skip to content | Accessibility Information
November 27th, 2011
I’ve been on the Great Britain Cycling team as a full time athlete for 10 years and always feel priveledged to be in this position. The last 10 years has really given me different challenges to deal with and one of these challenges is operating within British sport with diabetes. It is something I have never let get in the way of my performances.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 27th, 2011
Following a short break after the National Track Champs it was time to get back into training. With the Paracycling World Track Champs in February it was time to review the training carried out before the National Track Champs and come up with the new plan, that would take us to the Worlds. Planning these changes and identifying them can be tricky, but with a few years experience on the tandems we knew what needed tweaking and what we should repeat for the new phase. Our GB Paracycling coach Chris Furber is always a help when planning the new phases, as you can rely on him for honest feedback and helpful suggestions. It never gets away from the fact that you have to work on your weaknesses! Plus with my very own Sports Science genius (the wife!) I was able to come up with a good new phase to the training! Its also important to look at the main goal which is the Paralympic Games 2012, to ensure any changes are also considering the peak of big training cycle.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 4th, 2011
The National Track Championships in Manchester have just finished and I’m sure most people would agree it was a fantastic championships with some excellent racing, with some new faces coming through plus the more established riders again producing fast times.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 12th, 2011
The first day has been completed for the Deloitte Ride Across Britain. The scenery can only be described as fantastic! The weather was reasonably kind to us and it was great to finally get the ride underway after some more specific training over the last few weeks. The ride is for a great cause where we are trying to raise money for Paralympics GB in preparation for the London 2012 Paralympic Games and beyond. Myself and my wife Sarah are riding the whole event over 9 days, plus we will have a few of our GB team mates joining us in Glasgow for a few stages. If you wish to donate please visit our just giving page:
www.justgiving.com/teamstorey
Read the rest of this entry »
June 12th, 2011
The National Tandem Sprint is always an event I look forward to on the racing calender. The first time I competed in the event was back in 2001, strangely enough at the time, on the rear of the tandem with my good friend Dave Heald piloting me to a silver medal. This result was made even better since this was my first ride on a tandem and before I had been bought onto the Paracycling team as a tandem pilot. A few people who raced that day constantly remind me that I did say “I never want to go on a tandem again!” how things changed!
Read the rest of this entry »
March 31st, 2011
The UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, Montichiari, Italy were to be my biggest event for 2011, with crucial qualifying points to be gained by Team GB for London 2012 qualification. I was paired with Anthony Kappes, who I rode to Gold with in Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. It was a slightly different approach to our usual “plan of attack” for the World Championships, with gaining a large number of points our main priority, as well as picking up good performances along the way. The qualification for the London 2012 Paralympic Games means each category top points scorer, will go forward to the nations overall score, so the more points each top ranking athlete in each male category, the more nation places you get for the Games, clear?? there are a few other factors, but I will keep it simple for now! Read the rest of this entry »
January 27th, 2011
Training has been going really well and I am coming to the end of one of our road training camps with the GB Paracycling team, where I have been speeding round the Spanish Countryside on the road tandem with Anthony Kappes. I always enjoy road training on the Spanish island of Mallorca, with its varied terrain and usually warm climate, it is a perfect early season training location to escape the cold and sometimes snowy weather of the UK. This camp is the last real endurance camp for the GB Paracycling team in preparation for the Paracycling World Track Championships in Italy between 11-13th March.
Read the rest of this entry »
December 20th, 2010
We are now into the full swing of training since our end of season break and I’m now enjoying some good quality training. The Paracycling track World Championships have been confirmed for Montichiari, Italy for March 2011, so we are aiming for our very best form for these championships. The world of cycling has been effected by the world economic squeeze, so it was a great relief when the Italians stepped up to run the Paracycling Track World Championships for 2011. Once the date was confirmed we then had the job of establishing a training plan between now and March for optimum performance. It looks likely that I will be paired with Anthony Kappes for these championships, who I rode to success with in Beijing Paralympic Games 2008. The events we will be riding will see a change in my normal racing format, which has been similar for the last 10 years. We will be targeting 3 events, the tandem Sprint, tandem kilometre time trial and for the first time the tandem 4km pursuit! This is something of an experiment, as both myself and Anthony think we can be competitive in the pursuit and since our recent performance at the European Cup, Buttgen, we felt it was worth a push in this direction. We don’t have any firm targets for the pursuit yet, as its too early to predict yet, but we certainly hope to be competitive in our previously successful tandem sprint and kilometre time trial too.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 6th, 2010
The final races of the 2010 season were the National Track Championships in Manchester and the Buttgen Grand Prix in Germany, which had Paracycling events in both competitions. It was the final opportunity of the year to put together some good results and certainly experiment with some different events I am not used to competing in on the tandem and my solo bike. The idea of “sprint” athletes competing in short endurance events is something we as a team have been talking about for a while and this was the first opportunity to try out this experiment in a compeition, meaning the sprint tandems would ride the 4km tandem pursuit! I have been competing in the sprint and kilometre time trial on the tandem for the last 10 years and it was an interesting prospect the thought of adding another 12 laps to my usual maximum race distance! Plus I was included in my cycling clubs team pursuit team for the National track championships, which was very exciting to finally get the opportunity to ride in this event I had been threatening to ride the last couple of years. Read the rest of this entry »
August 1st, 2010
Following on from the first race of 2010, it was time for some more base training and changing the tandem race pairings. Its always important to keep partnerships fresh and always trying to make sure all parties are constantly challenged, which this idea certainly does! The base training once again saw the riders back in the gym and also continuing with the “big gear” starts, which is really working for my training plan. Also I have continued to work on my endurance, plus starting to add in some real speed work on the tandem, high cadence work and training on fast disc wheels. The final piece to the jigsaw! was the introduction of lactate tolerance intervals. This session is not the most pleasant session in the world, but a very necessary tool for finishing the jigsaw! The lactate tolerance session I always complete on a turbo trainer, as it takes things away like steering and staying upright, leaving all your energy on putting out as much power as possible. After a reasonbly hard 20 minute warm up, I sprint for 20 seconds, then recover for 40 seconds then repeat a further 5 times. My average power aim for the 20 seconds is around 900 watts, which always gets pretty difficult at the end set. Once this set is complete it makes you feel terrible and normally makes me sick. The biggest motivator for using this session is the big difference it has on my form and condition, which makes a massive improvement. Once all of these training activities had been completed I was well and truly in great shape for the next two races on the horizon, the Newport Grand Prix and the National Tandem Sprint Champs. Read the rest of this entry »