WACF Winter Track GP
Dual Olympic Champion Ryan Bayley and Dual Commonwealth Games Champion Kerrie Meares headed the athletes’ list at the 2005 Winter Track Grand Prix held at the Midvale Speedome on Saturday 23rd July.
Billed as a “Farewell to the Junior World’s Team” the night also featured spectacular wins by some of the nation’s finest junior track cyclists including dual Junior World Champion Shane Perkins, Kial Stewart, Scott Sunderland and Bianca Rogers.
The WACF Novice Women’s Development Squad coached by Kerry Cohen also used the night to showcase their talent to the appreciative audience.

Australian Masters Games
The 10th Australian Masters Games will be held in Adelaide, South Australia between 7th – 16th October 2005.
With over 60 sports to choose from, there are over 10,500 participants from around the world expected.
Angryduck will be monitoring the Games closely, especially the two days of Track Cycling events, the Duathlon, Triathlon and Mountain Biking, with the intention of producing a short film of the event.
Angryduck used a recent trip to Adelaide as the ideal opportunity to get familiar with some of the venues including the very fast Super Drome velodrome at Gepps Cross.

Tasmania
Angryduck recently experienced the fascination of mid-winter in Tasmania with a chilly minus 4.5 degree visit to the top of Mt Wellington, Hobart and quickly learnt that snowball fights in tee shirt and thongs are only for the crazy!!
Also visited was Australia’s oldest indoor veldrome, the 285m Silverdome in Launceston and the lovely Tamar Valley wineries.

South Australia
Angryduck was privileged to train with the South Australian Cycling Federation Sprint Development Squad, sharing facilities with the elite AIS Sprint squad including WA’s new AIS athlete Kristine Bayley.
Many thanks go to all those that made the 2 week trip possible, including Graham McCarthur, Development Manager SACF, and Craig Colduck the expert Sports Physiologist at the SA Sports Institute. (Love the name!).
Also discovered was the Loch Eel Monster, a 10m rubber and steel denizen of the sandy depths near the town of Lochiel.

Gold!, Gold!, Gold! For Australia!!
Best ever Aussie team excels at Athens 2004 Olympics.

It was two weeks that Australia will never forget. An awesome display of outstanding athletic achievements in a wide range of sports from the traditional strengths like swimming right through to our surprise silver medal winning men’s 4 x 400m track team. In terms of Gold Medals won and overall medal tally, Australia recorded its’ most successful ever Olympic Games.

Of special note, the amazing athletes in our cycling team did Australia proud with a final tally of 6 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze medals.

While winning is great, true greatness is displayed by those that compete at the highest level with a sense of dignity, confidence and humility and all our Aussie athletes showed these fine attributes whether they won medals or not.

For Angryduck the highlights were;

TRACK CYCLING

Australia won 5 of the 12 Gold Medals on offer in the Track Cycling events. There were many stories of individual and team greatness, but the following were of particular note;

• Anna Meares perfect 500m Time Trial ride to record the first ever sub 34 second ride in a World Record 33.952 sec Gold Medal winning performance. Anna is now the World Record holder, Olympic Champion and World Champion at this event.
• The Men’s 4,000m Team Pursuit team continued their 3 year total dominance of this event with three amazing displays of absolute riding perfection to qualify fastest, set an unbelievable new World Record of 3:56.342 in the semi-finals and go on to win Gold against a gallant UK team to also confirm them as World Record holders, Olympic Champions and World Champions at this event. A special note of congratulations to WA superstar Peter Dawson who displayed great restraint and professionalism when left out of the team for the final, only to be eventually rewarded with a much deserved Olympic Gold Medal for his crucial part in the Team’s win.
• Katie Mactier’s continued rise to the top of the sport continued with a well deserved Silver Medal in the women’s 3,000m Individual Pursuit. After breaking the previous World Record with a 3:29.945 ride she was beaten in the final by current World Champion and new World Record holder Sarah Ulmer (New Zealand).
• Without doubt, the absolute sensation of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games was W.A.’s track sprinting star Ryan Bayley. Firstly he qualified fastest in the Men’s Sprint competition with a blistering 200m time of 10.177 sec. Then he went on to beat current World Champion Dutchman Theo Bos in a “come from behind” win that had audiences in the stadium and all around the world on the edge of their seats! Then, in the last event of the Track Cycling program Ryan Bayley showed clearly why he deserved the title of Olympic Champion in dominating the Men’s Keirin event with unmatchable speed and great tactics to stay ahead of the pack by a clear margin.
• The former World Keirin and Junior World BMX champion became a national hero with his undoubted ability, down to earth nature and unorthodox diet of fast food and Tim Tam biscuits!! He returned to Australia to lead the triumphant Australian Team from the aircraft to a reception at Sydney Airport before flying to his home in Perth to be congratulated by his proud family, friends and supporters.

