| The first few months of 2011 |
It’s 2011 While the New Year was seen in for me in very happy times, tough times loomed ahead for hundreds of thousands of Aussies. Flooding hit the Central Queensland region (my childhood home) seeing hundreds and thousands of people affected either by rising dam levels, rising river levels or flash flooding from the down pour of rain over weeks which turned into months. So many areas were hard hit and Rockhampton where I grew up was one of them. I could not believe the damage and the body of water that submerged so much of the town let alone the state. In the end 75% of the state which is a region larger then Germany and France combined was declared a natural disaster zone. Roads I used to ride on were swallowed up and even washed away. Railway lines were buckled like they were a mouldable rubber, floods not seen on this calibre since 1991. While so many homes and people were inundated in Central Queensland, flash flooding was about to cause more havoc further south in the state of Queensland which saw many lives lost. For those lost in such a horrific and sad way, we think of you and to your families our thoughts and our hearts go out to you. The cleanup bill will reach the billions and the time it will take some communities to recover could be years but in the face of such disaster shone the human spirit of Aussies and the courage and fight we have. Volunteers lined the streets to offer help in any way they could whether it being cleaning out the mud from homes when the waters subsided or manning shelters. It was something that everyone involved and all Australians should be proud of. While Qld began to dry out, the flooding rain went further south causing NSW and VIC damage as well. And sadly the cost of lives both young and old was great caused by the dangerous flood waters rising. While the east of the country was battling Floods, the west was battling fires. WA has not had rain in months and the dry brittle woods and grasses could no longer bare the prevailing heat and sparked up causing house after house to go up in flames. It really has been a tough start to the year for Aussies. I hope there is only one way to go from here, to improve. With all this tragedy and heartache in the country, I drew on the stories of sadness, courage and survival to ensure I would work hard; I would train hard to at some point offer back my little piece of inspiration to the country. I was an ambassador at the Tour Down Under, going along to share my knowledge and experiences as a cyclist. I also spoke at the Legends Dinner on stage with huge stars of the sport. This was a hug honour as I believe I was the first woman to be able to do so and the reception was amazing! I at first though host Phil Liggett had forgotten about me being at the end of the line of riders to interview as he started to wrap up the segment but it was a prank played on me by himself and his partner in crime Paul Sherwin and it was pretty funny : ) The National Track Championships were raced in February in Sydney in a week of extreme heat. On one night the temperature reached 45 degrees inside the Dunc Grey Velodrome. I competed in three events. The team sprint with Stephanie Morton where we won silver together, the Sprint and the keirin to which I raced to win two gold medals which turned out to be my 26th and 27th national title of my career and on the way on the sprint qualifying I rode a 200m time that broke the National Championship record by 0.3 seconds. The track was fast but the conditions were difficult. It was like warming up and racing inside a sauna. It was hard to breathe and the biggest thing was keeping up the hydration and keeping cool in the scorching conditions. This nationals was the first time that I competed representing South Australia given the past 16 years (9 senior) were raced representing QLD. I had a wonderful time with my new team mates and enjoyed working with the staff immensely! I am definitely looking forward to Nationals next year. Once the nationals were over it was straight back to Adelaide and what felt like straight on a plane to Manchester for the final world cup of the season. After 32 hours of travel we arrived in the UK jetlagged but keen to get down to business. The last world cup of the season had a number of things on offer in my mind. Crucial points for Olympic qualification but also an opportunity to get a feel for what it would be like to race in front of a British crowd hopefully at one point against a British rider. The team sprint was day one and this was the first time since the world titles last year that Kaarle and I would team up in the event in which we won back in Copenhagen. As world champions we lined up in the brilliant rainbow colours with a lot of pride and honour. For we were going to have to draw on everything we could to win this time. In qualifying Kaarle and I qualified second in a time of 33.3 seconds to the Chinese team whom qualified fastest in 33.1 seconds. It was going to take a lot to be able to pull 0.2seconds to defeat them. Having had a hit out under our legs and blown away a few cobwebs from a miss timed warm up it wasn’t long before we were back up for the final to which the Chinese started a different team. A fresher team. Shaung Guo would line up in the final in second wheel to challenge for the gold. She didn’t ride the qualifying. It was a very close final. After one lap I had improved on my qualifying time and was only 0.03 behind the Chinese which left it all down too Kaarle to pull back time off of a fresh Shaung Guo and low and behold... she did!!! Much to my happiness and a little to our surprise, we WON in a time of 33.0 seconds a mere few thousandths off of our world record and the Chinese finished in 33.1 seconds. While we may have got the victory here, there are ominous signs that this event is about to get a great deal more difficult to win. The Chinese can start two completely different teams that can ride at a pace of only 0.1-0.2 off of world record pace. Great Britain while they did not post a blistering time showed that within the two teams they started they will be in the mix at the worlds after Jess Varnish rode an 18.9 lap. Something that Victoria Pendleton has never had a rider who can go sub 19 seconds. That will be interesting. The world titles let alone London is going to be one hell of a fight in the team sprint and I think that’s awesome! Day two of competition saw the Sprint in action. 