Christmas, a wedding and NYE - 2011 here I come

My short break over Christmas was a much needed and loved experience. I miss my family so much and I was determined to make it a family affair by not leaving home for the whole of the 6 days (which I mostly achieved!).

Christmas evening I spent at my dads in my home town of Bowral where we had dinner at my family friends the Hill's. Rod, Debbie, Dave and Sally are great supporters of mine and I always love coming home at Christmas to spend some time with them and my dad.

My dad bought my sister and I I-pads! I was pretty stoked with that! It will be very handy for traveling! I will no longer have to travel with books or DVD's - thanks Dad! I also got to meet my dads neighbour Milly who looks after my dads place when he travels to watch me race, it was a pleasure to meet Milly who is a lovely lady.

Christmas day was spent with my mum and step father along with my grandparents Sheila and Terry. My little sister Mackenzie was very excited and got very spoilt! My sister and her boyfriend Blake spent Christmas night in Abbey's new tent and I was very happy when I woke up at 4am and it was pouring with rain! Whilst my brother and I are both cyclists we didn't go out on one road ride together for the whole of the 6days, thankfully for me as he is a road machine and he would have absolutely smashed me! I did a little extra riding on the road this week as I was unable to get to the gym or track and I found it very refreshing to be out on the country roads in the beautiful sunshine for a change. I came home with a very nice tan line!

Our Christmas tree with all of Santa's deliveries - and a very happy Mackenzie!

My sister Abbey with our two dogs Coco and Domino in her new tent

On my last night in Sydney my manager Andrew Taylor got tickets for my parents and I to attend the Sydney comedy show. I had never been to a comedy show before and it was a fantastic experience! We saw about 7 different comedians all of which at some stage had me laughing very hard! It was defintley an experience I would love to have again! Sydney was in stunning form as usual with preparations for New Years Eve being undertaken. The city was alien like with very little people around – all on holiday I assmue and the Opera house was a great place to hold the show. My parents and I had dinner in Rose Bay at the Watsons hotel, watching the sun set over the harbour! It was divine!

My mum, Karen, and I in Sydney

Sunset over the city

The next day I was off home before getting up early on New Years Eve day to drive to Horsham for Michelle and Jason's wedding. Jason is a member of Team Jayco AIS with me and has been a great friend and team mate to me for the past three years, Michelle also has become a close friend of mine and I was pretty stoked to be joining them to celebrate their special day. The weather in Horsham was hot and windy at about 42degrees! The wedding was held in a beautiful church in town whilst the reception was held on a stunning goat farm a little out of town. The team and I had an amazing New Years Eve with Shell and Jason and I wish both of them a long and happy marriage!

Left to right - Emily Rosemond, Joel Leonard, Daniel Ellis, Scott Sunderland, Anna Meares, the beautiful bride Michelle Niblett, Jason Niblett, Me, Berthy May, Shane Perkins and Alex Bird.

Shane Perkins, his stolen hat (it was Annas!) and me!

Anna and I

The following day I was up early to make the long drive back to Adelaide to begin 2011's campaign! I am glad to be home now and already am back into the swing of things. Next up for me is the Australian Championships in Sydney, followed possibly by the Manchester World Cup. Happy New Years Eve everyone and I wish you all a happy and great 2011...until next time take care everyone!

Cycling Australia Awards, a holiday and the Melbourne Cup on Wheels!

The night after the World Cup finished the annual Cycling Australia awards were held. I always look forward to this night as its a great opportunity to get dressed up and celebrate Australia’s best. I was nominated for Female Track Cyclist of the year, in which Anna won – again a very worthy recipient! Cameron Meyer took out the major award in the Sir Hubert Opperman award – he beat some respectable riders including Anna who won it the previous year. A great achievement for Cameron at such a young age and shows that his future as one of Australia’s greatest riders is looking pretty bright.

Left to right - Cameron Meyer, Me, Sophie Kocass, Matt Glaetzer, Scott Law, Peter Lewis, Scott Sunderland

Anna Meares and myself! Anna's dress is a limited edition, stunning!

