Aileen McGlynn

Have you seen this before? http://video.aol.co.uk/video-funny/1875497?CLI=16009105 Aileen[/url]

World Track Cycling, Mallorca Thursday 29 March BBC Interactive, 1800-2045 Friday 30 March BBC Interactive, 1800-2055 Saturday 31 March BBC Interactive, 1600-1945 Sunday 1 April BBC Two, 1230-1345 and 1630-1810 Aileen

The final round of the World Cup Track Cycling is on BBC1 at 1pm today and then live coverage tomorrow on BBC2 at 3:30pm. Aileen

Dennis, Hope you make a full recovery and are back out on your bike and the tandem soon. Best wishes Aileen

Last week saw the start of our international competitions for 2006. The first event was a Grand Prix held in Newport in Wales on Wednesday night. In the Women's Tandem Sprint, Ellen Hunter and I came up against the Aussie team of Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay. We triumphed 2:0 as we tactically held the Aussies on our hip around the steep bankings before unleashing our power to get to the line first in both heats. We then travelled back to Manchester on Thursday to take part in the 2006 VISA Paralympic World Cup on the Friday evening. Our first event of the night was the Flying 200m TT, which for some reason or another isn't our best event. We were hoping to get under 12 seconds for this distance but only managed 12.044, with the Aussies winning in a time of 11.952. This made us more determined to do a world breaking time in our main event, the 1km TT. The World Record for the 1km TT, held by ourselves is 1:11.16 and we have held this since we won Gold in Athens. However we did break this record in training a couple of weeks ago and had done a 1:11.00, so the aim was to at least match this time. We were really fired up for this and we got the tandem off to a good start but then the back wheel slipped as we went around the first bend which will have lost us a bit of time. However we didn't panic and we kept pedalling as fast as we could. It was a great night for doing times as it was really warm and the track was fast. We crossed the line in a time of 1:10.431, a New World Record! The Assuies did 1:13.409. We were both delighted to have broken the World Record but were amazed at how much we had improved, knocking more than 7/10ths of a second off the previous record. We are now having a week off before we start our training for the main event this year, the World Championships to be held in Switzerland in September and before that I have the honour of collecting my MBE from the Queen at the Palace of Holyroodhouse on 5 July. Aileen

Congratulations to you both. Aileen

Best of luck Katrina. Hope it all goes well for you on the day. Will be cheering you on from my living room. Aileen

Hi Guys, Just thought I would drop you all a note from my warm weather training camp in Mallorca. it is 19 degrees over here. Did a gym session yesterday morning and then 5 x 1km efforts in the afternoon. Today the temperature heated up and we went out for a 3 hour ride. Hope you are enjoying the cold weather over there and I will see you in a week or so. Aileen

I agree, thanks Bob. I found the session very helpful. Aileen

I hope to be there too. Aileen

Good stuff Kat. Keep it coming! Aileen

Thanks to everyone who has passed on their best wishes, I really appreciate them. Aileen

As we have only recently had a new track section, my preference would be to keep it separate. Aileen

Is anyone going to the Braveheart dinner on Friday night and is able to give me and my mum a lift? Aileen

Congratulations Kelly Hope everything goes well for you. Aileen

Hi All, Just to let you know that BBC2 are showing highlights of the Paralymipc World Cup on Sunday 22 May from 3pm. Cheers Aileen

