I always look forward to pulling on the Cycling Southland colors to represent my club at Track Nationals. My week started with a massive personal best in the Individual Pursuit. My new record was 3:34, smashing my old best of 3:39. When I rode a 3:39 at Oceania Track Champs earlier in the season, even though it was a PB, I did not execute my race plan with enough confidence to fully push myself to the limit. At Nationals I was finally able to do this and came off the track feeling like I had completely emptied the tank which was awesome. 

In the final I rode against my team mate Lauren Ellis who took the win. Immediately after that I rode in the 500m TT, and considering it was right after the IP I still did a respectable time, so I was happy with that. 

Day two for me ended with 7th in the Points race and Day three was silver in the scratch race. This was an improvement to the very close 4th that I got in 2014. I was stoked to win my first individual national champs medal and then finished the week with another medal in the Team Pursuit. My Southland club team and I managed to qualify third fastest and win the ride off for bronze which was really encouraging considering we had never ridden together as a team before.

Overall it was a great week. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring. 

Lastly, it is so awesome to have friends cheering here in the crowd and support from all over the world. Thank you all so much, I really appreciate the support.

– Kirstie