August 25, 2009
Heres a good picture of the after party. L-R Marc Willers, Pete D, Mike Redman, Me, Johan Lindstrom (UCI BMX President), Matti (Johans right hand man), Ryan Hollows aka: Holiday Hollows, TB, CTB, and just B. Love ya man!
August 25, 2009
Currently hanging out at Singapore Changi airport where we had a 15-hour layover. It sounds really bad but we have a hotel room here to shower and sleep and this place is the best airport in the world. So it’s not too bad to have layover and relax between two 12-hour flights. It’s like a massive mall that is really clean, has free Internet and even has a Mac store (both computer and cosmetics).
The weekend is now over and most of you know that Sarah won the weekend pretty easily. During the practice before the race she managed to mess up in the same spot that Sammy crashed, she ended up hurting her wrist pretty bad, but not so bad that she couldn’t ride. The medics did a real good tape job and she rode with it and took the win for the day with no real trouble. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong with it but hopefully it’s just a bit of bruising so she will be ready for the Chula Vista race. Will find out the extent of her injury when we get home tomorrow and the medical team we have back in New Zealand will check her out.
Marc’s day started off great. He had Mikey Day in his mottos and traded wins back and forth looking great thru his eights. When it came to quarters though he didn’t have the pull he had had and didn’t make it thru. I think he is finally calling it quits with his shoulder and is not going to ride anymore until it gets fixed which I couldn’t agree more, although it sucks. Marc is fast enough right now to win any race he races but the lack of mental confidence that comes with an injury is starting to get to him and it’s time to get that damn thing fixed! I’m planning on having him in New Zealand over the October – February months and do lots of one on one training with Marc, once the SX races in April/May come around I know he will be putting scores on the board in big way. It’s tough to have your big dog out but that’s BMX.
Trent managed to qualify thru time trials, which was awesome, but didn’t make it thru the eight finals. He had a stacked motto with Bradford, Bloomfield and a couple of Duchies, however he raced his ass off and looked great out there. At 16 he held his own and I know that within a few years the “Maori Mike Day” will be a main making machine. A real positive sign of things to come from the group of riders we have in New Zealand around this age. Now it’s just a matter of them doing consistent training over periods of time and providing more racing experience.
Samantha is doing ok. She flew to Chula Vista to take part in the Canadian National Team camp they are having there. She won’t be riding as she is in a lot of pain and her neck is killing her, not to mention the headache that won’t go away.
Overall I thought the race was awesome, one of the best races that I have been to in years. The organizers of this event did a great job and the location of the track was really cool, it’s the same spot that will hold the World Championships next summer. As far as the track and the event are concerned, next year will be awesome.
South Africa is a little different though, at times I didn’t feel that safe and overall it was difficult to get adjusted to the way of life over there. Good healthy food was hard to come by at times (although we managed to kill a few restaurants!) there are no Subways or other healthy options there. Internet is slow when you can come by it, we had none in our B&B so had to go down to the mall to get Internet service. The service was awesome and the people were very friendly but this is not a place you wanted to go and hang outside at night.
I was planning on bringing my HP team here for a 3-week camp leading into the Worlds next year but have decided against it. Not that this is a bad place but I just don’t feel safe about letting my team go out for bike rides (which we did none) or go out and do sprints, 2 things you really need to do when building up to a big race. There were lots of tracks to ride, which were all pretty good, and again I have to give a big shout out to the people, they were awesome.
I’m going to take a few days off of BMX now and hangout with my girls as it won’t be long until we pack up and go to Chula Vista. I have a few games of “Hide and Seek” that I need to catch up on with Avri!
Me, Wade Boots (Australia HP Coach) and Marc
Sammy and Me
Giving Trent Woodcock a few tips
Willers
August 22, 2009
We’ve had practice over the past few days with the team getting the track dialed in. This track is really good, flows smooth and the guys are having a lot of fun on it as well as some of the girls. The girls have to ride the same third straight as the guys but the second straight is split into two, however the girl’s side is a bit tougher than the guy’s side, go figure.
Practice on the first day was going great as Sarah and Sammy were killing it. During the first practice they were the only two girls who could jump thru the third straight. On one of Sam’s runs, she pulled the plug on jumping it and tried to manual (which was a crazy manual) and she looped out, doing a complete back flip and smacking her head to the ground hard, so hard her helmet strap bruised her neck. She was immediately knocked out and then started going into convulsions on the track, a really scary few minutes for all of us. They put her on a stretcher where she regained consciousness and we where rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Sam spent the night there for observations to make sure she didn’t have any bleeding on the brain but she sustained a major concussion and whiplash in her neck. The Dr. say that she can’t ride for up to 4 weeks now. She’s ‘ok’ now and was down at the track hanging out but really sore and even more upset. She just spent thousands of $$ to get here and then ‘lost’ her ticket back to Europe as she had to spend thousand$ more to go to Chula Vista, and now she can’t even ride! But knowing Sam, she will take a few laps in Chula to show everyone how it’s done and hit that first jump for everyone! Even though Sam hurt herself she still thinks this is one of the best tracks she’s ridden on.
