The Coffee Ride #90, with Reece Homfray
FORMER world champion Shane Perkins has been cut adrift by Cycling Australia - but he’s not letting that halt his charge towards the Rio Olympics.
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PERKINS FLYING SOLO & TURNS TO CROSSFIT
FORMER world champion Shane Perkins has been cut adrift by Cycling Australia (CA) and is now training and coaching himself as he refuses to give up on the Rio Olympics.
The 28-year-old has turned to a CrossFit gym in Adelaide to build strength ahead of the national championships in February, which he has described as his “Olympics before the Olympics”.
Perkins raced the Oceania Championships for Australia in October and was later told there was no longer room for him in the national high performance program.
CA has not closed the door on the possibility of him still making the world championships or Olympics but he’ll have to do it the hard way.
The 2011 keirin world champion and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist is hitting CrossFit Mode in the city up to six times a week and doing track sessions with the South Australian Sports Institute in a bid to keep his Olympic dream alive.
“It was their call and I’m just running with it,” Perkins said.
“It’s a bit confusing to some extent but at the same time they’ve got their reasons and direction they want to go, I’m not going to argue with them because I don’t want to be that kind of rider.
“I’ve got to move on and keep doing what I love which is riding my bike, and in the short term leading up to nationals I’ll be coaching myself with the help of SASI (South Australian Sports Institute) and (coach) Jason Niblett.”
CA high performance director Kevin Tabotta said both Perkins and NSW sprinter Mitch Bullen had been notified after the world titles in February that the next six months would determine their future on high performance scholarship and the decision was made in October.
“And that is that we’re not going to head forward from a scholarship point of view but they are still fully eligible to make a national team,” Tabotta said.
“It’s not unusual for athletes to go out of the high performance program and come back in, Kaarle McCulloch did it after working with her state system.
“And we’re having ongoing discussions with Shane about what are the next steps ... like any de-selection, change is difficult.”
Leaner, stronger but can he go faster? Why Shane Perkins won’t quit. Full story in The Advertiser this weekend.
SILVER NEVER TASTED SO GOOD
NOT since Beijing in 2008 had a silver medal tasted so good for Anna Meares.
That she was on the start line at all for the UCI world cup in New Zealand on the weekend was significant enough.
But winning a silver medal in the keirin — missing gold by just 0.005 of a second — revealed plenty about her mindset heading towards Rio.
To stand on the podium alongside China’s Shuang Guo in Cambridge on Sunday, Meares defied a back injury which had kept her out of the team sprint just two days earlier.
A sore back to a track sprinter is like the warning light in a passenger plane about to enter serious turbulence. If it’s on, it’s best you sit down and buckle up.
Meares — who broke her vertebrae seven years ago in a crash before the Beijing Games — had tweaked her back at training last week, however still went to New Zealand but with the ‘handle with care’ sticker plastered across herself rather than her bike bag.
She sat out the team sprint, where riders go from 0 to 100 per cent effort from a standing start with maximum strain on their back, and watched as Kaarle McCulloch and Stephanie Morton rode their way to an impressive silver medal behind China.
Then despite any risk the back injury posed with just eight months to Rio, Meares fronted up for the keirin in her world champion’s rainbow skinsuit and narrowly missed the gold medal.
Silver, like in Beijing in 2008, came as a relief to Meares and to her rivals it was confirmation that at 31 she remains as tough and determined as ever because the easier and perhaps safer option on the weekend would have been to sit the whole world cup out.
“I am so, so happy,” Meares said post-race.
“I love good races and I love hard races and the final didn’t disappoint for me.
“I left everything out on the track for what I could put out there — I didn’t feel the back throughout the race.”
It was a successful meet for Australia’s track sprinters. Matthew Glaetzer continued his steady progression by winning gold in the men’s sprint and Morton proved her racing smarts are matching with her speed with silver in the women’s sprint.
But the search for the optimal combination for the team sprint events remains a mystery.
Meares, Morton and McCulloch are all very much in the frame for the two-person women’s race while 20-year-old Pat Constable did himself no harm in a bid to claim a spot in the three-person men’s event.
