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Change in training regime sees NZ cycling sprint team going even faster

November 21, 2019

Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell are cranking up a gear as they chase the goal of being the fastest in the world

The world champion New Zealand men's cycling sprint team of Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell are cranking up a gear as they chase the goal of being the fastest in the world

The new level of speed has come thanks to a change in training.

“It's is different a lot more strength-based stuff, more than we've ever done before, a lot of big gear stuff on the track,” Mitchell said.

Those big gears on the track have been a game changer for the trio.

After a form slump at the start of the year, it's helping the men's sprint team build back to peak performance.

“It's harder to get going but once you get going it's so much easier to hold onto it, so it's like starting your car in third gear and once you get going it's like no issue at all,” Dawkins said.

New coach Rene Wolff is the mastermind behind the idea of riding on bigger gears and it's paying off.

Just last month at the Oceania Championships they recorded the fastest time ever by a New Zealand sprint team.

“It's a moment where we said this training does pay off and all these days have made us this way,” Mitchell said.

“Nobody believed they could do those gears and they actually believed they can't, with me putting trainings in place they can see they can do that we can do that,” Wolff said.

With a new sense of belief and pushing the boundaries, they have big expectations for the third leg of the world cup in Hong Kong next week.

“We won’t be happy if that's our fastest time ever, so we want to keep improving,” Dawkins said.

The Olympics, now just eight months away, also loom over the team.

“This is starting to get to crunch time and we've got a lot of work to do,” Mitchell said.

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