Olympic campaign 2008

So after a very busy year of world cup qualification races  (Sydney , Beijing, L.A  and Copenhagen)  and world champs  in Manchester we finally made it to the main focus of the year which was Beijing 2008, the Olympics !!!  N.Z managed to qualify mens/women points race, team pursuit(t.p), womens/mens individual pursuit(i.p) and a Madison spot. In total a team of 9 riders were picked to fill these spots
and represent there country. Support staff were tim carswell (head coach) willy rastrick ( 2nd coach) craig palmer (sport science) myself(mechanic)  marc hollands (physio) and craig adair (manager)

So it was back on a plane and off for a 3 week training camp on the boards of the wooden track in Bordeaux, one of the fastest tracks in the world!! I arrived in on the 15th of july, a day after the fulla's had arrived from there road base in Belgium. First things first was to pick up the schenker shipment of all our equipment that had been freighted over before hand but since  that was at the airport and willy
and jaques laundry(road coach based in france) were there to pick me up in the bikenz van, we swung by and picked up the gear and headed of to the motel which was were we were to based for the next 3 weeks.

After a good nights sleep it was off to the track to assemble a bunch of avanti track bikes which the guys were to riding as there had been some deal struck with bikenz and avanti?? Not sure what was going on there but as we had all the b.t's there, on which the guys had been training on in Belgium so my day was full of measuring stack heights , fork heights, seat heights, seat position etc etc and fitting
all there gear onto these new frames. Mission accomplished and the guys got out on the track for a quick spin and to check out there new rides. Hayden roulston (rolly) and ali shanks (shanks) both bought with them a zen bike which they were to use in the individual pursuit(i.p) so  they were a few extra bikes floating around in and out of use as the weeks went by.

After a few training rides and hard efforts at full speed, 14.5 - 14.0 second laps, they guys were complaining about speed wobbles in the front end of the avanti's, so after some discussions tim and the guys decided it was the fork, which from my point of view it nothing to do with the oval fork, but anyway the decision was to swap over all the forks to the b.t forks, so i was back into my pit for a afternoon of mucking around and swapping over again. So it was little surprise to find out that there bikes still wobbled with the b.t fork in the next training session so the guys decided to go back onto the oval fork except sam bewley and pete latham
who kept the b.t fork!!

Once this was all sorted and the days went by and the guys really got into there work, it was obvious that  they all had wicked form and they were flying!! They were just getting faster and faster each day  and the confidence was just building and building. Tim was putting them thru there paces and the data  craig was getting  from there SRM'S was way above the level they had reached at the worlds. T.p was on to break the 4 minute mark and with that sort of time they were definitely in the hunt for medals and they all new it!!  In the 3rd week of training we held 2 days of race protocol for the staff and riders and simulated exact timing of race day, routines and practices and procedures that was to happen on race day. This meant both morning and afternoon sessions, and efforts were used as a form guide and selection for team pursuit riders. shanks and hendy also had simulations of the points race (hendy) and individual pursuit  (shanks). Both produced great rides/times and was clear they both had the form to win medals!!! 

In the next few days the guys stepped up further again and some of the efforts were extreme!! A flying kilo in 56.1 seconds, 13.8 - 13.9 second laps, on a 250meter track a 15.0 second lap is 60.0km/ph  so they are sitting on 63+ km/ph!!
They were moving!! 

At the end of the training camp everyone was buzzing as the form was right where everyone wanted to be. A huge pack up for me (whole day to pack up the gear) and off to pick up a hire truck, and then a early start the next day and it was a road trip from Bordeaux to Frankfurt Germany with the gear to meet up with the team to fly to Beijing!! Myself and carl moore (bikenz staff member from the european base) and bloody good mate hit the road and about 11 hours later we were in a motel near Frankfurt airport, had a sleep and then out to airport, drop off of the gear and then sit and wait for the fulla's to show up from there flight from Bordeaux, whilst guarding the big pile of gear that was taking up a huge part of the check in at the air china counter!!  Then it was on a plane and a couple of sleepers and bang, what do you know we were in dirtyold china, Beijing!!!!

