Well as a quick update allot has happened since I last put up a post, with highs and lows strap yourself in as the season keeps on truck’n. Well that twilight crit I did the day I last wrote wasn’t the best of days for me, I ended up face planting it in an attempt to avoid a crash with 10 to go and having some big guy slamming into me at 50. Funny thing was I was only allowed one lap out to get back in or I’d get a DNF, so with blood dripping down my face I finished, mind you allot of guys hardly finished 5 laps and were allowed to start to following day, guess if your not a local the you get different treatment. Anyway made the big break the following day, unfortunately we were caught with 4km to go on the finishing circuits, had good legs considering crash the day before.
That night I went out for a feed at Outback Steakhouse no else, let me tell you this joint is like a few aussie dishes with major US influence, such as the 3000 calorie cheese fries, nice…following day didn’t fell that good on stillwater, the bitch that it is, 22% climb, 50 laps…I couldn’t move my neck at all following the crash, raced for first 60min then slowly faded, ended up somewhere in last 15. Following NVGP I spent a couple days catching up with family in Minneapolis, Mn, nice little sight see too. After this I spent a day in transit (again) getting myself to Truckee, Ca for tour de nez.
We stayed at this mint joint, Northstar, on the ski fields 5km from Tructee, spent a couple days rolling around to get the legs back in action, and getting used to 7000+ft again. First day was a bit of a ball buster, a typical Aussie crit, hard and technical, I think I ended up 10th but got caught up in crash on last lap. Following day was spent fly fishing on the river, unsuccessful unfortunately, next was a 9.30pm start for a 90min crit…no lights, most of the race was spent looking at rear derailers for guidance, attacked solo with six to go, got caught in last 300m, legs are coming back. Next day was an easy, boring circuit race, tried to make things interesting but no one wanted to play.
Following day was Nevada City, now this was a cool race, complete with 15000+people on course and 3 pro tour guys, and some guy they call ‘Lance’. Now this course is 1/2 mile down, left, left, 1/2 mile up, the race was nuts, starting with 200 guys going into the first corner, downhill. Managed to hang onto the second group on the road for 9th, ok considering I have been doing alot of racing of late. Spent 1hr trying to get out of town back home…Flew back to Park City the following day, had a tour of the Specialized distribution centre, then collapsed in bed. The past few days have been spent tapping out some decent miles up here in the sun getting a good tan again after being in the mid west, off to Boston Wednesday for Fitchberg then home Monday. Just got the word tour of Utah is a go, so better get my finger out and train the house down in the lead up, shes going to be hard with 2 mountain top finishes, two tts and another hard day, should be good.
anyway all the best and keep on trucking.
Truckee River, Northern Ca
Room with a view, after 3hr hike
Hi all, Iots has happened since I last wrote; namely the CSC crit, Airforce classic and Mt Hood classic. I finished up training at altitude in park city and flew out of SLC to Washington DC via Arizona, 8 hours later I’m passed out on my hotel bed, awaiting a balls out 100km crit the next day, CSC. Next day we did the crit, which was very dodgy and fast to say the least, matched with a bunch of crashes. Airforce was the next day and I swear the speed didn’t drop below 45 all day, we raced 180km full gas single file, didn’t have much zap in the legs but was happy to get team mate across to the selection late in the race, he ran a close 2nd. Good result, plus we won the teams gc. Good payday at least. Mt Hood and 14hrs of transit time was next, got to bed very late… Spent the next couple days riding around Hood river, beautiful place, shame about the unpredictable weather.
Prologue didn’t quite go to plan, but managed to run 6th in the mountain top finish the next day, didn’t have the kick at the crunch with 500 to go. The tt was solid but blew up like no tomorrow on the second climb and lost a fair bit of time. The following day I was planning on my run to the final podium, unfortunately I was brought down by a stray Bissell rider who was answering the call to nature on a steep descent at 50mile/hr in strong cross winds (very smart on his behalf). Managed to run 10th on the mountain top but simply was hurting to much from going over the hangers and hitting the deck. In the crit then next day the dullness in the legs continued, managed to sit in and finish 10th on final gc. Ok considering. Next is Nature Valley in Minneapolis, Mn, I’ve been staying with my Uncle, Derek, the opening tt was the worst tt I think I’ve ever done, complete with pissing rain, road bike, puncture mid race and Karl Menzies chasing me at 30sec, the motivation wasn’t that high to begin with. The crit in the evening was pretty sketchy, managed to finish mid bunch. Starting to get power back in left leg following crash, mixing it up in yesterdays road race, complete with 2km deep gravel section. Got caught up in a few crashes in the finishing circuits, but managed to finish in the bunch. Got a downtown twilight crit tonight, a hard 150km road race tomorrow and the hardest crit in America, Stillwater, on Sunday. Next is tour de nez starting next thursday.
