SA Track Squad in trainin before the WC

[ccc2]

i am on Roger Bouton's mailing list and receive a 'report' on the daily activities of the track squad who are currently in Newport Wales before they move onto Manchester (i think) for the W Cup. i thought it would be appropiate to post the email here as we are partially responsible for getting the full squad over there.

this is his 1st email

Hi Folks,

I am certainly proud of the way the lads embraced the training camp last week, especially the track endurance lads, with no disrespect to the sprint lads intended at all, as they mostly followed their own program. The week flew past in a flash, with it being an absolute pleasure as well as motivating to be interacting with the elite squad. Certainly I encountered a couple of moans and groans during the course of the week, yet these were made in the best possible spirit, as can be expected from the likes of Evan Carstens, whose final answer will always be OK cool, before he gets on with it. Marco describes him as a sweetheart – yeah right…………………

Friday and Saturday’s racing ensured that Sunday arrived rather rapidly, with the team and their supporters meeting at Cape Town Airport at 10h00.

I thought that check in was a little tedious as this took close on an hour, yet was concluded without any major drama. Breakfast at Mug and Bean was all too short an affair before we had to depart for boarding. Unfortunately just prior to departure it was discovered that the plane had a flat tyre which proceed to take about an hour and a half to replace. Cutting a long story short, we ended up missing the interconnection in Dubai and had to spend an additional six hours waiting for the next flight to Heathrow.

Shoooooo this made for a longggg day which was felt by all.

The flight from Dubai was certainly pleasant enough more especially as the plane was half full/or was it half empty?? Luckily yours truly had four spare seats in my block, so I had an awesomely relaxed flight, except when Theuns came a visiting for chitty chitty, chat chat, probably because he was lonely on his side of the planeJ, always calling me uncle, indeed I will need to fix that.

We landed at Heathrow, after circling for an additional 15 minutes due to a traffic jam. Customs and baggage clearance all went without a hitch. We collected our two hired vehicles one a large van to carry all the equipment, the second a Ford Focus.

 

The journey to Newport was uneventful and took just under three hours including a stop over for some refreshments. Bernard was here at the hotel on our arrival and is suffering from a bit of jet lag. Booking in and unpacking was a smooth process, which needed no supervision. Yay J, my lady and lads.

Dave’s backpack has gone astray since we were at Europcar, which has added to his stress levels. Dave doesn’t travel well as he struggles to get comfortable and sleep on flights due to his size. He is rather a large lad, not short and pleasing plump like yours truly.

He has been awesomely supportive over my hip operation and moans at me the moment I leave my crutch behind. I can’t explain how nice I feel after the operation, compared to managing the Junior’s “ where I was in constant agony all the time”, this is a breeze as I am walking almost normally and without pain. The airports have been a pleasure in comparison. Indeed modern medicine is amazing and I am truly blessed.

Prior to supper, I went shopping for tomorrow’s lunch, whilst at the same time trying to catch the daily closing specials, as well as to purchase some toiletries for Dave. The team seemed to really enjoy supper, the most vociferous being Smittie, whom really is a bundle of enthusiasm. Whilst the reality is Jeanne Nell is just as enthusiastic.

Lots of love from all of us to all of you back home

 

Rog

[ccc2]

2nd email:

 

Morning Africa,

 

Well I certainly upset my finely tuned apple cart this morning by still being in bed at 08h00. I thought the knocks on my door were the lads playing silly bug…rs, by disturbing my relax time, whereas the reality was I had set my watch two hours backwards instead of one hour- oops-la.

 

Still we arrived at the track before nine and proceeded to build up the track bike in time for the 10h00 track session. There were quite a few minor issues with the bikes, previously used by the juniors, which provides a clear indication that a bike and mechanical course is imperative for our young athletes. Many of the screws were fastened far too tight, if not stripped. There were bolts missing from the crank sets, seat posts, and time trial bars, which has served as a further learning curve.

 

The endurance lads are a little tender and suspect at this stage, which showed in the early parts of the training session. Yet all things considering including that two of the riders have never seen board track before, and none of them had ever ridden a front disc before we ended off on a high note posting a 1.01.09 for the final 1Km effort on a 96” gear.

 

The sprint lads were in high spirits, as usual, whilst Bernie supports a new Mohican hairstyle. I didn’t time their efforts, yet they spent a good amount of their session practicing skills.

