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 |
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