TOMMY

A Couple of Articles About Me

2008-08-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

This article was written by a Melbourne journalism student, at the end of the 2006 season:

FIND YOURSELF ON THE ROAD
By Jennifer Dawes

With all the recent issues concerning cyclists on the roads lately it was time to see one of Australia’s upcoming stars to remind us what the sport is really about – the love of the road.
Tommy Nankervis is an example to all young Australians aspiring to become professional athletes. At 23 he is a professional cyclist about to head out to the States for his second pro season. He shows us what it takes to become an elite athlete, and how to achieve it.
Melbourne born Nankervis first discovered his talent on the track at 13 and was encouraged from the start by cycling legend Sid Patterson. His dedication to the sport had him competing on the track from the start. It was only 2 years ago he changed to the road and in doing so turned pro. “There was never any variation on the track you can go around the world on track but it will always be the same, I’m limited on the track on the road I can work much harder”.
And much harder he did work, after grueling training sessions and road races Nankervis decided it was time to tackle the US. With another cycling legend Baden Cooke’s encouragement Nankervis headed out into the unknown territory of the US cycling scene. Only ever having competed in Australia, Tommy set out to get some US races under his belt. Entering independently he made a name for himself, which led to him getting signed to Team Priority Health based in Michigan. For many cyclists the dream is to get to Europe, and America is the best way to get there. “It was a huge step out of my comfort zone and a huge learning curve the entire year. Every race is going into the unknown each week”.
To get to pro level you have to work hard, a typical training week in the pre-season would involve riding 900-100kms week, averaging 30-40hrs per week on the road, plus core strength training. Riding to Sorrento and the Dandenongs are regular day trips for Tommy.
But then he got signed to the US and he traded in the beach for the country roads of the States. Competing in races all around the US he earned himself the honour of being awarded Best Young Rider USA Crit Series 2006. “It was a shock to get the award. I had no idea I was even in the running” Tommy laughs. A highlight of the tour for him was the Athens Twilight race. “Pitch black, 50kms per hour with 6000 Uni students cheering from the sidelines, it was the best atmosphere!” Athens made quite an impression on Nankervis, in February he will sign with Athens team Jittery Joes for another season in the US. Tommy's highest achievement in the US to date would be placing 2nd in the Tour de Leelanau. His closest mate on the team took out first. “It was one of those times when the team worked perfectly together, when everything just came together”.
So why the change to Jittery Joes? “I'm a sprinter, and at Priority Health I wasn't reaching my full potential, there are a few Aussies on this team, everyone is mates, they're happy to sacrifice themselves for each other if that's what's best for the team”.
It's this value system that is refreshing to see in the world of professional sport. The controversy surrounding drugs in cycling recently has tainted the sport's reputation and true values. The love of cycling itself is the reason why Nankervis is where he is today. To take performance enhancers and get where you want to be by not working on your own merit is just cheating the system as well as yourself.
Cycling Australia has worked hard to reestablish its reputation after the lead up to the Athens 2004 Olympics when a young Australian cyclist was found to be using drugs to enhance his performance. It's a shame when people like Tommy who work hard to get where they are today and promote a positive aspect of the sport and health don't get the recognition or the media coverage that controversy does.
“Australian cyclists do not get nearly enough media attention for their achievements as they should” Nankervis says “there are guys out there like Baden Cooke who are winning the green jersey in the Tour de France beating the best cyclists in the world, and no one in Australia who wouldn't follow cycling closely would know it”.
Cooke encouraged Nankervis to get out there and make a name for himself in the cycling world. “He's a good mate, he would offer me advice, and just encourage anyone who needed it. He is a flat out champion, but doesn't look down on anyone. Helps anyone just because he's a good guy”.
These are the kinds of stories we want to hear about professional athletes. If you asked, anyone can list an athlete with an oversized ego. Its people like Cooke and Nankervis that show what being a true athlete is about. Doing what you love, because you love it. You don't need drugs according to these true athletes, the high of being out there in your element is what you live for.
With the recent death of an elderly man on Beach Rd, caused by a cyclist running a red ligh, Australian cyclists are again fighting for their good reputation. The majority of cyclists on the road know the rules, they obey the rules. It's the select few that cause the problems that keep arising. Historically there has always been problems between motorists and cyclists. Now, cyclists are facing a new opposition – pedestrians. Every Saturday and Sunday morning Beach Rd is filled with people out to improve their health and spend a fun morning on the road. The majority of these cyclists should not even be brought into this debate. One group though that is being questioned is the infamous 'Hell Ride' group. The Hell Ride is a group of about 200 cyclists all riding together usually from Black Rock to Frankston and back. They string out a fair bit and usually take up an entire lane, but sometimes two lanes of traffic, causing motorists to be frustrated until they can pass which can last anywhere between a few minutes and 15minutes. This group has been told to curb their ways a number of times and complaints have dropped considerably. With the recent accident though, calls are again up to place more laws upon cyclists.
Cycling is a social activity though. When heading out on a long ride, companionship is not only comforting but helpful and encouraging. Nankervis talks about the social scene when out on a ride “we're talking the whole time” he laughs “we are guilty of gossip, and ragging on each other, it's just a big catch up”. Cyclists encourage each other to keep going, in today's sedentary lifestyle that can only be a good thing.
So what is his favourite race? “It's definitely Melbourne to Warnambool, you ride 299km in one day”. No aspirations to do it this year though, it was time for a break back in Aus and to catch up properly with family and friends. “One day my ultimate goal would be to compete in the Paris-Roubaix one day race in Europe. One day I want to be good enough to start on the race”. With aspirations like that we can be expecting big things from Tommy Nankervis.

“Every day you have to perform to your best, there is no middle ground. You start something and you'll finish it, for me it's all or nothing” Tommy explains how he won't ever bail on a race “that's why I know I will win one day, others will crack but I won't”.
Cycling is a culture, when you learn how to cycle you aren't learning about a sport you are learning about a culture, one that will shape your mind to help you become the best person you can be. “I'm living the life, there is not one easy minute of it, but you just gotta love it!” Tommy flashes a cheeky grin.

Out there on the road, it's all down to you, “you're pushing your limits every day, and when you get to that place where everything just happens and you don't think, that's where you find yourself on the road”.

This is a personal reflection written by me for a university assignment:

I learnt to ride a bike when I was four years old, and never had the opportunity to learn with training wheels – it was straight to the two-wheeler for me! I don’t know how that compares to other youngsters, but I used to ride to kindergarten on my two-wheeler when I was four.

I come from what you might like to call a ‘cycling’ family. My Dad used to race when he was growing up, his Dad still races, and his Dad raced also. With that connection to cycling, I guess I always wanted to be involved in the sport. I used to love watching the Tour de France on TV, and the Olympics etc. Having said cycling is in the family, I was never encouraged to begin from family members at any given time – even when I asked if I could start racing, the response was usually the same “save up a lot of money to pay for bandages, because you will have a lot of crashes”.

This was somewhat of a dilemma for me growing up, and I wanted to change from the other sports I played – football, and track and field – to be a cyclist. I used to love going to bike shops and looking around at all the flash bikes in my spare time, and I always wanted to be a track cyclist. My favourite shop to hang out at was owned by Australian cycling legend and four times world track champion, Sid Patterson. One day Sid asked me if I would like him to take me down to the track and get me started racing… I was over the moon!

Sid took me down the following week, lined me up with a bike, and introduced me to all the people at the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club, of which I am still a member today. It was a great sporting club to be a part of while growing up, and I got to meet heaps of great people. I was so happy to be involved in the club, and most evenings after school were spent down at the track, training or racing.

Once I got to seventeen years old, I had won a state championship and was starting to think about taking cycling more seriously. I was lucky enough to go to the youth Olympic festival in Sydney, following the 2000 Olympics, and had the time of my life. While I didn’t have much success in the races, it gave me a hunger to do well at the National Championships a few months later. I trained really hard for these Nationals, and was finding for the first time in my life I was really serious about achieving a goal. I came home from those National Championships with a gold and silver medal, and achieved my childhood dream of winning an Australian Championship. This dream applied to whatever sport I could imagine it may be possible, so I guess cycling was where it was meant to happen for me.

After the National’s joy wore off, I found that I was lacking extra passion. After speaking with a sports psychologist at university while I was studying Exercise Science (at Victoria University), he told me that I needed to set new goals, and always have something to aim for. With that in mind I set myself new goals, and it is something that I always remember to do.

The great thing about cycling, and any sport at an elite level for that matter, is that it will train you to set your mind to a task, and set stepping stones to achieve a goal.

After racing the track for years and spending a fair bit of time with a certain coach who I really had a personality clash with, I decided it was time to try and focus on the road. I met a great bunch of friends through racing the track, and they have had a big influence in shaping me, not only as a cyclist, but as the person who I am today.

A few years ago I had a big crash where I was hit by a car. I got screwed over big time and came out of it with absolutely nothing except a broken bike I was still in debt for. I decided I had had enough of cycling and that it was not worth working so hard for something that can be taken from you in a split second. Well as I said I have a great bunch of mates, and they rallied to get me back riding again. They lined me up with a new sponsor who gave me a new bike and a fresh start in the bike game – I have never looked back since.

I am ever grateful for all of the great people who I have met through cycling, and that is one of the main reasons why I think it is such a great sport to be a part of. People are always willing to help out, no matter what their standard or yours is. Cycling has long been known for the image of having the world champion sitting on a bench beside the thirteen year old junior. I too have experienced this on many occasions, and have been lucky enough to have one of Australia’s best professional cyclists write emails to every professional team in the USA, with my resume attached, in order to try and gain me a position in one of their teams. Gestures like this are what I reckon separates cycling from any other sport.

Along with assistance in getting onto teams, there are also countless people willing to offer help in other areas of the sport, such as coaching or financial assistance. I have a coach who takes a day off work each week so he can take me for a five to six hour training session, which is just awesome, and the time and passion he puts into making me the best I can be is just priceless.
I have been sponsored by a local shop, Fitzroy Cycles, who have been looking after me for a couple of years now, and they work on my bike for me, and help out with all my cycling needs at an affordable price. The shop has also given me work when I was in need of employment through various periods, and the loyalty of the owner has been brilliant. He does everything he possibly can to help out, and his generosity and enjoyment out of seeing those he helps out means a great deal to the aspiring cyclists of the local area.

I have had a few negative experiences in cycling, but they are very few and not enough to weigh down my passion for the sport. My early negative experiences involved coaches more so than anything else. I would get really down when one particular coach would always give me a hard time, and it sometimes felt as though he was trying to drive me away from the sport. It didn’t take me too long to realize though, that cycling can still be enjoyable just by training alone, or finding a new coach.

I guess the thing that everyone always sees cycling in a negative light by, is its association with performance enhancing drugs. I hate it that this is somewhat of a reputation cycling has with the general public, and in my experience, cycling is a very clean sport. Sure, there are the rare instances where someone will go positive, but I don’t think there is a greater incidence of positive tests in cycling as in any other sport at a professional level. I am now racing in a professional team, and I can guarantee that there is absolutely no chance anyone is involved in performance enhancing drugs in any way, shape, or form. That behavior is absolutely not tolerated.

One of the other things we do have a bit of trouble with as cyclists is traffic, and all too often we don’t get the respect we deserve. I am sure that as this great activity continues to grow, we will get more recognition, and with that, respect will follow.

Cycling has had a big role in shaping the person I am today, and I guess things could have been very different had I chosen a different sport, or career path for that matter. I am very pleased to have become the person I am today, and I know cycling has played a big part in that. It is great to be active everyday, and it is a great lifestyle to have.

New Blog for Tommy!

2007-03-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

Howdy loyal readers,

I have now got myself a new blog: www.tommynankervis.missingsaddle.com so please go there to see my latest updates. I hope you continue to read, and enjoy the new web page as much as i do.

The new blog is still in the development process, but in the next few weeks it should be all good, and up and running.

Please re-direct your home pages to my new page! .....and don't forget to keep the comments rolling!!!!

Thanks y'all,

Tommy

Jittery Joe's Training Camp

2007-03-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

Howdy!

