - Silver medal and (briefly) world record 1km TT, 8th team sprint
So that's it from me for this trip. We leave Montichiari at 7am tomorrow for the long haul home. Thanks for checking in and I hope everyone enjoyed the reports as much as I enjoyed putting them together.
I'll leave you with a few final photos from the last day of competition and a big thank you to Hotel Faro for the excellent internet access that's made this blog possible.
Ciao, ciao.
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| Guess where we've been... |
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| Australia starting the C1-5 combined Team Sprint |
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| Our final medal of the Championships - Sue Powell, silver, Women's C4 500m Time Trial |
The beginning of the end
The end of the championships that is. This morning we had Kieran and Scott competing in the Men's Tandem Sprint, Sue, Andrew and Michael in the Team Sprint and both women's tandems competing in the Pursuit.
Unfortunately, this is the first post where I can't report on amazing successes, which is not say that everyone didn't ride very well.
Kieran and Scott looked good for a spot in the quarter finals of the sprint until the big hitters from the UK and a couple of other countries came out to play. For world record holders in the pursuit, they did well to qualify 9th in the sprint. Only the top eight qualifiers go through so they missed out, but by finishing top 10, they accrued more UCI points for Australia.
In the women's tandem pursuit our sprinters, Steph and Flick went out easy and built through to the end of the 3km journey - no mean feat when they normally only go 1km and this was their first attempt. They ended up qualifying 11th out of 15, so no embarrassment there.
Brandie and Kerry rode well to the schedule for the first 2km but the cold in the velodrome (it's been raining since yesterday evening) got the better of them in the last kilometre. They finished with a 3.44, which is not quite as good as their PB set in Sydney a month ago, but still makes them the 6th fastest women's tandem pairing in the world over the distance and again, more valuable UCI points in the bank. Not too shabby for their first World Championships.
Our team sprint team qualified 8th and as far as I can ascertain at the moment, was one of only two teams that included a woman on the roster. This didn't see them reach the ride offs but was a good warm up for Sue for the TT which comes up a bit later this afternoon.
While we didn't win any medals this morning, everyone rode well and we accrued more valuable points, so it was still a successful session.
Check in later for a final update on the competition. Our remaining events are the women's C4 500m time trial featuring our "get out of jail at the last minute" legend Alex, and our pursuit world champion Sue. Jayme will also be riding her C1 500m time trial this afternoon.
Unfortunately, this is the first post where I can't report on amazing successes, which is not say that everyone didn't ride very well.
Kieran and Scott looked good for a spot in the quarter finals of the sprint until the big hitters from the UK and a couple of other countries came out to play. For world record holders in the pursuit, they did well to qualify 9th in the sprint. Only the top eight qualifiers go through so they missed out, but by finishing top 10, they accrued more UCI points for Australia.
In the women's tandem pursuit our sprinters, Steph and Flick went out easy and built through to the end of the 3km journey - no mean feat when they normally only go 1km and this was their first attempt. They ended up qualifying 11th out of 15, so no embarrassment there.
Brandie and Kerry rode well to the schedule for the first 2km but the cold in the velodrome (it's been raining since yesterday evening) got the better of them in the last kilometre. They finished with a 3.44, which is not quite as good as their PB set in Sydney a month ago, but still makes them the 6th fastest women's tandem pairing in the world over the distance and again, more valuable UCI points in the bank. Not too shabby for their first World Championships.
Our team sprint team qualified 8th and as far as I can ascertain at the moment, was one of only two teams that included a woman on the roster. This didn't see them reach the ride offs but was a good warm up for Sue for the TT which comes up a bit later this afternoon.
While we didn't win any medals this morning, everyone rode well and we accrued more valuable points, so it was still a successful session.
Check in later for a final update on the competition. Our remaining events are the women's C4 500m time trial featuring our "get out of jail at the last minute" legend Alex, and our pursuit world champion Sue. Jayme will also be riding her C1 500m time trial this afternoon.
Saturday 12 March 2011
Winning never gets boring!
Sue Powell - World Champion. Kieran Modra and Scott McPhee - World Champions and world record holders. Jayme Paris - winner. Alex Green - bronze medallist. Bryce Lindores and Sean Finning - bronze medallists. Those are the latest results from the rest of today's racing.
And of course, here's the photographic evidence.
