Track Nationals have been run and won and what a week it was in Radelaide!
Here's a day-by-day wrap of the ACT track team's adventure to the SuperDrome.
Racing commenced on Australia Day, and while most good Australians were out celebrating with beers and BBQs, we were sweating it out on the boards. Day 1 saw the first medal to our small team with Catherine "Goat" Culvoner taking silver in the elite women's 500m TT, and posting a 1.5 sec PB! This went some way to making up for the disappointment of the sprinters (Nathan Hart, Danny Ellis and Alex Bird) being disqualified from the team sprint and missing out on riding for the bronze medal. Hot tip, if you see ASADA coming for Catherine, remind her to not have any more to drink! It was a late night with doping control waiting for her samples to be suitably concentrated!!
Day 2 was all about the individual pursuit for the elite women and sprint qualifying for the men. And the PBs continued. Beck Wiasak knocked almost 4 seconds of her IP and just missing out on the bronze ride off, and Alex "Birdman" Bird in the flying 200m. Day 2 was also the day for blistering times by the SA men's team pursuit team and Annette Edmondson.
Session 1 of day 3 saw the girls, Beck Wiasak, Allison Rice and Ailie McDonald, ride themselves into the gold-silver ride off in the team pursuit. Given that the best the girls were expected to do was a possible ride off for bronze, this was extremely exciting (if you don't believe me, ask to see my SMS stream from the session!). Danny and Alex continued to progress through the sprint rounds and we were teased with the possibility of it being Danny v Alex in the gold-silver ride off!
Day 3 session 2 and the television coverage commenced. The girls went out in the TP ride off, knowing that they were going to be caught by the WA girls, but with the challenge to prolong the race until the 2km mark. They got close to reaching this challenge, but fell one lap short! Full credit to the WA girls, I am pretty sure that pursuiting is what they do for fun on the SpeedDome and team's pursuit training is their idea of a fun Saturday night!
Catherine also continued her impressive performance at this year's nats, making it through to a quarter final match up with Anna Meares. Unfortunately, Catherine didn't make it to the ride for gold-silver, and had to settle for a bronze ride off, and I think the full program may have taken it out of her and she finished 4th.
For my money, the performance of the week came in session 2 day 3 with Alex getting the better of a very in form Matt Glaetzer and then going one better and beating Shane Perkins in 2 rounds. You have never heard such a small team make so much noise! If you haven't seen the footage, head over to Cycling Central and check it out!
Tom Clarke was also in action on Day 3 and after winning his U19 kierin heat, rode his way into a bronze medal in the final! Nice work from a fairly new rider to the track!
And as if that wasn't enough, we still had to get through the women's point score. Without a doubt this was the toughest points race I have ever ridden and I know a number of the other girls said the same! The decisive move came with about 40 laps to go with Beck W getting away with Sarah Kent and Annette Edmondson to successfully take the lap. And in doing so, picked herself up a bronze medal! As a team member, there is nothing as rewarding as seeing that happen and knowing you played a small part in the result.
Final day and final session and think we were all happy to see the end of week approaching! TV coverage was continuing as well, which means there are highlights available over on Cycling Central. And thanks to that TV coverage the event order was changed so that people at home could watch a madison and try an understand what was going on- put your hand up if you figured it out!!
The elite women's scratch race was in the middle of the session and as a team we had a loose plan for the last 10 laps of the race. And from all accounts it looked like we might have pulled it off, until Beck and Sorelle came down with 300m to go. Both girls got up after the crash and are largely OK- Beck is missing some skin, has some bruises and I would imagine some splinters. Sorelle has a ruptured tendon/ligament around her shoulder area and last I heard will need surgery. Speedy recovery girls!
Catherine went out and got herself a bronze in the women's kierin behind Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch. When she grows up, Catherine is going to be super speedy!
Apparently the men's points race which rounded the week was excellent viewing, but I was hanging with doping control, discussing possible conflicts of interest due to past employers and current colleagues, whilst waiting for the 4 bottles of water to do their thing!!
So there you have it. A small team coming home with a bag full of medals! Nice work team!
Big thanks to the support staff- Glenn Doney, John Forrest, Brian Simpson, Braham Hart, Darren Clarke, Gina Hart, Helen Clarke and Kristy. The week wouldn't have been as smooth with you.
And a massive thanks to the whole team for making my final trip to an elite national champs as an athlete enjoyable and successful!*
I don't have a whole lot of photos- if you were following me on twitter you would have seen some images from the stands at various points through the week. There are some photos here, and I thought I saw Mark Gunter getting around but I haven't seen any other photos. Video highlights are here.
Here's a day-by-day wrap of the ACT track team's adventure to the SuperDrome.
