A small group of students had the amazing opportunity to walk down to the Saxton Velodrome and watch the NZ Olympic Sprint Cycling team training last Wednesday in preparation for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics that are happening in 6 weeks.

This was a great experience for the students, who got to see the end of the training session and then meet the sprint team consisting of Sam Webster & Ethan Mitchell (both are Silver medalists' from Rio), Sam Dakin, Callum Saunders and Ellesse Andrews.

The students got to see how far top level athletes push themselves at training - until the very end (resulting in one of the athletes throwing up) and to ask some very good questions to the athletes themselves. Mac won a training top as a result of answering the question correctly.

The students were also shown one of the racing bikes that the team train on, which some students were taken aback by the fact that they have no brakes and no gears. One of the trainers went over the bike with them explaining the reasons behind all this.

Later this week we have some more students going to watch the NZ Olympic women's endurance team train. Myself and Nicole called in yesterday to watch some of the training and had a brief chat to Jessie Hodges who will be competing in the Maddison (120 laps). It was very impressive to watch and we are so lucky to have had this opportunity.

Here are what some of the students had to say:

"I learnt that all their bikes are an average weight of 7kgs. My friend got a question right and he won a team jersey. The average they go around the track is 70-80 km/h. Also if you push yourself so hard you throw up. They train 6 times a week. It was really cool and I enjoyed it." By Ryder

"Today I learnt that there are different types of sprinters and riders. They train 6 times a week. Most of the bikes are made of Carbon and they go up to 80km and takes them 23sec to do one lap from a standing start. While one guy was training he threw up at the end". By Callum & Nathan

"Today we walked to the Velodrome to watch champion bikers train. We arrived and ate lunch while watching them train on their track bikes. They were part of the NZ Sprint Cyclist team. They tried so hard one person almost threw up. One guy biked one lap of the Velodrome in 23sec, it took us about 1min to run it. We were shown one of the bikes that weighed 7kg." By Taylor C

"We saw how dedicated they were today, where one guy after 45sec of hard flat out cycling nearly threw up. The Velodrome is 330m and he biked it in 23sec at about 70kmph" By Alita

"A track bike does not have brakes so they do an extra lap to slow down and stop. Callum did one lap in 23sec at 70kmph. The girl is new to the team and is 21 and the boys said she is very talented and one to watch out for." By Alyssa & Sienna

"Track bikes have no brakes and no seat change, they have to wear 3 different sorts of masks when they go over to the Olympics.  They work so hard that they can throw up" By Liam

"I answered a question before anyone else and won a training top. They train 6 times a week twice a day. They go up to 80kmph on the track." By Mac

"The masks they wear to Tokyo,1: for just hanging out with your team, 2: to wear when training, 3: was a heavy one for travelling. I learnt that the Olympics is an actual thing that happens." By Blaze, Thomas, Tyler, Tommy