It has been just under two weeks since the 2017 Junior Track National Championships wrapped up in Milton at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre. I am writing this blog a few days later than I would have hoped but I have been struggling to put such an incredible weekend into words and somehow get all of my thoughts and feelings to make sense on paper. It was an incredible weekend of racing, highlighted by winning my first individual national title in the Keirin and my third consecutive national title in the Team Sprint as well as a new Canadian Record in that event. Nationals has been the target of our program throughout the winter and to end on such a high note is more than I could have asked for.
Friday was an afternoon start and only a single session day, so my day started out with some quick dynamic movements to wake up my body before breakfast. First up for me was the Keirin that afternoon, for anyone that did not know, the Keirin format was recently changed from 8 laps down to 6 and the derny (pacing bike) pulls off at 3 laps to go rather than 2.5 laps to go. One other major change is that you are no longer allowed to fight for a position behind the derny, rather you must slot into the place that you draw at the beginning of the race. We pulled into the track a little before 1pm to get all set up and settled in before it was time to get things rolling for warmup, thankfully or wonderful coaching staff had everything ready to go for us and all we needed to do was get our bikes set up. At this point the excitement and nerves were quite high and I was eager to get underway with the first round of the Keirin. For the first round, I was in heat number 2 and pulled the number 2 starting position at the line. I was quite pleased with this since it meant I would be right near the front of the race. I was very confident in my abilities and knew that I could comfortably advance into the 1-6 final. As soon as the derny pulled off I was forced to the front and ended up riding all three laps on the front, I did win the heat and advance to the 1-6 final. This win was a huge confidence booster for myself since I had really been struggling with the tactics and confidence in my abilities over the past few races. We had about 2 hours between races so there was lots of time for recovery and to get ready for the final. I pulled the number 6 starting position for the 1-6 final so I knew exactly what I needed to do, I went to the line with the mindset of knowing I can win as long as my tactics were correct. I made my move as soon as the pace bike pulled off, coming from the back and going all the way over to the front, at two laps to go a Quebec rider came over and opened a gap which I was able to close in the final lap. I won the race by just over half a bike length, securing my first individual national title which was a huge honour. I was super happy with this result and was looking forward to taking the confidence from this win into the individual sprint tournament on Saturday. Saturday was quite the early start, we were at the track by 7am for a 9 o'clock start and I was quite tired to be completely honest, I did not sleep too well the night before and I'm guessing that it was most likely due to all the adrenaline from the Keirin win so I'm going to say the two cups of coffee before warmup were very much needed. My legs were feeling alright by the time warmup was finished but there was definitely some fatigue from the previous days racing. Skinsuit zipped, helmet on, straps tight, it was finally time to start the second day of racing. First up was the 200m TT which was qualifying for the individual sprint, I crossed the line in 10.925 seconds which put me into second place behind teammate and good friend Je'Land Sydney. We had about a 2 and a half hour break until the quarterfinal ride so we had lots of time to recover and get refueled before racing again. I was able to advance through the quarterfinal by a comfortable amount, we again had a long break to the second session and the semi finals. I was not too happy with my performance in the morning session, I felt like my 200m was slower than what I was capable of and I felt like I rode a sloppy race in the quarter finals and was not as alert as I should have been and that I did not execute as well as I know I am capable of, I knew this would need to change heading into the next rounds. In the semi finals I was feeling better, riding both races from the back and timing my acceleration just right so that I was able to come around in the final bend just as planned, I took the semi final win in two straight rides and advanced through to the gold medal final against Je'Land. It is always a tense atmosphere in our pit when the two of us race together, we often don't talk at all throughout the rounds, but I guess that is to be expected when a national title is on the line. Je'Land and I train together all the time so we both know each others strengths and weaknesses very well which I think is both a good and a bad thing. I knew that I again had to go to the start line with the mindset that I was going to win. Je'Land beat me in two straight rides to win the title, they were two very aggressive and fast races and we put on a show for sure, unfortunately I just didn't have the speed on the back end to come around in the end. Looking back on the races there were definitely some changes that I could make tacticly to have a better chance at the win next time. But ultimately it came down to the fact that Je'Land was the stronger and faster rider on the day and I am incredibly happy for him to take the win. A silver medal is nothing to complain about and even though very fatigued I knew that there was one more big at of racing to tackle with the Team Sprint and Kilo still to come. The final day of racing started out with a photoshoot of all the athletes representing Ontario in the team events. Again, a solid warmup was key to get us ready for the team sprint qualifying, We were the second heat to go and our goal was to break the Canadian record in qualifying and to get into the ride off for gold later in the day. In the qualifier, Lucas Taylor was the starter, Je'Land