Menu

Cycle scholar home for testing ahead of European adventure

10 December 2021 | News

Jack Drage has got a big 2022 mapped out.

The cycle champion and Elite Sports Scholar was being put through his paces by Professor Mike Hamlin at the Lincoln University Sports and Exercise Laboratory this week in the LU Gym.

Back in New Zealand for summer school, Jack underwent a lactate test at the end of several weeks off the bike to start his build-up to another season of European road racing.

It involved pedalling with increasing intensity on the testing bike for around 20 minutes and measuring lactate build-up in his blood as his muscles started to perform anaerobically, or without oxygen, as they tired.

The test is a training guide for athletes, indicating zones for them to work within to safely increase performance.

Jack leaves for Barcelona in January to join the Hagens Berman Axeon Cycling Team, which has a an international roster of under-23 riders.

This follows on from his successful 2021 campaign there.

The 19-year-old Bachelor of Commerce student won the U23 National Road Cycling Championships this year and was also awarded the NZ Junior Road Cyclist of the Year for 2020 title.

He left New Zealand in February to train in France with amateur cycling club Amicale Cycliste Bisontine.

In August he won his first race with the club, the Critérium du Ballon d’Alsace, and signed a stagiaire contract (an internship for an elite or U23 rider who has not ridden for a World Tour or Pro Conti team before) with the Groupama–FDJ Continental Team for the rest of the 2021 season.

Jack said he would use the results from the test to help ensure he was riding at the right effort level or zone well training. 

“Next season I am looking forward to continuing my development at Axeon by learning from the wealth of knowledge within the team, racing at a higher level, and having fun. “

Professor Hamlin specialises in the effects of exercise on human physiology and is a world expert on altitude/hypoxic training. The lab offers a range of tests to elite athletes as well as the general public.