Too Four Two.

So the past two days the past two mtn bike sessions I've managed to rag it..pretty funny stuff, both being the classic slow motion, stalling and falling impacts that are always awesome to watch..luckily I was on my Pat Malone...nothing too serious but and most importantly no loss of turquoise paint. Finished up last nite the masterpiece that is an article for the upcoming FreeWheel magazine out next month..the old lady always reckons I'll become a journalist or writer of some sort..
Being first of December tmw its time to get the razor out and remove the squashed caterpillar that has been inhabiting my upper lip the past few weeks...all for a good cause but geez I don't I'll be going down that path any time soon again! Green has done the nerd.com thing and crunched the numbers for National Series Rankings after the first two rounds. I'm sitting 12^thman(!) which ain't so flash so the definite aim is to get well inside the top ten with only two rounds left...kinda sucks only having only a four round series cause if you have a bum race your pretty much screwed playing catch up for a decent result with only three rounds left.
Hey I'm selling my beloved 575 if anyone is interested, drop me an email for further details, this bike is a weapon..a worthy investment for sure...
Anyway have to go nerd shopping for a new phone this afternoon, hopefully one that gives me some decent reception up here in the slums and cut through the burn out smoke..dammit people if they can put a man on the moon for crying out loud...lator cw.

Blink And You'll Miss It!

Round #2 of the National Series was down ole' Hobart way and I couldn't help but have Marley's Redemption Song playing in my head in the days leading up to it after getting off to a slightly less than impressive start to the series at Yarramundi. Can't help but just laugh at the weekend that just went down as it was game on as soon as me and the Green touched down at the airport. After finally getting the hire car on the road we were flagged down just 5km lator to have some taxi bus driver rant and rave that our rear wheel was outta wack and if we kept going it could be tripod city and a whole lotta sparks to boot. Sure enough it was confirmed that said wheel was clearly on tha piss and dangerously so... it was back to airport to get down graded to some sort of another excuse for a car..I think there was a whole lotta truth in Eva's theory that the mainland sends their thrashbox hire cars to "retire" on the apple isle...its a rental, don't be gentle kids...

Okay so i had to post this pic of the most neatest, organised and smartest guy I know...well most days anyway! A rare Delacour moment...hopefully I still have a ride next year after this post!!!

So hire car debacle number two occurred when Pez and Co. Tarago refused to start. Eva's theory once again solidified....

Hobart's number one sports celeb and part time tradesman Taberlay kindly provided the accommodation for the stay and demonstrated what happens when the paparazzi get too close...an ass kickin' Olympian style..

There were plenty of airport hire seen cars out and about...

I'm sure you can guess what happens next....



....happy birthday Pezzadogg!!

Cannondale/Maxxis revealed a new international signing, a certain Manuel Luis Jose Hernandez III all the way from Mexico...pinned it for fourth place too the young shagger...

Oh yeah the racing...my 20th place at Rnd #1 meant I was well and truly in cattle class on the startline, some four rows back but with a wide open grassy start there was plenty of opportunity to get the old elbows out and I proceeded to get a little closer to the pointy end finding myself well in the top 10 as we hit the first singletrack climb. I gotta say it was strange to ride this course in the dry when the only memory your brain has is of a complete mud fest...kinda was hoping it to be the same again to be honest and was excited by some early morning rain but had no effect on the dry hardpack. One man with a point to prove was D Cooper (Scott/Ritchey) who absolutely smoked it off the start line and got the elusive holeshot. So I was pretty happy to be floating around 6th place for the first lap and still in touch to see the leaders on the brutal switchback climbs but was trying not to get too excited early cause if you blow late in the race on a course with this amount of solid climbing it would be pretty easy to lose a heap of places.

Photo ©: Mikkeli Godfree/Cyclingnews.com

It was clear however that I just didn't have that capacity to hold that speed for another 6 laps, so slowly but surely the drift began, not being able to stick to wheels of "Speedy Hernandez" (Cannondale/Maxxis) and then some late chargin from the much respected Flemmo (Trek) (above pic) and team mate Pez. So it was consolidation cricket for the last couple of laps, not being able to close the gaps down and snuck inside the top ten for 9th place with a hell of alot of upper body fatigue to boot... At the end of the day I wasn't super pumped with the result, but on the other hand wasnt dissappointed at all, giving me a good benchmark for where to aim at round three.... and as always giving me a whole bunch of things that need to be worked on in the meantime....better get too it..thanks for reading y'all....cw

No Harm In Trying..Or Scaring...