TP SQUADS ON SONG
AUSTRALIA’S team pursuiters were expected to be dominant and they didn’t disappoint.
With Great Britain sending below-strength squads to New Zealand, Australia claimed gold in both the men’s and women’s 4km team pursuits but still had to overcome the class of New Zealand and Canada.
The women were able to win gold without Annette Edmondson in the final as she focused on the omnium while the men broke the national record with 3:53.010.
The previous record was 3:53.401 set by Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn, Glenn O’Shea and Rohan Dennis in the final at the 2012 world championships.
But on the weekend Luke Davison started and did a significant turn on the front before peeling off after 2.1km leaving Bobridge, Hepburn and Edmondson to drive them home in record time.
“Our direction in training and what we do as a group has been evolving over the Olympic cycle and we have standards we want to uphold,” men’s endurance coach Tim Decker said.
“It was a great time but we still have work to do, we need four guys at the finish.”
The world cup marked Hepburn’s return to the team and ended his two-year absence from the track.
“He performed well on and off the bike which is a great step, but there is a lot more in not only him that we are chasing but all the others who are in the mix to make that final Olympic selection,” Decker said.
“This is about getting the absolute best out of these guys for Rio.”
The competition might not have been it will be at the world championships in London or the Olympic Games in Rio next year but with the countdown well and truly on, the determination of Meares and performance of her teammates suggests they are very much in the hunt.
ROHAN HITS THE JACKPOT
SEVEN years after a teacher told him he had more chance of winning the lottery than he did of becoming a professional cyclist, Rohan Dennis returned to Blackfriars Priory School having led the Tour de France.
The 25-year-old was invited back to help present student sports awards and in return the school gave him a certificate and pen to commemorate his stellar year — as well as a lottery ticket for a laugh.
The gifts were delivered by young students on three-wheel bikes who may well grow up dreaming of following in Dennis’ footsteps.
“It was a relief teacher and he asked me what I wanted out of Year 12 and I said I just wanted to pass and move on,” Dennis yesterday recalled.
“Then he asked what I wanted to do with my life and I said I wanted to become a professional cyclist.
“The teacher then said he had a better chance of winning the lotto than I had of turning professional.”
Not only has Dennis turned professional, he is the reigning Tour Down Under champion and this year became The Advertiser/Channel Seven Sports Star of the Year winner for the second time.
SUNDERLAND TO DEFEND SUPERCRIT CROWN
BOOM sprinter Scott Sunderland will return to Melbourne to defend his title in the Shimano SuperCrit this weekend.
Sunderland, who won the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic in October, will line up with his team Budget Forklifts for the criterium hosted by the St Kilda Cycling Club.
The field will feature Orica-GreenEDGE star Simon Gerrans and forms part of a daylong program of racing on Sunday.
“It’s a good opportunity for us to have a bit of a hitout as part of our pre-season preparation,” Gerrans said.
“It’s a great circuit and great atmosphere as well — no doubt I’ll have a couple of teammates with me and hopefully we can put in a good showing.”
RIDE LIKE THE PROS AND HELP BEAT CANCER
NOTHING used to stand in Felicity Lloyd’s way.
A triathlete who had twice conquered the Hawaii Ironman, when she wasn’t swimming, riding and running, the qualified engineer was busy in her senior role at work.
Then in May, 2014, her dogged persistence in seeking medical treatment for a mole on her back led to her being diagnosed with advanced-stage melanoma which had spread to her lymph nodes.
“I thought, — how does this happen?’” Felicity, 32, said.
Having been assured by doctors for two years it was no cause for concern, Felicity had a plastic surgeon remove the mole because it was bleeding, which was when she learned that it was cancer.
“It took a fair toll because there were a few months from -it doesn’t look good’ to having the surgeries to determine the extent of it,” she said.
“I have a reasonably senior role in my workplace and I tried to hold it all together and not let it affect my life, because there’s something about skin cancer that’s not seen as life-threatening as others.
“People think — ‘oh, you just get it cut out and get on with it’ so it took me a while to realise how serious it was.”
Fortunately, because the cancer had not spread to her vital organs, Felicity did not require chemotherapy but had four operations — two on her back and two to remove her lymph nodes — before she started the road to recovery.
