Australian Championships Day Four

Day four like usual is always the Keirin. I like that the Keirin is the last event because it requires not as much mental energy as the sprint, its still a mental battle of course and lining up against Anna as the World Champion amongst the other Australians was going to be a tight battle.

To make it through to the final without having to go through the repecharge I had to finish in the top two and thats all I focussed on! One less ride was on mind! Keirins are very cut throat on the World stage these days with 6heats and only one girl processing through to the send round so I know the pressure that there is to perform well in that first race. I won my heat fairly comfortably to go through to the final and I was surprised at how good my legs felt and knew I had a good shot in the evening to take a win.

The final was much anticipated BUT not before my brother teamed up with Tirian McManus in the Junior Men's Madison. HE WON! I am so proud of Jack and Tirian that words can't really describe it! They rode so well and had to have some serious guts in the last 20laps when they made a few mistakes with their changes. They won by one point over the other NSW team of Nathan Bradshaw and Caleb Ewan. Jack was so happy and as he came over and gave me a big hug he as usual said to me: 'That was the hardest race ever.' I was inspired by Jack and Tirian and really wanted to stand on that top podium with them at the end of the night.

I had a plan in the Keirin and I have to say I executed it with precision. I was really happy with the patience I displayed and the way in which I tackled quite an adverse situation. Anna had the bike and I was in 6th position, not ideal as I wanted Anna only 2 people ahead of me so I could try to out jump her first. As it turned out I found myself about 20m off her coming into bell lap and with her committing early I had a split second thought that I had stuffed it up because I was waiting for her to commit so I could run her down. But as I went down the back straight and realised how quickly I was gaining I had a glimmer of hope that I had this!! Anna won her World Title in the Keirin in 2011 by riding from the front and rightly so because she would have to be the hardest person EVER to come around and as I came up onto her hip and realised that I wasn't going anywhere my heart sunk but I fought on to lose by less than half a wheel. I was pretty devastated but as usual I walked away knowing that I did everything I could, I could not have ridden that race any better and was content knowing that I will be better for every race I ride against Anna.

So I got to stand on a slightly lower tier of the podium next to my brother that night and celebrate his first Australian Championship with him and our parents! It was a great way to end a fantastic Championships and I look forward to next years Australian Titles as always with vigour and anticipation. Perseverance they say is what separates the great from the greater.

Australian Championships Days Two and Three

The sprint as usual was spread over two days for this meet and Day two was the Sprint Qualification and 1/4 finals. In the QF I rode a solid time of 11.219, I really wasn't expecting to ride that fast so I was pleasantly surprised and I slipped into second place behind Anna who ride 11.176.

In the 1/4 finals I met Riki Belder from South Australia who beat Cass and I the previous night in the Team Sprint, so I was for sure not taking her lightly. Riki rode two quite sound tactical races but I was able to overcome her in two races to progress through to the semi finals against new up and comer Ziggy Callan from Victoria.

Ziggy has just transferred over from BMX and she rode an 11.6 in her first sprint QF so she definitely has a lot of talent and is one to watch in the future. I defeated Ziggy in two straight races to set myself up for a chance at grabbing the gold medal against Anna.

Anna always seems to bring the best out of me as I desperately want to beat her and she wants to remain unbeaten! Its always a fantastic match up and a rivalry that is really so great for me and my development. Anna beat me in two straight races and whilst I was happy with my races tactically I was a little disappointed that the races weren't a bit closer. Anna rode really well and she is in great shape leading into the pointy end of this season and she is definitely (if not already!) a force to be reckoned with.

So the sprint was over and one more day to go, the heat was starting to pass and a cool change was heading in for the last day - and welcomed with much appreciation!

Australian Championships 2012 Day One

Day One of the Aussie Champs was the Team Sprint. For the last two year I had been successful with my NSW team mates, in 2009 with Maddie Law (who was a Junior at the time) and 2010 with Cass Kell. This year I was to team up with Cass and after breaking the Australian Championship Record last year we were hoping for another cracker of a year.