Sydney man 2 and I was man 3, we rode a time of 48.393 which broke the previous Canadian record by just under a second so we were for sure pretty pumped up about this. We beat the second place qualifying team by 2 seconds and were very confident heading into the gold medal final. In the final we switched out our starter to Justin Correa since Lucas had just finished a Team Pursuit ride and was a bit tired, the rest of the order was kept the same. After a bit of confusion at the start line we were finally give the countdown, we rode another very solid time of 48.175 seconds which bested our Canadian record that we had set in our qualifying ride. We were all very happy with this ride and super proud to have our names in the record books for a little while. Onto the kilo in the afternoon. By this point in the weekend I was absolutely exhausted and I wasn't sure how I was going to manage to ride this kilo since its 4 laps of absolute pain. My only motivation for this ride was that it was the last race of the weekend and another shot at a medal, and that we were getting burgers after! Kilos are not my favourite race on the track, nor am I the best at them, but I was determined to give it my all one last time to finish the weekend on a high note. My coach Joe told me in the starting gate that I needed to have the best start ever because there was no way I was going to build speed in the back half of the race. I did just that and oh man was he right because I quickly started to fade in the second half of the race and by now I was in so much pain that I was having a hard time seeing straight, kind of scary to think about! I crossed the line in a time of 1:08.073 which I far from my personal record but again was very pleased to have given it all I had and left everything out on the track! I finished in fourth place, narrowly missing the podium for the bronze medal by just one tenth of a second! Super close! This closed out a stellar weekend of racing! I could not be any happier with the way my final National Championships as a junior played out and I could not have asked for any more! Two national titles, a silver medal, and a Canadian record is incredible and I'm very pleased. A huge thank you goes out to my two incredible coaches Joseph Veloce and Samantha Eyles, there is no way I could do any of this without you guys behind me 100% , also thank you to all team staff for helping out and making sure everything ran super smooth. A big thank you as well to the Ontario Cycling Association and Michael Suraci for all their support over the last year and making sure we had all the support we needed to be the best athletes possible on race day! And a final thank you goes out to all friends and family who have supported over the years. This has been an incredible journey so far over the last 5 years and I cant wait to see what the future has in store! Onward! Cheers, Nick I've been sitting here for the last three hours trying to figure out a catchy punchline or sentence to start this post and its just not coming to me today. So basically this is just what the title says, a quick look back on the incredible year that I have had over the past 365 days. Full of new friendships, adventures, experiences, lessons and oppourtunities. I will try my best not to bore you with a novel and rather just touch on the key highlights of the year. The year got off to a slow start with the bigger part of my recovery from a concussion in late December of 2015. Thankfully there were no other major injuries or crashes this year that put me off the bike for any major length of time (also a huge relief for my parents). This has been my first full year training with a pure track sprint focus and taking all road races out of my plans. It was a welcome change but it was definitely a bit strange not travelling to a new town or location each weekend through the spring and early summer for road races. The first challenge this year for me was provincial championships in early March with only a month of training under my belt. I some how managed to pull off a silver medal in the match sprint and a bronze in the kilo. Jumping a month forward to April, it was already Nationals and qualifications for Junior Worlds. I came away with two medals from the competition; a silver in match sprint and gold in the team sprint alongside Adam Lefebvre and Lucas Taylor. I was incredibly honoured to be selected to Team Canada for the 2016 Junior Worlds in Switzerland and it was by far the highlight of my year. It was a big step for me in my development as an athlete and as a person. It was a huge eye opener for me in terms of how much work it really takes to be at the top of your sport and I will use that experience going forward as motivation to keep pushing. Some of my favourite memories from this year came from those three weeks and I think the best of all was being beside Stefan when he won the kilo world title. I got home at the end of July and took most of August away from training to just be a kid again for a few weeks and enjoy whatever part of summer vacation I had left before school started up again in September. I spent most of my time working at our local bike shop and with family. It seemed like August flew by and before I knew it I was starting my final year of high school which is incredibly bittersweet, I cant believe that its grade 12 already! By this time I am back to training full time again and preparing for upcoming competitions that included the Milton International Challenge and the first Ontario Cup of the 2016-2017 Track Season over the next few months. (Blog continues after pictures) Many things to be thankful for this year and I can't thank everyone enough for everything this year. Some special thank you's go out to Michael Suraci and the OCA for all the support this year, to my coaches Rob Good, Samantha Eyles and Joseph Veloce for believing in me and constantly pushing me to be a better version of myself everyday, on and off the bike. And a big thank you to my my parents, I wouldnt be here today without you guys. You have been my biggest supporters since day one and have never stopped believing in me and allowing me to do what I love to do.
