Close, but no cigar...

Again, and its probably not even worth mentioning anymore, but i must apologise for the laziness in getting another post done. We have been on the go with superweek, and then had a one day rest in Grand Rapids before hitting the road again. It was great to get some fast crit racing in over at Superweek in Milwaukee. I had been needing some fast race k's to help bring the form along, and it definitely gave me that. I got to do five races in seven days, so that was great for the legs, and the mind. I found that I am starting to go well, so i am hoping to find myself in the right spots at the Tour de Toona this week, and hopefully get a few good results.

Superweek this year had four NRC races, as opposed to the whole series being NRC in the past, so the four races on the National Calendar brought out all the big teams. I got second in the first one of them, which i probably could have won, but there was just a small problem - a dude faster than me! He passed me in the last twenty metres, so that pissed me off a bit, but at the same time i had to be happy, because i haven't been in the winning position for a while.

Unfortunately the picture isn't too sharp, and doesn't have me with my arms in the air, but hopefully i can get y'all a picture of that soon!

We got given beer on the podium, so carrying a slab while riding back to the car in the team kit looked very professional!

While in Milwaukee i stayed with the Schneider family, and they were great. Dave works at the Wheel and Sprocket bike shop, and is extremely knowledgeable on cycling. His daughter Sam also kicks arse, and is the national champion in cyclocross, mountain bike, BMX, track, and road, or something like that. She was racing in the womens race, and looks like she might win the overall there too. Dave is into the photography too, so i got some pretty cool photos from him.
This photo didn't come out so well on blogger, but it was actually pretty good - you have to see the shot i have on my computer though! It would also be good for Easton, because if you can see the wheels on my bike, the stickers on the front and back wheels are in the same spot, and same for the Toyota rider. Pretty useless info for y'all (do y'all like how i say "y'all"?) but it caught my eye anyway. Also, in this picture, you might not be able to see, but the jersey is fully unzipped. It was so unbearably hot at this race, so they allowed feeding for the riders, and i think i went through six bottles in the 100km, two hour race! When we first got to Milwaukee, we stayed for two nights at a temporary host house, and it was one of the bigger houses i have ever seen. Down in the basement, they had a basketball court, with three rings, and even had a batting tunnel! The picture above shows all of the framed sporting memorablia in the downstairs basement, well not all of it, maybe just 5% of it. At a guess, there was probably 120+ framed sporting things, ranging from the Babe Ruth transfer papers (signed) from the Red Sox to the Yankees, right through to Michael Jordan stuff. It was amazing, and i didn't even have time to get a good look at all of it.
The basketball court here was awesome, and i played for hours. I just couldn't stop sinking 3-pointers, so i had to keep playing! On the left you may be able to see the batting cage. Wicked! The machine was cool, and seeing as it was only 364 days till the next hockey season, it was time for some action! It has been about nine years since i have played baseball, and that was my last time in a batting tunnel (when my brother Michael played for the state team and i followed him to pracise one time). I was definitely out of form, and it was pretty scary when the young dude from the host house fired down a 110 mph fast ball out of the machine to me - i don't think i even got to see the ball!

So right now we have just arrived in Pennsylvania, the home state of Floyd Landis, for the Tour de Toona, which is pretty exciting, because we get to race a seven stage tour. Tour racing is my favourite thing, so i hope it goes well, and it is great to have the band back together - well nearly, just short of Brentmeister (Europe), and Eddy (who is making good recovery from his broken pelvis), but the vibe is good, and with a number of riders in good form, it is going to be a good, fun week.

I guess i have sort of run out of things to write about, although i am sure i will think of them when i post this blog, but for now that is all. I hope to make a few regular posts throughout the week, although they may be photo-less, but it might give you guys back in Oz a bit of an update before cyclingnews.com gets on it! If i do get a win this week, the post will be done that night for sure!

I hope everyone back in Oz is doing well. I hear it is a bit cold over there at the moment, so i hope you are all coping well. If there is anything i should have written about, then let me know.

Oh, two other things, Marty the Mouse had to be set back into the wild last week, so that was an emotional farewell, and also, the old boy, Billy, did a 100km training ride on the weekend! What an effort - I am very proud of him, and he did it solo too, so look out for him come 'around the bay in a day' because he will be the man to watch!

Happy birthday to my sister Lisa, who had her 18th on the weekend, and can now get drunk legally!

Laters dudes...

PS: In the Cedarburg criterium, i came fourth, but it should have been second. I had a nice clean run at the finish line, and was in pursuit of the eventual winner Karl Menzies, when a Toyota rider decided he would move from the centre line of the road all the way to the right hand gutter! I had to hit the brakes, and stop pedalling, or i would have hit the fence. I have no problem with anyone changing lines, but to go all the way to the fence to stop me passing him was a bit extreme, and dangerous. I protested, but apparently none of the four officials saw anything, so i had to sit there and listen to him talking about how well he sprinted while being interviewed up on the podium - what a dog! The only good thing from this is that i am starting to find my legs, and now have regained confidence in my sprinting ability, so i am excited about the upcoming races. I could go on for ages about this guy steering me at the barriers, but i think i will just have to get a win to make up for it! I knew i was going to think of something more to write, i better sign off now or i will be here all day coming up with more things...