McGlynn keeps pedal to metal RICHARD MOORE ON FRIDAY evening in Manchester Aileen McGlynn competed in only her second international event. But she had quite a record to maintain. On her first outing, at the Paralympics in Athens last year, she won a gold medal, but it carried extra significance. Her’s was the first gold medal for the GB team; the first ever gold medal for either a male or female British cyclist in the Paralympics; it was also the first cycling gold medal won by a British woman in the Olympics or Paralympics. So on Friday, at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, the partially-sighted McGlynn, as she partnered Ellen Hunter to the start line in the velodrome, knew that the only way was down. That was one possibility; but another scenario had the 31-year-old from Paisley retaining her new-found aura of invincibility. And, in the event, or events, she didn’t retain it - she reinforced it. The McGlynn-Hunter tandem sprinted to back-to-back victories against the Australian partnership of Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay in the sprint and kilometre, the event in which the British pair hold the world record, established en route to victory in Athens. The sprint, meanwhile, counted as revenge for Athens, where the Australians pipped the British pair in the final. "It was a more even race than in Athens," commented McGlynn after the final. "It was great to beat the Australians at our home track and we had fantastic support, which put a bit more pressure on us." The support in the velodrome for McGlynn was indeed remarkable. In scenes reminiscent of Chris Hoy’s Commonwealth Games gold at the same venue in 2002, the Saltire flew from the stands and it was accompanied by powerful vocal support; little wonder that McGlynn refers to Manchester as her "home" track. Yet her build-up to the World Cup was hardly smooth. In Athens, it was Hunter, McGlynn’s partner, who was coming back from a serious injury, after breaking her back the year before the games. This time it was McGlynn who was recovering from injury. Three weeks ago she crashed, landed on her collar bone and banged her head. Stitched up and nursing a sore shoulder, she competed in Manchester having decided to "block out the pain". The crash happened after one of the numerous public engagements McGlynn has fulfilled since returning from Athens as a gold medallist. "I was coming back from doing an interview at Bellahouston Park and it was pretty muddy," she explained. "I must have had mud on the bottom of my shoe and when I stopped at lights and went to go again my foot slipped off the pedal, went into my front wheel and down I went, quite heavily. "It was pretty scary. I was lying on the ground and I turned round and a car was about a metre away. But luckily the girl driving the car behind worked for the NHS and she’d always been told to give cyclists a wide berth. But I was so lucky not to be run over, so it could have been a lot worse. "I was having a bit of bother with my shoulder in the week before the World Cup but I got it strapped up and it was okay. I had no problems on the night. But we just didn’t know how we’d go, so we were really pleased to get within a tenth of a second of our world record in the kilo." Yesterday morning, McGlynn was up early and back at the velodrome to help run an open day for children with disabilities. As well as her day job - she is an actuarial trainee for Hymans Robertson in Glasgow - engagements such as this have consumed much of her time recently. Not that she minds. Frustration does bubble to the surface, however, over the lack of training facilities in Scotland. McGlynn travels to Manchester, her "local" indoor track, every fortnight to train, as do all other aspiring Scottish track cyclists. So while she says that she enjoys going to talk to schools and other groups about cycling and cycle racing, she does so hoping that the facilities can be provided to allow the young people she is addressing to actually try the sport; as they do in their thousands at Manchester. The track there is the busiest velodrome in the world and McGlynn sees no reason why a facility in Scotland wouldn’t be just as popular. "We’ve got a lot of very good cyclists in Scotland," says McGlynn. "All the top sprinters are Scottish, and think how many more there could be if we had the facilities. There is a big push to get an indoor velodrome built in Scotland and I really hope it can happen sooner rather than later. But it’s been good to go out and talk to kids because I love my sport and I’d love there to be more kids out cycling." McGlynn started cycling aged eight. Ten years later she joined a local club, but didn’t tell them that she was registered blind. "I just didn’t want that to stop me going out on my bike," she explains. "I felt capable enough as a cyclist to know where I was. So I didn’t tell them. "I can ride on my own out on the road," she continues. "I can see enough to cycle at a slowish pace, but when I’m cycling with the bunch now I cycle with people who do know that I have limited vision and they can watch out for me a bit." She admits, though, that she has started cycling in a tandem when in the company of other riders. Otherwise, she says, "it can be a bit hairy". McGlynn admits that the high profile she has enjoyed since Athens has taken her by surprise, and it has whetted her appetite for more of the same at Beijing in three years. Before that there are the European championships in August, and a world championships next year. Then there will be other World Cup meetings, too, to break up the routine of the fortnightly trek down to Manchester. For McGlynn the level of commitment is not a problem. And with a return of three gold medals from two international competitions, she is hardly likely to question it.