 

We returned back to the hotel for lunch, and spent the afternoon visiting Terry at his bike shop as he repaired some of the minor issues that athletes had on their track bikes. Once back at the hotel, each athlete completed their afternoon’s training sessions on the rollers.

 

Supper at 19h00 was lasagna accompanied by boiled potatoes and veggies, a salad bar, fresh rolls, and fruit juice.

 

Towards the end of supper I received a call from Darren Tudor the Welsh Head Coach whom wanted to come and pay us a visit. There after I received a call from Shane Sutton whom said he would advise Darren on our training session for the day, and would travel through to Newport to assist us with our training session on Thursday. How AWESOME is that? a training session and advice from the maestro himself J)

 

I spent about an hour chatting do Darren whom confirmed that he would meet us at the track at 14h00.

 

Although the team appears to still be in a slight holiday mood, which is cool as they are all relaxed, Wednesday’s training session will be a wake up call for all. But this is for tomorrow.

 

Best regards to all

 

Rog

[SwissVan]

Nice posts, keep them coming

[Guest DieBees]

This is awesome!

 

Keep em coming.

 

[ccc2]

3rd email

 

Hello good folks,

 

I am sure that those back home aren't missing the riffraff that Dave and I have here with us?? Are you?? ---- Surely not?

 

It was a lovely sunny day here today, first one that we have had since being here, as such the athletes all went for a bike ride. Sprint riders did about 40 Km, whilst the track endurance cyclists rode for two and a half to three hours. The reality is they would have all had to ride even if it was raining…... "note the evil smile"

 

On returning home at just after 11h30, the team all dug straight into the tuck box - flatten, and off to the shops we go again…. after lunch a shower, fresh clothes and a short rest before they had to depart for the track leaving here at about 13h00, everybody cycled to the track, naturally they got lost on the last leg when left to their own devices.

 

Our track session today was from 14h00 to 17h00, which we shared the facility with Welsh Cycling. (This is immensely kind of Welsh Cycling - thank you so much).

 

Darren their head coach and Mike their Junior Coach were an awesome help with both taking turns to ride the bike for us, and assisting with the lap scores and timing. The track sprint lads, (Bernie, Jeanne and Jean) proceeded with their own set of exercises including some flying half lap team sprint efforts, Dave had Maroesjka behind the bike which included some 250 meter individual sprint efforts off the bike.

 

The Team Pursuit lads had it quite hard, having to do 4 x 4 Km Team Pursuit efforts on a 101" gear. This was done from behind the bike to get the team to feel what a race pace of a sub 4 Minute for 4 Km felt like. This is the time that the leading nations all post of sub 4 minutes. I will be downloading these efforts onto uTube. soonest

 

 

Have a great day

Edited October 25, 2013 by ccc2

[ccc2]

Good evening from Manchester,

Apologies for the late newsletter, but it was rather a late night last night, with us booking in at around midnight, at which the local time was amended by an hour here in the UK. As such we are now two hours behind South Africa.

We were up early yesterday morning, as I had arranged breakfast for 05h30, with a scheduled departure of 06h00. The previous evening I had purchased some French loaves, ham, chicken, etc., etc., so made some fresh loaves for the team to snack on as we travelled up to Manchester. It rained for the first half of the trip, with it only becoming daylight at about 07h30.

We arrived at the Manchester track as scheduled just before 10h00 and off-loaded the van. I was lucky enough to have arrange that we could source our storage container that we would use for the World Cup. As such our equipment is all safely under lock and key.

Registration commenced at 11h00, whilst racing started at 13h30. In summary today was a combination of highs and lows. Maroesjka started the day by riding the 200meter sprint and qualified in eight place.

Next up were our two sprinters, “Janie and Smittie” whom both rode personal best times of 10.41 by Jeanne Nell and 10.64 by Jean Smith, which I believe is an awesome result. Both felt a little unhappy, as they wanted better, whereas yours truly was ecstatic. Smithies’ lines could have been smoother and tighter which would certainly have improved his time.

Endurance followed with Evan and Kellan riding the point’s race for Rouleur, which is a bicycle magazine. Both lads rode a highly commendable race for the first third of the bike race, when unfortunately the monkey climbed on Kellan’s back when he tried to take a lap. At this stage, Kellan was actually on top of the leader board with eight points, whilst Evan had three points. Evan finished with the bunch earning ??? Points whist Kellan’s, who never gave up, along with his monkey was lapped a couple of times.