4th of July Week

We are back in Michigan this week, after a quick visit to Massachusetts for the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic. The last stop-over in MI was just a day, so it is good to be back here. We are also lucky enough to be graced with the presence of King Karl "Ten Men" Menzies. I must say it really is good to go training with such a star rider, and although he now rides for HealthNet, he is still an alright guy.

Here is a picture of Rich showing off the National Champion jersey, as well as Karl flexing to try and show off the muscles. If they don't look huge it would be because he cramped after flexing too long, while i was struggling to get the camera working!
Fitchburg was another successful race for the team, and we scored our second NRC win of the week, and also the season, with Brian Sheedy winning the opening time trial, and wearing the leaders jersey for the first two stages.
This meant plenty of time spent on the front of the peloton, controlling the race, and chasing back attacks, so while it was great to have the team in the lead, it was also hard work! It was a good experience for us, because we have never had to control a race while holding the overall lead - it also gave me a bit of respect for the teams who are able to do that for a whole tour, i mean, its hard enough just finishing some of these races, and then you realise that there has pretty much been just one team sitting on the front of the race for the whole week! We did it for two days, and that was tough! Unfortunately by stage three, the very hard road race, the other teams had done enough to steal the lead from us and Brian. We got Teddy and the Brentmeister up the road in the break, and they both moved into the top five in the GC for the tour, which was good enough to settle for after losing the leaders jersey. The stage was very tough, and we did ten laps of a hilly course, with a big climb, and then a screaming descent which was awesome - i think the highest speed i reached on the downhill was 108km/h, so that was fun. The one thing that was a bit scary was to think that at that speed, Henk Vogels crashed on that same stretch of road, head first into the guard rail, just three years ago - his helmet saved his life, and after a long time unable to walk, he is back racing again, and even raced the Giro d'Italia last year - not a bad comeback.

One of the best things about racing Fitchburg was that i got to see some of the Aussie dudes on team SouthAustralia.com, and in particular, my good mate, Michael Ford. For the second time in a couple of weeks i have caught up with mates from Australia, about as far from Australia as we can get - although it is a bit different with Fordy seeing as he is here for the cycling too. It was great to catch up though, and we had a good time racing with each other for the first time since January.

Staying in the middle of Massachusetts was an experience, and i think we chose the most humid week in the history of the state to be there! The mozzies were insane too, i have never seen so many (or been bitten by so many)! At night you could be outside, and go to hit one on your arm, and get two or three at the same time - yuck!

The drive home was good to get finished on Monday, it was a very long and uneventful drive, although we did take the short-cut through Canada each way. The border patrol was pretty strict, not a bad thing i suppose, but it was holding us up and ruining our average speed! Driving with Rich and the Brentmeister was good, and we got plenty of talking done! The most exciting thing of the drive home, was seeing the funniest road sign of all time, it read: "Prison area, do not pick up hitch-hikers", can you believe that? What a pisser! I wanted to get a ripper blog photo, standing beside it with the thumb in the air, but unfortunately we only got to see it once, and there was no opportunity to stop for a photo.

Tuesday just gone was the 4th of July, and that is a pretty big deal here in the States (obviously). The vibe around Grand Rapids was a bit like New Years in Australia, just without the drinking or late night. We watched a very impressive fireworks display from an apartment, and that was great, as you may be able to see from the photo Karl took on his phone.

Not too bad for a camera phone, but at the same time doesn't really do justice for how good it really was. The funny thing about this night though, and what was different to New Years in Australia, was that as soon as the fireworks were over (about 10pm), everyone took off home, and Grand Rapids was like a ghost town.

Wednesday night we raced the local Grattan criterium, and it was good for the club team, as we destroyed the opposition teams, and took the first eight placings of the race, which made Bob very happy! After the race, i was outside on the phone that night, and something really exciting happened, well not really, but i caught a mouse. His name is Marty Mouse, and i made him a little house in a shoe box. I think it was injured or something, so once he gets back to health he will be released back into the wild. Pretty exciting stuff going on here at the moment huh?!

Training is going pretty well, and i am starting to feel strong on the bike. This weekend we are heading over to Wisconsin to race in 'Superweek', so that should be a good way to fine-tune some of the hard work, and sharpen me up for the big criteriums coming up in August. It should be a good experience, and its going to be great having so many opportunities to race while we are there - i think there is a race every day... Wicked!

In other news, Heather now has a road bike, so i will be taking her out training this week. She will be out in the full pink outfit, and looking the 'goods'!

One other thing, check out this short video of Bob racing his boat: click here

Anyway dudes, hope all is well, and i will be looking out for your comments... There were nine on the last post, so that is wicked good, and gives me some entertainment each time i read them!

Stay cool dudes

Laters...