Wendy Houvenaghel: Nothing to Fear
Story posted August 13
By Larry Hickmott
A rider who has been giving everything to making the Olympics for three years now is Wendy Houvenaghel. Like her teammate Rebecca Romero, Wendy is ever so determined, steely so, and this year became a World Champion in the Team Pursuit for Women. The one she wanted though, the Olympic discipline that is the Individual Pursuit eluded her and she was fourth after qualifying third.
Good news though! Her training since the World Track Championships in Manchester has gone well and even for a rider of her experience, there were still some weaknesses in her armour and it is these she has been working on and the upshot is Wendy is now faster than she has ever been!
In fact, both Wendy and Rebecca are going faster than ever but then as everyone knows, they will need to be going faster because one thing is for sure, their rivals will also have stepped up a level for the most important competition in the World.
How fast everyone is going to go we’ll find out on Friday when around 11am Beijing time, the Women’s Individual Pursuit will start with the qualifying round. Unusually, the competition will be over three days, one round on each day and every round will be crucial. Because they only have one ride per day, times are expected to be quick as no-one holds anything back in each round when they are fresh.
Settling into Beijing Life
A crucial period for any athlete is the one between arriving at the Olympic Village and the day they compete. Everything needs to be just so and talking to us from Beijing Wendy explained that the apartments in the Olympic village are great. “We have been catered for very well by the host nation and B&Q. The apartments are also serviced every day by very polite Chinese volunteers.”
Wendy admits her daily routine has been quite similar since arriving in China. “The day is based around when the track sessions are, which are normally in the afternoon. I usually have breakfast about an hour before my morning rollers session and prepare for the track session in the afternoon. Then prior to the 30 minute bus journey, I'll have my lunch. We normally arrive at the velodrome about an hour before our team is due to start their session.”
"Normally there are a few other track cycling nations that will share our session. We will warm up for about 20 minutes prior to when the track is open to us and then everyone takes it in turn to do their individual or team training sessions under the watchful eyes of our coaches and the other nations coaches!”
"The mechanics and carers will have travelled to the velodrome at least an hour before we have, in order to set up for the training session. When we arrive our track bikes are ready with the correct gears and the drinks, energy bars and gels etc are sitting out on a table for us to utilise if need be. Once the session has finished, I'll get the bus back to the Olympic athletes village and go to dinner. Then its off to bed!”
Having had a few sessions on the track, Wendy says the track in the Olympic venue is just how she remembered it from December last year when there was a World Track Cup on it. Being at the Olympics is just how she expected it would be and after over a week there, Wendy is into her routine and really looking forward to racing. “I have done all the hard work and am now enjoying this last phase” she told us.
“I have nothing to fear and am counting down the days. I’m ready to compete!”
Sharing a joke with coach Dan Hunt at the Olympic velodrome this week.
Getting to Beijing
It is a long way from Bodmin where she now lives to Beijing and even further from Northern Ireland where she hails from. Even her cycling career is quite short compared to many who are in the GB team. The likes of Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins to name but two have been competing at this level longer than Wendy has been riding a bike at all.
It was six years ago Wendy took up cycling to keep her husband company during his training rides and to keep in shape. Before that, Wendy would run and so had a good base of fitness to work from and build on which she has done over the years.
Once in cycling and having showed a lot of promise in training rides with her husband, Wendy started doing Time Trials and represented GB in that discipline before taking to the track and debuting in Moscow at a World Track Cup in 2005.
Since then she has twice won the UCI World Track Cup for the Women’s Pursuit and been fourth in the Women’s World Championship Pursuit final for the last two years (2007 Majorca/2008 Manchester). I think it is safe to say she has yet to really show her full potential in the Women’s Pursuit but this coming Friday may well see the time when she does just that.
I for one won’t be surprised if she comes out and blitzes the opposition just like she did in 2007 at the Manchester World Track Cup when she came out and rode almost three seconds quicker than the next rider. One thing is for sure, Beijing is a far cry from four years ago when she was in a hotel room watching GB compete at the Athens Olympics and thinking to herself, ‘I’d really love to be doing what they are doing.’
“Little did I think back then that I would be sitting here as a member of the GB Track Cycling team and aiming for a medal in Beijing” she explains.
Whilst she started cycling in 2002, it took a long time for her to find the discipline that was most suited to her talent. Once she had done so, the door was open for her to make the GB team. World Track Cups followed and then the Commonwealth Games where her debut in the Pursuit event at that level didn’t go to plan. Wendy however is a very tough individual and wasn’t going to let that experience slow her down.
In two short years she has made up a massive amount of ground on the likes of Aussie Katie Mactier who won a Silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004. “It has not been easy trying to get to this point” Wendy explained. “It has been a very intense period with a steep learning curve with regards to pursuit cycling and after all the ups and downs I’m really pleased to be here now with the team.”
