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.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
So near and yet so far...
The Australian Para Cycling Road Championships on the Sunshine Coast are done and dusted. Our crew came out of the weekend with some mixed results.
The time trial on Saturday was run in very poor conditions, with pouring rain and gusting wind while the Canberra riders were out on course.
The conditions didn't seem to bother Sue too much. She added yet another Australian Championship to her palmares, edging out the 'now-not-so-new' kid on the block, Alex Green from Sydney. More significantly though, Sue easily made the automatic qualifying speed to meet selection requirements to compete in the World Road Championships in Denmark later this year. Sue's average speed of more than 37.5km/h was well above the required 35.6km/h for her division.
Not so fortunate were Brandie and Kerry on the tandem. While they won the championship convincingly, their average speed in the high 40s for the 24km distance fell agonisingly short of the automatic qualifying speed by around 4/100 sec. The weather was a bit of a factor in this, making braking and cornering that bit more difficult given the length and bulk of the tandem versus a single bike. Not to worry, they have another couple of chances in the Oceania Championships coming up this weekend and the Sydney World Cup in early May.
Jing showed enormous improvement from last year to record a win in her division with an average speed just shy of 30km/h. Unfortunately Jing needed to record 33.18km/h for automatic qualification so still a bit of work to do, but she's definitely headed in the right direction and once she starts time trialling on a time trial specific bike the improvement should be significant. Yes, that's right, this result was posted on her normal road bike, so that puts a bit of perspective on the average speed in my humble opinion, otherwise, why would they have designed time trial specific bikes!
In his first national competition in hand cycling, Richo found out what it's like to play with the big kids. His third place in the time trial in such short time in this form of competition shows that there's a big future for him when he gets a handle on it! (Yeah, I know, poor joke!)
On Sunday the weather gods were a bit kinder, delivering warm sunny conditions for the road races.
All the girls again pulled out wins in their respective divisions, possibly as expected. The highlight was Jing's win in her division, finishing in a time considerably quicker than a competitor (from a different division) who beat her last year when their divisions were combined.
Richo, who I'm told is not particularly suited to long distance racing, gave his triceps a real workout just to finish the road race with another third place to add to his collection.
Well done to all and good luck for the Oceania Championships this weekend. For anyone who wants a bit more information, here's the website -
http://www.cycling.org.au/default.asp?ID=40881&MenuID=Events_and_Results%2F20011%2F0
The time trial on Saturday was run in very poor conditions, with pouring rain and gusting wind while the Canberra riders were out on course.
The conditions didn't seem to bother Sue too much. She added yet another Australian Championship to her palmares, edging out the 'now-not-so-new' kid on the block, Alex Green from Sydney. More significantly though, Sue easily made the automatic qualifying speed to meet selection requirements to compete in the World Road Championships in Denmark later this year. Sue's average speed of more than 37.5km/h was well above the required 35.6km/h for her division.
Not so fortunate were Brandie and Kerry on the tandem. While they won the championship convincingly, their average speed in the high 40s for the 24km distance fell agonisingly short of the automatic qualifying speed by around 4/100 sec. The weather was a bit of a factor in this, making braking and cornering that bit more difficult given the length and bulk of the tandem versus a single bike. Not to worry, they have another couple of chances in the Oceania Championships coming up this weekend and the Sydney World Cup in early May.
Jing showed enormous improvement from last year to record a win in her division with an average speed just shy of 30km/h. Unfortunately Jing needed to record 33.18km/h for automatic qualification so still a bit of work to do, but she's definitely headed in the right direction and once she starts time trialling on a time trial specific bike the improvement should be significant. Yes, that's right, this result was posted on her normal road bike, so that puts a bit of perspective on the average speed in my humble opinion, otherwise, why would they have designed time trial specific bikes!
In his first national competition in hand cycling, Richo found out what it's like to play with the big kids. His third place in the time trial in such short time in this form of competition shows that there's a big future for him when he gets a handle on it! (Yeah, I know, poor joke!)
On Sunday the weather gods were a bit kinder, delivering warm sunny conditions for the road races.
All the girls again pulled out wins in their respective divisions, possibly as expected. The highlight was Jing's win in her division, finishing in a time considerably quicker than a competitor (from a different division) who beat her last year when their divisions were combined.
Richo, who I'm told is not particularly suited to long distance racing, gave his triceps a real workout just to finish the road race with another third place to add to his collection.
Well done to all and good luck for the Oceania Championships this weekend. For anyone who wants a bit more information, here's the website -
http://www.cycling.org.au/default.asp?ID=40881&MenuID=Events_and_Results%2F20011%2F0
Sunday, 20 March 2011
A new chapter
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!
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!
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 |
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