Rockford Crit, and time with the Mullet King!

Ok, I am not having too much luck here with Blogger, I have had a post ready for a while, and been waiting for internet so i could publish the post, and it deleted on me - you could possibly imagine my frustration?! I just love computers, and being so good with them!

Well last week we did the Priority Health Rockford Criterium, and we basically dominated, taking seven of the top ten, or something like that! It was good for us to race in front of our local supporters, so they could see us in the flesh, and get to watch us do well too.

Afterwards we had a ripper party at Bob's which was fun, and good to have all the team together - well, not all, but a good few of us. Bob always throws wicked good parties, and his house is perfect for entertaining guests.


The biggest attraction of the party was the big man with the newly adopted nickname of 'Mullet Missile', who has recently discovered the wonders of hair products! I had to snag the opportunity for a photo, seeing as i now have a mohawk that is on its way to joining his for height... well, not really...


The Tuesday after Rockford, we got in our home away form home, the team van - geez we've done some hours in that thing this year! We headed down to Greenville where the USPro is being held on the weekend. The cool thing in the photo is Benno being in the passenger seat for the first time we think. It was a long drive made longer by the pissing rain, and even longer because i had Keally picking me up at the other end to take me down to Athens for the week, I asked how far away we were about every twenty minutes! (sound familiar Mum and Dad?!)


The Fosters can i rode passed while training - Aussie beer must be the best, if they drink it on the other side of the world?! It is a weird photo i know, but hey, training can be made exciting every day if you want it to be!


The MAN himself, Bobbo (in black) giving a speech at the Rockford after party.


Just a few M&M's here - three pounds in the bowl, and a further three in the bag. The dollar bill is to show the size of the packet - not sure if it makes it any more significant or not?! Rich and i finished the bowl in a couple of days!

Well dudes, sorry this seems rushed... it is! I am over typing today, after losing the post already a couple of times, but i am planning on an update on Friday at some stage. It will be a good one providing i don't lose it before it gets published, and i will fill y'all in with a bit more detail!

Hope all is well back home.

Laters dudes...

Bank of America, Elk Gove, training, kicking back...