Through customs and through  Olympic accredition station and we were off to see if our gear had made it??? Lucky for us  everything had made it  so  now it was off to the track, or so we thought!! We landed at 12.30 and after we had picked up our gear it was looking good to get to the track and put together to bikes for a late afternoon roll on the track for the fulla's. But this was china and they wanted to take us to the village so ends up we got dropped off thru the 1st security check point in the village with all our gear, hmm ok thats cool as jake our nzoc logistics guy was there and as it turns out, he had  organized us to go there and get another truck to the track. well....  we  waited and waited some more, 2 hours in the hot sun go by and we were still waiting.
turns out that the truck was lost and when he did show up he couldn't get  through security , so  jake told us to  take the gear out to the truck and start loading, sounded good to us so we got stuck in and next thing we know, we're off
to the track, finally!!! So we get to the track and all off a sudden there is a problem with this truck as it hadn't come from a secure zone and as we had taken the gear out of the secure zone onto the truck we couldn't get into the track!! 5 hours later and the exchange of a n.z skinsuit (yes that right they accept bribes) we walked all our gear into the track!!!  Long day...  No food since leaving Frankfurt... glad to find my bed at the village and find the free mac donalds at the food hall which i was to become very familiar with haha

Next day we were on the 6am bus to track to assemble bikes, bus trip was half a hour so we had from 6.30am till 10am which was when our training session for the day was so it was all very quick and hurried bike building frenzzy.
Guys got on track and training went well, nothing fell off, pheww!! and then it was back to the lock up to clean up a huge mess and stack all the boxes and bike bags and get some sort of order to things. Once that was sorted it was
a good chance to glue on some of the race tyres onto the disc's. That afternoon i got all the t.p wheels done 6 fronts and 6 rear disc's and ali's i.p  zen wheels. Hendys race wheels and all the spares, over 20 + wheels, Another long day!!

So from then on that was pretty much me, down to the track  early morning, prepare bikes for training, swap over a million sprocket combinations for each 2 hours session and then stuff around with gluing tyres each day depending on
what width tHe the fulla's decided they would use on what wheel. Cleaning bikes each day and wheels, hauling ergs and rollers back to the village each day blah blah blah. We shared the training session with a few teams each day along with the poms, was good to see that the poms weren't going much faster than our guys and each time wiggins rolled out onto the track for a effort or rolly did a effort the poker faces were amazing!! riding at 55kmph making it look like your not even breathing or like it didn't even hurt was great to watch!!

Anyway it finally came down to race day. All the hard work for me was pretty much done, the business was about to start!!

DAY 1 mens individual pursuit

Rolly had ridden well at worlds(4th) so he was seeded well and set the fastest time at 4.18 for the 4000meters, only bradley wiggins would go faster, rolly then comfortably won his next round against the 7th fastest guy and as the quickest
times in this round counted for the positions in the ride offs for the medals his second fastest time again in that round qualified him for the final. Day 1 was perfect

DAY 2 mens i.p final, womens i.p qualifying, mens points race final

Rolly was first up, final against brad wiggins, geared rolly up to  52x13(108inch) thats a big gear!!!  His plan, to beat wiggins!!
To go out and match him pedal stoke for pedal stroke and hope he cracked before rolly. Worked for 3km before rolly started to lose a bit of ground to wiggins. close but not the gold medal, awesome effort tho which rolly was stoked about.

Shanks was next and rode a personal best time to qualify 5th(3.35) for 3000meters. Her opponent in the next round was 2 time world champ sarah hammer. A great match was on the cards here!!

Then the mens points race, hendy gave it a good crack and was in the thick of the action the whole race but it never happened for him, the moves he was in were always bought back and then the very next move would stick and gain a lap, still got 7th i think but he was a little gutted i think as on his day he can win in races like that. juan laneras won with style, he is just a machine and  made it look easy, what a great rider!!! wicked race to have  watched

DAY3 morning session t.p qualifying

Team was wess,sam,mark and jessie with rolly sitting out. Guys just let loose and rode a 3.59 to be one of the few teams outside aussie and great brittan to ever go under that 4 minute mark. Was awesome to watch and be part of. They were
stoked and only the poms went quicker

 DAY 3 afternoon session

Shanks lined up against the former world champ, backed herself and took her out by riding another p.b in 3.33 to win the ride and qualify for the bronze medal ride. Awesome result for her and confirmation that she gets better  every time she gets on the bike.

