sarahwalker96

Hey everyone. Not much has been happening since my last update. Still enjoying the offseason a lot, as this will be my last one till London 2012. J
 From the airport, Dane and I met up with Mum and Matt, and drove back to Kawerau. Didn’t get all that much sleep, but woke up, played some PS3, packed the TV and electricals into the car and headed out to the beach house that will be home till we find a house somewhere in the waikato.

The North Island Champs were held in sunny Gisborne this year, and I was excited to get back on my bike again on the home land. There were only 2 elite women, so we were combined with the junior elites. As it was UCI, it came down to a deadman final, which I took out quite comfortably both days. Credit goes to the Gisborne club for building an awesome, world class track. It was so fun to ride, and there were heaps of different things to do. A good way to get back into the swing of things I thought. It was so cool to have so many little, and big, Kiwi’s showing their support from the Olympics. It made me feel so special when so many people came up to me for signatures and sometimes just a chat. I always love racing here in New Zealand.
 Not much was away from the BMX track that weekend, but if we were anywhere else, it was the skate park. Definitely one of the coolest skate parks I have seen. Dane decided to go over the bars, knock himself out, and graze pretty much every limb on his body. He was fine after a good dose of painkillers and rest. Matt owned the skate park though, riding my cruiser, and a stupid ice hockey helmet J
 The weekend went pretty well, and was great to get back on my bike again. I look forward to racing again soon.

Since the North’s, we have started cleaning up, and decorating the beach house. The wallpaper has been a hassle. My grandad obviously didn’t cut any corners when he built it J. The weather here has been absolutely beautiful. It has only rained once, and clouds have become hard to come by. The gym is just down the road, and the track is about 10 minutes away, so I’m quite happy here for now.

Yes I know, it’s been a while since my last update. I hope everyone understands i have been trying to go anti BMX for a while, and lapping up the good weather in Australia. J
 Even though i have been off the bike since the Olympics, I couldn’t help myself and raced the NSW state champs in Sydney last weekend. I was really surprised to see the support from people I received even in Australia. There were a lot more kids, and adults alike, that knew who I was coming up for autographs and photo’s. There were plenty of people who knew who Dane was too, apparently he got a big wrap while the games were on, saying that he was coaching me. It was really cool being the superstar even in Australia, and even more cool to know that a lot of people were watching BMX finally get put on the map.
 Racing went pretty well considering I had only just touched my bike since the final in China. The track was pretty small, with lots of corners and small jumps. A good level to start at again. The Friday of practice was one of the hottest days i had ever experienced on my bike. High 30’s, not a cloud in the sky, and a bush fire burning nearby to make things worse. I was just loving riding again, and cutting Dane’s brother off in corners where i could. J
 Saturday was a totally different story. It had rained by the metre nonstop all night, and the weather had turned cooler. Instead of the usual 4 moto’s on the first day, they reduced it to 2. One girl had pulled out of AA women too, leaving us with only 8 riders and points over. I managed to pull two second places behind Caroline Buchannan, who looked really strong and fit, and had informed me she had been into downhill and 4X full time for nearly a year nonstop.
Day two was pretty much the same, with the weather only holding up in between races while they decided how many races we would do. We ended up racing just three. This time I lost one, and finished 1^st in the second two. Caroline ended up beating me by one point, with Nicole Callisto in 3^rd. The AA men was taken out by Billy Jolliffe, Thom Hubert 2^nd, and Daniel Johnstone in 3^rd.

We got back to the central coast late Sunday night and immediately started getting the Nissan Patrol ready for Lithgow (one of the most famous 4X4 places in Aus). We cleaned the bikes at a car wash, as well as the knees, elbows and shoes, and packed them in the bags.

 Lithgow 4X4 trip is something Dane and his mates from BMX do every year, the week after state champs. I was the first ever girl to come this year, usually the girls go shopping etc while the boys play with their toys. There was no way I was going to miss out on this, as its the topic of conversation for at least 10 months of the year J. We finalised our car prep and made sure the new winch was working (turns out we’d still be there if it wasn’t for that.)
Lithgow is about 2 hours west of Sydney, smack bang in the middle of the Blue Mountains. The drive there is very scenic, pretty similar to the mountain ranges of NZ, but a lot drier. We entered the forest at a place called the Zig Zag railway, an old railway built before the war that goes over the mountains, but hence the name, in a zig zag. There are 4X4 tracks everywhere, and Dane knew some pretty good ones to test out the patrol. We were only 5 minutes into our first day, coming down a hill, and I saw what I thought was a black dog about 100 metres away. But as we got closer, and saw that the prints it left were nearly hand size, we realised it was much bigger. Turns out it was a black panther. One of four that are roaming around the mountain ranges of West Sydney. Dane decided to get us purposely bogged in deep mud to test the winch. I was pretty cautious walking around where we’d just seen a wild cat, but made sure the Sony handicam was strapped to my hand J. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ourselves into, and out of big puddles, hill climbs and steep descents. We met up with two cars, set up camp in the back of the car, had a few drinks and headed to bed.
 Sleeping in the car meant we were woken up by the sunrise at about 6am. We were keen to defeat a hill Dane hadn’t done yet so we headed there. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as the car wasn’t locking into 4X4, and the brakes were leaking fluid. So we headed back to the camp, took everything apart and waited for Dane’s dad to arrive to take us into a town for some new brake pads. Luckily that was the only problem, and too much grease was ceasing the front hubs. About 4 more cars had arrived that night, and it was turning into a battle of the badges. Mostly TOYOTA, we were 1 of only 2 NISSANS.
 We woke up again to beautiful, no cloud in the sky, Australian weather. Got together with 5 trucks and headed out to some famous tracks. About half way into the drive, the weather turned ugly. It only rained for about 10 minutes, but hailed/snowed for over half an hour. The tracks filled up with so much mud and snow, it was quite fun driving around. Fun for only some though, as one of the guys put his brand new car on its side half way up a hill climb. Our winch pulled him back on his wheels, but couldn’t pull him out of the whole he was stuck in. Two cars were left there for a “we’ll do it in the morning” job, and everyone went to bed saturated and exhausted.
 The final day was much the same, except everyone stayed on four wheels. I drove for the majority of the day, learning a lot about placement of wheels, and how to hold the accelerator steady. It’s totally different from the average road drive.
 We ended up arriving back home to the central coast at about 10pm that night, spent $20 cleaning the mud off the car, had a much needed shower and hit the sack.

 Sleep-in’s  are always good after a tiring weekend. I don’t think it was till 11 when I woke up. I spent the rest of the time remaining in Australia catching up on emails, playing playstation and PSP and dreading packing my bags. We caught a shuttle to the airport today at 1 and checked in only 5kg’s over weight with two bikes, a clothes bag, and four hand luggage items. Somehow!
 Sitting on the plane now, watching Hancock, ready to get back into the swing of things. The past 2 months since the Olympics has been awesome, it was so weird to not train, and even think about BMX for a while. But I know as soon as it starts again, it’ll be nonstop till London, so this holiday/down time was well deserving I think.

 From now, together with my managers, I’ll be planning out where to be for the next year. Where I’ll need to be to maximise my training and continue to do my bit for the sponsors too. I’ll be racing most of the UCI rounds in 08/09 and about 2-3 Supercross races next year, to keep on top of the always growing technical tracks. I will also be returning to Australia a fair bit too, as it’s only a 3 hour flight, and I need to get used to the climate for the world next year. Australia’s dry season is winter, so I’ll be avoiding the weather in New Zealand as much as I can.

 So bring on the hard days of training, racing and getting faster and stronger. I’ve had my time off, now it’s back into it.

 Well done also to Marc last weekend in the France Supercross. I was proud to see he qualified in the top 64 off his first time trial, then continued to ride strong through to the semi where he unfortunately came unstuck.

Peace J
    

Beijing Olympics

I, along with Marc, flew out of Auckland Airport on the 6th of August, pretty relaxed about what was ahead but quietly excited at the same time.

The flight to Beijing was pretty long (13 hours non-stop). Marc and I watched Kung Fu Panda before going to sleep. I managed to get almost 10 hours sleep thanks to the aid of a sleeping tablet, eye mask and ear plugs. It also helped that the flight left at 9pm and arrived at 6am so it was usual sleeping times anyway. Also on the flight was a few Taekwondo athletes and also Mark the weightlifter (from the Millennium Institute were I have been training for the last six months).

Arrival/Induction:
When we arrived in Beijing (on the 7th), we fast tracked through the Olympic Lanes and were eventually met by Robyn Wong and Dallas Seymour (two of many behind the scenes during the Games).  We then all caught an Olympic bus to the Village.