Racing commenced on Australia Day, and while most good Australians were out celebrating with beers and BBQs, we were sweating it out on the boards. Day 1 saw the first medal to our small team with Catherine "Goat" Culvoner taking silver in the elite women's 500m TT, and posting a 1.5 sec PB! This went some way to making up for the disappointment of the sprinters (Nathan Hart, Danny Ellis and Alex Bird) being disqualified from the team sprint and missing out on riding for the bronze medal. Hot tip, if you see ASADA coming for Catherine, remind her to not have any more to drink! It was a late night with doping control waiting for her samples to be suitably concentrated!!
Day 2 was all about the individual pursuit for the elite women and sprint qualifying for the men. And the PBs continued. Beck Wiasak knocked almost 4 seconds of her IP and just missing out on the bronze ride off, and Alex "Birdman" Bird in the flying 200m. Day 2 was also the day for blistering times by the SA men's team pursuit team and Annette Edmondson.
Session 1 of day 3 saw the girls, Beck Wiasak, Allison Rice and Ailie McDonald, ride themselves into the gold-silver ride off in the team pursuit. Given that the best the girls were expected to do was a possible ride off for bronze, this was extremely exciting (if you don't believe me, ask to see my SMS stream from the session!). Danny and Alex continued to progress through the sprint rounds and we were teased with the possibility of it being Danny v Alex in the gold-silver ride off!
Day 3 session 2 and the television coverage commenced. The girls went out in the TP ride off, knowing that they were going to be caught by the WA girls, but with the challenge to prolong the race until the 2km mark. They got close to reaching this challenge, but fell one lap short! Full credit to the WA girls, I am pretty sure that pursuiting is what they do for fun on the SpeedDome and team's pursuit training is their idea of a fun Saturday night!
Catherine also continued her impressive performance at this year's nats, making it through to a quarter final match up with Anna Meares. Unfortunately, Catherine didn't make it to the ride for gold-silver, and had to settle for a bronze ride off, and I think the full program may have taken it out of her and she finished 4th.
For my money, the performance of the week came in session 2 day 3 with Alex getting the better of a very in form Matt Glaetzer and then going one better and beating Shane Perkins in 2 rounds. You have never heard such a small team make so much noise! If you haven't seen the footage, head over to Cycling Central and check it out!
Tom Clarke was also in action on Day 3 and after winning his U19 kierin heat, rode his way into a bronze medal in the final! Nice work from a fairly new rider to the track!
And as if that wasn't enough, we still had to get through the women's point score. Without a doubt this was the toughest points race I have ever ridden and I know a number of the other girls said the same! The decisive move came with about 40 laps to go with Beck W getting away with Sarah Kent and Annette Edmondson to successfully take the lap. And in doing so, picked herself up a bronze medal! As a team member, there is nothing as rewarding as seeing that happen and knowing you played a small part in the result.
Final day and final session and think we were all happy to see the end of week approaching! TV coverage was continuing as well, which means there are highlights available over on Cycling Central. And thanks to that TV coverage the event order was changed so that people at home could watch a madison and try an understand what was going on- put your hand up if you figured it out!!
The elite women's scratch race was in the middle of the session and as a team we had a loose plan for the last 10 laps of the race. And from all accounts it looked like we might have pulled it off, until Beck and Sorelle came down with 300m to go. Both girls got up after the crash and are largely OK- Beck is missing some skin, has some bruises and I would imagine some splinters. Sorelle has a ruptured tendon/ligament around her shoulder area and last I heard will need surgery. Speedy recovery girls!
Catherine went out and got herself a bronze in the women's kierin behind Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch. When she grows up, Catherine is going to be super speedy!
Apparently the men's points race which rounded the week was excellent viewing, but I was hanging with doping control, discussing possible conflicts of interest due to past employers and current colleagues, whilst waiting for the 4 bottles of water to do their thing!!
So there you have it. A small team coming home with a bag full of medals! Nice work team!
Big thanks to the support staff- Glenn Doney, John Forrest, Brian Simpson, Braham Hart, Darren Clarke, Gina Hart, Helen Clarke and Kristy. The week wouldn't have been as smooth with you.
And a massive thanks to the whole team for making my final trip to an elite national champs as an athlete enjoyable and successful!*
I don't have a whole lot of photos- if you were following me on twitter you would have seen some images from the stands at various points through the week. There are some photos here, and I thought I saw Mark Gunter getting around but I haven't seen any other photos. Video highlights are here.
And just to remind the team of the week we had here is the wolf!!
(Explainer: this along with some other classy tunes, is on costant rotation at the SuperDrome!)
*Yes that means exactly what it says, I am going off to pretend to be a grown up.