Then it was time for the t.p. Rolly was in, the hard call came when wess had to sit out, sam was starting, marc second wheel followed by rolly and jessie. As the fastest winners go thru to the medals, everything was at stake here for the fulla's. Denmarkl ined up before us and really pulled one and rode 3.56! just outside world record. Our guys were all sitting down getting ready to step out and knowing they had to break world record to make the final and there wasn't one guy there that wasn't ready to do so or believe he couldn't!! After 2 km they were in front of the danes and on world record pace!! They were absolutely flying!! Only thing in there way was that they were catching the spanish and had to pass a team! In short this is harder than it sounds cause you have to ride higher on the track and travel further, took a whole lap to pass and our lap times went from 14.2 out to 14.9 by
time they got round, jessie bought it back on pace for the last lap but the damage was done and we missed by .6 of a second to the danes. the poms rode 3.55. We had missed the final. Boys were gutted, we had gone faster than ever before and
everyone was hurting,gutted, so close, was a very weird feeling. close....

DAY 4 womens points

Shanks lined up for her ride for bronze but couldn't match the other rider and lost out by about 2 seconds, watch this space as she will get better and better. Not been riding longer than 2 years!!!!

Cath cheatley had come from the road race to do the points race, as always cath was in the thick of the action and was always attacking and in moves, just needed some luck like hendy in his points race, strong performance and good
fitness just no luck!!

Then the t.p and we beat the aussies!!!!  We took down a team of big names and dam it was awesome. Went out fast and took the lead and rode another 3.57, aussies couldn't get close and what made it even better was that the danes
only rode 4.00 in there final against  the poms proving in what many people thought that we were the 2nd best team there!!

Party time for the fulla's!!!!! Was a unreal night, we were jumping for joy after that, such a cool feeling!!!

DAY 5 madison  hendy/rolly

Well it was also day 5 for rolly, he rode every day, what a animal!! The plan was to take the first half easy and attack the 2nd half to gain a lap. They rode very well and were one of the dominant teams towards the end but couldn't gain a lap on the field. strange madison as normally he winners will have gained many laps but on this occasion 3 teams took a early lap and then that was it, the race was very well controlled by those teams and i would say the cheque book came out as no other team with a chance could gain laps.  strange indeed.

Was a huge relief when it was all finished, no mistakes or mechanicals for me, a job well done!! Felt proud to have been part of a successful campaign and part of that team!! From there i assisted at hanging out at the bmx which was cool to watch and learn how the bmx format was run and then onto the mountain biking.

The mtb was awesome, went to the feed zone mechanical zone with spare wheels bikes and feed rosara and kashi with the help of marc hollands and marc elliot (high performance manager) and selby (mtb mechanic). Was awesome watching and feeding the guys, was super hot on the course and both riders went thru so much fluid and ice packs just to keep cool, was a huge effort in such conditions to just compete let along race. Absoulon kicked arse as per usual (frenchie guy) he made it look easy! Heaps of spectators, was  buzzing out at the mtb, wicked days racing!! rosara finished 9th after 2 crashes, very good result considering!! kashi  top 20, very solid on the return from injury!!

Had a couple of days to check out the great wall and the pub which became the riders new home!! They went pretty full on there also!! Another huge all day pack up for me and then home time.

When i landed back in new zealand was very glad to be home.

Will send some more photo's of village through  soon
thanks for reading

Steve Wallis

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New Zealand Team Mechanic 2008 Beijing Olympics
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New Zealand Team Mechanic for the 2006 Junior World Track Cycling Championships being held in Gent, Belgium 5-8 August.

junior world championship, gent belgium

so this was what all the hard work of these young fullas was all about, to put down their best efforts down on the track and let their legs do the talking, training was over, it is time to race and race these young fullas did!!

day 1

so first up was mens points race and scratch race heats( pretty strange as 2 endurance races in one day) but anyway tim bennett was in the points race and after some good early sprinting for points he comfurtably qualified for the final that night. As did simon van velt hoven in the scratch race heat, he cruised though into the final. So back that night for the finals, tim rode as hard as he could in the points race in a very good field and held his own but finished out of the medals but rode very well. simon rode a cracker scratch race, bridging up to a late break of 3 with 4 laps to go, only to watch the pomm(from the break of 4,now with simon) attack them to ride off for the win, unfortunatly for simon,he was caught in the last lap but still gained a top 10

day 2

individual pursuit (3000 meters)

we have 2 very big talents here, jesse sargent and westley gough. wess qualified 2nd in a time of 3.22 and jess just behind in 3.23. So we were going for medals that night, wess fought so hard in the final but came up against a freak and very talented aussie (who was .8 of a second outside the world record) so wess had to settle for second but not before leaving everything he had on the track. by the way these guys are averaging 54 - 55 kmph from a standing start for this race.
jess beat the german for 3rd with another soild ride of 3.23 to beat him well, that gave us 2 guys on the podium, something n.z has never had in its entire history in a world champs!!! hows that!!!!