We have been kicking it at our training camp in San Diego, California for the last week, and have been having a ball, getting all our new gear, and most of all, getting in some great training. Our team mate, Neil Shirley lined up accommodation for everyone, and also the training routes for each day, which was great, because there were thirteen people who had to be looked out for!

Last Wednesday, i met Cesar the Fijiian, and headed off to the airport. We met in a car park and picked up our car for the drive, some fancy BMW, which was brand new, which made the 1 degree celsius, 5am start to the day seem somewhat alright! It was good to get to have a chat with the Mexican, and get to know him a bit better (Cesar made a name for himself when he beat Lance Armstrong up the Brasstown Bald hill top finish in the Tour of Georgia a couple of years back).

Here is the Beamer we got to drive. It went about 200 miles per hour when we went hard.

Here is a picture of the crew for 2007, minus Aussie Chris Jongewaard. This isn't actually the team photo, just taken while we were getting ready for it. The sun was pretty bright, and it was early morning, so that could explain the squinting eyes on everyone!

I am sure all pro (i use that term loosely) riders will agree, it is always exciting to get the new team kits at the beginning of the year! We all got a wheelie bag full of gear, with nothing spared. It is a complete change of colours for me, from green to orange, but i think i will find the transition smooth, seeing as i now have a complete orange outfit! This is such a professional team, and it is going to be a great year working with such organised and professional staff, and such a great group of guys.

Neil organised a long ride for day two, which turned into an epic. We did a climb called Palomar, which it 16 miles long, or something like that! It was an hour and two minutes from bottom to top, going fairly solid. The view at the top, and the descent made it worthwhile! Unfortunately i didn't get a photo of the great view, but i did get one of the snow at the top. It was freezing up there, which you might expect after climbing for 20km or so! For those back in Melbourne, it was about twice as steep as the 1:20, just for three times as long, it was too hard to do in the big ring!

Here is a picture of the standard views we get here in Southern California. This was actually a wicked good view, and the photo really doesn't do it justice! We got to do another bunch of great climbing on day four, and we were also joined by some dude Floyd Landis, which was pretty huge for us. It's not every training camp you go to where you have a tour de France winner join you for a ride!

We have been doing heaps of stuff on the training camp, like photo shoots, team meetings, and meeting up with sponsors, and lots of great dinners too! This is the first time i have been on a training camp like this before, and it is such a great thing. All of our rides have been together as a group, and we have really come together well as a team. We haven't raced together yet, but if it goes anything like camp has, we should kick some arse, big time!
Here is a familiar sight back in Australia, which i haven't seen much of since being in the States - ocean views! I try not to take it for granted while riding up and down beach road, and it certainly helps appreciate it more when you see it anywhere! Riding up and down the coast between San Diego and Carlsbaad makes for some great beach riding, very similar to Oz.

Skipper Wilson, showing off his time trial position, will be leading Jittery Joe's for 2007 as team captain.

Here i am showing off my time trial position, i will be hoping i can improve on my time trialling from last year, and i have no excuses for bad rides this year - i have my own time trial machine! Today was the first time i have ever ridden a time trial bike on the road, and i have to say, it feels so fast! I only hope i can ride as fast as the bike looks and feels!

Here is the rig, just without the disk wheel and aero front wheel.

Here is an interesting road sign i have definitely never seen before. You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but it is actually a surfer carrying their surfboard on top of their head (which means it is a long baord)! Just across the road is the surf, obviously!

Here is a nice sunset photo taken from the backyard of where we're staying, very pretty huh?! That is one thing good that can be said for the SoCal smog, consistently beautiful sunsets!

So that's where i am at after the first week with the new team. I am really enjoying this, and am sure that that will continue through the year. I am also itching to start racing, which is coming up this Friday with the Central Valley classic in Fresno. Last year it was cold and wet, even snowing, so hopefully the warmer weather is turned on for this time round!

Hope everyone back in Oz is doing well. Hopefully i will speak to you soon. Also, you may see that i have made some alterations to the blog, which included adding all my new team sponsors, as well as personal sponsors, so feel free to check them out. I have spent hours trying to put a new photo up on the header, in my new outfit, doing the same thing (only better), and can't seem to get it happening, so we'll have to bear with the current (old) one for a little bit till i can figure it out. My team mate Austin King has a cool website, so i may try and get one of them...

Laters...

Training in the US

2007-02-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-02-13T18:06:00.000-08:00

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...

Australia Day

2007-01-29T04:26:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all,

I have re-entered my slack ways and haven't put out an update in a while, but here it is! Updates will be a bit more regular from now on, as i am about to head back to the States, and i will have more interesting things to talk about!

The two exciting things that have happened in the last weeks has been Australia Day, on the 26th, and my 24th birthday, on the 21st! I have now officially entered my mid-twenties, which is a bit of a concern for me, because now i sound old when i tell people my age! My birthday was on a Sunday, and it was a very lazy day for me, short ride in the morning, lounging around all day, watching telly, and then a dinner at home with the family. Not bad to just do nothing all day!
Here i am with my youngest brother Sean, with the birthday cake complete with the Melbourne Demons footballer cake decorations - every Nankervis birthday has the Dees football players on the cake, they take priority over the candles!
Dad, the ultimate handyman, has pulled up the floor in our family room, as we are about to get polished floor boards through the back room and hall way. I was a great help while all of this work was going on...!
With the Australian Open tennis championship finishing over the weekend, and watching the guru Roger Federer play, Sean and i thought we had better go and have a game. I thought it was going to be easy, after watching all the best players in the world, and how they do it, but man, i have no idea how they do it?! Sean was trash talking me all the way down to the St Pat's tennis club, telling me how i wasn't going to win a game, or point! What followed was an absolute white-wash, i won 6-0! Sean said i did to him what Federer did to Andy Roddick, but that couldn't be right, as he is Federer! I must say that i had the most fun and laughing playing tennis, that i have had in a long time! I guess i will play again next Australian Open...
Lisa and her friends have been making the most of their holidays, after completing high school. This is a typical lazy evening, bumming around watching movies. Actually, i am making that up, they have been busy as anything, going out, going away, working, and had just got back from being volunteers at a week-long camp, hence the early night!

As you can see, there has not a whole lot been happening for the moment! Actually, one thing that has happened, is all the boys have left for the year. I have lost my training partners, and now have to go it alone, well, for another week only. Matty, Jez and Cookie have left for the Unibet team presentation and training camp, while Hilton has gone to training camp, and Jonny has left for the Tour de Langkawi. I had a great Summer of training with the guys, and have continued to learn heaps from them all. I am definitely going to miss the fun training rides with Jez, who i did most of my training with. We had a ball. and really pushed each other in all of our sprint training, even though i won all the time! HAHA!!!!

On Sunday, Jonny took me out on his commando loop training ride, and man, if that's not one of the hardest training rides i have done in the hills, i don't know what is! I think we rode up every hill, and i was knackered by the end. No wonder he is so strong!

With all the training i have been doing, i have started to get ripped in the legs, so i took a photo of them and sent it to Todd. He then edited his head onto the photo, and sent it back to me!

Well that's all for now, and i plan on getting another update up before i head off next Wednesday. I am also selling my bike, so if anyone is interested, email me at the email you can find on the home page of my blog.

Laters...

New Years and Bay Crits...

2007-01-11T21:46:00.000-08:00

Howdy y'all!

I have been back in my slacking ways, so there hasn't been much in the way of updates lately. I have been on the run a bit, and busy, so i haven't found the patience to sit down and load photos, and type.

The first thing that i should report on, is to let you know i got second in the New Years Eve special Hell Ride! I did a lead out for Hendy, just so he didn't have his confidence shattered before departing to Mallorca for the T-Mobile training camp.

Here is a picture of the Hell Ride as it heads off in the morning from Black Rock. The picture doesn't really show the bunch too well, but i did my best considering i was riding, and wanted to stay upright, as well as avoid looking like a tourist - i am not really the type who takes a lot of photos! The USA National criterium champion is showing off his colours here in the front of the picture, complete with his new Champion's Jersey!

Here is another shot of the Hell Ride, a bit clearer, but doesn't show how many riders there are on the ride. Hiltz is again hogging the photo, and trying to show off his jersey!

Cafe Racer is pretty much the most popular cafe for cyclists i have ever come across. This picture doesn't really show how many bikes are usually parked out the front of Racer, there are still a heap behind me. Every morning of the week there are hundreds of cyclists and other locals enjoying the great coffee here.

For the Jayco Bay Criterium Series, the Aussie Jittery Joe's riders, Trent Wilson, Jeff Hopkins, Cody Stevenson, and myself, joined Mark Renshaw (Credit Agricole) to ride for the Skilled composite team. We have one other Aussie in Jittery Joe's, Chris Jongewaard, who didn't race the Bay Crits.

The picture above was taken on Stage Three, the Geelong Waterfront crit, where we got on the front and brought back the break, in order to set our team leader Mark Renshaw up for the win. I am leading our Jittery Joe's sprinter Hop into the turn. If i must say so, i reckon we did a pretty good job on the front, and Hop was going like a machine! Unfortunately he crashed out after someone decided to take a dive in front of him - last year's winner of this stage, and my team mate of last year, Rich England. It was a bit of a bummer for Jeff, as he was riding into form, and ended up having to watch the rest of the series from the side lines with a badly sprained wrist.

I am pretty pumped about seeing the team line up like this over in the States this year. This was one of our first races together, and we are already getting it happening pretty well!
All our hard work to get our man, and series leader, up for the win was destroyed when Robbie McEwen stole the win from us! Mark, in the yellow jersey, came very close to rolling Robbie on the line, but second was enough to keep him in the lead on the GC. It would have been awesome if he had won, seeing as we were actually able to help him in this stage, and i must give a big thankyou to the great journalist for the Bay Series, Mal Sawford, who even gave me a mention in the race report for Stage Three...!

Mark beat Sun Tour winner Simon Gerrans in Stage Two, at Portarlington. This circuit is a killer, and i think only about eleven dudes made it around. The win saw Renshaw take the leader's jersey from Stage One winner Jonny Clarke. It was nice of Mark to do so in front of his team mates too, as we were all sitting back in the tent after our early exits from the stage!

Mark went on to win the Overall by a huge amount, and was never really threatened all week. It was nice to be part of a successful team this year, and to be able to ride with a ProTour rider too.

After the series was over, we donned the suits and headed out to the gala dinner, a Bay Crits' tradition. It is always funny to see all the guys we usually only see in lycra, dressing up in suits, and the best dressed was a hands down winner; Jeff Hopkins! He chose the three piece suit for the occasion. Above we are modelling our outfits while hanging off one of the metal statues in Swanston Street in the city. The statue is about to go to work, and wasn't impressed with our behaviour! I should add that while i may look like i was drinking here, i only had one light beer (Australian light beer) for the night, so don't get the idea that i am a party boy or anything!

Get a load of this! If you thought the previous photo showed Hop striking up a bit of a pose, then have a go at this one! Does anyone have a cigar for him? This shot was taken using the candlelight mode of the camera, and really accentuates the lighting and vibe of the place. The lense used was a ......... ! I have no idea actually. I can tell you though, i am looking forward to many more fun times as the year rolls on, and am really excited to be spending the year with my new team mates.

I will shoot out a new update in a few days of the National Road Race Championships held at Buninyong, but for now, get the comments happening!

Happy New Year everyone, even if i am two weeks late!

Laters...

The Christmas Special Hell Ride... WINNER!

2006-12-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the blog of official 2006 Christmas Special Hell Ride winner, Tommy Nankervis!

What a proud day it was for me too, i am just ecstatic to have won my first Christmas Special, and i hope it is the first of many!

The winner's trophy; there is a lot of hard work behind this, but, it has all been worthwhile!

The week started with a few good training rides, and a descent day on Thursday in the 42 degree celsius heat! I am sure that if i didn't win, the big 200km Thursday in the heat would have been the excuse! That, or the fact my lead out man, Jez Hunt, decided he preferred the comfort of his bed over the wintery morning training (or should i say 'racing') ride!

The winner's flowers!