When we arrived at the village, helpers got our luggage so we were free to walk to the apartment block we were in as a team. I had my Handycam strapped to my hand the whole time and as we came around the corner to our block, you could see a group dressed in black and white waiting to welcome us in. Once we were close enough, they performed the haka for us which was pretty special.

After checking out the New Zealand headquarters (next to Sweden and Switzerland) and finding our rooms, we headed over to the food hall. This place was huge! There was enough seating for everyone competing in the Olympics plus management etc to eat at the same time. The food wasn’t too bad but I thought it was going to be every food of the World in there. There was Mediterranean, International (English), cereals/salads/fruits and of course, McDonalds. Since it was breakfast, I got some bread and scrambled eggs with some watermelon which pretty much remained my breakfast of choice for the remainder of the time.

We spent most of the first day getting settled in, finding out where everything was and meeting other people on the New Zealand team. That evening, the whole New Zealand Team (that was in Beijing), went out to a theatre for an official welcome and good luck but also, the naming of the Flag Bearer for 2008. During the evening, we watched a Chinese Show with dragons, sword fighters and gymnasts. After the Chinese part of the evening, we got a live show from Dave Dobbyn performing “Loyal” and “Welcome Home”. Mahe Drysdale was announced as our flag bearer and after some speeches from him and New Zealanders who weren’t in Beijing at the time; we all went back to the village for dinner and bed.

(For the next two and a bit weeks, we planned to wake up around 5.30am and be in bed around 8-9pm. This was because practice started at 7.50am on Time Trial and Race days so we would have to be on the 7 o’clock bus out to the track. It wasn’t too bad as we beat the breakfast and dinner rush.)

08.08.08:
It had been a long wait for this day and for it to finally be here was exciting. As we were off to Taiyuan for training the next morning, Marc, Ken, Sarah Ulmer, Hamish Carter and I, headed down to the Olympic BMX Track for a peek at how it was going. The track was covered with tarps but underneath it was soft, damp and full of holes. It wasn’t perfect but we knew there was plenty of time for it to be fixed before practice. We got to explain to Sarah and Hamish what would be happening at each point on the track. They were pretty blown away by the track and understood that anything could happen in the corners and that BMX can be pretty unpredictable.

That afternoon, we went for a light ride around the village before getting ready for the Opening Ceremony. Once everyone had assembled outside the apartment, we went out towards the food hall where there were hundreds of buses waiting to take the 204 countries to the Gymnasium to prepare for our march in. When we arrived at the gym, we had to sit in our country areas for about 2 hours. We had a food pack and drink for the time we were there but it was pretty boring. Since the athletes didn’t walk in till last, we missed the opening and instead of showing us what was going on, we got to watch which country got to leave for the stadium next. Since New Zealand was 190th, we had a long wait. I did manage to get a photo with Roger Federer before he left the building (because he was being swamped by people like me). Switzerland was sitting next to New Zealand so I figured it could be my only chance to get a photo with him and I didn’t want to miss my chance. When they got to 186, and then went to 189 and 203, we wondered what was going on but they sorted it out and we finally got to leave the Gymnasium.

On the way out of the stadium, Mahe Drysdale was presented with the Kiwi Coat to wear as the flag bearer and the whole New Zealand team got behind him with an impressive haka (which echoed because we were still indoors). From the stadium, we walked for about half an hour to the Bird Nest, going past all the volunteers who were waving and saying hello. To come into the Bird Nest, we walked underground and with the zoom on my Handycam, I could see the people waving their flags from the other side of the arena. It looked fake and it didn’t seem like I was about to walk into the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games with the New Zealand Team.

As we came into the light of the arena and New Zealand was called, it seemed like everyone began to cheer louder and wave their flags harder. As we did our lap of the arena, we spotted two New Zealand flags before walking into the middle to join all the other countries before us.

Because we were closer towards the end of the march pass, it wasn’t long before Australia arrived, followed closely by China. The stadium went absolutely crazy when they walked in, led by the famous Yao Ming. As he was coming around towards where New Zealand was standing, you could see him towering literally head and shoulders above all the Olympic Athletes.

After China had finished their lap, they began the speeches, with the Olympic Flag Raising, Flame relay finish and the fireworks at the end (which weren’t even above the Bird Nest). We didn’t get to see much which was kind of a letdown in a way, but still, it was the Olympic Opening Ceremony after all.

Taiyuan:
The next morning at 5am (after 4 hours sleep), we were off to the Airport to fly down to where the World Champs were this year in Taiyuan. It was only an hour flight, but with the early start, and a late night, we were absolutely shattered by the time we got there.

When we arrived, we were met by a Hotel Driver and were instantly reminded that this city was a completely different China to Beijing. Change lanes without looking or indicating, shoot for gaps that aren’t really there, and toot at other people just to tell them you’re there. Once at the Hotel, we checked in after some communication issues and settled in.

For the next week, we went to the Worlds track almost every day. The track hadn’t really been worked on since the Worlds so lucky it had only been a couple of months. We did get rain once and it affected the track pretty bad, but the first straight was still ride able (which was all we really needed). The ride to and from the track each time was a mission, with a million other bikers doing whatever they wanted. It was definitely good for reaction training but they also loved to stare at us. Besides hitting the track up each day, we also went to the Japanese Restaurant downstairs. This place had the best steak in the World and I had it every day we were there.

Dane arrived for the last two days we were in Taiyuan, and although there was nothing to do or see, it was good to have him there before heading back into the village for the final stage.

When we returned to the village on the morning of the 16th, we had two days before our first practice. That day, we didn’t do much except a light ride followed by some small sprints the next day.

Practice:
The first practice started at 9am on the 18th. I was so excited to get out on the track and finally ride my favourite track again. Practice starts with the track being open first (no first straights), so people can warm up a bit before rolling down the 8metre start hill and hit the first jumps at 50-60km an hour. 

Sarah Ulmer had come back over to support me through my first Olympic experience. We had breakfast together before heading out to the track.

At 9, I was first in line to get onto the track. On my first lap (leading the way), I jumped the second straight and most of the third. On my second lap, I had done everything except one jump and the first straight. When I felt like I couldn’t do much more on the rest of the track, I went up to the start hill. No one had been down the start hill yet either so it was good to show the girls that I was ready. I jumped the first straight (although I thought the first jump was just a little bit smaller than what it was) and went back up for another gate; and surprisingly, the Chinese girl had followed me up and done the first straight too. It wasn’t until we had done another 4 gates and first straights that other girls decided to join us.

After the hour of practice, I caught the bus home for some lunch and recovery. There was an afternoon practice as well for another hour but I decided it was best not to do too much. In the end, I was the only girl to not do the second practice that day and they were all wondering where I was.

The next morning was the same again; I led out with the first lap followed by gates. I felt really comfortable on the track but the first corner was bugging me a bit. The first corner was made for the guys track basically so the girls had to turn off the corner to get to our track. Ann-Caro (France), with all her downhill experience, looked the best on the corners but everyone else looked like they were trying to work it out too. I made sure I didn’t do too much work as Time Trials were tomorrow and I didn’t want to be worn out for them. Sarah made sure I didn’t do too much as well because sometimes, with a fun track like this one, I can’t help but go again.

During the practice, I heard my family and Dane yelling to me from the end of the first straight. They didn’t get to see much because no one was allowed inside the track area until the event started. After I had finished and Marc was starting, I went down to see how they were going and tell them how everything was going. Dane had some cool new $4 “Oakley Sunglasses” from the markets which I stole to wear for the next few days. As it was pretty hot out in the sun, I didn’t get to talk for too long as I had to get back to the village and get some more food and drink into me.

Time Trials:
Time trials started at 9am but practice was at 7.50am for the guys and 8.20am for the girls with half an hour each. I only did a couple laps of the track with a couple of gates before getting out of the heat and preparing for the first time trial. I was kind of nervous backstage for the time trial and Sarah Ulmer said it was “perfect”.

The men went off first as they had their three quarters after time trials, so I had a while before I was up. Marc had a pretty good time trial for Marc and he finished the first run sitting in the top 10.

As Marc was riding his lap, I was warming up for mine and not long after that, I was walking up the stairs to the top of our 8metre high start hill. Sarah U reminded me to just do my best and have fun and by the top of the stairs, I was completely focused on exactly that.

