Next Stop...Colorado!

It has been a busy day. Early ride down the beach with the bro who ripped it up on his fixie along beach road. Hats off to the man who made me laugh as he put the hurt on guys riding $10,000 rigs smashing along the most popular stretch of road.


And I thought this was pretty impressive the other too from the dread head bloke...only the Green could come up with such dangerous madness! Get this man a start on Gladiators I reckon!

So this is it, plane leaves in the morning...catch ya when I'm Stateside!


See you soon babe!

As The Clock Ticks.

Only 3 days left now before I board the big bird in the sky and touch down in the land of burritos, Budweiser and 'the boss'. After years of travelling with Perren back in the Yeti days I think i learned a fair bit from the man in the art of packing and being organised. Definitely a worthwhile apprenticeship. So i find myself almost at a point where im scratching my head this week that I have maybe forgotten to do something. I guess the strangest feeling is the fact I wont be taking a bike over with me. For once I will be a 'normal' traveller with just a bag and I'm quite looking forward to not crossing my fingers waiting in front of the 'Oversize Baggage' doors at my destination. Sadly I'll miss out on getting those odd looks from the public lugging a massive bag or box around the terminals tho...never forget one trip where one J Dwyer had some lady convinced we had boxes full of cricket bats...hook, line and sinker...good times. So I will be riding a Giant TCR Advanced Team this season, being the team's weapon of choice over the last few years. For the past coupla months I have been lucky enough to borrow the bro's 5yr old 9spd Avanti Kona to train and race on after saying goodbye to the infamous Yeti/Dale. Sure, not the most fanciest of equipment, but in terms of training it has absolutely kicked ass. I mean it is heavy as all hell and is hard to accelerate and gives me the best satisfaction to finish races on where guys on a carbon whatevers hit the showers early. So hopefully it's been a nice little unique advantage to my preparation for this coming season (remember Rocky and Ivan Drago?), and thanks bro for helping me out in jam.

I have taken the last few days very easy in prepartion for wanting to be fresh for the flight. The memories of my European arrival last year are not forgotten. That first week sucked with one of the worst colds I've had. Speaking of Europe, best of luck to the TIS lads who fly out, well pretty much as I type now back to Varese for another season of chasing finish lines in lycra. Rip it up lads!

Also this weekend the first NORBA kicks off in Fontucky, CA and one venue we hit up last season. To be honest, probably not that fussed that I'm not going back there this year. Sure it was an interesting experience riding a course with graffiti, burnt out cars and broken glass in places, but perhaps something you only want to experience once I reckon! Although from what Ive heard about our first stage race in Nebraska things are a little less that stellar out there too. But then again I haven't been there yet so who knows....one mans floor is another mans ceiling as they say. Lator, cw.

The Low Down.

With only 5 days left in the country I've slashed prices in the garage...the hottest item has to be a set of Avid Juicy Ultimates for a ridiculous price which have new pads and are in awesome condition...get in quick if you want the best brakes in the universe before old man winter comes along... Lator, I'm off skinny tire racing..cw.

The Brew For You To Pull You On Through

Mac and I have been smashing the kms the last coupla days and it has been mighty sweet. The transition back to a full time bike rider again has been an easy one. Getting up in the morning with out a head full of lesson plans and task to get done has been awesome, with the only focus being on getting quality out of my time spent in lycra. Yesterday we hit up Kinglake and upon return we found gold in the form of a $2.80 bottom less cup of coffee from the bakery...yes we did take advantage of this offer and were consequently pinning it the last coupla hours home into crappy block head winds. Good times, good times.

The bro is in town and last night I gave him a crash course in setting up his own blog. Yep, the moose is loose in cyber-space...beware! But I'm sure there will be some quality reading somewhere down the track no doubt...im out..cw.

Trading Whistles For Wheels.

That's it, classroom time is over. The school term has ended. I've clocked off and hung up the official three-stripe sweat pants and put the spittle encrusted whistle back in the drawer for another day. Definitely a good feeling to finish up another block of teaching and now to fully switch my focus to the racing season ahead, with only 11 or so days till I fly out. I think in terms of looking at the bigger picture, going to uni and getting my teaching degree has been a pretty wise move, with teaching such being a flexible job, but also one that is fairly stable and in demand. I know that right now as a 24 year old (yep i had a birthday last week, snuck that under the radar!) full time teaching is not what I see myself doing. But the fact that I can still use my degree and earn some good $ and pick up work here around pursuing other goals has been pretty cool.

So my birthday was spent in a sweaty pub with a few hundred people seeing these guys. This is the second time I have seen them and holy smoke do they have such a big sound for a three piece. Very impressive and like any decent gig I left pretty much deaf, dehydrated and in need of a good lie down. Lator, cw.

Crack That Whip.

For those without your head in the sand (or TV's tuned to the golf) you would know that last weekend was a massive one for cycling madness up in Bendigo. The Bendigo-nians love thier two wheeled lyrca action and every event up there has a real great atmosphere to it, and its no surprise I was keen to open my racing season there.