Thanks everyone, It has been really hectic since we won the gold, everyone wanting to interview you. I didn't even get a chance to get up to see my family before we were whizzed off to the BBC studios to do the live interview on Grandstand. My mum did manage to persuade the officials to let her see me and give me a hug while I was waiting at the dope control. After the BBC interview, we then did a radio interview and then a piece for the news. It was amazing but not exactly the best recovery after doing a 1km. The number of people who congratulated us is fantastic and I have even been asked for my autograph We qualified for the sprint tomorrow, coming third after the Australians and Americans. We are up against the Americans first thing tomorrow morning but we thing they will go for a long one, so we will need to wait and see how it goes.

Friday 17 September Had an early start this morning, waking at 6:45am for our one hour track session at 9am. We did a 40 lap warmup and then a flying 100m on our race gear and getting faster. Here’s hoping we can keep up the trend. We only had time to do one standing start but again this was our quickest yet. I then had an interview with I think Hazel Irvine and another commentator, who I don’t remember his name, but he will be doing the track commentary over the next few days. Then back to the village to do a warm down on the bike, time for a quick shower and then I went for my interview with BBC Radio Scotland. We had to sit for about 40 minutes before we got on and then they lost us as the interview was about to start. I don’t know whether you heard the interview but I couldn’t let the presenter away with blaming us for being late. I hope my response didn’t sound to cheeky? After that I went for some lunch and then to the internet café to write this. I am hoping to get another massage this afternoon just to make sure I am in top form for tomorrow. As most people are going to the opening ceremony, the dinner hall closes at 6pm here and the buses around the village have also stopped running. I hope to watch the opening ceremony in the British athlete’s lounge but I will also be having an early night and hope the basketball lot don’t make too much noise when they get back. Thanks to everyone for their best wishes.

Wednesday 15 September Arrived at the track about 11:30am to do a mock run for Saturday morning. Did a turbo warmup and then a couple of 50 metre starts. We then did a standing start 500m and our splits were faster than we have gone before, despite having to overtake some other riders in the way. We then did a rolling 500m were our times were better than we have done in the past. The Aussies were on after us, there are three female tandem pairings, one of them especially is our biggest threat and they were in good form. So here’s hoping we can get everything out on Saturday and that there are no other nations in such good form. Thursday 16 September Went for an easy ride around the village today and had a massage afterwards. BBC Radio Scotland have been in touch and they want to do a live radio interview around 10:50 your time on Friday 17 September, so listen in if you can. Back on the track tomorrow at 9am, Athens time to do some more starts and flying 100m.

Monday 13 September Our session at the velodrome started at 5pm. We did about a 15 minute warmup and then we did a flying 100m jump and did the third fastest flying 100m we have ever done, still on the warmup gear. We upped the gear and did another flying 100m and then we upped it again to our race gear and did a flying 200m and did a time of 11.87s, which is a personal best and beats the current world record of around 12.02s, so we were well pleased. Prior to this final jump, I had my interview with the BBC, which should be televised before our first event on Saturday. I am not sure if they are doing live coverage, but the women's 1km TT starts about 12:55pm Athens time. Tuesday 14 September Having a rest day today, so pottering around a bit. Went for a massage this morning. Was chatting to Tanni Grey-Thompson outside our appartment this afternoon. It was nice to meet her. It is a lot warmer today, so starting to use the suncream.

