Ryan Adams @ The Forum.

To be honest I don't get to many live shows. But the ones I do always seem to be the handful of artists I want to see the most, and they haven't disappointed. This was my first time seeing Ryan Adams live and it was no exception to the rule. I was first introduced to his music through Kat, with "Enemy Fire" off the Gold album sticking in my mind as the first track I really dug. And then a rare obsession began from there, and I devoured every album quickly, both solo and with the Cardinals backing band, till there was no more. And then Steve made me a rare mix cd of Whiskytown, his previous band which is pretty much the top dog on high rotation on the ipod. If it rotated. Listening to more of his material I really got into the country twinged ballads with some unbelievable lyric and song writing. This from a guy who grew up on non maintsream hardcore punk/ska and still loves 90's grunge flannel and boots rock. All of a sudden I had grown a liking to slide guitar, banjo, violin, harmonica and songs with a "train shuffle" rhythm. So this show was quite anticipated to say the least, and despite Melbourne's hottest 3 days on record I still had some energy in reserve for some good times musical listening.

Firstly the support act. I am pretty sure with Ryan handpicking the band, he was taking the piss. Either that or he just didn't care one way or another. And they would have been rapt to score a nice slot to a sold out Forum crowd, but 4 older (think 50+) blokes singing naf comedy songs about Footscray and Kylie Minougue was kinda lame. Plus their lead guitarist looked and acted a little too much like Justin Hawkins from the Darkness... but 25 years on. Anyway, their harmonies were pretty good and they had fun...who am I to judge....but I guess I was anxious for the main act.

Two fluorescent blue rose symbols flanked by the classic Cardinals logo was the back drop for the five piece and they came on in front of an eager crowd. All of a sudden the mood set in, with the lush guitar sound of "When Stars Go Blue" kicked off the evening. And it was great. Being one of Kat's favourites it reminded me of her and perhaps if she hadn't played a certain album in her car when we met in 07', I wouldn't be standing in this room. Going into see bands I guess you have your personal tracks you hope to hear. Only three songs in I got my wish with a cranking version of "Let It Ride" from the Cold Roses album....."Tennessee's a brother to my sister Carolina, where they gonna bury me?"....great song. Then the gold kept coming. I don't mind covers being dropped into the set list at all. But only if they are good. When Tim Rogers did the Lennon track "Instant Karma (We All Shine On)" it was a highlight of the set and Pearl Jam do great versions of The Who and Neil Young. So Ryan has recorded his own version/arrangement of Oasis's "Wonderwall" on a previous album and it is brilliant. To the point where I heard Noel G said it was better than his original. So when he dropped it into the set it truly was a real treat. But it didn't end there. "Oh My Sweet Carolina" and "Why Do They Leave" also were played. Awesome.

Ryan himself is quite the obnoxious (yet freakishly talented) musician, taking the piss outta the crowd controllers who were spraying the front section with water, wondering "how they got to be people sprayers and that he needs to change jobs". After hearing a fan scream out he began a humorous anecdote of creating a similar sound while watching the latest Underworld film last week in Brisbane. But the funniest moments of the night were when halfway during the set he took on the persona of an 80's hair metal band front man, complete with a high pitched falsetto. I guess you had to be there...but the guy definitely walks to the sound of his own beat.

The set finished with a big jam on "Easy Plateau" and that was all she wrote. No encore unfortunately. But I guess I get a bit spoiled when Pearl Jam do two or sometimes three. The new songs from the recently released Cardinology album went down well. Sadly I read that post March after this tour finishes, Ryan is hanging up the guitar in favor of the pen, with his first novel "Infinity Blues" set for release soon. Lets hope that doesn't happen for too long. Lators...cw.

Picture Tells A Thousand Words....

...or Melbournes forecast this week....time to start cuttin' jerseys! cw

Note To Self: Don't Die.

Yes I stole that line from a Ryan Adams track. But yes is was appropriate after today's 5.5hr game of Frogger with shit drivers. Good training session cause I came home alive.

Incident One: Similar to my motorcycle wanker a couple of weeks ago passing a car in the opposite direction lane and coming head on towards me. In my lane.
Incident two: A day dreaming tourist with a child on his shoulders attempting to cross the road in Sassafras. Wake up moron and look.
Incident three: Electical company truck running me off the road giving me no room while passing. I can hold a straight line, but this was ridiculous.

Cadel came out in the press around a month ago stating that Australia is the worst place in the world for cyclist/motorist interaction. Now I've ridden in Europe and I've ridden in the USA and sure, these places aren't completely incident free, but hell after a day like today I'd have to agree with him for sure. There is just no respect out there.

