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CommonWealth Games
Neil Thomas Makes Cycling's Debut Today
By Dean Greenaway
Mar 22, 2006, 08:22

Neil Thomas

MELBOURNE, Australia—Another chapter in BVI sporting history will be made today, when Neil Thomas competes in the 40K Time Trials of the 18^th Commonwealth Games, on south coast Melbourne’s Beach Road.

Cycling will become only the third sport to field athletes in the games since the BVI began participating in 1990 with athletics. Squash made its debut with Joe Chapman on Thursday.

BVI Cycling Federation vice president and coach David Thomas said while the aim is to win, the goal is to ride strong and consistently over the 24 mile course and not blowing up by going out too fast. “He has to make sure that he warms up properly so he’ll warm up for at least three hours,” Thomas said. “We want to have the fastest Caribbean time—that has always been the goal—its going to be a very tough thing to do, but that’s our goal and I’m pretty confident that we can get it done.”

Melbourne’s weather has been erratic with cold mornings followed by bouts of heat and cold throughout the day. Thomas said he hopes when the race begins at 1:00 p.m., the sun is shining and it’s at least 65 degrees. “Here you can never tell. But, the good thing is that because we have been here for over a week and the weather has been cold over that period, we haven’t had a choice but to be out training in it every day since we’ve been here. I think he’s used to the weather. But, it really doesn’t matter one way or the other. The race is for all the marbles. If it snowing, it will hurt but he has to go out and do it. We’ve talked about it. Whether its hot, cold or indifferent, we are just going to go out and do the work and hopefully he’ll bring back the gold.”

Thomas said Neil is confident and they were lucky when they went to a local bike shop looking at time trial frames, they met a guy that formerly worked at the Australian Institute of Sports, who is a time trial specialist. He checked the bike and Neil’s position on it. A few adjustments were made and Neil said he felt a lot more comfortable.

“He’s saying those minor adjustments should help him to go 4-5 miles per hour faster. If that actually happens, we probably will achieve our goal of 55 minutes or faster and to have the fastest Caribbean time. We’re pretty happy, he’s feeling confident, he’s strong and fit. It’s about going out and giving maximum effort for 24 miles and hoping that when we are finished, the results are what we want.”