The women's sprint cycling team practise at the Cambridge velodrome. Photo / Mike Scott
With the Paris Olympics nine weeks away, the Herald counts down by taking a look inside the Kiwi track sprint cycling programme.
It’s the morning after the announcement of New Zealand’s Olympic cycling squad and the buzz of a crowd celebrating dreams realised has been replaced by a different drone.
Jon Andrews — former Olympian, father to Ellesse and current coach of the high performance sprint team — has strapped up his helmet and started the motorbike on a route he knows all too well.
As he circles the 250 metres of track inside the Grassroots Trust Velodrome in Cambridge, home to Olympic medallists and hopefuls, a rider in a fern-clad skinsuit drops behind his wheel and pedal power matches machine.
Gradually, over a couple of laps, the hum of the motor swells before Andrews peels away, signalling one of the most electrifying sights in sport: A sprint cyclist hitting top speed.
All eyes are fixed. Teammates warming up and down; a handful of curious spectators sitting in the stands; an elderly couple using gym equipment just inside the track, spinning the wheels of a stationary bike as a blue blur flashes past.
The excitement is over in seconds, another practice run complete. But Andrews will be back on his bike before long — New Zealand qualified four sprint cyclists for Paris and preparations are unceasing.
It’s not, he reports when back on safer ground, as fun as it looks.
Apparently, reaching speeds approaching 90 kilometres an hour, a high-performance athlete in the slipstream, can be quite fraught when tires skid on the painted lines ringing the arena.
“I don’t drink after these sessions,” Andrews says, “but I probably could.”
A steady nerve is integral to sprint cycling and it runs in the family. Nerve helped Jon collect a couple of bronze medals at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and it’s now taken Ellesse to the top of the sport.
After striking triple gold two years ago in Birmingham, she will lead a promising young sprint team in Paris featuring Shaane Fulton and Rebecca Petch — with Olivia King in reserve — while racing for glory in the individual sprint and keirin.
Sam Dakin is the final member of the squad, heading to France with sights set on the men’s national sprint record held by Sam Webster, whose mark of 9.615 seconds came at the 2020 world championships.
From a flying start over 200m, Dakin’s speed is such he’s outpaced the motorbike, more horsepower required to lift the 27-year-old past his limits.
For now, though, in a quiet corner of the warm-up area, Dakin is operating on a more sedate task: Changing the chain on his bike.
All cyclists present — this morning including the men’s endurance team — play amateur mechanic during training; Dakin says the professionals in charge on race days have better ways to spend their time than these mundane jobs.
Nearby, the women’s sprint team sit with their coach to watch a monitor showing the most recent run. Analysis is frame-by-frame and democratic, each rider joining Andrews in controlling the mouse and voicing their thoughts: “I didn’t do this part quite right”; “my aggressiveness needs to come through here”.
Execution is the focus, marginal adjustments meaning all-important milliseconds.
The slow-mo mood is matched in the background, one athlete on the massage table and others on phones, snacks in mouths, bikes on racks. A moment’s rest before the next burst.
There’s no shortage of activity elsewhere in the facility. A community asset in addition to world-class training centre, the velodrome is today enjoyed by a group with disabilities, while on-track sessions are regularly run for beginners — when the Olympians are absent.
It’s not only cyclists, either. Under the watchful gaze of athletics guru Kirsten Hellier, Tori Peeters is working out in preparation for a maiden Olympics. Her javelin remains in hand.
At the top of the stands, Israel Adesanya makes a brief appearance before visiting a strength-and-conditioning coach based in the building, an orange McLaren in the carpark offering a pretty good clue to the presence of a UFC world champion.
With rowers and kayakers also calling Cambridge home while training on Lake Karapiro, it’s not unusual for the town’s cafes to be packed with the country’s best sportspeople and coaches.
Andrews, today at least, has brought a packed lunch. A stiff drink at the pub can wait.