A rookies perspective on Track vs Road

Heaps of cats been asking why, if I'm in the NZ U23 Track team, are we heading to Europe for a full time schedule of road racing....

Two reasons:

1. The main goal of our programme is to develop us into road professionals. (With the ability to have access to us once from our Pro road team for track events such as the Olympics and World Champs)

2. Track Endurance requires fitness. Fitness you can only get from road racing and training. In a build up to a big event, track endurance riders will always have a heavy road racing schedule in the early stages of of their build up.....typically 3-4months out. You are essentially building a base in which you will be able to effectively add a month of hard track training to (which is where we in theory get the power and speed necessary to race track at the highest level). If you didn't have this fitness from the road racing and training there is no way you could do hard track training and expect to recover for back to back sessions.

So being a successful track endurance rider is hugely dependent on having a considerable base of road racing and training in your legs. HENCE the season of full time road racing in Europe!

The idea for the season is to essentially be "Engine Building" for the track events later in the year. While at the same time presenting us with the opportunities to make a considerable step forward towards our ultimate goal of becoming a Road Professional.  This year is special however as it is a pre Olympic year so the main goal of the season is to be firing in October when all the Track Endurance riders come together for a camp which is essentially the selection camp where a long list for 2012 London Olympics will be made.

Yeah good

Will