Today was ironically and most fitting Australia Day and so Cass and I were definitely out to be Australian Champions on Australia Day!

In our heat we qualified in second behind the South Australian duo of Riki Belder and Anna Meares, my own fellow Team Sprint World Champion partner, and we were only something like .005 slower so we new we were in for a great battle in the final.

In the final the South Aussies pipped us on the line to win by only 2tenths of a second. It was a great result for the South Australians with Riki winning her first Australian Title. It was sad to lose the Team Sprint Title but Cass and I did the best we could and Cass rode really well considering her bike was making all sorts of weird noises!!

Day one wasn't over for me yet though with the 500m Time Trial up in the evening. It was a super hot day and I was starting to feel the effects already that the heat was having on me. I was out to defend my Australian Title for the third year running and I felt confident as I left the gates. Having not ridden a 500 since Worlds two years ago I definitely forgot was I in for and as I got the bike up to speed I thought to myself, damn isn't it nice to follow someone in the first lap! I had quite a slow start but brought it home with a sold time and finished 1st in a near PB of 34.244 which I was quite happy with.

I was happy though that my hardest day was out of the way and was looking forward to seeing what I could do in the rest of the events.

My brother Jack also competed today in the Junior mens Individual Pursuit where he did a PB by 4seconds! He was very happy and also glad to get day one over because he really enjoys the bunch races to come.

AIS Awards and Cycling Australia Awards

Anna and I were very honoured this year to win the AIS team athletes of the year award.  I was very humbled to receive this award considering the depth of the teams and success that other teams from across all Australian AIS sports.  I didn't understand the enormity of this nomination, let alone receiving the award until I got to Canberra and saw the calibre of athletes in the room.

I brought my dad along with me and he was pretty proud of me and looked very nice in his newly bought suit!  Anna's parents also came along and it was one of the first times both our families have been able to meet in circumstances other than at a race and celebrate what we have achieved.

My first attempt as the 'A-Mac' team spokesperson!

Its a bit blurry, Anna and I with my father Grahame.

L-R Anna's mother Marilyn, Anna, Anna's father Tony and me. 

Anna and I with our coach Gary West.

Anna took out the major award and was also inducted into the hall of fame - which was amazing for her!  She should be so proud of what she has done in 2011 and really since she has started riding.  Because she knew she was up for a few awards she got me to speak when we received our award.  Which I wasn't very happy about and now because she says I did a good job I am now team spokesperson!  Thanks Anna!  But seriously I was very proud to speak on behalf of Anna and look forward to hopefully having to do it many more times in the future!  

This is my backstage interview after winning the Team Athlete of the year award with Anna.

Talk about doubling up...the following night was the Cycling Australia Awards.  It felt very strange to be getting dressed up two nights in a row!  I felt very feminine for a change!  This time I brought my mum, Karen, and stepfather Ken along with me and whilst I didn't receive an award at this event, I was grateful to be able to present a category.  I got to meet Daniel Macpherson who was hosting the event and catch up with people I haven't seen for a long time as well as speak to many people who share the same passion as I do with cycling.  Anna again took out a major award as well as Female track athlete of the year - both highly deserved.  I was nominated once more this award, and one year I hope to win it!

I got to spend the rest of the weekend at home where I went and watched my brother Jack at some of the NSW state titles.  He won the Team Sprint with our club St George and he came 4th in the pursuit!  I am very proud of him!  I also got to present some awards and its always nice to go and support and watch these events as it brings back some fond memories of when I first started.

Me with fellow St George CC teammates Brie Dutton and Imogen Hines who won the NSW State Team Sprint Championships (Stars of the future?!  I think so!) 

Me presenting my brother his medal (I also gave him a big kiss on the cheek to embarrass him!) 

Me with the NSW Team Sprint Champions, St George CC riders Jacob Abramovic, Jack (my brother) and Nathan Bradshaw.