Your past is a story and its up to you to write the future. I can't wait to see what is ahead for me in the coming months and years. I am ready for 2017! Happy New Year everyone! Cheers, Nick The final race for me of 2016 was this past weekend at the first Ontario Cup of the winter, this was my first opportunity to really test the legs and see how the hard work over the past few months would play out. With this being an O-cup and only a one day event, the only sprint event for junior men was the keirin competition as it does not take as long to complete as a match sprint tournament. The keirin was last on the schedule for the day of competition so it allowed me to sleep in for a change on raceday which doesnt happen very often. After finally getting out of bed at around 10 am I went through a slightly adjusted pre-race routine that included a dynamic warmup and as always, lots of food. We arrived at the track just after 1pm and began to get bikes and rollers ready to go for warmup. Over the past few weeks we have also been working on establishing a new warmup and better routines that help us to be better prepared at the start line. For anyone that didn't know, the rules of the keirin have also changed recently, where instead of eight laps it is now six and the derny pulls off half a lap earlier extending the sprint to three laps instead of two and a half, one final major rule change is that you can now come up beside the derny before it pulls off as long as you do not pass the front wheel. Ready to go at the start line, I drew position number one on the track for the first round. With only two heats this would be the semi-final where top three riders in each heat go to the 1-6 final and bottom three go to 7-12 final so all I needed to do was place inside the top three to secure a spot in the medal ride. I ended up in second place after the first round and secured my spot in the final. After about 45 minutes it was time for the final, alongside my buddy Je'Land Sydney we took positions 4 and 5 behind the derny. Je'Land made the early move to the front and I followed him to the front, the speed really kicked up with a lap and a half to go and it was a race the line, I took second position and Je'Land took the win. It was a great day of racing in Milton and it was a great gauge to see some solid progress being made as well as some areas for improvement. Onto the next race in January. It has been a few weeks since the International Challenge happened out in Milton and I think it is far past due that I give an update to everyone on how the year has played out since, well.........April I guess. It was quite a crazy year for me with so much to do leading into world championships and it seemed to all just fly by. Before I knew it, we had arrived in Switzerland for Junior Worlds and I couldn't be more excited. I am so thankful for everyone that helped me to get there and who supported me along the way, it was such an amazing experience with so many new things that I learned about racing and travelling, but most importantly I learned a lot about myself and things that work best for me. The experience was invaluable. Upon arrival home it was time for a bit of a break for my body and my mind to relax and step away from the training environment for a little while. Since worlds was in July this year, I still had a month left of summer vacation before school started up again. Having this time to spend with family and friends was quite a treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After about a three week break it was time to get back into the swing of things and to be completely honest, it took me a little while to get back the motivation to train each day and find my 'mojo' I guess you could say. With the help of my amazing coaches and family we were able to get back to firing on all cylinders and it surely was a great feeling. Fast forward now to the Milton International Challenge (Sept. 29-Oct. 1), with a solid month of training in my legs I was definitely eager to get racing. The weekend of racing started out with the sprint tournament on the Thursday afternoon, first up was the 200m qualifier and I went in looking for a fairly decent time. I came away with a time of 11.466 sec, well off the pace of my personal best that I set at worlds. