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Hi,

Well I am home and safe from the overseas trip to Mexico which turned out to be a very successful trip for me.

Racing started with the sprint qualification on Friday 12th in the morning followed by the sprints which would be played out by the end of the day.

I qualified 4th out of 21 starters in a time of 11.52 seconds. This for me was a good time, considering my personal best time of 11.49 seconds was ridden at worlds last year.

I won my first round sprint against America's Jenny Reed and went through to the quarter finals where I met Lithuanian, Simona Krupeckaite.

I lost the quarter final in straight 2 rounds (quarter finals run best 2 out of 3) and was pushed into the 5th - 8th final against Canadian Lori-ann Muenzer, Italian Elisa Frisoni and Chinese Cuihua Jiang.

I won this final which placed me 5th overall for the Sprint competition.

I am very happy with this result as it is the first time I have made it past round one in an international competition.

However I made mistakes in my quarter final which is disappointing but I will learn from them and be better prepared when next I compete in the sprint.

Then it was back to the hotel for a quick bite to eat and bed to recovery for the 500m time trial which was the next morning.

Saturday 13th
(This day also marked the 5 year anniversary of my partner Mark Chadwick and I being together)

My time trial was somewhat later in the morning program so I got to have a bit of a sleep in.

I warmed up on the rollers and found myself being rather nervous which is not normal for me.

Generally I am pretty calm before my races and can have a chat with the coach and the team members etc but today was different.

Talking didn't come so comfortably which my coach found quite amusing..

Anyway I was 9th rider off in the time trial with a total of 17 riders competing. (one from each country) and I rode a bigger gear then I normally do.

This being because I have already qualified for worlds via the Oceania Games so it was almost experimental to see how I would go on a bigger gear and I went well.

I rode a pb of 34.597 seconds my previous pb being 35.039 seconds at worlds last year.

The altitude of course helping as there is less oxygen in the air which equals less resistance to push through but everyone had the same conditions to race in.

I held top position until the final rider took the track, current World 500m Time trial champion Natalia Tsylinskaya from Belarus.

I was very happy to be so close to such a rider and absolutely thrilled with winning the silver medal in this event as I went in with absolutely no expectations of placing anywhere.

After the presentations for the 500, I went back to the hotel for a quick shower and late lunch and straight back to the track to prepare for the kierin in the late afternoon/evening.

Round one of the Kierin I didn't get in the top two so went into the repecharge for a second chance to make the semi final which I did.

I got through the semi final to the final where I came third. My legs by this point were rather fatigued from a full day of hard racing but they got me through.

I got back to the hotel at about 10:30pm that night once all proceedings were finished and had dinner and went to bed.

Up and at em again for the Team Sprint the next morning.

Sunday 14th.
Rosealee Hubbard and I rode the Women's Team Sprint.

Normally ridden with three riders, it was being trialled with just two this year as it is difficult for countries to take 3 female sprinters for the event as there is only enough races in the rest of the World Cup to send 2 from each country.

We qualified 2nd fastest Team out of 7 teams and found ourselves racing France for the Gold medal.

We one the final beating the French by 0.5 seconds.

So like I said a very successful trip for me as I came home with a 5th, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

The trip home from Mexico was better for some of us then the flight over.

Martin (Coach) and Jock (Mechanic) and one of our sports scientists missed the plane out of Aguascalientes because they didn't have a big enough truck at the track to take everyone's gear to the airport so they had to wait till they took a load to the airport and then came back to get them.

Once they got in the truck to go to the airport the driver stopped once for breakfast and a second time for petrol as they were running rather short.

They got to the airport the same time the plane was supposed to be leaving and they would not allow them on the plane.

So they had to get back in the truck and drive three and a half hours across the desert to a place called Gwatalahara (Something like that) where they could catch a direct flight to LA and catch up with the rest of the team.

Was so funny catching up with them in a bar in LA airport and hearing the story from them.

I got home on Wednesday morning and stayed awake all day and tried to stay awake as long as possible so as to sleep right through in the evening.

I got to 7:30pm and couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed but to my glad surprise I slept for 13 hours straight!

Was surprised to sleep so long but I guess it was needed.

I had three days easy and then back into business on Saturday in the gym.

Me I get to go home to Rocky for the week that all the guys are going to Manchester which I am so looking forward to cause I get to see my Markus again.

Well that's it from me about my trip to Mexico.

I ended up typing allot me then I originally intended but once I got into it I had so much to say.

Take Care
Anna

P.S - Hope you like the photos.

I was hoping that cycling news. com would have photos as they often do but unfortunately this time they did not.

I think one of the boys may have some of me racing but he is away at the moment so when I get hold of them I shall forward them on to you.

There should be a feature of the World Cup on SBS sometime soon.

If you miss it I am planning to get a copy and if I do I shall send it to you.