Preparation
On Thursday 5 July left the Dutch team for Cottbus, to arrive 8
hours later. After a long and tiring car journey the rooms were cleared, and a
nice supper was served. In the evening we all went to the track for recon. On
the other days prior to the championships starting we did pretty much the same,
a road ride in the morning and track in the afternoon. Except on the days when
the weather was bad, we replaced the road ride with a rollers session. On the track
we always did the same as our normal sprint sessions, however this time I had
to prepare for being the lead out man in the team sprint. We didn’t do too much
of this though until the day prior to the event itself.
Team sprint
The previous day’s training didn’t go well as my legs
felt rough, even if I feel the same today I will have to put my head down and
ride through it, trying my best.
Unfortunately we didn’t do very well and put in a
reasonable performance, but we were still last even though only seven out of
the twelve countries entered took part.
Sprint
Being two days after the Team Sprint, this meant I had
a much needed rest day, although training still commenced and I did a Roller
session.
For the 200m TT I was third to start, and my aim was
to go under 11.2s and to qualify for the sprint rounds. This is also the time
that the Netherlands
set for qualifying for the Junior Worlds later this year.
In training for the 200m TT I worked out the correct
line to take for the ride, and with the track layout being very steep around
the 200m line, I needed to stay as close to the barrier as possible, in order
to make as much use of the banking as possible.
However I set a disappointing time of 11.25s in
comparison to the fastest time of 10.9s, I believe I could have gone a lot faster.
Even more disappointing was the fact that my time was slower than the Worlds
qualification time and did not allow me to progress to the sprint rounds.
Keirin
After another rest day, I had the keirin on the last
day and with it my last chance of success. In the first round I was drawn in a
tough heat, however this doesn’t make any difference as I still have to
progress through, no matter who the opposition is. Unfortunately I couldn’t
manage it and again was frustrated as I waited far too long before launching my
sprint. If I had took control of the heat and attacked when I wanted to and
not, for some reason sat and watched maybe the result would have been
different, who knows.
Now my only hope was the repechage, and luckily for me
(not) Dave Daniell the event favourite was also in the reps, which made it
really difficult.
My teammate Jamie van der Lugt was also in the
repechage, as the Derny pulled off I tried to forc Daniell off the front as I
like to lead out. Despite some great riding from Dave, I managed to steal the
front and instigate the sprint with 250m to go – perfect. Although this effort
weakened me and my sprint suffered and I couldn’t do anything about the result.
Overall I had expected more from my performance at Cottbus, I think I was concentrating too much on the
Worlds and not my performance here, which is probably why as result I have been
left out of the Netherlands
team for Mexico.
I am extremely disappointed but have learnt a big lesson from the
championships. One point I did notice was that most of the opposition seemed
more ‘race-ready’ than the Dutch squad which is perhaps something that needs to
be addressed.