On another note, with Floyd back in the cycling press of late due to getting back on his bike for Team Ouch this year, an old photo resurfaced on a 'comeback article'. And all of a sudden a little incident came flooding back. Who that guy is lurking in the background I'm not too sure!

http://www.universalsports.com/ViewImage.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&PHOTOID=1286409

The Garage Re Opens!

Firstly thanks to those who left comments on the last few posts, it is nice to hear feedback and word that people actually do read this thing! After a long time of virtually no activity, the garage has been re opened! Stay tuned for more items to be listed over the next week. Time is running out before I leave for the USA again, and there will be plenty of things that will be more use to people than sitting dormant in my garage!

http://www.chriswinncyclinggarage.blogspot.com/

Mercury Rising.

Spare a thought for the guys and gals playing the Oz Open. Word was it got to 64deg court ground temperature yesterday. For bicycle practice it's been pretty ragged too, although confining efforts to the shade of the Nongs helped me get through a smattering of intervals today. Could be time to rock a sleeveless j out there I reckon. I can do that now on the road and not get hacked up by branches. TDU has started and 138,000 was the crowd count (how they do this I don't know..any ideas?) for the Cancer Classic Crit, largely because of the Big Tex in town. Awesome numbers, I mean the G' holds like 100,000 right! Hopefully the crowd stays big for the stage races this week. It's unreal just how big that race is growing each year and it is fantastic for cycling in Australia. Best call of the day comes from PM K-Rudd about Lance- "This guys got guts and that's why Australians like him". Lucky Ullrich isn't making a comeback racing down here....

Saw Chuck Norris today. That guys looks fit as a trout so watch out those racing the dirt champs this weekend. There's the Winny Insider Tip Of The Day for backing a winner. Over N' Out...cw.

Tim Was Great.

Rogers that is. And the Temperance Union, his other band to You Am I. Country twinged rock with a smattering of ballads and a whole lotta swagger to boot, the show last night at the Zoo Gardens was great. I'd been a solid TR/YAI fan for sometime now, with YAI "Live at Wodonga Civic Centre" cicra 96' being one of the greatest listens I own. On cassette mind you, taped by the Green of JJJ so long ago. But this was my first time seeing Rogers live, and in full dark suit, scarf and a very nice sunburst Crockenbaker he was in rockin' good form. One this about Timmy is his stage presence. The man just has a real style and class about him combined a ramshackle, anything goes for some rockin good times existence. And there was plenty of windmil action. The man knows how to windmill. Classic crowd banter included a message for the kids; "Stay in school. Don't do drugs. And go for North Melbourne" and "C'mon quick lets play a song about gettin' drunk to mess up the kids", leading into a fine version of Krund. And several digs at the commercialism stardom these days of Kings Of Leon. The highlight for me was a big fat jam on Kalgoorlie, off the Dirty Ron record, then leading straight into a rockin version of Fiction. The Temperance Union are a great compliment to Tim out front. At 39, the man (and the band) is still in fine form. Easily one of Australia's best artists (in my humble opinion) even though he perhaps never fitted the mainstream music mould. He never wanted too either. Great show.

The Three Hundredth Post.

Training has gone really great so far this week. The short little racing block of Bay Series/Nationals combined with a little rest has done some good things. I am really looking forward to the upcoming season that's for sure, and I haven't missed a day training this year. Plus I have made a few equipment changes of late which has suited me much better. A snazzy 2.5mth old white/blue Arione and connecting Fizik seat bag is now for sale so leave a comment if you are interested or shoot me an email. Speaking of comments, does anyone actually read this thing anymore, or has it got that boring in the off season!

So without a camera life on the blogging road has been a little dull I think. Might have to rectify that one soon and do some shopping. I'm sure there are still sales on somewhere.

Btw, the guy in the last post is Ryan Adams. He and The Cardinals play in Melbourne in only a couple of weeks. Should be some fun times. Speaking of gigs, off to see Timothy Adrian Rogers play at the zoo tmw night with the Green. One of the unsung heroes of the Australian music scene in terms of singer/songwriters. Over N' Out...cw

Not Long Now.

Australian National Championships.

It hurt. A lot. With a big field on an cold to increasingly warm to frickin' hot day, 130 odd lycra clad bandits hit the roads of Bunninyong, just outside of Ballarat for the green and gold stripey jersey. It was game on from the gun, with attacks on the first climb which eventually lead to a breakaway group gaining 4 minutes midway into the race. To be honest I felt pretty ordinary from the get-go. Whether the legs were still tired from the Bay Crits or not open enough I wasn't sure. After getting through the first half of the race it pretty much was just a matter of holding on over the 3.2km climb every lap. Guys were getting shelled pretty much every time around, and on the tenth lap the rubber band snapped for me, simply no longer having the h.p to stick with the peloton who by that stage the front guys were drilling it to bring back the break. And that was it. Nationals done and my name went alongside the DNF's in a day where only 45 of the 130 finished. Yeow. But at the end of the day I did enjoy it to be honest. Being my first road Nationals I was pretty amazed by the amount of spectators and logistics of the thing. Plus it was a pretty exciting finish to watch too with McDonald schooling two ProTour guys to the lower steps of the box. Hats off to Drapac/Porsche who ruled the day, put guys on the front to bring the break back and then put a red jersey on top of the podium. I'm sure a big night for them is in store.

