The Last Post Of Two Zero Zero Eight.

New Years Eve. Kinda came around quick the little sucker. I already saw midnight last night at Bendigo watching fixed-gear-left-turn-only racing. The program ran late after a couple of juniors added some ambulance rides to their school holiday stories. Not fun to see the middle of a kids forearm flop like a wrist. Or a bit or bone poke out either. Poor little guys. Cammo raced well, although couldn't seem to break they cycle of anything other than fourth place.

I got sent a link to this during the week from the campaigner. Anything cause that promotes safe cycling and education of drivers to the road laws is a great thing. It's amazing how many people tell me what they think is the law for bike riders on the road but don't know the truth. Great work Joe for taking the initiative and best of luck with the campaign.

Happy Birthday this cute girl...

So to close out the year, the official highlights and lowlights reel of 2008. Drum roll please...

Highlights (in no particular order)

• 6mths with Kat. The longest and best yet!
• The Mars Volta at the Filmore. Cedric wandering into the crowd like the madman he is and Omar going off chops on a pearl white six string. Was a little smokey in there. Yes, the kind of smoke you would expect at a TMV show.
• The night crit at Tulsa Tough. Flat out like a pancake hopping curbs under lights at 10:00pm was a new experience. Is that a pothole or just shadow?
• Any time spent eating, thinking about or in transit to Chipotle.
• All the time spent with the various host families in the different race towns across the US. Fantastic everyone of you! Can't wait to see you all again in 09' sometime.
• Kat's surprise Oz visit. Sorry the weather wasn't warmer Bub!
• All my new RMCEF team mates and associated cycling crew I met this year. Thanks for putting up with a Aussie convict.
• Any day spent riding my bicycle. Rain, hail or shine.

Lowlights

• Getting taken out at Nez. You go around cones not into them.
• Doping stories. You suck. Big time. Go away and don't come back.
• Leaving Kat behind again. See you soon, not a goodbye.
• My trusty camera calling it a day. Thanks for the memories.
• The freak hail storm Raby and I got caught in out training in Boulder. I had bruising for days.
• The veggie garden. So much hope and so little crop.
• Eddie only playing limited solo shows on the east coast.
• Training in 'Colorado grade cold' in April. It was exciting going up into the mountains. Coming back down freezing my ass off was another story.
• The bib tan from a day on the rollers in the altitude sun.
• The rear flat on the second stage at Joe Martin. I'll be back. With air hopefully.

Thanks to all the fantastic people who have helped make 2008 a great year. Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading in 2008 and stay tuned for a bigger 2009. Cheers, cw.

New Beginnings.

Avanti Plus Croydon
417-419 Maroondah Highway
Croydon Nth Vic 3136

The other week news filtered through that long time mate and all around great bloke Andrew Steele of Le Tour Cycles fame has moved into managing his own store, Avanti Plus Croydon. I've know Steeley since buying my first proper mtb from him back in 1999 and if there is anyone I would highly recommend for awesome service and advice it would be him. Andrew is by far one of the most friendly and enthusiastic people I know in the cycling industry and those who already know him I'm sure would agree. Be sure to stop by and check it out peoples...

All the best for the new business mate...Cheers, Windy.

He's Been There Through It All.

My little camera that has served me well over the past few years of globe trotting and happy snapping seems to have died. Yes it still turns on, but the lens has a mind of it's own zooming in and out, with no picture showing up in the view finder. Coughing it's last breath perhaps? To be honest I am surprised it has lasted this long. Almost three and a half years I think. Ok so we live in a age where things are fairly expendable, I mean most major appliances and such aren't built to last. Otherwise the companies would be in struggle town if their products lasted for ages and no one needed to buy replacements. Go figure.

So my little mate called Sony has definitely seen more than his fair share of sweaty jersey pockets in his time. Mud, rain, sun and even snow the little guy has copped it all, bouncing around and pulled out from time to time. But he soldiered on through it all. There was the incident in Colorado last year where he seemed to take a turn for the worse giving us all a big scare, but miraculously made a recovery back to full function the next day. To be honest I knew things weren't looking good of late. Cosmetically he deteriorated a lot after the wet outing at the You Yangs, losing is shiny top coating like bits of glitter. So farewell little buddy, thanks for all the memories (literally) it's been fun.

Work And Rest.

The last few days have been a wipeout. Coming off a large training load this week into a busy Christmas schedule has left me pretty flat over the last couple of days. But it was worth it. Good food, good weather and good company equals some rockin' good times. Christmas Eve went on a massive form finder loop with Treva. It was probably the most awesomest, raddest, coolest training loop I have been on period. I'm all about new roads at the moment and this loop ticked all the boxes. Super nice scenery, a ton of steady climbing and not much traffic. Apart from the wanker who swerved deliberately at us with a trailer. Throw in two coffee stops and a quality roast beef salad roll from the bakery and it doesn't get much better than that. Nationals is only just around the corner so I gotta find some legs pretty soon!

The bike wasn't put aside Christmas day as Cammo and I kept up the tradition riding to which family members turn it was to host the day. This year it was only a spin down to Preston, but with some fried legs was quite a battle especially up Burgandy St. We made it to another massive lunch put on by Uncle Pete who was once again on top form with the BBQ. Pretty much the rest of the day was spent in a food coma. As it should be. Merry Christmas everyone! Keep it rubber side down...cheers, cw.

