Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Sydney - Training Session with the Russians and the French

There are over 500 athletes competing at this Sydney World cup. It is the most attended world cup ever. Everyone who rides a track bike really fast is here to qualify for Beijing. Joshiah Ng said that in 2004 it was easier to get UCI points for the Olympics. But now the field is alot bigger & the competition is tougher. That's great news for the sport. Not for me personally, but I get up for competition.

Speaking of competition, I was chillin in the hotel lobby with Magnus Backstedt. He too is riding solo for Sweden. There 6 other solo riders here. Ireland, Scotland, Finland, Sweden, China Taipei, and the Philippines, and we all share the same locker. Good to know i'm not the only lone wolf. Nonetheless, I'm proud to represent the Philippines. And a lot of the other federations I've talked too find it pretty cool that I'm here trying. Go Philippines they yell out loud. Guess they never seen a Filipino ride this fast or be as tall =).

I followed Mikel Bourgain on his flying 200. All I can say is that he is soo smooth. He doesn't look like he's trying but he's flyin. Not that big of a guy. Actually, most of the really fast sprinters aren't as big as the video makes them out to be. I have a photo of the Bos and I, and honestly, i looked bigger up top. And yes, my legs r bigger too. But i am waaaay slower. Size doesn't matter.

I almost got killed by the russian sprinter. I was getting started on my flying kilo and he was diving in for his 200 sprint and we barely missed. He said something in russian. And I said probably the same thing in English, fx@#. Then i also dropped in behind Ignatiev during the russian team pursuit, double disc and all. They were flyin, but i went around them on my last lap of my kilo effort. I think i may post a new kilo pr if i'm not too tired after the pts, keirin, scratch, then kilo. My starts are rockin. I did my first lap in 19.3 about 2 secs faster than my LA start at Natz. Hopefully, i'll do a 105+. The speed is coming back, finally, after all the weight session.



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2 comments:

Brian Peterson said...

I think you'll do a 1:05. You just need to take 0.2 seconds off that start lap to meet coach's schedule. 10th pl. :-)

Thanks for the updates.

cxwrench said...

great job steve! you'll do a 1:05, go for it. tear it up down there!

tim