Stock Standard

So Rise Against are my new favourite band at the moment. Dang they are coming out here too, playing the friday night before the Kona 24...always bad timing..although could be highly inspirational..and bruising at the same time...check em out if your into that sort of thing, but "Revolutions per Minute" is a killer listen and on high rotation right now..new Mars Volta soon too...radness...who would have thought such crazy assed music could come from two guys living in Amsterdam???

Rolled the 57' around today..its like having an in built coach saying pin it on every decent...

Minus The Asterisk

So Worlds has been run and won for another year...you know its a dog hard day when the rainbow is won with an av. speed under 20km/h...kinda disappointed not to have been there after a box worthy ride there at Oceanias back in March..one of the best weeks ever of riding, racing and a whole lotta shit talkin'... that reminds me I guess I'm senior this season now too...damn the U23 years go quick...but the future is always brighter than the past cause whats done is done and right now each tick of the clock is edging closer to Oct 27th the day of finshing 17 years straight o' study...

....had a ripper of a day with Joel R, hittin' the Casey Fields Crit and ending up just outside the coin in a sprint with 6th..a vast improvement on a circuit that usually aint too kind...probably one of the strangest crits i've done, full of sprinters who aren't so keen to work but are ready to tear shreds at the end over weeds like me..frustrating but was kinda funny being in a sprint mix for once...hope everyone had as good weekend as i did..lator...cw

Catching the Worm

The speed shakes descending down the elbow from home told me she was pretty damn close to being under the magic zero up in lyrebird city being just 3deg off the mtn.... whats with roadie bunches and early pre dawn starts..maybe they just have real lives to attend to in the afternoon with wives and girlfriends...hmmm

Caught a ride with the enduro crew today, Jack and Ash from Felt Racing, Marathon man Ivan, Kona's king of the two fours Andrew and Specialized Pink powerhouse Joel it was off on tour de Nongs...

Yellingbo general store predicts the future...another reason to go ride your bike..

Ive fresh from a European Marathon campaign put some late hurt on the bunch..

Great day, great roads, great people..it doesnt get Eddie Vedder than that...

chowder, cw.

It Gets Worse...

...before its all over... last night saw a uni requirement to attend a VFL football training session to my utmost excitement and pure enjoyment...at least the company was good...couldnt help but laugh when the team shut it down after only 50minutes though...

The crew braved the brisk Frankston air..Jono said it best- you know you've had a good night in Frankston when your car is still there when you return...

There were definitely a few shady characters about..check out this goof..only in Frankston eh?

The Long And The Short Of It

There is something about Bendigo that is growing on me at the moment, most likely the constant kick ass weather up there and the endless amounts of cool trails...or maybe its the fact you dont have to climb a mountain to get home regardless of if the legs are still in one piece or not...

Rocks and plenty of em' typify the riding up there which is a nice change to the slick root infested Nongs and is perfect for the new five seventy five....

Meet the madman behind the Burg Dog's current racing mods...losing a bit of height and gaining a bit of street cred with the gear stick is the latest project...sweet flannel dude..

Timothy Adrian Rogers graces the walls of the Green's room...'a real honour and a treat'...one of this countries best songwriters and a haircut to match...look and learn kids cause you aint gonna find 'real' music on sat morning Video Hits, only manufactured pretty faces hidden behind ProTools...

Today was time to put the race face on again for the Castlemaine 6hr Enduro (had i forgotten the pain of the last enduro too soon?..actually yes is the answer, sitting here now writing completely in the hurt box.) I had a pretty good start and soon found myself at the pointy end of things with a bit of a rhythm happenin' and a nice time gap. But alas some things are too good sometimes, and with plenty of rocks sharp enough to cut steak on the course I fell victim to a flat...with my Big Air CO2 giving me water icy shite (which was refreshing on the fingers in the heat, but completely useless for inflating the tube) things weren't looking too flash...so precious time slipped away from luckily getting things sorted from the numerous friendly competitors. I was eventually away again but lost one hell of a lot of time and more importantly the lead. Damn! I figured i had dropped well outta the top ten for solo and the solution was simple, just damn pedal and dont worry about anything else! With constant passing and some borderline control piloting of the 575 I worked my way back into 2nd to finish the day so all was not lost.