The favourite from Great Britain had fallen off in the first corner so she was sitting in last and when I got to the top of the hill, the two French girls were about to go. The first took the top spot and the second took it off her straight away by over a second (which is huge)! I was sitting on the gate when that happened and had to put it completely out of my mind and set up for my run. I got a good start and was mostly smooth (bar a few over jumps) right until the last straight where I didn’t push my legs down hard enough on the manual and tagged both times. When I crossed the finish line, I looked for how I’d gone and I was sitting in second. I would have liked to get a perfect lap but in BMX, that is almost impossible.

After the first time trial, Ken and Sarah were very happy with my lap. I was feeling good and the nerves of “The Olympics” weren’t getting to me.

As it was supposed to rain the following day and after that was unsure as well, there might have been a possibility that results would come from time trials alone. Usually, you would save energy in the second time trial but this time, I had to give it everything for a second lap.

The British girl held it together for her second lap and posted the second fastest time, pushing me back to third. The first French girl put in a good lap (despite almost crashing into the second corner) with the second French girl crashing down the last straight. Being the last time trial of the 2008 Olympics, I knew I was sitting in fourth overall and that I could not finish any worse. I got everything a little better but as I had already done a full lap sprint, I was a little more fatigued. The second lap was almost exactly the same time as the first. Even though I was in fourth at the end of the day, if the Olympic medals were to go off the two time trials combined, I would win Gold.

Rain Day:
Sarah U and I were up and having breakfast at the same time while Marc and Ken were off to the track. It had been raining long before we woke up this morning but we had to prepare to race anyway. We were supposed to catch the 7.30am bus but Ken had suggested we wait because they were putting back practice as it was. When 8 o’clock rolled around, they still hadn’t made a decision on whether we would be racing or not. It wasn’t until after 9am that the official call was made for racing to be held the next day.

For the rest of the day, we basically couldn’t do anything in order to save energy for racing the next day. It was good and bad that we had to wait an extra day. The good side was that we had another day to be completely recovered and ready to go for racing; and the bad side was that we had waited (and prepared) for over four years for that day, but now we had to wait another.

Finals Day:
Woke up to a beautiful, blue sky day and was ready to go and ride my favourite track. After breakfast, Sarah U and I headed to the bus. When we got to the bus, it was completely full but there was another bus behind it that they said was going to follow the first one. We hopped on the bus as the other was leaving. We had to wait for a couple of other people but once they arrived, the bus never left. We thought he might be waiting for someone else but after 10 or so minutes, Sarah U asked what was going on. They then told us we were on the 8 o’clock bus (which would get us to the track at 8.30am when practice started at 8.20am). After some translation issues, we managed to get the bus moving and got to the track with plenty of time.

Practice was pretty similar to time trials day. I just did a few laps and gates then cooled down for racing. Since I qualified fourth, I was with the first, fifth, eighth, ninth, twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth (last) qualifiers which, out of the two, were the easier ones to be up against.

Before the first race, my nerves were pretty settled. I was more excited about getting out there and was just enjoying (and loving) the moment. A decent sized New Zealand crew turned up and were all buzzing about the BMX and I was looking forward to putting on a good show for them.

When I rolled onto the gate, we got given a one minute call which was plenty of time to freak out but all I thought about was going out there, riding smooth and having fun. I had second choice of lanes and since it was the first race of the day, I chose a “safe lane” away from girls with good gates (potentially). Out of lane three, I had room to get a bad gate and still come out safely (but that didn’t matter in the end). Once the 10 second call had been made, it was all down to setting up and focussing on the red light (signalling that the gate is about to drop so reacting off it means that by the time you move, the gate is dropping). I got a pretty good start and had a smooth lap, following the French girl (fastest qualifier) from start to finish (ending up in second). She had a much better first straight than me but it seemed like I gained ground around the rest of the track.

In the second race, I went out of the same lane and in the first corner; the Argentinean in my race took an extremely low line around the first corner to sweep out wide. She was just enough in front of me (because she travelled a shorter distance) that she pushed me out wide with her. Because she had taken such a low line around the corner, she lost a lot of speed (even though it was shorter) so that once she got in front of me; I had to slow down as I was going off the track. I went down the second straight pumping and manualling jumps that are only made for jumping. At the time, I thought that I was going to have to fight my way back from about sixth but incredibly, no one managed to pass me and I finished third behind the French and Argentinean girls.

After those two results, making the final was pretty much a given but the third semi was all about getting the fastest time to get a good lane choice for the final.

Marc had finished his first race in last so it was pretty much up to the second race to have any chance at making it through to the final and he got unlucky again so his day was basically over (besides one last semi that wouldn’t change the fact that he hadn’t made the final). I was watching from the warm up/down area and when it happened, I got really emotional. I just thought how much effort he had put into making it here, how much he deserved to make the final and how it was all over now. I tried to hold it in because I had two more races to go myself and after some words of support from Sarah U, I was back on track.

In the last semi, I got the best gate out of the whole week. I came out first but the French girl had enough on me going into the first corner and I came out second (making sure the Argentinean wouldn’t do the same thing again by taking a tighter line). From there, I stuck in second, trying to get everything as smooth as I could so that I could post a good time. Down the finishing straight, I caught the French girl on the line and won the last semi.

After the other semi had finished, I had posted the second fastest time (behind the British girl) for the final. From there, I thought about what lane to come out of in the final. I knew that this wasn’t the time to “play it safe” so I had to pick the most inside lane I could. If I was to get a good gate, I needed to be in the best possible position to make the most of it. If I got the best gate of my life from a more outside lane, it may have been put to waste. Then, on the other side, if I got a bad gate from the best lane, my race would pretty much be over. I was preparing for a good gate and so I chose the best lane to get a good gate from.

Between the last semi and the final, nerves really started to kick in. I told Sarah U and she said that it’s just part of being at the Olympics. I think at that point, it did start to feel like the Olympic Games but by the time I walked up the stairs for the start of the final, they had all disappeared and I was ready to do absolutely EVERYTHING I could, no matter where I was, all the way to the end.

Up on the gate for the final, I looked at Dane and he made me feel confident of my ability and proud of myself and what I was doing. I could hear the New Zealand crew cheering for me and I felt almost at home. It didn’t feel like it was the Olympic final at all and then came the 10 second call.

I set myself up and was ready to go. As the red light went, I reacted super fast and as I was coming out, I tapped the gate which scrubbed a bit of speed and that was enough for the other girls to come across in front of me. I thought for a millisecond that it was all over but from there, I knuckled down and managed to get into third going around the first corner. I couldn’t believe it. It’s not often you get squeezed out of the start and go into the first corner third, especially when it’s the Olympics! As I was coming out of the first corner to go for another place down the second straight, the Argentinean was coming around the same line as the second semi. There was absolutely nothing I could do. In the third semi, I got round her because I changed my line into the first corner but because I was coming from behind into the first corner, there was pretty much only one line for me to take. If I was in her shoes, I probably would have done the same move as well. It was just a bummer it had to be me getting the cheap end of the deal. She made sure I didn’t come back this time by not budging from her line at all and I ended up on the white lines (where no one rides) going up the lip of the step-up down the second straight. We clashed in the air and I thought it was all over (again) and we were going to crash as soon as we landed. Luckily (I guess), we both stayed on; but now, I was back to sixth. Out of the second corner and down the third straight, I did everything I could to gain ground, and I did. Into the last corner, I was in the air with the girls coming fourth and fifth. Then I saw it, one of the girls (turned out to be the British girl) had fallen off in the last corner. That meant that the three of us were going for the Bronze Medal. Unfortunately, the British girl was an obstacle that we had to get around. We all swerved different ways and the American who was on the inside got the best luck out of it all and was in third and I was now about a full bike length behind her in fourth with only 20metres to go. I gave it absolutely everything I had left to get down the last straight and beat her but I only got to within half a bike wheel and 0.1 seconds behind (which is a pretty quick gain).

I did absolutely everything I could in the situations I was in and I don’t regret anything I did. Sometimes in BMX, you just get unlucky and other days you don’t. Unfortunately, it was my turn to be unlucky.

At the finish line, I couldn’t help but let a few tears fall. After a few words of support and hugs, I pulled myself together as at the top of the finish line, we had the press wall to get through. I did about 6 interviews on the way out and once I had finished, all I wanted was to see Dane for one of those cuddles only your partner can give you.

To top everything off, I had to go to drug testing so it was another hour of waiting around. In the drug testing room, there was almost everyone who didn’t get a medal in the final. It was a bit like a depression room so I was glad to have Sarah Ulmer with me. She was still buzzing about how great it was and how awesome I had done etc. It was definitely worth having her there because she made me realise how well I had actually done and how age is on my side. It took her 8 years to get fourth at the Olympic Games and here I was at 20 with a fourth under my belt.

