Waituna Creek School

A few weeks ago I visited Waituna Creek School about 30 minutes south of Timaru. There are a total of 49 students divided up into 3 classes at the small rural school. I spook to each class and answered many questions. The whole school then went out to the tennis court so I could do a small skating demo and skate around with the students. What I thought was fantastic was that the school actually owned rollerblades that the students could use during lunch breaks.

TV One News

Yesterday a small crew of two from TV One ventured down to South Canterbury to showcase some of the sporting talent from this region. Filming took around 2 hours in total with shots taken down at the local skating rink and also at the gym, were I spend a lot of time. The footage should turn out great as there where a lot of different camera angles used. I had a camera mounted to the outside of my plate and my ankle at one stage. Not sure what night it will be aired but hopefully it will be online on the TV One website as well.

Why Nicole Stripped for Action

Last month an article was run in the Timaru Herald titled "Why Nicole Stripped for Action" and I have just found it online. It's a good article apart from a few little mistakes like the reporter adding 10kg to my weight, thanks Stu. Stu Piddington is a great sports reporter that has followed my progress for quiet a few years now. He has helped bring skating into the spot light not only in Timaru but throughout New Zealand.
You can view the article at Stuff.co.nz

Benchmark Homes Bike Race

It wasn't a very nice day for the Benchmark bike race on Sunday, the clouds brought rain, rain and more rain. The tour attracted the biggest field so far in the history of the tour with over 120 riders competing. With narrow country roads and oncoming traffic it was mayhem in the bunch at the start until the pace picked up.
Starting near the back of the field I didn't see the first and second placed women the whole race as they started at the front surrounded by their team. A lot of the female riders that race the whole series and are in contention for the overall title have a team of male riders helping and protecting them throughout the race.
I was in contention for third place but had to pull out of the race with around 27km to go due to my cap falling off my front tooth. With the nerve exposed I tried to ride on but with the cold wind rushing in every time I opened my mouth and unable to take on fluids I had to pull out. I originally chipped my tooth in 2002 at the Junior World Championships in Belgium during the elimination race on the track and it's still causing problems 5 years on.

Overall apart from having to pull out I am pretty pleased with how the race went. It was my first big bike race against top female riders and it showed that with a few more miles on the bike and a bit more bike race experience I could be right up there.

My tooth now has a new cap on it and hopefully it doesn't cause any more problems.

Mundo Patin Interview

I had a email interview awaiting me in my inbox a few days ago from Cuco Jimenez who runs the Mundo Patin website. It is now up on the Mundo Patin website in Spanish and I have it here in English/Spanglish.

NAME: Nicole
LAST NAME: Begg
DATE OF BIRTH: 11 June 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH: Perth, Australia
TEAM INTERNATIONAL: Bont Wheels
LAST MEDALS: 2007 1st 1000m, 3rd 10,000m points elimination, 3rd marathon at World Championships

HOW YOU SEE NEW SEASON 2008 As far as "WORLD INLINE CUP"?
This year I am racing for a new team Bont Wheels. I think we are one of the top teams to watch out for this year in the World Inline Cup and Swiss Inline Cup. Our team has a good mix of skaters with speed and strength.

AFTER FOURTH POSITION DEL PREVIOUS YEAR IN "WORLD INLINE CUP" YOU THINK TO BE IN FINAL PODIUM 2008?
In 2006 I made the podium and 2007 just missed out. Last year our team didn't have a good start to the season so we lost a lot of points and I managed to resurrect 4th. The World Inline Cup brings a lot of surprises but some one from the Bont Wheels team will be on the final podium hopefully on 1st.

THIS YEAR THE WORLD WIDE CHAMPIONSHIPS OF SPEED SKATING WILL BE IN THE MODERN SCENES OF GIJÓN, WHAT TESTS YOU CONSIDER THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DECIDE ON THE BALIOSAS MEDALS?
(I dont quiet understand the question, I hope I have understood it right)
The last 2 years at the World Championships I have won 2 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronzes. All these medals have been won in the 1000m, 10,000m points elimination and the marathon, so I think I have a good chance in these races.

As far as The DAILY TRAINING, US YOU CAN RELATE A COMPLETE DAY.
Monday
8am - 10am Weight training
4pm - 5.30pm Skate training
Tuesday
8am - 9.30am Plyometrics
4pm - 5.30 Skate training
Wednesday
8am - 10am Weight training
6pm - 8.30pm Bike Race
Thursday
8am - 9.30am Plyometrics
7pm - 8pm Bike Race
Friday
8am - 10am Weight Training
4pm - 5.30pm Skate training and coaching
Saturday
2pm - 4pm Bike Race
Sunday
2pm - 4pm Skate coaching

You can watch videos of the plyometrics and weight training on Bont TV


YOU WILL BE DISPUTING THE COMPETITIONS WITH WHEELS OF 110MM?
I am not using 110mm wheels at the moment.