I think the highlight of today's racing was Alex's bronze medal in the women's C4 pursuit. Alex hasn't yet developed a blindingly fast first lap and the Chinese had obviously done their homework after the qualifying ride - Alex was racing a Chinese woman who had qualified 2 seconds slower than her for the bronze. It just so happens that this Chinese rider holds the world record for the 500m time trial. The Chinese strategy turned out to be to get their rider to essentially ride a 500m time trial and catch Alex within the first two laps, which would have been the end of the race, bronze to China, 4th to Alex. In the strangest pursuit I've ever seen, the Chinese rider made it to literally within about a metre and a half of Alex's back wheel as Alex gave her all to get up to race pace. At almost exactly two laps, the Chinese rider blew up, Alex kept going and then caught the Chinese rider at about lap 7, securing her first World Championships medal in the process.
Now I did promise to introduce Peter Day, the Head Coach of the team, but he's so busy orchestrating all of the successes I've been reporting on that I can't get him to stand still for long enough to take a clear photo, so I'll keep trying, but tomorrow's another busy day, so I'm not holding my breath!
It's funny the things you notice at this type of event. Like all the cars, trucks, vans etc in the parking lot with an amazing array of sponsors' logos all over them, but the following really took my fancy so I had to share -
I found it quite entertaining to have a VW van emblazoned with advertising for Skoda! And yes, for all you purists out there, they are part of the same motor group, but it's still pretty funny. Or maybe I got up too early this morning!
Now, for anyone who hasn't been keeping count, here's a summary of the results to date.
Gold - 4
World Records - 3 (even though Andrew's only lasted a moment!)
Silver - 1
Bronze - 2
First place - 1 (because Jayme doesn't have any to race against, she can't be awarded a medal, but she's still a winner to us)
PBs - 5
Tomorrow is the final day of competition and we have the women's tandem pursuit, the mixed team sprint, the men's tandem sprint and the 500m time trials for Sue, Alex and Jayme.
And of course, here's the photographic evidence.
That's Sue and Alex after receiving their medals...
...and the two men's tandem teams after receiving theirs.
I think the highlight of today's racing was Alex's bronze medal in the women's C4 pursuit. Alex hasn't yet developed a blindingly fast first lap and the Chinese had obviously done their homework after the qualifying ride - Alex was racing a Chinese woman who had qualified 2 seconds slower than her for the bronze. It just so happens that this Chinese rider holds the world record for the 500m time trial. The Chinese strategy turned out to be to get their rider to essentially ride a 500m time trial and catch Alex within the first two laps, which would have been the end of the race, bronze to China, 4th to Alex. In the strangest pursuit I've ever seen, the Chinese rider made it to literally within about a metre and a half of Alex's back wheel as Alex gave her all to get up to race pace. At almost exactly two laps, the Chinese rider blew up, Alex kept going and then caught the Chinese rider at about lap 7, securing her first World Championships medal in the process.
Now I did promise to introduce Peter Day, the Head Coach of the team, but he's so busy orchestrating all of the successes I've been reporting on that I can't get him to stand still for long enough to take a clear photo, so I'll keep trying, but tomorrow's another busy day, so I'm not holding my breath!
It's funny the things you notice at this type of event. Like all the cars, trucks, vans etc in the parking lot with an amazing array of sponsors' logos all over them, but the following really took my fancy so I had to share -
Now, for anyone who hasn't been keeping count, here's a summary of the results to date.
Gold - 4
World Records - 3 (even though Andrew's only lasted a moment!)
Silver - 1
Bronze - 2
First place - 1 (because Jayme doesn't have any to race against, she can't be awarded a medal, but she's still a winner to us)
PBs - 5
Tomorrow is the final day of competition and we have the women's tandem pursuit, the mixed team sprint, the men's tandem sprint and the 500m time trials for Sue, Alex and Jayme.
The results just keep coming
World records, personal bests, podium finishes - this Australian team has it all!
In the remainder of this morning's session, Kieran and Scott broke Kieran's longstanding tandem pursuit world record to qualify fastest for the final this evening.
Bryce and Sean produced a five second personal best time to qualify third and therefore go into the bronze medal ride off tonight. Unfortunately for Bryce and Sean, they had to overtake the other team on the track during their qualifying ride and but for that, may well have gone the .2 second quicker that they needed to make the gold medal ride off. Such is the nature of competition.
Andrew produced yet another PB to clock a time .3 of a second under the Men's C2 1km TT world record, only to have a Chinese rider come out and beat the old mark by a full 2 secs and drop Andrew into the silver medal position. You know the competition's tough when beating the world record only gets you a silver medal!
That's it for now but stay tuned - at this rate we're going to have excess baggage on the way home just for the medals!
In the remainder of this morning's session, Kieran and Scott broke Kieran's longstanding tandem pursuit world record to qualify fastest for the final this evening.
Bryce and Sean produced a five second personal best time to qualify third and therefore go into the bronze medal ride off tonight. Unfortunately for Bryce and Sean, they had to overtake the other team on the track during their qualifying ride and but for that, may well have gone the .2 second quicker that they needed to make the gold medal ride off. Such is the nature of competition.