After drug testing, I organised to meet the family after a shower and rest back at the village. That night, Dane, Matt and I went out to an Acrobats show with Renee Junga and her mum (Sally), and then we met up with the others for dinner.

All in all, my experience at the Olympic Games will never be forgotten. I would have loved to walk away with a medal but sometimes, things don’t always go your way. I will take everything I have learnt from these Olympics and take it to the next ones in London, 2012. Then, I can get rid of the luck side and show what I’m truly capable of. Thank you to everyone that has helped me along the way on my quest to the Olympics. It has been an experience I will definitely never forget, and to have so much support just made it a whole lot easier.

I'm off to the beach today for some 4WDing and camping but I'm over half way through the Olympic Update. Have been trying to holiday but get things done at the same time but I SHOULD have it up by the weekend.

Also yesterday, I did a Nike photo shoot that will be going in the November issue of Cosmopolitan. Me and Dane spent the night at a fancy hotel, went out to dinner in front of the Darling Harbour and had a massive breakfast buffet all thanks to Nike.

Well I'm back from Beijing now, what an experience. Apologies for not updating my pages while in the olympic village, but I wasn't allowed due to sponsors etc. I'm working on a huge review on the time I spent there at the moment, so should be done soonish :) In the mean time, i'm on my way to Australia for a much deserved holiday with Dane to the beautiful Central Coast for two weeks. I haven't had the time to go four wheel driving for quite sometime now, and it wil be good to travel on an international flight without my bike for the very first time in my life.

Just quickly though, I would like to thank everyone that left comments on my guestbook, except for the people that treats it lke an msn messenger page. It was so great to read of how proud everyone was, and how supportive you have been. I'd love to meet everyone personally to thank, and i'm forever gratefull, but this is obviously not possible. But thanks never the less, i really appreciate it.

A huge thankyou goes out to my sponsors too, without them none of this could have been a reality. To BikeNZ/SPARC for the funding to help me train and get to the olympics, ABD/Sheppards for supplying me with an awesome bike and parts that definately did the job, and looked the part. SONY for supplying me with a camera to take all the footage that will last a life time. NIKE for giving me the coolest shoes in the world to race in, and all the casual gear and footwear to match. FOX for their endless support with the gear I wear when I race. Definately the best helmet, gloves, knees, elbows and shorts ever. And NEW WORLD for the support they gave me leading up to the games, it would have been a lot more difficult if it wasn't for them.

Anyway, I'll definitely have to get my A in to G about the detailed report on the games. But it shouldn't be too long, so keep an eye out. My new website shouldn't be too far off either, but will keep you posted.

Thanks again to eeryone for their endless support.
Sarah :)

WOW, what an eventful past week. There has been so much going on, pretty much all of my days are now booked till the Olympics.

As the weather won’t give me a break at the moment, training has been moved indoors. My gates are now followed by sprints on the indoor running track, which is definitely helping my strength and power because it’s quite soft. I managed to go over the bars on my 3^rd pedal the other night which halted my confidence for a few minutes. I wasn’t hurt, so everything is ok!!! J

Marc and I were on sports cafe the other night if anyone didn’t see. Although it was hard to get a word in, it gives us more exposure and more importantly, lets more people know what BMX is about. All in all, another cool experience.

Dane and I travelled down to my home town of Kawerau on Friday to see off everybody before heading off on Wednesday. It opened my eyes in a whole different way. The amount of support I receive there is unbelievable and it was such a humbling experience.
First off we headed to my old primary school, Kawerau South School. I hadn’t even got out of the car and there were little kids running up to me, jumping out of class-room windows and yelling and screaming ‘’Sarah Walker is here’’. Did some photo’s for a newspaper and headed into the hall to be a guest in their assembly. They presented my with heaps of letters, some money they had raised themselves and the highlight, sung a song about me, written by three 10 year old girls. It was incredible! It was one of the most memorable experiences in my life. Thank you Kawerau South School.
Next we headed to Kawerau Intermediate, where we were welcomed by a song, given some more paintings, letters and money. We were also presented with a Haka by a group of boys. Thank you also Kawerau Intermediate.
From there we headed to New World Kawerau, where they presented me with flowers, and some money they had raised during the day by asking customers if they would like to donate one dollar to help me out. They also had a huge wall of support post -it letters, a massive cabinet with Olympic stuff, and a collage of all the newspapers I had been in. It was amazing to have people I don’t know come up to me, give me hugs, write me letters, and want pictures with me just because of who I was. It just made me so proud to be from Kawerau.
Lastly we made our way to the Kawerau fire department. At least 15 volunteers were driving around the streets, off their own back, to help me out with collecting money. I was amazed to see people physically running after the fire truck, and literally throwing money at the buckets J Thank you so much to everyone that donated money, big or small. It goes a long way in the sport of BMX,  we’re not exactly on the pay roll of an all black. My parents and I are extremely proud to be from Kawerau, and Friday the 1^st August will remain in my mind as one of the most memorable days of my life.

Last night was Marc’s going away/good luck party. Was good to see everyone again, mostly the BMX guys and girls who I have hung around since starting the sport. 90% of the party were sporting new 777 supporter T-Shirts made by Phil Williams. It would have been awesome for Marc to see those getting around. I’m sure Phil will be supporting you 100%. Also thank you to Phil Anderson for his speech. There aren’t many people who have been through everything with us like he has. And for him to speak so highly of us both makes us both proud to be Kiwi. Also thank you to Marc’s parents for the support they have given me over the past 3 years Marc and I have been training together.

Have been home for the last couple of days recovering from America.

The day I got home, Dane suprised me with my birthday presents (it was my birthday on the 10th but I was training so had it the day I got back on the 22nd). He blew up about 200 balloons which covered most of the floor area and got me an electric blanket (coming back from 35-40 degree days in USA), some Blue-Ray movies and a chocolate fountain (YUM!).

Haven't done too much except for a couple sessions of training, watching movies and playing Playstation 3. Also getting the new Sony TV soon. It has Freeview built in so that means we get about 10 channels instead of the normal three plus C4. And it's a lot bigger than our one we have now - by an extra 20".

Thanks to everyone for their guestbook signatures. It is really neat to read all the comments with support and encouragement. I am really looking forward to the Olympics and what it will bring. Not doing many interviews etc now it's down to the pointy end of things but did a lot leading up to my trip to Amercia.

It's kind of strange being known by people that I don't but it's definately cool.

I head off to Beijing on the 6th of August and will be in full training mode until then. Will update before I head off.

Been busy most of the week with gym and sprints. Have also been out to the Perris track and also to Redmans track a few times. Besides training, we haven't done much but chill out at the hotel and a little bit of shopping.

Looking forward to heading home in the next couple of days to get back on my 2 man gate and be at home in my own bed again - if only for 2 weeks.

I'd also like to thank my sponsors, SPARC, BikeNZ, ABD (Avanti BMX Development), Sony, Fox, Nike, Red Bull, NZ Academy of Sport and the Peter Snell Institute of Sport.

The last few days at the centre went really well. Both me and Marc took one session off which was worth it as we managed to do a few full lap sprints without being completely blown out. The second of the three "time trials" I did was the best with a sub 38 seconds. I managed to get a pretty good lap in and was happy that it was at the end of a full week of training.

Yesterday, we headed up to Temecula to spend the rest of the week training at the tracks around the area and Redmans house. Did sprints today with sprints and track tomorrow.

At the end of the week, it's back home to New Zealand to spend the next 2 weeks training before heading over for the Opening Ceremony. It's crazy how close the Olympic Games are now. It doesn't seem like this about to happen yet but I'm sure it will eventually.

We are nearing the second week in San Diego at the Olympic track and things have been pretty good so far. Both me and Marc have been riding really well and training super hard. Marc is looking super fast and only has a couple of things to sort out in the next couple of days and I am pretty much the same. All the hard training has been hard on the muscles so today our track session wasn’t quite what we wanted to do but it will be good for us to have a session off to recover.

The centre has been good. For breakfast and straight after training, we head over to the food hall for a buffet breakfast, lunch or dinner. The cooks are on hand at certain times to cook custom (healthy) burgers which I have been eating almost every day.

Besides training, I have been mostly chilling out in the hotel room, mastering the PSP games. I also came down to the communications part of the centre where there is a dedicated room for internet, TV, movies, pool, table tennis and a gaming area. Played Arielle Martin in Guitar Hero II and although I won 2 games out of 3, she was playing two levels above me.

