Despite Good Intentions.

From this....

Home for a few days then on the road again. Luckily it was only to Bendigo for a loose weekend and somewhere along the line, hand bottles to the bro in a 6hr dirt race. Somehow his motivation didn't last more than two laps and we wrote the rest of the day off, sitting in the sun and chilling out being the better option. Although I did a sneaky lap in old school shorts and t-shirt just for the hell of it.

I must say it was great to catch up with a host of super cool mtb people who I haven't seen in quite sometime. Definitely a reminder of just how friendly and welcoming the whole Oz mtb scene is...good people and good times. Looks like the mtb theme will keep running for me over the next few weeks with some work for Yeti which should be a heap of fun...

To this...

Familiar Stomping Grounds.

I am home back in FC. And it is pretty frickin' cold to say the least! Okay so there has been a little sunshine about, but the air temperature is definately non compliant with the bones at the moment!

Sure it is nice to be home but it is almost a double edged sword too, leaving Kat behind... again. We both agree that we would rather have it like this than to have never met each other at all. Yes it is tough, very tough, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel with a few exciting plans in place than can hopefully develop over the next few months. Where there is a will there is a way.

Took to the roads with the bro a few times this week, probably a little too ambitious for the body after stepping off a plane but it was fun nonetheless. It's funny to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, with him gearing up for the Aussie mtb season just around the corner, where I am in a little more relax-o mode after my US season is over.

The new Kings Of Leon has been on fairly high rotation on my now mono speaker I-Pod speakers after from what I can only assume what was a rough transit home. Actually speaking of the transit home, the situation arriving at Melbourne airport was just insane the amount of people that were collecting baggage and then needed to be processed through customs. After waiting 50mins for my bike to finally arrive the line to clear customs snaked through the whole baggage claim area. Anyone who has flown would know that that place is quite large and it was jam packed. It would have at least been another 1-2hrs of line/processing time if not it had been for the nice lass who stamped my card and sent me out the back door. It was pretty funny cause I had to walk with all my junk against the grain of the line and there were a lot of unhappy people.

See you out on the roads...cheers..cw

And the winner is......

Here in the Winn household we have just held the 2008 Best Blog Awards. After much heated debate and discussion the award has been won by www.youcanthandlethemoose.com and i would just like to be the first to say to congratulations. Even after all my travels and adventures i just couldn't top the batman conversion. Congratulations Moose!

As The Clock Ticks.

Okay, first of all you HAVE to check this out! The bro has gone to the next level of Bendigo madness with some comedic gold. I won't steal his thunder by posting the pics here, but do check out the link!

As for me time is running out before my time in the US ends. Like one day left before the plane leaves the hanger for Melbourne town. The bags are semi packed and the bike will be after just one more sneaky ride after breakfast on this fine Colorado morning. This week Kat and I headed down to Durango for a bit of a vacation (I got corrected on calling it a 'holiday') for a few days. We stayed on this sweet horse ranch a little ways out of town. A very peaceful and unique little place that pretty much every structure inside was made of pine. Days were spent exploring about town, and with a reported 2000 miles of singletrack surrounding, we hit the trails on foot and on bike. Home to T-Wells, T Brown and H-Ball you can see why this place is popular, with some sweet riding starting right on the fringe of suburbia. Unfortunately the photos we took may not ever surface, with Kat's camera making a leap from Camelbak to who knows where on the trail. Damn.

It could work...right?

The Reason The Internet Was Invented

www.pearljamlive.com

In Black, White and Read.

So the last few days have been pretty darn interesting in the world of cycling news. Lance on the come back trail and out of retirement for a shot at the 09' Tour. Pretty amazing stuff and I guess the whole world will be interested in whether he can actually pull it off. Great for positive cycling press. 37 and still hungry for some suffering. I guess you could pin it on a super competitive personality that you just can't keep down. And then this morning I read Landis will be back next year on the roster of a newly sponsored Health-Net Team. That's awesome. I mean it's awesome that Health-Net found a replacement sponsor for next year. To me, new sponsors coming into cycling and keeping guys in jobs is always a good news story.

Went mtbing yesterday on a secret Heidemann loop out in Waterton Canyon. Managed to borrow a NRS carbon dually (thanks Bobby!) and had a ball on some pretty sweet singletrack. The only thing was I had to keep reminding myself of the opposite brake set-up which provided only a few moments of panic! But after a season of skinny tires and hard roads it sure was nice to get lost in pine forest and tackle some dirt and rocks. As for photos...well, I had my camera with me, but the problem was when you have too much fun the idea of stopping to take a shot just wasn't on the cards!

Gotta finish tweaking Kat's CX bike today before going down to the local training sessions tonight...lators..cw.

