Chris Newton: Planning on Turning up and Racing Hard

 

Interview by British Cycling's Larry Hickmott

 

>> Back to the 2005 UCI World Track Championship Home Page


 A member of the Team Pursuit squad looking for their first Team Pursuit World Title next Saturday is 2002 World Points Champion, Chris Newton. In Los Angeles, Chris is expecting to ride the Team Pursuit and the Points race.

Asked if he feels any pressure to perform after not finishing the Points race in the Athens Olympics, Chris replies "after I put so much effort and time into the Olympics and failed, I am just going to turn up and race hard. We haven't been that involved in doing drills and so on and since Athens have gone off and done our own thing before these Worlds. All of us have been training separately which has been a bit strange"

"It isn't pressure free but there is not as much as before the Olympics" he added. "It feels like we're just going to a World Cup because we haven't had the real big build up.

Asked if he feels he has the base he needs after two big stages race, Chris answered "they have gone really well. The last stage race we did, we all struggled on the first day due to the travelling, but I came through that pretty well. You can't under estimate these races" he added referring to the fact the South African race wasn't packed with major pro teams "as sometimes the racing is actually harder. When there are not as many established teams, there is no real pattern to the racing so its all going left right and centre and you have to chase everything to be up there. It's a bit like Points race and that's why I fitted into the program really well."

Chris's history in the Team Pursuit goes back to 1992 and it wasn't until after the '96 Olympics that Chris gave up the track to concentrate on the road where he went on to ride for Team Brite and Linda McCartney's. It wasn't until 2000 that he got back into the track program in a big way, riding the Olympics (bronze) and the Worlds (Silver). Chris then broadened his horizons by riding and winning the World Points title and a bronze in the Commonwealth Games.

He admits the Points race is unpredictable. "You just can't pick who will win. There are always favourites and they will always be there or thereabouts but everyone will be watching each other. Once a move goes with the favourite, then everyone kind of follows that. I kind of go on instinct and before an event I don't think I'm going to follow so and so. I'll go with the flow and see what happens."

After being unfortunate not to get a medal in 2003, missing it by a point, Chris is looking to LA to get back onto the podium. Having ridden it in the World Cup held in LA, Chris says "it is a tighter and steeper track, so you really do get a throw down the track when changing in the team pursuit and swing off in the bunch races. It's a nice track to move around on and you do get quite a few Gs and it will be interesting in the team pursuit because you do get a concertina effect in the bankings. Its quite sharp but we'll have a few days to get used it."

After the Worlds, his next biggest race this season will be the Tour of Britain. He says "my road form has gone over the last few because of the fairly heavy track program" but with the Worlds now in March, he says that the road season gives him plenty of time to find his road legs again and tackle the biggest road race in the country. My thanks to Chris for talking to us and we look forward to seeing him perhaps win medals in two events in Los Angeles.