Astana World Cup

The path to London just seemed to get a little shorter last month when I travelled to Astana for the first World Cup of the 2011/2012 season.  A long off season was rewarded with some great performances for all of the Aussies and as I sit back home in Adelaide and reflect I can happily say that things are on track.

Day one saw Anna and I don the rainbow jersey for the first time this season in the Team Sprint.  Whilst I was nervous I was pretty happy with how I had recovered from the 50hours of travel, despite an issue with my stomach as a result of something I ate.  I spent the remainder of my time in Astana eating plain rice with soy sauce after that! The heats were pretty hotly contested with over 16teams lining up and some fast times posted, and also unusually a lot of re starts due to teams false starting.  Anna and I rode a great time of 33.0 in the heat to qualify in first which saw us line up against the Ukraine team in the final.

Warming up for the Team Sprint

Gary Sutton holding me on the start line.

In the final, as usual, Anna and I knew we had more to bring to the track and we certainly did that with both of us riding marginally faster each to finish in a time only 0.019 of a second off our World Record.  To say that that was a great start to the season is an understatement!  Whilst a World Record would have been lovely it was unexpected that we would ride that fast so early in the season, which is good because we were not preparing to be in good form in Astana.

On the podium!  This was taken of the big screen!  Ukraine 2nd and Germany 3rd.

Here we go...final time!

It was the boys performances on Day one that really lifted the spirit in the sprint team with the team of Shane Perkins, Scott Sunderland and Matthew Glaetzer finishing second behind the in form German team.  Its great to see the boys getting a result they are deserved of and as a group in general we were happy to see some results from a long tough off season.

Day two was the sprint, and my sick stomach was turning to a bit of a stuffy head and I was unsure of how I was going to go today.  I got myself in shape and told myself that if I got to London and got sick would I just give up?  The answer was easy...no way.  I battled with my head and body and pushed through and ended up riding a personal best in the 200m qualifier of 11.173seconds!  Finally I had ridden a PB and finally I was in the 11.1 club!  For the first time in a long time I qualified in quite a good position which meant I got a bit of a better draw in terms of opponents.

In the first round I met Daniella Larreal, and knowing her history as a strong competitor a few years back I wasn't taking her lightly.  I won my race, not quite as comfortably as I would have liked and progressed through to the quarter finals where I met Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite.  Simona pretty much out schooled me to defeat me in two straight rides, I was slightly despondent after these races as I felt like I had the speed to win but just couldn't put together a strong enough race plan to achieve what I wanted.  I also embarrassingly had a nice little fall when attempting to do a standstill and force Simona to the front.  the race had to be re started and I tried again - successfully this time!  I was happy that I had been able to achieve what I wanted in that phase of the race after having a set back in the first attempt.

The Opening Ceremony, you can appreciate the enormity of the venue in this shot, there are not too many (if any) Velodromes in the world where seating goes around the bends like in Astana!

So I raced in the 5th-8th final where I finished 7th overall.  I seem to always be in that 5th-8th ride off and I hope that some time in the near future to make it through to the top four...that would really make me happy!  Anna donned her rainbow jersey for the first time in the sprint, where I think she was definitely the best rider out there, defeating 10.7 rider Olga Panarina in the semi finals in the fastest times ever ridden in a sprint match.  Anna ended up finishing second but I think she can take some huge confidence from her semi finals performance to know that she really is tactically trumping everyone at the moment.

The last day as usual was the Keirin and I was really feeling not great today.  I had a poor sleep and my body was not happy.  Still I turned up and tried to have a positive mindset.  For me the opportunity to race are so few and far and I don't train because I love to...I train because I love to race, so rain, hail or shine I was going out to race.  With such depth now the Keirin heats are proving to be the most hotly contested rides with only one person progressing through automatically to the second round in each heat.  I won my heat fairly comfortably (but had to do it the hard way by leading out) and spent a good 10min with my head in the bin dry heaving because the lactic was coursing through my body.  I was really happy to win and to have one less ride to race through the day.

