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An ideal location

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Posted: Tuesday February 29, 2000 12:34 PM

 

In 1999, British cyclist Jason Queally set two British records at the World Championships, finishing second in the Olympic sprint and fifth in the 1 kilometer time trial. The 29-year-old also won the Olympic sprint at the European Championships and won three World Cup events. While working as a research technician at Lancaster University, Queally began riding at the Manchester velodrome and developed an interest in cycling. In 1996 he decided to ride full-time. Check out Queally's diary every month on CNNSI.com.

February 28, 2000
Perth, Australia

Hello and welcome to the fourth installment of this diary. I hope you are all well and having fun. I am currently residing in Perth (Western Australia) just on the outskirts of the central business district on Mounts Bay Road. The whole Olympic track cycling team has come here for some warm weather training, and warm it certainly is! On average, daily temperatures are in the 30s (Celsius) with some days in the 40s. I'm only just starting to adapt to the heat and I have been here for more than three weeks.

Perth is an ideal location, only 15 miles from the indoor velodrome, four miles from the gym and, most importantly, only three miles from the beach! The beaches here are some of the best I have ever seen, very clean, big waves and accommodating plenty of beach babes. Craig, Chris, Andy and myself try in vain to attract their attention by any means possible, forming human pyramids, wrestling inflatable sharks and just generally trying to look cool. To date none of these ploys have had any success in encouraging anything but animals and children to join in on our fun and frolics.

We will be in Perth for a further three weeks, then moving onto Sydney where we will get to ride the Olympic velodrome for the first time. The team had intended to compete in the Australian Nationals, but we have just been informed that we are not going to be allowed to compete. I am not too sure why, but it may have something to do with the Australian teams Olympic selection criteria. While in Sydney I am supposed to be doing a commercial for Adidas with the English comedian Lee Evans. Apparently he has been in a few Hollywood films, which ones though I am not sure. I haven't a clue what my involvement may be, but I am looking forward to it.

The Olympic sprint team, including myself, should soon be getting hold of our new track bikes. It has been finally agreed we will be using the Corima monoblock. The whole Look involvement seems not to have transpired into what we had hoped. The current word on the street is that even the French team may not be using Look frames for the Olympics.

On the training front I have been doing a mixture of roadwork with the team pursuiters, track with the sprinters and gym on my own. The roadwork has been very difficult, into the hills for three to four hours, really above the intensity I should be training at. The track has consisted of two sessions a week mainly concentrating on speed work and standing starts. Gym also twice a week, although I am still having problems with my back.

I'll say goodbye for now, I'm off to the track to watch some racing. So take care.

-- Jason


 
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