I'm up in Sydney at the Dunc Grey velodrome as part of the Victorian state team, a pretty minor part, as best I can tell I'm looking after the physical stuff for the guys we've been coaching for the last year.  It's a bit muddy, but I'm dogsbody for Hilts and the guys (this is not a bad thing!). It's a great opportunity to see how it all works and gain a lot of very valuable experience.  In particular I'm learning (or trying to!) how to fit in and get things done in this team environment without stepping on too many toes.  I have much to learn and a few personalities that I need to understand better to get along with smoothly.

But we're here to race, and our athletes are the reason we're here. So on with the real story :

Yesterday we had Adele and Caitlin racing the team sprint.  There was five teams in total and our girls had, on the other side of the track, Anna.  Welcome to the big time.  Adele is no stranger to the big stage but Caitlin was pretty new to this level of competition.  For those of you that remember these two girls starting at Blackburn all those years ago, what a journey they've had so far.  They're solid friends and they look after eachother.  They rode well, not perfectly, but they gave their all and finished fourth, improving their time in the final they made it into by a fraction of a second.  Given that they were the only all J19 team I think that's pretty good.  I know personally that I'm happy when a rider commits and does their very best.  Both girls did that and I'm proud of them.

Along the way yesterday, Jack Bobridge broke the unbreakable world record.  Chris Boardman set the pursuit record way back in 1994 I think, with superman position on a space-age bike.  Jack beat that record on a BT you can buy yourself using normal aerobars.  Wow....  Shane Perkins also rode a blistering 10.05s flying 200.

Today we up the ante, the J19 men do the kilo.  The girls do their flying 200 and the 500m time trial.   It's going to be intense.  Bring it on.