I thought I’d share this great animation project I came across. It’s by Tim Wheatley, an animation student at University College Falmouth, and check out his blog about his current work in Africa producing a Cyclotrope film for an AIDS charity.
The Cyclotrope from tim Wheatley on Vimeo.
I have been training like crazy! I’ve just come back from my team’s training camp in Italy and it was very hard! It was the first time that I met all my teammates and they are all great, we have a great atmosphere in the team, everyone is super friendly with a great attitude.
We are about to start the season this week in Belgium and some other riders have been racing since February so we did some intense training to get in shape for racing. Every ride we did included amazing climbs and we had to do efforts and sprints! The first days were hard but fun and at the end of the first week we were all super tired of the hard work out we’d done.
We were usually doing blocks, 3 days hard training and one easy day. Our first easy day was on Wednesday and we arrived on a Sunday, we went for a 2 hour ride (on a rest day!). The second rest day was on Saturday and we were all super tired so we took the day off and went to the beach to enjoy the sun and the amazing weather in Riccione.
Seriously, if you are thinking of a good place for a training camp you need to try this place. It has the most amazing climbs and the view when you are climbing is incredible! (not that I had a chance to enjoy it during the efforts tho…) the weather is amazing and I haven’t even mentioned the food yet, I think everyone loves Italian food as much as I do.
We were training with Jamie Burrow he is a former pro and was riding for US Postal with Lance Armstrong, it was great to train with him and learn from all the experience he has. He is super friendly and he was always giving us feedback and advising us oh how to become better riders, you can’t get that every day so we tried to learn from him as much as we could do in 2 weeks.
The first week of training was hard but the second week was even worse (at least for me) I got a bit sick and couldn’t do all the efforts in the rides but I still did all the distance, we were doing almost 4 hours every day which is pretty hard and if you include the efforts it makes it even harder and I guess I didn’t take care of myself as I should have and I was feeling a bit week.
The thing is that when you train that hard you need to take as much rest as possible, drink a lot of water and eat good for the next day but coming from such a different continent and not being used to the food and everything makes it a bit hard for me. Anyway… I was feeling better by Wednesday and we had to do some Team Time Trial efforts and I am happy I could be a part of it. We have this Team Time Trial in Luxemburg coming up so getting the training done was important!
After the 2 weeks we were all exhausted but happy with the training and the hours on the bike. Everyone was looking in better shape every day and I think the team is ready to start this season. I leave for Belgium tomorrow, I do two races this week and then some races in Luxemburg and I am very excited to see that everything is already happening. I’m looking forward to going back to Mexico in June for the National Championships, I think racing in Europe will give me loads of experience and confidence and I really hope I can get a good result there.
Will give you guys more updates after my first races!
Nancy
by Jody Cundy
Can’t believe it, this coming Sunday when thousands of people will be running the London marathon, another milestone on the run in to the Paralympics rolls around, 500 days to go!
All of a sudden the Paralympics in London are becoming very real, and I couldn’t be more excited. With the world track championships all done and dusted for another year, it’s time to switch focus to the road, but not before hitting the track at the Good Friday meet, which for the first time in a few years won’t be rained off as it’s moved away from the outdoors of Herne Hill velodrome in London to the indoor velodrome, and my home track Manchester. The event is going to be the racing debut for the team I helped set up, and all our riders are down to ride, I can’t wait to pull on my skinsuit in the Para-T colours for the first time, and fingers crossed the couriers manage to deliver it in time! I’m going to be racing in the international sprint and keirin, which is a change from the normal track racing I do, which is usually me against the clock, but with others riders on the track elbow to elbow, it should be good fun.
Following the Good Friday meeting my road season really kicks off as I fly out to Sydney for the 1st round of the Paracycling road world cup series. I’m part of a small team of 8 riders heading down under aiming to score more essential points for the London qualification process. First up with have a 9- 10day training and acclimatisation camp in Wollongong, and then we head into Sydney and to the Eastern Creek raceway for a 75.6km road race, and then a few days later it’s a 24.8km technical (tight and twisty) time trial around the Sydney Olympic park in Homebush Bay.
