WOW! What can I say. Not much at the moment. I could not have dreamed about winning three world titles at the same championship. I am the happiest man alive right now. I am not going to write a blog right now as I would just dribble happy words for half an hour so i will let everything soak in first before i tell you all about how the week really felt. Below is an article from after my third world title win in the madison.

West Australian Cameron Meyer has collected his third rainbow jersey teaming with Victoria’s Leigh Howard to win the Madison at the UCI Track World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

The pair, who were silver medallists last year, traded up for the gold this year and in the process gave the ‘Cyclones’ their sixth gold medal of the week with one day of competition remaining.

Australia remains on top of the medal table with six gold and two bronze medals after 15 of 19 events. Great Britain has moved to second with two gold, four silver and one bronze medal and the USA is the only other nation to have more than one gold medal so far with their two wins putting them third on the table.

Ironically it was Meyer who stepped in last night to take Howard’s place in the team pursuit line up that defeated Great Britain for the title but today the pair joined forces and displayed extraordinary teamwork and tactics to claim 16 points and a lap in the 50km (200 lap) race in which the teams contested ten intermediate sprints for points.

France and Belgium, were the only other teams to gain a lap having attacked very early in the race. France however pipped the Belgians for silver with six points against their rival’s five points.

Meyer, 22, and Howard, 19, are two of Australia’s most talented cyclists both on road and track. Both race with ProTour teams, Meyer is in his second year with Garmin-Transitions while Howard made his debut this year with HTC-Columbia.

But this week it’s been all about flying the flag for Australia and trying to collect the rainbow striped jersey of track World Champion.

“Unbelievable for Australia and for myself,” said Meyer. “I never could have dreamed of this, unbelievable to win three rainbows from three events and to do it with one of my best mates that’s I’ve been around riding with for years.

“For him to take his first Madison title when he’s deserved it for so long it was just a great combination tonight, a great ride tonight and it couldn’t have topped off a better championships for me.”

Howard, who rode the team pursuit qualifying round, admits last night was one of mixed emotions after he missed out on selection for the team pursuit final ride.

“Yes it was disappointing but that’s bike riding, the decision was made and it worked out for the best with us taking the team pursuit world title,” said Howard. “I couldn’t have been more happy (than) for one of my best friends (Meyer) to step in and take the rainbow for me. I’ve come in tonight and got the rainbow jersey so couldn’t ask for anything else.”

The Australians changed their tactics of 2009 for today’s Madison.

“Last year we didn’t really accumulate many points and we took a lap really late whereas this year we looked at it and thought why not accumulate points early, set ourselves up for the sprint and try and take the lap as well,” said Meyer. The duo in fact won sprint two and three and were second on sprint four to set up a nice points stash early in the race.

“We had about 15 points by halfway and still 100 laps to go,” said Meyer. “Then we took the lap and covered all the moves. We did everything right tonight and it proved we were the strongest bike riders out there and it was just an unbelievable feeling.”

Howard agrees the pair’s advance planning played a part in their win.

“We’ve been looking at Madison videos for a fair while and we looked at last year’s, at some attacks and the way they were done,” said Howard. “We did a really good one last year and we did it here again tonight except this time we had some points on the board as and that was the difference between first and second.”

Team Garmin-Transitions rider Cameron Meyer started off the 2010 track world championships with a bang, dominating the field int he 40km points race to defend his title from 2009. An ecstatic Aussie has this report:

That was the most unbelievable feeling! I went into the race confident that I could defend my world title but to have the rainbow jersey for another year is a just a dream come true.

I knew the race would be very fast for the first 50 laps and the sprints being very hard to win. I was very relaxed for this part of the race, saving energy, knowing that the second half would be where I could win.

With 80 laps to go I knew the other riders were very tired and I still had a lot of energy left. I started to make my moves and took a lap with a group of riders — then I went again for a solo lap.

With 30 laps to go I knew I had too many points to lose the race so I just had to mark the other riders. I rode the last eight laps on the front and celebrated my second world points race championship. I am a very happy Garmin-Transition Australian and hopefully more medals to come in the team pursuit and Madison!

Hi Everyone

Cameron and I are currently in Adelaide for the Pre Worlds Training Camp getting strong and powerful (hopefully!) for the World Track Championships which are from the 24th – 28th of March 2010. I arrived 2 weeks ago and have had some good solid track and ergo training and Cameron has just arrived from a very successful campaign in the Tour of Oman finishing 3rd Overall and 3rd on the last stage.

There are 8 guys on the camp (7 of which are seniors and Dale Parker who is the current U19 Individual Pursuit World Record Holder) and from these guys 5 or 6 get chosen for the Worlds. Cam has an automatic spot as he is the current World Points Race Champion, whereas for myself I am fighting to get a spot on the team. All is going well at the moment and after a strong showing at the Beijing World Cup and Australian Championships I am hoping I have done enough to get a spot on the team for Copenhagen. Keep your fingers crossed!

I head out to Singapore tommorow for a big criterium worth a fair lot of coin so hopefully I can put in a good ride there and use the race as a bit of a hit out on the road which I have not been able to do for a while.

Keep healthy everyone and hopefully the next blog I write will be about the World Track Champs!

Travis