Basically, all I do is eat, chill, sleep and train but it is all going to be worth it in the end.

Only two more days left on the track so hopefully me and Marc can put together every little ounce of energy we have left into being completely happy with the track.

As you know, I went down to Wellington, the night before I flew out to USA for the opening of the new BikeNZ building. I arrived in the afternoon where I went to the NZOC to meet some people there. While I was there, I did an interview in the new Olympic Museum with a TV One crew for the official announcement of making the Olympic Team.

After that, I went out to the Hutt Valley Thunderbolts BMX Club and met a whole bunch of BMX kids to give a brief talk and sign some autographs. It was very cold and about to rain so one of the neighbours let us use his garage so we were all out of the elements.

At the opening, I got a tour of the building and talked to a few people before opening the Pelorus Trust Sports House. It wasn’t until the photographer told me to hold the ribbon (with swimmer Philip Rush) before I pulled it that I was actually going to be opening the building. This Sports House isn’t just BikeNZ. Touch NZ, Swimming NZ, Softball NZ, Handball NZ, Volleyball NZ, Sport Wellington, Wellington Volleyball, Wellington Rugby League and Leisure Active also occupy the building (as far as I know).

Me and Dane stayed the night in Wellington before flying back to Auckland where we drove home to make sure everything was packed for me to go to America that night.

I arrived in America on Saturday evening after flying from Auckland to LA then onto San Diego. It had been a few busy days so I upgraded to business class. I needed to catch up on good sleep and I wasn’t going to get it in economy. It was great, good food and lots of room. Played PSP, then watched a movie before sleeping and waking up for breakfast.

Once arriving into LA, I spent four hours at the Qantas lounge before getting my second flight to San Diego. The rear seat was free so I got four seat to myself for the flight and I slept the whole way on that flight (about an hour). When I arrived, I caught a taxi to the hotel and chilled in my room until the next day.

On the Sunday, I went to gym with Matt Kritz (gym coach from New Zealand) who happens to be in San Diego visiting family which is a massive coincidence. After gym, I went to Walmart to get some food before heading home to play some more PSP.

Monday, we got to ride the track for the first time. Marc and Ken turned up about 20 minutes before our track session because their flights had been delayed overnight.

The track was a little different to what I imagined it to be. But the start hill is exactly the same and the layout of the track was up there as well. All the jumps on the track were slightly harder for training purposes. There is no track in the World as good as this one besides the Olympic track (which we can’t get on) so we are really lucky to have the chance to get on it.

The training went well but there was a pretty big side wind so we didn’t get to do every straight but it was good to get a feeling of the track again.

Tuesday was the same but everyone got to get on the track together on Wednesday morning from 9am. The wind doesn’t come in till about 11am so it was really good to get some riding done without the wind affecting anything. Worked on the second and third straights for a while, trying to get the most out of each jump. After getting some guts to do the first jump, I went up to the top of the start hill and did some gates with Kim Hyashi (USA) and Nicole Callisto (AUS). Did a few gates with them and felt pretty good.

For the next two weeks, we will be on the track almost everyday with other trainings around the track sessions. I look forward to getting lots of time on the track and feeling comfortable before heading home to New Zealand to finish up the Olympic build-up.

Well I'm off overseas on Saturday but have a busy week before then.

Since last time I updated, nothing really exciting has happened. The "Close Up" thing went pretty well, they did however, listen to silly rumours that Marc was to blame for our old coach leaving which isn't the case. Just to clear things up, he had some issues that he had to deal with in his own way and so do people everyday.

Besides "Close Up", I was on "Deaker on Sport" that same night then just the other night, I was the channel 3 News as well. So I guess things have been pretty busy on the profile side of things.

For the rest of the week, I will be doing a couple more interviews. Including a photo shoot for the cover of the Sunday Star Olympic Mag cover.

On Friday, I am flitting down to Wellington for the Official Opening of the BikeNZ building. I get back up to Auckland at 9.30am on Saturday then fly out around 6pm that night making sure I have everything for three weeks in America.

In America, we have been allowed to ride the Olympic Duplicate BMX track that they have over in San Deigo. The Olympic track is my favourite track so I can't wait to get back on it again. It's an awesome opportunity for us and I also look forward to getting the track dialed in.

Will update a few times when I'm over there to say how the track and everything is going.

So I'm sitting in my lounge room with the TV One News crew here and they want to get some footage of me doing stuff wth my computer and updating my website. 

After this I am going to the track and I will be doing some jumps fo the cameras and then onto the meillennium to get some footage of my new gate in action. Close Up will also be joining the News Team so I will be somewhat like a tv star.

The gate at the millennium is really good to train on. When I was doing the gates, everyone just stopped to see what I was doing and they were so amazed at what was going on. They had never seen anything like what I was doing so they were transfixed as to what this noise was and the look of the gate itself. The athletics guys that were there said they needed something like that for their sprints.

Anyway, better get ready for the track. :)

Had a few days off after Worlds which ended up being pretty busy with interviews and sorting out the next couple of months.

The weather has been amazing here in NZ and the Pro-Gate which I will be training on until the Olympics arrived yesterday so I can do gates no matter what the weather is doing or what time of day it is.

Also got a Blue Tooth MP3 player and Blue Tooth Micro Hi-Fi System from Sony yesterday. The MP3 player is SO good. It's awesome to be able to go for a ride without having cords flying everywhere and having no cord doesn't make a difference to the sound quality.

Came away with third today but personally would have liked a couple of places better.

There were only 10 girls entered for cruiser this year but not a lack of competition. I had the "easier" moto and won all three moto's easily and qualifying for the final with the fastest time.

By the time the final came around, my legs were starting to feel the negative effects of training and racing from the 2 days before. This was cost me from potentially winning the final as I had nothing out of the start but had the same or better track speed. I came out of the start slow and got shut off straight away but I tried to hang in down the inside line of the track but the girl next to me knew I was there so moved over even more and that was enough to stop me from coming through. Luckily, because I had the inside, I got into the first corner in front of most of the other girls in third where I stayed for the entire lap.

Was happy that I got another podium spot but I knew I had it in me to win. I just wasn't the best for that lap. I have learnt a little bit more from what happened and will now work on making the right changes so it doesn't happen again.

Back in NZ for at least a month now where I will be getting in some training and PR work done before the final leg of my Beijing experience.

Finished day 1 of racing ending up third in the Elite Women Class.

In my motos, I drew the current World Champion (Shenaze Reade) so I had some good competition from the first race right through to the final. In the first race, I got the best gate but Shenaze powered down the first straight into first with me following in second. I got the second straight pretty smooth and gained a bit of ground then into the third straight (most technical), but she breaked in front of me so I had to break too. Ended up coming in second.

In the second race, I was in second again to the first corner but Shenaze didn’t get the second straight smooth and I jumped passed her into first. Got the third straight smooth with Shenaze backing off a bit and gained a few bikes on the girls behind me, winning pretty easily.

The final moto, I got another good gate and was second from about the 5^th pedal to the finish but posted the second fastest time for the quarter final which meant I got good lane choice.

My quarter final didn’t have many harder people than my moto so it was easy sailing through to the semi final in second.

I had third pick of lanes for the semi. Had the harder semi of the two with 6 of us with a top 8 result from last year’s Worlds in Canada.. Got a good gate but Shenaze pushed me out wide in the first corner so I came out in third behind Anne-Carro (top French rider) where I held my spot. Almost lost it down the third straight where I mucked up a bit but no one came past and I still managed to be the fourth fastest time for the final.

I got the best gate out of everyone in the final out of lane 4 but went elbow to elbow with Anne-Carro out of the gate then the other fast French rider down the first straight which, unfortunately, caused me to have to pump the whole first straight (which isn’t exactly the fastest way). I was still up in about third or fourth to the first corner but got pushed wide and came out in fifth and not much speed. Pumped most of the second straight on top of the first but didn’t lose too much ground. Down the third straight, I went in with heaps of speed but the two girls just in front of me came down and I had to swerve around them, trying to miss their bodies and their bikes. I succeeded in missing the bodies but ran completely over the middle of one of the girls wheels and I thought I was going to fall off but leant over the back of my bike a bit and held on tight and came out still on my bike. While I was running over one of the bikes, Samantha Cools (coach’s sister) got around the girls on the other side and went into third. It was down to the last straight and I got a good run around the last corner and came up next to Samantha and managed to just get past her for third place.