There were only about 40 people who braved the wet morning weather to do the Christmas Special, but it was good to see the bunch continued to grow as the ride (race) went along. As the finish drew nearer, it became obvious that Greg Henderson was going to be the man to beat, and the pressure was on for me to keep the title this side of the Tasman Sea! I had my lead out train of Anthony Smith, Dan Moore, Matty Wilson, and former title holder Leroy DeLuca do a fantastic job, and got me close enough to the finish to allow me to stay out of trouble and give the sprint of my life. Hendy pulled up alongside me early, and we drag raced for a long way, until i was able to pull clear for the win! I reckon it was the greatest day of my cycling career thus far (although i do have big ambitions)!

Hendy and I were jamming it to the line, and reached 69km/h in the kick, which is quick i think. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank my lead out team, my sponsors, all the riders who attended, and last but not least, my mate Luke, who told Hendy the finish line was the "60 sign" and not the big green one (100m later), as that may have helped out heaps i reckon!!!! Good job Lukey!

After the win, i rewarded myself with some pancakes and maple syrup!

So just to re-cap, little Pete came in third, T-Mobile's Greg Henderson was second, and i took the honours! Ha ha! Sorry Hendy, i just need to talk it up a bit!

Early morning training up the 1:20 climb, or Mountain Hwy, up to Sassafras. It is probably the most popular climb in Melbourne, and hundreds of people would ride up this climb each week. It is 7km long, with a constant gradient, which is great for training. Jez is the rider in the photo, and i had to zoom out, as he reckons his legs aren't ripped enough yet for a close up! In two or three weeks, we are going to put a leg comparison photo up for a reader poll!

Training on Thursday, on the way home from Sorrento. This is a great ride with beach views the whole time. We were also unlucky to have a really smoky day again, which made the views limited, like of the hills we are about to ride to. They are usually crystal clear from this spot, and it is really pretty, still, it looks nice!

Up on the hills in the picture from before. There are a heap of really nice looking houses, with great views out over the bay. Just to the left of the picture, a cliff drops down to the water, which, as well as providing great views, doubles as a cool place to do bombs off into the water!

My good mate Isaac headed off to India this week for a five week holiday, and you can see he is pretty excited about what is ahead of him!

Everything he is taking fits into this bag! I am looking forward to hearing some great stories of his trip.

Thankyou to all of the readers who left comments this week, i appreciate it! It is nice to know people have an interest in what is going on. If anyone has anything they want me to write about, just let me know - there is not a lot going on, so i am happy to write about anything really!

If people want to write in and tell me what they know of the history of the Christmas Special Hell Ride, and the past winners, we can try and create an "honour roll". Someone left a comment in the last post about there being only 27 winners or so in its history, however, i believe DeLuca has won a hand-full, so that really makes the club a bit more exclusive!

Anyway, i just want to wish everyone all the best for a very Merry Christmas, and i hope Santa Claus/Father Christmas visits everyone!

Merry Christmas... Laters...

Finally.....

2006-12-18T01:15:00.000-08:00

... A WIN!
It was only a local Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club, Glenvale criterium, but all the same, it was a win, and it was my first since i left for the States in February (not including my heat in Athens Twilight CompuTrainer)! I shouldn't really say 'only', as it is the best weekly criterium you will find in Australia, and every week of racing always brings a great field. I can probably talk it up, as there were a few World Champions, heaps of National Champions, and a ProTour rider in the field, and it was the hardest Glenvale i think i have done, so yeah... Wicked!

My last race in Priority Health gear, and i notched up a win! That's T-Mobile rider, and winner of Readding and Philly, Greg Henderson in second, and my Priority Health team-mate Richard England in third! I think i got lucky coming into the last corner - the dudes in front of me baulked coming around the corner, just as i was taking off up the inside, so i guess they lost their run, just as i was starting mine. I will still take it!

It was a seven man sprint, after we had lapped the field, then attacked the hell out of each other for the next twenty minutes, so i hope my form will continue to improve, and i can be going good for the Bay criterium series in the New Year!

This tradition started a couple of years ago, when i used to win all the time! Ha ha! I think the last shot i did like this i had thirteen fingers up (with Deano helping out)? Still wearing the best gloves in the world -TUFF!

It's a pretty common sight in Melbourne to see a heap of bikes stacked up outside a cafe, anywhere in the vacinity of Beach Road. Here is birthday boy Johnny Clarke getting ready to hit the "frog'n" after his birthday brekky today! Happy Birthday champ!

Johnny's SouthAustralia.com/AIS Bianchi, with the wicked-cool looking top tube paint job, complete with kangaroos in the desert sunset. The cutlery set in the background is not meant to be there, it is just where his bike happened to be when the photo was taken!

Jez and i stopped for our twenty seventh (we lost count after five - lucky i am riding for Jittery Joe's coffee in 2007), strong skinny latte of the morning, and i decided it was just the perfect photo opportunity to again show off how lucky we are to be training in Melbourne's summer! Sorry about carrying on, Teddy! This cafe is actually 'on' the beach, you can see the sand and water right there! I guess today was just the perfect day really, weather wise.

Jez and i have been doing a bit of training together, and we are both finding that we are becoming VERY fast! You should have seen the Hell Ride lead out on Saturday, i think i wound it up to about 70+ km/h - although each time we talk about it, it gets faster - it was so fast, only Jez could hold the wheel, and by the time he took over, it was too late for anyone to pass him!

This coming weekend is the 'Christmas Special', so everyone is encouraged to come down and try their best to claim the most prestigious Hell Ride of the year. Saturday morning is the "Big One" - in form riders include Hilton Clarke, Simon Clarke, Jez Hunt, possibly "The Bus" Wilksch if he can get up early enough, myself (obviously!), and watch for the early move from Johnny Clarke. I would probably put my money on Jez if i lead out, or me, if Jez leads out! Hopefully Hendy doesn't show up, cos he's really fast too! Also, if "Leroy" DeLuca makes an appearance again, he will be in with a shot.

For those who are more likely to opt for being spectators, we will arrive back into Black Rock at about 8.30 - possibly early this week with the honour at stake, and the chance of a much higher pace!

"Me and my bike!" Jez did an article in a European magazine, and had to pose with his bike, so we thought it would be a bit of fun to do a re-enactment! Comparing the two photos, you can see that i am clearly not the seasoned pro here! I am struggling to hold back a laugh, or cheesy grin, while Jez has the focussed, model-like pose! You can also see that my attire is not up to scratch, with my wind-vest puffed up, making me look fat, and my sleeves rolled up (i say to minimise tan-lines), but they should have been down for the photo! Also, my bike is on a funny angle (Tyrone!), and doesn't give the reader the chance to see the bike in all its glory.

This is what a seasoned pro looks like for a photo shoot ("seasoned" is a nice way of saying "old"!)! Jeremy Hunt rides for ProTour team Unibet.com and knows how to strike a pose! The former Great Britain National Champion will have a red hot go at all the classics this year, and if he continues his sprinting form, will probably be up for a win or two!

Clearly i have learnt from this experience, and what you will find, is that next time i have to pose for a ("me and my bike") photo, i will look the goods, and be ready to step it up to Jez's level! The thing that i find important though, is that i am more ripped and muscular than Jez, even though he claims to be the winner there, so if you don't mind, please begin a bit of a poll in the comments section saying who is more ripped!

Ok dudes, have a good one, and hopefully i get an update in before Christmas. Make sure y'all leave comments!

Laters dudes...

National Crit Title, Queensland, Phillip Island, Bushfires...

2006-12-12T01:27:00.000-08:00

G'day y'all,

Again i am entering back into my slacking ways, but i have good reason... again! After the National Criterium Championship, I was staying in a place with no internet for a few days, and then was really busy when i returned to Melbourne. The criterium was very fast, and i think at one stage i managed to get my heart rate one beat below my threshold for about 30 seconds!
I did feel good though, and am happy with my form this early into my training for 2007. I ended up ninth, although the results didn't say so - i can assure you i was though!

Robbie McEwen knew who was the best wheel to follow... I did find that i was always in a good position, and even though i was hurting bad, i felt good. I think i am ready to try and win a Bay Crit or three! Hahaha, hopefully i can finish more than one this year!
Just sneaking into the edge of the photo, turn one of the two-turn championship circuit. Hot dog style circuits are very common in Australia, possibly because it makes road closures eaasier, and the crowd can see more of the race too.
Brisbane from the Storey Bridge... Pretty nice location for a city!
Coolum Beach on a somewhat wintery day, even though it was still almost 30 degrees celsius. Training on the Sunshine Coast is great, riding alongside beaches all day. After the Crit in Brisbane, i headed up North to stay with my good mate Chris at Alexandra Headland. I have been up there for the last five or six years i think. I love it up there, it is such a nice place, and the people all live a great lifestyle.

These canals are all over Queensland, and people have their houses backed, or fronted, right onto them. Most of them are able to dock their boats in their own backyard, and have their own jetty and all. Pretty snazzy!

This is the hill up to Chris's house, which comes up from the Alexandra Headlands beach. It is really steep, and just last week, a French tourist decided he wanted to ride down on his skateboard at 3 am. He must have been drunk or something, but he got super speed wobbles, crashed, and unfortunately died. It is just a short hill, maybe 150 metres maximum, but on the bike you can free-wheel to about 65km/h, to give you an idea of how steep it is!

Out of the blue i bumped into my good mate Matty while out training, and we rode and checked out one of Australia's most amazing beaches, Noosa. It really is quite stunning. I should also add that Matty is probably the greatest guy a person could ever meet.

Bli Bli Castle. Thought i should take a photo of this to remind everyone that "a man's home is his castle". Good movie!

A view of the ocean from the Southern side of Phillip Island, looking out to Seal Rocks. This is a very calm day for this side of the Island, and yet it still looks pretty wild! I don't think i would really want to go swimming down there! When i got back from Queensland, i headed down to Phillip Island to pick up my sister Lisa and her friend, who had been holidaying at our house down there. It was my first time down there in over a year and a half. I love Phillip Island, its just a pity i don't get to spend as much time down there as i would like.

I got to go for my first surf in two years on Thursday, and it was pretty evident i haven't lost any of my style! It was great to get out in the water again, and i really enjoyed having a surf, even though my arms were getting tired so quickly from the paddling!

Two days after my day trip to the Island, i was back there again, this time with my mates James, and Ryan, to see the V8's. There was a really cool street party on the Saturday night, which i was too tired to enjoy, but all the same, good to see the Phillip Island night life again. The V8 Supercars final round was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit, and it was nice to see them race for my first time. Here are the cars on the starting grid getting ready for action. We had a bike race on here once, and it was a really good circuit for the bikes too.

The bushfires have been ripping through country Victoria, and a good part of Australia for that matter. It is "bushfire season", and the droughts we have been having make for a pretty scary time here right now. Hopefully they can all be put out, or we get some rain or something. It is just so dry and windy, and that makes for a horrible combination when it comes to bushfires.

This is normally a really clear view on the way down to Phillip Island. The smoke from the fires nearly 200 km away has come all the way down to Phillip Island, as well as the Melbourne city, just to give you an idea of how bad the situation is right now. It also means for really bad air to breathe, and helps give ripper hay fever allergy symptoms!

In other news, my sister Lisa has just got her ENTER score back, and got 92.90, which is the ranking for the state or something. Its pretty confusing really, but basically it just means she is kick arse smart, and got a score she deserved after a year of very hard work.

On the training front, the K's are rolling over, and i am felling super strong and fast! It must be the hot weather or something... Check out what my mate Teddy has to train in over in the States! I am working on a few new things with my training at the minute, and i really don't think i have ever felt this strong or fast in a long time!

Anyway dudes, don't forget to write comments, and i hope y'all are well!

Laters dudes...

Best Thanksgiving... EVER!

2006-11-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

G'day y'all, I know Thanksgiving has been and gone, but for those of us here down under, we are still buzzing from the excitement of the "best Thanksgiving ever" (I must say that has nothing to do with the fact i have never known when Thanksgiving actually was)! We had a great barbeque during the day, and had a feast including hamburgers, salad, beer, PUMPKIN PIE, and pavlova!

