New Zealand's promising sprint cycling team are looking to find the right balance of brains and brawn ahead of their 2012 London Olympic campaign.
The team, which consists of Southland's Eddie Dawkins, Auckland's Ethan Mitchell and Palmerston North's Simon Van Velthooven have been in Auckland this week working on strength training as they step up the intensity on their training programme.
However Dawkins, who became the first New Zealand rider to break the 10 second mark at the World Championships in Melbourne last month, said they will need more than just raw power if they are to fulfil their potential in London.
"We've got the brute force thing down, but the Kiwis are still lacking a wee bit on the old tactical side," the 22-year-old told ONE News.
"I've got a bit of homework to do, the old coach has set me a few tasks to do, I've got quite a bit of sprint data to go through and analyse so won't just be physically taxing over the next few months but also mentally."
The young Kiwi team have had excellent results building up to the games with a bronze medal at the World Championships, but they will need to be at their peak physically and CYCLINGmentally if they're to reach the podium against much more experienced opposition.
"The Germans the Brits the Aussies and the French are all capable of riding world records and riding world titles and Olympic titles, it's almost a bit of a lottery at the end of the day about who's got that form and can put it out on the track."
Despite the tall order Dawkins said the team is confident they continue their improvements and become a genuine threat by the time the Games roll around in July.
"It's attainable, the only thing we've been doing since we've started is go up and up, we started out riding 46 seconds now we're doing high 43's and we're only three or four tenths of a second away from a world title so anything can happen in two months."
The team will spend the next two weeks completing strength training in New Zealand, then they head to Valencia to train on a concrete velodrome before meeting the rest of the cycling team in Bordeaux just prior to the games.