My second round ride didn't quite go as I would have liked, I ended up finishing 4th which meant I was into the minor final.  I finished 10th in the minor final, where I just seemed to run out of legs after putting myself in a reasonable position.  I am still learning to have some 'feel' in races as I tend to panic a bit, one I day I will master this and I believe when that day comes I will be quite hard to beat.

So Astana was all over.  I have some fond memories of the trip, one is definitely the best prize I have ever won at a race which was a Sumsung phone.  My brother, Jack, will be lucky enough to get one exactly the same off Santa this year!  The hotel we stayed in was quite literally amazing.  It was 18 floors high (Anna and I were on the penthouse floor as well!), and the elevators were glass so you could see out into the lobby.  It was really frightening at first but like anything I got used to the sick feeling in my stomach every time I looked over the balcony!  I think the highlight of the elevators were when we found out that Mitchell Mulhern got stuck in the lift on the 17th floor...not funny I am sure if it were me but funny because as he said he was 'shitting himself!'  Astana itself surprised me, I am not sure what I was expecting...something like out of Borat, but in fact the country was quite nice, very very cold!  But nice.  I think the capital itself, Astana, will be a really lovely city in 10years time, at the moment it is quite new and still being developed.  It is quite strange to be driving down the street surrounded by these amazing buildings and then all of a sudden it turns to flat wasteland...weird!  The Veoldrome itself is quite spectacular.  I have never seen anything like it.  It seats 15000 people and was a beautiful venue.

Cold?  Heck yes!  View from my hotel room

The team!  L-R  Sarah Kent, Michael Frieburg, Katherine Bates, Matthew Glaetzer, Mitchell Mulhern, Amy Cure, Scott Sunderland, Shane Perkins, Glen O'Shea, Edward Bissaker, Alex Edmondson, Me, Anna Meares, Ashlee Ankudinoff

Snow ball fight?!  You can't hardly tell we are Aussies and don't get to do this often!  Amy Cure with a rather large snow ball!

View from the 18th floor!  Notice the 4elevators on the right and on the left is a big glass window that you can see right out of.

The trip home of another 50hours of travel was daunting for me.  However I kid you not I spent probably 40of those hours sleeping.  I was absolutely wrecked and still feeling ill and every time I got on a plane I was KO'd within 5min of sitting down.  It was the best trip I have ever had because it felt like it went so quickly.  I was lucky enough to get a little bit of rest after the trip, going home to visit my family, after attending a few awards nights.  I will write about those in my next blog.

As for now I am off to training.  I hope everyone is well.  Take care and ride fast! :)

Karls

Sydney Sprint GP

Hi all,

Since Perth I have continued my hard off season training.  Sydney GP was a chance for us to get some quality domestic racing in and test to see where we are heading into the first World Cup of the 2011/2012 season.

The first day was the Team Sprint for both males and females and Anna Meares and I once again donned our rainbow jerseys.  We were successful in winning and rode some quite good times for the time of the year which is promising heading into Astana (the first World Cup) at the end of this month.  I was pretty happy with my form and its a testament to the hard work that my team and I have been doing over the past few months.  A big thanks goes out to my support team who work very hard every day to give us all the best opportunities to be the best that we can be.

The second day saw the Sprint and the Keirin being raced - which proved to be a test physically with both events in the one program.  I qualified well in my second fastest ever time of 11.26 just shy of out qualifying Anna who rode 11.24.  In the earlier rounds which were best of one I raced against young Malaysian Fatehah, who is proving to be a strong competitor in the Oceania region.  I defeated her to move onto the semi finals.  In the semis I met Stephanie McKenzie from New Zealand who has just returned from a successful Junior Worlds campaign.  Having qualified well I made sure I didn't drop my game and defeated her to move onto the best of three final against Anna Meares.  Having defeated Anna in our last meeting I knew I was in for a tough rematch and that it was.  Both rides were photo finish close with Anna taking the overall win.  Although I was disappointed with not winning I was very happy with my execution of tactics and am feeling confident in my tactical ability heading into what is sure to be a tough season of racing on the World Cup scene.

