Check out this video of me Lifting in the Gym!

Big session in the gym today. These were right at the end of my huge workout and wow did they punish me but just to show you a little of what goes into chasing Gold in track cycling! Enjoy

In less than six months time the world’s greatest cyclists will descend on Melbourne’s Hisense Arena to contest the championships from Wednesday 4 to Sunday 8 April.  Perko joined Anna Meares at the official launch at the Eureka Tower yesterday.

The track world championships are the final qualification opportunity for the London 2012 Olympic Games, so the 350 competitors from 40 countries could not have more at stake.

And when you consider that at the Beijing Olympic Games, seven of the ten gold medals were won by reigning world champions, hot form in April is most likely to transform to Olympic success in July.

For Perko, the chance to race in front of his local Victorian crowd is not to be missed, particularly in the lead-up to what may be the final puzzle piece in his very successful career.

“Being the reigning world champion from the Keirin event this year it’s definitely going to be a really big challenge to back up. But having the home support of the crowd, I’m going to be wanting to go out there and give it my best in front of family and friends,” Perko said.

“Obviously the first world championship title is the sweetest one. But you’ve got to keep challenging yourself throughout your career and for me it’s going to be a big challenge and I’m really looking forward to trying to back up my world title on home soil.

“Obviously there’s going to be an expectation for me to defend my Keirin title, especially from myself. There is still a lot to improve on, and I’m looking forward to the challenge the pressure to try and emulate what I’ve done this year.

“A lot of my family and friends are getting on board and have already picked up their tickets. Between Anna, myself and the rest of the team, we’re going to have a fair cheer squad there. The Melbourne crowd really gets into it, it’s pretty amazing and the celebrations afterwards are a lot sweeter. It’s not just us out there – the home crowd will be riding with us.”

Tickets are on sale now but get in quick because tickets are selling fast.  Come along and support Perko as he defends his World Championship title!

Perkins defeated Beijing Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy (Great Britain) to claim the first rainbow jersey of his career in the Netherlands last week and was still coming to terms with the achievement yesterday.

“Crossing the finish line, for a second, I was like, ‘Hang on, is this for real?’ And then in the back straight obviously everyone saw the emotion and how happy I was,” Perkins said.

“It was great to share that with my coach Sean Eadie, we’ve finally done it. Now to be home and share it with my friends and family, especially my wife who has sacrificed a lot for me to chase my dreams, it’s great to finally come home and win a world title for her and for the family.”

The result notably comes a little more than a year before the London Olympics and has given the Australian keirin champion confidence as he builds toward the Games.

“In terms of next year it?s definitely given me a lot more belief that I can do it,” Perkins said.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do leading into London but obviously to come away with a world title and know that we’ve still got a few things up our sleeve is fantastic.”

Australia topped the medal tally taking eight gold medals at the world championships with arch-rival Great Britain finishing fourth overall with one gold.

But Perkins dismissed suggestions the tally was indicative of the British cycling team, which won eight gold medals at the Beijing Games, losing its spark in the wake of an Australian resurgence.

“Like every country we’re all building towards London, trying new things in training and testing equipment,” he said.

“Fortunately for the Australians this year what they’ve tried and what they’ve done is working. Australia?s still got a lot of work to do in the lead-up to London.

“I think it’s going to be a great battle between Australia and Great Britain and you definitely can?t underestimate them because of what they did in Beijing.

“They haven’t had a bad year, they’ve won medals, they’ve done fantastic times and all their riders are still in fantastic form. I think come London we’re all going to be stepping up our game.”

Perkins will take a break before assessing plans to travel to Japan for the keirin series. The recent earthquake disaster may interrupt competition.

Source: SBS – http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/23036/Heroes%27-welcome-for-Perkins

Perkins, who finished second in the sprint at last years championship, claimed his maiden senior title after several years of seeing his compatriots top the podium.

Hoy finished second in the six-man final after launching a late surge, with Teun Mulder finishing third to give the hosts their first medal of the competition.

It means Hoy, a triple Olympic champion in Beijing in 2008, will walk away from the championships without a gold medal for the first time in many years.

Perkins, meanwhile, was ecstatic at having beaten the Scot, his “hero” when he was a junior track rider.

But the Australian admitted he had to dig deep to ward off some threatening tactics on the part of the British contingent, which also included Matthew Crampton.

