Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mountainbiker joins BMX elite



One day the 24-year-old was coaching juniors at the Rotorua BMX Club track, the next he was on his way to a high performance camp for New Zealand's top BMX racers.

Pattle spent the first three days of this week at a three-day camp for New Zealand's top BMX riders at Auckland's Millennium Institute.

The strange thing about that is Pattle previously carved out his cycling name as a downhill mountainbiker while just "dabbling" in BMX racing.

In a story which could become the Kiwi cycling version of the Walt Disney movie Invincible - the true story of a barfly who becomes a pro American footballer - Pattle impressed national BMX coach Ken Cools.

"I was helping coach the juniors down at the track and [Cools] was there. I asked him for a programme for the nationals and he said "get on your bike so I can see where you're at" Pattle recalled.

Cools was so impressed, Pattle was fast-tracked to this week's camp in Auckland where he learned about the science of the Olympic sport and was tested for strength and technique.

As a result, the camp has gone some way to showing the former national mountainbiking representative, who has spent the past six winters in Europe racing downhill, that there is another possible pedalling life on a different stage.

"I'm pretty much putting the mountainbiking on the back foot," said Pattle, who has attended five Mountainbiking World Championships and picked up podium finishes at Oceania Championships as a senior and junior in downhill.

"I haven't decided if I'll even do the [mountainbiking] nationals next week, my focus is BMX - this could potentially lead to the road to London Olympics in 2012," he said.

A tailor-made training programme is coming from Cools and Pattle is prepared to "give it a go" for a chance at the Olympics.

He is one of the elite local hopes when the Rotorua BMX Club hosts its annual Rotorua Cup meet tomorrow.

The event, the club's only flat pedal specific race, attracts some of the country's best riders with Olympian Sarah Walker and promising Tauranga-based junior Kurt Pickard expected to line up.

Pattle will race in the elite men's division, along with clubmate Dave Mohi and he's confident they have a local edge on the about 400-metre track, which features 18 jumps and obstacles.

Racing starts from 3pm and about 300 riders are expected to take part.

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