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By British Cycling's Larry Hickmott At the World Track Championships this year in Melbourne, Great Britain's Rob Hayles came away with two silver medals, one in the Team Pursuit and another in the Individual pursuit, proof if needed, that the tall cyclist from Stockport was back to his best. He year 2000 was bitter sweat for Rob. At the Sydney Olympics there were many memorable moments, some good, most not so good. There was the satisfaction of getting a bronze medal in the Team Pursuit but in the individual pursuit and madison, lady luck was not smiling on our Rob. In the individual pursuit, he just missed a medal despite doing a 4.19 in the bronze medal ride off against future World Champion Bradley McGee of Australia who rode a few hundredths of a seconds quicker. Worse was to come because when in a medal winning position in the Madison with Bradley Wiggins, a bad change by one of the other teams, brought him down and yet another medal was lost. Rob was understandably gutted and after winning a bronze and a silver in the Worlds that followed at Manchester, he went off to ride the road in Europe for a few years. He then returned to the GB fold in 2003 and was part of the silver medal winning team in the Team Pursuit at Stuttgart, giving absolutely everything but still not quite getting the gold medal. The momentum of his come back to the track in 2004 continued to grow and it was in Melbourne that he took one step up on the podium for the Individual Pursuit when he took the silver. Like the ride in Sydney four years before, Rob gave it his all and for a while, it was looking like he could come away with Gold but over the final lap he faded slightly and it was to be the first of two silver medals. The other being in the Team Pursuit where they team came close, but again just missed out. Rob however was in good spirits at the Great Britain Olympic Track Cycling Team's holding camp in Newport and is always on hand to help lift team morale with the odd prank here and there. One 'revealing' moment on the press day failed to make it on to film (shame that), but it certainly gave everyone a good laugh and was just another example of the very relaxed team spirit amongst a group of riders who give absolutely everything on the track and then wind down with a laugh and a joke back at the Celtic Manor hotel. Rob is the sort of rider who gives everything and more on the track, takes his results very seriously and is gutted at anything less than success but is also able to switch off and relax between competitions. Talking to him in the riders lounge, he explained that the teams track work had only really just started with 20 days still to go the start of competition. Prior to gathering at Newport, Rob along with other members of the team was in Germany competing in a stage race but such is the depth of experience in the team, once together on the track in team pursuit formation, everyone slotted into place despite not having been together since Melbourne. This is one of the most experienced teams without a doubt in World Team pursuiting.
Above: Team Pursuit training at the Newport Olympic Holding camp last week.... Since the Worlds in Melbourne which was the culmination of a month on the track, the build up to the Olympics has been mostly made up of road riding to get back the endurance they lost in Australia. "We are trying new things all the time" Rob says "and because we spent a month off the road in May, we have to make up for that now somehow which is what we have been doing." With the base work done in the two months since Melbourne, the time had to come to do away with the 'rubbish' riding as Bryan Steel had called it when we spoke (interview to come) and concentrate on quality. "Every effort we have done has been pretty much been on race pace" Rob told me. "We have done a lot less work on the track than we normally would have done but what we have done is we have increased the quality. We are also using race kit, race tyres, race gears and going absolutely full on with the efforts which is different to what we have done in the past." And the verdict from Rob … "so far its going good. This preparation differs from Sydney in terms I am coming off three years of a big road program which has given me a lot of confidence in what I can do in my training. And its good to have the camaraderie in the team to push me along. Before I was very self motivating and I had to be for the individual (pursuit) but now if I am a little bit down, the lads are there to pick me up and vice versa." Another factor in helping keep team morale high is the plush surroundings of the Celtic Manor hotel where the riders have plenty to do and places to escape to so I asked Rob who has travelled a lot during his pro career what he thought of it? "It's a fantastic place. They have been very accommodating, it's just shame we got to ride up that hill to get back!" he added referring to the fact that the hotel is on top of a hill -- so big you can see the hotel from the M4 motorway below! The Madison Four years ago, Rob and Brad were robbed of a medal when a crash not of their making brought Rob down within sight of the finish. It was cruel and ever since, the Madison was a key objective for the team this time round. The Downing brothers, Russell and Dean were brought in and with little experience at World level, they did well for Team GB, finishing 12th at the Worlds in Melbourne. It wasn't enough for an automatic place but was good enough for the UCI to award the last available place to Great Britain and deservedly so as the Downings with the GB team, had travelled all over the world to World Cups, getting a number of top 10 places before the Worlds in