Alain Baxter

DaveyL

Only just seen this on the Beeb:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 315998.stm

Former Olympic skier Alain Baxter turning his hand to the track? It's the first I've heard of it. Anyone else? Anyone heard anything about whether he's actually going to be good or not?

oldwelshman

He must already be good if he was scheduled to ride against chris hoy in the GB champs or he would not be in the A event. He obviously knows his times as he's been training on the track and has a target of commenwealth and olympic place so he must already be good imo.
Cannot find any stats as yet.

OffTheBackAdam

He wouldn't qualify for the Olympic team after his +ve test in the 2002 Olympics.

Buckled_Rims

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

He wouldn't qualify for the Olympic team after his +ve test in the 2002 Olympics.

I thought he'd "got away with it" because it was genuine error. The USA version of the nasal decongestant he was using was slightly different to the authorised UK version.

OffTheBackAdam

Nope, stripped of his medal at the very least.

Pross

Probably looking at the Commonwealths - I assume he is banned from Olympic events or surely he'd be training for the Winter Olmpics at the moment rather than doing cycling?

andy_wrx

Like the article says, he has a back injury which has stopped him skiing, so he fancies he can transfer-over to cycling

Rebecca Romero did it - if you are an Olympic medallist in another endurance sport, with all the dedication and application that entails, then perhaps transferring to a relatively straightforward discipline like track pursuiting is quite do-able, although match-sprinting or road-racing is perhaps a different matter.

He was cleared of intentional-doping in Salt Lake City by the Court of Arbitration for sport so is eligible for the Olympics (in fact, he competed again at Turin 2006), although didn't get his 2002 Bronze medal back
His stated aims are the Commonwealths for Scotland and then maybe 2012 in London.

More here from earlier http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 094555.stm

Remains to be seen whether he's actually good enough (and he'll be 38 in London...) to get selection over the younger guys coming through the Development scheme...

oldwelshman

andy_wrx wrote:

Like the article says, he has a back injury which has stopped him skiing, so he fancies he can transfer-over to cycling

Rebecca Romero did it - if you are an Olympic medallist in another endurance sport, with all the dedication and application that entails, then perhaps transferring to a relatively straightforward discipline like track pursuiting is quite do-able, although match-sprinting or road-racing is perhaps a different matter.

He was cleared of intentional-doping in Salt Lake City by the Court of Arbitration for sport so is eligible for the Olympics (in fact, he competed again at Turin 2006), although didn't get his 2002 Bronze medal back
His stated aims are the Commonwealths for Scotland and then maybe 2012 in London.

More here from earlier http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 094555.stm

Remains to be seen whether he's actually good enough (and he'll be 38 in London...) to get selection over the younger guys coming through the Development scheme...

Does it say he is going for pursuit? I think he was in the keirin as even so would not think he would be doing endurance events.
Pursuit is very technical anyway and not as easy as some think, why do you think Cancellara did not do it in worlds?

Pross

If he makes it he'll need to be good just to get in the Scottish team - there are apparently a few talented Scots riders!

On the topic of Romero switching, she is looking at competing in a third Olympic event and did say she felt speed skating may be the ideal move (always felt it had similarities to the pursuit effort-wise).

nicklloyd

Pross wrote:

If he makes it he'll need to be good just to get in the Scottish team - there are apparently a few talented Scots riders!

On the topic of Romero switching, she is looking at competing in a third Olympic event and did say she felt speed skating may be the ideal move (always felt it had similarities to the pursuit effort-wise).

The problem with speed skating is there are no long track speed skating facilities in the UK. So even if she wanted to switch she would have to find another country willing to let her use their facilities. The lack of facilities also means that it is likely that the UK has any coaches!!

I think the switch will have to be to another cycling event, such as TT.

Pross

I suspect someone with that competetive instinct would move to Holland or somewhere with the facilities.

RPMcoaching

nicklloyd wrote:

The problem with speed skating is there are no long track speed skating facilities in the UK. So even if she wanted to switch she would have to find another country willing to let her use their facilities. The lack of facilities also means that it is likely that the UK has any coaches!!

.

I have already applied for my level 2 speed skating coaching award