The madatory end of lap dismount sucked ass giving the legs another opportunity to cramp and look like I'm doing a Peter Garrett dance impression.

Thanks to Ash's Felt boys and Joel and his Specialized crew for the cheers of support each lap...much appreciated fellas...Lator everyone and thanks for reading, cw.

Days of the New

As a cross country diehard i never really pictured finding myself sitting on more than just a little bit of squish if any at all. How times change. The trail bike revolution is upon us, and i can see just the hell why it is so damn popular with the kids these days cause the grin just doesn't wear off. Almost 6 inches of travel and the thing still rockets along the trail like nothing else...another level. Hmmm, I guess the 575 is a great example why I love Yeti so much...the product is just that darn good...and I guess that's why they have the reputation they do.

So the train keeps on a rollin', and once again tomoro will be the third time in four weeks the burg dog hits the Calder for some Dingo' lovin'. Can't wait to hit the Castlemaine Enduro this weekend on the new weapon...feel like I'm counting down days till Xmas right now. Speakin' of the beloved vehicle it is still in one piece after a very, very rare inner city drive yesterday (5 hook turns for this mountain boy, a new hi score). Quite a funny day chauffeuring Rowney about cause he is from ye olde Sydney town and my knowledge of Melbourne streets is about as good as my skills with the ladies...all though not as tragic as this guy....

Best of luck for Worlds next week to everyone's favourite boy from the bubble and the smartest guy I know...have a good one Pezzadog...over and out CW

Photo Credit: GV RaceTech.

Resume Normal Transmission...

Okay Okay I'm sure its been pretty clear that the past three weeks on teaching rounds has sucked the life outta this little side project...big time...and i'm sure there might be a few people out there getting sick of seeing the same post, but you know, that's the way it rolls sometimes and i guess at the end of the day I dont want to lose site of the bigger picture..ie turnin' the cranks. So rounds are done yes, and its back on holidays...err I mean uni classes again..sorry, one and the same aint it?

So this weekend was flatout like a pancake, with plenty of time spent on the road with two wheels and four. Again I shacked up at Hotel De' Dingo fri with the Green and the ever faithful Smuggler (Probably the only bird I am seeing on a regular occasion right now.) Sat was spent grinding the nose to the stem and doing my best lemon eating face at the Rob Vernon Handicap, especially with the average tickling over 40km/h over the undulating Bendigo backroads. Also copped a fair bit of the ole' sun and heat which was nice, hopefully marks the start of getting rid of my current pasty Brit look that is oh so inevitable from a winter in the nongs.

Onwards and upwards was the plan post race, with the thoughts turning to the next day Bay 2 Bay Classic a 3hr drive away down the coast at Rosebud. Once again the sun was out and things were lookin' alright. After surviving the selection process on the first of two 55km I was pretty happy to still be at the pointy end, over a course that was always either rolly or hell windy. Or both. After digging myself out of dozens of holes trying to hang on to the Mc Flurry of attacks that went over just about every rise, the lights eventually went out midway through the final lap. Scariest moment of the race was by far the last couple of kms being completely in the box and having a couple of hundred amateur cyclists on the event organised fun ride taking up the whole road coming towards me, damn close to a head on a number of occasions...not the most logical move, especially when every race we are always drilled not to go over the centre white line...

The post race dip was absolute gold, not so when i almost dropped my ipod however.

Yep it was the grand tour weekend alright, mountains to country to beach...time for a lay down now. Lator, CW

Forty Bucks!

So teaching rounds continue this week. For those of you who may not know I am in my very final semester of a PE teaching degree (also qualified for biology/science). Yep the future generation is in safe hands....yeah right! Apart from sucking time like no other, things have been pretty good going to town on the whistle and trying to keep the youth of the nation in line. Got my Outdoor Ed class watching BMX Bandits the other day...classic stuff...we all know Nicole went on to bigger and better things but wonder what ever happened to Goose?

Hey word up to the smartest guy I know for getting a start at worlds this month....best of luck champ, last one make it count!

Mullet Watch Aug 06'- The neck is a litter warmer this month....business at the front, party at the back...as it should be. Lator, cw.