Today saw the conclusion of the Sydney Para Cycling World Cup, with time trials for all divisions. Australia had a successful day with many appearances on the podium.
The time trial course was based around the Homebush Bay precinct that was home to the 2000 Olympic Games, even down to a lap around the outside of one of the main stadiums on the bumpy 'pave' or paving as we would call it here in Oz. It was quite technical with many corners, changes of terrain and road surface.
Brandie and Kerry weren't quite able to maintain yesterday's form in the time trial, but still finished a creditable 5th, only 3 seconds off 4th place and a mere 30 seconds off the silver medal. Considering that they were more than 4 minutes off the pace at last year's world championships in this event, their performance today is testament to how much difference six months of good solid training can make.
It was an interesting scheduling exercise that saw the tandems, who had the longest road races of any division yesterday afternoon, first up in the time trials today. This is unusual in two ways. Normally the TT is before the road race, and usually there is a day in between. Still, it was the same conditions for all the tandems, so not much point in complaining!
After the tandems ripped up the course, Sue and Jing headed out within two minutes of each other. Sue finished with another gold medal and a very good average speed in excess of 37k/h in spite of all the corners and hills on the course. Jing keeps getting stronger and stronger and again finished second to the American world champion, so nothing to be ashamed of there.
There won't be a lot to report for the Canberra Connection for a few weeks, with Jing, Brandie and Kerry taking a well earned season's end break, and Sue heading off to Europe mid May to scare off her Worlds opposition!
Friday 6 May 2011
Thursday 5 May 2011
More Bling
It's been a good couple of days racing for the Canberra Connection.
On Wednesday, Jing finished with a silver medal in the women's C2 road race - her first international bling, but hopefully not her last.
Richo gained some more valuable experience in how to race this very different creature that is a hand cycle. The big difference is that in a racing chair the weight is all over the wheels but on a hand cycle, the weight is more to the middle, so cornering is a very different experience.
Today, Sue and Alex started their C4 race with the C5 women and stayed with them for a couple of laps before settling into a comfortable rhythm that saw them eventually lap the South African competitor in their category and secure the Gold (Sue) and Silver (Alex) for Australia. OK, so Alex isn't from Canberra, but she's definitely part of this story.
Brandie and Kerry rode a blinder in their women's tandem event, competing against several world champions. They stayed well in the bunch for 7 of the 9 laps of the Eastern Creek circuit, which incorporated not only the main racing circuit but the drag race circuit as well. In lap 7 they weathered two withering attacks from two world champion teams, only to be dislodged by the third attack in a very short space of time. They continued strongly to finish in 4th place, only 2 minutes down on the winners.
And since we're talking Australian success, mention should be made of the spectacular 1-2 result in the men's tandem race. Our tandem pairings of Bryce Lyndores/Sean Finning and Kieran Modra/Scott McPhee were involved in a successful breakaway with the American tandem in the latter stages of the race. Unfortunately for the Americans, they punctured with three laps to go, leaving our boys to fight it out for the gold medal. Not surprisingly, the more sprint oriented Lindores/Finning tandem took the honours, with Kieran and Scott delighted to collect their own special piece of silver bling.
The time trials are on tomorrow, so more opportunities for World Cup medals and Paralympic points. Stay tuned for more results...
On Wednesday, Jing finished with a silver medal in the women's C2 road race - her first international bling, but hopefully not her last.
Richo gained some more valuable experience in how to race this very different creature that is a hand cycle. The big difference is that in a racing chair the weight is all over the wheels but on a hand cycle, the weight is more to the middle, so cornering is a very different experience.
Today, Sue and Alex started their C4 race with the C5 women and stayed with them for a couple of laps before settling into a comfortable rhythm that saw them eventually lap the South African competitor in their category and secure the Gold (Sue) and Silver (Alex) for Australia. OK, so Alex isn't from Canberra, but she's definitely part of this story.
Brandie and Kerry rode a blinder in their women's tandem event, competing against several world champions. They stayed well in the bunch for 7 of the 9 laps of the Eastern Creek circuit, which incorporated not only the main racing circuit but the drag race circuit as well. In lap 7 they weathered two withering attacks from two world champion teams, only to be dislodged by the third attack in a very short space of time. They continued strongly to finish in 4th place, only 2 minutes down on the winners.
