Nicky Samuels
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WELCOME TO MY BLOG!Here I will post recent training updates, race reports, media releases and general 'Nicky' thoughts from my travel and races around the world....Stay posted! Nicky 2012 Rabobank National Cycling ChampionAhhhhh back up the mountain-beautiful!Hello, yes, I am back up the mountain in Wanaka, at the Snow Farm lodge and looking forward to my next three weeks of training here. I join fellow triathlete’s from NZ, Australia, the Nederland’s, France and Canada. Most athletes have been up here for a week now and are well into the swing of things. I started a week late because I entered the Elite Road Cycling National Championships in Christchurch.Let’s begin from the start. I have been based in Wanaka since the Auckland World Cup race and have been trucking along with base training mainly focussing on my running, clocking up some good miles with the odd speed session a week. The weather in Wanaka has been amazing so training has been going well.On Thursday I travelled to Christchurch and got to feel some of its true shaky nature, yes a couple of shakes over 5 happened while I was there, but that was not why I went. I went to race the 123km road racing NZ National champs as a good training ride and a solid hit out. That it was. I haven’t been cycling so much lately as my focus has been on running so I wasn’t sure how my body would hold in there for the entire distance, but it didn’t fail me – in fact, I couldn’t be happier with how it went!The first few laps were terribly mundane as people looked at each other and sussed out everyone else’s tactics.. it involved a few attacks and attempts to get away – Lauren Ellis the newly crowned TT champ and one other got up to a minute off the front but as the laps went on they came back toward the main bunch and as the pressure went on up the hill the main group got smaller and smaller.I was riding well within myself all the way but when an opportunity arose for the group to become four it was time to put a bit of pressure on the pedals, we managed to get a group of four off the front who worked well together and reeled in the front breakaway of two. They couldn’t hold on up the hill so our group remained just the four of us. With just over one lap to go and a bit of carelessness around a round-a-bout one girl crashed so we became a group of three. Three people and three podium positions meant it was time to start working harder. I put the pressure on up the hill a bit and heard on the PA that I had made an “attack” so put in a few more harder pedal strokes and opened up a small gap of 12 seconds. This 12 seconds grew to 25 by the bottom of the hill and slowly opened up throughout the last lap to 54 seconds over the finish line.It was a long last lap for me trying to hold off chasing groups and the two working hard together behind me but I knew if I could hold steady watts all the way home the other girls would have to be working extremely hard to catch me and I could make it. Finally the last 500m sign came and I took the bike NZ National title. Although it was a very slow start to the race it was a strong finish and I was happy to show I had the strength to win this title. For me this result shows me my cycling is where it needs to be and now even more focus can be put on running and swimming so I can get one of those Olympic spots!It is an honour for me to win this title as many cyclists are after the NZ National Champion jersey to wear around the world and help with selections in international cycling teams. I also found out after the race that it was a historic win being the first Southland team member to win the national title and also 24hrs later to hear that fellow local James Williamson had won the men’s! It shows how strong Central Otago cycling is!It was also nice having another triathlete Kate McIlroy on the podium with me and being handed the Bike NZ national shirt, flowers, champagne and medal by Mark Elliott (my coach). A great day out. There has been a huge amount of media attention after the race with radio interviews, TV reports and newspapers all wanting to get a story - follow these links to see some of these news reports:http://www.3news.co.nz/Nicky-Samuels-takes-her-first-national-road-cycling-title/tabid/317/articleID/238436/Default.aspxhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10777304http://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/6226323/Samuels-claims-victory-in-womens-road-raceNext race: TriNZ Contact Series Wanaka January 20th Hope everyone is getting back into work OK from a good break away. Happy New Year, may this one be a good one!Nicky
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