I hope all is well back home and keep riding hard. ciao
Hi all, lots has happened since we last parted ways a couple weeks ago. Yes I’ve been training hard on the bergs of late, and I moved up to 7000ft to this mint little town called park city, 30 min east of Salt lake. We did a couple weekends of racing up at this nice lake, north of Ogden and had some local crits to keep the legs ticking over. Unfortunately for reasons out of my control I will not be doing what I was hoping to be a major goal for the year, tour of beauce. Instead I’ll be racing CSC on the 30th of May (fast, flat 100km crit…cant wait…), airforce classic (again a flat 100mile road race), but then I’ve managed to hook myself up with a local team from Salt Lake, Cole Sports, to do Mt Hood in Portland from the 3-7th of June. With plenty of climbing and two time trials I hope to rectify my non start in beauce with some solid results. After that I’m off the do the Nature Valley gp in Minasoda, 10-14th June, which has a prologue, two hard crits and two cross wind days so again I’ll look for results. After this I’m looking to do Tour de Nez in Nevada City, ca with a masters team, Amgen Giant, 18-21 June, complete with hard crits and circuit races.
Hopefully after that I should be going well enough, then I’m probably going back to Park city for 2-3 wks then going to Superweek in Chicago 8-26 July, with the aim of getting race ks before I go to Cascade in Bend, Or, 22-26 July, which really suits me with lots of solid days and a tt to complete. Then Its Tour of Utah, 18-23 August, where I hope to be in with a shot of winning the young riders jersey and maybe a stage win (wishful thinking). I’ve reconnded a few of the days, man this is going to be a suffer-fest. Day 1 is like 120miles, climbing 8 miles up a canyon from the gun, then a little later you hit a 9km berg, steep too, rolling for the next 50-60 miles then up “Big mtn” then down into Salt Lake, and thats apparently the easier of the road stages…anyway I better split as I’m about to get piked up…thanks for catching up, from the side of the road on the Mountain Dell exit, ciao.
Now I’m in no way endorsing that you go to one of these joints, even though it seems inevitable that you’ll eventually stumble into one in the US as they seem to be on every corner. Where they lack in real quality brews, like at Cinos or Bookla, Starbucks is a sure fire way to a half decent brew. You know every one severs the same cup, whatever you order, so its a safe bet when in dire straights for that pre/mid/post ride brew that one envisions on seemingly every ride. Try to avoid the fancy flavours, many of which are 20+ syllables and the frapa-whatch-macall-its, the smallest size would be considered a large to most people and be prepared to fork out for it to, these guys ain’t cheap! Rating 2.5/5, passRecommended you try the house brew, often the best 
This past few weeks I’ve been training at altitude in Ogden, UT, 40mins north of Salt Lake City. I’ve been mainly doing alot of climbing in the mountains, many of which to choose from depending on the level of suffering one wishes to inflict on a given day, and crusing around the salt pans for recov days, and the odd Burrito thrown in for fun. Its been great here, with two mid week crits (tues/weds) and racing over the weekend, theres plenty of oppertunities to get some good speed work in the evening and 3-4 hours of climbing in the morning. Ive been going out mountain biking with some of the guys I’m staying with, which has been a blast, cheers for waiting up for me boys! Coming up to a decent block of racing before a mid season break and then back into it for part 2.
Post Bisbee I had couple days off I got my butt to Silver City NM for the tour of gila, first couple days weren’t too bad, was argressive covering the breaks, now let me tell you at 2000+m you’re good for about 30sec of attacking before your heart rate sky rockets and your eyes seem to pop out. There was a couple times I got away with none other than old mate F. Landis, and it went something like he pulls through, I pull through, then we both blow to pieces and do our best impersantion of the ‘wood pecker’ so not to get dropped. Next came the time trial, and boy was I up, unfortunately my seat dropped 50mm just after starting, I knew SRAM neutral was at the top of the climb (7km in) so I nailed it to the top to try and fix the issue. By this time I’d figured out that it wasn’t worth stopping so I did my best in my BMX position and ran 15th, beating some serious hitters and coming 1st U23 in the process. The crit followed, it was a bit of a brothel, with crashes left, right and centre being on the menu. On the final day I managed to make the EB (early break) with a sizeable group and we got a 3 minute gap leading into the 1st of three 10km climbs in the last 50km. I got caught near the top of the second climb and couldn’t hold the Armstrong group tempo for long, managing to hold onto what was left of the second group so we could mantain our 2nd on teams GC. Phil, as you know, smoked Lance, Horner and Levi and won with daylight between the gap.