I had never seen Pumpkin Pie before, not even a picture, so i got the recipe off the internet, and got all the ingredients, and made the mixture up. Luckily, we had an American with us, who knew nothing about cooking, so we just followed the directions and hoped for the best. After 40 minutes in the oven, we were still unsure, but after taking it out and letting it cool a bit, we were treated to one of the best desserts i think i have eaten! Ours didn't quite look like the one above, as we used all the whipped cream on the pavlova, but it tasted brilliant! It looked great too!
We decided to give a bit of an Aussie feel to the day, hence the barbeque instead of the turkey with stuffing, and opted for the pavlova as well. It is basically a huge merangue (did i spell that right?), filled with whipped cream, then topped with fruit, although we used chocolate one side, and kiwi fruit the other - to accommodate both types of taste buds.
We had a ripper of a day, and everyone had a great time. We are thinking of making it a weekly tradition, or maybe i just mentioned that on Thursday for fun. Our golf was going to be a weekly tradition too, but we haven't played since our first game!
At the end of the night i dressed up as a cowboy for a minute or two. I had the dry-aza-bone, hat, spurs, and all, but i still didn't look as good as Jim Craig, the Man From Snowy River!

I raced on the weekend down at Glenvale, and feel alright, but i am saving it for the National Criterium Championship this coming weekend in Brisbane. I must add that i outsprinted "the Bus" for my first time ever on Sunday, so i feel fast! I am sure he wasn't trying though!

I was looking at my team mate for next year, Austin King's website, and found this cool link in the comments section, check it out: http://www.glumbert.com/media/carshoot WICKED! We need to do this to all the cars who harrass us while out training!

I am planning on doing an entry about the famous (or some would say infamous) Hell Ride in a few weeks, when i have nothing exciting to write about, and need inspiring. I will try and get a few photos one time while i am doing it, and then it will make the post look cooler. Next week's entry will most likely be about the National Championship crit, where i hopefully win the jersey!

Anyway dudes, stay cool, and i hope y'all enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend break.

Laters...

Track...

2006-11-19T03:50:00.000-08:00

G'day y'all!

The first race we did was a scratch race, and i won - wicked! I think it was my first win since February, of any description (aside from my qualifying heat of the Athens Computrainer actually)! Next up was the keirin (motor paced lead out sprint race), where i made the final.

There are some great people involved who do a great job, I used to love track, and you can see me in the pictures above and below in the yellow helmet and red bike, racing on Melbourne's Vodafone Arena.

So what i had planned for this update was a few photos from the training roads of amazing Melbourne. Pretty much everyone in the cycling world of Melbourne knows the roads from Melbourne to Mordialloc and back, and i think i know every pothole, but one thing i haven't really ever stopped to appreciate is the great views along the way. Before, all you would have read was how great our training location is, and how lucky we are here. Below is the river in Mordialloc (Mordy), full of boats, and i am on a rock groyne with a jetty out the end of it. It has that nice quaint feeling about it, particularly by the river here, and there is a really nice restaurant on the water too, just upstream there!

Looking the other way out to the water you can see the nice long jetty, which is usually full of fishermen. You may be able to see a bit of land off to the left, across the water there? That is Arthur's Seat, which has great views, and a nice 4km climb, with ten switchbacks on it - makes for great training, but i will be avoiding it for a few weeks at least!

Below you can see a jetty off Black Rock (left), the next landmark on the way back from Mordy. Black Rock has a bg round-a-bout with a clock tower, and is the start and finish of the famed Hell Ride (more about that in a later blog). To the right of this picture you can see a ship that has been sunk, deliberately, to help save the Black Rock beach from eroding away with the current of the water. Pretty impressive, and it has become a bit of a landmark and sight seeing attraction - i can explain the reasoning behind the sinking of the ship better, but i wont go into it on the blog!

This next shot is taken from the very expensive suburb of Brighton, looking up toward downtown Melbourne, with the beach boxes of Brighton beach to the right.

Here is a close up of the beach boxes (you may need to enlarge the photo). They are owned by rich people, and are a place where they can keep their beach-going essentials like sunscreen and hats, towels, chairs, sand castle making stuff like shovels and buckets, and some of the fancy ones have barbeques too.

Here is a close up of Melbourne, including the new Eureka Tower in the middle, which has some significance, being the tallest something or other of its type of something. Could be tallest residential building maybe? I must apologise for the smog, but if there was something i could do, i would try and get rid of it!
Tuesday was a proper winter's day, complete with snow on the nearby hills, and hail in our backyard, as well as probably our neighbour's too. It was weird to have one of the coldest November days on record last Tuesday, with a few days of rain, then this week (Tuesday), have the hottest November day since 1916. I can't keep up!
Here's the newly engaged Todd (The Bus) and Nicola, cutting their engagement cake up in Horsham last weekend. Congratulations again guys, and i hope you like getting a mention here! I should also tell you Todd is in the second picture of the update, in the white helmet...

To lighten up the mood, i thought i should spice up the training ride with the boys by rocking up with streamers going on the Ridley! Talk about a trendsetter! How cool are the other things around the stem and top tube - what a princess!

I also need to send out a big birthday wish to the old boy Billy, whose birthday was on Sunday - Happy Birthday!

There is also a great deal of excitement building up in anticipation for Thanksgiving on Thursday! I am so excited! I don't even know what i am getting excited about, but we are going to have a big barbeque, and celebrate anyway. Keally has told me its the best holiday (vacation) of the year, so i hope its all she's cranked it up to be - i just hope that the vibe is going to be here like the Americans get!

Well dudes, i am looking forward to reporting on Thanksgiving in my next update, and i hope y'all are doing well.

Laters dudes...

I Wish I Could Come Up With A Witty Title...

2006-11-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

G'day everyone, hope all is well. Firstly i think i need to swallow my own words, because in the last post, i was trying to make everyone in the States jealous of the great weather they were missing out on here in Australia, then the very next day, we had three times as much rain as the entire month of October! I took a few photos around our house, but none of them really show how wet it was. I guess the Melbourne Water people can thank me though, because without me saying we had great weather it may not have rained! Now we are in the middle of winter again, and it has rained for the last three or four days!A new pasttime we have been enjoying is golf. Here, Matty is re-enacting the 30-footer he just sank on the eighth! We had a great day, and hopefully the tradition, which is one game old, will continue, and we can start to get good at it. The Melbourne Cup (Australia's horse race which has a public holiday) was run last Tuesday, and the whole nation gets right into it. We do what is called a "cup sweep" where horses are picked out of a hat for each person, and then the winners get the prizes. There is no skill in it, so i find i have just as much chance of winning in the sweep, as i do if i were to study the horses and choose a winner! My horse (Pop Rock) came second, so i was pretty happy about that! You can see the kids hanging about waiting for Sean (my little bro) to draw out the next horse. Delta Blues edged out Pop Rock for the 2006 Emirates Melbourne Cup, and i think pocketed a cool $2.5-3million in the process - why am i racing bicycles?! I actually had my money on Delta Blues for the big race - everyone in the country pretty much makes a bet of some description on Cup day, so i needed to put some dollars somewhere, which i see as my donation toward the gambling industry for the year. I was on the phone to my mate James, a horse betting expert, and Keally at the same time (very talented!), and asked him who to bet on. He said to bet on the number horse of the day Keally and i met, but there was no horse of that number, so the next option was to ask what Keally's favourite number was - her quick reply was "2", so i put $5 each way on it ($5 for the win, $5 for the place), and whadyaknow, it won! It was very close, but all the same, a win is a win, and it payed me $120 so i was wrapped! Wicked! Thanks Keally!

The races are also known to get people to dress up nice, and for those of you who didn't think i ever looked good, well, i scrub up alright! We went to Oaks Day on Thursday, and it was time to bust out the suit! I pulled out the brown pin-stripes, and apparently won "fashions on the field" for the day! Cookie had everyone convinced i had won a trip to Queensland, and a big blue and gold sash! I reckon everyone we went with won actually, jeez we looked the goods! We even wore the same gear out on the town that night, we just felt so good in it!

Lisa is now eighteen, and can go out to pubs and clubs, and get drunk legally! I was forced to accompany her to her first night out after finishing her exams, so because it was such a big occasion, we grabbed a photo before leaving. Sean wasn't allowed out this time, but it wont be too long before he is out too - about five years! Check out the Spartans hat Bob - Sean is convinced it stands for "Sexy Sean!"The Nankervis kids in a typical family photo, below. Katie (Michael's girl) on the left, Lisa (red hair), Michael (front), Sean (hang loose hand gesture), myself, and Kevin (Michael's mate).
We even had a couple of midgets come around to see us off for the night out!

One thing i missed while in the States was "Bill's Burgers". They are HUGE! This photo does not do it justice, as it had fallen over about three times in the process of organising the photo, so each time it got shorter! It doesn't look all that attractive either, but it does have the lot inside it! I'm talking hamburger, lettuce, cheese, carrot, tomato, beetroot, pineapple, bacon, egg, sauce (ketchup), and on a barbeque toasted bun! It isn't really possible to fit it in the gob, so it ends up being a big salad on the plate, and is so filling i don't really get to finish it. If anyone ever wants to come over for Bill's Burgers, just call or email me, and you are more than welcome anytime - Tuesdays are usually our burger night.

I haven't really given too much details as to what i have been up to, but the good old photos usually tell a better story than i can write, so i hope it achieves what i am aiming for (even though i don't know what that is)!

As for training, its all happening again, and i feel strong, even if every ride is done in the gale force winds! We actually have snow on the nearby hills here in Melbourne, which doesn't happen too often, even in winter! I am going to kit up and head out there and see how good it looks - even if it is cold and wet!

Other good news is i went up to the country town of Horsham (quite possibly Aboriginal meaning for: absolutely middle of nowhere!), to help my good mate Todd, celebrate his engagement to Nicola. It was a good night, and they make a great couple - i will try and get a photo or two to put on my next post of the two of them. Congratulations mate!

If anyone has anything exciting they want me to report on, then just let me know, i am more than keen to write about anything, so just let me know!

Also, the Steelers have finally got a win on the board, getting over the Saints on Sunday. They were not looking good, with 2 wins and 5 losses, but 3 - 5 is almost respectable! (Its funny how i almost sound like i know what is going on!) I have been a Steelers fan since staying with Scott in Altoona, and he kindly got me two Terrible Towels (picture next update), and a T-shirt, so i look the part, and Keally also told me i have to support them. Fair enough, seeing as every American i know is a supporter of the mighty Melbourne Demons!

We are also thinking of celebrating Thanksgiving next Thursday here at my place, in honour of my American friends. We are going to get a ripper turkey going, as well as all the other stuff that goes with it, so if anyone has any nice recipes for us, please email them to me.

Hope all is well, and look out for a new post over the weekend, or by early next week... at least it is my intention!

Laters y'all!

Back into it!

2006-11-01T04:10:00.000-08:00

G'day y'all,

I have been enjoying a nice bit of time off the bike these last few weeks, while also enjoying some much needed partying. Most of the time has been spent catching up with friends and family, and the bike has been avoided at all costs!

It has been great doing the things i haven't really been able to do while i have been racing all year, so i just stay up late watching the tele, then sleep in late, and have a lazy day, maybe go for a walk, do some stuff around the house, call the States, maybe do some gardening, or kick the footy, or play golf, maybe drive somewhere, and catch up with some mates. As you can probably tell, things have been pretty much on the boring side, so i had to come up with a few new hobbies...

This is my newest friend, my bonzai tree... Its a Juniper tree, and gives me a good hobby to fill my time. These things actually take a bit of work, hence the mention of gardening helping to fill my day!

I also got a model jet and built it up too. This thing has something like 200 parts to it, so it took ages, and was very tedious! It was actually more like 80 parts, but still, it took some time to do!

My youngest brother Sean has really tidied up his lego since i have been away. Before i left there would be lego (always cowboys and indians) scattered all over our back room, now though, it is confined to a small space near the TV, so it is easier for us to walk in the back room now!