Andrew produced yet another PB to clock a time .3 of a second under the Men's C2 1km TT world record, only to have a Chinese rider come out and beat the old mark by a full 2 secs and drop Andrew into the silver medal position. You know the competition's tough when beating the world record only gets you a silver medal!
That's it for now but stay tuned - at this rate we're going to have excess baggage on the way home just for the medals!
Qualifying comfortably
This morning saw Sue and Alex in action in the Women's C4 Pursuit qualifying round.
The conditions were a little cooler than last night and certainly not as conducive to riding quick times.
Sue had the benefit of riding in the last round, so we were able to select a schedule to deliver a time good enough to qualify but to also leave enough juice in the tank to bring it home tonight. In the end, Sue qualified fastest in 4.15.781.
Alex wasn't the quickest off the mark in her round but gradually regained the advantage and ended up with a creditable 4.24.784, which sees her in the bronze medal ride off this evening, missing the gold medal ride off against Sue by less than 2 seconds. For her first World Championships that's still a fantastic outcome.
There won't be many photos of the action for the next couple of days because the coaching (naturally) takes precedence, but in case you thought I'd let the human interest side of things slip, think again.
Here's Grandpa Kieran showing all the newbies how to relax before their events. Yes, that's tatting that he's gainfully employed with!
And true to form, notice the thongs (or flip flops) poking out the bottom of the towel!
The other bikes on this morning are the two men's tandems in their pursuit qualifying. Later today we also have Jayme riding her C1 pursuit and Michael (C5) and Andrew (C2) in their 1km time trials. I will update on their progress later.
The conditions were a little cooler than last night and certainly not as conducive to riding quick times.
Sue had the benefit of riding in the last round, so we were able to select a schedule to deliver a time good enough to qualify but to also leave enough juice in the tank to bring it home tonight. In the end, Sue qualified fastest in 4.15.781.
Alex wasn't the quickest off the mark in her round but gradually regained the advantage and ended up with a creditable 4.24.784, which sees her in the bronze medal ride off this evening, missing the gold medal ride off against Sue by less than 2 seconds. For her first World Championships that's still a fantastic outcome.
There won't be many photos of the action for the next couple of days because the coaching (naturally) takes precedence, but in case you thought I'd let the human interest side of things slip, think again.
Here's Grandpa Kieran showing all the newbies how to relax before their events. Yes, that's tatting that he's gainfully employed with!
The other bikes on this morning are the two men's tandems in their pursuit qualifying. Later today we also have Jayme riding her C1 pursuit and Michael (C5) and Andrew (C2) in their 1km time trials. I will update on their progress later.
Friday 11 March 2011
Stop Press - World Champion number 2
Word just in from the track - Michael Gallagher is the World C5 Men's Pursuit Champion!
After a steady start that saw his opponent gain some false hope that he might have a chance at the Gold, Michael powered home in the second half, riding right on schedule to win by a comfortable margin of around 3 seconds.
Gold medal number 2 in the bag. Go the Aussies!
After a steady start that saw his opponent gain some false hope that he might have a chance at the Gold, Michael powered home in the second half, riding right on schedule to win by a comfortable margin of around 3 seconds.
Gold medal number 2 in the bag. Go the Aussies!
A great day for PBs
What a way to start the championships! Five bikes on the track, one world championship (so far), one world record and five personal best times.
Brandie and Kerry opened the tandems competition as first bike off in the women's tandem 1km time trial. They rode a personal best time by just over a second and held first place until our other pairing of Flick and Steph took to the track. Another PB saw their names take over top spot. So for a while the scoreboard looked like this
Unfortunately Brandie and Kerry's PB wasn't enough to keep them in that position when the big hitters came out to play, but none of the later riders managed to better Fick and Steph's time so we have our first World Champions for this meet. And just to prove it, here they are with the bling.
Brandie and Kerry ended up 8th, which is significant because the top 10 placings earn UCI points.
Earlier in the day Michael Gallagher scorched around the track in the qualifying round of the C5 Men's Pursuit and took around half a second off the world record. He is still at the track for the final as I write this post so I'll have to update you on his final result next time. In the meantime, this is how he looked right after his world record ride fresh as a daisy!
And no, he hasn't defected to Argentina, they're just in the pits next to us!
The men's tandems also both produced PBs and finished 9th (Kieran and Scott) and 10th (Bryce and Sean), delivering more UCI points for Australia. The UCI points are significant because they contribute to determining places at next year's Paralympic Games, so every top 10 finish helps.
