The women’s track team are finishing their prep for their first world cup, which kicks off on Thursday – I have a wee report on how it’s going below.

With the main focus of the Irish Sports Council funding being on the track, the women’s focus has been primarily placed on the women’s team pursuit – the prep for which kick started last year with a small group of athletes, and in recent months has further opened up.

In order to qualify for the world championships in Copenhagen, the team need to pick up a few points, so we are targetting Cali (Colombia) for some of these vital points. Preparation for this world cup started in Newport last week – when our group of 4 girls, with coach Brian Nugent, teamed up with the elite men’s group – under Tommy Evans, to practise team pursuit technique, pacing and to fine tune the legs and lungs!

Team Pursuit for women is relatively new – it’s a 3 km race, starting from standing blocks, and three girls. The three girls must also finish, with the time taken from the third rider. This differs slightly from the men’s event, which is 4km, with 4 starting, and only 3 needing to finish.

Off the start the first rider is attached to a starting gate, with the two others held by people lined up the track above her – and basically from there they blast off, find positions slotting in behind each other – pedal like crazy and every lap or so the front person peels off to the back.. and the idea is that the pace stays solid and very fast! In a nutshell…

Last week myself (Heather Boyle) and Joanna Hickey got a crash course in team pursuiting in Newport – and after 2 days of travel the four of us (with Sinead Jennings and Heather Wilson) are finding our feet in Cali, Colombia. The team that will race will be decided closer to race day (Saturday). In the meantime we will all gain experience from some individual events. Myself and Heather W will race the points race, Heather won her heat to qualify for the final in Manchester.. so this could be exciting. Joanna Hickey (previously raced in the paralympic games as a pilot for Catherine Walsh) will race in the scratch race, and Sinead will go in the Individual Pursuit.

It’s all very exciting preparing for the world cup – we all have our accreditation, the teams have all arrived, and it’s a super experience warming up next to world champions, and experts in the field. I can’t tell you too much about the city – as we are spending most of the time either in the hotel or at the track. The driving is crazy!! There’s one observation – also the people are really friendly – and there is a festival taking place along the river, the colours are awesome.

That’s all for now from Cali – lunchtime now… eat, sleep and train – that’s pretty much the order of the day – wouldn’t have it any other way!