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement and it took me a bit of time to get my head back in the right space before the first sprint round. I was able to make it straight to the gold medal final against best friend, teammate and strong competitor Je'Land Sydney, unfortunately he was able to take the gold medal in two straight rides and I took the silver medal, but I will get him next time :) . The following day was the Keirin competition in the evening, I again went in looking for a strong performance and another medal. After narrowly qualifying through the first round it was immediately into the 1-6 final for medals. The race announcers has stated that Je'Land and I were the favourites to win this race, and although that is really cool to hear and all, it definitely puts a bit of pressure on you and I really didn't want to screw up. I got the silver medal and Je'Land took another gold medal for his second of the weekend and I couldn't be happier with how it was going. The third and final day of racing for me held the kilo competition, since I was not part of the omnium I was seeded in at the end of the starting order. Tristan Guillemette had laid out the ride to beat with a solid time of 1:05.913, faster than my personal best and it would be a hard time to beat. I had a solid start and was able to hold second place for 3/4 of the race when it suddenly seemed that my legs did not want to keep going around and it felt like I had just hit a brick wall, I crossed the line in 9th place with a time of 1:08.918 which was a little hard to swallow but just a good indicator of the large amounts of work that need to be done over the coming months. I finished up in 10th place and that capped off an excellent weekend of racing and was a good way to gauge my form and set up a plan for the next blocks of training. Lots of work do be done over the next 6 months leading into Track Nationals, and I am very confident that I will be able to reach my goals come April! I feel like I can't say thank you to everyone enough for all that they do to support me and help me on this journey that I am on. No matter how big or how small of an impact you have had on me over the past few years that I have been riding, it is all very truly much appreciated and I am very thankful for all of you. I hope that you can continue to follow me on this roller coast of a journey I am on! Yours Truly, Nick It was quite the busy weekend of racing at the recent national championships and it seems the week following has been a lot of rest and relaxation after a really long season. There has also been some school work that I have been trying to get caught up on over the past week and a half that had been lingering from all the time I have taken off of school to get ready for nationals. Maybe that's why it has taken me so long to get around to writing about this blog. I guess I should just stop making excuses and finally tell you about all the great racing from the past weekend.
The Team Sprint qualifier was first up for me on Friday morning. A lot of work over the winter had gone into preparing for this event so we were really hoping for a good result and we were fairly confident that we could win. Our goal heading into the race was to go sub 50 seconds which would give us the Canadian record so all that we had in our minds was to go as fast as possible, which is basically the whole point of the race. After a bit of a struggle getting into my toe straps, we needed to have a restart because I was late to the line. As soon as I got that out of my head and began to refocus, the clock started the countdown. With a clean start, we were off to the races...a strong first lap thanks to Lucas Taylor and we were already in the lead by half a second. We crossed the line in a total time of 49.495 seconds with a speed of 54.5 kph breaking the previous Canadian record by a full second. We were very happy with this ride but we were also very confident that we would be able to go faster in the finals later that afternoon. Going through the full warm-up for the finals, we were very excited to go fast once again and we were able to cross the line in a time of 49.268 seconds, breaking our own record by two tenths of a second! This wrapped up racing for day one and after podiums and receiving our jerseys, we were able to leave the track a little after 4pm which was quite unusual for us, but a nice treat none the less. Day 2 seemed to start just the same as the first.. ...early wake up, big breakfast and pack the cooler and kit bag for another day at the track...except there was a little more pressure on today since it was the sprint tournament. First up was the 200m TT which was the qualifier for the sprint tournament but also one of the main qualifiers for sprinters to go to junior world championships. This was all business for me so I had to be sure that my preparations were 200% spot on. After about a 2 hour warmup, I was sure that I was ready to go and it was almost time for my start. As Rob pushed me onto the track I quickly went over the task at hand in my head. The time standard for worlds is 10.998 seconds so I knew I needed to