She is already back competing in long-distance triathlons and her experience with cancer inspired her next challenge, the Beat Cancer Tour, held in conjunction with the Tour Down Under in Adelaide in January.
“I was looking to do something for the Cancer Council,” she said. ‘If the first mole had been taken out by the first doctor who looked at it then it would have been a non-event.
“So the work of early diagnosis and GP education is as important as the treatment for cancer.
“And the work the Cancer Council also does in hospitals by providing information about support services is really important.”
The Beat Cancer Tour is approaching its third year, having grown from 14 participants in 2013 to almost 30 for January and spots are still available.
During the TDU, the Beat Cancer Tour riders are treated like the professionals for a week — riding every kilometre of every stage, eating and sleeping at the Hilton and having nightly massages while their bike is being washed and finetuned.
They will also be part of the official team presentation on the Saturday evening on stage alongside the world’s best cyclists.
“Shy of having a WorldTour contract, it’s as close to the real deal as these guys will get,” Cancer Council SA project officer Samara Farrell said.
Real estate agent John Cullen heard about the Beat Cancer Tour during this year’s TDU, and he was inspired to sign up.
But his preparation hit a major hurdle in May when the day before he was due to fly to Europe for a cycling holiday he was hit by a car on Anzac Highway.
He broke his pelvis, collarbone, two ribs and a finger and spent two weeks in hospital and a further eight in a wheelchair. As recently as November he had surgery to remove a plate from his shoulder.
But John, 43, is back on his bike and has been training four to five times a week while working just as hard with his fundraising efforts, passing $23,000.
“I really enjoy my cycling and this is the only experience to be treated like a professional and the cause for the Cancer Council is fantastic,” John said.
“I’ve found the fundraising very easy, actually. I’ve spoken to people who have been through cancer and those who have got cancer, and I had a little kid who has leukaemia donate some money and it was really touching.
“It makes you realise that what you’re doing is really worth it.”
Beat Cancer Tour riders complete each stage together and only separate on the major climbs before regrouping.
“During the stages the riders travel as a peloton, (Crows assistant coach) Ryan O’Keefe has been recruited as one of our super domestiques and he’ll be on the front most days and running Powerade and power bars to the riders,” Cancer Council SA project officer Samara Farrell said.
“We unleash them on the KOM’s where there are points up for grabs and then regroup so everyone stays together.
“It’s the only event of its kind offered with a WorldTour event by allowing you to ride every day and every stage in such a way.”
To participate, riders must be able to pedal 150km at an average speed of 30km/h in a bunch and meet fundraising requirements.
The full experience costs $4000 in registration plus $12,000 in fundraising which all goes to the Cancer Council, and there are also one and three-day options for those who can’t commit to the whole week.
For more information or to register visit www.beatcancertour.com.au
QUOTES OF THE WEEK ...
“That’s the way I win races by going hard on the bike, I wasn’t going to wait for them I knew I was in great form.”
- Luke McKenzie after winning the Busselton Ironman by averaging 43km/h for 180km on the bike leg.
“We wanted cycling’s biggest names in Victoria and that’s exactly what we’ve got. The top names belong in the state that does the big events best.”
- Victorian Tourism Minister John Eren after announcing Mark Cavendish would line up in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race next year.
“I quite like just being me. Just a working-class hero, if you like. Approachable. I like the fact that people see me in Tesco and say, ‘What are you doing in here?’ I’m like, ‘Same as you. Getting my two-for-one.’ I treat people in the same way, whether I am talking to the Queen or a volunteer at the Olympics.”
- Bradley Wiggins tells The Times about staying humble.
“If I had made a mistake he probably would have won it. I raced really well, one of my best competitions that I have raced.”
- Matthew Glaetzer after winning the men’s sprint at the New Zealand world cup.
TWEET, TWEET
Back at it, with the boys, in Mallorca pic.twitter.com/6kONnOxOLu
— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) December 7, 2015
— After a career-best season with Team Sky, Geraint Thomas was happy to get back into training this week. Will we see him leading Sky at the Tour Down Under?
Originally published as The Coffee Ride #90, with Reece Homfray
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