Our KCC September camp was held from 23 to 28 September 2012.

Click here to see all the photos.

Sunday night:

We had an introduction to everyone and went through all the rules of the camp.  After a yummy buffet dinner, we watched several cycling videos and discussed team time trial training and how pro riders train together.

Day 1: Monday

Today we climbed Mt Buffalo.  The weather was amazing, however it was only 2C at the top, so it was all clothing on for the chilly descent.  The senior riders did a long day, heading off to climb Mt Hotham (to the snow line).

The pool was used for ice bathing as soon as we got back, with the U17 and U19 riders also washing the Essendon SKODA vehicles to keep them looking sparkly.

The afternoon was spent doing some core, learning to stretch, followed by an evening motivational lecture from our paracyclist, Hannah Macdougall.

Day 2: Tuesday

Todays’ ride took in the hills of Rosewhite and Tawonga Gap.  Our more senior riders also rode part way up Falls Creek today.  This ride was 4hrs plus for the older riders with 2 solid climbs.  A section of the ride also included swapping turns to learn how to do this without surging.

A smaller group or riders turned at Rosewhite Gap to return via Ovens.  Jess and Vic did sprint lead out practice on the return whilst Eloise and Han practiced holding a wheel and staying out of the wind.

The evening lecture topic was time trial set up and what is legal and not legal from a UCI perspective. Drew man’s TT bike was used to demonstrate how to correctly set up a rider to maximise aerodynamics but not minimise power output.

Day 3: Wednesday

Today was TT day with an individual 18km TT along the Buckland Valley Road.  Again, brilliant sunshine made the riders enjoy spectacular views, although I think it was only the coaches that took time to glance up to Mt Buffalo.

The early afternoon was spent learning skills.  These included hopping  a broom, weaving through cones, doing U turns, taking bottles from a feedzone and taking mussette bags (for those tackling Melbourne to Warnambool).

The late afternoon stretching and balance session was designed to teach riders how to use hockey balls, foam rollers, dura discs and back arches to maximise recovery (when a masseur is not available).

After dinner, the lecture was on how to train with power, how to understand the graphs of training peaks and what benefits training with power enables both the coach and the athlete.

Day 4: Thursday

Todays ride included the ascent of Mt Hotham to the toll gate.  It was a great day.  The ride was cut a little short due to lightening in the area.  Although we were on carbon bikes, no-one wanted to risk getting hit!!

Thursday afternoon was another car washing day, as well as a chance to spend a few hours on the white board, analysing different race situations and understanding the best team tactics for each situation.

After dinner, we played ‘radio wars’ which involved interviewing and being inteviewed in different situations.  Being able to communicate well for sponsorships reasons is an important responsibility so starting to practice this from a young age, gives the athlete the best chance at gaining and retaining good sponsors.

Day 5: Friday.

Todays recovery ride included a temporary stop for a herd of diary cows.  With the slight drizzle on the road, this made all our bikes very country looking as our camp concluded.

Hannah Macdougall has written a blog on how she enjoyed the camp.  Please click here to read all about it from her perspective.

A great camp by everyone and hope you all liked the photos.

Kelly Cycle Coaching is proud to manage and direct the Essendon SKODA Mens U23 cycling team.

We thank Essendon SKODA for their support with this new cycling team.  The team has a number of smaller sponsors including Fitzroy Cycles, Brown Cow Cafe, Bright Chalet, Power Bar and SRAM.

Please find Essendon SKODA on facebook to follow them as they race against National riders in various Open and National Road Series events.

The team riders will be announced in October.  The team’s first race is schedule for 1 January 2013, although you will see the riders fully kitted up and training by 1 December 2012.

For many great photos of our new Essendon SKODA cars, check out these great photos at the recent September KCC Camp held in Bright.

Kelly Cycle Coaching has a Paralympic  gold medallist! Overnight, Carol Cooke competed in the time trial at the London Paralympics and claimed gold, winning her 8km TT in a factored time of 13mins50sec, 21 seconds clear of the silver medallist.

Extract of an article by Australian Paralympic Media, Gennie Sheer:

Australia’s second gold medal came in the final event of the day when Victorian Carol Cooke realised her dream of gold.

“It feels unreal, unreal,” said the 51 year old who was an undercover police officer in her birth country of Canada for 14 years. “Being here was unreal. It’s taken so long and I probably won’t realise until I stand up there (on the dais).

“My mantra is If you believe in your dream it may come true but if you believe in yourself it will and I just kept saying that all the way through and thought I can do this,” Cooke explained as tears welled in her eyes.

“My coach gave me something to put on my wall and she said I had to read it every day. It said ‘take pride in how far you’ve come and have faith in how far you can go’ and every morning I’ve woken up and looked at the wall and read that and I just proved it today.”

Thirty-five years ago Cooke was training as an able bodied swimmer hoping to make the Canadian 1980 Olympic team but before selection was finalised a boycott of the Moscow Games was announced.

“I thought that dream had died,” she said. “People say unfortunately I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, but I would never change that diagnosis because it’s given me so many opportunities.

Cooke was identified for the Paralympic rowing program and made the team for 2008 but they missed qualifying for Beijing by o.8 of a second.

“I thought again the dream is gone.”

But cycling team mate Alex Green, also a former rower, convinced Cooke to start cycling and she has quickly developed into one of the best in the world.

“After the World Cup and World Championships where I’d come second in both the road race and time trial I was given the opportunity by (coach) Peter Day and Cycling Australia and he said if you get fitter and stronger we’ll build you a trike.

She did both and today raced on a sleek 14 kilogram carbon fibre tricycle that replaced her previous steel framed 22 kilogram machine.

Cooke says a lot of the credit for her win today is down to the way she prepared which included hours riding a simulation of the course and three weeks in France putting the finishing touches on the training.

“We videotaped the course in June and we put the gradient to it so I’ve ridden on a stationary bike looking at my butt, chasing my butt around the course and never catching it but it’s just been so invaluable to do that,” she explained laughing. “When we were in France we had a computer trainer that we had the course on again. It was actually much harder on the computer trainer than it was on the course.

“Monday when I rode I thought ‘Wow! this is really easy compared to June when I rode it so today, yeah it hurt, but that’s because you go out there and give 110 percent,” she said. “It was a great race.”

Cooke’s factored time of 13:50.54 was 21 seconds ahead of Germany’s Hans-Peter Durst (14:11.95) with past world champion, David Stone of Great Britain third (14:25.66).

Nigel Barley was stunned by his silver medal result in the 16km H3 classification hand cycle contest. He clocked 26:18.34 to be 54 seconds behind the winner, Poland’s Rafal Wilk, (25:24.17) but Barley was more than 40 seconds quicker than bronze medal rider Bernd Jeffre of Germany (27:00.90).

“I’m pretty blown away by it really,” he said. “Everyone came here on fire and in the best shape of their life and we just rode and (I placed second) so I’m a bit speechless really.”

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