by Anna Magrath | Feb 28, 2011
Getting All Artistic
by Jody Cundy MBE
Well here I am on the eve of the World Championships here in Montichiari, I’ve had 3 sessions on the track since arriving here, and each one of them has been more and more encouraging. The track feels fast, and my legs feels good, I just hope that feeling lasts for the next 3 days as I have a lot of racing to do between now and Sunday evening. First up is the pursuit, the big unknown for me, sure I’ve done pursuits before, but this is the first time I’ve focused on it and trained with the goal of competing at a major championship, and with London [Olympics] just over a year away it will be an interesting test. After the pursuit I’m into more familiar territory with the kilo and team sprint both, of which I’m aiming to retain my world titles in.
In preparation for these worlds, as a team we’ve spent 2 weeks training on the boards of Newport velodrome, mainly to get away from the chaos and busy track in Manchester as the able-bodied team prepared for the world championships, but also to prepare together as a team. Over the 2 weeks in Newport my training covered all aspects of my racing with starts, pursuit and flying efforts and team sprint practice. During the 2nd week we had the trial for the team sprint, with 4 riders going for 3 places. Rik Waddon and Darren Kenny were competing for man 1, and myself and Terry Byrne were trialling to see who would ride 2nd and 3rd man. The trial was basically 2 full team sprints, and everything would be recorded and filmed so all elements of the ride could be analysed. First up was Darren, myself and Terry, this turned into a mission, as on the first try I picked up a puncture in turn 1, meaning an abandoned attempt, then sat on the start line for the re-run my helmet buckle fell off my aero helmet, so with my road helmet on it was 3rd time lucky! (Hope it’s not going to be like this at the worlds!) With a smooth start and equally smooth changes our benchmark was set. 60mins later we were up on track again, this time with Rik leading off and myself and Terry switching order. This time the trial went smoothly with another really good ride in the bag.
Amazingly both rides were inside the current WR, so things were looking up and it was nice knowing that we had world class backup rider no matter what team we’d go with. The following morning once the coaches had analyzed all the footage and crunched the numbers, the team sprint was selected, Darren Kenny man 1, Terry Byrne man 2 and myself man 3, a new team line up lets hope our debut goes well.
Also on the Newport camp I took part in a photo shoot with photographer Richard Booth, who is producing a coffee table book of London 2012 hopefuls. I’m looking forward to seeing the shots in print as the samples I saw a glimpse of looked amazing. Actually it’s been a month of photo shoots, as just before I left for the world championships I was invited by Sky Sports to take part in a shoot they were doing for their 20th Anniversary, again it was for another coffee table book, with all these books I’m not sure where my coffee’s going!
Once Newport was over it was back to the boards of Manchester, but not as a rider, entering a contest on Cycling Weekly’s facebook page I found myself the winner of 2 tickets to the Manchester leg of the World Cup. I had a great day, and was soaking up the home atmosphere, and imagining what it’s going to be like in London with twice the amount of people cheering that loud, London really is going to be something special, but lots of training to do before then!
Inspired by the world cup performances it was back to the boards of Manchester to put the finishing touches to our preparation and start the all important taper.
Outside of the cycling I’ve been busy working on my website, and after months of it being under construction it’s actually finished and fully up and running, so go take a look www.jodycundy.com any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Prior to coming to Italy I ended up getting all artistic, with my prosthetic cycling leg. I’d had a few conversations with potential sponsors and it became clear that for some reason my disability on the bike wasn’t visible. I guess my black carbon leg was blending into my black carbon bike. Anyway a quick trip to Halfords and I had sand paper, primer, paint, and clear lacquer. Now I just needed a paint booth, as the weather was awful outside, so our shower room became a temporary booth and masked it all off making sure everything was covered! (Thanks Christina! Can’t believe she agreed to it!)
Anyway leg all keyed up it was primer time, what a transformation that made, the leg looked completely different with just the white primer on, I couldn’t wait to get onto the next level of paint, but patience was the key and I had to wait for it to dry completely. Good job I wasn’t on the track with it for a few days. Once the paint was dry it was time to give the leg some colour, with some world bands applied with trusty coloured electrical tape, I then spent the afternoon printing out transfers, before spending hours carefully applying them to the leg. A quick clear coat over the top and it was all finished. A bright white leg, carrying the world bands, finished off with my name, a Union Jack, my leg sponsors logo, and my final finishing touch, 7 gold medals for each of my World and Paralympic cycling titles, if all goes well it would be nice to add a few more! Check out the pics.
Jody's Leg - Image ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
I have to say I’m looking forward to these championships, it’s seems like an eternity since I’ve raced at the very top level, and I can’t wait!
Also it will be the first time all the members of the Para-T team I helped set up will be together. The next time will be at out debut race, at the Good Friday track meeting in Manchester on April 22nd.
Well until next time, and stories from the world champs. Happy Cycling!
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
by Anna Magrath | Jan 31, 2011
The Para-T Cycling Team is Here!
by Jody Cundy MBE
Wow, nearly missed this being a January update, my god this month has flown by.
2011 already! That means the Paralympics are next year! It’s all starting to sound a little scary, however I’ve still got 576 days to train and perfect everything before then!
Well 2011 started with me switching to a new cycling team. A team I helped setup with my girlfriend, to be honest she’s done a great deal to get it up and running.
Here’s a little bit of information about the team I’ll be competing in.