The sprint group - Anna, Matt, Peter, Alex, Berthy, Daniel, Me, Shane, Jason, Scott, Gary

I was also lucky enough to continue letting my hair down for the preceding week in Melbourne, having a small holiday. It was such a nice break for me to be 'normal' for a few days and train when I wanted to and do lots of fun things. I stayed up late, slept in and ate a lot (too much!) of good food! I had my first experience in a casino (in which I lost!), watched a movie at the I-max theatre, went shopping and basically just chilled out! It was great!

The end of the week was topped off with some more racing at the Victorian Keirin Championships which I won against some of Australia's up and coming like Adele Sylvester and Imogen Jelbart I also rode some races I wouldn’t normally ride in the Women's Melbourne Cup on wheels which is a handicap – I also won this holding off arguably the best female athlete in cycling currently in Marianne Vos from the Netherlands who is a World Champion in three different cycling disciplines. It was an honour to race against her but as punishment for me winning the handicap she blew me away in the scratch race by breaking away and I was unable to chase her back down! I finished 4^th. I had the most fun I have had for a very long time at this race and I am very keen to get out to do some more domestic races like that in the future just so I can remember why I got involved in this sport – for the fun carnivals like that! The Australian Madison Championships were also on this night and Cameron Meyer and Jack Bobridge showed the rest of the teams how its done by taking something like 5laps! A great effort by the boys and a fantastic race to watch.

Me in the handicap - not quite hurting yet!

The Keirin Final

I was sad to leave Melbourne and what was a great holiday, but had to get back to reality and start my last stages of preparation back in Adelaide for the World Championships. Next up I go home for a small break for Christmas before heading back to Adelaide for my team mates wedding in country Victoria for New Years Eve. Until then take care everyone!

Melbourne World Cup - Keirin

The last day of the World Cup saw the Keirin event. Typically I haven’t had much of a real focus on the Keirin, but lately it has been my better individual event and today solidified that thought. To show how cut throat the competition was there were six heats and only one rider went through to the second round! This is amazing achievement for women's sprint and overall the quality of riders for the women's sprint across all events was World Championships worthy.

I executed a mostly OK heat, but made one small error which cost me the win. I came second to up and coming rider Kristina Vogel from Germany who is fast becoming a real favourite as a medal winning rider in London, and I will be keeping my on her. So I had to go to the repecharge (as I always seem to do!). The thing for me with the Keirin is that I tend to get better as the day goes on and the rep always seems to put my legs in a good place. I won my rep, holding off another up and comer of Monique Sullivan from Canada. I was happy to be through to the second round but I was also starting to get very tired and silently dreaded the fact that I had to come back to the track that evening and warm up again!

In the evening I took a more laid back approach to my warm up as I knew my energy levels were at a low. My draw for the second round literally was worthy of a World Championships final and I knew that I had to position myself well to have even an opportunity to make it into the final. I was able to do that and executed a very good race to finish second again to Kristina Vogel, with the first three going though to the final. I was starting to get pretty pumped, as racing a final on home turf is a pretty exciting thing! I desperately wanted a gold medal – a bit of glory of my own.

The final again was a tightly contested match up with both Anna and myself along with the two French girls Sandie Clair and Clara Sanchez. My plan was pretty simple. To get either Anna or Kristina's wheel as I believed the both of them had the best form and I knew at that stage of the meet that I wouldn't have the legs to come around or lead out. Luckily for me I drew second position with Anna on first and off the start line I was able to snag Anna's wheel – perfect!

Ready to ride the final! Come on!

I laid off Anna and protected her wheel as best I could and then as Clara Sanchez made her move I covered it whilst Anna picked up the pace. With the bends so wide in Melbourne if you didn’t get over the top before the bend you were pretty much a goner, Clara ran out of legs – however still managed amazingly to hold on for third whilst Anna and I finished first and second. Anna's third gold medal at this meet and the same result for her in two years in Melbourne and my second individual medal at this level. I was pretty happy with myself to pull through the mental battle I was having with my legs and also stoked to get a medal.