39 women from all around the world vying for but 3 medals. In qualifying I rode a time of 11.001 seconds. Yep you read correctly 11.001 seconds. So close to going sub 11 seconds again but agonisingly short this time. But still I was thrilled with this being the second fastest time I have ever ridden and it was enough to see me qualify fastest. I defeated Miriam Welte in round one, then setting up the one thing I wanted from this trip, a chance to ride against a British athlete in front of a British crowd for I drew Jess Varnish in the quarter finals. It was intense and the crowd was very one sided. It is funny what you pick up when you are in the middle of something pretty big. As I was riding around the muffling of noise from the crowd was interrupted at points by comments from supporters to Jess. Things like “Come on Jess, Smash that Aussie.” It was to some degree off putting but I was taking it all in and challenging myself to stay focused and cool under the pressure and I did. I won in two sets. Which meant one thing, another match up with a British rider in the semi’s but this time it was Vicky Pendleton. This was going to be good and indeed it was. The race and the match up where hyphened as I sat in the marshalling area waiting to go onto to track. On the big screen at one end of the track they had the breakdown of each rider and the history, there was a commentator talking to the crowd and the t audience, “Well racing is about to commence” he said, “and boy are we about to kick it off with a BANG!” This went on and they had people voicing their opinion on who they thought would win, how the race would pan out and then the music. Loud bass thumps like a heart beat as we were called up to the start line. A small noise was measured when my name was introduced but it was nothing when compared to the roar received by my opponent. The heart was certainly pumping and so were the nerves. I should not have won the first race. Vicky caught me napping out of turn 4 into the bell lap and down the back straight she was agonisingly close to overtaking me but I managed to keep the smallest part of my front wheel under her back wheel and she was unable to claim the printer lane (the shortest line around the track) The crowd at this point was going off. It was so loud. But I fought, I was not going to give in no matter how far or close to her I was and then something happened. I moved closer to her back wheel, then I was as close as her hip, I was gaining ground back through the bend. I fought and dug in as hard as I could and as I came up the front straight my wheel edged in front of Vicky’s and as I crossed the line winner of race one, the thunderous roars of the crowd turned to drowns of murmur and silence. Race one to me. Race two against Vicky saw the commentators trying to draw as much support from the Crowd for the home town girl and that she got, but not from me. I saw an opportunity to dive underneath Vicky in the same spot she caught me napping in the first race and I took it putting a gap of about 5-10m into her. Vicky closed down rapidly but was still a bike length short at the line. Race two to me and winner and through to the final against Shaung Guo of China. Guo was on the comeback from having broken her collar bone in the first world cup in Melbourne in December and she had qualified extremely well in second behind me in a time of 11.068. This meant that only the time of 0.067seconds separated us. It came down to three races. I won the first and she won the second. We have had many math ups in the past and each time they went to three rounds. Guo is strong and crafty but on this occasion I was able to defeat her in the third race to take my second world cup win of the season. I began warming up for racing at 930am that day and after racing had finished and presentations were done and drug testing had been completed I was walking out of the velodrome at 1am. If I was to ride the keirin I was to be up at 7am. I was hoping that Gary would let me off but no. I was to be there in a few hours for the keirin and so I was. Day three saw the keirin in action and the numbers meant that only the winners of each heat and the repechages would progress to the semi finals making it very difficult. With eyes that felt heavy and legs that were screaming I lined up and this is my summation of how my keirin went that day. Round 1- got boxed in and defeated In ten days I had travelled to Manchester, raced three days of a world cup and returned to Australia after 44 hours travel on the way home. Training commenced almost immediately upon my return as the world titles were a mere few weeks away. Now I am starring at a week from departure for the world titles in Apeldoorn Holland and I am confident but nervous at the prospects. I feel good, I know I have worked very hard and I am looking to go racing in the light of achieving that top step again in the team sprint with Kaarle and in the light that I could be there for the first time in the sprint and keirin, but then again, so could 40 or so other women from around the world hungry and having also worked hard. So stay tuned for the final chapter of this season; Apeldoorn Holland... World Championships 2011. |
