Jody down under
I'm sure you'd like to hear that it's cold, wet and windy over here in Australia, but I can't lie to you! The weathers gorgeous, around the 28C mark everyday, however it has been a bit windy [bloody shame, Ed].
The cycle track we're training on is really peculiar, it's 418m long but, unlike most conventional tracks, it's not oval in shape. This thing is almost a curved D shape. It doesn't cause too much of a problem for the solo bikes on track but with the lack of any banking, the tandems are having real issues getting round it at full speed. Qu9ite funny though. The camp has gone well with a mixture of road, gym and track based work. I think everyone's really looking forward to Sydney now and I just want to get racing again. Especially as with the temperature so warm the conditions on track should be really fast. (Photos courtesy of British Cycling.)
My new leg has been good, but there are a few teething problems which was expected. The biggest prob is that it's a bit long! I hadn’t really noticed on my road bike, but on my kilo track bike when I’m settled down into the tribars, my right knee has been hitting me in the chest. So after a few modifications we're hoping it should be all sorted by the Sydney competitions.
Our road rides have been interesting. I'm used to seeing the odd cow, sheep or even horse on the roads on the Gower, but yesterday I had a kangaroo bounce across the road in front of me! We've also been given our British Cycling new road bikes. They’re a fleet of Trek Madone 5.5 SLs, which I have to say are very nice. They handle great and I've found them really responsive, especially to quick accelerations.
We all went to the local track league last Thursday to check out the local racing scene and it was really busy. We got to the car park and struggled to find a space. There were probably 1000 spectators around the track and about 100 riders ranging in age and ability from 8yrs old right up to guys who train at the local institutes of sport and represent Australia. You'd be lucky to have 30 people in the crowd at Manchester’s track league. We’re now expecting major crowds for the Nationals.
I’m think it’ll be tonight but I’m screwed on UK/Aus time differences, anyway I'm racing in the Athletes with a disability (AWD) 1Km (Monday 5th February), and then on Friday the 9th in the Team Sprint.
Posted by Jody