With the Keirin up last my legs were starting to shout at me to stop!  I had to dig deep in the final, after finishing first in my heat, to find something special to bring.  Again I executed my race plan very well and thought I had the win wrapped up only to again be pipped by Anna on the line!  Again I was disappointed but I walked away with my head held high knowing that I am not only on the right track but that I have made some significant gains in the past 8 months.

A special shout out goes to my family and friends who came to watch over the weekend.  I really appreciate all the support that I am getting from everyone as the Olympics get closer and its also important for me to acknowledge those who do support me because I couldn't do what I do without you all.  I ride not only for myself, Anna and my support team but for everyone in my family, my friends and every Australian out there!

I am really looking forward to the upcoming races in Astana, which I am sure will be an experience in itself.  we have a fairly tough travel regimen to go through before we even get there and we are mostly training though so I don't expect anything too special.  However racing always brings the best out of me and I will be going out to do my best and see what happens.

I hope everyone out there is well and you should be hearing from me a little more with Astana and Nationals up and coming.  Stay tuned!

Karls :)

P.s. one last special mention goes out to my housemate who feels left out because I have not mentioned him in my blog.  Peter Lewis...you smell.  Ha-ha

2011 Perth GP

Hi all,

A quick update from Perth where the team and I are on a winter training camp. The intention was a chance to get of Adelaide and experience some better weather but as it turns out we have come to Perth and its wet and rainy, whilst Adelaide is having a bout of nice weather! Typical!

On the weekend we raced the annual Perth International Grand Prix, where we raced in the usual events of Sprint, Keirin and Handicap. The morning started off with sprint qualifying and I rode a time reflective of my training load currently of 11.75 and qualified second behind Anna in 11.71. Unusual to the normal program we had the Handicap before the sprint finals which was going to hurt the legs! I was leading Anna out for the win and got her to the second bunch with 3 laps to go and as I was coming around them a girl swung up and I went high to go around her and Anna went underneath thinking I was swinging, luckily when I came back down she was already in front of me, but I reckon I could have taken her to the front and for a massive 4lap turn but that didn’t eventuate. Anna held on for 3^rd which was a good result considering the fact that the handicapping was a little favourable for the front runners, she even gave me the flowers she won which was very nice!

Up next I rode the sprint rounds where I defeated Stephanie Morton in the Semi-Finals before riding Anna in the final. In a photo finish I was able to hold Anna off and take the win which was a bit of a surprise for me and I was really a little taken aback but very level headed in that we are both smashed from training at the moment and winning or losing here is not where its at for either of us so it was onwards and upwards and onto the next race.

Lining up against Anna for the Sprint final. Note my new sunglasses sponsors Salice.

Playing cat and mouse

I drew a poor position in the Keirin and found myself at the fence on the line, but was able to do a sneaky underneath run off the line and get myself into 5^th position. I knew I either had to make an early move around the front which is what I would normally do or sit and be patient – I decided to just see how the race unfolded and as it turns out I can actually show some patience and as Anna went to the front I waited for her to get there and then had one big attack around the bunch coming into bell lap. I took my second win for the day and in a more satisfying fashion which was really a huge confidence boost more for the fact that the work I have been doing since my disappointing Worlds campaign is paying off in small ways. Sometimes you need a devastating result to light that fire underneath you and keep you going forward – my fire is well and truly lit and won't be in any way distinguished until I achieve what I want.

We have a week long camp here in Perth before heading back to Adelaide to continue our long winter slog heading into the 2011/2012 season. Things are progressing on my end and I am working hard.

Hope everyone out there is well!

K-Mac.