Bonus Footage....

NORBA #2- Firestone STXC / XC

Well here we are back at good old Solvang library..pretty relaxing here and has a sweet little powerpoint hookup that we are running all out crap outt to charge up for the next few days or so...man it was a big race weekend...massive to say the least..massive and friggin painful but rad at the same time..stxc was on the saturday afternoon with the Greendogg fronting up for Semi Pro class. The course used the first section of the main xc track, with a fast and bumpy fireroad section before hooking back up and over a ridgeline, coupla tricky tight corners and a dh chute and back onto the home straight. Maybe just under 2km a lap, and friggin dusty too. Long straights and tight corners...ouch. Green pulled hard for 14th place finsh and after watching scared the hell outta me of what's too come. Okay i gotta say i get pretty nervous before races, especially big ones...but when you are waiting to be called up with guys like K-Bomb, JHK, Trebon, Rad Ross, Wicks etc etc it was friggin insano to the mega. Absolutely mind blowing. So my 21st plate number meant diddly squat, getting call up pretty much second last row. Man stxc is as cool as shit, the music is pumpin, the commentator is on full peak and so was I after a coupla cans of SOBE Adrenaline..nice.

Off the line it was hell crazy..not just the pace but the dust sending me completely blind and forming a thick paste combined with the sweat/spit/snot/water from my face. I took some risks and moved up a fair chunk on that first lap but the pace was waaaaaay faaast...from then on the rest of the race was a bit of a blur, formed a chase group of three off the back of 'group hitters' and it hurt like hell for the next 30mins...coming into three laps to go we were catching an ailing Carl Decker but ran outta track. 16th at the end of the day and apart from feeling completely physically smoked i was pretty pumped with it..man you even get a free wet towel over the line courtesy of Gatorade...did I mention this place rocks!

It was pretty cool to catch up with the only other fellow Aussie on the XC circuit and NORBA pro Miller-time who smoked it for 7th place..

Wanted: Hot umbrella holding startline babe for young Aussie XC shagger...

JHK hookin' through the bottom sweeper..damn Green takes some madd photos...anyone for a slide night?

Cause.....

...and effect.

After doing a pretty solid XC lap on the friday at just under an hour i was pretty happy to hear the news they cut our laps from three down to a respectable two. My legs pulled up pretty flat in my morning roll out on Sunday morning but were completely opposite for my warm up later in the afternoon for a 2.30pm start. Green finished just off the box for 6th in Expert class and impressing the locals with his Tinker dreads, Kabush chops and soon to be Tonkin beard. Startline call up was pretty much at the back again but managed to sneak up a bit with a bit of a shuffle. Okay so this was a new one..full solo act singing of the US National anthem before the 2min countdown. Off the start it was once again crazyville, but I managed to weave my way and by after the first three kms' or so was on the back of the lead bunch containing the all the high rollers! Sweet as. So I lasted for only about another km before forming my own group and going out waaay too hard for what was going to be a long hot day with temps in the 30degs and no shade. In the top twenty and feeling good coming into the second and last 20km lap I turned the screw on the climb and split the four up taking one with me. When things are good things are good and I probably needed to pace myself a little better with the last section of the course featuring a long exposed climb and some dead singletrack. The last few kms were just a numbing blur of running on empty and it sucked getting past of the final drag coming into the 1km to go sign. Over the line it was another lovely fresh Gatorade towel and on the verge of passing out. In fact I suffered like a dog until lator that evening. In the end it 17th place which and two spots outta the Arthur Ashe. So I gotta say after the first weekend Im pretty damn satisfied and looking forward to the next round this weekend at Fontana. The legs are good and i think I'm only gonna get stronger since that was my first mtb race since Oceania's late March and was a pretty full on travel week. Thanks to those who have left comments and emails its always rad to hear from home. Peace out....cw.

Word On The Street Is..

So been on the course the last coupla days and the best way i can describe it is somewhat of a bastard hybrid mix between the the Lysterfield Comm Games track and the Stromlo Nationals venue....the lap is pretty much 95% smooth singletrack that just winds its way all around and over this ranch...with absolute no shade it is a true bake fest out there..oh yeah..a lap too is just over 20km with three laps for the pro men its gonna be a real showdown.

One disappointing factor is that it has no technical sections whatsoever, but in saying this there are some pretty fast and steep traversing descents across the sides of these hills and if you over cook them you're pretty well screwed.

So its gonna be a pretty damn fast race..saw some of the big hitters floatin about today in tha pits, think we might see some 29'er setups out there cause it would be perfect I reckon.

Tomorow is STXC first up, got plate number 21 so that will be a pretty good grid start I hope....USA tip of the day..a 20oz Americano Expresso Coffee will fully send skinny XC racer boys around the bend.. lator cw.