I’m now in Salt Lake City in Utah for the next 3-4 weeks of hard training in prep for my big goal this year, the tour of beauce. I’ve just got ten home from a weekend in St George, southern utah, where we killed time doing some knarley mtb rides, plenty of road ks in the Zions national park and par-took in a triathlon bike leg, trying out some new Edge team wheels, which where mint. Looking forward to some more jaunts in the wilderness on the road and trail, can’t wait! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the last of the good weather back home, she’s finally starting to heat up over here.
ciao
Giving it some gas
Backyard view where I’m staying in Ogden, Utah. Its ok I guess…
Powder mountain in the background…believe me she’s not to be disrespected, there’s no hairpins so its fun to go down at 110kmhr in full tuck, not so going up though.
I’m kick’n back in a querrky little joint that goes by the name of Bisbee in Arizona. I’m here racing the 3 day stage race preparing for the NRC Tour of Gila that starts in a few days, but as both are races at 5000-7000ft in altitude I’m using this race to get used to the altitude. Only got a roadie tomorrow, had a mint prologue up through town on the friday, all uphill, nasty piece of work she was, gave it a bit of gas and ran 10th. Ok but kick’n myself I didn’t nail it, but shit happens I guess, the roadie today was pretty easy, really windy, and PZ and I chilled in the bunch until the uphill kick, with a k to go, with Pz on the wheel we were put into the gravel, nice bloke, I ate shit and phil managed to get round the carnage to run 2nd. In the arvo tt phil won easily and I reamed myself on clinchers and a road bike to get well beaten. Note to self, you can’t win on a road bike when everyone else has tt bikes. Anyway I’m staying with the local postie in town, top bloke, goes by the name of dave but I like to call him “pat” lol. We are going back to Tuscon tomorrow and then driving to Silver City new mexico for Gila then hopefully I’ll do Joe Martin the following week in Arkansas. After that I’m going to Salt Lake City in Utah for a month to stay with friends then unsure as to next race. Things are looking good though, I won the U23 classification in Sea Otter last weekend and was climbing strongly, even though Bissel, Colavita and Landrover had 8 guys each I was up there. Anyway I got to have a feed as I’m Marvin… Next time I’ll be checking in from the Gila monster. ciao
Friendly roadside critters…don’t venture off the path
Gates pass, Tucson
Gates pass looking into Tucson
Hay not much has happened since last time I left a post, moved into a new place in downtown San Diego which is a nice place to live, just a little hard to get out of the traffic too train though, think I’ll be hooking up some quite roads and highly illegal and suspect moves on the bike, but I shall not further incriminate myself. I’ve done a few crits this past couple weekends, won a bit of money in the first one and some primes in the second but all the crits here tend to be on big, 6 lane roads, with 120-150 starters, a bunch kick is 9/10 on the cards. Feeling really strong though which is good as I have 4 days of racing up at Monterary this weekend, then I’m going to Arizona for a 3day race a day later, then straight to New Mexico for a 4 day race there. So at least I have a few thing s to look forward to, and there not crits! Uni is ticking along, which is good, got a couple assignments to do so I’d better get onto that… keep training hard ciao
Hi, since my last words alot has happened. Firstly we raced Redlands last weekend, which was an awesome event and very professional, congrats on team mate Ben Day winning the prologue, which meant sitting in the wind all weekend but also meant he ended up 3rd in GC. I did OK in the TT considering I hadn’t seen the course or ridden the tt bike prior to the race…first roadie was 100mile fairly flat and windy stage, we were doing 100kmhr + in the tail wind and 20 into it, I was over it by the finish. Day 3 was a hard, fast, 200 man crit in downtown redlands, I don’t need to go further…sketchy to say the least and the final day was a 5km climb, 5km descent lap so a hard day at the office indeed. I’ve moved into a little place with a BMC and RockRacing guy 10miles north of San Diego CBD, right on the coast, which is nice. Been soaking up the sun this past couple of days, trying to get the legs back in order as have two big money crits in LA this weekend to look forward to. I’ve grown accustomed to American style drip coffee and bagels, I mean $1.50 for a bottemless cup of Joe isn’t half bad when its like $4 US for a cap thats shitehouse anyway. Went to a group ride this morning that rode through the big Army base just south of Dana point, they check your ID on entry/exit and the roads are pretty quite to train on, plus its on the beach which is always good. Anyway I better split as I’ve got dinner to cook. ciao.
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