Went road tripping to the Grand Canyon yesterday. It was a bit of a hike to get out there with a four hour drive from Phoenix.

On the way, we stopped in at the Route 66 Roadhouse Bar and Grill which was just out of Flagstaff and right next to a Harley Davidson shop which had some awesome bikes in it. In the Bar and Grill, it looked like a bikies bar with three pool tables and a cool museum with lots of Route 66 stuff.

We ordered steaks but there was a grill in the corner of the room where you cooked your own meat and added whatever seasonings and sauces you wanted on it. If it wasn’t good steak then there was no one else to blame but yourself for not cooking it right. We all did well though and enjoyed our meal.

We carried onto the Grand Canyon after lunch with about an hour left of driving to go. Once we got there, we found out it cost $25 just to see it. I was surprised to see hundreds of people there looking at the big hole in the ground. We walked straight out to the Canyon and DAMN it was huge! It was bigger than I could have ever imagined. It’s kind of hard to describe exactly how big, but it looked fake how deep and wide it was. We were by the railing to start with and while we were there, we saw some people over by a cliff with no rails taking photos so being extreme BMXers like we are, we headed over to there to take some photos as well. Marc and Dane freaked me out when they went out to the edge and dangled their feet over a massive cliff. Me being scared of heights didn’t help watching so there was no way I was going to have a go. Got some more photo’s before heading back to the car for our four hour drive back to Phoenix.

Besides our tourist trip to the Grand Canyon, training has been going really well with lots of track and sprint sessions (chasing the car) before we head off to the Worlds in China.

We have been in Phoenix, Arizona (America) for the past few days training here between the last Supercross and the World Champs.

It’s been super hot everyday so far with the exception of a random storm that lasted about an hour.

So far we have been to two of the four tracks around here. The first one we went to was called Speedworld. It had a very small start hill that took a bit to get wound up on.  The pro section was the coolest part of the track as it had four decent sized jumps that curved around right around the back of the first corner. I worked on doing some double manuals through the rhythm section and some jumps around the rest of the track. I didn’t give the gate a go as it was an ABA gate which doesn’t have beeps so it was pretty scary to go on.

The other track we went to was just down the road from where we’re staying. That track was a lot more fun. The start hill was a LITTLE bigger but the track was much better. The surface of the track was so smooth and the second straight was fun. The gate was better because they had a UCI Random call which dropped when it should. Me and Dane were doing gate against each other. I'd beat him out of the gate and then he'd come back past me down the first straight but then I'd come under him in the first corner to give him some elbow. Marc was doing gates against some fast guys and if it wasn't for Dane, I wouldn't have had such a good training session.

We have been to dinner with Bubba Harris and his girlfriend (Kasey) a couple of times. Last night we went to a place called Sushi and Steak. It was such a cool place where they cooked your food in front of you. The cook was really funny and had a whole bunch of tricks up his sleeve. He started off by getting some eggs and spinning them on the table. While the eggs were spinning, he popped an egg up onto the spatula and did a full 360 with the egg still spinning. Then he flipped it into the air and as it came down, he split it in half and the yolk landed on the cooker. After that, he started with the rice and was adding a mixture of all different sauces. It tasted so good and while we were eating that, he started on the shrimp, steak and chicken. He cut up some meat into small pieces and went around the table one by one, flipping the meat off the spatula into the air and we had to catch it in our mouths. If we missed, the cook would attempt a “slam dunk” which meant we had to open our mouths and he would try to shoot one in. We had two goes each before our dinner was ready. The steak and chicken was so good. We will definitely be going back there again.

The other dinner, we went out to a Buffalo Wings House where they had heaps of TV’s up around the Restaurant with all different sports on it. They even had little blue boxes that you could play poker against other people who were having dinner. The wings were nice but the ones that Bubba and Kasey got were extremely hot and they weren’t even close to being the hottest wings they had there. Apparently, if you eat 5 of the hottest wings there, you get a t-shirt.

We are here for another week before heading to the World Champs in China.

This morning, we headed out to the track to check out the track and its condition. It was better than yesterday with some parts of the track changed and the some of the soft stuff managed to be fixed up.

The guys practice and time trials were run between 9am and 1pm before the girls got on the track for 1/2 an hour at 1.40pm. Racing started not long after that and it was all run through pretty quickly once it was underway.

First moto, I had first pick of lanes so I went right to the inside (lane 1). Anne Caro Chausson had lane 2 (fast French chick). I got a pretty good gate and so did the Anne. She had her nose just in front which was enough to come over on me and considering it was the first of three moto's, I wanted to just be safe and know that I would make it through to the next round, so I was happy with second for the lap.

Second race lane choice went off the order you finished off in the first race so I had second pick. Anne took lane 1 and I took lane 2. This time, I got a better gate and got in front to control the race from start to finish.

Third race, it was reverse lanes again and same thing happened again. It was ok though because we had already made it through no matter what but the time would depend on lane choice for the semi final. I ended up 2nd again and 4th fastest time for the semi.

For the semi, I had 4th pick which ended up being lane 4. I got out ok but was outside in the first corner and got pushed wide towards the guys section. I had to slam on my breaks and roll through a section which put me back to 5th (only top 4 make the final). I managed to catch up to the girl in 4th and get by her down the last straight but it was a nail biter till then.

Because of my semi not being so great, I got 6th pick for the final which ended up giving me lane 6. I got a pretty good gate and was sitting in about 2nd= down the first straight but because lane 1-5 had a shorter distance to go around the first corner, I only managed to come out 4th. I held this position to the finish.

I was happy with my result and more importantly, my performance. I wasn't feeling 100% today and I still managed to ride well and I didn't have to rely on an outside lane to stay out of trouble on the gate. My gates were consistently good and it was actually the first supercross I haven't been shut out by girls either side of me getting better gates.

I have taken a few things away from this weekend that I can work on and hopefully become an even better BMXer for the next race.

Off to Phoenix on Monday to train before heading to the World Champs in China at the end of the month.

I would like to update you all about time trials today but the track has fallen to pieces during the day. Practice was cancelled yesterday because the track wasn't ready but today with everyone riding on it, it got progressively worse during the 3 practice groups.
 
The girls went first and got the full hour and a half in but the track was soft in a lot of places and was quite dangerous to ride. One girl actually hit a soft spot just rolling through and can no longer race. 
 
The Group B practice was next and they were struggling with the track as well. They also rode for the full hour and a half before the Group A (top) guys came on. After about 5-10minutes, there was a big protest from all the riders saying it was unsafe to ride how the track is. So everyone left the track saying they wouldn't ride unless something was done about it.
 
After that, there was a big meeting discussing the plan of attack. The organisers decided that the guys would ride time trials tomorrow and that the girls would continue as usual with their time trials. So the girls protested against riding until something was done as well.
 
It was decided that the girls track would be worked on (attempted to be fixed) for an hour then we would ride to see how it is before riding time trials. They tried to fix it up but by the time we rode again, the track was 5 times as bad as the first practice so the girls time trial was cancelled.
 
On the plus side, the gates I did were awesome. This made me feel so good as the last race, my gate was my week point. I am super happy to see the progress I have made and the result this weekend doesn't worry me. I am here to ride my bike and see what I need to improve for the Olympics.
 
So tomorrow, the guys are going to be doing time trials in the morning with girls going straight into racing. If the track is just as bad tomorrow as what it was today, I know there will be people not racing.
 
Worlds are in three weeks time and the track is very dangerous how it is. It could cost someone a country spot or an Olympic spot so it isn't an easy decision for most people.
 
We'll see how things go tomorrow...

In Copenhagen now. The weather is great and the track is only a short ride from where we are staying. We got in yesterday afternoon and went to look at the track. It looks awesome - very technical for both guys and girls.

Unfortunately, the track was like a sand pit so instead of everyone getting an hour and a half practice on the track today, and an hour tomorrow before time trials, we only get an hour and a half tomorrow morning. They have spent the whole of today working on scraping the tp layer of dirt off and re-surfacing the whole track. This might not solve the soft problem completely but hopefully the track turns out ok.

The track itself is very cool. The first straight has a nice big double then into a step-up, step-down before hitting the first turn. Out of the first turn, the track splits. The guys straight looks pretty fun with some pretty big looking jumps in there with the girls straight having our very own double with no middle. Third straight is where it gets interesting. The guys track is similar to Adelaide except it has been stepped up a notch for the second half. The girls straight however, is the longest rhythm I think I have seen in real life and full of different jumps so you'll definitely need some skills to get through it. Last staight is back together with some rollers and a step-up.