My time off the bike all ended on Tuesday, and while out riding i thought i should take advantage of my newly bought camera and show everyone the great Melbourne Summer that is on the way! We are very lucky here in Melbourne to have such a great location, and while i have never thought to take photos of the scenery before, having this blog, and the opportunity to show everyone back in the States what they are missing out on, was just too good an opportunity to pass up! This is the Kerferd Road pier, in South Melbourne on Port Phillip Bay.

From the same spot but looking North you can see the Spirit of Tasmania, the cruise ship that takes people between Tassie and the mainland (Australia, as we mainlanders refer to it as). The palm trees you can see run for a stretch of about five or six K's along here, so it is really nice.

Some rowers on Albert Park Lake, with the Melbourne skyline as a back drop. Pity about the muggy sky, or polution or whatever - if only i had the camera the day before, it was crystal clear... serioulsy!

Pit Straight of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. It looks a bit different without the cars and grand stands here, but all the same, somewhat of a Melbourne tourist attraction...

We had a party for a mate on the weekend, and were treated with a surprise visit by The Flash! What an honour it was to see him in real life! Appologies for a generic photo, but showing the real thing would potentially unveil his true identity!

Here is another thing i haven't really thought about or put to much use yet, but all the same, nice to have to be able to fall back on! I got this ages ago, and the oldies were nice enough to have it framed while i was away.

So thats what's been happening in the life of Tommy these last couple of weeks, and now that i am back in training i should have some more good stories and happenings to report on regularly!

I hope everyone is well, and that that those of you back in the States are enjoying the approaching Winter! Just remember there is an open invitation to anyone who wants to come out and stay for a bit, and there are some people who i would really like to come out and stay... you know who you are!

Wicked! Laters y'all!

Back in Oz!

2006-10-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

G'day y'all!

Well I am back here in Australia and enjoying a nice break from the bike for a few weeks. I had planned on still being in the full swing of things, and gearing up for the Melbourne to Warrnambool which is on Saturday, but unfortunately, the plug has been pulled, and the off season has begun. Things may have been different if i had gotten to race the Sun Tour, held last week, and won by Simon Gerrans for the second year in a row!

Not getting a Sun Tour ride meant i would have been about five weeks race-less heading into the Warny, and after the long season, to find the motivation to train the house down till Sunday was going to be an effort in itself. If i had raced the Sun Tour, it may have given me that boost and got me through till the day, but it wasn't to be, and if i am going to race the Warny, it is going to be with all guns blazing! I still plan on winning it one day, so maybe i have to wait till next year.

With things working out this way, i will be in better form for the Bay Crits than i have in the past, and hopefully can make an impression there, as well as the nationals the following weekend.

Up at Leland for the Tour de Leelanau, Mark Olson put in a good showing in the first part of the race. I thought i should chuck a picture of him up here for y'all because i dont think he got too much "blog-time" this year, and because i am missing him!

I spent the first week after arriving home coming up with a list of things i have missed, and not missed in Australia, as well as things i am going to miss, and not going to miss from the States. For starters, it was the things out training in Oz that i realised i didn't miss: the bloody magpies that swoop you in the back of the helmet while training, the idiot drivers in Melbourne traffic who find it necessary to abuse you and run you off the road at any opportunity, and the disappointment on missing out on a Sun Tour ride (i probably could have stayed in Georgia!).
As soon as i turned off the main road and headed up the climbs over the back of the Dandenongs, I remembered what i missed so much: the country air (well, maybe the smell of eucalyptus, as the city is too close to think of it as country air), riding in the hills, and the Australian roads (as long as they weren't the main ones). I have also missed my family and friends back home, so it has been good to see everyone again, and there are still so many more people to catch up with. I also missed Mum's slice too, so i have been OD'ing on it since my return - i did mention i tried to make it at Keally's place, but it just doesn't compare! I may as well go overboard on it for now, because once training starts again, i wont be eating anything like that!

It didn't take me long to realise the things i am not going to miss from the States: the bloody dags (dogs) chasing me on every training ride - for some reason dags aren't fenced in in America, the grid-like roads of Michigan wont be missed in any great hurry, and also, the dunnies! I don't really know anyone here in Oz who owns a plunger, so maybe there is a market for Aussie dunnies over in the States?! The things i have missed from the US are: Bob - we had a ball together this year, the humidity in the South - i started to enjoy the extreme humidity, i don't know if that is weird or not?! The other thing i got used to while in the US, was that every time i spoke, people were interested to hear more, but since getting back, i realise it was just for the accent, not that i was saying anything intelligent, so i am missing being a bit of a novelty for everyone!
And here is what i miss the most! This is when i just packed her up in my bag, ready to bring back to Australia with me! It was great to be able to spend the last two weeks of my time in the States with Keally, and we had a great time together. It was a pity that customs wouldn't let me take her through the gates and on the plane to Australia though!

Here is a picture of the sunset from Bob's balcony up at Leland - what would a trip to Leland be without a great sunset photo? This pic was meant to be in the last post, but i ran out of room, or hadn't put it on my computer yet. How's the serenity? So much serenity...

That reminds me... I really did not miss the Melbourne crime scene, if that's what i should call it. I went out on the weekend to catch up with friends, and was so proud of myself for being so organised for the weekend. Unfortunately that organisation was also a benefit for the heroin addicts of Melbourne, who scored big with a back-pack out of my car. They managed to break into it overnight, stealing my bag, digital camera, clothes, hats, sunglasses (including my mates pair), and a photo album with pictures from my trip. Bastards. I am quite sure i will never see any of it again, and the thing that bothers me most is that most of the stuff is not valuable to anyone but me. My insurance doesn't cover any of it either, so i was rather pissed off. Oh well, worse things can happen...

Teddy is being missed while i am back in Oz. We had a great time together this year, and i see he is enjoying the cross season over in cold New York right now. I thought i needed to put up some good snaps to brighten up the blog update, so hopefully Teddy sees that he is now famous...

I should also mention a huge thankyou to Scott Woomer and Amy and Lauren, up in Altoona, PA. Scott is a mad football fan, and he and Keally have both pretty much told me i am a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and i was lucky enough to get a package sent from him with a couple of "terrible towels" (photo to come soon when i get a new camera), a Steelers t-shirt, and a Penn State Nittany Lions cap (much to the disgust of all the UGA fans i am friends with in Georgia)! I am now a full on proper Steelers fan, so i am going to have to put a link to their web page on the side of my blog now! Lets see if they can go back to back and win the Superbowl again this year!

As i mentioned in the last update, I am off to Jittery Joe's Cycling Team for season 2007. It is going to be a great year, and i am really looking forward to it. I had a great time racing for Priority Health this season, and gained heaps of valuable experience. It is going to be a big change next season, but i think it will really suit me, and my cycling. There are a few Aussies on the team, including Jeff Hopkins, so there is a strong emphasis on the sprinting side of things, and that will be great for me. It is also going to be great to play a part in HEAPS of wins in 2007 - we are going to kick some arse next season!

Jittery Joe's is a coffee bean/shop franchise from the South, I guess a bit like Gloria Jeans for those in Oz, so y'all should get online and order some coffee and see how good it is.

Well dudes, I hope all is well, and that you are enjoying yourselves. I have one week to go of my break, so i will be keeping busy doing nothing except talking on the dog'n, catching up with friends, and watching movies! It's a pretty lazy few weeks here right now, but it's nice to let the body rejuvenate for a bit before launching into my 2007 season. I am actually pretty pumped about all the base miles coming up, so that can only be a good thing!

Stay cool dudes,

Laterz

The Slacker has a new post up!

2006-10-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all,

Well, the USA racing season is over! Its a bit sad really, but it has been a great year, and i have gained some great experience. It was also nice to finish the season on a high. I have had good form for a while now, so to podium in the last race for the year, and see my mate Eddy Hilger take the win was fantastic!

Glen and I did some PR work the day before the race at the Traverse City Hospital, and this handsome fellow asked us for a photo. I think he is nearly as old as the dude on the right of the photo!

I must just add that this post was originally called "Tour De Leelanau", but after being super slack, having no pictures to post, and then finding internet access a problem, i have just let too much time pass, hence the title "Slacker..." I have good excuses though! I stayed at Keally's before i left the States, so our time was too good together to spend on the computer, and as i am a slow typer, i didn't have the hours i needed to get a post posted! Also, i was waiting on some pictures of the Tour de Leelanau, so i could post them too for y'all to see, and i got them today, courtesy of the main man, Bobarino Hughes. I am now back in Australia too, and using the home computer here means i didn't have my photos stored on this computer, so the laziness issue took over, and the blog update had to wait. Actually, laziness is not the word, i think i am going to use "Jet-lagged"!

Anyway...

So as i was saying, we had a great race up in Leland. To cut a long story short, we had a couple of dudes in a 5 man break, Snake and Sheedy, and then, as planned, we attacked on one of the KOM climbs, Tower Road. The old boy, Glen Mitchell, in his last pro race, really laid down the smack, and tore the race apart really. We got over the climb in a small group, and then just a few small groups came back together, but really, the race was just between the fifteen or twenty left up the front by that stage. The team did a bit of the old one-two-ing of everyone from then on, and eventually i got up the road on my own. Thank goodness another couple of dudes also got across, because i really didn't want to go solo from there on! Of the two who got across, one was a pathetic excuse for a cyclist, and didn't pull through for a single turn.

On the front going uphill! At least that is what story we'll roll with - you never know, i could be chasing the dudes in front, or losing the wheel here!

After a long time out front, we were joined by one other dude, and that was cool. We eventually got to the next KOM, and that was when "the body" Eddy Hilger rode across to our break like we were standing still, and just about straight passed us. I was pretty excited, because here i was in the break, with Eddy out in front, and a strong team behind us. Also, Eddy and I were the go-to guys for the day, so for us both to be sitting in the box seat, and things to be going exactly as planned, well that was perfect for the time being.

Glen and I on the attack early on. We would always get some dude who could chase everything, but not willing to work. Oh well. It would have been nice for this break to have stuck so Glen could have won in his last race...

Out front, "The Body" eventually built up a lead of 2 minutes 50, at the most, which was just huge. back in our small group, where i had the luxury of taking it easy, we had a few shuffles in the members, with two dropping off, and two others making it across. At one stage the main field looked to be catching us, and were only about 200 meters back, so i had a go at another attack. I was cramping like buggery, so i am just glad we never got caught. Before we knew it, we turned up to the finish line, a 500-600m uphill grind, and knowing that Eddy had won, i had to get the quinella and get second. I did - WICKED!

It was a great race, and super hard, relentless course. I was thrilled for Eddy, so happy i could do well for Bob, and felt glad to be able to have been there racing with Glen in his last pro race. I was almost a bit emotional after the race was over, because it was to be my last race in the States for the year, and my last race in America for Priority Health, as i head off to Jittery Joes for season 2007 (more about that in the post next week).

Eddy and I enjoying a bit of a champagne shower. We guzzled the bottle too. Nice one dudes!

The biggest thing i wanted to do in the race was get a good result, not only for myself, but for Bob, as i knew how much it would mean to him. He has just been the best ever this year. A great guy to let me live with him for the year, and a great mate.

After the race we had a feast in the Casino, then headed back to Bob's awesome beach house for a much needed end of racing season unwind, and bit of a drink. It was supposed to be the party to end all parties, but it just ended up being a party. Either way, it was good to have one last night with the dudes from the team, and nice to let the hair down. I am sure everyone there had a great time.

The next day was spent saying our goodbyes, packing up, and heading back to Grand Rapids. It was weird to think that i was about to say goodbye to Bob and Heather for the last time this year, unless they make it out to Australia at some stage. I was due to head off to Georgia on the Monday morning, so we had a last dinner together, and then went to bed.

I must say it was very hard to say bye to Bob, and i was just about tearing up. He has just been so great to Rich and I this year, and for the whole team really. I cant thank him enough for his generosity and support for the whole year, and i have had such a great time.

Next stop for me was Athens, Georgia, home of Keally! We got the chance to spend a couple of weeks together before i had to take off home to Australia. It was great to be down in Georgia, and it was nice that the temerature had dropped a little bit compared to my last visit. We had a great time together, and had heaps of fun. On the Saturday, the Dawgs played Colorado, so i was lucky enough to be able to go to my second game! This time i got to be able to experience tailgating properly - although that might be debatable, seeing as most of my time was spent trying to get my football down from a roof after i kicked it up there, trying to show Americans how a football is meant to be kicked!