And since we're talking Australian success, mention should be made of the spectacular 1-2 result in the men's tandem race. Our tandem pairings of Bryce Lyndores/Sean Finning and Kieran Modra/Scott McPhee were involved in a successful breakaway with the American tandem in the latter stages of the race. Unfortunately for the Americans, they punctured with three laps to go, leaving our boys to fight it out for the gold medal. Not surprisingly, the more sprint oriented Lindores/Finning tandem took the honours, with Kieran and Scott delighted to collect their own special piece of silver bling.
The time trials are on tomorrow, so more opportunities for World Cup medals and Paralympic points. Stay tuned for more results...
Tuesday 3 May 2011
And the winner is... Sydeney!
Para action descends on not only Sydney this weekend, but in the heart of 2000 Olympics territory at Homebush Bay.
The first UCI Para Road World Cup for 2011 is being held over the next three days at Eastern Creek Raceway in western Sydney (road races) and around the Homebush Bay precinct (time trials).
There's a complete listing of, well, everything, at http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI2/layout.asp?MenuId=MTU4ODg&LangId=1, including start lists, course maps and profiles - just in case you want to make a last minute dash to Sydney for a bit of spectating.
There's also a very informative media release from Cycling Australia on who's competing and who is in the Australian team, or not, as the case may be! See http://www.cycling.org.au/?Page=42271.
The Canberra crew will all be competing, Sue, Brandie and Kerry as part of the Australian team and Jing and Richo as 'privateers' as we'd call them in motor sport!
Brandie and Kerry will probably find the competition the toughest, with a strong field of tandems entered, including a few world champions. Oh well, if you're going to be the best, you have to beat the best! Having narrowly missed out on the automatic qualifying speed to get them to the World Road Championships last month at the National and Oceania Championships, the girls will be keen to impress the selectors one more time.
With her place for Road Worlds looking pretty secure on the basis of last year's Worlds results, Sue will be using the World Cup as a solid hitout before heading off to Europe for some more international racing later this month.
Richo will be hoping all the training he's been doing in the new position (hand cycle versus racing chair) will see his results much closer to the big boys. If you think changing from a chair to a hand cycle would be easy - it's still using your arms for propulsion after all - think about how you'd feel if you had to change from walking forwards to walking sideways everywhere. Yep, the sensation is apparently that different and Richo's triceps were not happy with him for a while in the early days!
I will try to be a diligent blogger and post results as they come to hand, so hopefully you can stay tuned over the next couple of days and be well informed.
The first UCI Para Road World Cup for 2011 is being held over the next three days at Eastern Creek Raceway in western Sydney (road races) and around the Homebush Bay precinct (time trials).
There's a complete listing of, well, everything, at http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI2/layout.asp?MenuId=MTU4ODg&LangId=1, including start lists, course maps and profiles - just in case you want to make a last minute dash to Sydney for a bit of spectating.
There's also a very informative media release from Cycling Australia on who's competing and who is in the Australian team, or not, as the case may be! See http://www.cycling.org.au/?Page=42271.
The Canberra crew will all be competing, Sue, Brandie and Kerry as part of the Australian team and Jing and Richo as 'privateers' as we'd call them in motor sport!
Brandie and Kerry will probably find the competition the toughest, with a strong field of tandems entered, including a few world champions. Oh well, if you're going to be the best, you have to beat the best! Having narrowly missed out on the automatic qualifying speed to get them to the World Road Championships last month at the National and Oceania Championships, the girls will be keen to impress the selectors one more time.
With her place for Road Worlds looking pretty secure on the basis of last year's Worlds results, Sue will be using the World Cup as a solid hitout before heading off to Europe for some more international racing later this month.
Richo will be hoping all the training he's been doing in the new position (hand cycle versus racing chair) will see his results much closer to the big boys. If you think changing from a chair to a hand cycle would be easy - it's still using your arms for propulsion after all - think about how you'd feel if you had to change from walking forwards to walking sideways everywhere. Yep, the sensation is apparently that different and Richo's triceps were not happy with him for a while in the early days!
I will try to be a diligent blogger and post results as they come to hand, so hopefully you can stay tuned over the next couple of days and be well informed.
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