So Norris has got me on the whole "Movember" program this month...kinda dialed me up a little late so I'm still at bit patchwork quilt but somehow by the end of the month I dont think I'll have Big Merv shaking in his whites...fun and games however for a good cause...I wonder what sorta tash action he has runnin..? Think might start my own one next year with "Choptober"...
Possibly safe to say that I have finally come down a little from redlining all last week from three pj shows and the associated madness...good times, good times...especially PE bash fri nite to finish it all off...

So finally there is some racing for me this weekend, down at the apple isle that I have fond memories of good times both on and off the bike...Last season I had my best ride of the series down there taking out the big W in U23's and 5th overall in the mud and slop that was... and just the way I like it...either way dry or wet the Jacobs designed course kills it and I cant wait...

Oh Yeah..Trebon wins USGP o' Cross again...schweet..cross rules big time and I dont see why it cant get off the ground here..then again maybe we should look at more numbers for XC first..still I'll follow it anyday..either that or its football in the winter...sigh..

Tuesday The 14th of November 2006.

What a nite. What a show. Holy shit! Being right at the front dead centre I was absolutely trippin' as the lights went down, still not recovered from a surprise guest spot with Eddie coming out and busted a tune with support Kings of Leon who were awesome again. I cant even begin to try and describe the next two hours that followed...I dont have the brain skills to convey the feeling into words..just mental...Completely different set from last night, opening with Go and Mike playing the lead solo with the guitar behind his head! Then the big guns kept firing, hittin' the gold with Last Exit, Not For You, Blood and Lukin...And then Eddies bottle of red came over the fence during a massive jam session on Crazy Mary... a rare playing of Leash too went down a treat.. and yes..as you can see from the photo above I managed to scramble for a flyin McCready pick during Life Wasted (and left me with a nice lump on the shin!), totally stoked to get one from the man who was completely on fire the whole nite, with an absolutely ball tearing solo during Even Flow and Alive...man, I was checkin' my pocket every 2mins to make sure it was still in there cause I didn't want to lose that bad boy!

The over 2hr set ended with Porch, Indifference then I totally was off choppers when they ripped into a cover of The Who's Baba O'Reilly to finish it all off...And with the house lights up and people moving out I looked about and there it was, half camouflaged on a grey chair. A little gold guitar pick with EV scrawled in red marker....I couldn't believe it..one from the man himself...so last nite was the greatest night of my life...

Fit For Da Pit...

...as Rowney would put it. So im sitting here buzzing still after last nights first Melb show. Incredible, absolutely mind blowing...and I was only sitting up the back...and in a few hours its happening again but this time i will be front row centre...madness. So highlights?? Lot of classic stuff played off Ten, awesome gut wrenching version of Black..the set ended with Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World..then Mike started picking into Yellow Ledbetter with the house lights up and it was game on... and then took awesome turn into a cover of Hendrix's Little Wing...incredible!! So right now I've just destroyed three burritos after smacking out 160 today with the D Mac....kms, Pearl Jam and burritos, does this day get any better!!!!....over and out, cw.

Bouncing Off The Walls..

Regardless of all the variables in life there is still one constant.....time waits for no man..and I'll be screwed if I know what the hell happened this week that I am now sitting down typing away Sunday evening. Needless to say it has been a great week, putting in quality lycra time, with highlights including rolling some beach kms with the Mac Attack and heading out for a quick curry on sassa yesterday...quite funny to be rolling with first time sassa riders who were quite taken aback from the customary sting...especially this time o' the year where it is overgrown as hell..still that trail has more X factor than Ritchie Benuad and keeps me coming back

Oh and I managed to get hitched whilst out and about too.. supercoach there in the background there was the best man and Eva conducted the ceremony in fine fashion...honeymoon was short cause I still had coupla hours training left to do...she was cool wit it..


