The Coffee Ride #164, with Reece Homfray
TIFFANY Cromwell on running a 3:21 marathon in Budapest, Katie Mactier and Julie Speight into hall of fame and TDU reveals new retro jersey for Bupa Challenge Tour in The Coffee Ride this week.
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TIFF RUNNING INTO PRE-SEASON
TIFFANY Cromwell’s off-seasons are never dull and boring but this year has been extra active, combining mountain biking with boxing, rowing and a marathon which she ticked off in the impressive time of 3hrs 21mins.
“I’m not good at sitting still although I’ve been a lot tamer than normal, normally I’m off flying around the world but this year I’ve decided I need to be a little more chilled and let my body recover from the travel,” Cromwell said.
“So then of course I get other silly ideas. Obviously my season finished earlier than normal this year and I did a marathon back in 2012 and ever since then I’ve wanted to do another one with the intention of training properly for it.”
So she found the Bupapest Marathon on October 15 and gave herself a month to train but things didn’t go exactly to plan.
“A month comes around very quickly and before you know it I was there,” she said.
“Naturally I’m an all-right runner but I was just doing short runs.
“The body is used to non-impact so it takes a bit of time to get used to and the calves started burning and I didn’t think it was going to happen.
“Last time (2012) 18km was the longest run before and this time it was 9km.
“I had an ambitious goal to do 3:15 then after that I just wanted to beat my last time which was 3:38.”
The race panned out better than Cromwell expected and she scorched around in a PB time.
“I knew my engine was capable of it but it was whether my body was too.
“I very much surprised myself, I have no idea how I got through it and ended up with a 3:21 so I was more than happy.
“Up until halfway I was going all right, then kilometre seven and eight everything was hurting.”
“It took half a week to a week to feel somewhat normal again but I don’t even want to go near running at the moment.”
The 29-year-old has re-signed with Canyon-SRAM for next season and will return to Adelaide in December after a team camp later this month.
But she may have to race the Australian summer with a national team or as a guest rider with Canyon-SRAM not sending a team down under in January.
Cromwell has also done a four-day charity ride which included climbing Mont Ventoux and is rowing and boxing while getting back into training.
“I’ve had a good break and I’m back into training, and I feel really motivated,” she said.
“I’ve had that nice break without getting too out of shape.
“I’m movitated to start the season really well, I’ve got a lot more time where as in previous years I feel like I’ve been chasing my tail a bit.
“It was probably a blessing in disguise that I didn’t do worlds this year, I’ve been able to put the year behind me, have a good break and come back raring to go — and at the moment, that’s where I’m at.
“And form is already well ahead of where it was last season.”
MACTIER, SPEIGHT INTO HALL OF FAME
THE first female cyclist to race for Australia at the Olympics and an Olympic silver medallist 16 years later are two of four inductees into Cycling Australia’s Hall of Fame this year.
Julie Speight, who rode at the 1988 Seoul Games, and Katie Mactier, who won a silver medal in Athens in 2004, will today be unveiled as the latest riders to be awarded the honour. The other two inductees will be revealed next week ahead of CA’s annual awards night on November 17.
Speight, 51, rode in the individual sprint in 1988 and finished fifth, and is seen as a trailblazer for women in the sport.
“It’s funny actually last year I had the TV on non stop for the Olympics and happened to wake up when the women’s team pursuit event was on,” she said.
“Years ago when I was in St George Club we had successfully petitioned the NSW cycling union to hold a state championship women’s teams pursuit event.
“They agreed and we won it but they said we couldn’t hold a national title because there just wouldn’t be any interest. It gave me such pleasure 30 years later to be watching it as an Olympic event.”
Speight said she took a while to adjust to life after cycling but now works for Australian Immigration and Border Protection.
“It was tough actually and I floundered trying to live in a world where you could just go to work and do an average job and still get paid,” she said.
“When you’ve been breathing the altitude of excellence then mediocrity is suffocating and like a lot of elite athletes I had my dark days.
“The struggle with finding our identity and how to channel all of our power for good instead of self destruction I suppose would be one way of putting it.
“We are goal driven and set ridiculous standards for ourselves, we are impossible to live with sometimes because of the very thing that once made us champions.”
Mactier said she was “honoured” and “grateful” to be inducted into the hall of fame after winning a silver medal in the individual pursuit in Athens in 2004.
“Athens must be one of my happiest memories, with perfect preparation and conditions between Sarah Ulmer and myself we were able to go sub 3.30 for the first time and I proudly walked away with a silver medal,” she said.
Mactier also won two national road titles in 2001 and 2007, Commonwealth Games gold in 2006 and world championship gold in 2005.
She retired in 2008 after the Beijing Olympics and has two children with husband Greg Henderson.
“We have been living for 12 years in Girona where Greg has been racing on the pro tour circuit and just under one year ago we relocated to Boulder, Colorado where Greg has been appointed the position of endurance performance director for USA cycling,” Mactier said.
“So while I have retired from the sport I am fortunate enough to have it still in my life. Both Greg and I love the sport and feel incredibly fortunate to have been blessed with the experiences it still provides us with.”
RETRO JERSEY FOR BUPA CHALLENGE TOUR
THE design for the Bupa Challenge Tour jerseys has been revealed and there’s a retro feel to mark the 20th edition of the Tour Down Under in January.
Riders from the ‘Broadway Bunch’ who leave from Glenelg every Saturday morning were on hand to model the new look on the weekend.
“I reckon it’s one of the better ones they’ve ever had,” said Paul Burns, who captains the Broadway Bunch.
“We always try to get a number of the group to ride as a bit of a team and have a bit of fun.”
Next year’s Bupa Challenge Tour on January 19 offers riders the choice of four distances ranging from 18km to the full 137km from Norwood to Uraidla like the professional peloton.
GARFOOT TAKING A BREAK
IN CASE you missed the news yesterday, Australia’s top female road cyclist Katrin Garfoot is taking a break from professional cycling and won’t re-sign with Orica-Scott for next season.
The 36-year-old who won a silver and bronze medal at the UCI road world championships in September will race the Commonwealth Games but won’t return to Europe as she puts family first.
Garfoot explained her decision and future plans in an interview with News Corp HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ....
And then Cameron Meyer is just an alien. He’s always flying around.
— Belgium’s Kenny de Ketele after Australians Cameron Meyer and Callum Scotson won the London Six Day track event on the weekend.
We need someone for the Classics but we saw all the hard work he was willing to put in. His knee is much better, and we could see that at the Worlds. We definitely need him for next year.
— Bahrain-Merida team manager Brent Copeland tells Cyclingnews.com that Aussie Heinrich Haussler will ride on with the team next year.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #164, with Reece Homfray
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