Early start tomorrow so it's off to bed now, but I'll leave you with a photo of Scott and Kieran just after they finished their time trial, mainly because Scott told me the other day that he's never seen a photo of he and Kieran on the tandem. This one's for you Scott.
Brandie and Kerry opened the tandems competition as first bike off in the women's tandem 1km time trial. They rode a personal best time by just over a second and held first place until our other pairing of Flick and Steph took to the track. Another PB saw their names take over top spot. So for a while the scoreboard looked like this
Earlier in the day Michael Gallagher scorched around the track in the qualifying round of the C5 Men's Pursuit and took around half a second off the world record. He is still at the track for the final as I write this post so I'll have to update you on his final result next time. In the meantime, this is how he looked right after his world record ride fresh as a daisy!
The men's tandems also both produced PBs and finished 9th (Kieran and Scott) and 10th (Bryce and Sean), delivering more UCI points for Australia. The UCI points are significant because they contribute to determining places at next year's Paralympic Games, so every top 10 finish helps.
Early start tomorrow so it's off to bed now, but I'll leave you with a photo of Scott and Kieran just after they finished their time trial, mainly because Scott told me the other day that he's never seen a photo of he and Kieran on the tandem. This one's for you Scott.
The team behind the team
Considering that my day job involves, in part, assisting sports in the development of coaches and officials, I thought it would be very remiss of me to leave the team officials out of the introductions. Here is the team that deals with all the behind the scenes stuff to keep things running smoothly so that the athletes can do what they do best.
Murray Lydeamore, or Muz as he's affectionately known by anyone who's ever spent more than five minutes with him, is our team manager. While he maintains a reasonably low profile, he's always busy sorting out one issue or another to make sure all is as it should be.
Paul Martens is one of the coaches and looks after the tandem boys. He also runs a pretty good local tour and can always be relied on to unload and load the truck for ergo training sessions. That may be why he sometimes ends up like this -
I mentioned Peter Steggall in an earlier post. He's our physiotherapist and the one who attends to keeping all the athletes in tip top shape physically. This is him on his way to breakfast. He's probably already run a couple of laps of town and carried out three or four massages just to get warmed up for the day, such is his dedication to the job!
Our mechanic is John Keegan, who insists that his image is copyrighted, so he can't appear on the blog. I think he's just more comfortable working behind the scenes, keeping the bikes running so smoothly that I think they could win the races all by themselves.
Most of you already know me and I did appear in an earlier cameo, but I'm Sian and I'm also one of the coaches. On this team I'm responsible for the Canberra connection, Sue, Kerry and Brandie. Here's me doing my best impression of being a tourist.
The final member of the support staff is the Head Coach, who I'll introduce in a later blog.
Tune in tomorrow morning, by which time I should have blogged some results from the first day's competition. Just a reminder, today we have Michael Gallagher in the C5 pursuit and all four tandems in the 1km time trial.
Murray Lydeamore, or Muz as he's affectionately known by anyone who's ever spent more than five minutes with him, is our team manager. While he maintains a reasonably low profile, he's always busy sorting out one issue or another to make sure all is as it should be.
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| Most of the time, though, he's busy plotting the opposition's downfall! |
This is Tom Skulander. He's another of the coaches and apart from helping out with everything from chauffeuring the troops around Italy, and to essential shops to stock up on essential equipment, he is responsible for Alex Green and Jayme Paris at these championships.
I mentioned Peter Steggall in an earlier post. He's our physiotherapist and the one who attends to keeping all the athletes in tip top shape physically. This is him on his way to breakfast. He's probably already run a couple of laps of town and carried out three or four massages just to get warmed up for the day, such is his dedication to the job!
Most of you already know me and I did appear in an earlier cameo, but I'm Sian and I'm also one of the coaches. On this team I'm responsible for the Canberra connection, Sue, Kerry and Brandie. Here's me doing my best impression of being a tourist.
Tune in tomorrow morning, by which time I should have blogged some results from the first day's competition. Just a reminder, today we have Michael Gallagher in the C5 pursuit and all four tandems in the 1km time trial.
Thursday 10 March 2011
How do Australians warm up?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one deserves a post all on its own and very little commentary is needed.
Kieran doesn't see much need for excess clothing and for almost the entire trip, he's been in shorts and T shirts, even when the temperatures have been in the low single digits and everyone else is in layers of polar fleeces, but thongs on the ergo? It doesn't get much more Australian than that!
Competition Eve and all in the house was quiet
Well, perhaps in your house, but certainly not here, where its been a hive of activity as everyone puts the finishing touches on their preparation.
This entry will round out the team introductions so without further ado...
