Cycling: Raw focus fuelling teen's rise to the top

Sam Webster says crossing the line for gold in the teams race gave him a big sense of accomplishment. Photo / Greg Bowker

There is one small hint at the character which helped drive Sam Webster, our new track cycling sensation, towards the three junior world cycling gold medals in Moscow, and perhaps a glittering career beyond.

His father James - the chief executive of a computer software company - recalls that as a young soccer player with the Three Kings club, young Sam was more than happy to hang around halfway lines so he could zero in on goal.

Strikers have a soccer mentality all of their own, with their blinkered eyes set on the ultimate goal.

That ruthless streak, allied to what must be a natural power, meant Webster soon felt at home after hopping on a sprint bike at about the age of 15.

"As soon as I went into the track discipline I knew I was quite good at it," he says.

"I won a few races on my first race night at the Manukau Velodrome. [Sprint coach] Neil Ludlam approached me that night ... he's the one who started me off.

"Initially I had no long-term goal, just the next race because it was fun."

Which is worlds away from where Webster is now, training four hours a day and causing the world of cycling to sit up and take note.

The 18-year-old flyer won the teams title in Moscow with fellow Aucklander Ethan Mitchell and Cameron Karwowski, a Blenheim boy now domiciled near Invercargill's indoor velodrome.

Webster added golds from the keirin and individual sprint in the finest performance by a New Zealander at the world junior championships, breaking his coach Justin Grace's national sprint record in the process.

The Herald met Webster at his family's Mt Eden home with James' mum Meren (an administrator in the same firm as her husband), 14-year-old Nicky and 19-year-old Sean looking on.

As a tired Sam gladly recounted tales from Moscow and looked back on his career so far, they were all probably wondering what might be in store for this new sporting sensation.

The Moscow success says Webster has the potential to become a world star, but there will be no easy rides out there. He will be up against riders from a small group of countries, notably Britain, France, Germany and Australia, with intense sprint programmes. In contrast, Webster lives in a city without a proper racing velodrome, although the outdoor high-resistance concrete track at Manukau is an ideal and challenging training venue.

Webster's story is largely homespun, with a professional edge. His latest bike tells the tale.

Having outgrown his previous machine, he put a new one together, including buying a $5000 performance meter.

Bike New Zealand lent him a frame. Webster bought the front wheel from New Zealand cyclist Greg Henderson for $3000, and he already had a $1100 back disc purchased via an online trading site.

"I raced on my own wheels at the juniors so I could be sure they hadn't been thrashed by the senior team," he says. "When I first saw the rear wheel listed I thought it must be the wrong price. The seller told me he'd been sponsored by another brand so was selling it cheap. It only had a couple of dings."

The bike cost around $10,000 to put together. Five or six training trips to Invercargill each year set the family back about $1000 each. The Websters had to contribute $9500 to his Moscow venture. Webster hopes success in various sports awards will follow and help generate funding.

Does he have a manager?

"No, but I have a mum who does a really good job," he replies.

Webster now enters the senior ranks, starting with November's Oceania championships in Invercargill, and humbly states his aim is to become a world and Olympic champion.

This wonderful cycling venture started with Webster, now in his final year at Auckland Grammar, being inspired by the Tour de France on television then having a crack at school road races.

"A few mates were in to velodrome riding and got some prize money so I thought that sounded pretty good and I gave it a go. I haven't looked back."

In that first year, he won all but one event he entered at the Auckland championships and four golds and a silver at the nationals.

There were hints at New Zealand's sprint potential at last year's junior world championships in South Africa, where Webster and Mitchell were in a team that placed fourth.

Honed by a training camp at the world cycling centre in Switzerland, the Kiwi juniors delivered in Moscow last week. With Karwowski - who took up track cycling only early last year - joining the two Aucklanders, they blitzed the best in the world on the gigantic 330m track which was built for the 1980 Olympics.

Moscow was an experience never to forget for Webster, on and off the track in mysterious Russia.

He remembers the humour of the team turning up for sightseeing at Red Square, to find a load of television cameras and reporters at the famous landmark.

The New Zealanders split up on a mission to ask locals what was going on. The responses were so variable, that they were still left none the wiser.

The sight of the monstrous track, and the honours board for the 150-plus world records set on it, were inspiring.

But it was the memory of the teams race which really caused Webster's tired eyes to light up during the Herald interview.

"It was an amazing feeling as I crossed the line - different to any I've had before," he says with pride.

"We'd won teams races at the nationals ... but to win on the international stage, to beat Germany in the final, to have that feeling not of look what I've achieved, but look what we've achieved, it was the greatest. We'd all slogged our guts out and there was a feeling of communal satisfaction."

Their motto was gleaned from Any Given Sunday, the 1999 Oliver Stone movie about American football, which they watched at the Swiss training camp. Al Pacino, as the embattled football coach, gives an inspirational speech, imploring his team to perform "inch by inch, play by play".

"Inch by inch" became the young cyclists' motto, a plan based on pushing every aspect of their preparation and racing to the absolute limit, while resisting any celebrations and instead calmly preparing for the next job.

Having gained his titles inch by inch, Webster now plans to take a mile in the senior ranks. Winning selection for and medals at next year's Commonwealth Games in India are among his goals. His Moscow times might already qualify him.

He says: "New Zealand sprinting is definitely on the way up ... we're not a country with a rich cycling history but times are changing.

"It will take a lot of hard work and getting my head around how I need to ride. It will take a while to mature.

"I always enjoy racing - something happens to me on race day. You have to get in a persona where you believe you can smash the other guy whoever he is ... when it comes to attacking you must go 'I'm going to make him look silly'.

"I've raced the seniors and they have a swiftness when they hit the gas. It will take a few years to develop that.

"Becoming a world and Olympic champion is my loftiest goal and it is achievable. But in the end, you can be the fastest and it's just not your day. It will be a long road."