The Final Countdown

I always feel relieved to actually get on the plane for a big overseas trip.  Not because it means you're on your way, but because by that stage, if you haven't done it, it isn't going to get done and there's nothing you can do about it!

Things are moving along nicely for this one though.  Most of the bikes are already packed and most of the clothes are in the bags, although certain members of the team may have to remove several items to make the weight limit....

If you have serious baggage limitations because of the prohibitive cost of excess baggage, you become very good at leaving out anything that isn't essential.  I read an article the other day about a man who travelled right around the world with no baggage at all - he carried his spare bits and pieces in the pockets of his vest.  I don't think I ever want to go that extreme but keeping the bag to less than 10kg is a pretty fair effort!

For those of you who haven't managed to get to the official websites yet, here's the race schedule for the Canberra paras.  If you want more detail, you will have to make the trek a bit further into the internet.

Race Schedule:

Thursday 8 September1000-1200 – Sue Time Trial (actual start time tba)

Friday 9 September 1400-1600 – Jing, Brandie and Kerry Time Trial (actual start time tba)

Saturday 10 September 1600-1800 – Sue Road Race

Sunday 11 September 0800-1015 – Jing Road Race

Sunday 11 September 1330-1615 – Brandie and Kerry Road Race

Bye for now.

The Wagga Effect

Anyone who lives in the ACT or NSW is generally familiar with the "Wagga Effect" - the phenomenon that sees certain regional centres produce inordinate numbers of quality sportsmen and women.  I think Canberra is challenging these regional centres for the lead in producing top athletes and making a disproportionate contribution to Australian teams and international results, in cycling at least.

Canberra has a long history of producing world class cyclists, but I've just looked at all the Canberrans selected for World Championships this year and its quite amazing how many of Australia's best cyclists started their careers in a city with a climate that could hardly be considered optimal for a tough outdoor sport!

This year, in the Road World Championships long teams, we have one out of 14 riders in the U23 men's team - Tom Palmer; 2 out of 17 in the Elite men - Michael Matthews and Rory Sutherland; and three out of 13 in the Elite women's - Chloe Hosking, Jessie Maclean and Vicki Whitelaw.  Then there's the Juniors - one out of nine in Allison Rice; and the Paras - three out of 18 with Sue Powell, Brandie O'Connor and Kerry Knowler (pilot), not to mention Jing Huang competing in the Paras for Chinese Taipei.

For a population of not too much more than 350,000, I think that's a pretty fair effort. Let's hope it converts to some medals finding their way back to Canberra towards the end of September.

Counting Down to Denmark

Having promised to fire the blog up again in preparation for the Para World Road Titles in Denmark, I thought it high time I actually did so.

The Canberra crew leaves next week to arrive in Denmark with enough time to scope the course and see if that 40m elevation on the course - yep, from lowest to highest point on the 15km lap the difference in altitude is just 40m - is going to hurt too much.  Should suit the sprinters - as long as there isn't too much wind to wear them out along the way!

In case anyone isn't across it, the "Canberra crew" comprises Kerry and Brandie on the tandem, Brandie being the visually impaired (VI) stoker (the person on the back, obviously!), and Sue, our current C4 track World Champion and Jing, a newcomer to World Championships and competing in the C2 category.

Brandie, Kerry and Sue are competing for Australia, while Jing will fly the flag for Chinese Taipei. This is the first time that Chinese Taipei has been represented in para cycling, so I'm sure Jing's performances will be closely watched by many in that area of the world.

Now in case anyone is wondering, I've done a bit of research and apart from long summer days and extremely short winter ones, Denmark is mainly famous for Georg Jensen jewellery and Carlsberb beer.  I'm not sure that any of us will able to afford any Georg Jensen and I doubt there'll be too much Carlsberg consumed before the Championships, bit it will something to keep an eye out for in the one day of R&R before everyone flies back to Australia.

If you want to know more about the Championships, go to http://www.paracycling2011.dk/FrontPage/?id=875.  There you'll find information on the course and the area that is hosting the Championships.

Entry lists and other more official information can be found at http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI5/layout.asp?MenuId=MTU3NDI&LangId=1

I probably won't post too much before I get to Denmark, but stay posted and I'll do my best to keep everyone as up to date as possible.

Bye for now...