This is final tandem pairing of Brandie O'Connor (R) and Kerry Knowler (L). Someone thought the author should make at least one appearance in the blog so that's yours truly putting in a cameo in between the two girls.
Brandie and Kerry are the other two rowing converts in the team and just can't help but refer to their training efforts as 'pieces'. Kerry's no stranger to top level competition, having represented Australia at the 2000 Olympic Games - in rowing, of course. This is Brandie's second time at a World Championship, having represented Australia at last year's para road Championships. She's worked hard in training since then and is hopeful that the extra fitness and experience she now has will lead to some good results here in Montichiari.
And finally, here are our two single bike men, Andrew Panazzolo (L) and Michael Gallagher (R).
Andrew, or Fabio as he's known here in downtown Italy (can you guess why?), is our C2 men's representative. With his Italian heritage he doubles as local food critic and team interpreter when the going gets tough for the non-Italian speakers.
Michael competes in the C5 division. He's an old hand at this International competition business and is known for his meticulous preparation, not to mention a swag of World Championship and Paralympic medals.
That's it for the introductions, so hopefully you'll be a little better acquainted with everyone as you follow their achievements in the next few days and, who knows, maybe even beyond that as their para cycling careers progress.
Tomorrow sees Michael open proceedings with the C5 pursuit qualification round. Later in the day, all four tandems will be in action in their 1000m time trials. For those unfamiliar with cycling, that's four laps of the track for the tandems and 16 laps for Michael. The finals of the men's pursuits are also on during the evening session, so hopefully my next post will bring you some good results to brag to the rest of the world about!
Until then...
This entry will round out the team introductions so without further ado...
This is final tandem pairing of Brandie O'Connor (R) and Kerry Knowler (L). Someone thought the author should make at least one appearance in the blog so that's yours truly putting in a cameo in between the two girls.
And finally, here are our two single bike men, Andrew Panazzolo (L) and Michael Gallagher (R).
Michael competes in the C5 division. He's an old hand at this International competition business and is known for his meticulous preparation, not to mention a swag of World Championship and Paralympic medals.
That's it for the introductions, so hopefully you'll be a little better acquainted with everyone as you follow their achievements in the next few days and, who knows, maybe even beyond that as their para cycling careers progress.
Tomorrow sees Michael open proceedings with the C5 pursuit qualification round. Later in the day, all four tandems will be in action in their 1000m time trials. For those unfamiliar with cycling, that's four laps of the track for the tandems and 16 laps for Michael. The finals of the men's pursuits are also on during the evening session, so hopefully my next post will bring you some good results to brag to the rest of the world about!
Until then...
Wednesday 9 March 2011
The final countdown
Competition begins on Friday, so only two more sleeps before we get down to the serious stuff. Touch wood, everyone in the team is feeling good, due in no small part to all the hard work being done by Peter, our physio or more broadly, our soigneur - that means the person who is all things to all people in a cycling team. A very Euro term and very appropriate, given our current location!
Some members of the team ventured onto the velodrome again today for another frantic shared session. It really is quite hair raising when you have three or four different countries with little common language and riders with varying levels of stability all racing around the track focussed solely on their own program. Kerry discovered track skills she didn't want to know she had yesterday, steering the tandem around people from other countries who showed little regard for anyone else's safety! Fortunately everyone survived the session in one piece.
Here's Tom putting his life on the line to inspect Alex's pedal mid session. Or maybe he was just paying homage?
And so, on to introducing some more members of the team.
Sue Powell (L) and Alex Green (R), are our two C4 women.
This is Alex's first visit to Worlds and she's another convert from rowing (we have three in the team that I'm aware of). She maintains that her entire purpose in rowing, cycling or any form of exercise is so that she can justify eating more, but I think she might actually like the competition just a little bit.
Sue comes from an elite hockey background. When a back injury prevented her from continuing in that sport, cycling was lucky to pick her up, as her results to date show - one world championship, a couple of world records and a swag of other medals make her one of the most credentialled athletes in the team.
Jayme Paris (centre below) is still one of the youngest in the team but has been competing long enough to have quite a lengthy list of achievements to her credit in the C1 division. Along with cycling, she loves her dogs, lizards and Welsh fiance, not necessarily in that order!
I've noted the divisions that people compete in. If you're not familiar with the classifications I'd suggest a visit to the UCI website for more information however in a nutshell the classifications go from C5 - least disabled, down to C1, then the B divisions which are the vision impaired athletes who compete on the tandems. There are other divisions, but not on the track so we won't go into them here.
Tune in for the next blog to meet the remainder of the team and I might even manage a preview of our prospects at these Championships if I can get the coaching brains trust together to give me some bold predictions.
