The Coffee Ride #107, with Reece Homfray
BMX star Sam Willoughby says he is not superstitious but there’s a pattern emerging involving him and world championships ... which he hopes to continue in Colombia this week.
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WORLD CHAMP IN 2012, 2014 ... SO WHAT FOR 2016?
BMX star Sam Willoughby says he is not superstitious but there’s a pattern emerging involving him and world championships ... which he hopes to continue in Colombia this week.
Willoughby, from Adelaide, became BMX world champion in 2012 and 2014 which points to one thing in Medellin this week — a third rainbow jersey.
“I was thinking about that the other day, I try not to be superstitious but I’ll go with that,” he said of winning a world title every two years.
“When I go back and watch the video (of 2012 worlds) I feel like performance wise it seems a lifetime ago because the sport has changed.
“But when I think about the moment, I still definitely remember the feeling of winning and I was lucky enough to do it again in 2014 and that’s probably the best feeling I’ve had in the sport.”
As 2012 was, this year has another dimension for Willoughby, who has dual objectives with the upcoming Rio Olympics.
The rider ranked No. 4 in the world is yet to officially book his spot for Rio but that can be sealed with a strong performance at this week’s world titles.
“Pretty much my whole year has been based around being right at this time and then after this I’ll look to reset and go again for the next 10 weeks (to Rio),” he said.
“It would be nice if in January they could say ‘you’re going to the Olympics 100 per cent, get ready for it’ and I would spend eight months to knuckle down.
“But you’ve still got to tick the boxes as you go and perform just to first of all get on the team and even for your own confidence.
“So what I did the last cycle (2012) and this year is breaking it up into almost two seasons, I got a good pre-season in over Christmas and this in my eyes is the end of the first season.
“So I’m 100 per cent eyes towards world championships at the moment and after there we’ll kind of replan and do a shorter 12-week season.”
It’s obvious that whoever wins the world title this week will have a target on their back in Rio but Willoughby said he embraced that prospect, as he did in 2012 when he won a silver medal at the London Olympics as reigning world champion.
“I don’t feel that had anything to do with the pressure I felt at the Olympics,” he said.
“It was more feeling the prestige of the event itself and that’s something I’ve done once now.”
The 24-year-old will ride the time trial on Saturday and race on Sunday where he will be joined by Australia’s other leading riders Anthony Dean and Bodi Turner in the elite men’s field.
The women’s field is headlined by 2013 world champion Caroline Buchanan and Lauren Reynolds.
Australia can send three men and two women to race BMX at the Rio Olympics in August.
Buchanan enters this week’s world championships ranked No. 1 and is relishing the challenge.
“It’s a great place to be in coming into worlds No. 1 ranked, I have been in this position before,” she said.
“This world championships will be the same as any other and every race for me these past four years have been stepping stones and opportunities to grow, learn, challenge and step up.”
9.7 SECONDS TO KEEP RIO DREAM ALIVE
SHANE Perkins has 9.7 seconds, or thereabouts, to keep his slim chances of making the Rio Olympics alive.
The former world champion has been told he must produce a world-class time at the ITS Melbourne event next month to be considered for a second Games.
Perkins has been on the outer at Cycling Australia since October when he was cut from the national program but has continued to train in Adelaide in the hope he can convince selectors he is worthy of a spot in Rio.
Australia can take three male sprinters to the Olympics and with Nathan Hart and Matthew Glaetzer all but guaranteed a start, favourite for the third wheel in the team sprint is currently former junior world champion Pat Constable.
Perkins says that, in simple terms, he must produce a flying 200m time of 9.7 secs in sprint qualifying in Melbourne to remain in the hunt for Rio.
That time would not guarantee him a spot but would send a strong statement to selectors.
Only four riders in the entire field clocked 9.7 secs in qualifying at the world championships in London in March.
They were Perkins’ Australian teammate Matthew Glaetzer who was fastest in (9.766), Great Britain’s Jason Kenny (9.767), Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland (9.767) and Russian Denis Dimitriev (9.791).
Perkins’ flying 200m PB is 9.9 secs and he knows it won’t be easy to go inside that time.
“I just want to try to show selectors that I’m still here and post a time that hopefully pricks up the ears a bit,” he said.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush, I’m not going there to ride 10.0.
“But that (9.7) doesn’t mean I’m automatically on the team either, it’s just a stepping stone to showing selectors that this is what I’m capable of.
“Anytime you go under 10 seconds is hard, to go from 10.5 to 10.3 is hard and, as you get quicker, to go from 9.9 to 9.8 takes time.
