Nationals is over for another year. There was as always some hard racing. Personally I came away with 3 golds, a silver and a handful of bronze medals. It could of been worse.

 

The main thing I learned from nationals was that my shape is good, and everything looks positive for the 2007 season.

 

Check out www.world-inline-cup.com because the 2007 season will be posted soon, in the meantime the Swiss Inline cup season is up at www.swiss-inline-cup.ch

 

Back into training now. Building base miles. In a couple of week I have the NZ marathon champs in Palmerston North, and then a couple of weeks after that I have the NZ track nationals. So there is abit of racing to keep the boys busy.

 

Also to keep everyone on their toes we have been doing a few small bike races here and there. I found this picture of Raphael from last Thursday's race.

Its been a busy month here in NZ. Training is getting better and better with the team, and we've been getting some good work done, and alot on the bikes. In the last week or so it has finally started to look like summer so lets hope we get abit more of that for this weekend and maybe abit longer afterwards.

 

We took a couple of days off just after Christmas to go to the beach. It was good to take some time out because we had been training pretty hard. The swiss guys, Raphael and Roman tried their hand at some watersports including surfing but decided they would stick to skating.

 

NZ holds its National Championships this weekend. Alot of people think its abit strange, its still 8 or 9 months till the Worlds, but it is the NZ summer after all. Nationals are being held in Waganui. They have been there many times in the past, 2002 being the last. There is 3 days of raod and then 3 or 4 days of indoor.

 

For me its not the biggest race, but its still a race and its good to break up the training. It is also the first part of the selection of the NZ National team, its not essential to win here, just essential to be fit.

 

My preperations for 2007 are going ok. Although I was out cycling 10 days ago and was hit by a car. Nothing too major was wrong, however somethings still don't feel 100% so if things still hurt at all Nationals will be short for me, there are others things to worry about and its not much point making an injury worse this time of the year.

 

Good news, Kalon Dobbin made it through to the final few in the Helburg Sporting awards. This a big deal to finally be recognised. The Helburgs are essentially the NZ sports awards. Myself, Kalon, and Shane were also nominated for team of the year for our results at the Worlds, but unfortunately we were eliminated.

 

I'll post news and maybe some pictures from the nationals here when I get home.

Hi everyone,

 

Its been a case of getting back to work the last couple of weeks. Its often hard to find the motivation to train again after a break, but my training has been coming along well. I've been building up and doing some good bike rides, and even a couple of bike races. Its not the tour de france, but they are still more than hard enough.

 

My new team mate Reyon Kay has been in Auckland the past couple of weeks, and 2 of my Swiss team mates, Raphael Pfulg and Roman Christen. They are still pretty tired from the travel but they are getting into things. Its Roman's first time out of Europe so its a big learning curve for him, but I'm sure that with all of us training full time we'll be ready for 2007.

 

Have a look at www.swiss-inline-cup.ch there is a calender of the 2007 season. There still isn't any word on how the World Cup is looking but there are rumours of more races outside of Europe.

 

 

Its been a big week for Speed skating in NZ. I won the Auckland Sportsman of the year, Kalon Dobbin won the Manawatu Sportsman of the year, and Peter Michael won the Manawatu Junior Sportsman of the year.

 

Also too I tried ice for the first time. Just short track, and our skates were average at best, but it was better than nothing. I still don't know if its for me, maybe next year when I'm in Europe I'll look more seriously at it, but for now I'm stay on my inlines.

 

Training is coming along good. Not long till my Athleticum team mates get here, and then we'll really get into the hard work.

 

Until next time

 

Scott

About now is when all the professional teams start to cement their line ups for the following year. I am staying on Athleticum-Rollerblade. Two of my team mates from this year are coming out to New Zealand to train in December. Raphael and Roman. They will race the NZ nationals, and train in Auckland until we head off to the first World Cup race in April next year.

 

Also too, its likely the team will sign another New Zealander, Reyon Kay from Kapati. He will also be coming up to Auckland for some training in Decmeber.

 

Scott

Its time to start training again. I've been back into it now for a little while. Riding my bike, lifting some weights, but also skating here and there when the weather lets me. Nows the time when I'll start to build my base fitness for the following year. At times it can seem boring going out and just doing hour after hour of the same thing, but the training I do now will give me the rewards I am looking for next year. A house is only as good as its foundations and now I have to get into that ground work.

 

We have NZ nationals in early Januray. Its good to break up the training, but its also quite serious because its the first part of the selection process for the national team. With the standard of skating at the moment, gone are the days when you can turn up and hope to do well when you're out of shape.

 

I might also incorporate some racing on my bike into my training, just to change things up. I'll need to do abit more riding first though.

 

Thanks

 

Scott

Hi everyone,

 

Well, I'm back in New Zealand again, for what is meant to be summer.  And its time to reflect abit on the year just gone. The 2006 inline season has been my best ever, as well as the best every for my team, Athleticum Rollerblade, and the New Zealand National team.

 

For me personally the season peaked in September at the World Champs in Anyany (a suburb of Seoul) South Korea. I went in hoping for my first Senior World medal, and came away with 2 golds and a silver. I won the 10km points/elimination on track, as well as combining with Kalon, and Shane Dobbin to win the 5km Road relay, and 2nd in the 3km Track relay. Before the Worlds however my season was already the best I've had. It started with a win in the World Inline cup in Basel in the new Team Time Trial. A little bit later another win in the Swiss Inline Cup race in Bern, plus 2 podium finishes in Einseldin and the uphill race in Glarus. I also worked my way up the Swiss Inline Cup overall ranking to 4th.

 

Athleticum as a team also had its best season ever. Of course there was the Team Time Trial, we hoped to podium, but the win just blew us away. Roger's win in Sursee was a huge moment, and Raphael's 2nd in the massive sprint finish in Zurich was huge. We were consistant with podiums or a couple of guys in or around the top 10 every race, and we won the Swiss Inline Cup overall team, with Roger 2nd, and Alain 3rd in the overall individual rankings. In the final World Cup race of the season in Berlin, we were fighting it out for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, in the team overalls. Unfortunately the season took its toll, and while Raphael finished a good 8th, we were knocked to 4th in the team ranking, thats ok though because we'll be back next year.

 

The NZ team though was the highlight of the year. We won 8 gold medals! Kalon Dobbin did the sprint double on track with the 300m and 500m, myself and Nicole Begg won the hard 10km points elimination, and Peter Michael won the road 20km elimination. On raod we also won both of the guys relays. And in senior men on track, we were the number one nation!

 

This year will be hard to repeat for everyone, but its time to move on, and start looking forward to 07.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Scott