go under 11.0 seconds. I crossed the line in a time of 11.286 seconds which I was slightly unhappy with at the moment because I did not hit the time standard, but all in all it was a good time since it was a personal best by over a tenth of a second and it put me into third position, which is a great spot to be in heading into the sprint tournament. The 1/8 final was extremely easy because my opponent did not show to the start line so I got an automatic win and a place in the quarterfinal ride. For the quarterfinal ride my opponent did show and this was best 1 of 1 so it was either win and go on or lose and go home. I was up against teammate and friend Lucas Taylor so I did know many of his tactics and I was able to win the quarterfinal and advance to the semi-finals later that afternoon. After a nice lunch and visit with friends and family that had come out to watch, it was time to head back down to the infield to get ready for the next round. I was up against another teammate and friend who was Adam Lefebvre. The next two rides were very tough races but I was able to take the semi-final in two straight rides. Onto the gold medal final..... I knew that it was going to be nearly impossible to beat Stefan Ritter since he was nearly 0.6 seconds faster than me in qualifying earlier in the day, so ultimately I knew it was going to be me heading out there and trying to make it as interesting as possible and attempt to learn a few new tactics. In the first ride I tried to attack a little earlier than I was comfortable with and although I opened a gap very quickly, it was not enough to hold him off as he came around me with half a lap to go like a freight train and taking the first ride. The second ride was not nearly as interesting. Stefan basically caught me sleeping and he had already started to open a gap by the time I reacted to his attack, which ultimately gave him the second win and the Canadian title. After podiums it was off to get dinner and then off to bed for a good night's sleep to be well prepared for the kilo first thing Sunday morning. The one big goal I had heading into the kilometre time trial on Sunday morning was to better my time from provincials back in early March. The time I needed to beat was a 1:09 and after 4 solid laps on the track I was able to put down a final time of 1:07:834, beating my time from Provincials by nearly two seconds. I'm going to credit that to the huge block of training over March Break. :) After the lunch break it was time for the Keirin. This event is always a wildcard where anything can happen. This event didn't exactly go as planned for me as I was edged out at the line in the first round placing third and having to go to the repecharge instead of getting a direct spot in the semi-final. The repecharge was 4 riders and the top three advance. I was comfortably able to finish second and qualify for the semi-final. As I said, this race is always a wildcard..... it proved to be yet again as I made a bit of a tactical error in the semi-final and was again edged out at the line to finish fourth, placing me into the 7-12 final. By this point I was completely used up and I just wanted to go into the last race of the weekend and give it everything that I had even though it wasn't very much. I think I rode this entire race on adrenaline and it was enough to win the small final by about half a wheel length and placing 7th in the keirin event. Looking back at such a great weekend of racing, I really cannot thank all of the volunteers, commissaires, other race officials and organizers enough for putting on such a great event. Another huge thank you goes out to all the friends, family, teammates, coaches and mechanics that helped out and supported us all weekend long.....we wouldn't be able to do it without you! After a hugely successful #cantrackchamps, I am super happy to come away with a gold and silver medals as well as a new Canadian Record! Cant wait for next year! (Check out pictures section for some great shots of the weekend of racing) Cheers, Nick This past weekend I competed in the Ontario Track Cycling Provincial Championships. This was my first competition back since my accident on December 19th of 2015 and it has definitely been a very long road to get to this point. For those unfamiliar with my injury I sustained a concussion that put me off the bike for 5 weeks, giving me just over one month of training before provincial championships. In all honesty I was completely freaked out heading into this race, unsure of my form and a bit nervous to jump right back into the racing. Previous to the race I had only had one day of track time in the month of training so the nerves of riding the track still lingered a little bit.
