It has been a week since my last event at the World Championships. In those seven days I have traveled to Dallas for a speaking opportunity with The Hartford, we packed up our rental home in Long Beach, Amelia and I drove back to Bozeman, we unpacked and now we are in the throws of packing up life here in Bozeman as we embrace a new adventure in Colorado. In short, I have a bit on my mind.
Thus it has been difficult to really unpack all my thoughts/emotions from Worlds. So here is my knee-jerk take on things.
For the first time I dedicated myself to a single event on the track: the individual pursuit. I believe this event aligns well with the direction my cycling has been developing over the past few years, but not training with the sprinters during track workouts took some adjustment. Adapt I did, and I quickly found myself very encouraged with my progress throughout the training in LA. By the time Worlds rolled around I was confident in my ability to make the finals for a medal in the event. Rested and excited for race day I was looking to have one of my best days on the track, a day when everything came together. Unfortunately, by the time the clock stopped my time told a different story.
For reasons I am still unaware of, my legs did not show up on race day and I clocked a time well off my training times netting me a 6th place. My disappointment was very evident yet I still struggle to find fault with my game plan or the effort that I put into the pedal. I finished the pursuit fully drained but none the less having gone much slower than anticipated. My only explanation is that phenomenon of luck or fortune that often makes the difference between an average performance and a great one.
My second competition was the Kilometer, an event I had invested little if any specific training time to in months. Despite this lack of attention I was able to capitalize on my natural sprint to carry me to a personal best for the LA Velodrome. It should be noted that the LA track and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. I really enjoy racing and training on the LA track as it is our finest velodrome venue in the states. However, in competition it has all too often gotten the best of me, sapping me of my strength and sending me home dragging my tail.
My final event at Worlds was on face-value, the least important and the biggest unknown. For the first time in Paralympic history we hosted a mass start event, the Scratch race. Not only would this be the first mass start race on the track for Paralympic athletes in World competition it marked my first mass start on a track ever. To say I was nervous would be a bit of an understatement. The race would entail 22 riders on the line for a 40 lap first-to-cross-the line wins race
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For the first half of the race I could focus on little else than my front wheel and immediate surroundings. On several occasions I avoided mass carnage thanks to a solid shoulder or a quick flick of the front wheel. But as my confidence grew I was able to trust my bike handling skills and began racing with a broader awareness of what was going on both in front and behind me in the race. With half the race to go, I had a teammate in a break up ahead. This placed me in the role of defending my teammate’s position by attempting to foil any attempts to bridge the gap. Unlike the days earlier my legs were feeling alive with plenty of pop. I played my roll of defense as best I could successfully preventing other riders from bridging the gap. I also won the bunch sprint at the end for 9th.
Despite my reservations for the scratch race in the beginning this event was my personal highlight of Worlds and I am eagerly anticipating next year’s Worlds when it will become an official World Championship event.
So at this point what are my take homes? Evaluating my overall fitness I am pleased with my conditioning at this point in the season and despite my finishes at Worlds I know that I have the strength necessary to finish on the podium with the Worlds best. Over the next few weeks training data will be crunched and digested as my coach and I draft a training plan that will deliver me on the podium in 190 days in London.