YOU HAVE ALREADY PROVEN THEM?
No I haven't tried them. I think you need to spend a lot of time on them for them to be effective.

WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS ON THEM?
I think they will work for some skaters. I think the true results will show in a few years with the skaters who have been on them from the very start. I think in order for them to work you have to spend a lot of time on them and adjust your skating style and technique. There are so many questions unanswered about 110mm wheels but I think this is the season were some of the myths and questions will be answered.

WHICH ARE YOUR OBJECTIVES FOR THIS SEASON, WITHOUT MENTIONING The WORLD-WIDE CHAMPIONSHIPS And WORLD INLINE CUP?
Of course I would like to go to Spain and defend my World Title and have another successful World Championships. For the World Inline Cup the objective is to be the top womens team and have someone on the top of the podium at the end of the year. As well as gain as many podium places as possible throughout the season.

Bike Races

Tonight the local bike race out at St Andrews was a graded scratch race rather than the usual handicap races held every Thursday night. It was a 17km flat race out and back with 3 different grades, A, B and C. I raced in A Grade and even though quiet a few attacks were made it came down to a sprint finish. I ended up 4th which was a good result in the sprint against the guys.

This Sunday round 2 of the Benchmark Homes Tour will be held in Timaru. Some of New Zealand's top cyclists will be competing with their teams in this event. I will be racing for a local Timaru team, it will give me a good chance to see where I'm at against some of the top women. The race is 4 laps of a tough 33km circuit around rolling country roads. Here is a nice quote I found on a message board "The local riders predict the nature of the course will see little or no intact peloton by race end".

Bont Wheels

The new Bont Wheels are in stock and available now. These are the wheels myself and the rest of the Bont Wheels Team will be racing on in 2008. I tested one of the prototype wheels in the early stages and they were competitive with other top wheels. From that prototype changes were made to improve the wheel so I can't wait to try the final product. A box should be arriving at my doorstep this week some time.


Here are the differences between the wheels:
Highroller - Fastest rolling wheel suitable for the road
Crossover - Slightly more flex due to the inner flex band suitable for when you want more grip than Highroller or for fast bank tracks
Magic Molta - Very flexible for rough and slippery banked tracks
(in final testing at the moment)
Generation 3 - Affordable race wheel at $8 a piece suitable for all conditions

I'll let you know how the wheels go!

Race Schedule

The main events this year for the Bont Wheels Team are the World Inline Cup and Swiss Inline Cup races. Here is a schedule of the main events the team will compete in 2008.

April
19th WIC Zugersee Switzerland

May
3rd WIC Sursee Switzerland
17th WIC Heerenveen Holland
25th WIC Rennes France
31st WIC Milano Italy

June
8th WIC Incheon Korea
21st WIC Weinfelden Switzerland
28th WIC Engadin Switzerland

July
5th SIC Einsiedeln Switzerland
13th WIC Suzhou China

August
3rd WIC Zurich Switzerland
9th WIC Biel Switzerland
23rd Class 1 Netherlands Holland
24th Class 1 XRace Berlin Germany

September
27th WIC Berlin Germany

Some members from the team will also be competing at the World Championship in Spain from the 4th - 12th of September along with other local events throughout Europe.

Here are a couple of links to the World Inline Cup and Swiss Inline Cup websites.
World Inline Cup
Swiss Inline Cup

Wednesday Training

Yesterday morning I went to the gym for weight training as I usually do around 8am. I do weights 3 days a week and always in the morning. There are videos on Bont TV of all the gym work I do, Wednesday weights video.

On Wednesday evenings I usually bike race but the racing has finished for the year so instead I went for a ride with a group of local cyclists. We embarked on the 112 km journey at 1pm and headed north to Pleasant Point then on to Geraldine. We had a 20 minute coffee stop at Orari then headed back home. The weather was good up till Orari then the wind changed to a strong southerly and the temperature dropped about 7 degrees. When the southerly winds come they are very strong and nippy so it was a cold, slow grind all the way back to Timaru.

I must say I slept well last night.

2008 NZ Bank Track Championships

The 2008 New Zealand Bank Track Championships were held 2 weeks ago at Avalon, Wellington around a 166 meter track. I took out all of the Senior and Open Ladies titles with Tina Struver from Germany 2nd in all events. Some great photo's were taken over the weekend by
Jun Tanlayco. You can view the photo's at his website http://juntanlaycoevents.fotopic.net/