Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Youth Olympics Singapore

Im just back from the IOCs 1st Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. These large multi sport events are something else. 30million spent on the opening ceremony alone!!!
results were what we expected with our team, with the highlight being Kates 4th in the Time trial. My hope is that this inspires these athletes to work even harder and make a real go at being excellent in this sport. I hope that they have learned a little about professionalism and what it takes to succeed.

While this was going Clinton was racing Stagier with Radio Shack at the Tour of Denmark, he pulled out a 5th on the last road stage!! He has a few more races coming up including Paris Brussels, then on to Commonwealth Games in India. He will probably win that:-)

john

Monday, May 3, 2010

U23 TT Club championships

Sweet one Ryan, taking out the U23 TT, shame about the crash in the road race. I was predicting a great result there also.
but one title is ok

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

power training

Spent last Sunday with Hunter Allan the creator of "Cyclingpeaks" software and a bit of a guru on power training. Took away a lot of information and recapped a lot I already knew. Great day and better than any of the cycle coaching courses I have attended.

Avery's on fire

Well the two actively racing Avery's are going fantastic. Clinton has chalked up another win in belgium the Grote Prijs Stad Roeselaere. This gives him 2 from 6 so far the same win ratio as Eddy Merckx :-)

Monique had the NZ Xterra championships, racing in her age group so that we can race that at the worlds. She came in Second overall and had a very fast race. Great signs for the future. I have told her not to go pro until she is the fastest amateur it the worlds.

Brad Carter is just back from a hard Nations cups series with the National team. Wade is racing in France in the div 1 and just trying to string some luck together.

The MTB riders are track building and thinking about the worlds in canada

Thursday, March 11, 2010

the new season

Clinton is winning in Belgium, 1st at Vlaamse Prij 1.2. this is the biggest result for clinton and a great way to start what we pick will be a great year.

Wade has returned to france with a new team and seems very happy with the set up, the racing starts soon for him.

Taken on a new rider, Brad Carter from cambridge, he will be based in Spain racing with Michael Torckler and will be in the NZ team for the U23 Nations Cup races in Belgium, France and Begium.
Tom David has chosen a different path this year, and I wish him good luck and hope it works out for him.

The MTB riders have all but wrapped up the Domestic racing and only have Oceanias left. Hoping that most have done enough to make Worlds selections.

all good, I ready for the results to start flowing in
john

Monday, February 1, 2010

Tour Of Wellington 2010

Just back from a very enjoyable Tour of Wellington. They say winners are grinners and we sure are smiling.

I always wanted to build a team of elite level riders and take them to this tour. I hadnt been back since Bryce Shapley got 2nd in 2000. So it was time. I build the team with Wade and Clinton as my first choice riders and though them developed a team that would back each other and pass on any personal ambition if needed. We added George Bennett who was racing with Wade all year in France and is a beautiful climber with many wins in France already for some one so young. Clinton suggested that Mike Torckler would be good to have also. I didnt know Mike but knew he has been U23 TT champ and can climb like the wind. That left one more spot and I suggested Aaron Strong as another climber and some one with a great deal of knowledge and has raced in teams with both Clinton and Wade at the Tour of Southland. So the team was set and I approached Jorge Sandoval about being in one of his Sponsored teams. He agreed and we started as the Cardno team.

From the start the guys from Cardno were in touch offering a team car and setting up anything we needed at the stage finish. These guys become part of our team and we were proud to be part of team Cardno. It was great to have the corporate managers in the car and teach them about the dynamics of racing when they could see it evolve, its just not a ride from one place to another. The level of commitment that the team put out on the road has made a great impression on the Sponsors and they are keen to do it bigger and better next year. I sense a partnership developing here.

Race tactics for us was simple. Loss no time on the first day and save everything for Admirals hill. We had a plan that Michael would attack on the second to last climb and use this to go for stage victory. The back up was George to hit it on Admirals. And with Aaron also we knew we had a great chance to surprise some people in this tour. The race went just to plan, Mike closed a gap on the climb and then attacked to take a 5 second lead of the Drapac rider. This stage also saw team Cardno with 3 riders in top 10 and this set up our victory in the teams classification.

From this point George had to put aside dreams of the U23 comp as he had to be Mikes right hand man. Clinton, Aaron and Wade then proceeded to kill themselves over the next 2 stages to ensure that Mike stayed Yellow and as long as we had three finish in or close to the main peloton we would have Teams sorted also.

Great results,
Michael Torckler 1st Overall and 3rd KOM
George Bennett 2nd U23 and 9th overall
I dont even know where Wade and Clinton finished as its not important, they did a huge job.
Aaron was a DNF but not before he gave the team everything he had.

And me Now a UCI 2.2 tour winning DS