I'm sure by now you would actually like to hear about how the weekend of racing played out since that is the reason you came to read. The weekend started on Friday morning with pre-race activation (45 minutes on rollers to get your body ready to race). This was followed by lots of cooking and packing before heading off to Milton. Since racing for me wasn't until Saturday, we decided to stop by the track to support friends as they raced their individual pursuits that afternoon. It was then off to my aunt and uncle's house to get a good night's sleep before the big day. It was a fairly early wake up on Saturday morning at 6:45 in order to leave by 7:30am. After a really big breakfast to get the fuel for the day, it was off to the velodrome. We arrived at the track around 8am and started to unload all the equipment and get it set up. With everything ready to go it was time to begin focusing on what needs to happen in the next few hours, headphones in, music loud and it's go time. Warm-up starts with 15 minutes of stretching and active mobility and then 40 minutes on rollers in order to be 200% ready to go. Ten seconds before the start of my 200m I recapped the goal of this ride in my head which was to have a new personal best time. In order to do this, I would need to go faster than 11.406 seconds and I was quite determined to do so. Crossing the line in a new personal best of 11.382 seconds I was a little disappointed because I new that I had the speed for a faster time but there were a few technical errors through corner 3 and 4 that cost me some time in the end. This time placed me in 4th place meaning I would ride against the fifth place qualifier in the first round. Onward and upward it was time to prepare for the quarter finals, having raced the rider in the past I was quite confident that I could beat him so I made sure to attack first to be safe and minimize the effort I would need to put out. Having won this ride I had secured a spot in the semi finals later in the day. It was time to get cleaned up and refuel before the afternoon session knowing that the semifinals were not going to be easy if I wanted to get into the gold medal ride off since I was going up against a teammate and fastest qualifier Adam Lefebvre. With another solid warmup I was ready to go, and after two very tough races I had luckily made it into the gold medal ride off which was against another teammate and good friend Je'land Sydney. These next two races were also very tough and after missing a key opportunity, Je'land got the jump on me and won two straight taking the gold medal and provincial title. That's it for the first day of competition. Day 2 of competition started off early again being at the track a little after 8:30am. First up was the kilometre time trial and I was very excited for this race since it was 4 laps of the track full on racing the clock. After leaving everything I had out on the track I crossed the line in a time of 1:08.573. I was quite pleased with this ride as it put me in third place with one rider remaining. I finished the event in 4th place but since the 3rd place rider was from outside of Ontario I received the bronze medal. Next up was the keirin, one of my all time favourite races on the track. Unfortunately it did not go as planned and I did not advance to the 1-6 final after placing fourth in my qualifying heat when only the top three advance. This put me into the 7-12 final which I was a little disappointed about but decided to use it as a learning experience and try some new tactics. I ended up winning the small final by about 15-20 meters proving that I have what it takes to win but sometimes all the factors just don't line up. The final event of the day was the Team Sprint where we won the event with teammates Lucas Taylor and Adam Lefebvre in a time of 50.327 seconds. This rounded out a great weekend of racing for all with lots of fast times put on display.... congratulations to all who that participated! I would like to also take the time to send out a huge thank you to all the people who have helped me overcome two major injuries in the past eight months. These injuries have been very challenging to overcome on a physical level but have also taken quite a toll mentally. A very sincere thank you goes out to all the friends, family, doctors and coaches that have helped me overcome these obstacles and constantly pushing me to be better. I really can't thank you enough. It has been a long road but with your help it has made it a little easier! Cheers, Nick Last weekend, I competed in the 2015 Canadian Track Cycling Championships held in Milton, ON at the new Mattamy Velodrome. This was a jam packed weekend full of racing right from Friday morning at 9am all the way through to Sunday at 7pm. My weekend started with a 6 am wakeup call on Friday morning in order to be at the track by 7, this would ensure us lots of time to get all of our equipment properly set up for racing and warmups. Once I had everything set up we had a team meeting with 'Teams of Ontario' to go over how the day would play out with the team events. With the meeting finished I headed off to get changed and start my warmup for team sprint qualifying ride. After a solid warmup I got ready to head to the start line. In order to pass bike check, our mechanic Murray needed to make a slight adjustment to my seat to make it legal. Since I was the rider that did the first lap of the race, my coach Rob took my bike and placed it in the starting gate and I got on my bike, when the three of us got comfortably onto our bikes the countdown clock started, 50 seconds to go, then 30 seconds to go, then the 10 second warning, 5..4..3..2..1.....and I burst out of gate giving it everything I had to start as fast as I could and get the rest of the team off to a good start. Our final rider crossed the line and when I looked at the big screen I was very pleased to the number one beside our name, the meant we had qualified with fastest time so far and if we held onto that top spot we had earned our way into the gold medal final later that night. We had managed to keep the top qualifying spot by over a second, giving us a lot of confidence heading into the finals later that evening. That was it for me for the morning session, I got changed and cleaned up and headed up to the stands to watch all the Team Pursuit qualifiers with