Like An Old Pair Of Jeans.

Yes I'll admit this blog has been a little sucky of late. Well perhaps it's due to my slack ways of thinking about writing something but never quite getting there! Here I am...I made it this time! Gotta keep the dream alive of a cyclingnews.com column one day... And to kick this post off in fine form...check out this piece of fine machinery I spotted outside my gym yesterday! Old gold for sure.

Style points for the peace symbol brake hanger..yeah dog.

Last weekend was pretty exciting to finally see some warm weather just to remind everyone it is actually summer. And boy did it bring the bicyclists out of the woodwork. It's been amazing to see over the last few years just how popular riding in the Nongs has become. There are dozens and dozens of people smashing up the 1:20 for a coffee in Sassy, in a big bunch heading up over The Wall and a ton of other riders scattered in between. It's unreal to see people getting out and doing some real exercise! The reason I say this is because the other day I caught an ad on the box for the highly popular interactive stand in front of a screen and wave a controller about style video game. You know the one. I've never quite got it for some reason. The game I saw being promoted was skateboarding and it just blew my mind away. It cracked me to think that kids would want to do this rather than ACTUALLY go outside on a real skateboard and tear it up. In the fresh air of all places. Away from a TV would you believe. Crazy talk. I'm not sure if I'm living in the 80's or putting on my official Nongs hippie t-shirt with this one...but come on! It makes me wonder just how many kids will receive virtual exercise to the real thing this Christmas. I am getting old?

I hit up two big mountain loops over the weekend and it was magic. I revisited some very old roads that I hadn't done in maybe 12mths or more and it was happy dayz. Even though the legs were a little pulped from a bunch of JH efforts mid week, it still was rad to be out there minus the rain jacket for once this week. Bring on summer.

Giant wooden swooping eagle. Believe it or not.

I gotta credit Kat for forwarding this to me yesterday. I though it was pretty cool. So from me to you, wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas. Thanks for reading...keep it rubber side down. Cheers, cw.

Sweet Music To My Ears.

https://www.pearljam.com/news/pearl-jam-announces-reissue-band%E2%80%99s-debut-album-ten

All I need now is touring news and a new album release date!

New Coach.

http://www.peaktopeaktraining.com/

So Fresh And Not So Clean.

Since Kat changed her blog made me think my was getting a bit stale hence the makeover. Or perhaps it was easier to do that than scrape together exciting happenings worth reading about of late. Actually, the can of tuna I just ate for lunch was pretty damn exciting...hats off to mild chili and roasted garlic flavour.

Ventured out last Saturday in support of my guinea pig athlete at the National MTB round at the You Yangs. When Kat is getting -19C days, I can't really complain about the weather we had last weekend, even if we got like a months rainfall in a day or something like that. Either way it was a challenging day for competitors and spectators alike. Shoes and umbrellas did get destroyed. J- Blood smashed it like a true champ, and it was great to catch up with a whole host of other top people I hadn't seen in quite sometime. The MTB community is full of great people and the amount of dedicated people out there making it happen was rad to see. Sunday was spent training with the man motor bike, T-Bag. Needless to say I slept very well last night.

I pinched this pic of the house from Kat. Hope she doesn't mine but I thought it was kinda pretty with all the lights and snow. Sigh...over N' out...cw

The Memories You Find In The Depths Of Your Wallet.

Kaboom.

Reported sighting on my legs today after hitting the wall 20km from home. Not pretty. Thanks to the cafe for supplying the handful of sugar sachets minus the beverage. How grounding is the feeling of being completely helpless and spaced out, just crawling along from the lack of sugary energy juice in the tank. Priceless. If you have been there you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, you ain't living...

Saturday Night Round' Nine.

Post Tali Karng I got to do an airport run the next morning and pick up Miss Garner. It was pretty funny all week as my hiking students were all razzing me that we weren't going to make it back out and I'd miss picking her up. That's when I decided I'd be the tail of the group on the walk out and crack the whip. I figured I'd push the van if it broke down, carry the injured or do whatever it took so we made it back safe. Kinda along the lines of those stories where a mother suddenly gains super-human strength to lift a car off a kid...that sort of thing ya know.

Although the week was short I didn't care. Anytime we spend together is precious, and being an unplanned trip it was all the more greater. Thanks to Joby who sent over a 'Colorado Care Package' full of cool little bits and pieces...including genuine burrito tortillas! Thanks mate! We packed our days pretty well and even though the weather wasn't quite sufficient for tanning we spent most of our time outdoors. I'd post more photos but they are all on Kat's camera.

This is the official mascot that lives in the PE offices at school. Must be nearing the end of the year I'd say...

Training is motoring along at a nice pace although I am very out of form in picking the right clothing, sweating it up big time today after the grey clouds went and the sun came out. Which reminds me of the disturbing event this week in seeing someone out on their bike with their shorts inside out. Yes. Chamois on the outside. I was shell shocked for almost half an hour. And on that note..peace out..cw

Out And Back.

Tali Karng was a great three days away. Sometimes photos just don't do a place justice. It truly is a magical place and it won't be my last visit there that's for sure.