Report: GB Paralympic Team in Australia - Part 6

 

Posted 9 Feb 2007

Report & Pics - Team Manager Dave Mellor

Australian Open Track National Championships, Sydney

 

There was something in the air tonight as the sprint stars of Para-Cycling took to the boards of the Dunc Gray Velodrome. Following the afternoon's time trial seeding it was straight to the finals for Sprint World Champions Anthony Kappes and Barney Storey and our Kilo World Champions Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter. Our Endurance group have now finished racing and as training is a bit restricted around the velodrome, Dr Gary Brickley was on chauffeur duty in a hired a car to take the group out to the Blue Mountains and they found the long and winding roads were perfect for training while the Tandems did their stuff.

 

Kappes and Storey relax between races

As expected, current World Sprint Champions Kappes and Storey, despite not having done any specific sprint training since last October, qualified for the final easily with a time of 10.780, 3 tenths quicker than the Queensland pairing of "the two Ben's" Holmes and Macfie. Meanwhile it was different for feamle pairing McGlynn and Hunter as things were not going smoothly at all. Whether it was the occasion, a case of big night nerves or something else, but Aileen McGlynn was clearly unsettled and they qualified second, 3 tenths behind Paralympic Champion Lindy Hou and her Pilot Toireasa Gallagher and 3 tenths in front of South Australian's Johnson and Parker in a close contest.

 

Mechanic 'Spike' Taylor attends to the tandem, whilst Ellen Hunter and Aileen McGlynn warm up on the rollers

First up was the bronze medal rides and Heather Deller our carer for trip who had never seen tandem racing before felt her blood pressure rising as first the New Zealand Women's pairing and the South Australian's literally clashed in turn one and with arms locked for what seemed eternity they eventually made it around to turn two, the evening crowd going wild and Heather proclaiming "I don't like this! I want to ride my bicycle straight back home! I can't watch!!!"

 

So to ride-off one of the Gold medal ride and as Kilo World Champions it seemed a pretty safe bet that with a better jump and Kilo speed the GB pair would be able to lead it out for the win and that looked good until we tied up in the final 100 metres and Hou and Gallagher just got past. Something drastic was needed and so I dug out my Ipod with David Millar's TT warm up compilation. However, 9 Inch Nails did not seem to do much for Aileen. Chris Furber then trumped this by bringing his Ipod over and plugged Aileen in to David Methven's bagpipe rendition of "Flower of Scotland". That seemed to do the trick but I'm a little worried by the fact that a 20 something coach should have that in his personal music collection!

Ride 2 and Gallagher and Hou, having gained in confidence decided to lead it out this time but the bagpipes had worked their magic and the Hunter and McGlynn Combo were in total control and in a fantastic display of riding the two pairs were side by side for a lap and a half with Team GB squaring the match by half a wheel. So it was going to be a winner takes it all 3rd round and McGlynn was now certainly fired up and was asking pilot Hunter what the tactics were going to be. "I'm making my mind up but we've got a better jump so lets hope it's slow" said Hunter.

 

Ellen Hunter is such a skilful and determined woman and I could see her looking over at the Australian pair and giving that aggressive look as if to say "You're the one that I want!" It's such a shame that the Women's Sprint has been taken out of the Paralympics. So to the ride off and it seemed to have been scripted for us as Hou and Gallagher made it a tactical ride, stalling in the back straight, a tactic that Hunter was more than a match for before making their effort just before the bell. From that point it was all over as Hunter and McGlynn got up to speed much quicker than their opponents and by turn 3 had easily taken the lead and were a length clear at the line to take the title.

Kappes and Storey top the sprint podium

 

Now to the male event and rather than aggressive looks, a bit of gentle shoulder barging and hugs for opponents afterwards this was full on macho macho man , finger pointing and "you put me on the floor, you're coming down with me" all very handbaggy but a place at the Visa Paralympic World Cup was at stake for the Australian men who were riding for bronze. And actually although Barney gave a fantastic display of Tandem Sprint riding and he did make it look good in the 2-0 victory over the Queenslanders, it was the bronze medal ride that had the crowd ooh-ing and ah-ing and I am totally unsure how these guys can ride a 200kilos mass of totally out of control, shoulder charging testosterone on this steep 250 metre track. Very exciting it was though and if you want to see it for real rather than reading about it come along to Manchester on May 11th for the Visa Paralympic World Cup - and it's free admission!

 

Winners all - the paralympic stars line up for a group photo

So we are nearing the end of our Australian adventure and what have we learnt? Well we do now know that our CP athletes take longer to get over the jet lag, we do know that the majority of this more mature group can function for a long period away from home, we know that we can adapt well to change, that freighting our equipment is less stressful than taking it with us and is more reliable than the checking it in the hold, even though we did not taper at all for these championships we know we still are competitive, we must not get complacent, as we well know one of the next Paralympic Champions may not even be disabled yet, may not be a Cyclist or may be competing in another Sport. Totally different challenges to able bodied sport but after Athens, UKSport set us a funding target of 5 Gold Medals in Beijing. At that time an achievable but tough target. As of today we have come away from our No.1 opponent's National Championships with 9 Gold's from 12 events - a pretty respectable figure that has been achieved with good morale throughout the trip and by using the carrot and not the stick. Not wishing to tempt fate but our bogey event tomorrow the Team Sprint could make our score a very perfect 10.