YAY! A silver medal! Left to right - Me, Anna and Clara Sanchez

With the World Cup over I finished on a high but with the knowledge that there is much work and learning still to be done. Anna has made a big leap forward and I am going to have to pick up my game to make sure I take a step with her going forward to London.

Onwards and upwards! Bring on the next race! : )

Signing some gloves for Josiah Ng, my 5Bling glove sponsor! Thanks Jojo and Kim for you're amazing support and fantastic products!

Melbourne World Cup - Sprint

Oddly for me today began with qualifying and both Anna and I were seeded a lot lower than what we normally would be at a World Cup in 7^th and 8^th off respectively! I rode a brilliant time of 11.309 (my fastest time at this stage of the year in my career to date) and I was pleasantly surprised and very pleased as I was a little concerned where I was at after the Oceania Championships the previous week. Anna then came out as the next rider however and absolutely blitzed me and the rest of the field in an amazing time of 10.985. This is a huge benchmark for Anna and I was very happy for her as a friend and team mate, it has been a long time coming for her and I hope that I can soon follow in her footsteps in that respect.

Me winding up for the Sprint Qualifying - 11.309

However the day didn’t go as well as I had hoped for, I eventually finished in 8^th place in the qualifying meaning that my first round would be with the 9^th rider – the closest match up in the seeding. I stuffed up my ride, a combination of nerves coupled with a mistake and I my World Cup sprint quest was over. I was devastated, last year I finished 4^th and to be knocked out in the first round was awful. I was beaten by Bela-Russian Olga Panarina. I managed to remain fairly optimistic as I went into the B-finals and I needed to use the opportunity to get some more experience at this level and make up for my poor mistake in the first round.

In the first B-Final match up I met Emily Rosemond and managed to execute my plan perfectly – which I needed to do against Olga (typical!). I defeated Emily and progressed onto the B semi Final. In the Semi final I met a great rival of mine in Willy Kanis from the Netherlands. Again I made a stupid mistake and was punished again and lost easily to Willy. Again to make up for my poor mistake I met Clara Sanchez in the B – final for 11^th and 12^th position. I beat Clara executing a better race plan to take 11^th place. It was a real wake up for me to realise that I not only have a lot of work to do in this area but that the competition for the Olympics is already hotting up!

Anna went on to the the Sprint, defeating Olympic Champion Victoria Pendleton – quite convincingly to I may add. Again a great achievement for Anna and much deserved.

Despite being dispapointed that I didn't get to ride the finals in the evening I was able to sit in the stands with my mum Karen, Grandma Sheila and my manager Andrew and his son. This was my managers first experience at a track event and I think he loved it - luckily! Tomorrow is the Keirin and I am looking forward to seeing what I can do!

Melbourne World Cup - Team Sprint

Day one of the Melbourne World Cup kicked off for me with the Team Sprint. Looking forward to riding first wheel for the first time in two years and wearing the rainbow jersey, I was very excited. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to ride with Anna as we were riding with different teams but I teamed up with fellow Aussie Emily Rosemond to represent our new team Jayco AIS.

I rode a great first lap time of 19.2, only 2tenths off the pace of the better starters there, which I was happy with considering I am not a starter. Unfortunately though Emily and I finished up in 6^th position in qualifying meaning I missed out on my first ever team sprint final. Whilst it was a bit disappointing not to ride the final in front of the home crowd it was a great opportunity for Emily and I.

Me with my coach Gary West in the new Team Jayco AIS colours

The formidable Chinese team took out the win in an outstanding time - they are shaping up to be our biggest rivals!

The focus in the lead in to the World Cup on the first wheel training has helped me irrevocably as a lot of my training for it was on gears I wouldn’t usually use to allow Emily an easier run onto my wheel and to help me to deliver her at a higher speed, the training will help me to get onto Anna's wheel with some degree of comfort (its not that easy getting on an 18.6 wheel!) and sequentially help me to maintain a higher speed for longer in the last lap. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do in the next few months with this training under my belt.

Tomorrow is the Sprint and with my good form in the Team Sprint it will be interesting to see what I can in the qualifying - wish me luck!