Hi Skaters.
This weekend is one of the biggest track races in the World outside of the World Championships. With 120 senior men and 850 skaters total it will be a full-on weekend. I've raced at Gross Gerau once before, back in 2004. There was a 500m, a 10,000m elimination and a 10,000m points race. The overall winner that year was my fellow New Zealander Kalon Dobbin. The field included skaters like Jordan Malone and Alexis Contin. In 2005, none other than Chad Hedrick raced. Last year the race clashed with the World Inline Cup team time trial in Basel, so no big names attended. This year I'll be racing against the likes of Diego Rosero and Yann Guyader. I'm not 100% sure on exact distances, but I know for sure there is a 500m and an elimination race.
Training has been going quite well here in Switzerland. The weather has been amazing. With temps in the mid 20's and not a drop of rain. I open my window everyday and expect gray skies and puddles on the ground, but it hasn't happened yet.
My teammate Reyon Kay has hit the deck a couple of times ... once while training for the time trial (in just over a week), and again yesterday, doing sprints on the banked track.
Next week's time trial in Basel will no doubt once again be one of the hardest races of the season. It's 35 to 40 minutes of going full out on a 5km course with tight corners and uphills. With lots of skaters on a course that can be quite narrow in places, you have to keep your wits about you.
Something that I would like to see sometime in the future is an individual time trial. Not super long, maybe around 10km. It would take quite a while to run, and the race officals would have to be on top of their game because there would be people going everywhere!
I'll report back in after this weekend.
Thanks for reading.
Scott
4 comments:
Hi, Scott. ...Thanks for your blog! ... I'm curious: How much training and what kind of training are you doing? ... And is it always with your team? ... And what do you do to relax?
The past couple of weeks have been different to what its usually like during the WIC. There hasn't been any races, so we have been able to train quite hard. Its often hard once the season gets underway to get some hard work in with a marathon each weekend. Training is made of cycling, a couple of gym sessions and of course skating.
Every Tuesday we have team training. Its held in my town of Zug. Its usually with all the kids and juniors and stuff from my team. Then also some other time during the week the international team meet.
Thanks for your questions.
Hello Mr.Arlidge, Could you present us your team for 2007? And maybe your goals as well?
Thank-you for your blog!!
Hi,
My team for this year has just one change-
Roger Schneider (swiss). The biggest guy in the WIC at 2m tall. He ended up winning the race in Sursee last year as well as being one of the major workers in the Basel team time trial. He was also 4th in Zurich, and 2nd overall in the Swiss Inline Cup.
Raphael Pfulg (swiss). He was 2nd in Zurich last year. He also scored a couple of medals in the European Champs. He spent the summer in New Zealand to prepare for the 2007 WIC.
Roman Christen (swiss). Has improved alot over the past 6 months and is motivated for 2007. He also spent the summer in New Zealand to prepare for the new season.
Reyon Kay (New Zealand). The new member of the team. Started the season good with a 6th in Seoul. Had a good first season last year with a couple of top 10's in some big races. Also got a bronze medal in the track relay at worlds in 2005.
Scott Arlidge (New Zealand). I won the 10km points/elim at the worlds last year, and was also a member of the winning relay team. I won the Swiss Inline Cup in Bern.
The most important races for our team are all in the month of June. Having a swiss sponsor it is important we get some good results in races like Zurich, Sursee and Engadine. The time trial in Basel this week will be important also. Its too early to think about the overall rankings or anything. Also some of the guys will have their own goals for national, european and World champs.
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