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...