Here is a picture from Rockford that i finally got a hold of. It shows Rich and I drilling it on the front. I needed to chuck it on the blog so y'all can see how ripped/cut I am (not 'buff' though, as Keally told me)!

The game was a ripper, and after a pretty quiet first half, the Dawgs came back and scored a touchdown to level the score with just a minute to go, then converted for the win! I must say, the football is becoming very addictive for me!

Down in Georgia i got to do a fair few miles, while Keally was in class, so i was fighting fit for my return to Australia! Unfortunately though, a Sun Tour start is looking less and less likely, so that could spell the end of my season - it will be bloody hard to stay focussed all the way through to the Melbourne to Warrnambool, the 299km epic.

I also need to add, before winding this blog up, in fear of sending y'all to sleep with boredom, that this update has been a nightmare! After the stuff i said up the top of this page, i have just had a terrible time getting the pictures to load on. I ended up plugging my laptop into the home computer, and using my pictures from that, and it has taken me three hours to get all the pictures on today! The post has been written for a week, but i needed the pictures, because plain old text can be boring. All i am saying, is please appreciate the pictures, and hard work that has gone into this blog update, and look forward to more regular updates now that i am home! There should(!) be another one done this week i hope!

Hope everyone is well back in the States, and for anyone here in Oz, i hope to catch up with y'all soon!

Wicked dudes, laterz!

MI serable weather!

2006-09-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I have been slacking a bit, so i need to get back to my efficient ways and get more posts out for y'all... This blog was in production till the wet weather and storms shut the internet connection off, so i have been impatiently waiting to get this post up. I will do another post in a couple of days, so i will keep this one brief.

Last week we did a huge drive to Pennsylvania, from Georgia, to go to the Univest Grand Prix. This was a pretty big race, and one of only a few UCI ranked races in the States. There were teams from Germany, Poland, Mexico, Canada, everywhere really. The race was hard too, with heaps of corners and hills. It was a 110 mile race, so it was good to do a longer race too. We had Teddy put in a ripper result and get 6th, just a fraction away from the podium, and Zirbel Dawg got a top twenty too. I came in a fair way behind them, but was happy to get to the finish. It was pretty easy to tell i am in need of the longer hard workouts, because my legs were in a world of hurt that night, and the next day!

The next morning we had a 90km criterium to back up the road race, and make the Univest Grand Prix, rather than a road race only. It was compulsory for all racers to start, apparently! It was pretty cool when Floyd Landis rocked up to the race to see how racing is really done...!!!! It was also the old boy, Glen Mitchell's last NRC pro race, so it was an emotional day for me really!

The pace was on from the gun, and the field was nearly halved in the first ten minutes. We were looking after Teddy to keep him in the mix for the overall for the weekend. Rich and Mullet Man did a ripper job on the front, and it had everyone in the hurt box. Coming into the final laps, i had Teddy on my wheel to lead him out for the bunch gallop, but unfortunately he dropped his chain on one of the three speed humps, or 300 potholes in the back straight, so that plan was lost. I didn't realise he dropped his chain though, and ended up giving the rest of the field a perfect lead out to the line... What was funny though, was that only one dude passed me so i ended up sixth.

After the race we headed out for lunch as a team, for the last time this year, at none other than Macca's. It was an emotional way to end the weekend of racing, and the year racing together, and what better place to celebrate the year than McDonalds.

Glen and I then hopped into the Vibe and headed for Michigan, and the rain. It was a long drive, and with no CDs or radio reception, we got a hell of a lot of talking done! We rocked in to Grand Rapids at 2.30 am, but were glad to know that all the driving was done, without having to do more the next day.

After getting back to Michigan from Univest, we were welcomed by cold, wet weather, and it was time to rip out the good ol' Uggies - check out how chunky the soles are on these puppies! Wicked!

Bob's driveway. Thought i should take some photos of the great place where i have called home for the season before i take off home. It looks cool in the wet.

This is the only door of its kind - possibly in the world. Bob's garage door has a Spartans logo shaped into it, and is on a green wall. I guess he is Michigan State's number one fan.

More wet weather pictures to show you how wet it was. Seeing as Glen and I are just so hard core, we went training anyway...

Last week in Georgia, i got a picture with Eddy's son Jackson, in our matching beanies. I had Mum send one out for him last time we stayed there. He is gonna end up to be the coolest dude in the country if he keeps up dressing the same as me!

This weekend we raced the Tour de Leelanau, so i will do a new post in the next couple of days, and tell y'all about it then. It was the last race of the American season for me, and ended up well, but i will give more details in a day or so when i hopefully have some cool pictures to put up as well...

Laters dudes, rock on!

Steve Irwin tragedy... :-(

2006-09-08T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, welcome to the blogspot of efficient Blogger, tommynankervis.blogspot! I do updates every other day, so i hope you don't get too bored with reading about me!

Last weekend the team drove down to South Carolina for the National Road Championships, which were won by George Hincapie. The Mullet Missile was our only finisher, with a gallant top twenty - nice one mate! As i was unable to race due to passport issues of mine reading Nationality: Australian, i was on feeding duties. It was a good way to see the race, and be there for the boys. I had been staying in Athens for the week with Keally, so she came to help out with the feed zone also. For a team without a soigneur, we have had our share of cool ladies in the feed zone, thanks to everyone's girlfriends/wives this year. Thankyou Mayo, Tonia, Katie, Kate, Carlee, Cheryl, Clara, Keally, Jo, all the K's and C's! Thanks for all the great help over the year.

After the race, the team piled into the car and van, and headed off to Atlanta, where we all stayed with Keally's family, and they treated us like royalty! The next morning, we had a race start time of 7.15 am! It was about thirteen hours after the road race finished the day before... nice! three hour drive, five hours sleep, 100km race in two hours = buckled team!

We did however, put in our best team performance of the year, we decided. We were represented in every break, and really had a presence in the bunch. The race ended up splitting with over a lap to go, and we got three in the split, Eddy - making a phenomenal return to racing this weekend, Rich and Teddy. The boys took three top fifteens, so that was alright, but a win would have better reflected how well we all raced. The only positive thing about us not winning was Jeff Hopkins winning.

At the start of the day we heard the very sad news that my hero, Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin had died of a stingray sting. I guess the Aussie Jeff won for Steve. I have been so sad since hearing about Steve Irwin, he really was a guru. I watched him interviewed by Andrew Denton about a year ago, and although i already thought he was awesome, he just became one of my heroes. He just had this amazing passion for life, and it just inspired me to try and be the same.

What an inspiring personality. Anyone with this much passion for life just gives me a buzz!

I will miss seeing him giving interviews and stuff like that, but i guess at least we can watch repeats of his shows and remember him that way. And the other thing too, at least he died doing what he loved doing.

I can just hear him saying "Isn't she just beautiful!"

On a brighter note, The Dees are kicking arse! Check out this screamer taken by Adem Yze a few weeks ago!

The Mighty Melbourne Demons scored a ripper win in the first match of the 2006 finals. Hopefully they are on their way to the flag. A couple of interstate games coming up in the next two weeks, but if they can pull it off, they must be a good shot to win the premiership! Back in 2000 they were down by 27 points against Carlton and came back to win, then made the grand final, and they did that last night, so i reckon its a sign!

In other football news, i experienced my first college football match. It was HUGE!

Game day for UGA Bulldogs. What an experience! The whole city of Athens virtually shuts down, and everyone goes to the game. This is the half time entertainment, with the marching band playing. It is amazing really, there is about as much build up for these college games of football as there is for the AFL Grand Final - and they do this for every home game! Check out the crowd!

Here are some attractive young ladies getting ready for the Friday-night-before-the-game, pre-Saturday-morning-tailgating-festivities. My girl Keally is in the middle, with Meredith and Meagan on the left, and Brooke and Kaylen on the right (i figure if they get a mention, i may get more comments)! Check it out, i get to see these attractive girls every day in Athens, and mine is the most attractive of all! Geez that is SO cheesy, but i feel like i should write something to give y'all a laugh, and be able to hang it on me about! (hey Bus!) Its also true, as well as funny, i might add!

I had a ball staying in Athens with Keally and her four room mates. I also made some food for them, using the famous Mum's recipes. I made lemon slice, chocolate balls, and honey joys, with rice bubbles instead of corn flakes. I also planned on scones (the real Aussie way), but ran out of time. It was cool, because even though the stuff was not quite made right, it still tasted bloody good, and reminded me of Mum and her sweets she makes - maybe there will be some at home when i get there?!

Well after the fun week or so i had, we did a big sixteen + hours in the car yesterday, driving up to Philadelphia for the Univest Grand Prix. I am pumped to be doing a long road race tomorrow, as well as a good crit on Sunday. It should be fun, and i am excited to be racing twice in two days, Wicked!

Hopefully i get to the computer do give race results as soon as i can, because i really want to be a regular, frequent Blogger, it is one of my goals in life... actually, it isn't, but i would like to be a bit more consistent with it!

Anyway, I am sure i have left stuff out, but seeing as the next post wont be too far away, i can include it then!

Happy reading guys, and hope y'all are having a great weekend! Don't forget the comments!!!!

Laters dudes...

Rockford Crit, and time with the Mullet King!

2006-08-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-08-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-08-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-08-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

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...!

Close, but no cigar...

2006-07-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

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...

Fun times...

2006-06-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

Since the last update, a lot has been going on, and all good stuff too.
Firstly, the team has posted its first NRC win of the year, with Thor Zirbel winning stage one of the Tour de Nez, upstaging all the big guns, and donning the leaders red jersey! Way to go Z-dawg! Tour de Nez was somewhat of a success for the team, and we were always prominent at the front end of the field. The race is held at altitude, about 6000 ft, and the highest we rode to was 7200 ft, making it close to the highest point in Australia! In the Truckee criterium for stage two of the tour, Zirbel was racing the crit of his life, and i was sure he would hold the leaders jersey after the stage, before his tyre blew out on a turn, sending him crashing out of the race. It is amazing how much skin he took off! Hopefully though, he decides to stay upright now, because he has crashed more times this year than anyone ever should, and also the wound care manufacturers machines are in overdrive to try and make enough bandages for him!
Robbie and I came in the top ten in the stage two crit, which was ok for me, and i feel like i am starting to find my legs again - just a few more good races and things will be going good! Truckee is this really cool hippy town, and after the race there was a feed put on for the riders, with a band playing. It was great how this small town got behind the race, and there wa a really good atmosphere and vibe around Truckee.
Glen, always happy to pose for a photo, is hacking into the post race food, while we sat in front of the local band, Frame of Mind. They were really good, and made me think we were at Woodstock or something - all the band had super-long hair, and long beards!

Stage three was a 108 mile road race which started in Tahoe City. Talk about an amazing place - this is one of the most spectacular places i have ever been to. The race was hard, but with the scenery on offer, it was hard to want to bail from the race! We did three laps of a circuit, with a 5 mile climb in it, and also rode along the side of Lake Tahoe, and along some really nice looking river. This was the most perfect back-drop for a race you could imagine - and the nearby mountains also had snow on them too.
This is Lake Tahoe, just down from the finish line, not bad huh? I think i want to live there.

One exciting event during the road race was when we were riding along the water front, a couple on a boat out in the water were keen spectators, and the blonde lady on board found it necessary to show us what she was all about - and she certainly got a heap of loud cheers from the whole peloton! Guess who was the first person to notice what she was doing and pointed it out to the bunch?!
The race was very hard, and by the last time up the climb, there were not too many riders left in the race. Big Thor decided he wanted to make amends for his tumble the night before, and won the bunch sprint into town for 5th place, again upstaging the more fancied big names. It was another great effort for him, especially to bounce back from the crash with a good result like that. Robbie and i also scored points in the omnium from the road race.
Stage four was the final stage, a criterium in downtown Reno. Reno is in Nevada, so there are casinos everywhere. They say Las Vegas is Reno on steroids, so it was good to get an idea of what Vegas might be like. The crit was very tough, and again the field was blown apart. We all stayed upright which was good, considering the number of crashes, and Robbie was able to take 4th in the stage, narrowly avoiding a big crash on the last corner.
Team Priority Health went well for the week, and Zirbel came 7th in GC, Robbie 11th, and get this, myself in 16th! Wicked! Lucky it was a points tour not a time one i guess, but none the less, a good sign i am returning to form.

