A little while since we heard from Jody Cundy than he floors us with this awesome report. When he says it took him: at least 20mins to be able to walk and talk properly... After his Kilo at the world's, you know it was a supreme effort.
In the process he beat his nearest competitor (by about 5 seconds) and his Beijing time by 0.52.
We are his biggest fans. He never fails to amaze us with his efforts and his accomplishments on the track (although his Bruce Forsythe impression needs a little work). His report is essential reading...
This is how my last few weeks have panned out...First stop was the National championships, I was riding the Kilo, Sprint and Team Sprint competitions.Having seen the entry list, most of GB’s elite were there and things weren’t going to be easy!
The kilo was first up, and was going to be a trial ride for the worlds kilo which would be 2 weeks later. In an event dominated by endurance riders rather than your usual sprint/kilo specialists I finished with a 1:06.414 (just 0.948 away from my best), which placed me in 7th overall, and gave me quite a bit of confidence with 2 weeks of tapering to go! Next up was the sprint competition, and looking through the entry list I worked out I could just about make the A sprint competition, but I would have a high probability of meeting Sir Chris first round as it was the top 12 to qualify.I qualified in 10.998 which was good enough for 11th, and also equalled my WR that I set in May, it also meant I narrowly missed racing Chris, but instead my first round would be against Matt Crampton, who’d qualified 2nd. Sure enough he beat me and put me in the repecharges. In the reps it was a 3 up race, with Christian Lyte and Matt Haynes. I knew it would be a tough race but decided to go early with 2 laps to go. It would of worked had I planned my attack when Christian wasn’t looking, instead I jumped while he was watching, taking the element of surprise from my move! It took him and Matt nearly the two laps to overtake but by the time they came past my legs were gone!
Finally I was in the team sprint with my scienceinsport.com team mates Dave Readle and Chris Pritchard. Which would be interesting as neither Dave or Chris had rode a team sprint before, and we’d done no practice! However in a pretty flawless run we qualified 4th fastest in the heats. Which meant we were to face Team Sky+ in the semi final. We changed the order which didn’t work as we were slightly slower than qualifying, but Sky+ beat us by 3seconds. So we were in the 3rd 4th final, against Edinburgh. In a risky move we changed the order again, unfortunately I dropped man 2 and we struggled to get back into it after that. But we went faster than the semis and finished 4th overall.After nationals we had a weeklong camp in Newport to put the final touches to our preparations for Worlds, before heading back for a few days in Manchester. We made a quick stop at the town hall a few days prior to the competition to receive the Freedom of Manchester, an honour which is rarely given out, and was last bestowed to Sir Bobby Charlton. The honour was given to all the Olympic and Paralympic cyclists from the team in Beijing. It was to honour the teams performances there.
Then off to the worlds, on my home track. My team mates were taking the mick by saying I was the face of the games, thanks to a picture of me racing appearing on the posters outside the track, on everyones accreditation and the front of the programme!I wasn’t racing on the first day as it was the pursuit, but was feeling pretty confident as I had hit some pb’s in training a few days earlier.The kilo was mid afternoon the following day, and from looking at the pursuit results I could see my competitors were in good shape.With the honour of going last because of being the previous champion from Bordeaux in 2007 the time I had to beat was a 1:09.746 by Carol Novak, the first sub 1.10 by someone other than myself. My target was to hit the ride hard and hold on, and I did just that, 0.234 up on my WR split from Beijing after lap 1, I started to pay for my hot start, 0.207 ahead after lap 2, 0.188 after lap 3 and then finishing just 0.052 ahead of my Beijing time with a 1:05.414. Exactly a second quicker than 2weeks ago and 4.332 ahead of my nearest competitor.It was probably the hardest kilo I’ve ever done, taking me at least 20mins to be able to walk and talk properly afterwards!The best thing about this world title was the decision by the UCI to bring the jerseys in line with the able bodied, and awarding us the iconic white jersey with the rainbow bands, rather than the lime green version we’d been awarded at the previous 2 worlds.The final day was all about the team sprint, and with the Chinese not sending anyone to the worlds our nearest rivals would be the Czech republic, who we beat by almost 3 seconds in the world cupin may. So we knew that we just had to make sure we had safe changeovers and ride as well possible, and hopefully the medal and jersey would be ours. In the heats we rode well stopping the
clock at 50.257 just under a second away from our 49.323 best from Beijing. The final would be us against the Czech’s who qualified in 52.946.In the final we rode marginally faster in a 50.232 and brought a successful world championships to a close.Again thanks to everyone who has supported me in the process and I look forward to further success in the future.Jody