next up was rushlee in womens points race, after sitting still for most of the race she timed her attack perfect and rode away nearly lapping the feild, but couldnt quite close down the final 30-40 meters b4 the bunch reacted and caugh her back.
If she had gained the lap she would have gained 20 points which would have given her the world title! close, very close!

day 3

team pursuit 4000 meters (defending champs)

so after winning this event last year we started last in qualifing and used it to our best,posting the best time to go into the ride off that night for gold or silver. Unfortunatly aussie had rested the freak(cameron meyers, who had won the i.p and madison in which he crashed twice in, the day before) in qualifing and bought him back for the final. He did a amazing job doing 2-3 lap pulls on the front to bring the aussies the victory and his 3rd title this world champs. our guys were gutted and tryed so hard but it wasnt to be, they are now the fastest kiwi junior team ever in a time of 4.11.1.
That is a very solid time!! well done guys ,oh yeah the average speed was up around 57-58 kmph!!!

womens i.p 2000 meters

well what a suprise this was, young 1st year junior lauren done a amazing ride to qualify 2nd and then gaining a silver in the final. Awesome young chick and im sure next year she will be back for that rainbow yersey!!! her time was similar to what sarah ulmer done as a junior so she is fast!!!! her time was 2.30

day 4

womens kerin and scratch

milindy rode very well to make the 7- 12 final in the kerin and ended up winning the race to gain a 7th place. lauren was in action again in scratch race, attacking the feild only to get caught with only one lap to go. once again a close move that could have easily worked out.

Was a great trip to be involved with.A great bunch of riders and management, look out for these names in the future. i had a great time in belge, awesome, but its always nice to go home. i need to ride my bike to.

next trip - world cup sydney with the elite guys in november, see you then

steve wallis

The trail and the road trip 04/07/ 2006

Then we packed up the gear and the next day I was off to Geneva to pick up a rental, after picking up the truck it’s an hour back to Aigel, thru the gear in and started the haul to Gent in Belge. I and the Swannie set off for the 11hour trip!! We made it to Luxembourg at 10pm, stopped in and found a place to stay then headed for a meal and shut down for the night. On the road at 8 for the last 4 hours to Belge and the maze of motorways in Gent. Got to the Holiday Iinn,  dumped the gear at the track and then I set of, destination- Geneva( as rental had been booked as a return, wasn’t to happy bout that) I drove as far back as Basel so the next day was only a 3 hour stink to Geneva. Found somewhere to stay that night and headed out on the road again early the next day. Made it 10km out of Geneva and came across road works and was stopped for 1 hour!! After a few p's and q's I made it to the drop off at 11.58!! 2 minutes to spare, taxi to the airport and jumped on a plane to Brussels at 4pm and now here I am in gent at the holiday inn.

Racing starts on Saturday so look out for some impressive stuff from the guys, I think they will go well and bring home some medals!!

Let you know how they go

Steve

p.s  2050km driven in two and a bit days!!! Not bad aye!!!

So here’s an update 23/06/2006

so Sunday was the start of another adventure working with the new Zealand cycling team, this time to Switzerland (for a 12 days) and then onto Belgium working with the under 19 track squad for the world championship.

having made the long journey over here I arrived with out some of my luggage but that’s becoming pretty normal so wasn’t to worried and jumped in the car and headed of to aigle  where the uci training headquarters/centre is and where we are based for the time in Switzerland. Checked out the track, indoor wooden 200meters on the way thru and then went to the accommodation.

We stay in a dorm like building with shared rooms and shared bathrooms and shower rooms with meals down at the uci centre. aigel is a very small village and absolutely nothing to do so after the track training has been done for the day, normally from 9- 12 in mornings) its back home to the TV room and watch the tour which is on live each day.

All the riders are in good sprits and they are a cool bunch of young fullas and more importantly they are going well (some are flying) so looks good going into the next week and start of competition. They have a trial on Monday so that’s huge for the guys to show what they have got and then on the 29th we are of to gent in Belgium

That’s about it for now as the tour is starting, photos to come

later

steve