Hey y'all,
Sorry for being a bit lazy, i was on a roll with the updates, but that fell in a heap after Bank of America. Now i have a fair bit of updating to give y'all - I am such a Southerner now!
We have done a few big races lately, and since the last update, we had Bank of America that night, then Elk Grove the following week, and now the weekend just passed we did the Downers Grove USA Criterium Championships.
First up, Bank of America was HUGE! There was more prize money up for that race than i think i will ever see in my lifetime! There was a huge crowd, which, i was so happy about, included Keally and her friends, Meagan and Kaylen! The race started off at a fairly mellow pace, but ended up just getting faster and faster, and the field started to split, and crashes started happening, and then it got really fast and hard. Then, the rain started, and it got super hard. Teddy went down in the dry, and had to go to hospital mid-race, but he was ok after stitches in the elbow. I got tangled up in that crash, but was ok. Once it was raining, the roads that were concrete became like ice, and there was a left hand turn at the bottom of a hill, and with about 10 laps to go, a Jelly Belly dude and i came into the corner and just dropped it, and slid till he stopped when he hit the gutter after about 30 meters, and i stopped only because i slid into him. It was a weird sort of feeling, because we were just sliding along, looking at each other! All was ok after that, but getting going again once the bunch was coming up, definitely put me over the red line.
The field was blown to bits at this stage, and people were crashing out and pulling out eveywhere. There was another huge pile up at corner one, and Robbie went down in that one, but he was right to keep racing. i was just behind the fall when it happened, and it was one of the biggest crashes i reckon i have seen, and the sound was horrendous too - carbon sounds, and wheels breaking.
There were two riders away at the end, and in the bunch i came across the line to hear the bell in third wheel, wicked, i thought it was going to be ok, and if everyone else was as buckled as i was, they might not try and pass me! I was pretty wrong there! in the back straight the whole field, or what was left of them, passed me, and Robbie was one of them, so that was all good. i was just hanging on till the line, hurting like a dog, and ended up rolling in for fourteenth, with Robbie pulling off a seventh. We just had the two finishers for the team, and i was just happy to have come away with most of my skin left, as well as finishing, in the end!
That night, most of the cycling community went out for a beer or two at 'cans', which was a pretty cool place, and they played eighties music all night - Bob would have loved it! It was a great night, and heaps of fun to be able to catch up with Keally again too.
The next day, the boys headed back to MI, squashed into the Vibe, while i headed back to Athens with Keally, Meagan, and Kaylen. I had a great week down in Georgia, and got some great training in on new roads. The training is pretty good there, and i got in a really good week of preparation for Tour of Elk Grove, which was another crit worth just as much money as Bank of America! Floyd Landis was supposed to race, but something came up in a doping test, so he was a no show. The race was on a pretty average course, and made for plenty of crahses, which Rich got caught up in on lap one. The race went ok for us, and at the end Robbie was left to deliver me to the line, although there were about twenty other teams with the same mentality for their sprinter, and we got stuck on the outside, and it made it hard to get a good run at the sprint. I ended up twelfth there, but it was a disappointing result really.
The next day we put in another dismal display, and in another messy race came away without the results we wanted. We headed back to MI to train and get ready for a better showing at Downers Grove the next weekend. Kate was in town with Rich, so i enjoyed some good Aussie meals, like a meat pie, and various other cakes and goodies too. On that note, i should mention that i tried to make one of Mum's famous lemon slices down in Athens, which turned out ok, but that's it, nothing special! It tasted right, but didnt have the right texture or anything, so i have the recipes now, and will definitely make up for it when i make it next week again!
We put in a good training week in MI, and Rich and i were flogging it all week, feeling really good too. I guess it helped us for Downers, because i felt great at these races. We were trying to get the National Championships jersey for Robbie or Teddy, considering it was their National Crit title, but unfortunately we didnt pull it off. Hilton Clarke, my Aussie training buddy, won, after winning three races in as many starts - he also won both days at Elk Grove, so he is going awesome - it was actually good to see him win the Downers Grove race, because for the last two years, that is the only race he has talked to me about!
We had Robbie in fourteenth, and Teddy in eighteenth, so we were a bit disappointed, but not to worry...
This week will be another solid week of training here at Bob's training camp. We have the Priority Health, Rockford criterium on Saturday, 26 August, so anyone remotely near the area must come and race or watch. It will also be my Mum's birthday on Saturday, so anyone remotely near Carnegie, must drop in and say happy birthday to her, and have a bit of birthday cake at the Nankervis home! There's your choices people, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you go to the Nankervis home for Mum's birthday, and Northern Hemisphere means you come and watch Rockford criterium, or race it!
The updates are going to be more frequent again, too, from now on. I must thank all the comment makers, and special mention to Gilly, who got me a new reader, as well as my bro Michael, who wins the prize on guess the pro footballer!
Following here are a few phots from around Bob's place, mainly downstairs, where we have a huge telly, pool table, table tennis (where i kick Bob's arse all the time), basketball ring, dart board, bar (no drinking of course, just for looks), and basically just the coolest 'hang out area' in all of Michigan. There is also a training room just out of sight, with room for about five people to train indoors at a time.
Sorry for the photos to be all together, but Blogger is not co-operating too well in this regard. There is also a picture of the new best climb in the area, which shows Rich and Kate going up the Chauncey climb, which is dirt, but probably the hardest climb in the area that we have found...











I hope the photos worked, and look forward to hearing from everyone soon.
Stay cool dudes, rock on...

Bank of America Preparation...

Hey y'all, we are in Charlotte, North Carolina, getting ready for one of the richest races we will ever ride in. We have spent the week recovering from Tour de Toona, and then trying to get the sprinting legs ready. The weather is relatively hot, and just a tad humid, so there has been a bit of time spent at the pool, and indoors. We have found the time to get a bit of sightseeing done, and Teddy and I took advantage of some awesome photo opportunities the other day...

This sculpture was just begging for a photo, and the bike hanging off it, along with me sitting on it, really captures the true spirit of this sculpture. I am told it is actually a very common photo, for cyclists to hang their bike here, and get a similar picture for the photo album!

This photo below is not interesting for Americans at all, i wouldn't think, aside from me being in it! We don't have these newspaper/brochure dispensers back home in Australia, so i got the photo to show the family really. They have heaps of these on nearly every intersection through downtown in any city.When i was getting the picture with the newspaper stands, this dude walked past and looked like a professional athlete of some description, well, maybe just a linesman of some football description is all he could have been! I ran up to him and asked if he was a professional athlete, and he said he played fourteen years with the New York Giants, as an offensive linesman - a photo was a must. There is a prize for whoever can tell me who he is! A hint is "L.... Smith"At the launch of the Bank of America criterium, we were set up at tables, to sign stuff for people and all that jazz. We were unfortunate enough to be sitting right beside Team Toyota, who have last year's winner on their team, so pretty much just looked at them getting a heap of publicity. We were also the only team to show up in our cycling gear, so it was a bit of a laugh for us. You may be able to see the team beside us are all dressed up nice, and us just in the spandex! It was probably good for our clothing sponsor, Giordana to have us in the team gear though...
This car was in a parking lot. It doesn't need much explanation, mainly because there is none!
A very proud moment for me, and Rich too. He did a crit on Thursday, so we made a real big deal out of it, and made him feel important. We couldn't stop laughing but i needed a photo with him because it was such an honour to actually get to meet him and chat with him!