Photo: cyclingnews.com

Armed with the "Essential Bruce Springsteen" three disc CD set pumping through the 20 year old stock Corolla speakers, it was time to pack the car and hit the road. Yeah it was only a two and a half hour drive, and not enough to even completely hear the Boss's full catalogue, but most importantly the feeling was there..its bike racing season again! The event was the Bendigo International Criterium, the Friday night fireworks session before two nights of fixed gear thrills, culminating to Sunday nights prestigious Madison Championships on the track. Leaving school early (sorry year 9A) it was a balmy country evening and with a select field of 75 hitters it was going to be game on. With the caliber of teams such as Drapac-Porsche, SA.com and the VIS guys there was no chance of hiding. Also scattered in the field were some international guns, such as UCI America Tour leader Svein Tuft, Zac Bell and Christian Meier all coming from the land of maple syrup and professional ice hockey boxing. Nice.

Lining up somehow I squeezed my skinny frame into the second row off the grid but lost it all getting caught behind some drop-kick who couldnt get his foot in quick enough. Still we were away and my word was the pace on from the gun. We were pinning 50km/h plus through the CBD circuit in front of a solid homegrown crowd who love their bike racing and it was all happy days. The first twenty minutes I felt like my lungs were completely on fire, trying to suck down as much air as possible and hold on for grim death while some machine / humanoid set the pace on the front.

Naturally the field got sorted out rather quickly but thankfully I made the selection and kept on keeping on. And for the rest of the race it was simply a matter of holding it together, not having enough horsepower in the legs to really make a surge to the front. So it was a bunch finish for this cat and a respectable one for a guy on a 5 year old, 9 spd 105, loaner training bike.
So suck it up all you pretty boys on your fancy carbon wheels who pulled out when the oven got turned up...here's to doing it Rocky style.

These things were awesome. Basically recumbants with a chassis over the top it was in my mind a very, very , very scaled down version of NASCAR watching these bad boys boot around the track causing havoc.

Any spots left of the Rock Racing roster..I know a guy who would fit in nicely..

The Green has a new bike pretty much everytime i see him..check out his new carbon track rig..nice nice nice.

Complemented with his fixie that came all the way from Boulder and has ventured out into the local road bunches.

I think I have found a new hotspot of backyard slums racing...certinaly putting in some hard training sessions out here.

Well that's it from me for today....thanks for reading..over n' out...cw.

5 Minutes With...

..Dan McConnell. A new random feature on the Winston blog in a hope to further distract you from you work day duties. Thanks Mac for kickin' it off...

Nickname

D-Mac

What did you want to be as a kid?

All I ever wanted to do was to play AFL footy for Melbourne Demons.

If you could be any superhero who would it be and why?
Boring answer, but most likely superman. It would be pretty sweet

wearing you jocks on the outside and getting away with it.

What is the weirdest thing you have every seen?

(In order to keep this a family site..ask the man next time you see him!!)

Last CD brought?

Ministry Of Sound and JT "Future Sex Love Sounds".

What motivates you to get up in the morning?

Getting up in the morning is not the easiest thing for me, but what gets

me out of bed when it is raining, cold and windy an you have 5hrs on the

program is that the present day never comes around again so if you don't

get out of bed you will always be one day behind.

One thing you can never leave home without?

Well if that is not my phone it would have to be my necklace.

Get Em' While They're Hot!

New items and price drops added at the garage...and no, I dont mean they are back of faded canary yellow Camira station wagon in Frankston at 9.52pm on a Sunday night kinda of 'hot'...all legit here folks...anyone for a game of three card shuffle?! Lator, cw.

Go On, Just A Little Bit Further..

...was the unofficial motto today, until I looked at the clock and 7hrs had passed and that was my day done. Glenvale once again was quick, no thanks to the Canadian mafia that are currently in town...a trio that includes one Svein Tuft whose picture is in the dictionary under phrase 'tough as nails'...why? Well awhile back I remember reading an article on this guy and came to this conclusion from learning the following facts about the man...

• Rode 2100km down highway 101 from Vancouver to Southern California before a January team training camp as he was short on miles. In January. It ain't sunny in the northern hemisphere then folks.


• Does combat sports as a hobbies such as Jiu Jitsu and dabbled in wrestling.


• Won the 2007 US Open in driving rain and snow.


• Rode a mountain bike with a trailer from Vancouver to Alaska to go climb mountains as a teenager. And the kids of today wear eye liner and think they are tough.


• Oh yeah and he won last years UCI Americas Tour and currently leads in 2008. Enough said.

Right now I am solidly in the middle of the big day post ride funk. Everything is a little hazy and and I seem to hit door frames walking around searching for that easiest and shortest route from A to B. Still, you can get away with that when you spend over 2 bucks in a day. Mix this with eating too much pasta and then deciding a protein shake should be added after that and I am in a right royal hurt box at the moment. Lucky its dark in here so I can hide. Speaking of food, a big shout to the regular stop Danish bakery in Frankston (yes there is international culture down there) for the hook-up of hot cross buns at the 5hr mark. Back to work tomorrow to revel in the glory of 2nd place in the staff swimming relay..yep I manned up and had a dip with the only disaster being a lost a flipper halfway down the lane...I mean..ahh..nothing Yeah yeah I know...flippers and we still got done...pathetic. I wonder how many hours Svein got in today..? Lator..cw.