Blyde ends season on top of the world
Rising sevens star Michaela Blyde is not taking things too easy while she has time off from the world circuit.
Blyde and her New Zealand team-mates have a month off after winning the world title following their dominant season that saw the Black Ferns win five of the six tournaments. When contacted yesterday, Blyde had to politely put it on hold for a couple of hours until she had finished training.
‘‘It was kind of cruisy but it’s a case of keeping the blood flowing and making sure that I don’t sit on my butt too long during this holiday,’’ she said from her Tauranga home.
There is no doubt the 2016/2017 sevens season has been a breakthrough one for the 21-year-old who ended the final tournament as the top try scorer for the year with 40, while she was the top performer over the season on the impact player tracker.
It was a big turnaround from where she found herself just a season before when she was a trav- elling reserve for the Black Ferns at the Rio Olympics, unable to crack the squad and reach her goal.
‘‘I try not to think about it because my No 1 goal for 2016 was to make the Olympic team. To miss out because of one person’s opinion or because of a player being fitter than me or something, it was quite gutting.
‘‘I wanted to be there to be playing not watching, so it was a difficult trip to be part of. Nonetheless, I was grateful and I will definitely be working to get there in 2020.’’
It has been 21⁄ years since Blyde left Taranaki for Tauranga so she can train fulltime with the majority of the rest of the national squad.
It’s something she does not regret. Not only has she got a fulltime contract with New Zealand Rugby, she also looks to have a bright future ahead of her as her game develops even more.
That was evident from the last season’s opening tournament in Dubai where she was selected on the wing by new coach Allan Bunting and scored 10 tries.
‘‘I was confident, I had fun, which was something that was missing in previous years and the tournament outside of game day was so much fun, too.
‘‘Just having fun off the field was something quite different.’’
With her confidence growing with every tournament, Blyde was an automatic choice and repaid the faith Bunting had shown in her. Not that she will now sit on her achievements.
‘‘The biggest goal for me now is keep developing, keep making each tournament team and keep growing as a player and improving my game.
‘‘It’s really, really challenging knowing that I’ve got so much more of my game I can improve on. Thee is a lot of things that I can add to my game, as well, so that’s really exciting.
‘‘The 2017/2018 season will definitely be interesting because I want to add more flair to my game.’’ Mark Cavendish has been forced out of the Tour de France after suffering a fractured shoulder blade in a serious crash caused by world champion Peter Sagan, who was disqualified from cycling’s showcase event.
Hours after yesterday’s crash in a chaotic sprint finish to stage four, Cavendish’s Team Dimension Data said the rider had been forced to withdraw.
The British rider sustained hand and shoulder injuries in the crash, and was taken to a hospital for checks.
‘‘I’m obviously massively disappointed to get this news about the fracture,’’ Cavendish said. ‘‘The team was incredible today.
‘‘They executed to perfection what we wanted to do this morning. I feel I was in a good position to win and to lose that and even having to leave the Tour, a race I have built my whole career around, is really sad.’’
The crash occurred about 50 metres from the end of the stage, when Sagan elbowed Cavendish, who was squeezed against the barriers to his right, out of the way.
Cavendish slammed into the barriers and two other riders ploughed over the British sprint specialist, a winner of 30 Tour stages.
‘‘Mark suffered a fracture to the right scapula,’’ Team Dimension Data doctor Adrian Rotunno said. ‘‘Fortunately no surgery is required at this stage, and most importantly there is no nerve damage.
‘‘He’s been withdrawn from the race for obvious medical reasons, and we’ll continue monitoring him over the coming days.’’
Race jury president Philippe Marien of the UCI said race rules allowed organisers to disqualify riders in ‘‘serious cases’’.
‘‘We have decided to disqualify Peter Sagan from the 2017 Tour de France after the tumultuous sprint here in Vittel, where he endangered several riders, including Mark Cavendish and others who were involved in the crash,’’ Marien said.
As news broke of Cavendish’s departure, Sagan’s BoraHansgrohe team announced they had officially lodged a protest against the Slovakian’s expulsion.
Apart from doping offences, disqualifications are rare in the Tour. In 2010, Australian Mark Renshaw was thrown out for a head-butt that cleared a path in a sprint for his team-mate Cavendish to win the stage in Bourg-LesValence.
‘‘I get on with Peter well, but I don’t get ... if he came across is one thing, but the elbow. I’m not a fan of him putting his elbow in me like that,’’ Cavendish said. ‘‘A crash is a crash, I’d just like to know about the elbow, really. I’d just like to speak to him about it.’’
After the crash, Sagan went over to see how Cavendish was and patted him on the back, while the British rider showed him his wounds. The Slovak said later he had apologised to Cavendish.
‘‘It’s not nice to crash like that,’’ said Sagan, who had finished the stage in second place behind Demare.