“Para-T” (Paracycling Team) is a unique cycling team made up entirely of some of the best Paralympic cyclists in the world. The team has been formed to help promote Paracycling, and demonstrate the skill and speed of athletes who compete at the Paralympics.
Through promoting the amazing ability of our riders, and not their disability, we aim to increase the interest in Paracycling and push the boundaries of the sport as well as to show that sport is something nearly everyone can do.
In the first year of racing, the team will be mostly focused on track events, but a number of road races and time trials will be attended whenever possible, with athletes competing in both Paracycling and able-bodied events.
The team is a mixture of British and German riders, and hopes to expand in the future with increased rider numbers and racing on the road.”
For all the up to date information on the team, and a look at the amazing looking kit I’ll be racing in, head over to our website www.paracyclingteam.com.
With the world championships fast approaching (March 11th-13th) I’ve spent many hours on my bi- cycle and things are going really well. This winter I’ve spent more time on my bike getting in the endurance miles than ever before, because in addition to the team sprint and kilo I will be also competing in the 4km Pursuit at the world championships. The GB team is on a point scoring mission to make sure that we have the most athletes available at our home games in London, and that translates into yours truly doing the pur- suit! The pursuit training, is quite a challenge for me, and is quite different from the out and out sprint train- ing I’ve previously done for the Kilo. It’s all about measuring your effort, and not giving too much too soon, but making sure you get everything out by the end. As part of my learning process in the event I’ve painfully found this out in training, and it really does come back to bite you before the end of the 4km if you go out too fast! However with GB’s rich history in the pursuit I have a wealth of advice on hand from coaches and riders, and fingers crossed if all goes well, there may be another medal in it, which would make all the hard work worth it. But one step at a time!
With the poor weather in the UK over the winter, it was really nice to get away to Majorca for a 10 day training camp with the GB squad. The weather gods were really on our side, and we were greeted with bright sunshine every day. That made such a nice change to our rides, being able to head out in shorts and minimal layers, so much nicer compared to multiple layers I’ve been used to in the last few months! The camp was a huge success, with the whole squad getting in many quality miles, and making the most of the beautiful weather. It was definitely the time to be on the island as we spotted many of the professional teams in their preseason training, including Sky, Leopard Trek and Lotto.
I’m back from Majorca now, and my training has now switched focus, as I’m back on the boards of Manchester Velodrome trying to convert those miles into some race speed. Things have been going really well, but with the Manchester round of the World Cup fast approaching track time’s been a bit crowded. However inspiring as it is to watch the GB Team Pursuit team in full flight in training, it’s never a great situation to have to rush your efforts on track, so next month we have a 2 week GB training camp at the Velodrome in Newport with just the GB Paracycling squad in attendance. Once the world cup is over, it’s back to Man- chester to put the finishing touches to my preparation before heading out with the team to Montichiari on the 7th March.
Well that’s January all done, were there really 31 days? Catch you next month for another update.
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
by Anna Magrath | Dec 27, 2010
A Topsy Turvy Year
by Jody Cundy MBE
As 2010 comes to an end, it’s time to look back on what has been a bit of a strange year.
Starting in January with a “warm weather camp” on Majorca which ended up in snow, it was a sign of a topsy turvy year I was going to have.
By the time March came around, our World Championships in August had been cancelled and my training goals where turned on their head. In Easter my first proper race of the season: The Herne Hill Good Friday Meet. Unfortunately, once again the rain brought a swift end to the racing, but hopefully 2011 will be luckier as the meet moves indoors to Manchester. Without Worlds to prepare for, Ride Across Britain was a perfect chance to keep the miles and legs over the summer and also to help raise money for Paralympics GB. Sharing the mileage with tandem pilot Barney Storey, the nine days from John O’Groats to Land’s End were some of the most enjoyable days I’ve ever spent on my bike. Even though I was soaked to the bone for the first three days in Scotland, the scenery made up for all the wetness and pain. And by the time we reached Land’s End, the sun was shining and myself along 600 other cyclists had completed 1000 miles and raised over 300.000 Pounds!
With RAB done, it was back to the track and to prepare for the National Track Championships and a potentially rearranged World Championships. With all the miles on the road in the summer, my track legs really came to me and my training went really well. The Nationals were filled with highs and lows, the highs being my New World Record in the Flying 200m and my first able-bodied podium in the Men’s Team Sprint and Team Pursuit. The lows, becoming really ill after Day 3 and not being able to perform to how my training had been going and loosing out on an almost certain Gold medal in the Team Pursuit due to a crash.
October brought us final confirmation of the World Championships after many rumors and many cities had been mentioned. From March 11-13, the new velodrome in Montichiari in Italy will play host. My training is in full swing now and I am working hard on retaining my World Championship titles in the 1KM Time Trial and Team Sprint, and also hopefully getting close to the podium in a new event for me: the 4KM Pursuit. However, for the first time I wont be able to win the Kilo in a World Record time as it might hinder my changes to win in London due to the unconfirmed factoring rules that the UCI will be applying to the Paralympic Games in 2012.
All that leaves me to is to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year and thank all my sponsors and supporters for their help and hard work and I look forward to your continued backing on my path to 2012!
I think that’s all from me, enjoy the remaining days of 2010 and I’ll see you in 2011!
Jody
PS: You can catch me on BBC4 on December the 30th at 8pm as I made a guest appearance at the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures.
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
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