parents. Heading on to the gold medal final I had another solid warmup and was feeling really excited and ready to go after the national championship. We got into the gate and began the countdown, after a very strong start lap I rolled around the top of the track waiting to see the final result, we had done it. We were National Champions!!!!!! So much happiness ran through me at point and I Didn't even know what to say. After lots of podiums and hugs it was time to head home and rest up and refuel for the second day of competition. The second day began as another early morning wake up and we arrived at the track a little after 7am. Up first for me today was the 200m TT to seed us for the sprint tournament later on. I went up and was feeling very confident about how the ride went unfortunately the times don't lie and I ended up qualifying in 5th position, I was a little unhappy with my ride seeing that I was aiming for a much faster time but all things considered it was still a fast time and it had qualified me for the sprint tournament. The top 16 riders would qualify for the sprint rounds, since I qualified in 5th position, I went up against the 12th place qualifier in the first round, I was a little nervous going into this first ride since it had been my first match sprint race since the spring and the fact that I was unhappy with my qualifying time. With constant reassurance from my coaches Dave and Rob I went to the start line a little more confident and was able to ride the race tactically smart, giving me the ability to comfortably win the first round. That had wrapped up the second day of competition for me so I headed out to rest up for the final day of competition. Here we go, the final day of competition at track nationals, after another early arrival to the track I found myself again nervous and uneasy about how the day would play out, since it was only the completion of the sprint tournament happening during that morning session there were not many riders at the track. Murray Solem, another one of our coaches had taken a few us aside to do a pre race activation before we started our warmups, I think it actually helped quite a bit because I was feeling ready to go. in the 1/4 final I was against another rider form Quebec who had qualified just one spot ahead of me by 2 tenths of a second. I decided to race this one from the front, keeping a watch of my shoulder for where the other rider was, he got the jump on me using the track to accelerate very quickly and gain about a 20 metre gap, working as hard as I possibly could, I was able to close the gap and get around him to win the round bike just under half a wheels length. Moving on to the semi-final I was against the number one qualifier would had a significantly faster time than I did, I rode as best as I could trying to outsmart him but in the end he was the faster rider and he won the round. Losing that ride put me into the bronze medal race against a Quebec rider, the finals were best 2 out of 3 and I was able to win in two rides and secure the bronze medal. Onto my final event of the weekend, the 500m TT, two laps full on trying to get the fastest time possible. Since I was not part of the omnium event I was the second heat up, alongside my teammate Je'land Sydney. Since we are both sprinters we were looking to medal in this event and we had gone out and set two very fast times, he sat in first while I sat in second, these times would stand that way until the final heat where Riley Pickrell from BC nearly took the win, missing it by just 2 one hundredths of second!! I had ended up in third position giving me the bronze medal. I was very happy with way the weekend turned out, to think just 8 weeks prior racing these national championships was going to a coin toss. The success of this past weekend is because of the constant support of family, friends, coaches and doctors, but most of all the unconditional support of my parents and for that I am extremely grateful because none of this would be possible with out them. I would love to also thank everyone that cheered me on during my racing, it certainly helps! Thanks again, Nick P.S be sure to check out the picture section for a few pictures from the weekend! Just 7 weeks ago I was told by doctors that competing at the Canadian Track Cycling Championships would be totally out of the question, they told me that the bone would not be strong enough to handle the tension that goes through the shoulder while racing, they told me that it would be at least 3 weeks after surgery until I could even think about riding a bike again (I rode on the trainer four days after surgery). But boy oh boy did I ever prove them wrong!
Track nationals has been what I have been training for and building to all year long, I had some high expectations and goals for myself at these championships. When the accident happened I thought of it as the end of my season rather than just a little speed bump. Everyone told me that there was always next year and that I needed to focus on getting better and not worry about racing for a while. I didn't take that too well, I told myself I would do anything and everything to be back in time to race. Its been a long road since August 13th when I had a crash in training and broke my left collarbone. Since then I have had countless trips to chiropractors, physiotherapists, sports doctors and massage therapists. I can now finally say that I am 99% back to where I should be, and with that comes extreme happiness and joy. With just under a week until my first day of competition at the 2015 track nationals, I begin to look back and think about all the people that made my recovery so quick. It is all these individuals that I have to thank for getting me back into tiptop shape before competition especially my coaches and parents for believing in me and constantly pushing me, without you guys I have no idea where I would be! I hope that next week I will be able to perform at my absolute best and still be able to fulfill some of my goals. I promise to give you guys a full report as soon as the competition ends. I race from October 9th-11th so wish me lots of luck! Cheers. Nick Hey everyone it's Nick… This is my first blog post and this is where I will keep you updated on all of my training and racing and all other things bike racing related!!
-Nick |
Archives
April 2017
Categories |