A kiss of the mullet, that is the Thor Zirbel mullet, mad famous by the man himself, and a real honour for me to actually get that close to it.

Reno has this really nice river running through it, and we crossed this many times in the crit. The amazing thing was this river has man-made rapids in it, with gates to paddle through on a kyack. There a heaps of people paddling down the river all day, then carrying their kyack back upstream to do it again - in the middle of downtown Reno.

After the race was over, one of the sponsors put on a party at his cafe, and it was a really good night. There was a competition for the sexiest rider in the peloton, and while i am sure i would have won, I didn't bother staying around till the end. I thought it was only fair to the rest of the riders that i leave early to make it a fair competition!
The next morning was home to Grand Rapids, where i am now, and glad to be here, even though i am on the road again tomorrow morning again at 6 am! The flights to Reno and back are insane; 4 flights to get there, and 11 hours of flying/stop-over time, and a good run on the return flights meant only 3 flights and 9 hours!
Well that's all the racing news, in other news, after recovering from the long drive home to Grand Rapids from Philadelphia, I was able to have a quiet couple of days at Bob's before I had a couple of visitors.
First to arrive was this awesome hot chick from Athens, Keally (I know i am not supposed to say hot chick here, but it was a request from one!)! You may remember seeing her in a photo from a previous update, but if you don't, here is another photo.

We had heaps of fun, and it was great to be able to have a weekend up at Bob's beach house on Lake Michigan - pretty romantic huh?!
The other visitor was my good mate Ryan from Australia. He is here in the States for the motor car racing, where he works with Australia's Marcos Ambrose (a link to his site coming soon), who races in the trucks section of NASCAR for team Australia. It was great to be able to spend a couple of days with Ryan while we are on the other side of the world.
It's also nice to have someone around who makes me feel small!

This is Ryan's RV that he takes to all the NASCAR races, which he and Marcos's family stay in at the races - it's huge!

Keally was pretty impressed by Ryan and his energy, as those who know him understand what i am talking about. It was also good to be able to show Keally what a real Australian country boy is really like! It was a great week, and good way to refresh the mind. I don't know what i am getting myself into having a girlfriend, but i am sure it is going to be good, especially with a great chick like Keally!
Next on the cards for me is a thirteen hour drive tomorrow morning, beginning at six am, heading to Massachusetts for the Fitchburg Classic, made infamous to Aussies because of Henk Vogels' horrendous crash. It is going to be nice racing at sea level again, and hopefully the week at altitude has given me a boost! We have a good team going, and there are plenty of us in good form, so we will be looking to do well.

Laters dudes...

Blog Update

2006-06-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this blog is out of whack a bit. The pictures below belong to the update just below these photos, so please read on and see the stories behind the pictures... The Amish horse and cart/cabin became less rare, by the end of the week there were more of these than cars!
The view out of the hotel window, pretty nice.
At the top of the famous steps Rocky runs up in the movie.
The hill was steep.
Very steep... No wonder it's called "The Wall".

Look at the size of the arms on the dude in green as he goes up the other KOM climb of the race, Lemon Hill. Good camera work Thor!

2006-06-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, I have a number of good excuses for that, although none come to mind right now!

I am just back from a couple of weeks racing in Virginia and Pennsylvania, doing some of the biggest races on the NRC. We started with the Captech Criterium in Richmond, Virginia, and the team only had one finisher (Robbie) in this really hard criterium. I didn't race CapTech due to restrictions on how many starters each team can put in, so watching was pretty tough.

The next race was in Arlington, Virginia, the CSC invitational criterium. Arlington is right next to Washington DC, and we were able to get a look at the Pentagon, the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial from the car on the way in. Unfortunately we had limited time while in Arlington, and didn't get to do the tourist thing and visit these famous places.

This young lady was taking photos of our team van with the bikes on the roof, and told us she was a cycling fan, so we gave her a signed team card - it would have made her day we reckon!

The CSC crit was a nightmare for Priority Health. Brentmeister General crashed out of the three man break he had been in for about forty laps, and couldn't continue, Eddy crashed on the same corner in a big pile up, and broke his pelvis, and Rich was in good shape in the closing laps and took a spill which required stitches in the chin.

After the race we drove to, yes, Intercourse, Pennsylvania! As you could imagine, the jokes never got old, well not for me anyway. Neighbouring towns of Intercourse were Paradise in one direction, an Blue Balls in the other, fair dinkum!

Intercourse and its surrounds are full of the Amish people, and they travel everywhere by horse and cart - quite amazing really (see pictures above in next post).

From Intercourse we raced in the Triple Crown of cycling, and first of these races was Lancaster. It was a very fast race, and very hard too. Reading was next, and replaces Trenton in the Triple Crown. This was a very fast and hard race, and by the end the field was decimated. Brentmeister was looking at a good result again in this race, but was taken out of the race when someone crashed into him in the last 5km. The final race of the series was Philadelphia, the longest race on the NRC. Philly is famous because up till this year has also been the USA national championship road race too. Philadelphia is a very nice city, and reminds me a lot of Melbourne, with similar looking old buildings, similar size, and is located on a big river like the Yarra.

The race itself was run along the side of the river on an out and back course, with the second half of the lap detouring from the river for three climbs. One of the climbs is the infamous "wall", and we had to ride up it ten times. It was incredible really. There was a race to the bottom of it each lap, and then over the top too. It was packed with thousands of screaming fans, and had a great atmosphere with music pumping - it certainly made the 18% grade ascent easier for us! I actually made it to the finishing circuits, where they pull you if you are not in the front bunch, so that was an accomplishment for me. Kiwi Glen and Brent made the front group, and Glen attacked at the finish, but was caught. Brentmeister was also looking at a good result, but was brought down in yet another crash, bringing his weekly tally to three, and this time he was looking at a top ten minimum, so that sucks, but he should be proud of being in the mix with just 200m to go.

After the race was over the Snake and i had to head back to Michigan, while the rest of the team headed to Canada. Its a bummer there is a limit on team numbers in races like that, and is really hard for both the riders and managment to call the shots on a squad for these races. We got back to Grand Rapids at 6am, so it was a pretty hard way to try and get some rest and recovery from Philly!

This week will be some training for me, getting ready for a couple of tours coming up, and trying to make up for what i will be missing out on from the Tour de Beauce the other guys are doing in Canada. It would have been great to race there for the experience, hard racing, and also because there are some of the Aussie boys over at the moment racing for SouthAustralia.com, so it would have been good to see them.

Ok, I have had trouble getting photos to work in this blog update, so the photos you see above are actually part of this blog.

I hope everyone is well, and feel free to leave comments, but don't criticise the photos being out of place...!

Stay cool dudes...

On the Road Again...

2006-05-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

I can wait to get back on the highway....
After spending a brief period back in Michigan, where we were lucky enough to stay up at Leland for the Memorial Weekend, the team is now on the road again. It seems like we just got out of the car after our drive home from Arkansas! This block of racing we are about to do is going to be tough, and we will be racing some really fast guys. It is going to be pretty exciting though, and these are some of the most prestigious races the NRC has to offer.
We are currently in Virginia, where it is very hot, and will spend a week here before heading up to Pennsylvania for some more great racing around the Philadelphia area.
I am in good health again, and hopefully have regained all my strength. This week is going to be the first time we have had the full team together since back in California in March, so that is going to be good fun.
This is Bob's vacation house up at Leland (left), with his parent's place next door (right). I was just about standing in Lake Michigan when i took this photo.

For those of you who just can't comprehend this, i have photographic proof that i have actually been to the 45th Parallel, halfway between the North pole and the Equator. I found this amuzing, and it really is, because it is a long way from home!

More photos from Leland, and from around Bob's.

I hope everyone is well and I hope you like the photos.

Laters...

Back in Michigan

2006-05-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, I hope everyone is well. I am back in good health again, and have a fair bit of updating to fill you all in on. My last update was from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and i hadn't been for a ride yet while there. That was a bit of a bummer, but the forced break probably wasn't such a bad thing. Once i recovered i was able to do a few rides and it was a pretty nice area to go training. I suppose the only bad thing was all of the 'dags' that chased us everywhere - I am quite sure that their owners don't feed them on a daily basis.
We stayed in a really nice vacation house in Fayetteville, and it even had lake access. It used to be river access at some stage, but the river has been damned off to form a lake. It made for a really nice spot though, and down on the water there were heaps of really good skimming (skipping) rocks for throwing in my spare time. Its funny actually, because i was reading some magazine during the week and it had an article on getting the perfect angle for the perfect rock-skipping (we call it skimming in Oz). I didn't realise there was a science to it, and now that i have been putting deep thought into my skimming my performance has dropped!
At night while staying in Fayetteville i could have sworn there were bears in the area, so i was a bit freaked out by that, but it was probably just another hungry dog or twenty.
At the race we went to while in Fayetteville, Joe Martin stage race, there were people handing out bananas, and thanks to the crafty work of Robbie, we ended up with about 400 bananas in our house. As cyclists we might eat a fair bit, but to eat that many bananas was unrealistic, so Teddy and Robbie got to work in the kitchen, and before we knew it had baked up about nine loaves of banana bread - one with strawberries in it too, so that was a good treat, and eating the warm, freshly cooked bread was... wicked banana! While on the topic of Teddy, it should be noted that 'Teddy' is a teammate, not the name of my footy! While reading over the last blog entry, and after getting an email from someone, i thought it was necessary to point that out to you.
Last Thursday we packed up our banana bread, football, and other stuff and headed to Russellville, Arkansas, a two hour drive away. It was another nice place, and we stayed with a really nice old couple who were our hosts. They spoilt us with food, and we had this really nice ice cream called Oreo Cloud. It was one of the best desserts i have ever had, and i think Thor and Teddy would agree with me there. It is one packet of Oreos smashed up with a hammer, one punnet of ice cream (or tub or whatever), and a tub of Cool Whip. Brilliant!
At the Tri-Peaks stage race we had a fair bit of success, with team members represented in all successful breakaways, and also Thor Zirbel pulling off our best NRC result to date with a second placing in stage two. The exciting thing for me about Tri-Peaks was that i got to finish my first two road races since San Dimas back in March some time. Hopefully those two finishes are going to be the coming of age for me racing in the States!
After stage three finished on top of the steepest hill in the world (that's what it felt like), we headed home to Michigan, and Benno the Bear did a stellar job behind the wheel. He was relieved briefly by Teddy, but basically did the drive on his own. We got back to Michigan at 8am, so there were a few tired guys on the team. It should also be noted that Robbie and Teddy got straight in their car then, and did a further 17 hour haul back to New Hampshire!
It has been good to be back in Grand Rapids, and things look pretty nice here now that it is warm enough for the trees to grow leaves. Bob and Heather are well, and i had almost forgotten how much fun we have here.
Yesterday Brentmeister, the Snake and I had to do some school assemblies for Priority Health. We had to ride our bikes in to the school hall and then speak to the students about being active, bicycle safety, and about health and nutrition etc. It was a great experience for me, and i got to get an idea of what the schools are like in the States, as opposed to Australia. The kids were good, and hopefully we influenced them in some way or another.
After the day of entertaining we headed back to Grand Rapids to do a local race. It was raining and we raced on a car speedway, so it was pretty slippery. It was good to do some racing mid-week, and was a good opportunity to race with the local guys. The plan was to get a win for Bob, but he couldn't race.
Anyway dudes, that's all for now. Sorry there are no photos this time, but i will have some in the next post when i get some from the guys who take all the photos. Also, you may have noticed the new look blog, and thanks must go to Wes Hartman for assisting me there.
Stay cool dudes...