Saturday 11 September Awoke at 4am and got to the airport in time for my flight to London Gatwick, were I was told I would be met by the SportsWorld rep. Arrived in Gatwick, but no one was there to meet me. It turns out that my flight to Athens was from Heathrow and not Gatwick, so the headman at SportsWorld had to come and pick me up and take me to Heathrow himself. All was well though, as my flight did not leave until 12 noon. Met up with Ellen, Paul and Iain at Heathrow and we got to Athens about 5:30pm, Athens time. We had a police escort to the athlete village and the bus had a soldier on it. When we arrived at the village, the bus was scanned for bombs and we had our luggage scanned as well. I didn’t have my accreditation pass prior to leaving for Athens but the other three did, so I was a bit concerned that I would not be allowed into the village. Thankfully the accreditation process went smoothly and I got my pass. We arrived at our accommodation, which consists of about 5 rooms, two bathrooms and an open area with TV, table and chairs, in our apartment. Ellen and I are in one block with Geoff, the mechanic and a few of the basketball support staff. The rest of the male cycle squad are in another block around the corner. We dumped our bags and walked to the eating area, which is about the size of ADSA at Govan. There are rows upon rows of tables and chairs and a large selection of food from all over the world. There is even a MacDonalds for the less healthy athletes. We then walked back but it was really really cold and windy and the first nights sleep was terrible as we were so cold during the night. So much for heat acclimatization. Sunday 12 September Awoke about 9:30 am and met up with the others to walk to breakfast. Went out for a gentle ride around the village, dodging in and out of the wheelchair users and others on the way. Then I went for my medical classification so that I was allowed to compete. Then in the afternoon we went to the track to try it out. It is a really smooth track but it was a bit windy and as it was late afternoon, the sun was quite low in the sky and temporarily blinded Ellen as we went around. We were on the track at the same time as the American team. The female tandem team were a bit put out at Barney and Dan when they had to move out of the way of another rider in order to avoid a crash and the pilot called them a “Son of a Bitchâ€. Good to see us keeping up foreign relations! Monday 13 September 13 The BBC are going to come to the track to interview us today, so that should be interesting. Back on the track from 5pm to 7pm. Had an easy morning sitting around reading. We are now cycling to the food hall instead of walking, to save our wee legs. It is a good bit warmer today and we managed to work out how to turn on the heating last night, so we had a better nights sleep. Aileen

Hi All, Just a wee note to let you know that I am off to Athens tomorrow and my events start on 18th through to possibly the 22 September. The BBC are doing a highlights programme of the Paralympics each night so you might be able to see how I am getting on each day. The training so far seems to be working and hopefully we will do well in the games. See you in a few weeks. Aileen

Can you put me down for a small pair of track mitts. Thanks Aileen

I attended a fantastic nights racing at the Manchester Velodrome on the 29 May in the Yasumitsu-Schlapp organised race meet. The small crowd of spectators were treated to the brilliant sight of 12 tandems battling it out in the Air Products/Access for All tandem omnium. However, this could not help Michael Hutchinson go any faster in his attempt at the World Hour record. The flying 200m saw the Brits - Barney Storey and Dan Gordon stamp their authority with a scintillating 10.8s to the French Paralympic selection of 10.9s. Ellen and I did a respectable 12.2s. The first round of sprints also bore some of the best tandem sprinting seen in the UK for years with a fast and tough battle between Barney Storey and Dan Gordon and the French sprint specialists with the GB team coming out on top. Ellen and I "gave the men something to think about with a spectacular display of sprinting prowess and tactical brilliance." In our first sprint match we were up against GB tandem hour record holder Zac Carr and his wife Beverly and we were just beaten on the line. Our second sprint match was against the Irish men's Paralympic selection. As we pulled away from the line, we pulled so hard on the pedals that we broke the chainring and had to dismount and get a new one, both banging our knees in the process. This gave the Irish something to think about in the half hour or so that we waited to get on again. On our second attempt we jumped away at the start and took them all over the boards. They tried to dip underneath us on the second last bend but Ellen spotted their manoeuvre and we stopped them in their tracks. We beat them comfortably by about 2 tandem lengths. Having only a short break between events due to our mechanical, we were up next for the 2km pursuit with our opponents again, GB tandem hour record holder Zac Carr and his wife Beverly. We lost the pursuit to them with a time of 2m 37s to their 2m 22s. However, if we had managed to keep this pace going for another 4 laps, we would have done an equivalent time to the one that won a silver medal at the last Paralympics in Sidney. GB came out on top again in the 2km pursuit with a rapid ride of 2m 16s by Paul Hunter and Ian Sharpe, the GB Paralympic tandem pursuit team knocking our pursuit opponents Zac Carr and his wife Beverly into second place overall in the pursuit competition. The overall omnium winners were Barney Storey and Dan Gordon who pocketed the £200 first prize. Paul Hunter and Ian Sharpe were second with France third. This weekend I am off to Newcastle for some more!