Neither “Janie nor Smittie” made it through to the final qualification of the Kerin, whilst Evan rode the flying lap on behalf of the endurance team in a time of 14.25?????

The organizers had arranged supper for the invited competitors, for which we were hugely appreciative of. This allowed the athletes to relax and enjoy the delicious salads, lasagna and beef stroganoff with rice, before laying down to relax and recuperate.

The evening’s session started at 19h00 – shoo, what a vibe as the velodrome filled up with enthusiastic spectators and supporters. Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to video our team at the head of the Revolution Team introduction, but please see the attached picture of the Rouleur invitation team which was made up of two elite riders (Evan & Kellan), two future stars girls and two future starts boys, all under 17 years of age. There were 10 team in total, which each category earning points for their team.

Maroesjka’s was wasn’t having a great evening, not feeling herself, was the first athlete eliminated from her elimination race, which was followed by the Minor Sprint finals for the elite men, where Janie had qualified in eighth place and had a sudden death ride off against Matt Crampton, just the type of competition that he needs J.

Event 16, men’s elimination, after a heavy two weeks, both athletes had made the decision to save their legs for the up-coming two events of the 1Km Madison and Scratch races, as such opted out early in the race.

The Kerin minor final for the elite men was an awesome race won by Jeanne Nell – please see the videos on uTube the last lap can be seen on

, whilst the final 50 meters of the sprint can be viewed on

– The Kerin ended of an evening of racing which provided and awesome and much needed experience for our young sprinters.

Maroesjka had a more pleasing scratch ride, finishing just behind the main bunch. Thereafter competing in the 1 kilometer Madison for the first time ever the duo of Carstens and Gouveris posted the credible time of 58.4 to be place second in their heats and fourth overall J,

Sitting in the wings, well… not really in the wings was young Bernard Esterhuizen. Bernie was awesome as he used his professionalism and passion in support the lads as our mechanic – it’s awesome to see our focused young lad relaxed and in his element.

The men’s scratch race was a fast hard event, will Kellan deciding to up his gear to 101, which backfired a bit. Evan had an awesome ride finishing fifth overhaul and was the second non-pro rider home.

We packed our equipment into the storage container as quickly as possible before departing for our hotel accommodation, which is the Airport Hilton, two minutes from the airport.

A very special thanks to Phil West and James Pope for facilitating our invitation, as well as Sarah Fletcher for arranging our accommodation. Thanks Revolution organizers for the awesome experience and hospitality that you have afforded us. Bless you.

Sleep tight all

best regards

Rog

[90 Inch]

 

[90 Inch]

[90 Inch]

[90 Inch]

Link to an informative local article about Track Cycling

 

http://t.co/baahJodgyp

[ccc2]

Good evening,

An earlier evening and more relaxed day today as we settle in at the Diamond Lodge which is about 3.5 Km from the track, if that much.

The weather has been rainy for the past couple of days, hence we have been taking the lads to the track and back in the vehicles, lucky pansies”J

“Shame, wittle Theunsie wencie didn’t bwing his bootie wooties, and is too afffwaid to wyd on his own…”

On our arrival at the velodrome, I collected all of the accreditation cards which are now required for track entry. Thereafter I collected a road bike that had been arranged for Nolan’s use. Instead of a road ride the team all did a roller session at the velodrome and were back at the hotel by 10h30 for a short relax before our official training time slot, which was between 12h20 and 14h00.

Whilst they were doing this, I completed the daily shopping needs with us arriving back at the track simultaneously. This was to be the first time that Nolan had trained with the lads, and is also the first time that he has ridden with a front disc. In his own words, he was a little jittery for the first time.

Training went relevantly smoothly, with the sprinters doing timed efforts, which Dave has recorded, I did the one 150 meter effort in which Jeanne Nell did a 5.45 for 150 meters, and Bernard did around a 5.22 whilst the endurance squad did two flying 2000 meter efforts at race pace.

7.49, 15.06, 15.10, 15.42, 15.21, 15.18, 15.71, 15.75, 7.76 = 2.02.68. This was a bit fast as we were trying to control that at around 15.5 second laps

7.76, 15.63, 15.16, 15.21, 15.49, 15.29, 15.65, 15.79, 8.07 = 2.04.05 which is a more realistic pace. To obtain a best performance from a team is an exercise, which is not quite as easy as observers may imagine.

