Melbourne World Cup through the eyes of Bont Rider Kaarle McCulloch

Last weekend the Melbourne World Cup took place at Hisense arena. Having just come from Manchester and craving a bit of home crowd support it was highly anticipated amongst our very large Australian team. We had over 20riders and pretty much a staff member per athlete, we were very well equipped and ready to rock.

As usual the first day saw for me the sprint and I was looking forward to some quality racing after my devastating early exit in the sprint in Manchester. I qualified in 5th place in an average time of 11.501, but the sprint is much more than just the qualifying and I was determined to ride hard and fast. In the first round I met a very aggressive Wei Lee Ze from Hong Kong, whose coach likes to sit right next to the opponent (me in this case) and talk about how hard she has worked and how she can 'do this'. Thing is her coach doesn't realise how hard I work and how I show no mercy. I beat her easily in the first round. This was a good result but it also meant a tough match up for me in the quarter finals against the faster qualifier of Jin Jie Gong from China. Jin Jie is a world class opponent and she is very fast but not very fast. I am happy to say I beat her in 2 straight tough rounds to make it through to the semi's. In the semi's I met another Chinese opponent in Shuang Guo, the Olympic bronze medallist and the fastest qualifier. I can honestly say that I rode her very well and I didnt do anything crucially wrong, I just didnt have the gas to match her and she beat me in two straight rounds. This meant that I rode off fro bronze against Willy Kanis from the Netherlands. I raced Willy in Perth only 2 weeks prior and new that I had what it took to beat her, she didnt phase me at all and I was prepared to go down with a fight. She beat me in the first round just and in the second I was able to do the same to her and pip her on the line. In the decider I had the race under wraps until the last lap when I had a bit of a brain explosion and she came underneath me and consequently it was enough of a mistake to give her the win. I was quite angry and disappointed as I new I could have beaten her, but this is racing. All day I cant say I did a thing wrong, I was cool calm and collected and raced hard so even though I was disappointed to come away as the biggest loser (4th place!) I made some steps to becoming a better racer.

On the second day I was fortunate enough to have a rest day and I spent it with my family. It was much needed as I miss them dearly and cant wait until my christmas break when I get to spend more than 12hours with them.

The third day proved a tough one with the Keirin and 500m TT on the same day. In the morning was the keirin heats and I breezed through easily to take the win. The first event that night for me was the 500m TT and I came second to Anna Meares in a new Personal Best time of 34.267, a PB by 0.009 hundredths of a second! Still I will claim that! It was my first TT of the year and to begin on a PB isnt too shabby, the best thing is that there is so much room for improvement and I can tell you right now I will ride faster than that this season. From that result I am setting my eyes on a podium finish at the world Championships...it will be a tough ask but I think it is a realistic one. After the 500 I had about 30min before the semis for the Keirin. I had a tough heat with 3 of the Australian girls! I was able to comfortably take second place behind Anna, to set myself up for a chance at a medal in the final. In the final it was a little sketchy, I nearly crashed about 3 times thanks to a much larger and rougher Christin Muche from Germany. She wasnt afraid to give me an elbow here and there and my lack of racing experience saw my try and back out and come round. I was pushing a very big gear and it wasnt so successful and I finished 5th.

All in all it was a very successful meet for me, a 2nd, 4th and 5th are my best individual results at a World Cup and it gives a load of confidence going into the business end of the season. I have a christmas Revolution race in Melbourne in mid december followed by a brief break back home before heading over to Beijing for the last world cup of the year. After Beijing comes nationals in Adelaide and then the best part of the season is the World Championships in Denmark. Its very exciting and I cant wait! I hope everyone is well.

Bont rider Luke Roberts wins overall Grenoble 6 day title…

Luke Roberts put together a consistent showing at the Grenoble 6 day in France. With a 3rd in the points race a 1st in the TTT and a 1st in the Madison, it amounted to a total of 296 points giving Luke and his partner the overall title at the Grenoble 6 day. Next stop Gent.