Over winter we have trained hard and have added some serious depth and talent to the squad and this has really stepped the group up to a whole new level of competition.
During the winter break we have had some outstanding results in the National Duathlon Series, with several age group winners at WA Champs out at Champion Lakes and then Sheridan and Steve Smith and myself travelling to Adelaide for the National Titles. It looks likely that all three of us have qualified to represent Australia at Worlds next year, excellent work.
After the WA Duathlon Champs the crew headed south for a week long training camp, this time in a house that was much more suited to our needs. A proper bed and decent place to recover make a world of difference to how well the training works and pays off.
On the racing scene we have had several big outings recently. School Sport Champs on Thursday 6th November saw almost every athlete collect points towards State Team Selection, an outstanding day with several medal winners across all the age groups. Racing then turned to a new format for the WA Juniors with the introduction of a Draft Legal Series. The format was short fast and very very hard. The day consisted of three single races with about an hours recovery between each one. Athletes were put through their paces with a 250m swim, 6k bike and 1500m run. This really created some excited and showed the ability and knowledge of the athletes, drafting changed the format and meant athletes had to start thinking tactically. Excellent results with Jess Claxton taking out the girls with Tegan Scott second and Kaitlyn Illingworth fifth. Cambell Smith and Josh Roberts raced in the boys races and were always up there before making the decision to concentrate on other events and save their legs for the second day of racing. Sophie Foxcroft proved to be a resilient athlete who refuses to give up completing all of her races and then backing up the next day. Sunday 16th November saw race 2 of the State Team Selection events, the day after TEP race 1. This was going to be a real test of the athletes abilities as many had raced the day before. Josh Roberts and Cam Smith proved their decisions to save their legs was the right idea by winning their age groups. Outstanding results by all the juniors and maybe one of our best days out so far.
On a sadder note I lost a very close friend in October and have to thank everyone for their support and understanding with the matter. On Saturday 25th October we paid tribute to a close friend and it was a ride I don't think anyone in WA will forget in awhile. People tell me it was somewhere between 400 and 1000 riders but I'm not sure, all I know is it was overwhelming and awesome all in one go. Sitting on the front of a group so huge was something that will stay with me forever and I want to thank all my athletes for supporting me with this.
A massive thank you to all our supporters through winter and now into the season. Parents without you we wouldn't make it to training and racing and thank you to Nicole Foxcroft and Food Risk Management for their continued support, Mikey McConnell for his mentoring and support for me and towards some of the boys in the squad, its always nice to have an outside ear to hear things and provide an outside prospective. Al and Suzie and Al's Cycle Surgery for continuing to support so many of the Juniors and even some of the adults now joining the squad. And anyone else I may have missed, or if you are interested in becoming involved with us please feel free to contact us and get involved.
See you out there on the training track or ripping it up at a race venue real soon!!!!!