Some members of the team ventured onto the velodrome again today for another frantic shared session. It really is quite hair raising when you have three or four different countries with little common language and riders with varying levels of stability all racing around the track focussed solely on their own program. Kerry discovered track skills she didn't want to know she had yesterday, steering the tandem around people from other countries who showed little regard for anyone else's safety! Fortunately everyone survived the session in one piece.
Here's Tom putting his life on the line to inspect Alex's pedal mid session. Or maybe he was just paying homage?
And so, on to introducing some more members of the team.
Sue Powell (L) and Alex Green (R), are our two C4 women.
Sue comes from an elite hockey background. When a back injury prevented her from continuing in that sport, cycling was lucky to pick her up, as her results to date show - one world championship, a couple of world records and a swag of other medals make her one of the most credentialled athletes in the team.
Jayme Paris (centre below) is still one of the youngest in the team but has been competing long enough to have quite a lengthy list of achievements to her credit in the C1 division. Along with cycling, she loves her dogs, lizards and Welsh fiance, not necessarily in that order!
Tune in for the next blog to meet the remainder of the team and I might even manage a preview of our prospects at these Championships if I can get the coaching brains trust together to give me some bold predictions.
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Roads that don't exist
Today Brandie and I went out for a short ride in the countryside around Montichiari. I studied the local maps, checked on google maps and wrote up directions for a ride of the appropriate length at this stage of preparation for the Championships. Well, let me tell you, don't trust local maps! Half of the roads that I'd selected for us to ride on simply didn't exist or were little more than goat tracks. Fortunately we didn't go any further than a few kilometres away from town in any direction so there were no real dramas but it was quite a funny experience.
Anyway, rather than telling you how nice the weather is (beautiful sunny day if a little chilly!) or that we had another successful day at the track in spite of there being three or four teams on there at once all trying to do their own thing, I decided over the next few days to introduce you to the team. We'll start with the tandems.
Here's Kieran Modra (L) and Scott McPhee (R). At 19, Scott's the
youngster of the team, but is very capable in his role as pilot of the "Modra Express". He was plucked out of a blossoming road career to return to the track on the tandem and so far its proven to be a successful combination.
Kieran is a Paralympic veteran, having represented Australia at four Games in cycling, one in swimming and one in track and field. He's been trying to retire from cycling for the last 10 years, but the lure of competition somehow keeps him going. He's the cameraman of the team, taking his video camera on the bike with him whenever possible to record the experience.
Our other men's tandem team is Bryce Lindores (L) and Sean Finning (R).
Sean is an accomplished cyclist in his own right and at last month's Australian Track Championships stepped off the front of the tandem and into the elite men's points race, where he caused a lot of anxious moments for many of his fresher opponents.
Bryce is the Karaoke King of the team and can always be relied upon for a bit of musical entertainment with his stirring renditions of 80s favourites. He wants to drive the bus around for us, but we're not sure how he'd go driving on the 'wrong' side of the road!
And finally tonight, one of the women's tandems, piloted by Stephanie Morton (L) with Felicity Johnson (R) in the engine room.
Steph is also an elite rider in her spare time away from the tandem and placed second in the 2011 Australian 500m Time Trial Championship. She's very pleased to have Scott in the team or she'd be the youngest!
Felicity, or "Flick" as she's known to her friends, is the quiet achiever of the team. She might not look like a sprinter and I'm not sure that the nickname has anything to do with how she rides the bike, but make no mistake about her contribution to the tandem's speed as the team's stoker. Look out for this pair when the results come in for the women's tandem 1000m time trial because they're motoring!
That's all the introductions I can manage this time around, but keep watching as I help you get to know the rest of the Aussie team for 2011.
Anyway, rather than telling you how nice the weather is (beautiful sunny day if a little chilly!) or that we had another successful day at the track in spite of there being three or four teams on there at once all trying to do their own thing, I decided over the next few days to introduce you to the team. We'll start with the tandems.
Here's Kieran Modra (L) and Scott McPhee (R). At 19, Scott's the
Kieran is a Paralympic veteran, having represented Australia at four Games in cycling, one in swimming and one in track and field. He's been trying to retire from cycling for the last 10 years, but the lure of competition somehow keeps him going. He's the cameraman of the team, taking his video camera on the bike with him whenever possible to record the experience.
Our other men's tandem team is Bryce Lindores (L) and Sean Finning (R).
Bryce is the Karaoke King of the team and can always be relied upon for a bit of musical entertainment with his stirring renditions of 80s favourites. He wants to drive the bus around for us, but we're not sure how he'd go driving on the 'wrong' side of the road!
And finally tonight, one of the women's tandems, piloted by Stephanie Morton (L) with Felicity Johnson (R) in the engine room.
