by Anna Magrath | Nov 30, 2010
The Cycle Show & Europa Cup
by Jody Cundy MBE
With Nationals all done it was on to The Cycle Show at London’s Earls court, where I was busy signing autographs on the British Cycling stand, I can’t remember ever signing so many autograph cards! The Cycle Show was also a great opportunity to meet potential sponsors and suppliers in the run up to London 2012, it was also a great place to generate feedback and interest for the Paracycling team that I’m helping put together, and be riding for in the coming season.
Next stop and my 2nd race meet in a month, this time the Europa Cup in Kaarst Büttgen, in Germany. Although the velodrome was indoors, it was very cold, and left many of the riders on the team wishing they had bought more layers to keep warm. However it was the same for everyone, first up on the race programme was the team sprint, an interesting race, not so much because of the result, but the way the race panned out.
With no electronic timing, start gate and countdown clock it was a bit of a shock to the system, especially while we were under starter’s orders the countdown began over the PA, not beeps like we’re used to, but the official counting down irregularly 5, pause, 4, 3, pause, 2, pause, 1, and Go! It certainly made us all laugh when we finished the ride! Myself Rik Waddon and Terry Byrne posted the fastest time, some 4 seconds quicker than Germany, who we would race in the final. Next up was the Kilo, and after some impressive times being posted by my competitors the top 3 separated by just 0.4seconds I managed to ride a 1:07, 3 seconds clear of the Czech Republic’s Jiří Ježek.
The final of the team sprint was the last race of a long day at the velodrome (12hrs!). Lining up against the home team Germany, and with the velodrome finally warming up, myself Rik and Terry put together a slick performance, coming home faster than our morning qualifying ride, posting a 50.8, just fractions of a second outside our world record and over 4 seconds clear of the team from Germany.
After Germany, I had 2 weeks off the bike, to recharge my batteries, and plan my preparations for the track world championships in Italy, which have officially been confirmed now as taking place from March 11th – 13th 2011.
After my break I’m back on my bike and so far I’ve been rained on every day, oh well I guess that’s an occupational hazard of living in Manchester! Anyway speaking of training, it’s looking dry outside now, so I’m going to head out before that black cloud decides to follow me for the next 2 hours.
Until next time happy cycling!
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
by Anna Magrath | Oct 30, 2010
Jody Cundy riding at the National Championships – Image ©Copyright Kelkel
National Championships
by Jody Cundy MBE
Good news everybody!
We finally have a World Championship for 2010/11! The UCI have found a new host for the track Championships which were cancelled earlier this year. Montichiari in Italy will play host to the UCI track World Championships in February/March of 2011, added to this the UCI also announced the 2012 Track Championships. Los Angeles will play host in February 2012.
After a really quite year for racing I managed to get stuck in with a full program at the National Championships which took place at the Manchester Velodrome at the end of September.
On Day 1, I won my first senior able bodied National medal by riding to bronze in the Team Sprint with fellow team mates Andrew Kelly and Dave Readle. It was a tough night of racing having to do 3 rounds of Team Sprint as man 3. Not for the faint hearted!
Jody Cundy competing at the National Championships, Manchester – ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
Day 2 was the Paracycling 1 km Time Trial, and although I was some way off my best time (think the previous nights racing took quite a bit out of my legs), however it was good enough to earn me a silver medal.
Day 3 and the shortest race on the schedule, the flying 200, an event I don’t get to do often, so after some encouraging times in training the week before it was something, I wanted to do especially well in. I managed to set a new personal best, at the same time breaking the C4 World Record (WR) with a time of 10.970, an average speed of 65.633km/h or 40.785 MPH.
Day 4 was uncharted territory for me as I was to be riding the 4km Pursuit. A pretty daunting task in its self, but made even harder by the fact that all morning I’d been curled up on the sofa feeling pretty sick, obviously not the best preparation. However, I managed to get on my bike and race, coming away with a Bronze medal and a new British Record (BR) time of 5:03.826.
The final day of competition was one of frustration. Riding the 4km Team Pursuit with team mates from scienceinsport.com Alistair Rutherford, Adam Duggleby and Tim Lawson, it was clear I still wasn’t feeling well but without a replacement rider I would do my best for the team. After leading the team off and getting them up to speed I sat in behind the other 3. Unfortunately my legs weren’t up for it and after my 2nd turn I had to pull off leaving the 3 remaining riders to post the time. To my surprise we qualified fastest, which put us into the gold medal ride off.
In the final we took the decision of using me as an expendable member, my job was to get the team up to speed and stay on the front until I couldn’t go anymore, this way the team would get more rest and I will of contributed more in my weakened state. This worked brilliantly,
as I did 3 and a quarter laps, leaving my team mates within sight of the opposing team. Then disaster struck, we got within 4 metres of the competition, (you need to be within 1 to take the win), Tim caught the wheel of Alistair and came crashing down. With only 2 riders left on track the race was over.
A great but tough few days of racing, being pretty successful with 3 Bronze, and 2 Silver medals, a WR and BR.
Next stop for me is the Cycle Show in London’s Earls Court on the 10th October, where I’ll be on the British Cycling stand meeting people and signing autographs.
Then on the 14th of this month, I’m off to Kaarst Buettgen, in Germany for the Europa Cup, a 2 day Paracycling race meet, where I’ll be busy again, racing the Pursuit, Kilo and Team Sprint, against some of the best Paracyclists in the world. Hopefully I can find a bit more speed by then.
That’s all for now, happy cycling.
Jody
All images ©Copyright Christina Kelkel
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