Stars, Stripes and Burritos..

Well this is sweet. Sitting down here in Solvang library, state o' California in downtown USA with some rad wireless hookup. So this is officially day two after a pretty standard flight over on tues morning. Survived the pretty lame plane food okay and didn't go too stir crazy.... a good start. With no stop overs it was straight to LA airport and to a massive friggin line up to get in to the country and with a coupla good old eye and finger scans we were in...radness to the max. So steppin' outta the Airport we cruised over to pick up our RV motorhome rig. Heading outta town on the 101 highway it was crazy just how many friggin big pick up trucks there are..sorry utes. They all have massive chrome grills and 22inch wheels n' shit...complete with 50year old soccer mums behind the wheel.

Bigger is better, Green marvels at the 1 litre Gatorade.

So we picked up the rig no worries and after sorting out which side of the road is which..okay we only messed up once...and well potentially one other time..we were away. The thing hooks pretty well on the highway with a V10 under the bonnet and we scooted up to Santa Barbara, about halfway up the coast to our destination for the NORBA at Los Olivos.

Sweet position for a Coke machine at the National Park....

Unfortunately they were outta this model when we picked up our RV....

So here we are now staying on Lake Cachuma just outside of the main town of Solvang. Which apart from being one of Armstrongs training camp places, is the Danish capital of the US, so if we down enough Budweiser we could be confused the next day that we are in Europe.

One thing I gotta rave about here is the real deal USA burrito. Friggin awesome, the best, just fully madd. For 6 bucks the things weighs close to a kilo, with chicken, rice, pinto beans etc.. in a perfectly steamed tortilla..haven't eaten anything else for dinner yet and dont really plan to!

So this is where we are staying on Lake Cachuma, pretty cool spot with squirrel's and blue jays about.

Plan to head out to the course this afternoon,....cheers y'all.. winston..

Last Ditch Efforts.

Well the bags are pack and one sleep to go. Always fun chasing around for stuff you forget or doesn't arrive in the mailbox. K's mum came through with the goods big time with fixing up some new GT shirts to fit a skinny lad such as myself....will be a hit with the US ladies for sure...well hopefully! Other than that took a nice roll round the Nongs for a last time in a while and..yeah...next time stateside..14hrs on a jumbo with the Green tmw..stay tuned to Winn brothers racing 07' over tha next few weeks...cheers cw.

The Final Countdown.

For those who know me pretty well they can testify that I am a big sticker freak...I have stickers from Pearl Jam shows four years ago that are still unused cause well..the front of a diary only last a year, exercise books fill up and so on...don't want to waste such quality! So I was pretty stoked to come across some genuine old skool factory SRAM decals the other day and knew they had to make it on the new rig! I mean come on, a flaming truck with shark teeth...hell yeah!

Had to give the burg dogg new sticker love too...big is better

So with two days to go the mad packing has begun, albeit pretty slowly but I hate being unorganised. Fronted up for G-vale again this mornin and had a ball. Been awhile since I'd done some road crits and they're damn good fun, especially when there is a shipping container to dodge in turn two and a beige Camry coming into the final straight..plus all the looks you get from roadies when you wear black socks.

For all the bike nerds out there here's my new rig with some road wheels that I'll use for tarmac time in the yankee land. Runs like a dream..almost thought of taking it to the crit today..sure beats the hell out of just black socks....lator cw.

Random Rambling....

Well the legs are freshly toasted after another day pedalling circles. In frickin awesome weather might I add too, we need the rain but logistically it's nice not to be getting stuff clean and dry all the time. Got some sweet stickers for the burg dog's back window too to put up....hard to add any more class to an 88' Corolla though.... Haven't been off the new Zaskar since building it up. Even better running with the SID up front. Kinda an exciting feeling now that my race entries are done..I guess reality is sinking in that next week I'll be lining up stateside....first event's gonna be a STXC...in other words 20mins of glass eating pain..bring it. Unfortunately won't be under lights like at Arizona. Not much is happening on other fronts, just busy trying to organise some last minute bits and pieces. Sucks when stuff can't couriered up the Nongs being classified as 'country'...hold on..I do have a farm style gate runnin. Graduated from Uni on Monday. Pretty hilarious ceremony really...I think I'll refrain from posting any pictures with me in the gown and the pointy hat. Well the food was pretty good at least and seeing some old faces and swapping war stories from term one was nice. Lator. cw.

Back In Black

Travelling for new rides seems to be the weekend go at the moment...today was another cracker out to the Macedon Ranges with some new faces including the lads from Freewheel Mag and all the way from Canberra new Enduro Mag Editor and 24hr solo National Champ Willo.
Definitely worth the 1.5 stint on the road for some dusty old school hardpack singletrack and some pine forest fun.