Well anyway dudes, it has been a fairly uneventful week thus far. Hopefully the legs are good tonight, and i can contain my excitement long enough to get to the start! I am pretty pumped for the race.

We actually raced last night too, in a crit. I managed to crash, so that sucked arse, but i am ok, just more fired up to go well tonight. I ended up finishing ok, but it was good to have a hit-out the day before the race, and get the muscles firing.

Ok, we have to go and register for the race now, so i hope you have enjoyed the update.

Laters dudes...

Altoona...

Hey y'all, got some racing news to fill everyone in on, so that is pretty exciting, and i am also excited that i am pumping out a weekly update on the blog, as opposed to the fortnightly/monthly ones of late!
The Tour de Toona we just finished was one of America's premier road tours, rated up there with the California Tour, and Tour de Georgia, so it was good to race in such a high calibre race, as well as get a seven stage tour under the belt - always good for bringing the form along! The tour is based in Altoona, Pennsylvania, a couple of hours east of Pittsburg, on the way to State College, if that means anything to anyone?! Tour de Toona is regarded as the biggest women's race in the States, and they race equal distance to the men, for equal prizemoney (actually more), which is a pretty big deal. The 'downside' to this, is that the women are the feature event, so we have to start before them every day - meaning 5.30 am wake ups in the morning - something i am not used to!
The tour was great, and very hard. Of the seven stages in seven days, stages one through seven were pretty hard (For the people back in Oz, it was similar to the Sun Tour i guess). We had some decent results, and rode pretty well as a team. There were no podiums for us or anything, but we had a couple of top ten stage results with the King boys.
It was nice (if that is the right word to use?) to get some hills in during the race, as there is a shortage of them in Michigan, and we'll be hoping the tour has ridden us into good form for the upcoming races. The mountain goats, who i will refer to as 'hill-billies' for the remainder of the season, are off to the Tour of Utah, where they will do some insanely big climbing days, and the crit team, who we can call the 'dudes' will be racing some big criteriums, like Bank of America in Charlotte, and Elk Grove in Chicago.
In Altoona, Robbie and I stayed with the Woomer family; Scott and Amy, and their daughter Lauren. They were such a great family to stay with, and we had a great time. We were treated so well, and got along so well, so it was actually hard to say goodbye yesterday when we had to leave for Charlotte. Scott was working at the races each day, driving commissaire cars, or the dreaded sag wagon, while Amy and Lauren were working in the rider's tent, handing out the drinks and food to the exhausted racers at the end of every stage. It is people like this who make the races across the country work, and while they have an interest in our riding and how much work we do, it is just as interesting for us riders to see how much work these people put in, as volunteers, just to provide us with races - thanks again to the Woomer family!
The drive to Charlotte, North Carolina began yesterday, and finished yesterday too for that matter. We were in the Vibe, and it was quite a squish for the four 'dudes'! We had to fit into/on the tiny, four cylinder, shoe box: four bikes, eight sets of wheels (race and training), spare tyres and tubes and the like, a luggage bag or two each, food, computers, helmets, pumps, tools, biddons, and a heap more stuff i can't think of right now. The above picture, of the outside of the car makes it look like we had done it well, but the picture below shows the inside, and how squashy it was!
Rich and Teddy are in obvious pain, or something like that, based on their facial expressions, while Robbie seems excited, and me, well i have a camo Axley sunnies shirt, and sunnies on, so you may not be able to see me?! It was quite an experience, and i am glad to have done it - it also great to be back in the South...We went to a dinner in some fairground after one of the Toona stages, so i took Rich for a drive on my choo choo train. Rich was so excited to ride on a train driven by Thomas the Tank Engine, and i couldn't resist the opportunity for a 'classic' blog photo.
Well this week is going to be spent recovering from the tour, and finding the fastest set of sprinting legs i have ever had, to put to use in the Bank of America criterium in Saturday night. It is going to be fun racing in such a big race, and there is going to be more prizemoney on offer here than i think most of us 'dudes' have ever seen, it will be a good time for any of us to do well!

Hope everyone is well back home, or wherever y'all are reading from, and i hope to get some more blog comments now that i am a regular updaterer!!!!

Stay cool dudes, like me...!