The Coffee Ride #76, with Reece Homfray
EXACTLY one year from Rio, dual Olympic gold medallist Anna Meares says she has never pushed herself harder physically and mentally in preparation for a fourth and likely final Games.
AUSSIE CYCLING FRESHLY BREWED EVERY WEDNESDAY MORNING, EXCLUSIVE TO ADVERTISER.COM.AU
OLDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER — MEARES EYES RIO
EXACTLY one year from Rio, dual Olympic gold medallist Anna Meares says she has never pushed herself harder physically and mentally in preparation for a fourth and likely final Games.
The most successful female track cyclist in history will today mark the ‘one year to go’ milestone at a training camp with teammates in Colorado Springs knowing she has a target on her back going into Rio.
Meares is the defending Olympic sprint champion following her emotional win over Victoria Pendleton in London in 2012 and in February this year won a record-breaking 11th world championship with gold in the keirin in Paris.
She describes Rio 2016 as the culmination of a three-year plan which began with her essentially making a comeback from 12 months off after London.
“I didn’t realise how much muscle and form I would lose in that 12 months and it has taken a great chunk of time to regain what I lost in that break,” Meares told The Advertiser this week.
“Physically now I am hitting new ground and challenging myself both mentally and physically in ways I never have before.
“That win in Paris gave me more confidence and happiness and insight than anyone will really ever know.
“I’m still learning about myself and my sport — people think it’s hard to win once but try winning twice, three times, four times, eleven times.
“Just because you have won and can win does not in any way make that easier to happen again.
“You have to work harder than before and be more dedicated and committed to the finer details because of the simple fact that you become the benchmark for everyone to better themselves.”
At 31, Meares is no stranger to retirement questions but is not looking at Rio as her farewell to the sport.
“I will retire one day (but) when I am not exactly sure,” she said.
“I’ve never looked past an Olympic cycle until I’ve completed that which I’m focused on. There won’t be any change in that here for me.
“(If) I start thinking about retirement then I lose focus on working hard today to make what happens tomorrow and what happens in one year’s time happen to the best of my ability.”
The here and the now means a solid training camp in the US with the rest of the national sprint team and coach Gary West before returning to Australia to prepare for the Oceania Championships in October.
“The camp in Colorado is kind of our pre-season to break up the past four months where we have been focused in Adelaide.
“Getting out of the Adelaide winter to the warm weather and facilities available at the US Olympic Training Centre is ideal to keep morale, motivation and focus high.
“And I’m grateful for the support of my coach Gary West and the Cycling Australia (high performance team) as well as my family and friends, sponsors and manager Francine Pinnuck to allow, trust and work together with me on my fourth Olympic campaign.”
In some ways it feels like a lifetime ago Meares won gold on Olympic debut in Athens 2004, but she says it also feels like it happened only yesterday.
“I don’t feel 31 and sometimes I don’t realise that it’s been 11 years,” she said.
“When I look back I know I was young, I know I was inexperienced, but I can see me in every image taken of that day and I can see it like it happened yesterday in my head.
“There are parts of me that have changed since then because of my experiences but largely I am still the same girl who came from central Queensland all those years ago — a coal miner’s daughter who won gold for Australia.”
What also remains the same is how Meares looks at the Olympics as the pinnacle of her sport.
“I’m aiming to experience it for a fourth time — how rare in someone’s life is that?” she said.
“I truly understand the saying, ‘there is only a small window of opportunity to be an elite athlete and you’re a long time retired’.
“There is no level of competition in my sport that means more to me than the Olympics.”
AN EYE FOR TALENT
CAN you really take an athletic 15-year-old who might never have ridden a bike seriously in their life and turn them into a world champion within five years?
What about turning them into the leader of the Tour de France within 10 years?
The South Australian Sports Institute says yes — and it has proof.
This Watt Bike at this velodrome in Adelaide’s inner-northern suburbs is where it all starts.
Technically it starts before that — at school where students are put through three simple physiological tests and the results are sent to SASI — but it begins in earnest once they’re on the track.
The first test is the shuttle run (better known as the beep test) where anything over level 12 will get you noticed, followed by the 20m sprint and vertical leap test.
“The sprint and vertical jump give us an idea of a possible sprinter and the beep test often gives us a fairly good indicator of someone who might be more inclined towards endurance,” Olympic gold medallist and SASI coach Brett Aitken says.
SASI’s talent identification program is nationally acclaimed and having unearthed, developed and delivered Rohan Dennis, Alex Edmondson, Annette Edmondson, Damien Howson and Alex Manley from the schoolyard to the world stage, it’s easy to see why.
Only Alex Edmondson had ridden a bike competitively before — in downhill mountain biking. Dennis was recruited from swimming, Manly and Howson from basketball and Annette from soccer.