The pic just doesn't do justice how much crap was caught in Macca cassette...the magic of sassa again people...

I guess sometimes its nice to take a step away from the bike riding world everynow and then and get amongst other passions, keep the balance so to speak...so there are no more sleeps after tonight before I go completely off my head for in my opinion the greatest band in the world pretty much all next week...I remember last time I saw them in 02' and almost losing it when they were setting up their equipment on stage before they even came on....tomorrow nites first show will be the kinda warm up with seating up the back..then race day is no doubt the tues nite show being front row centre on the floor ready to throw down big time and thurs nite final melb show will be back on the floor for last lap glory...bring it...doesn't get eddie vedder than this...out, cw.

Cup Day Climbing.

Hit up Donna B today with the crew...been awhile, possibly even last cup day?? Ouch. Hell cold at the top let me tell you...but damn satisfying climb for sure. So today officially felt like a real training day after the last month of bits and pieces with a few races thrown in the mix for good measure. A truly great feeling to be out there today, legs were good and motivation was high, couldn't ask for much more really. I'm beginning to think that the little sick break was kinda good in away, put a few things into perspective and I've come out the other side in a better place.




The hard man award of the day definitely went to DJ Macca for heading up DB on only his second day back on the the bike after some time off...thats what I like about this kid, not afraid to make it hurt when it needs to happen..

So will all that has been going on the past month time slipped by to the point where in less than a weeks time it will be Pearl Jam week 2006, hitting up monday, tuesday and thursday nite melbourne shows...man it feels like last year when I hung out all night on cold concrete camping out for tix at knox..but oh, oh so worth it...theres something about the music that has captured me since day one. I've always said there are people that just hear music and people that listen to music. I think its pretty awesome that an arrangement of different sounds can take you to new places emotionally and spiritually..put some disc in and it can totally change you headspace. I think that is pretty cool.

The End Is The Beginning. I Made It!

It's over. Done and dusted as of last Thursday. I've finished my four year PE teaching degree and does it feel pretty fookin schweet right now to be done. It's kinda funny to look back over the last few years and my time as a uni student, it has been pretty good with plenty of laughs along the way and those times where there is so much to do you feel like your heads going to explode. But I think especially this year the smell of burnout smoke has been pretty strong and I've gotten pretty tired of the whole process...especially trying to find motivation for final assignments, like 2000 words on policies and procedures of school excursions....bout as dry as eating a raw weetbix. Nonetheless it's done and I've left the 'student' tag behind for good. Hello real world. Bring it. Thanks to all those who got me through, much appreciated.

So since uni has finished the foot hasn't let of the accelerator. Managed to sneak away to Buller with SRAM boys Eva and Mick for a day of pinning some awesome new trails alpine style. After coming across a big fat tiger snake sunbaking on the track early on pretty much every stick seen was questioned thereafter...

Next stop was onto Bendigo for a double header weekend with a Cyclinc and the 85km Bendigo Epic. I must say I really look forward to seeing the grin on riders faces when they learn how to get the bike drifting through a corner, or nailing a log hop for the first time.

Every time it amazes me just how dry it is up there...and its only November. Damn.

For those regular readers I think this picture says enough. RIP Smuggler.

Sunday's race was a pretty good one and I guess my first official 'epic'. With only a week's riding in the legs after being on the whole lung infection program, I really wasn't expected too much other than a solid days training really. I found myself in the lead bunch of eight which pretty much casually stayed together for the whole race with only a few attacks along the way from the official fastest man in October. Feeling pretty good I really wasn't sure how long it was going to last until the last 20km when Spink and Hucker began to turn the screws when we left the fireroads and hit some pretty nasty steep climbs in the baking sun. Suddenly the selection process begun with the gaps between wheels grow bigger and the . From then on it was desperation cricket trying to hang on to my fourth place until what seemed like forever to the end. The last 7km things were terribly painful but there was also a good feeling in my head of exceeding my expectations of the day. So fourth it was and the reality is with uni out the way now things can only get better....madd...over and out, cw.