Well time seems to have gone by very quickly in the month since the Manchester World Cup and I got to return home with something a little bit special; An autograph from Sir Chris Hoy. Yep, I finally plucked up the courage to ask the big man for his signature, even though I know Sir Chris and he talks to me at many of the meets we are at, I feel like I was a kid at Christmas when I got this special little keepsake, one I will most certainly treasure.

Training has been solid and consistent and we are now ready to fly off half way around the world to compete in the World Championships. These World Titles in Holland will be raced on a new track that I have never ridden on. Racing commences on March 23rd and concludes March 27th. In 5 short days, 18 world champions will be crowned and yes I do hope that I am one of them.

The challenge ahead is a tough one across every event I will contest and that brings me to that. Which race will I be contesting? Sadly I have decided to contest three of the four events on offer. I will race the Team Sprint with Kaarle McCulloch, the Individual Sprint and the Keirin. This means that the event that is dropped is my pet event the 500m Time Trial.

It hit me last year at the world titles on day 4 of competition in the sprint finals that the two competitors racing off for gold and silver in the sprint were Shuang Guo and Victoria Pendleton, 2 of the 4 in the finals of the sprint who did not ride the time trial. The other two riders; myself and Simona Krupekaite were the two that did and we were racing off for the bronze.
The time trial is on day one of competition followed by the team sprint on day two, the sprint on days three and four and the keirin on day five. Riding the time trial and having that extra day of racing under my belt by the time sprint finals come around is too big a disadvantage I am putting on myself. I want to contest the win in the Sprint and I feel the only way I can do that is to have the playing field as even as possible.

It is very disappointing and it will hurt to see the time trial raced and won without my contesting it but there is something greater I want to achieve this year and that is something I have never before done and that is very exciting to me.
I have thrown my support behind the time trial for as long as I possibly could and I feel horrible to walk away from it. If only it was the last event then I would ride and I think so would so many other women. There is just too much at stake in the big picture for me to do so this year.

With the excitement building towards these world titles the Australian Team had their media day at the Adelaide Super drome and the interest was great. Team photos, individual head shots, team interviews and individual interviews filled hours.
A few days ago my husband Mark and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary to which we enjoyed a peaceful picnic in the Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens. It was very quiet and relaxing, just what we wanted. Mark will be making the trip to Holland this year to watch me race the World Titles with our friends Ryan (the rook) James and Phillipa (pip) Hindmarsh. This on top of so many family members of my team mates making the trip to Apeldoorn will see hopefully a stand out group of green and gold amongst the vibrant orange that accompanies the Dutch fanatical sport supporters. This will be the first world tiles Mark has witnessed sine the Melbourne 2004 world titles where I won my first ever world crown in the time trial. Perhaps this could be a trend to continue.