During our rest sessions which were 30 – 35 minutes in-between efforts, I obtained a whole host of supplements which were donated to us by British Cycling, These included a box of Protein Shakes after exercise recovery drinks, two boxes of elite gel max, two boxes of elite energy bars, one an oat bar the other dry fruit and cereal. Once again, many, many thanks to our guardian angle and his staff of coaches and mechanics.

After training the majority of the riders tucked into the salads that I had bought for them, with us leaving the track at around 14h30. After Dave and I dropped the team off at the hotel, we went to go and swap our van for a more maneuverable car. This is another story L, yet whilst we have a lovely new vehicle, it didn’t save us any money as I was hoping.

All had a relaxing afternoon with us meeting in the dining room for supper, which we had pre-ordered at 14h00. The team are very happy as here they are permanently on free wi-fi.

Tomorrow is an off day, yet a couple of the team will be in attendance for a light session in our allocated time slot of 09h00 – 10h40

Love from a cold and wet Manchester

Best regards

Rog

[ccc2]

Sorry but we have been having internet problems here.

Yesterday was an off day for many of the riders, as such I along with “Jeanne, Jean and Kellan travelled through to visit the Dolan factory/warehouse and shop. This was about a 45-minute drive away from Manchester towards Liverpool.

This provided us with the opportunity to touch base and meet our sponsor, this being Stephen and Terry Dolan from Dolan Bikes. Please see the photo of Jeanne Nell holding his new bike frame as donated by Dolan Bicycles. Thank you soooo much Terry and Stephen for this kind gesture and your support of Cycling SA.

In the interim, the other lads had a roller session, at the velodrome, and I believe met Terry Dolan whom had traveled through to Manchester.

The team spent the balance of the afternoon relaxing in their rooms, whilst I worked on a power point presentation for addressing the Team Managers that would be present at the managers meeting.

We met at 19h00 for supper, which we had pre-ordered, with everybody retiring early for the evening.

The rain appears to have stopped today. Dave and I left at around 09h30 for the track accompanied by Kellan and Bernard. Registration was between 10h00 to 12h00, with us being in the queue sufficiently early to be leaving the Velodrome at 10h40.

Shopping at ASDA for lunch, which mostly consisted of salad pack of chicken and bacon. We departed for the track again at 12h30 for arrival by 12h45, allowing sufficient time organizing our area and team warm-up which was completed just after 14h00 in time for our allocated time slot of 14h00 – 15h40

Dave and I returned to the track to be present at the managers meeting, which was held at 18h00.

Whereas the team were keen to eat at an Italian restaurant, the once we selected on the Internet had been closed, so we returned to the hotel for an eat in supper. Lights out by 21h00.

Please see the attached schedule for tomorrow’s team and individual participation

Best regards

[Niel1]

Thanx for the updates!! Very cool

[ccc2]

Hello Africa,

 

its been bucketing down here today. Yet inside the velodrome its really warm.

 

Bernie’s Kerin was just one of those things as during the heats, although having draw 1, once the derny left the track, the back riders came forward and boxed him in. Not quite sure of this was tactical and intentional, but this effectively neutralized Bernard.

 

In the Kerin Repechage, a tough fought battle saw Bernie earning 2nd place, effectively eliminating him from the Kerin.

 

My son travelled up from Hemel Hempstead to come and say hello and support SA., whilst Katia Bernard’s wife has also joined us in our cubical. This lovely young lady brought us an awesome tin of biscuits from Belarus. Thanks love, much appreciated.

 

Theuns van der Bank rode his Individual Pursuit about and hour ago. Although riding a personal best of 4.40.23 “Dave’s Time”, its my opinion that he was worth more, especially as he didn’t follow instructions and did the first three laps too fast, by a second a lap. This would have cost him 5/6 seconds in the last kilometer. Nevertheless a valuable and worth while learning experience for our your SA Champs.

 

Kellan hasn’t been feeling on form, and although he did an awesome job in the Team Pursuit, Dave feels that he is under recovered, and as such made the decision to withdrawn him from the Points Race and enter Evan Carstens in his place.

 

Next up for the second round of the Points heats is Evan

 

chat later

 

Rog