FTP News
2010 Road and MTB National Champs and other things
FTP Training riders have started the year with a bang in the National champs. With a Gold Medal for U19 female rider Amy Austin and the Bronze Medal in the elite men's cross country events (along with 5th in the short course). These are fantastic results and come after a great training block for both riders. Yours truly managed a top 15 in the National ITT Champs, missing out on a top 10 by less that 35 seconds. For a full report go to http://ftptraining.wordpress.com/
2010 is going to be a big year for www.ftptraining.com . Training camp dates will be out very soon so keep checking in and get booked in early to avoid disappointment. I will be running two specific Worlds 24 Hour training camps in early September in the Kangaroo Valley area, one for girls and one for the boys with the focus on the final prep for the big one.
The new www.ftptraining.com cycling kit that has been seen around the race scene last year will also be going on sale very soon, with a black MTB version and a White Road version available.
TORQ & FTP Training Camp Mt Beauty & Alpine Assault
The very first FTP Training & TORQ training camp was run in the first week of December up in the fantastic Mt Beauty. The week turned out to be a fantastic time with a great motivated and fun group of individuals. The basic structure of the week was to get away from the standard lets go out and ride for 6 hours type format that I have seen in most camps. I wanted to split the sessions into morning and afternoon and have the focus for the camp on threshold development. By addressing threshold we could complete 2 - 4 hour structured intervals on the numerous mountains in the area in the morning and come back for a break and lunch then roll out for a recovery spin on the road or tech session on the MTB's. For the full report and photo's go to http://ftptraining.wordpress.com/
On Saturday the crew lined up for the Inaugural Alpine Assault promoted by the Finish Line team of Iain and Clayton. They had altered the first day of the Terra Australis course to include a cracking couple of laps around Mt Beauty taking in nearly 3000 meters of climbing, but, yielding well over 4000 meters of descending with the big drop a arm pumping 1600 meters in 25 km's!!! Oh yeh;o) For more detail and photo's go to http://ftptraining.wordpress.com/
25th October World and National Master Champs 09
The Masters Worlds and Nationals produced a string of great results for www.ftptraining.com riders. Damo Mason pulled out a great ITT at the Nationals to secure the Bronze Medal in the Masters 2 category beating his coach by 2 seconds!! Great work mate. In the Masters 5 category Bruce Williams narrowly missed the bronze and had to settle for 4th, the wrong wheel choice on a very windy day cost Bruce a medal for sure.
At the World Masters Games Bruce made up for the disappointment the week before securing the silver medal with a great storming ride. I also made up for a disappointing ride at the Nationals to win the silver medal behind the flying Peter Milostic. Damo missed the bronze by 3 seconds to the GB rider Ben Wilson. All in all some great results and the culmination of some very hard and specific training for the FTP crew.
10th October 09 The Scott 24
It was a very strange birthday weekend this year as it was the first time in about 5 years that I did not compete in the Scott 24. Usually on my birthday I am a dribbling mess having smashed myself into a stupor at the Scott. This year, however, I decided that as the World Masters Games was the following week and I have been mainly concentrating on the road bike that I would skip it and focus on the ITT and Road Race.
I spent the whole weekend texting, calling and waiting for updates from my www.ftptraining.com riders and it was sensational. Jacqui Kennett smashed out an incredible top 3 in the elite womans solo, battling it out the whole race and pulling up from 5th at 6 am to smash into the top 3. An incredible result for her first 24 hour race, well done mate I am so stoked for you. Look out for Jacqui next year at the Worlds that’s for sure. Next up was another first time 24 hour www.ftptraining.com rider in the elite male category. John Blankenstein pulled out an incredible 2nd place to Jason English again in his first 24 hour race!! By all accounts he kept Jas honest and made him go out for another lap at the end of the race, always a tough call when the laps are around 60 minutes long.
I am waiting for the reports from my other riders, however I do know that Big Jeff Rooney has made the qualification for the Worlds next year, well done mate awesome result. Jeff has only just returned from the Simpson Desert Challenge and the extreme conditions that the racers faced out in the centre. A great result to get back last week and back up with the Scott. Time to put your feet up mate and have a bit of a rest ;o) Jason McAvoy, Kevin Wells and Arran Pearson all competed in teams at the Scott and are in prep for the Kona later in November.
Also at the weekend www.ftptraining.com rider Josh (I am full of Tang) Carlson smashed up the Scott trails finishing 4th in the prologue TT just shy of the times posted by Sid Taberlay, Ben Hendo and Hamish Elliot. He then backed it up with a sprint finish on the first lap of the race with Neal Van Der Ploeg. Good work mate. Mark Tupalski also smashed out a very fast prologue TT so all is looking good for Marks first season in the U23’s this year.
