In August 2018 I competed at the Junior world championships in Aigle Switzerland. The journey began with a training camp in April the day of the road nationals race and I spent that week training in Cambridge whilst my family was having a holiday in Fiji. from then we had training camps every school holidays in June, July and August. These camps were so much fun and such a good team environment. My highlight of the camps would have to be stimulation day where I did a 5 second pb. This had been one of my goals for many years.
The team flew out of NZ on August the 5th and begun the massive 30 hour travel. we flew from Auckland to LA to Heathrow to Geneva and I never even knew what country we were in. when we arrived in Geneva it was like I had been punched in the face by a wall of hot air.
After a lot of exploring the beautiful country it was finally time for race day... what we had been training for for months. We were the first tp heat and race of the whole competition on August 16th and qualified 3rd. In the semi final we beat Australia and did an 8 second pb since stimulation day. This put us into the gold final which was an insane feeling. The Italians beat us in the final and we placed second. It was an awesome surreal feeling to stand up on the UCI podium for the first time.
In the individual pursuit I punctured in my heat which meant that I had to wait for another 20 minutes to go again. This was tough but I tried my best to get through it and move forward. Although I didn't do the best time I have ever done I was still happy with how I went. The Madison was crazy. My original partner was sick so I raced with another team member. The race was insane from the start and we didn't end up finishing the race. overall I was so stoked with the racing experience and I would love to go again next year! Switzerland is such a beautiful country and the vibes are amazing. although it is very expensive the experience is totally worth it and I would highly recommend visiting.