Time trials run tomorrow afternoon and then racing Saturday (well thats the plans so far). Will update during the weekend on how things go.

We had the day off today to recover from the weeks training. Have improved a lot since arriving which is promising for this weekend coming in Denmark. Riding down the 8m starting hill is easier now and I can get up there and do the first straight without any laps.

This morning, I just chilled out in my room, talking to Dane on Skype and playing some online poker before Ken, Ryan and myself went to Lusanne to check out the Olympic museum. It was such an amazing experience and I am still overwhelmed by just seeing and feeling the history and everything of the Olympic Games. Because I was the only girl, I had to be tough and not let the emotions take over but it was truely incredible.

It cost $15 plus $3 to get an audio tour of the museum. It seemed like we were the only ones who payed an extra $3 but all I can say is the others were missing out. The audio tour went into a bit more detail of the place and you didn't have to read everything to understand. It even had background music that was well selected to take you through each part.

The first thing you see when you walk through the gates is the Olympic Motto. Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Swifter, Higher, Stronger". After it explains the origin etc, the audio tour gets you to turn around to see the Olympic flag carved into a marble slate with the coloured rings above on the wall followed by real Gold, Silver and Bronze Olympic Medals from the Sydney Olympics. This was a moment you can't really describe. We are so close to the Olympics now that those medals meant more than they ever have - it was a crazy feeling.

As the tour took us through the entire collection of the Olympic torches, history and events, time seemed to rush by and before we knew it, we had been there for 3 hours!

This week, we are taking it a bit easier so we feel fresh for the Supercross in Denmark. It's just another race where I can track my progress and make changes for the next big race (Worlds) coming up a few weeks later in China where I can see if the changes are working or not.

Left for Switzerland last weekend to get in some training before the next Supercross in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a long haul getting over here with a 12hr flight, a 4hr stopover, a 11hr flight, an hour stopover, a 2hr flight, an hour and a half train and a 10 minute walk with all our luggage to get to the hotel. It was hard work. We got settled in pretty quickly and had a light ride closely followed by dinner and bed.

On the Monday we got into training once our coach, Ken Cools arrived. Training has been going really well with me learning another gate technique. I feel a lot better than Adelaide Supercross so at least I will be able to pick a lane besides lane 8 next time.

The weather hasn't been so great since we arrived. Has rained more than it has been fine but we have managed to squeeze in two track sessions this week. Otherwise, we've just been in the gym and the middle of the velodrome doing gate practice.

Last time we were in Aigle, we stayed at the UCI accommodation which wasn't too great (tiny wooden boxed in bunk beds, communal showers/toilets etc). Where we are this time is really nice and it's good to chill out between trainings with free unlimited wireless which is always good. Not much on TV so it's lucky we do have it.

This weekend there is a race in Germany which, for the girls, will be like a World Champs without the Aussies and me so things should be pretty interesting there. After that, the UCI Centre is pretty full before we all head up to Denmark for the Supercross.

I will try do my best to update a few times a week but Ken updates his website (link above) quite often and his allows him to upload photos a lot easier.

Sorry about being a bit slack at updating the website lately. Didn't have constant internet access in Adelaide and have been super busy this week as I am not back in New Zealand until after the World Champs, beginning of June.

As most of you may now know, I raced the Adelaide Supercross on the 13th of April. There are only two Supercross events before the Olympics (which is also a Supercross), so they are fairly important races. Nearly all the girls who are going to the Olympics came down from the Northern Hemisphere to race at the Adelaide Show Grounds. It was the first, and probably the only indoor Supercross held.
 
Practice (Friday) was going really well until I attempted a jump that no one else had yet done. The track wasn't perfected yet and I hit a bump wrong and went sideways in the air, so I fell off0 after trying to land. I got a few scrapes and bruises from that but got back up and carried on with the practice after a short break. Then came the start hill. A supercross start hill is 8m high, and at the bottom of the hill is a 10m jump with no middle (so it's pretty scary). I have a thing where I really don't like walking up all the stairs to roll down a hill with my breaks on so when I was one of the first girls up the top, all the girls kept back to watch me (the first girl) do the first jump. I did it pretty easily and had a huge cheer from the crowd but missed the breaks and went over the back of my bike on the second, landing flat on my bum. It was pretty funny but it also hurt a lot. These crashes took a little toll on the rest of the practice but I pushed through with the help of some massage and pain killers.
 
Time trials were on Saturday and things went pretty well. I didn't get the best laps possible but managed to post the third fastest time.
 
Sunday was racing and in the first moto, I got squeezed out of the gate. This meant I didn't have enough speed for the first jump, but because of the run up you have from 8m high, I had too much speed to roll through a jump with no middle. So as I was rolling down the start hill, there was only one thing that was going through my head and that was that this crash was going to hurt. I took off the front of the jump and clipped out of my pedals as soon as I could. I then through my bike downwards and carried on towards the wrong side of the landing with my feet and arms leading me. I didn't think I would walk away from it but I managed to land right and come out unscathed. No one (including me) could really believe it.
 
Second race, I got squeezed again but made sure I didn't make the same mistake twice and got enough speed down the ramp to jump the first jump (pretty high). But because I jumped it, I was still up there with the other girls and managed to get into 3rd by the first corner and passing into second by the finish.
 
In the last race, I chose the most outside lane to make sure I wouldn't get squeezed again. I knew I had the track sorted, it was just the gate that was kind of letting me down. So with no one to shut me out, I came round the outside to slot into the top 3 out of the first corner. Once there, I made my way to the front, winning the last race before the final.
 
Finals came around real fast and I went for the most outside lane again. Got an average gate but was sitting about 4th around the first corner. Down the second straight, I passed Samantha Cools and Gabriela Diaz to come into 2nd and down the 3rd straight I managed to catch up to Arielle Martin. Around the last corner, I took a good line and took over first place and crossed the finish line.

Off to Switzerland on Saturday for a bit of training before going to Denmark for the second Supercross of the year. After that, me and Marc will be joined in America by Dane for some more training before racing the World Champs in China.

Had a successful weekend down in Christchurch for the New Zealand BMX Champs.
 
Arrived into Christchurch on Wednesday evening and woke up Thursday to a very hot and sunny day. Didn't think to bring clothes for warm weather with me so had to tough it out in track pants. Went down to have a look at the track about mid-day and first impressions were better than what I was expecting. I had been told before coming down to not expect a great track but they managed to pull off a pretty good track.

Practice started not long after we arrived so went back to the accommodation to get our bikes and gear. Rode for an hour and a half getting the track all sorted out. The track was about as good as it looked and there were some tricky bits you had to really think about while riding.
 
Friday was Mighty 11's racing to make the team of 5 to race against the Aussie team last on this year. Racing was close and there wasn't a clear favourite but there were some kids with some awesome talent and potential.
 
Saturday brought the 20" Nationals for the Elite guys. It was a bit chilly and overcast but the rain had past overnight. All the other classes were over two days but because of the UCI (Olympic) system, we would have just had 2 races per day. I was a bit nervous for the first race. Not quite sure why. I guess because everyone was just expecting everything of me and I thought about it a little too much. After the first race was over, everything was sweet. Won the other three races and took the National Title for Elite Women. In the afternoon, I had cruiser (24") to race. My brother Matt had the bike (as we were sharing) for the whole of practice so my first race on Cruiser happened to be the first lap I had done on it since the World Champs in Canada which was July last year. There was only one race between me and Matt so Dane was our runner to get the bike from the finish line to the start hill. Didn't do as bad as I thought I was going to and finished of the four races with four wins.
 
Sunday was hot and sunny. Had Superclass instead of UCI along with Cruiser. Superclass was held every 20 minutes and straight after the second race, I had to go back up for Cruiser then straight back up again for 20 but it wasn't too bad. I'm just glad that they were all points over racing and I didn't have the pressure to perform in that group. Finished the nationals with 2 NZ Titles, in both Cruiser and 20".
 
Prize giving was held at the town hall and Marc and I were presented with a bike box with signatures from the BMX community wishing us good luck with the Olympics which is now hanging up in my house. Thank you to everyone for signing it!
 
A few weeks away is the Adelaide Supercross where I will be seeing how training is going against the other girls of the World followed about a month later by Copenhagen Supercross. Once those are done, there are no more of those style races till the Olympics and the only other major race is the World Champs in China. So now there will be a lot of planning on what to do with all the time between each to give me the best shot possible.

Off to the New Zealand Nationals on Wednesday for the Easter Weekend Race.