Thanks for those who shouted, the bro for the feeds and the old girl for putting up with my music on the drive out there! Was able to catch up with some cool people I hadn't seen in quite sometime, including Big Mak sporting some of the finest choppers I have seen in a long while. Check out his blog, always worth a look. Speaking of facial hair to the extreme D-Mac took the championship on that one, sporting a very fine lumberjack/Ned Kelly beard. Very rugged my friend! Cheers y'all....cw

The Day Before A Big Day.

I'm sure Kat will laugh at me for changing this site again. To be honest, it was something to do today without thinking too much about Nationals tomorrow. A harmless distraction for the mind before the onslaught tomorrow. And a low energy cost one too at that. But I think despite battling against the constraints of this program and my feeble computer skilled mind I'll settle with this current look for awhile....perhaps! Plus I was told the previous white colour was boring as hell and needed to go. Good colour for bar tape though. So bottles are filled, sunglasses are polished and the chain is lubed and we are good to go for Nationals tomorrow. Should be a grand day out for sure. Not that this is all my grand season peak because it's not, but still it's a race for the green and gold which strikes any Aussie bike rider I think. Training today consisted only of 2hrs on the road with a few short VO2 efforts in there to wake up the system a bit. Hopefully it hasn't fallen asleep after Bay Crits. Actually come to think of it yesterdays training pretty much gave me a heart attack while coasting 40km/h or so down the hill. With two cars coming up the hill towards me, a motorbike decides to pass them both, gunning it into my lane head on. I have had some close calls on the bike with cars, I think everyone who rides bikes does. But this one incident perhaps freaked me out the most as we approached each other at great speed head on. He held his line straight and I held mine, but holy hell it was close and prompted me straight after to pull off the road and take a second to collect myself. Or yell profanities to the sky on just how close I had been to ending up severely broken in hospital or worse. This guys passed two cars, uphill, over double lines and with oncoming traffic. What a dumb ass. Time to go to bed. Stay safe......cw

Bay Classic: The Wrap Up

With lack of web connection for the rest of the week I apologise to those checking back in on updates and getting frustrated...sorry! The rest of the Bay Classic went quite well considering it was my first racing block since starting training around the middle of October. Consistency was the name of the game and each stage I pretty much ended up inside the top 20. Portarlington was once again a slaughterhouse with around 15 riders left with 20mins to go after guys getting shelled over the hill. I hung in there and tried a little attack with 2 to go but only pressed the self destruct button. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The last stage on the hot-dog circuit in Geelong was always a painful yet fun affair. Getting a back row call up meant it took me a good chunk of the race trying to get to the front. Somehow snared another top 10 with an 8th place there and a very close post race technicolour yawn. Overall it was a great 5 days of intensity and now it's rest time before Nationals this weekend. With never having lined up in Bunninyong before I am going in with no expectations whatsoever. Lator....cw

Bay Classic Stage One: Williamstown.

It was wet. Then it was sunny. In true Melbourne "four seasons in on day" fashion, day one of the Bay Classic at Williamstown served it up. With a little bit of luck I snared a front row start on perhaps the diciest course of the week with that corner through the roundabout. Good start and sat in the front bunch with some legs that were feeling awake. A break of five went and the gap stretched quickly, no thanks to the pink Specialized lads controlling the bunch with two of their crew off the front. Good team tactics if you have one. The last few laps the screw was turned and I followed some good wheels to take out 8th in the final sprint. Points on the board and a good start to the series. Lators...cw

The First Post Of Two Zero Zero Nine.

New year folks! Just like that. Bang. Finally I can start to use my new calender and diary that has been looking lonely on my desk for the past week post Christmas. Cammo and I must be brothers cause we both got each other the RIDE calender for Xmas. Or as he likes to call it the "Cadel-ender" cause that guy got the cover shot. So what better way to ring in the new year than start racing my bicycle! Bay Classic starts tmw at good old Williamstown. This year I have an added advantage in the name of one more cog on my cassette compared to last years equipment choices. I feel it will make all the difference no doubt and I predict podiums aplenty...! Either way I'm pretty excited to get some good intensity in the legs before road nationals the weekend after. The legs seemed to move in circles pretty well today so hopefully they can to that again tomorrow too. Lators, cw.