From the Wellington Velodrome Pressroom:
A five-strong world-famous in Wellington, international allstar team competed on the Grassroots Velodrome over three days at the end of April in the UCI certified Cambridge Classic. Up for grabs: UCI points and the chance to learn from the best riders in New Zealand by being thoroughly thrashed by them.
Writes Nick Warren (Great Britain/Tawa):
From arriving at the track on the very first morning, our allstar team of Thomas Guldborg (Denmark/ Miramar), Gideon Burke (Great Britain/ Brooklyn), Bella Uivel (New Zealand/ Houghton Bay), Chris Watts (New Zealand/ Mt Victoria), mechanic Gary Gibson (New Zealand/ Hataitai) and myself felt like kids in a candy store, rubbing shoulders with New Zealand’s top talent.
Sam Webster was warming up right next to us, Ellese Andrews smiled ‘hello’ and Anna Meares was feeding one of her small children. “Anything you guys need?” asked Cycling New Zealand’s new sprint coach Nick Flyger.
CNZ put together a brutal sprint and endurance programme to maximise points-scoring opportunities which meant each of the seven-hour race days started with a couple of Keirins followed by a flying 200m time trial and sprint competition. Sprinkled over that were various endurance races which included 25km or 30km madisons, 15km scratch races, 30km points races and a full four-race omnium.
From the very first Keirin, in which Thomas and I lined up against Sam Webster, Sam Dakin and two development sprinters, it was pretty clear no one was going to go easy on us. I’ve never ridden a gear as big as the 116″ I had on but I needed it – the speed was unreal and the G force through the bankings intense. Being somewhat near the back wheel of the big guys going into the final lap felt like an achievement.
Chris smashed his flying 200m PB with his first ever sub-11sec ride. It was great to see the recognition he got from the other sprinters there, a sign of the respect the Wellington Sprint Squad have developed over the years. Chris went on to ride a 10.749sec the following day and is now the fastest active WSS member.
Gideon and I were proud to finish two out of the three madisons we started, 30km and 25km in distance. Wellington’s George Jackson was one of the top riders racing with Carne Groube, competing against Nick Kergyzou, Dan Bridgewater and a couple of young Aussie guns to name a few.
There was no chance keeping up with these guys, it’s humbling how quick they are, so we figured losing a lap out of every 10 was pretty good going. We managed to get a couple of points too but that was almost certainly because we got lapped exactly as the bunch whizzed over the line on a sprint lap. But still…!
By day three we were on our last legs but with Sam Webster and a young Australian sprinter Sam Gallagher crashing out on Saturday, it left an opening for us to score big. Gideon rode strongly to qualify for the A Keirin final and score a top six finish while I won the B final. It also meant Chris, Gideon and I qualified in the top eight for the day’s sprint competition, getting to ride a first round and then B series ride offs for the minor placings.
Bella nailed her run to set a new flying 200m personal best with 13.199sec. She’d ridden the women’s eight-up Keirin final shortly beforehand against Ellesse Andrews, Olivia King and up and coming BMX/sprint star Rebecca Petch. Thomas lowered his flying 200m time too and Chris knocked out a 10.8 for his third straight sub 11sec TT.
Chris chose a 135″ gear for that effort saying, “it was an experiment, but afterwards I chundered and now my legs are disabled.”
I tried to go from the whistle against Sam Dakin, asking my handler for a sneaky push and using a smaller gear. It didn’t work, but at least elicited a decent amount of cheers and laughs. “Good one,” said Sam afterwards. Gideon rode off against Callum Saunders but wasn’t able to get in front, while Chris pushed Patrick Clancy close to the line in his heat.
Thomas then rode his best bunch race in a 10km scratch, the first of four omnium races. On average he has the pace but the constant surges and attacks from the favourites made it extremely hard to stay in the bunch. He raced into the last few kilometres before being lapped and pulled out by the commissaires, much further than the rest of us!
By this stage I’d given up trying to warm up or stay loose for races, instead opting to preserve energy by.. sitting down. We finished our match sprints B series with Chris still firing to beat Gideon, and me going out 2-0 to youngster Reuben Webster.
I haven’t raced as much as we did over such a short amount of time in many years, and haven’t felt so utterly out of my depth since my first ever National Championships as a schoolboy, but I’d still rank the experience as one of the best weekends I’ve ever had. Despite being well out-classed, we put ourselves out there, raced our hardest and took a hammering – I hope the rest of the allstars are as proud as I am of that.
Plus we are ranked in the top 220 keirin racers in the world now, what a hoot! Huge thanks to Gary for making the trip as mechanic and holder-in-chief.
More highlights
– Checking our UCI world rankings – we picked up dozens of points (unfortunately it looks like the women’s races didn’t meet the criteria and so Bella has not been allocated UCI points).
– Anna Meares track standing in one of her match sprints – she’s still all class.
– The UCI Commissaire wandering over right after finishing a match sprint and saying, “We need you Team GB boys in this scratch race!”. International guns-for-hire, that’s us.
– After getting blown out the back in the first 10 laps of a scratch race, Gary asking with a barely contained smile, “how was that then?”
– Smoked pork burger after day two – refueling sprinter style.
– Chris doing his recovery position sprawl in the track centre and concerned officials asking if he was ok while the rest of us ignored him.
Cycle Wire 