“I have dedicated the last two years of my life totally to this project. I only entered into the project in the belief that I could produce a medal at the end of it given the right direction and circumstances to exploit the raw talent I had back then.”
Wendy’s learning has been helped along by National Women’s Endurance coach Dan Hunt who has shown her that there is a lot more to the Pursuit than just being physically strong. Wendy and her coach have since left no stone unturned to ensure that when it comes to the Olympic pursuit, Wendy does everything well. Not just on the track but everything outside that as well including sleeping effectively, setting time aside to rest, watching her diet and a whole range of things revolving about the one race, the Olympic Pursuit.
World Champion! Wendy (second from right) with her teammates Rebecca Romero and Joanna Rowsell as well as coach Dan Hunt.
Post Manchester Track Worlds
At the Track World Championships in Manchester, Wendy qualified third fastest (a place better than the year before) and just missed getting into the ride off for Gold which would have been against her teammate Rebecca Romero. “So close but so far!” is how she recalls that period of her life. Wendy did a 3:31.753 to Sarah Hammer’s 3:31.041.
“I was there or thereabouts in qualifying at the Worlds. Not quite good enough to get into the Gold medal ride off but not far away from where I needed to be. I had ridden the third fastest time in the World and although I did miss out on getting a medal, I had a good point to work from for the Olympics.”
Winter Blues
The Track Worlds coming in March is not a good time for Wendy who much prefers the warmer weather. “I had problems over the winter months with flu and colds and then getting back into training too quickly and setting myself back even further. It was a race against time prior to the Worlds just to get the form where it needed it to be. I got there but I feel there were a few loose ends that needed tying up.”
“After the Worlds, I had about 10 days off which gave me an opportunity to unwind a little bit from the months and months of training and get everything into perspective. Time to isolate the points I needed to work on and make sure I actively worked on them. It was also an opportunity to see family and friends and a time to make sure I was physically and mentally prepared for the challenge ahead between March and August and the Olympic Games.
Break over, Wendy set to work and says “I feel I have over the last five months worked hard on all the little areas I felt I had to improve on and I have improved on all of them. I have had consistency in training as well which I didn’t have prior to the Worlds.”
One of those areas was her endurance and that went well and paid dividends when she got on the track in July. “I am going better and that’s very encouraging” Wendy says.
Having the Olympics in the Summer as well is just perfect Wendy told us.
“It helps me a lot because I really hate training in the rain, the cold, snow and the ice. I much prefer the warmer climates and really enjoy going to Tuscany and Majorca for our training camps and maximising that opportunity to train in the sun. So it doesn’t come as a surprise my form has come up a few levels to what it was in March.”
UCI World Cup Champion two years running, 2006 and 2007.
Bring it on
Now, along with all the other athletes in the GB camp at the Olympics, Wendy has her wish and is in the Beijing heat and summer and ready for the big challenge. The culmination of two years work and more. Before Friday though, she has a little training to do to keep maintaining that form and rest – plenty of rest! “I really enjoy that time and being here helps me make the most of the rest time. I have books, laptop, DVD,s and will be catching up with friends via email. It’s a great time to relax.”
Asked at what point the Olympic dream came true for her, Wendy replied “it was when Dan phoned me and told me I had been selected to represent GB at the Olympics. That was the moment I thought, brilliant, all the work has been worth it up until this point. It really gave me a lift and then I had to go and pick up the kit from Birmingham and that was when it started to sink in. It has progressed from there as we moved into the holding camp and now here and with each step the excitement is building.”
“Yes, there are butterflies, but I’m excited as well. This is the phase I have been dreaming of for the last two years.”
Her Olympic dream though goes even further back than that. It was two years ago that she discovered making the Olympics really was possible but the dream goes back a lot longer.
“I dreamt of competing at the Olympics when I was a child albeit in a different sport, Three Day Eventing. So I am delighted to have got to the Olympics at this stage in my life. When I got into my 20’s, I was really career orientated (dental surgeon), my career took over and an Olympic spot was the last thing on my mind.”
“It has become a reality without me noticing really. It was only when I realised I had this talent that I put in the hard work to get to this point. It was then that the Olympic Games became the ultimate goal for me.”
Not just being at the Games either because GB takes no passengers to the Games anymore. Wendy has shown she has the ability to win a medal and come this Friday, the World will be watching to see how she does in the biggest sporting arena there is, the Olympic Arena. British Cycling wishes her lots of luck in her competition and we look forward to seeing her fulfilling her goal of winning an Olympic medal.
Good luck Wendy!
Her Event
Wendy is due to ride the Women’s Pursuit over a distance of 3,000 metres. This event will see the competitors who have qualified through competing in the UCI World Track Cups and World Championships ride three rounds, one per day.
The first round will see the fastest eight go through to the second round where the fastest will meet the slowest of the eight and so on. In the second round, the two fastest winners will go through to the final for Gold and the two slowest winners will meet to ride off for the Bronze.
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