By Kristy Scrymgeour
After winning all of her events in the Manchester World Cup in December, Australian Kate Bates backed up last weekend at the Australian National Track Championships in Adelaide to repeat her hat-trick performance. Starting with the pursuit, Bates took gold medals in the three events she contested qualifying her for the World Championships to be held in Los Angeles in March.
Cyclingnews caught up with Bates to see how she was feeling after the events and see what her plans are for the next couple of months in preparation for the World's. "I've had a good month," said Bates simply. "I'm feeling slightly concerned that I won't be able to keep going until World's, but...If you spend too much time on the track, your form slowly goes. Even my form in the Points race on the weekend [the last of her events], was starting to go."
In response, Bates said that she needs to keep training through the events between now and World's. "I don't want to peak now and be on a downer for World's," she said, pointing to a packed schedule. "I go to Geelong on Monday for the Geelong Tour and World Cup and then to New Zealand and straight to track camp in Adelaide, so no rest for the wicked."
Despite her concerns of being able to keep this fantastic form, Bates is very excited about the way she is racing. "After I did a good time in the pursuit, I knew that I could win the other two events," Bates explained. "Confidence is half the battle. I thought that if I could win all three events at a World Cup, I could do it at Nationals too. I was the only one who went out there knowing that I could win, so I had confidence on my side. Once you start winning, its just a big snowball."
For Bates the win in the scratch race was the most exciting. "I haven't really done many scratch races. I knew what I had to do in the Points race, so that was satisfying but in a different way. The scratch race was very exciting.
Bates is pretty sure that the wins at National will qualify her for all three events [pursuit, points race and scratch race] for World but this has not been confirmed as of yet. "One thing's for sure," added Bates. "If I can keep this form going I'll be one happy bunny."