“But at the end of the day it’s not just making the Australian team (that is the objective), you’ve got to think about the process after that.
“I don’t just want to make the team I want to push for podium spots.”
The ITS Melbourne Grand Prix will be held at DISC Velodrome on June 22 and 23 and will be one of the last hit-outs the national sprint team has before the Rio Olympics in August.
Perkins left Australia on the weekend bound for Russia where he will race the Moscow GP before spending two weeks in the US racing UCI sprint and keirin events.
Despite some uncertainty surrounding his future on the bike after the national championships in February, Perkins says Rio or not he has no plans on giving the sport away just yet.
“There are two points two it — I find at the moment I need a bit of racing under my belt in the lead up to ITS Melbourne, and secondly if we take away Rio, there are still UCI points we need (to accumulate) for world cups and world championships next season,” he said.
“The decision to hang the bike up comes back to me, and the passion and the fire is still there.
“(Coach) Nibbo (Jason Niblett) and I have a long history together as mates and teammates and he has been very open and honest.
“He has said to me ‘if I didn’t think it was possible to hit these times we’re going for then I wouldn’t keep you hanging on’.
“So we’ve been looking at what we can do to give us the best chance of hitting targets for Rio in Melbourne, but it doesn’t stop for me.
“There are world championships in April and Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast (in 2018).”
SPRINT TEAM HITS THE TRACK
MEANWHILE, Australia’s top track sprinters will line up in club racing in Adelaide on Saturday night in a warm up for ITS Melbourne.
The whole squad except for men’s team sprint starter Nathan Hart will take to the SuperDrome for the Kilkenny Cycling Club’s sprint night.
Hart is fit and healthy but coaches are taking no risks with him as they near the final phase of Olympic preparations.
But the likes of Anna Meares, Stephanie Morton, Kaarle McCulloch, Matthew Glaetzer, Pat Constable and Jacob Schmid will be lining up.
They won’t have it easy however with coaches planning a double training session day of gym and ergo before they race that night.
Derek Radzikiewicz, Caitlin Ward, Holly Takos, Courtney Field and Jai Angsuthasawit will be among the emerging young riders out to impress.
HONOURING THE GREEN AND GOLD
WINNING the time trial at the Tour of California last week was hugely significant for Rohan Dennis, who has finally overcome a lengthy battle with illness this season.
Dennis did the green and gold time trial skinsuit proud by winning the 20km TT and finishing the tour second overall.
The 25-year-old remains focused on the time trial at the Rio Olympics and hopes to be selected for BMC’s team for the Tour de France.
HAYMAN RELIVES THAT SPECIAL DAY
IF you find a spare 45 minutes this week, do yourself a favour and listen to Mitch Docker’s podcast interview with Mathew Hayman.
The Orica-GreenEDGE teammates shoot the breeze about Hayman’s unbelievable Paris-Roubaix victory.
The second of a two-part interview makes for intriguing listening.
Part #2 is up and ready for your ears! Talking with this years winner of Paris Roubaix @Mathew_Hayman Enjoy!! https://t.co/c13RxA13oE
— Mitchell Docker (@Mitch_Bowen) May 23, 2016
Highlights include:
— How Docker, in a hospital bed after surgery, was told by a French nurse with limited English that Hayman had won Paris-Roubaix.
— Hayman revealing he had crippled himself with stress in previous editions of the race but on this day he felt “serene”.
- Hayman speaking in detail about the moment he almost lost the race when he was knocked off the wheel by Ian Stannard approaching the Carrefour de l’Arbre.
WHO IS ESTEBAN CHAVES?
IN CASE you’d missed it this week, Orica-GreenEDGE is sitting second overall in the Giro d’Italia with its climber Esteban Chaves.
Before the race we ran this feature story on the ‘Colombian kangaroo’ and found out what makes him tick.
You can read it HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
- Mat Hayman recounts how he won Paris-Roubaix in a podcast with Mitch Docker.
- Rohan Dennis after winning the time trial at Tour of California on the weekend.
- The all-smiling Esteban Chaves on the final rest day at the Giro d’Italia on Monday.
TWEET, TWEET
What a ride by our little champ @estecharu, all class. Don't let the smile fool you, he's a real fighter. #OGErocks #NiceGuy
— MathewHayman (@Mathew_Hayman) May 21, 2016
— Mathew Hayman on OGE’s great hope at the Giro d’Italia.
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #107, with Reece Homfray
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