Track Nationals 2013
I had looked forward to Track Nationals since January. You can imagine that I wanted to do well. First up was the Omnium on Friday and Saturday, then the Team Pursuit on Sunday. Now just because I'd been looking forward to track since January doesn't mean that I had actually done much track all year. The few weeks leading up to Nationals I was down at my home track, Hellyer, trying to get ready. I had my Vanderkitten team mate Jessica Culter come and stay for the few days before nationals so we could train together. We went and rode the Cannery Foundation Training Ride and also had two training sessions at the track the few days before leaving.
Choosing my Team Pursuit team wasn't so hard. It fell together nicely. After spending time with Jessica in some early season races she said she was inerested in track. I knew she hadn't done any Team Pursuit work but that was ok, she is quick and we really get along. I was trying to get a team together with some Hellyer girls but because of one reason or another that wasn't working out. I'd done one of Ben Sharp's camps in January where I met Jade Wilcoxson, I also met her at Hellyer after she raced the Tour of California TT. I sent Jade an email and she was really interested. Yes! Jade, as everyone knows, is also rather quick and a really nice person. I knew with us three alone we would be pretty fast. After a few more emails, Colleen Hayduk got back to me and said she would love to ride with us. I had met Colleen at my very first track camp in 2009, she was just about to head off for Pan-Ams that year.
At this point I was pretty excited about our team. I was ready to race! There was some really good competition at Nationals and it was sure going to be a tough fight.
Arriving in LA we had two days of training together as a team. We worked on our exchanges and being comfortable. It wasn't a lot of time but we were jelling well and all was looking good. Now this was my first time being "Team Captain", and I'm not going to lie, it was a little stressful. Especially when I knew I wasn't the strongest. The girls all trusted me with the advice I gave. It was really awesome to be respected by such great athletes. The confidence I had in the girls to pull it off was high, each of us wanted it badly. Even though we only rode together twice before the day of the qualifier, I knew we were ready. We were really lucky to be seeded last in the qualifing heats. We only needed to go fast enough to get 2nd. My coach Harvey Nitz was there to help too. He has a lot of knowledge on the subject being a silver Olympic medalist in the event. At one point in the qualifier we were 2 seconds out of the final. We fought hard and brought it back. I couldn't believe it when we finished and had the fastest qualifying time. It was even more unbelievable when the moment we finished I knew, I absolutely knew, that we could go at least 2 seconds faster with a few tweaks. Whatever happened we were in the final, we were guaranteed 2nd place. This alone was making me happy, but of course we wanted the win. After our race debrief and getting the thoughts of everyone we made a few changes.
As we sat waiting to start we all knew how much we wanted it and we knew how close the race was going to be. We rode just how we intended to and went four seconds faster than our qualifier! I knew we would go faster but I couldn't believe we'd won. Dream come true. It meant so much to me and I couldn't have done it without these people. Thank you to my teammates Jade, Colleen, and Jessica, for coming together and working hard for it. Thank you to my Mum, Dad, and siblings for coming down to cheer me on and just generally giving me so much support. Of course thank you to my coach, Harvey Nitz for giving me so much help over the last 4 years. Last but not least thanks to Boss Shelby Reynolds for helping me out.
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