Pretty As A Picture.

Kat and I escaped last weekend into the mountains, spending some time at Leadville and also sneaking over the Continental Divide to Aspen the next day. Our night at Leadville was particularly cool as we had dinner at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse. Basically a mile trail hike into the forest to a large yurt (outdoor tent kinda thing) and had an awesome meal with a fantastic view. Post dinner they provide headlamps for the walk out...very cool and unique thing to do. Anyway, enjoy the other pics...cheers..cw

The Veggie Patch Update.

What more can I say....capsicum soup for weeks...

The Season Sign Off.

Once again I have woken up late today and still feel like I have been hit by the number 21 bus to fatigue-ville. Four days of crit racing madness in Missouri was on the cards for what would be the final race for the US season. Perhaps being so conditioned now to travelling in the team van (or maybe it was the four new tires) the 11.5hr drive didn’t seem to take its toll as much long hauls normally have. Although running completely dry on gas and scamming a gallon from the local car wreckers kept things entertaining. As for the racing side of things there was no doubt it was going to be fast. Friday night saw a late start to the already scheduled late crit of 9:30pm. Yep it was time to bust out the clear V-Ti lenses and a little caffeine to stay awake for some night time racing action. The team also decided to keep things visually interesting for the crowd by having small coloured flashing lights attached to our valve stems. Not sure how the other racers felt about the disco on wheels but it was sure easy to spot your team-mate. At the end of the madness I kept my skin and rode semi-okay, but was looking forward to the next few days on courses that would suit me better.

Day two and we were downtown with a sweet figure eight loop and some newly laid chip-seal on the back drag climb. Once again the field was huge, tickling full capacity of 150 I heard. The racing was full on from the gun, and it took me a few laps to settle in the front half, all the while we were shelling guys ever lap. Closing 20m gaps felt like 100m as the climb felt longer each lap. Soon enough I found myself in a good break of around 20 guys. It was an odd break to say the least, but you know you're in a good one when Vogels is in there. The last few laps were tough, a lot of surging and attacking and I was conscious not to pull people back to the front, but as I said closing small gaps was super hard. I battled as hard as I could and held on for 13th and probably one of my best finishes this year.

Day three had plenty of hype surrounding it. "The Hill", everyone's talking bout "The Hill"! Basically the course was smack-bang in the middle of the Italian district, with red, green and white flags painted everywhere. And yes, the course had a massive long hill in it and plenty of atmosphere to boot! Four corners and nothing to technical, but the heat and humidity was oppressive. It was rad however to have one of those cooling sprinklers you could ride through hanging over the course like they did in the Olympic RR. Once again the field was huge and I battled like hell for the first 20mins to move forward. The hill kept getting longer and longer each lap, and soon enough fatigue set in hard and a top 30 finish was all I had in the tank.

Well this was it, day four was the last race of the season and once again the weather was unbelievably hot and humid. It was definitely an important day not to cook the goose early and I must thank Qdoba Mexican Grill for housing a lycra clad Aussie in their air-conditioned store till we had to line up. I must admit I had pretty crappy legs early, and found it nice just to sit in mid to back pack and just chill out. Maybe it was the lack of warm-up that it took me awhile to get going, but as the race wore on I was able to sneak to the pointy end. With the announcement of a $100 prime for the next lap, figured I didn't have the greatest legs for the win in 30 or so laps time, but maybe had some poke for a little fuel money. I followed the tail of a small move that went on the back straight, threw the smack down on the climb and held it to the line before almost seeing breakfast a second time round. The rest of the race I had to hide and save the legs, and with 4 to go I was still up at the pointy end, sneaking home another top 20 result with a 17th.

Never mind the socks and sandals get up, Joby prepares his new TCR Advanced SL before the night crit. Those things are another level...

Spidey appears in St Louis!

...along with his longtime buddy of Gotham City...Batman!

Unfortunately their super powers only qualified them to be in the Cat. 4 race...and they only lasted three laps before being called away with the Joker robbing a bank downtown..

Spidey comtemplates a life of crime fighting or bicycle riding....either way he's still go the lycra thing down..

Took this cool shot of the wolf-dog of the host's we were staying with. Scared the hell outta me although it wouldn't come near anyone. Something about the fact it has a shock collar made me a little uncomfortable...

And that folks signals the end of my US season for 2008. It was a big change this year but one I have enjoyed every second of, and look forward to more good times ahead in the future. A massive shout of thanks to those involved with the RMCEF Racing Team, my team-mates and associated sponsors who have made things happen this year and kept it fun. A big thanks also to my fantastic girl Kat and of course my family for all the support for this little dream of mine.