Club Junior, Jordan Louis, had the opportunity to travel in the Huon Genesys team car in the 2013 National Capital Tour in September…
On Friday 20 September I was given the honour of riding in the team support car for the national capital tour of the NRS series.
First of all I was lucky enough to follow Sam Davis for his time trial. The weather conditions were not ideal for the event being windy and spitting rain. His form was good coming into the event as shown with his results. The atmosphere was very calm and controlled in the car as Sam made his 17.4km journey in the test of time. My “job” was to run out and open the car boot if Sam flatted so that the driver could get the spare bike out as fast as possible and get him back on his way.
My second car ride was following the current New Zealand TT champion Joe Cooper. As the conditions worsened Joe began his time trial. Hitting the strong headwind on the way out, as he reached the turnaround he began his way back in. Unluckily for him the wind had just died down so he didn’t receive the full force of the tailwind. This time I rode in the car with a fellow Canberra cyclist Joe Beitzel. The words most shouted over the loud speaker were “drive, drive ,drive” and I could clearly see him working very hard and pushing himself to the max.
Throughout both of the car rides I was constantly learning. One of things I learnt was how to pace yourself throughout a windy/hilly TT. The way to pace yourself was to put 110% of maximal effort in on the climbs/windy bits of the course and use the down hills/tailwinds to have “recovery” as you wouldn’t be working as hard (95% of maximal effort). Therefore you would always be putting a total of 100% or maybe even performing above 100%.
This experience was the best in memory and meeting the team and support crew of a pro cycling team just makes me want to achieve that in the future even more. The boys were top blokes and were great to meet. They were a “special” type of people, the ones that put all they’ve got into everything in order to better themselves and achieve their max potential. This shows with one very special team member Nathan Earle who is going to join his former team mate Richie Port. This team is a role model team for me and one I now highly respect for their motivation.