Since the world championships I’ve had a very chilled few weeks and been busy with a few appearances. I returned to my home town to give an after dinner speech at the Rotary Club of Wisbech’s 74th Charter Night. I was also present in Salford Quays at the opening of the 2nd of 8 nationwide volunteer selection centres, where over 5000 people will be interviewed for an opportunity to volunteer at the London 2012 games.
Jody Cundy - Image ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
Next week I will be at the Lee Valley White Water Rafting Park, for the official opening of the first Olympic venue that will be open to the general public prior to the games next year. It’s going to be a scary and exciting day as by the sound of it I’m in a raft with a bunch of others to test out the course, oh boy the things I have to do! I also have my rider review, where I’ll sit down with my coach and managers and discuss how the last 12months have gone, and how I can maximise my performance and make sure no stone is unturned on route to London.
Catch you all soon, with hopefully good news from down under.
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
We got some great stuff from CNP, great recovery shakes, bars and gels. The products are just amazing and they are also quite delicious! I want to eat the bars even when I am not riding!
Dolan gave us a great frame, it’s specially painted with the team colours and it looks amazing with our Santini kit that’s sponsored by Prendas Ciclismo and on top of that we also got new helmets and sunglasses from Casco!
So the training is going well, I have all my vitamins and recovery stuff I need to be strong and the best equipment provided from my team! I really can’t wait to start racing in april!
Nancy
(Montichiari, Italy 2011)
by Jody Cundy
Wow what can I say, 3 days of competition, 3 medals, 2 World Records and 1 National Record. Going into Italy the main concerns I had were:
1. Could I pull out the pursuit ride my training has been geared to?
2. Would all the pursuit/endurance training I’ve done effect my top end speed?
3. Would 3 events back to back be a step too far?
Day 1 (4km Pursuit)
Well question 1 was answered on day one and it was a big yes!
Preparing for the worlds myself and my coach (Chris Furber) targeted 4:45 as a realistic target, if I could do this, then based on previous results this would put me in the top 5 or 6 riders in the world and score a healthy amount of points for the London qualification process. However it would be a massive challenge as my best time prior to the world championships was a 5:03.286. Things had been going well in training, and I was on target, I just had to get up there and put all the components together. With Chris walking the line I tried to keep my 1st kilometre measured and controlled as I’d been finding it easy to get carried away, especially when your legs feel good. More importantly though this had been my big downfall in training and had led to some rather slow and incredibly painful efforts!
Jody at the World Championships Italy 2011 - Image ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
By the time I reached 3km I was feeling strong and still in control of my speed, and I now had my opponent all set for the catch. I swept by him in turn 3 and then pushed on through to the end, with my legs beginning to really burn with a lap to go, but hearing the bell I just had enough to get me to the finish line.
As I looked up to the score board I was amazed to see I’d rode a 4:44.085 (an almost 20second personal best time) and had a rank 1 next to my name! With just one heat to go it meant I’d definitely be doing a 2nd 4km in the finals, but I would have to wait 5mins to find out what medal I’d be racing for. In the final heat world champion and world record holder Jiří Ježek posted the fastest time of 4:41.895, and with his opponent falling short of my time it meant I was a guaranteed silver medallist and I would be racing Jiří in the final.
Before the final I talked with Chris and discussed how we were going to attack it, as now I had made the final my competitive nature had taken over, and I wanted to give Jiří a good fight and make him work for the title. My qualifying ride was a controlled measured effort, and I believed I could squeeze out a little more and put some pressure on Jiří. So we decided on riding to the WR schedule, and see what would happen! This was all well and good, however by the time I was at lap 3 I was a long way up on schedule, a very dangerous place to be in a pursuit, especially as this schedule was 4 seconds faster than I rode in the morning. By lap 6 my over exuberance started to take its toll as I struggled to maintain the rhythm and speed I’d started with. Kilo’s 2 and 3 were pretty steady before I managed to find my legs again, but by then my race was over, Jiří had me in sight. I managed to make it to the 4km without being overlapped, but Jiří was world champion, and I now had a new pet project to add to my list for London!
