Training in the US

Hey y'all,

Just thought i should check in for a weekly update! Check it out, i am on track to be pumping out regular updates, weekly! I am planning, and hoping, to keep it up throughout the season...

I have been kicking it in the Jittery Joe's kit for a while now, and here is a photo while training in Athens, GA (Georgia for the Aussies). This is however, last year's kit, and i am all excited about training camp on Wednesday, when we have "Christmas", and get all our 2007 gear!

Talk about changing weather! The above photo was taken on Thursday, while the below photos are from training in the hills on Wednesday! It feels weird to ride in full winter gear one day, only to shed it all the following day and work on the tan (well, not tan, but just enjoying the sun)!

John and Phil getting their photo taken in front of a cliff which has frozen over. We found this at the top of a climb called Hog Pen, a lazy 12 km climb. Actually, it wasn't lazy, it was more like the Wall times 3 - it is a 45-50 minute climb! I am glad we ascended the way we did, as we went down to the same height above sea level as we started at, down the other side, in just a 5 km descent, at about 95km/h!

What's this ice about?! I don't recognise it from any training rides up in the Dandenongs!

Fueling up at a service station, while on our "6 Gap" ride, we stocked up on lollies (candy), Powerbars, chocolate bars, coffee, energy drinks, and water! We found it worthy of a photo, and blog material!

John doesn't mind getting the front wheel in the air for a wheelie every now and then, and he pulled this one after ascending one of the 8km climbs we did. If you enlarge the photo, you may see the "steep descent" sign in the background. I have spend hours trying to get the wheelie happening, but i guess it just can't be done by someone with arms as big as mine - that's all i can gather from my hours of trying!

Here is my bike set up on the BT Advanced Training System. Man is this thing good for training! I have been getting on this bad boy for a few sessions, well, one so far, but i plan on doing a few throughout the year, in the build up to the big races. There is nothing all that exciting about this photo, but in a fairly uneventful week, i thought my first session on the ATS was worthy of a blog photo!

I also got off-road this week, finding some trails across the road, and took Keally along for her first off-road ride, so that was pretty cool. It was cold actually, maybe even to the point of freezing! It is so nice though, when it is so chilly, yet the sun is shining - i don't need Summer to come in any great hurry!

We raced on the weekend too, in a somewhat local race, even though it was interstate, in South Carolina. Greenville actually, the home of George Hincapie. It was cool to meet some more of my team mates, and nice to stretch the legs in a race too.

This week i am heading to San Diego for our training camp, where i will meet the whole team, our sponsors, and do a heap of training in the nearby hills. I am pretty excited, and it is going to be great preparation for our first race the following weekend.

That's all for now, hope everyone is well. Get the comments rolling!!!!

Laters...

Goodbye Australia, Hello USA....

Maybe i should say, "goodbye warm weather and Summer, hello freezing cold US Winter"! Man, it is freezing over here, literally! The deck by our apartment froze over last night, check it out:
It may not look frozen, but you will have to take my word for it...

It is so cool though, because while it is freezing, it is still nice and sunny. I has only rained once since i arrived, and snowed on us once while training, but other than that, it is great training weather. I love it how i can wear a long sleeved undershirt, normal undershirt, jersey, Dad's thermal jacket i borrowed, a sleeveless vest over the top, ear warmer under the helmet, winter gloves, leg warmers, and super duper booties, and not have to take any of it off during training. It is so cool. In Oz, if you start the ride with your jacket on, you usually wish you didn't take it with you, but here, its great, as you don't even sweat too much with all that gear on!

We rode up in the mountains on Wednesday, and it was SO cold! The weather forecast tells you a temperature, then a "feels like" temperature, and for Dahlonega, where we were, it was 35 degrees (Fahrenheit), "feels like 19 (Fahrenheit)"!!!! That, for the young Aussie folk who don't know the old way, means: bloody freezing! None the less, we had a great ride, and it was nice to do some long climbs, even if the cold did mean that my water bottles had ice in them when i took a sip, it was like drinking a slurpee!!!!

I have been training with John Murphy a bit, from HealthNet, and he has been showing me some new roads to ride on out here. Here he is posing by the turn off to the infamous Brasstown Bald, usually the make or break hill of the Tour de Georgia. We didn't go up this time, as it was closed due to snow, but i can imagine we'll make a few treks up it in the lead up to the GA tour. Apparently it is quite steep and hard!
It has been great getting back to the States, and one of the reasons for that being so good was that i got to see Keally again, for the first time in ages! We have been having a great time, and it is nice to be back in each other's company again. We went back to her parents' place for dinner last weekend, for lobster, which was nice, then we had a birthday cookie as we were able to celebrate her Dad, brother Eric, and my birthday's all at the same time, as they were all in the last few weeks. My lobster, who's name was Larry before he was eaten, tried to take off a couple of my fingers with his huge claws.
That is one big cookie!
Keally got a bike for Christmas from The Hub, our Jittery Joe's Team bike shop, so we got to go for a ride together on the weekend, wicked!

Here are a couple of dudes looking at having a successful season in the States this year, and hopefully many more after that too! They shall remain nameless, but one thing i can tell you is that they are both really fast! This photo was taken on the way to the airport, and the helmets have been edited into the photo to hide their identity...

Check out my new rig for 2007! Well, it is going to be my training bike anyway. It is sweet! Louis Garneau Sonix 6.4, with Cane Creek wheels, Maxxis tyres, Profile bars and stem and post, Zero Gravity brakes, and... SRAM Force running gear... WICKED! Man, it rides SO smooth, and i am already in love with it! Hopefully it will carry me, and the rest of our team to a heap of great results this season!!!!

Before i left, i had to get rid of some of my left over trader cards from 2006. I thought it would be a great idea to stack them all into a picture frame, and give it to The Bus Wilksch as a going away present. One card has been flipped to show my profile and stats, and another card has been signed and addressed to The Bus and his fiancee Nic! It was a bit of a joke, but Mum (who took the photo) thought it looked so great she made one too! Todd thought it was fantastic, and it went straight to the pool room...
The following photos were supposed to be in a previous blog update i wanted to do before i left, but i ran out of time, so i thought i should just load this update with heaps of photos!
Here are some road signs i am unlikely to see for the next nine months, and that the readers from the US have possibly never seen!
White wombats:
Black wombats!:
Lyrebird:
Person on horse:
And the old favourite, kangaroo:
I also should have the echidna road sign, but i didn't have my camera with me when i rode to Mt Martha! Over the next few weeks i will try and get some of the interesting road signs posted that i see here in the States, if they have any!

I must apologise for the delay in getting this post out, i have been a bit slack, and busy too! There have also been a couple of problems with internet connection, so the pictures have trouble loading. Actually, after a lot of fiddling around, i found the problem to be blogger, but it is all sorted now, and here it is!

Get the comments rolling please, and then i will make sure i keep the posts as weekly updated as possible, if that makes sense!

Laters y'all, hope everyone is well...