Felicity, or "Flick" as she's known to her friends, is the quiet achiever of the team. She might not look like a sprinter and I'm not sure that the nickname has anything to do with how she rides the bike, but make no mistake about her contribution to the tandem's speed as the team's stoker. Look out for this pair when the results come in for the women's tandem 1000m time trial because they're motoring!
That's all the introductions I can manage this time around, but keep watching as I help you get to know the rest of the Aussie team for 2011.
Monday 7 March 2011
A very short Spring
Around dinner time last night the wind blew up and blew Winter back into Montichiari! From sunny, perfect cycling conditions yesterday, we woke this morning to freezing windy overcast stay-indoors conditions. Our track session was in the late morning and it only managed to get to around 16 degrees indoors so everything was a bit slower to get moving. The ergos came in very handy for extra warm ups and recovery post session.
Here's Alex (nearest camera) warming up, while Steph and Felicity do a whole session on the ergos, having suffered a major mechanical on the tandem. Steph's so powerful she literally ripped the pedal out of the crank! A lot of time and effort has gone into rectifying the problem but things are looking up now. In the meantime they're only able to train on the ergos.
This afternoon there was a brief opportunity for a bit of sightseeing so half the group headed out for a guided tour of the local area courtesy Paul, the boys' tandem coach, while the rest of us explored the area surrounding our hotel. This is Lago di Garda, with just enough snow in the background to prove it's really there. (photo courtesy Steph)
Those of us closer to home investigated Castello Bonoris, the 12th century castle overlooking the town. Unfortunately it's only open on the weekends and since next weekend is right in the middle of the Championships, it's unlikely we'll get to explore. Still, its pretty impressive from the outside.
Tomorrow marks three days til the start of competition and the day we have to start sharing our track sessions with other countries. It will be interesting with 28 bikes including tandems and single bikes all going around together but I'm sure we'll all cope! Ciao for now...
This afternoon there was a brief opportunity for a bit of sightseeing so half the group headed out for a guided tour of the local area courtesy Paul, the boys' tandem coach, while the rest of us explored the area surrounding our hotel. This is Lago di Garda, with just enough snow in the background to prove it's really there. (photo courtesy Steph)
Sunday 6 March 2011
First day on the boards
This morning Brandie and I went for a fabulous ride to the town of Lonato. The road was flat and straight and the views of the snow on the nearby mountains did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm. In Brandie's case that may have been because she couldn't actually see the snow but more likely that it was a beautiful clear, sunny day and perfect cycling conditions. Oh yeah, and we didn't actually have to go as far as the snow!
This afternoon was the team's first experience of the Velodromo Montichiari. Although very similar in shape to Adelaide, it's very different in appearance with no logos on the banking and very little adornment anywhere else. Given it's a reasonably new velodrome, I expect the sponsors names haven't quite made it into paint just yet.
And how about that ceiling structure. It's quite spectacular to stand underneath it.
We had a good training session with the athletes undertaking a variety of sessions dictated by level of residual jet lag, from just getting the legs moving to a range of more serious efforts. The track seems quite fast to the point that there were even a couple of personal best times recorded, but I couldn't tell you who did them because we have to keep the opposition guessing! We have been joined by one of Cycling Australia's best mechanics, John Keegan and thanks to him, all the bikes are running smoothly, gear changes are undertaken with a minimum of fuss and my hands aren't anywhere near as greasy as last week. Thank you John!
With only four more days to the start of competition, the countdown is really on and our crew is looking really good. More later...
This afternoon was the team's first experience of the Velodromo Montichiari. Although very similar in shape to Adelaide, it's very different in appearance with no logos on the banking and very little adornment anywhere else. Given it's a reasonably new velodrome, I expect the sponsors names haven't quite made it into paint just yet.
We had a good training session with the athletes undertaking a variety of sessions dictated by level of residual jet lag, from just getting the legs moving to a range of more serious efforts. The track seems quite fast to the point that there were even a couple of personal best times recorded, but I couldn't tell you who did them because we have to keep the opposition guessing! We have been joined by one of Cycling Australia's best mechanics, John Keegan and thanks to him, all the bikes are running smoothly, gear changes are undertaken with a minimum of fuss and my hands aren't anywhere near as greasy as last week. Thank you John!
With only four more days to the start of competition, the countdown is really on and our crew is looking really good. More later...
Saturday 5 March 2011
Change in the weather
Buona sera. That's Italian for good evening, because that's what it is now for us. We set off from Adelaide midday on Friday feeling happy to be on the move -
Needless ro say, we weren't this bright when we arrived in Milan some 25 hours later but we did still manage to recover all bikes and baggage! And the only thing that went missing from my bag when the zip popped and spilled my belongings out on the baggage carousel was a small tube of hand cream, so not a bad outcome really!
