Track sprinter leaner and stronger but can he go faster to make it to Rio?

SHANE Perkins says he has never been this lean, this strong or this hungry. Or more determined to defy those who want to dump him from elite cycling ranks.

7/12/15 - Australian track cyclist Shane Perkins at CrossFit - pic Mike Burton

SHANE Perkins says he has never been this lean, this strong or this hungry.

Despite being cut from Cycling Australia’s high performance program with just eight months to the Rio Olympics, Perkins is refusing to take no for an answer.

The 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic medallist has turned to CrossFit - the revolutionary competitive fitness program for keen gymgoers - to steel his body for the national track championships in February which he has described as his “Olympics before the Olympics”.

The walking ball of muscle says he’s seeing changes in his body from the gym which he hopes will translate to faster times on the track.

“Through the change and style of training I’ve definitely leaned up a bit,” Perkins said.

“I’ve started to drop some mass from my upper body which is good and as a result of the CrossFit workouts I’ve become a bit fitter and I can see that on the bike in terms of recovery in between efforts.

“At this level it’s hard to make massive jumps but it’s about the one percenters and if I can be fitter and leaner and that translates to going faster on the bike then great.”

Perkins rode the Oceania Championships for Australia in October but was later told there was no longer room for him in the national high performance program.

CA however has not closed the door on the possibility of him still making the world championships or Olympics.

“It was their call and I’m just running with it,” Perkins said.

“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.

Shane Perkins in action for Australia. Picture: Bryn Lennon (Getty Images)

“I miss the guys at the AIS but I’m also enjoying the fact that I get to work with a mate of mine in Jason and the crew that he’s got at SASI.

“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.

“They’ve helped me a lot in the past and I appreciate it, I’ve been with CA and AIS for a long, long time.

“A few of the riders are still supporting me and hoping I do well and I appreciate that, I’ll be doing all I can to get back in the team and hopefully make the team for Rio.”

Olympic selection for Australia’s male track sprinters has essentially boiled down to a race for the second wheel of the team sprint with starter Nathan Hart and third-wheel Matthew Glaetzer near certainties to spearhead the team.

Perkins, who has combined national commitments with racing the Japanese keirin series for the past five years, knows he needs a big performance at the national championships in Adelaide next year.

“That’s the big one, it’s my Olympics before the Olympics I guess,” he said.

“I’ll be racing the sprint, keirin and team sprint and maybe the kilo (1km), we’ll see how we go.

“I’m the hungriest I’ve ever been, I’ve obviously got a pretty big fire in my belly.”

He is also feeling motivated after a fresh new approach to his training at CrossFit Mode in the city.

“It’s pretty different to what I’ve done in the past, I’ve learnt a lot over the years and this is an opportunity to put that along with all the things I’ve learnt from CrossFit into a program to help myself and keep injury free,” he said.

“It’s very demanding, a lot of the stuff we’d done at the AIS is heavy lifting, whereas with the CrossFit you’re working a lot of the time on your energy system so there is a fair bit of lactic build up and stuff like that, which is really good for the fitness side of it.”

Perkins raced the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year but required an epidural injection just to get on the plane. Now, he says, the back injury has fully recovered.

“It was a bit of a tough period last year but I’ve come out of it now, my power lifts have jumped up in terms of weight and my back is holding up fantastically,” he said.

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 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 on-going discussions with Shane about what are the next steps ... like any de-selection, change is difficult.”

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Originally published as Track sprinter leaner and stronger but can he go faster to make it to Rio?