There was an outdoor velodrome in Bendigo, however it was a D-shape and the sweeping bends made it hard for the boys to control the tandem at high speed. Anthony Kappes and I had to swap pilots so that I rode with Barney Storey and Anthony rode with Ellen Hunter.
It was very good training in the warm weather and we saw a few kangaroos on one of our rides!
We then travelled to Sydney were we competed at the Australian Track Championships. This wasn't a major event for us this year and so we didn't do a taper beforehand.
However, the night before our kilometre time trial we were told that we could gain points towards qualifying places for Beijing, which changed the whole focus of the Championships for us and added a bit more pressure!
There were 5 female tandems entered for the kilometre and as World Champions, we were off last. However, we didn't get off to a great start and for some reason or another we rolled completely off the track at the start of our race with the clock ticking away! We rode back onto the track and kept going. We lost 1.5 seconds in our first lap alone. We kept going and crossed the finish line in a time of 1:11.803. Thankfully it was enough to win the Gold medal but we may have also broken our World Record time of 1:10.431 if we hadn't lost so much time in our first lap. We then had a couple of days before the Sprint. The same 5 female tandems entered this with the fastest 2 tandems in the qualifying flying 200m riding off for gold and silver; with third and fourth riding off for bronze.
We qualified second in a disappointing time of 12.11s with the Aussie paring of Lindy Hou and her new pilot Toireasa Gallagher qualifying fastest in a time of 11.88s.
The final of the sprint was decided on the best of 3 rides over 5 laps of the track.
In the first ride we sat at the back for the first 3 laps and then jumped past the Aussies, got our heads down and rode hard to the finish only to be beaten on the line. This made us even more determined to win the next race or it would be all over for us.
On the second race, the Aussies lead it out and we again sat at the back but left it until one and a half laps to go, to do our jump. Both teams were side by side for a lap and a half with us squaring the match by half a wheel. So it was going to be winner takes all on the third and final race!
So to the ride off and it seemed to have been scripted for us as Hou and Gallagher made it a tactical ride, stalling in the back straight, a tactic that we were more than a match for before making their effort just before the bell. From that point it was all over as we got up to speed much quicker than our opponents and by turn 3 had easily taken the lead and were a length clear at the line to take the title.
It was really exciting racing and I was absolutely delighted to win another Gold medal.
The British team won a total of 10 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medals at the Championships and we were all really pleased.
On our way back home we stopped over in Beijing to see what it was like. It was a real experience with people constantly hassling you to buy goods from them when simply walking along the street. We could see the Olympic stadium from our hotel but we weren't allowed to visit it.
My next major competition is the Paralympic World Cup being held in Manchester on the 11 May and then we will travel to Bordeaux in August for the World Championships.
We qualified second in a disappointing time of 12.11s with the Aussie paring of Lindy Hou and her new pilot Toireasa Gallagher qualifying fastest in a time of 11.88s.
The final of the sprint was decided on the best of 3 rides over 5 laps of the track.
In the first ride we sat at the back for the first 3 laps and then jumped past the Aussies, got our heads down and rode hard to the finish only to be beaten on the line. This made us even more determined to win the next race or it would be all over for us.
On the second race, the Aussies lead it out and we again sat at the back but left it until one and a half laps to go, to do our jump. Both teams were side by side for a lap and a half with us squaring the match by half a wheel. So it was going to be winner takes all on the third and final race!
So to the ride off and it seemed to have been scripted for us as Hou and Gallagher made it a tactical ride, stalling in the back straight, a tactic that we were more than a match for before making their effort just before the bell. From that point it was all over as we got up to speed much quicker than our opponents and by turn 3 had easily taken the lead and were a length clear at the line to take the title.It was really exciting racing and I was absolutely delighted to win another Gold medal.
The British team won a total of 10 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medals at the Championships and we were all really pleased.
On our way back home we stopped over in Beijing to see what it was like. It was a real experience with people constantly hassling you to buy goods from them when simply walking along the street. We could see the Olympic stadium from our hotel but we weren't allowed to visit it.
My next major competition is the Paralympic World Cup being held in Manchester on the 11 May and then we will travel to Bordeaux in August for the World Championships.
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