Toby Hood hasn’t done much racing over the last month or so, but tomorrow he will be lining up with some of his Team Fusion mates to have a crack at this year’s Tour of the Scenic Rim.

The 3rd edition of the Tour gets underway in Boonah this weekend, with large support from the Queensland and New South Wales cycling fraternity.

CSN caught up with Toby earlier today, on the eve of his comeback to competitive racing:

Tell us a little about the Fusion team

The Fusion Cycling Team has been around since 2008. The teams focus has been on Southeast QLD Elite racing. With immediate success from day one, the team has been a prominent player in SE QLD Racing. A position became available early 2010 due to Peter Thompson's departure.

I felt the teams focus and goals were inline with mine so the dotted line was signed.

 The Elite A Team consists of Matthew Easton, Leighton Jefferson, Shane Bedford, Shaun O'Brien, Matt Callow, James Mansfield and myself. There is also a Elite B team which we hope to recruit from in the future.

How has the team been going in recent races?

As with every year, teams want to stamp their authority early in the season. We did this through the local Criterium circuit with many podium finishes. Of late we have been quietly training up for events in the later part of the year.

Are the tactics all worked out, or do you assess day by day, stage by stage?

We centainly have some stronger riders within the team and have plans for them. But as recent events in cycling has shown, things change in a split second. There will always be a plan B.

How’s you own form going into this weekend?

I'm coming off a six week break. Needless to say the base miles covered in the first half of the year have proven invaluable. I will certainly hold my own this weekend.

How have you prepared yourself leading up to the Tour?

A combination of longer road rides as well as ergo sessions. I'm not a cold weather person any more (Old Age), so early starts have been few and far between. I have found the ergo sessions at Activ Cycle Coaching, West End invaluable.

Are you looking forward to any particular aspect of this Tour?

The part after the Time Trial. I try not to kid myself, I'm not a Time Trialer. The road races are definitely more my style. The distances are very manageable with where I'm at with my training.

What are some of your personal strengths?

Leadership. I joined the Fusion Team with my own goals. As said before, they were inline with Fusions. With that in mind, I have been trying to be part of the motivation that keeps us wanting more out of racing and ourselves. I'm hoping each rider will achieve their own personal goals for this year and build on them next year.

Are you going to have any cards up your sleeves?

Now that would be cheating! But I think the cards may be in the form of riders. Watching the progress of our team, I hope to introduce a few more names to the front of the peleton.

What do you hope to have achieved by Sunday afternoon?

A solid effort. With that I hope a podium finish for the team.

What are Team Fusion’s long term goals this year?

As some of the team are part of the mountain bike circuit, the goals vary for some of us. Grafton is a road race we are all looking forward to. It is a focus for us and our training is targeted towards that.

However the State Road Titles would be another event we are looking forward to being on a new circuit this year.

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."