Was the first outing on my new GT Zaskar race bike, although still awaiting a SID World Cup to arrive next week. I've actually been a long time fan of the GT hardtail frames, since back in the dayz when Woodsy and J-Man (not to mention Pezzadog too - who is convinced im riding his career backwards!) were charging around in the blue and yellow. Straight outta the box I'm stoked just how well it goes, pinnin' the pine forest singletrack with ease being nice and responsive alongside the superior power and feel of Juicy Ultimates. I love Avid brakes dammit! With a long top tube length its nice and stable at high speeds and feels equally as good on the climbs to stretch out and put the power down through a stiff frame...overall definitely one hell of a race bike..

Willo shows us how he deals with the Canberra winters!

So the Sea Donkey is in full swing at the moment and sure beats the hell outta following the football...check it. cw

PS-If anyone is interesting in upgrading to a Yeti ASR-SL drop us a line..email link via 'profile' section..

Winds Of Change.

So the news came a few weeks back that there will be no formal Yeti Team to call home next season...disappointing but the reality of the game I guess. Gotta give major props' to Paul and Perren at Yeti, two of the greatest guys you'll ever meet and share a beer with along the way...or five...and have definitely taught me thing or two not just about racing, but life itself.

So after four awesome years flyin' the turquoise flag the winds of change have come through, and I'm stoked to announce a new partnership riding GT Bicycles alongside continuing on a great relationship with SRAM components. Big shout out thanks too all the guys at Monza Imports for being able to organize a new rig super quick before I head off to the US and I'm definitely looking forward to trying to push GT back into the XC racing market...just like the good ole' days that Eva tells me about! Time to go ridin'...Cheers...cw.

Around The Bend.

It's an awesome feeling when you have one of those 'break through' rides where you try and throw yourself out and you body just takes it and steps up to the next level. The little victory of going a few metres further in a timed strength effort, or being able to hold the big ring up a climb you never have been able to before. That was today and I can tell you it's a great feeling, one of pure progress and achievement...and the fitter you get the harder they are to come by.

Today was by far one of the best training sessions I've had and in reality I hardly even ventured that far outta the Nongs. I guess I'm pretty lucky to have such a cool training ground on the doorstep...and somehow I think if i didn't, I'd be....fencing?!? Okay maybe that's a little extreme. But that's one great thing I love about this sport..there is no confinement to stadium walls where the hoop is always 10ft no more or no less, and the court lines don't change from one week to the next. The lines you follow only end when you want them to...it's up to you how far and in which direction you want to go....over n' out...cw.

Strap In...Hold On.

Firestone NORBA #2 startline : 21days. There will be plenty of days ahead like this spent in lockdown riding the mechanical bull.



Yesterdays efforts were a good reminder of the age old saying of you get nothing if you give nothing. I guess ergo sessions are some of the best times to combine my two favourite things, loud music and hammering the pedals...harder you go the more the hurt...nice and simple.

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch...

Howdy..been awhile. Term One of school has finished and now I am officially unemployed! Hell yeah! As hectic as it was always gonna be, my first term out in the real world as a teacher was pretty good...but maybe not for me just right now... The exciting news is that I have three weeks to live as a full time athlete to prepare...prepare for what you ask? Well for those of you who haven't heard I will be leaving for the US at the end of the month for some h-core, in your face, beat me with a stick and then some NORBA (or should I say NMBS...ah whatever) action and also hittin' up some Mountain States Cup events outta Colorado. Radness to the max. So needless to say I'm pretty damn friggin pumped with the whole thing..and the US racing season has already started last weekend with K-Bomb schooling them all....and have I got some work to do! Challenges we seek...

Save me a spot at the back fellas....

Racing wise the Oceania's were a mix bag for me...good in the fact I was on track for a season best result in 6th place with a couple to go and the form is getting there....but bad in the fact if DNF when my pedal came out and I kissed goodbye a nice smattering of UCI points to improve on the current world ranking of 52! I love the early season races when your name is infront of Absolon.....

In other exciting news the brand spankin' Kings Of Leon album was released last week and it's been on high rotation since I passed over my twenty to the lovely lass at the record store...it rips...almost reason to grow my hair and a dirty southern beard....

Eva and I have been smashin the mtb the last few days, including coming across some hidden North Shore ramps just outta the Nongs..huck anyone?

Remember when you were a kid and you pretended you were Superman and were flying not running...same situation..all about visualization!

Oh yeah stayed tuned for some more exciting changes in the wings for 07....and thanx to those who heckled this blog back to life.....lator y'all, cw.