So where were we...
2015 Club Road Nationals in Napier
Hannah Bartram won two excellent Bronze medals in Under 15 Girls Road Race and Time Trial.
Received my Masters Degree for doing research into long term training metrics based on power meter data from National and International Cyclists.
After Age Groups spent plenty of time in the Classroom. Firstly up in Cambridge for a session on Coach Development and Coach Education led by UCI Coach educator/developer/inspirator extraordinaire Andrew Gillott. This led into the Performance Coach Advance programme which included many sessions developing the softer side of my coaching to match my technical skills.
Olivia Podmore was selected for her 2nd Junior Worlds. This time in Kazakhstan she won Silver in Teams Sprint with Emma Cummings and Bronze in 500m TT.
Worked with Carleton in Atlanta to develop his Track Cycling Stopwatch that is frigging useful for measuring racing and training sessions. He is now working on Version 2 which will allow for creating databases of times.
Thanks to a bit of a wake up call from Distinguished Professor Geoff Chase and some excellent advice I said adios to 20kg of weight. Feeling much better and able to climb the hills around Christchurch now.
One of my former Sprint Cyclists Angus Lindsay earned his PhD and involved me in two research studies on cycling and health physiology. This involved performing 60 VO2max tests, taking 400 blood samples and taking 1200 urine samples. Science is a slow process and still awaiting publication of the first study.
The second study was on trained cyclists so I jumped at the chance to do some VO2max testing. Was joined by several cyclists from the local community.
2nd International Commissaire stint after 2012 Junior Worlds at the 2015 Cambridge World Cup with a field stacked with World and Olympic Champions. I was on crash corner where the majority of riders binned including the whole Danish Teams Pursuit. I was wrecked by the end of it.
Got the chance to go to Waikato Champs with Olivia, Gemma, Michelle and Liam.
Elite/U19 Track Nationals was a huge success with Olivia, Olivia and Gemma medalling. Olivia earning selection for her first Elite World Track Cycling Championships and Kate selection for Junior World Track Cycling Championships.
Age Group Track Nationals was a huge week. Erin Downie won the U15 Girls Points Race. Sammi Ogle won the U17 Girls Scratch Race and Shona McGrath won the Masters Women's 55-60 500m TT and 2000m Pursuit.
With her dramatic rise in the Track Cycling scene Kate was named to be part of the Pathway to the Podium. A nation wide programme for young athletes in all key sports. This includes coaching sessions, valuable support and Strength and Conditioning. Like Olivia Podmore over the last two years Kate is really standing out in the way she engages in the process as she comes to grips with being a high performance athlete.
2016 Club Road Nationals were in awesome Alexandra and again everyone rose to the occasion with glowing reports on how they were all up front and making the racing! Hannah won the Bronze in the U17 Girls Road Race!
Olivia Podmore is in Zurich presently training her butt off to try and qualify for the Rio Olympics. Her progress in the last two months has been astounding and in the Cottbus Sprint Tournament finished 6th in the Sprints and paired with Natasha Hansen to finish 2nd in the Teams Sprint behind the German Olympics Champions from London.
Olivia Reiber (in red), Kate Smith and Liam Brown all raced in the top level ITS events in Melbourne against World Class competition.
What next? Watch this space...