Have had lots of meetings over the last few weeks and now have a manager to help me with my build up to the Olympic Games and continuing on after that. His name is Roger Mortimer, you may have heard of him as he is Sarah Ulmer and Hamish Carters manager also. I feel really good about this partnership and it should raise the profile of myself and BMX.

On the weekend, I woke up to someone knocking on the door. Turns out it was a drugfreesport representative just popping in to do a random drug test. Had been toilet not long before they turned up so it took a couple of hours haha.

Officially signed with Sony today. I will be using their product to assist in training and racing. For their full range of products, go to www.sony.co.nz!

A BIG thanks goes out to New World in Remuera for supporting my lead up to Beijing in August. Next time you're in Auckland, you can support me as well by shopping at the Remuera New World.

Well it has been a pretty exciting couple of weeks with a fair bit going on. I came back from Australia last weekend for the double UCI rounds at North Harbour but also to meet my new strength and conditioning coach (Matt Kritz). Things went really well and I can see awesome things happening there already as I am in so much (good) pain after a session.
 
The two UCI rounds couldn't have gone much better with two wins out of two. Since the last UCI round, I have changed a few things so I was interested to see how they were going. I felt good and I believe I did improve from the last round which was only a few weeks before that so it definitely helped my confidence.
 
It was a bit of hard work to start with as the gate dropped a lot slower than what everyone was used to. On the Friday evening before racing, there would have been about a dozen people who flipped the gate with people doing it more than once. It took a while to get the timing worked out, but I managed to keep it fairly consistent for the rest of practice then through racing as well. Racing went really well with no big mistakes and I think everything is falling into place really nicely.
 
The Halberg Awards were held last night at the Town Hall in Christchurch and I would class it as one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. It started with the Red Carpet and photographers and went onto the countless names of "famous" Sportspeople you could only dream of mixing with. The Awards itself was amazing with an Academy Awards style ceremony followed by a dinner across the road in the convention centre. The night was filled with incredible singers and a list a talented athletes from the past, present and future.
 
The highlight of the evening was a tribute to Sir Murray Halberg. It was filled with past competitors and stories about when he was an athlete, about how the Halberg Trust started and also about what he has passed onto athletes who have been involved with him. It was very inspirational and entertaining.
 
I am back in Auckland now where I will be based between now and the Olympics (excluding trips), training at the Millennium Institute and the North Harbour BMX track.
 
All in all, things are going good and as the Olympics edge closer, things will get more and more exciting.

Racing at Nerang went ahead in the worst conditions. It wasn't "real" BMX. The track was so slow and it was almost faster to run your bike than to ride it. Apparently it was the tail of a cyclone and it was the hardest racing I've ever had to do. Won Friday's UCI by one point. Was getting good gates and felt good till a rut or hidden soft spot slowed you down. Came 2nd by countback on the second day. Had consistant racing but made a couple mistakes during racing that cost me. On Sunday we had 4 gates of girls. It came down to a deadman final and I got a bad start but came back to take the win down the last straight. In Newcastle for some training before going down to the next UCI round in Melbourne next weekend.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. On the Gold Coast for the Nerang UCI Rounds. AT the moment, the whole of the coast is experiencing the tail end of a cyclone so the weather isn't too great. Looks like it'll be windy and raining for the weekends racing. Should be some good racing anyway so will put some results up next week.

It's been a while since I was last on here and a lot has happened since then. I won the Lone Star Series round in Rotorua then headed back to Australia the next day to continue training.

I had a week and a half before going to the Bay Of Plenty Sports Awards in Tauranga. I left Australia on the Thursday night, the awards were on the Friday night and I flew back to Aus on Saturday just so I would be away from training for as little time as possible. The awards went well. I won the Sportswoman of the Year then went onto win the Supreme Award of the night. My family was there to support me and Dane was on the phone listening so that made it even better.

Once back in Australia, I raced down at Canberra on the 9th of December. We camped in a tent overnight then got ready for racing the next morning. I won all my races at both tracks. After Canberra, it was into some more training.

On Saturday, Matt Cameron and Jason Kelly came 4wding with Dane, Ben Meir and myself. We found a place up by Newcastle and spent the afternoon out there. Yesterday, we had a Christmas party at Dane's grandparents place. Had a huge lunch with Pavalova (yum!) and then it was time for presents.

I head back to New Zealand on Wednesday for Christmas and my brother will get back from Outward Bound a few days after me. Will be spending Christmas at the beach before jumping the ditch again on Boxing Day to continue training for the next two UCI rounds in Nerang.

Been training in Australia for this week. Been to the gym, sprints etc. Dane's car has broken down so have been riding everywhere! Good excercise anyway. Working on sorting out getting a new lay out done for my website which should be cool. Back to NZ on Monday to do a speech and race the Lone Star Series round at Rotorua on Saturday before coming back to Australia to continue training.

Had the North Islands last weekend in Hamilton, New Zealand. I won both days with Marc Willers winning Elite Men on Sunday as well as Kurt Pickard in the Junior Men. The mens racing on Saturday was won by Australians. Basically, if I do well in the next four UCI rounds then I will almost have cemented a spot for the Olympics. Have the New Plymouth round of the Lone Star series next weekend so will be heading down to that then will be back across the ditch.

Updated the UCI Calander page - now contains the next 10 UCI Rounds plus the Supercross races, Worlds and Olympics.

ABD are bringing out the new "Team Issue" bike with its new paint job - Black, white and a bit of red.

Had Tri-Series this weekend held at Maitland, Lake Macquarie and Terrigal. Raced AA Women and won all three tracks with Luke Madill taking the AA Men. Marc raced Maitland in the morning on Saturday but missed Lake Macquarie that afternoon and Terrigal today. The weather wasn't really nice to us but it managed to hold off raining while we were riding but all three tracks were pretty soft. Have training tomorrow with a gym class and some gate technique work. Going to try and learn a new technique for the new BMX addition of the random start.

Been back in Australia since the end of our trip to China and Japan. Training for the next few weeks here in Newcastle then heading off to Switzerland to the UCI Centre where we will be spending a few weeks training there. After that, we are going to France for a supercross race then home to New Zealand for the North Islands.

Heading off to Japan on Wednesday for a week and a bit for the first UCI round of the 2007/2008 season. The following Monday and Tuesday is the Supercross race on the Olympic track.

Marc leaves for America on Monday to race a couple of races before the World Champs in Canada. We all wish him luck over there. I will be staying in Aussie, training hard till mid July when me and Grant (coach) fly over to Canada to meet Mum and Ryan (who are flying from New Zealand) and Marc.

Two tracks we will be riding/racing on over the next two years. One being the training track for the Olympics (in Switzerland) and the other being the Olympic track (in Beijing) where we will be racing later on this year as a practice for the event. The second and third straights are split into two - one for the men and one for women.

Happy birthday to Tye Booker :-)

Been back from Belgium for two days now and just taking some time off for a week as my off season. Doing some interviews and some small things why I'm home then heading to Australia to watch their Nationals.

Over in Belgium preparing to race the first round of the European Champs. Head to the Travel Diary page to check it out what we're up to.

2007 BMX NZ NATIONAL PLACINGS

 

FRIDAY:
Junior Women

1      VICTORIA HILL     NEW PLYMOUTH

2      CANDICE ARMSTRONG  NORTH HARBOUR

3      DANIELLE CARTER    ALEXANDRA

4      JENNI CONWAY      ROTORUA

5      PAIGE HICKLING           WAITAKERE

 

Junior Men

1      MATTHEW DAVIES              CHRISTCHURCH

2      MICHAEL WILLIAMS     PAPAKURA

3      AXEL JONES           HAMITLON

4      ZAC WEBB             SUNSET COAST WAIUKU

5      MATTHEW WALKER       ROTORUA

6      TROY HANSEN          RANGIORA

7      JOSEPH HURLEY        HAMILTON

8      OLIVER HARDING-SHEATH      WAITAKERE

9      RICHARD FOX          GISBORNE

10     BEN ORCHARD          CHRISTCHURCH

11     MICHAEL WOODS        KAIAPOI

12     JOSHUA WOODCOCK      SUNSET COAST WAIUKU

 

Elite Women

1      SARAH WALKER         ROTORUA

2      TANIA CARSON         NELSON

3      SERENA KASTERMANS    NORTH HARBOUR

4      THERESA BATES        WAITKAERE

5      SCARLETT HAGEN             DUNEDIN

6      KATIE HARBISHER      WAITAKERE

 

Elite Men

1      MARC WILLERS         CAMBRIDGE

2      HADEN DE-BOER