A short (relatively) drive in sultry 5 degree temperatures saw us arrive in Montichiari and checked into our hotel - Hotel Faro, then it was off to the velodrome to put the bikes together once again and make sure the road bikes, generously lent to us by the AIS program, all fitted our team. Everyone looks fabulous on their borrowed Bianchis and Kez even managed some acrobatics to prove she wasn't jetlagged too much.
This is the velodrome from the outside - very space age!
Elite athletes don't get much rest so this afternoon it was time for the girls to ride out any residual travel fatigue and try out their 'new' bikes.
We're all reaching shutdown point now. I don't think it will be long after dinner before everyone speeds off to the land of nod, ready to get back into training tomorrow and looking forward to the championships starting next Friday.
Stay tuned...
A short (relatively) drive in sultry 5 degree temperatures saw us arrive in Montichiari and checked into our hotel - Hotel Faro, then it was off to the velodrome to put the bikes together once again and make sure the road bikes, generously lent to us by the AIS program, all fitted our team. Everyone looks fabulous on their borrowed Bianchis and Kez even managed some acrobatics to prove she wasn't jetlagged too much.
Elite athletes don't get much rest so this afternoon it was time for the girls to ride out any residual travel fatigue and try out their 'new' bikes.
We're all reaching shutdown point now. I don't think it will be long after dinner before everyone speeds off to the land of nod, ready to get back into training tomorrow and looking forward to the championships starting next Friday.
Stay tuned...
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Finishing on a good note
Yesterday Scody was announced as a major sponsor for the Australian Para Cycling Team for next year's Paralympic Games in London. This is fantastic news for the program, so everyone turned out for their last track training session in full Scody kit to show their appreciation. Here are our very own "Scody Girls" relaxing between training efforts -
Let me introduce the team L-R, Felicity (tandem stoker), Steph (tandem pilot), Sue (C4), Brandie (tandem stoker), Jayme (C1), and Kerry (tandem pilot). Our other female team member Alex couldn't make it for the photo unfortunately, probably other media commitments....
However, it's not all lounging around as the following show:
That's Sue carving up the boards
Today is our last day before we fly out for Italy and it's not all sunshine and roses. Oh no, elite athletes still have to pack their own bikes for the trip so a few hours were spent under the velodrome today rather than on it, fully immersed in bubble wrap and packing tape! Those diagonal boards at the top left of this photo are the banking of the velodrome, for those who might be interested.
However, it's not all lounging around as the following show:
That's Sue carving up the boards and Kerry and Brandie checking out the top of the track
We fly out tomorrow morning, so there may be a lull in posts for a while depending on internet access. Who knows - it's a big small world these days!
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Bruises, bee stings and boo boos
You may think being in a National team training camp before going away to World Championships would be all sunshine and roses, but not necessarily so.
Yesterday we had a couple of low speed tumbles, largely due to limited familiarity with local traffic conditions - fortunately no real harm done and I won't name names because that would just be mean! We also managed a bee giving up its life for the bee cause after getting caught inside a jersey. Yep, a bee sting on the chest smarts for a while!
And to round out the fun and games, there was the athlete who put the wrong gear on her bike by mistake and ended up pedalling way faster at training than any of us anticipated. Some of you will work out who that was if you've been following the blog closely.
Yours truly isn't squeaky clean either - the rest of the management team had great fun at my expense after I underestimated the power of the B & K tandem team and didn't do their back wheel up tight enough resulting in a rather hasty stop to one of their standing start efforts and the 'real' mechanic stepping in to set things right!
All in all, a pretty full couple of days with a bit of variation to the normal routine to give people a few chuckles along the way.
Yesterday we had a couple of low speed tumbles, largely due to limited familiarity with local traffic conditions - fortunately no real harm done and I won't name names because that would just be mean! We also managed a bee giving up its life for the bee cause after getting caught inside a jersey. Yep, a bee sting on the chest smarts for a while!
And to round out the fun and games, there was the athlete who put the wrong gear on her bike by mistake and ended up pedalling way faster at training than any of us anticipated. Some of you will work out who that was if you've been following the blog closely.
Yours truly isn't squeaky clean either - the rest of the management team had great fun at my expense after I underestimated the power of the B & K tandem team and didn't do their back wheel up tight enough resulting in a rather hasty stop to one of their standing start efforts and the 'real' mechanic stepping in to set things right!
All in all, a pretty full couple of days with a bit of variation to the normal routine to give people a few chuckles along the way.
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