May. Having done the job they were brought in to do, when it was announced that GB had been awarded a place in the event at the Olympics, the search was on for two riders in the team already selected - and the obvious choices being the same duo from Sydney, Rob Hayles and Bradley Wiggins. So what did Rob think of it all then? "Its very good" he replied quickly. "Bradley and I have been looking forward to that since Sydney four years ago. Fortunately thanks to that 12th place by Rus and Dean, we have qualified the last place so its really good. All year when we have got together, we have talked about it, and much more so since we knew we had got the place." Rob and Brad though have a number of other events to concentrate on so did they expect to have enough left for the Madison, one of the most demanding and spectacular events in the whole Olympic track cycling competition. "Its on the agenda" he said "and we can give it our all because its at the end of the week. Brads main event is the individual and that's his first event, so the Madison doesn't get in the way of anything." And Rob's priorities? "All of them!" he said laughing. "I rode the individual in Sydney and rode one round of the Team Pursuit, and was then hoping to ride the Points and the Madison but in the end, only rode the Madison. There is a possibility I can do all three events (Individual Pursuit, Team Pursuit and Madison). We then moved onto to talking about the event he won a silver medal in at Melbourne and a bronze in Manchester four years earlier. The Individual Pursuit. The team has a number of options, Wiggins, Hayles and Paul Manning who was fourth to Bradley in the 2003 Worlds. This year in Melbourne at the Worlds, Paul was 3rd fastest in qualifying just behind Rob but then lost in his next round to go out of the competition. The National coach wasn't saying who would ride but all the options were certainly being explored. Speaking to Rob at the heated velodrome in Newport, he explained … "One of the reasons I am here today is to see how I am going in the Individual and how it will effect me for the Team Pursuit. Brad is at the moment the number one rider with the 4.17 that he rode last year and that is his objective whereas my objective has been the Team Pursuit because I wasn't sure and wasn't confident how I could do in the individual pursuit off the work we are doing in the team pursuit." In the end, the boy's done good though, very good indeed clocking a 4.20 with very little specialist work in it and getting silver at the Worlds but he isn't getting over excited by it saying "my priorities haven't changed but my outlook on my events definitely have." The lead up to Rob riding the individual event in Melbourne though was a little rocky. "All along at the Worlds I knew there was a possibility I would be riding the 'IP' because I knew we had qualified two places. All along I said to Simon 'I would like ride it but there is no way I will ride if I don't think I can do the job', which would be getting a medal. So I needed to get a bronze or better." "I had a test after Sydney and knew I was going well, so it was then 'do I or don't I? As it turned I wasn't feeling very good at all leading up to the Worlds, and so in the end I said to Simon, normally I wouldn't do the ride but I needed the workout and I went in there with no pressure as the results meant nothing. It was a case of having to ride and get that effort and I didn't care what result I got out of it. Then after the first round (2nd fastest), I knew there was a medal in there - it was just which colour it was going to be." In the end he pushed the Spaniard close, very close in an exciting final but didn't quite have enough to beat him but admits that he took a lot of confidence and motivation from that result. "Its early days but I think the Worlds next year will be my number 1 priority" he explained. So he's not retiring then I said half jokingly, half not! "No, no, no" he smiling broadly . "I haven't been World Champion yet!" he replied. If his determination is anything to go by, it won't be long before those rainbow stripes come his way but for now there is the little matter of winning some Gold medals in Athens. Not just one because in all the events he expects to be contesting, Gold is certainly a realistic prospect and we wish him and all the team the very best for the coming weeks in Athens. Just keep those trousers on eh Rob!
GREAT BRITAIN OLYMPIC TEAM IN BREIF Rider (potential events) Oli Beckingsale (Mens Mountain Biking) Nicole Cooke (Women's Road Race) Steve Cummings: (Team Pursuit) Stuart Dangerfield: (Men's Road Time Trial) Emma Davies: (Womens Individual Pursuit/Womens Points Race) Ross Edgar: (Sprint, Keirin) Roger Hammond: (Mens Road Race) Rob Hayles: (Mens Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison) Rachel Heal: (Womens Road Race) Chris Hoy: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Jeremy Hunt: (Mens Road Race) Liam Killeen: (Mens Mountain Biking) Craig MacLean: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Paul Manning: (Mens Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit) Chris Newton: (Team Pursuit/Mens Points Race) Victoria Pendleton: (500TT/Womens Sprint) Jason Queally: (Kilo/Team Sprint) Jamie Staff: (Kilo, Team Sprint, Keirin) Bryan Steel: (Team Pursuit) Sara Symington: (Womens Road Race) Charly Wegalius: (Mens Road Race) Bradley Wiggins: (Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison) Julian Winn: (Mens Road Race)
The Great Britain Cycling Team for the Paralympics Tandems
(click for bios) Aileen
McGlynn - 22.06.73/Glasgow Ian
Sharpe - 27.10.70/Ramsey, Isle of Man Solos Gary Williams - 05.03.68/Bickerstaffe, Lancs
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