Talking with Mikey Day yesterday he said the that first jump in Chula is now 40 ft long and about 6 foot tall and that it even scares him to jump it. Only a few of the USA top girl jumpers can hit it so it’s going to be a shock to some people having to hit this jump. It should be mandatory to ride in DOT approved helmets on these tracks as Sam may not be up to ride another day if she wore anything but!
On the Kiwi side- the whole team looks great! Sarah is dominating on the girls and looks to have an easy weekend. The only other girl who looked good around the whole track was Sam and she’s out now. Ever since Sarah won the Worlds, her confidence is thru the roof and she is in a league of her own right now.
Marc is looking great, bobbled down the 3rd straight during TT (Time Trials) and still managed a top 20 spot, which for Marc is great as he is a pure racer and not a TT rider. He is looking really confident in his riding and looks the best I have seen him ride. I know he wants a good placing at this race and has something to prove. Trent Woodcocks proved to me why he is here and qualified in 38th and making it thru to today’s race. He is the only Kiwi male other then Marc who has been able to qualify out of TT so far.
Racing starts this afternoon so we are off to the track to go and get it going.
Here is a video link of me getting back Marc with a Tazer.
Here is a picture of Sam in the hospital, the lights were really bright so I put my sunnies on her.
Track side. One of the best tracks I’ve been to.
Me and the great Sifiso who is still recovering.
Holliday Hollows home away from home, our pit area.
August 19, 2009
Today we’re having a day off after a pretty good day of training yesterday. We rode a pretty cool track in the morning and then did a sprint session in the afternoon. Not too much excitement on the kiwi side of things as we are all getting ready to rock out this weekend. The riders are looking great and feeling good, an excellent way to go into a weekend of racing.
Although for Sam though it’s been really stressful. Two days ago she gets an email from the CCA stating that there will be a camp in Chula Vista starting on Monday and if she wants to race the Chula Vista Supercross she needs to be there as they will be selecting the team for this race! What?! So here she is self-funded trying to get Olympic points and now she has to spend an additional $2500 to rush back to the USA for a 4 day camp where she will be completely wrecked and jet lagged for! I just don’t get it! Sam would never say anything as she takes it like a champ, but as her brother I hate seeing her have to jump thru all these hoops and I can say what I want. This is a joke. No funding for the only athlete who makes Mains at every big race that actually counts but funding for 14 other athletes?!! It’s great to get the Canadian kids some more track time on SX tracks and get them more experience but maybe take care of the athletes who can put the scores on the board. That’s all I got to say about that.
Moving on. So this place is really dangerous in some areas and there are quite a few security stores that sell tazers, mace and other things along that line. Well, Mr. Willers decided he needed a tazer gun and also that he needed to test it out. Being the team player that I am, I took one for the team, but he got me when I least expected it. I got him back though! Ha-ha. Good times.
August 18, 2009
After a few days here in South Africa, I have come to the conclusion that I am a very fortunate person as I was raised in a country like Canada and now live in a country like New Zealand. This country has it’s beauty but for the most part it’s very poor and I feel so bad for the people who live in some of the deplorable conditions that they do. Having said that, there are some very nice areas and some gorgeous houses but in general its pretty slum. The people who have a better of life than the norm, are awesome and have been great to us; the service I have to say is impeccable. You can tell that they have a great spirit and appreciate what they have, unlike us North Americans who just want more. It’s been a character building type trip for me and it makes me appreciate what I do have in life and feel very fortunate about that.
Yesterday Jordi Okeeffe (local Pro) showed us around a bit in his hometown of Durbin. We went to a Zulu village show and then went on a small game safari, after we did our training of course! The Zulu show was awesome and I got the whole thing on video, I will post it up on YouTube when I get home to some fast Internet to share it with you. The mini safari was cool as we got to learn about the countryside through our tour guide and got to see zebras, impalas, wildebeests and giraffes. Way cool.
Today we are heading back up to Durbin to go ride Jordis local track and to some more training. Here are some pictures of yesterday’s adventures.
August 16, 2009
The past few days have been pretty tough and long as we traveled to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. It started with an 11-hour flight to Singapore, 7-hour layover, 11-hour flight to Johannesburg and then a 5-hour drive up to Pietermaritzburg. The drive up from J-burg was not too bad as we were all really excited to be driving thru the African countryside. I think we all had this misconception that we were going to be in a National Geographic episode with elephants and giraffes crossing the road, well we were pretty wrong about that, as we didn’t see any animals. I’m sure that I saw a zebra but it could have been my sleep-deprived eyes playing tricks on me, ha-ha.
