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Zac Williams 2013 World Track Chamionship blog

Tuesday, 20 August 2013


Worlds

Racing to the line in my second round rideZac Williams 2013 Worlds 1


Well that was a bundle of things all wrapped up into one, a ride of emotions, some good and some bad, the time of my life, one of the most mentally draining days in my life. Nothing can prepare you for that moment when you roll up to the line ready to race, you know you're next and you can hear and feel the roar from the crowed as the rider before you gets the bell, you give a tug on your zip of your skin suit making sure it's done up and a final readjustment of your helmet and then you're ready, to start your world champs, the day that you've been preparing for since this time last year. As you roll around the track gaining height your sole mental thought is on how to make yourself go as fast as you can possibly go. By this stage you've already done this many times in training and the line is en grained into your brain it just comes as second nature so that as you're winding up and peeling off the fence all you need to think about it trying to rip the bike in half as you accelerate into the lane aiming to hold the black for the entire 200 meter distance. After you lunge for the line training to gain those small thousandths of a second you look up at the score board and see 10.6, disappointment can be seen on your face as you would have loved to have gone faster, but you know the track is dead and 8th isn't too bad. You come off the track and talk with your coach and you feel like all the pressure is gone, but you know you still have a possible 6 rides left that day.

My first round ride, controlling the frontZac WIlliams 2013 Worlds 2

That was my worlds in a nutshell, since I've been home for a week now I've had a chance to think about my worlds campaign. 7th in the world isn't bad I suppose and knowing that you pushed the eventual winner to 3 rides in your quarter final against him defiantly made me feel a bit better than I did feel being knocked out in the quarter finals.

My time in Glasgow was really cool, the hotel that we were staying at was awesome and it was good to be staying with some many other riders from all different nationalities. We didn't get to see much of the city but the small amount that we did see, namely the route to and from the track and the view from our hotel room didn't seem too bad.

Worlds for me didn't start until the 4th day which me I had to wait which was good and bad. Good being I had more time to rest and keep my legs fresh where as my competitors raced which would tire up their legs, the down side to not riding on those opening days was having to sit and watch the racing wishing you were out there and also not knowing what the track was like to race on.


controlling my opponent, keeping him at the fenceZac Williams 2013 Worlds 3

Zac Williams 2013 Worlds 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My quarter final ride off

My results from worlds was after qualifying 8th in 10.665 this time is 0.1 of a second off my pb although the track was dead and slow so the time would have been faster in better conditions so the time wasn't too bad. I wont both my first and second round rides which made me in the top 8 in the world, that night I was racing again in the quarter final, I lost the 1st ride by not really doing too much wrong, my opponent just had amazing acceleration and power over the top of me. The second ride was a different affair, I went out with a plan and that was to just go out and do a flying 200 in the match sprint, I slowly wound up the pace at the top of the banking so that we were both going nearly full speed at the bell, I drew my opponent into leaving a big gape underneath him and as soon as he looked forward going through the bell I dove for the sprint lane and got the inside run underneath him home, I only just managed to hold him off winning by about 5 centimeters. The third ride I knew I would have to do a similar move by keeping the pace high and hitting him on the last lap, I ran at him well going into the bell, but unfortunately I didn't beat him into the corner and was then stuck on his hip, in hind sight I should have gone back up the track to give me space to run at him, but hind sight is a wonderful thing and at that moment of hesitation at that point of the race if I had done what I just said I may have potentially won me the race.


Quite a cool pic of one of my quarter final ridesZac Williams 2013 Worlds 4


I would like to thank everyone for their help and support, especially my coach's Murray and Justin, my sponsors for all their help, Les Mills for providing an amazing facility for me to be able to lift weights and gain power to get me going faster, Adidas eye wear for giving me the perfect glasses to help protect my eyes from the wind so I can focus on my riding, Keywin pedals for giving me the best pedals in the world to ride and Cycle City for fixing my bike and making sure everything was ready for me to head off to worlds and lastly my Mum for traveling half way around the world to watch me ride

Next up for me is a big training block here in Auckland as well as catching up on school work and exams. Ill be racing the Oceania championships in Invercargill in late November and this will be my first race in elite as my junior career is now over and I can't wait for it!

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