“90 per cent of our athletes probably in the last five years have come from exactly that — they’ve never ridden a bike before and the last 10 years talent ID has been pretty successful,” Aitken said.
“At that age (15) it gives us a short window but enough to develop them and most importantly get their skills up to speed, because we know they are already physiologically pretty good from their testing so we have to make sure their skills develop the fastest.
“We put all our effort into developing their skills knowing we can train them later on.”
Last Friday night close to 40 young cycling hopefuls attended ‘phase two’ of SASI’s talent ID program at the Adelaide SuperDrome.
Under the guidance of Aitken and fellow coach Jason Niblett, athletes born in either 2001 or 2002 were put through their paces.
“That’s probably the right age, we’re finding anyone that’s older than that it becomes much more difficult especially for boys who may not have developed the skills on the track,” Aitken said.
“Once they’re at under-17 level, the level in Australian cycling goes up a huge notch.
“And quite often they’re almost playing catch-up from that point.”
They did two tests on the Watt Bike — one for six seconds and another for two minutes to measure how much power they can produce and how long they can sustain it.
“Normally we’d prefer to do a four-minute max power test which is more endurance but four minutes is a brutal test to put someone through, so we’ve condensed it,” Aitken said.
“And we did a similar thing at Tour Down Under so we feel we can still get a pretty good idea of their potential as a track cyclist if we can get a two-minute max power test.”
They also rode the track, the majority for the first time, to experience the bends and the banking on fixed-wheel bikes.
Standout performers will be added to SASI’s talent ID program straight away meaning they’ll be decked out with a bike, kit and equipment and given a specific training program to follow.
Others who show promise will be earmarked for the next intake expected to be in 2016.
“Generally within about three months we try to incorporate them into our junior skills sessions where they get to mingle with some of the other current juniors who are already racing,” Aitken said.
“Something that’s a bit more advanced and then incorporate them into racing as well.
“It’s an extremely important part of our program because the proof is there, if we can identify them early and because cycling has been quite a successful program for SASI and Cycling Australia, it’s become a crucial part of what we do here.”
SWAPPING ONE SADDLE FOR ANOTHER TO HONOUR SIMONE
MEMBERS of Australia’s horse racing community will embark on a 3000km bike ride from Streaky Bay in South Australia to Darwin next year in memory of jockey Simone Montgomerie.
The ride will take 26 days — one day for each year of Montgomerie’s life which was tragically cut short following a race fall on Darwin Cup Day, 2013.
An idea of Simone’s father Peter, the ride has been dubbed ‘Cycling for Simone’ and will raise funds for the National Jockeys Trust which supports the families of fallen and seriously injured riders around Australia.
Their journey promises to be as emotional as it will be physical.
Among the peloton will be Simone’s sister Brooke Cupples who lives in Streaky Bay, and Scott Westover who is the partner of jockey Caitlin Forrest who died after a race fall at Murray Bridge last year.
Montgomerie was the first woman to win a Northern Territory jockey’s premiership and is survived by her seven-year-old daughter Kodah.
“The National Jockeys Trust and the industry as a whole came together to provide Kodah and our family with amazing support following Simone’s death,” Peter Montgomerie said.
“We wanted to be able to give something back to the Trust and for the families and loved ones of other riders who are seriously injured or killed.
“A bike ride from Simone’s home town of Streaky Bay to Darwin seems a fitting way we can do this — a big job — but something we can do to help, celebrate Simone’s life and make a difference at the same time.”
The ride will leave Streaky Bay on July 4 next year and arrive in Darwin on the Friday before the Darwin Cup.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“I’d put a fair bit of pressure on myself to win this one as it’s definitely my strongest event and ticket for Rio selection.”
- Alistair Donohue defends his road race title at the Para-cycling World Championships in Switzerland on the weekend.
“I want to win races like Paris-Nice and Catalunya again and I think next year at the Tour de France, why not have Tejay van Garderen and me there? We get along well.”
- Richie Porte on joining BMC in 2016.
“This was not a sporting incident. This was caused by pure negligence, which cost the team millions of dollars in lost publicity. Therefore, we plan to explore every legal option available to us.”
- BMC Racing Team boss Jim Ochowicz after his rider Greg Van Avermaet was hit by a motorbike during Clasica San Sebastian last week.
“On the track I’m pretty obsessive, ritualistic, aggressive, angry, all these things ... Off the track, I’m a completely different person.”
- BMX star Sam Willoughby tells SA Weekend magazine of his personality on and off the track.
TWEET, TWEET
— Caleb Ewan after finishing second behind Marcel Kittel in Stage 1 of the Tour of Poland this week.
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