The craziest thing about the drive was how many people were walking on the hi-way, there was a constant stream of people walking on the side of the road and hitchhiking. There were also a ton of photo radar and unfortunately for us we got busted 3 times with the radar in two cars!!! The police would hide out in a bush on the side of the road and if you were caught by the radar they would jump out in the middle of the freeway to pull you over and they would copy down your license plate and let you go! It’s a different way of life over here for sure.
This place is not what I was expecting at all, it’s more westernized then I would have thought and so far all the people we have been in contact with have been pretty cool. We are all enjoying it so far and yesterday checked out the SX track that’s being built which is just down the road, its going to be a good track in a pretty cool little venue. On this trip we have Marc Willers, Sarah Walker and new to the SX scene, Trent Woodcock. Ryan Hollows is on another holiday with the team (as usual!) and on this trip my sister Samantha is also with us. This is the first trip Sam and I have done together in years and its great to have her around. Apparently her 5th at the last Supercross race and 5th at the Worlds was not good enough for Canada so she has to fund her own way here so she can start getting her points to qualify for the Olympics. Don’t get it but I guess it is what it is.
Today we are going to try and hit a local track for some turn bars and do a bit of training. Here are a few pictures of South Africa.
August 12, 2009
It’s been a long time since my last post; it’s been a crazy whirlwind these past few weeks since I have been back from Australia. Since I was gone for a month I have had lots of meetings, planning and other things to catch up on. In the morning I fly out with my team to South Africa for the Super Cross race. Since I will be traveling I will have some downtime to update more often as well as getting other things sorted out, which includes putting more training programs on the Ridestrong website for all of the kiwi riders. Everyone knows by now how the Worlds went down, but here is an article I wrote for the New Zealand High Performance Sport magazine.
Last month the BMX High Performance team competed in the UCI World Championships in Adelaide, Australia. The team consisted of 11 riders including a support staff of 4, whose help kept the team firing on all cylinders throughout the 3 week campaign. The athletes consisted primarily of young ‘up-and-comers’ within the international scene and some truly skilled veterans to BMX- Olympians Marc Willers and Sarah Walker who added the seasoned experience to the team.
We began our preparation for ‘The Worlds’ (championships) by taking part in a training camp held at the Millennium Institute of Sport on the North Shore in Auckland. During the week of training the team focused on perfecting their gate starts with daily sessions on the practice gate. These sessions were recorded to provide the athletes with immediate feedback on their form and timing; this is valuable information that enhanced the riders starting capabilities. In addition to the training the riders had been doing on their bikes, they did significant work in the gym and were also being tested in the lab. To ensure the team was eating properly we enlisted Daniel Healey, a top nutritionist from the Academy of Sport to design proper diets thru the weeks of training and racing, elevating the overall output of each rider.
From the training in Auckland the team flew to Australia for a two week camp in order to make their final preparations before the big race. The team held a number of track sessions at The Cove BMX track, a fun technical track on the East side of Adelaide. During these two weeks the team began to taper down on their training in order to peak at the right time. The focus for these weeks was perfecting their riding, rest and lots of recovery cold ice-baths in a couple of oil drums the team purchased at a local handy man shop!
With 3 weeks of intensive camp training leading up to the event, the team was peaking at the right time and were ready to take on the world! During the Challenge day there were many ups and downs with a few of our riders crashing in qualifying positions all day. A major upset was when high-contender, Trent Woodcock, crashed in the finals while leading the 16 boy’s class, unfortunate but that’s racing BMX for you. On a good note, NZ made a great showing in this class and Daniel Franks managed a respectable 6th place spot. With the depth of riders in New Zealand from the 14-16 boys categories the Kiwis are looking strong in the future when these riders have a few more years of development behind them. The Elite classes were the following day and everyone was riding strong, smooth and confident, this forecasted for an exciting day. Unfortunately an injured Marc Willers failed to qualify out of the quarter-finals in such a highly competitive and skilled Elite Men’s class. This was a great showing by an athlete who’s scheduled to have his shoulder fixed after this race and makes you wonder what healthy Marc could have accomplished.
It was Sarah Walkers turn to remind everyone that she ruled the weekend and effortlessly crossed the finish line first. Sarah dominated her competition all weekend long, winning every lap on the track by a large margin. Sarah walked away from the weekend with 2 rainbow jerseys as she not only won Elite Women, she backed it up by winning Elite Women Cruiser as well. That same day, Nick Fox also won the 16 boys cruiser class and destroyed his final from start to finish, an awesome showing by the youngster, and I know that this is only the beginning of what’s to come from this Gisborne native.
No sooner has the team unwound and rested up from the Worlds that we start to pack for the next trip which beings this week. The smaller team of Marc Willers, Sarah Walker, Trent Woodcock, Ryan Hollows and Ken Cools will be heading to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
This will be the first UCI World Cup SuperCross race to count towards Olympic qualifying rounds. Pietermaritzburg SA, will also be the location of the 2010 UCI World Championships and this race gives the team a chance to check out the city and pre plan for next years big race. Another exciting trip and a ‘pedal stroke’ towards our ultimate goal, London 2012.