Day 2 (1km Time Trial)
With the pursuit over, and all my goals reached and exceeded it was time to get back to events I know and love, and to answer question 2. The kilo was going to be an interesting race, with 25riders down on the start list and team mate Terry Byrne snapping at my heels in training the pressure was on. Terry was off 2nd rider and was out to post the marker everyone would be aiming at, and he did just that blasting out the gate to a 2second PB and a time that only I had gone quicker than, and he’d done this before I’d even started warming up!

I was last to go and with Terry’s time still top of the table with Jiří Bouska 2nd and Eduard Novak 3rd, it was time to see how much my legs had recovered from the previous days efforts. Out of the gate and I wanted to get the bike up to speed as fast as possible, 1st lap complete and I was 0.971 seconds up, my legs were feeling good as I settled into my tri bars and continued to accelerate through the middle section of the ride as I crossed the line I was a full 2.55 seconds clear of Terry and 0.3 seconds inside my WR winning time from Manchester 2009. Question 2 was answered, I’d not lost any of my speed, and as a bonus from all the endurance training the last 2 laps didn’t hurt as much as in previous kilos. I think that’s the first time I’ve actually been able to enjoy my victory laps!
Jody World Championships, Italy 2011 - Image ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
With 15 teams riding the competition had become stronger, and in ride 10 the Chinese team set a new WR time of 51.655, taking 0.5 seconds off the existing mark. However this didn’t faze us as we knew that in training we’d been quicker than this new standard. Lined up on the track it was important that we executed the starts and changes over smoothly and legally, as fast as possible, and we did just that, blazing around to a 49.809 to take the top qualification spot and smash the WR in the process. In the final, after looking at the race data from the heats we made some different gear choices and felt confident we could go faster. As we blasted round the track our confidence was well founded as we smashed the WR again, taking it down to 49.540 with the feedback from the morning making a big difference in the final, the Chinese finished in 51.771.
Jody shows off his latest bling from the Worlds - Image ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
Montichiari was a fabulous experience and one of those weekends of racing that as an athlete you love, because all the hard work has paid off and everything has come together.
As a team we topped the medal table with 9 Golds, 8 Silver and 1 Bronze. It’s starting to look good for London. All that’s left to do now is sit down with Chris and analyse the performances and work out how to get even quicker for London. I have a few days off, and then I’ll be back on my bike preparing for a summer of endurance that will hopefully set me up for next year.
Happy cycling!
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
I thought Monterrey had a weird weather but I was so wrong, I have seen the weirdest changes in temperatures here in Avenhorn, one day it’s sunny and hot (7 degrees… ok maybe not that hot!) the next minute is cloudy and raining, then you have some snow! then a sunny day again and of course… its ALWAYS windy!
It’s actually the first time I get to see real snow in my life, Jetse said, “I don’t think you should go for a ride, you better stay on the rollers!” haha Whaaaaat?! There’s no way I was going to stay inside and miss an opportunity like that, I was like a little kid enjoying it so much. You could see my face full of smiles, we did two hours that day and it was lovely, I mean it’s always cold here but at least when it snows it looks cool!
I was impressed about how flat London is but now I have a new idea of what flat means, there are not even little hills in this place and if I thought I was going to be safe here (without having to ride on the other side of the street like they to in the UK) I was also wrong. I am afraid that the wind could take me back to Mexico! ohhh well… at least no one has to worry about me riding in the right place on the road now!
Staying on my bike with this wind is almost impossible… but I like the challenge, apart from the wind there are also some cobblestones! not so great when you only weigh 44kg! but I really enjoy riding here, this is an amazing country, you see bikes everywhere in the streets which is very cool! They have this “fietspad” (bikes pad) so you can ride very safe and avoid all the traffic (not that there’s much traffic here!)
This is a very good change after riding for many years in Monterrey, I always have to ride with a car behind me because it is very dangerous and here I can just go by myself and do my own thing and I really enjoy it! Even if I do have to deal with cold temperatures and a bit of snow! haha
If the wind doesn’t take me back to Mex or somewhere in the sea I will write another blog soon!
Nancy
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