Anna Meares	Katie Mactier	Ryan Bayley
Men's 4000m Team Pursuit

Other highlights included

• Graeme Brown’s two Gold Medals in the Team Pursuit and 50km Madison.
• Brad McGee’s two medals in the Team Pursuit and Individual Pursuit
• Shane Kelly’s leadership and influence on the team as the “elder statesman” of Australian Track Cycling, also netting him the Bronze Medal in the Keirin and a short lived Olympic Record of 1:01.224 in the Men’s Kilo Time Trial.

TRIATHLON
Two days of great competition on a hard, but fair Olympic Distance course saw Australia finish with 3 of it’s 6 athletes in the top 10. The multi-lap cycle course certainly tested every athlete with it’s incredibly steep hills, as did the heat for the women’s race, but in the end the races were run and won by the strongest athletes.

Lorretta Harrop took Silver behind Austr(al)ian Kate Allen after breaking away on the cycle leg and running well only to be out sprinted in the final 150m by Allen who absolutely charged through the field in the 10km run.

Greg Bennett ran very hard in the men’s race to finish an unlucky 4th in a race dominated by the Kiwi pair of Carter and Docherty while Simon Thompson finished 10th.

AD at the UCI World Track Cycling Championships in Melbourne, Australia

The 2004 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held at the Vodaphone Arena, Melbourne, Australia on May 26-30, 2004.

In an event full of awesome racing and outstanding individual achievements the highlights were many and varied, but Angryduck especially liked the following;

• The current World Record holders (3:57.280) in the Men’s 4,000m Team Pursuit, Australia narrowly took gold in a gripping see/saw final against the strong Great Britain team. Local W.A. boy Peter Dawson celebrated his third successive World Title in unique style on the home straight!!
• New Zealand’s “Pursuit Queen” Sarah Ulmer setting a new World Record 3:30.604 in the qualifying rounds of the Women’s 3,000m Individual Pursuit before going on to take gold in the final, narrowly defeating Australia’s new track star Katie Mactier.
• Former Keirin World Champion, Western Australia’s Ryan Bailey won his 1st and 2nd Rounds of the Keirin only to come 4th in the final to winner Jamie Staff of Great Britain in what was fearless, close and very exciting racing.
• 18yr old Theo Bos from the Netherlands was crowned Men’s Sprint World Champion after thrilling racing which saw him suffer two heavy falls in the preliminary rounds. Barely able to walk, he came back strongly to beat Laurent Gane (France) while Ryan Bayley (Australia) took the bronze medal.
• Anna Meares (Australia) taking gold in the Women’s 500m Time Trial with a powerful 34.342 sec ride.
• Hard luck story of the Championships was Australia’s Rochelle Gilmore crashing heavily and breaking her collar bone only 2 laps from the finish of the Women’s 10km Scratch race, ruling her out of the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Full details and results can be viewed at www.trackcyclingworlds.com.au

Here’s the 2004 World Champions and current 4,000m Men’s Teams Pursuit World Record holders on the start line.

AD enjoying the keirin action at the 2004 Worlds.

AD in Sydney, Australia ... Angryduck recently returned from Sydney, NSW after attending the 2004 Masters National Track and Road Cycling Championships. He also managed to ‘squeeze’ in some sightseeing:

Here’s AD enjoying the view at sunset over the Three Sisters, Katoomba, Blue Mountains.

Some of the successful WA Masters Track Team at Dunc Gray Velodrome, Sydney.