“It’s my first world championship title, so I’m ecstatic,” said Perkins. “For quite a few years I’ve felt like the odd one out (in the team), missing out on the world titles, so now to get one is really great.”

Perkins led from the front throughout, and when the motor-paced derny pulled off with three laps to go the Australian refused to get pushed out of the way by his opponents as the race burst into life.

“It all went pretty fast. Matt Crampton took the front, and then Chris came round to try and trap me in a bit and then have a go,” added Perkins.

“I stayed pretty calm, pushed Chris out a bit, pushed him into the wind which gave me a bit of a run-out to Matt Crampton.

“With 200 metres to go I gave it everything I could, and here we are. It was pretty tough out there … to beat Sir Chris Hoy is absolutely fantastic. He was my hero when I was up and coming.”

Source: SBS – http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/22821/Perkins-takes-Hoy%27s-world-keirin-crown

Perkins took out the final in a time of 10.544 from fellow Victorian Jason Niblett, New South Wales’ Andrew Taylor and the ACT’s Alex Bird.

2010 winner, Western Australia’s Scott Sunderland was a surprise non-starter in the final having failed to make his way through from the repechage. Also missing was Daniel Ellis who withdrew from the championships earlier in the week having crashed in sprint qualifying and injuring his left shoulder. Even without his two biggest rivals, Perkins praised the quality of the field for the final.

“The level that we’ve got here this year is absolutely unbelievable,” he said. “It’s probably the best we’ve ever had.

“With Sean Eadie’s group of NSW guys going 10.2 to beat some of the AIS guys obviously they had a bit of a different preparation coming in here because they’ve got the world championships; Matt Glaetzer 10.1 – but it’s an awesome display from all the states. It was virtually a world championship final out there. All the guys are really fast as you saw in the heats ? Alex Bird 10.5, Mitch Bullen 10.4 they’re going from a long way out so it makes for some very tough racing once you get your head into it.”

Given his opposition, 2010 world championship silver medallist Perkins was forced to put his foot down with three laps to go to escape the bunch and from there, never looked back.

“I guess I was lucky to have a teammate [Niblett] following me to give it a bit of distance and they nearly got me at the end there but with the NSW train going, took the initiative and lucky I had the legs to hold them off,” he explained.

“Once I saw Pete Lewis come across and he wasn’t committed to go he just wanted to get in the train I just thought it’s time to go here and get out in front of them and make them work for it.”
Perkins, having also taken gold in the men’s sprint earlier in the week came into the national titles following a tough five week training block and has been quite astounded, although pleased with his performances.

“I’m pretty ecstatic and surprised in a way that I’ve got the form I have,” he said. “Six weeks til the world titles I’ve still got a bit of work to do that’s a great starting point to work from.”

Well what a couple of weeks heading into the world cup in Melbourne. Leading into Oceania’s the week before Melbourne world cup; the form was great during competition.

However it took a turn with some sickness resulting in having to pull out before the end of the Oceania titles.

5 days off and plenty of time on the couch recovering, plus not knowing if I would be healthy enough to race Melbourne World Cup threatened to potentially throw a fork in the road of my season, leading into qualification for the world championships. One day before the start of competition was a trial with my coach.

This confirmed that the body would be ok to start. I went into the team sprint not having done one for almost 1 year, so that was very nerve racking to say the least. Luckily we had two great rides to take us to the bronze medal!

One day rest for me after the sprint before heading back into competition on the Saturday. Qualifying in 2nd with a time of 10.042 sent me under the direct nomination for world championships. This being said I really needed points and a good result to cement my spot for March!!

Through the rounds I ran into many fantastic very fast competitors, the final brought some great racing and nothing was a guarantee. As the final went to 3 heats it all came down to one last race for gold.

This was against Olympic silver medallist Jason Kenny. We were one a piece and the last race would be the decider. Both tired of course, I had some cramps from the previous race which were getting to be a little painful but once out on the track all the pain was forgotten and mind was on business.

The first and last races of the finals ended in photo finishes of which I luckily won both leaving me the victor this time around!

It was some awesome racing and the crowd and everyone supporting me were fantastic in the lead up and during the racing, thank you to everyone involved, this brings my tally to three straight years of Gold in Melbourne.