Glen Mitchell Interview

2006-05-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

A new update of whats been happening will be out later this week, but for now I wanted to write a bit about our team guru. This will give you a break from everything being written about what I have been doing, and let everyone know a bit about the Kiwi on our team, Glen Mitchell.
Glen winning a stage of the Tour of the Southland, while wearing the leaders jersey.

So here it is, an interview of Glen Mitchell; New Zealander, Olympian, National Champion, and all-round guru… Basically a “riding machine.”

Age: 33

Residence: Santa Rosa, California. Glen was born and grew up in Hamilton, on the North Island of New Zealand.

Glen started cycling in 1988 (when I was 5yo). When he was seventeen years old he won a junior mountain bike National title, and in the same year he won one of the selection races for the junior world road championships, giving him a ticket to the world titles. A couple of years later he made the long list for both the mountain bike and road teams to represent New Zealand at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His focus then turned more to the road, and after going to the Olympics in the road team, decided his mountain bike racing days were over. This led to a career racing in elite amateur, and professional road teams, and continually representing his country.
The “riding machine” has spent two years racing in Belgium, one in Switzerland, one in Canada, and is now in his eighth year of racing in America. He spent two years racing for Shaklee, three years on the Navigators, two years at Sierra Nevada/Kodak Gallery, and is now the team star at Team Priority Health.
During this time Glen has represented New Zealand at two Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games (including a 4th place at Manchester in 2002), and four professional world road championships.

Wearing the New Zealand National Road Champion's jersey, Glen wins one of his two stages in the Tour de Langkawi.

The highlights of the Kiwi’s career include:
Two time National Champion (3 silver, 2 bronze)
Oceania champion
Winning two stages in the Tour de Langkawi (4 x 2nd place)
Oceania Champion
Winner of Tour of the Southland
Stage wins in Southland Tour, Tour of Tasmania, Commonwealth Bank Classic, Waikato, NZ Colonial, Willamette, Tour of Wellington, and Tour of the South China Sea. More recently he came 5th in the San Francisco Grand Prix last year, which was won by Stefan Wegeman of Gerolsteiner.

At the head of the field in his 2006 colours of Team Priority Health.

Glen is married to Tonia, and they have a house full of pets Tonia brings home from work as a veterinarian; Rumour the dog, and three cats. When he is not busy training he enjoys going fishing or watching BroTown. The “riding machine” is also a master chef, and I enjoyed great meals when I first stayed at his house this year. While on the road we usually eat together thanks to Glen’s cooking, and he has saved me from starvation on many occasions. I was so upset the night he left the team at Arkansas that I couldn’t bring myself to eat!

Glen doesn't have a website, and I guess his shyness means not a great deal of people know how good he really is, so hopefully this interview will enlighten readers on the talent of this guy, even if he is from New Zealand!

Stay cool dudes, and there should be another update later in the week...

'Down' in the South

2006-05-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, sorry for the delayed update, I have been a bit lazy these last few days. We have finished the criterium series we just took part in, and while we had a few creditable results, we are still lacking the wins we want, and I need! Unfortunately Kiwi Glen Mitchell and I have been unwell, and haven't even ridden the last four days, so that sucks big time. We have a stage race on this weekend, and provided we are healthy for it, we will go in with no K's in our legs from the week just gone.
The series just completed saw all riders do relatively well, and Rich is in good form. He was pumping out top 10's in most of the races, and in the finale on Saturday, Sunny King, he was instigating breakaways for most of the night. Sunny King was also my best finish, although it was only a seventh placing. It did however, earn me the best young rider of the series, and I was presented with a jersey at the conclusion of racing on Saturday. We found it quite amuzing, given we thought the category was for under 23 riders, not under 24's!
I think the results of our Team Priority Health, would have been a lot better had Glen been in good health, and maybe me too. We were under the weather (and still are) for most of the racing, and that had a big impact on the team. When Glen is firing on all cyclinders, i reckon the team is five times stronger for it, so having him on the sidelines in these crits certainly had us behind the eight ball.

On a more positive note, I got myself a new footy yesterday (sorry, football!) for an incredible $3.44! I had to dig deep to afford it, but now I can work on my life-long dream of being a punter in the NFL. Last night i had to pose for a photo with my new best friend, and don't I look mean! Today Teddy and I had a training session in the driveway where I am learning how to throw the ball, or pass it, or whatever that is called. I figure I need to learn to throw like a quarterback, even though I only want to become a punter, more so as I just understand the game more.

We have been lucky to see the other side of this country, the side the tourists don't get to see, while we are travelling around racing in smaller towns, meeting host families, and getting a taste for the different lifestyles across the States.
It is extremely humid down in the South, and while the temperature is only around 75 degrees fahrenheit, the humidity must be 140%! It is really something to experience... or not! The last few days have been a bit wet, with thunderstorms overnight, so that only adds to the humidity situation.
Thor Zirbel took his second spill of the week while we were racing the Greensboro criterium, the poor guy. Neither crash has been his fault, and both times he has needed a handlebar replacement. He has now equalled me for the most crashes this year, but he seems to be doing more damage than I do so lets hope he has got them out of the way for the year.

While out training in Georgia we came across a street name the same as our bike manufacturer, and it made a great photo which our sponsors would be proud of, if they ever saw it! We find pretty entertaining things to do with our spare time.
This last week I got delivery of my package from Mum and Dad back home, and the easter eggs went down really well, and the Tim Tams are always a hit with the team, although i haven't brought them out yet, so when the boys read this they will be spewing they haven't been able to eat them yet. It seems that they are more tasty than Oreos which is a big call, but anyone who has tried both can be the judge of that!
I must apologise for this update, I have been trying to watch a movie while typing, and I haven't been able to concentrate all that well. Also I don't have the most exciting stuff to write about, but the link to Teddy's site will provide a very good read for anyone interested. I get the odd mention or two in there, and am pleased to know that I have donned the role as team entertainer, while everyone else has cycling specific roles. So in the words of David Brent "I'm an entertainer... I'm a motivator of people..." for anyone who knows the BBC Office TV series.
In response to the very witty comments left by my old man after my last post, Keally (g'day there) is on the left at the front, I figured there were three chicks in the front of the pic, but on confirmation from the Kiwi, the old boy had me. Where his extremely witty comments had the whole team was with the Greek girls in Athens, which totally had everyone; the whole international thing was so clever no-one understood it, which makes it debatable as to whether it is witty or not!? Haha.

While this photo doesn't show any Priority Health riders, it does give an idea of what the atmosphere was like racing in Athens. There were something like 30,000 people there watching, we raced under lights for the entire race, the noise of the fans was deafening, and it was incredibly fast.

Anyway, that's all for now, but I do plan on shooting out a new update once I feel healthy again, and/or after this weekend's Joe Martin stage race, where we hope to get some good results... and wins!

Stay cool everyone...

Ready, Set, GO!

2006-05-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

Team Priority Health is racing again! We have had a big break, but have bounced back with a fair bit of success. The mountain climbing dudes went to the Tour of Shenandoah and basically dominated - Thor Zirbel won the prologue and wore the leaders jersey before crashing out, but Eddy the Body took over the lead after that, with a superb stage win, followed by Snake wearing the mountains jersey, and then the Brentmeister General Bookwalter capping off a brilliant week with a much sought after win in the overall classification after blitzing the time trial (he also won the U23 jersey). This provided us criterium dudes with a fair bit of inspiration for the criterium series we started on Friday night.

We drove four hours from Lookout Mountain to Athens, Georgia on Friday morning, and had our Computrainer race for grid position for Satuday night's race. Priority Health starred in this event, qualifying all three riders for the eight man final. Our man Teddy pulled off the win ahead of a star field. The atmoshpere and vibe in Athens was phenomenal, and that was on Friday night!

Athens is raced under lights on a tough, fast circuit. The crowd was amazing, lining every inch of the course with young, loud spectators from this 'college town' and they were making a hell of a noise. We raced with radios for the first time and they were useless because we couldn't hear anything other than the loud cheering! The race was won by Davidenko of the Navigators, and we had Rich in seventh place. While we would have liked to go better, it was a good result considering we have had so long off racing. It was such a buzz to be a part of this race, and during our warm down laps the crowd were all handing out beers to us while we were still riding around.

Probably the best thing in Athens was the hot chicks, they were amazing! The training and warming up for races was made hard due to all of the eye candy about. This is a photo of the girls who introduced us for the Computrainer race, and who also did a great job helping out for the criterium race too - my favourite is the one in the middle at the front, Keally! We got to go out with them for a bit after the race to soak up the atmosphere, and to unwind a bit, because it is hard to go to sleep after racing in such an adrenaline rush as Athens Twilight.

The next day we packed up and left for another race, Roswell criterium. Racing in Roswell in the daylight was somewhat an anti-climax after Athens, but it was still a good race. Rich came in eighth, and he maintains his good placing in the series. Personally, my legs were a lot better for Roswell, and I think the more racing I do, the better I will get. I feel strong, but am just lacking that extra punch when I need it. This will come soon, and this current block of racing we are doing will certainly bring me up, and I am looking forward to getting some wins on the board.

Here is Robbie and I getting ready for the Computrainer final, where it looks like I was in the hurt box before the race started (wearing the Australia flag bandana). I think there was something wrong with my machine for the final, because the afternoon qualifying didn't hurt anywhere near as much, as you might be able to see where I am racing against Commonwealth games time trial bronze medallist Gordon McCauley - and he certainly was hurting!

Today we drove across to South Carolina, to a town called Walterboro, and there is very little happening here. I think I want to be back in Athens, because that place rocks! We had a great time, and it was a really nice place with really nice people. It would be great if we could race Athens Twilight every Saturday night! We have a race here in South Carolina on Wednesday, then go to North Carolina, then Alabama after that, so we are doing a lot of racing and a lot of travelling. It can be hard at times, but that is why we do it, and also it should result in wins too!

The other good thing about being on the road and racing again, is that the old boy, Kiwi Glen Mitchell has joined up with us again, and he is great to be around. We learn so much from him, and there are plenty of good laughs. This week we will be joined by our mechanic, and a couple of other riders, so it will be good to get some assistance, and we should become even more of a force on the race track. I am pretty excited about the upcoming races, as I am sure the rest of the team are.

As for the non-cycling side of things, I am expecting a postal delivery from Mum and Dad back in Oz which is going to include some much needed Milo; Vegemite to add to the three kilograms Rich and I already have; hopefully some Tim Tams, and whatever else they decided to throw in.

I hope everyone is well back in Australia, and I guess the cold is starting to kick in. So just think of me over here where the temperature is rising, and we are entering Summer!

Stay cool dudes...

Some Pictures for Y'all

2006-04-24T18:12:00.000-07:00

How Y'all doing folks? That's what we've been asked a few times down here in The South. Finally I have found some time in my busy schedule to post some photos so you can see the team gear, bikes, and whatever else...

Here is my classy steed, complete with new race wheels, ridden for the first time today. I can tell that these wheels and this bike are going to carry me to a few wins this year... or at least I am hoping! It looks pretty flash, even if the pilot doesn't!
Someone who does look the goods is Brent 'Brentmeister General' Bookwalter, our youngest rider, who is going to be a superstar. He has made himself the perfect model to show you how our outfit looks. I couldn't get a picture of me in action in the new gear, so Brent is the next best thing. The green and black looks wicked good together, and you can also see our cool Bell helmets and Axley sunnies.

We have DMT shoes, the Flash model, and they are made out of this cool shiny material that seems to be clean all the time, and if they do get dirty, its just a simple wipe down with a rag and they look as good as new again, which is handy considering we have white shoes!

We are lucky to be using the bees knees of everything when it comes to equipment, and full credit goes to our management for organising that! It does make riding a pleasure when you know there is not much room for improvement in the stuff you are using.

This is a photo of all our team bikes ready for us to ride into the team presentation. I did my best to line them up neat for their photo shoot, and they did their best to stay still. Everyone had new white bar tape, and Benno the Bear did a great job cleaning them all the night before to have them looking great. There is a few dollars worth of Ridleys sitting there!

There was another event inside our team presentation, and that was the 'sideburn battle' being waged by team mate Teddy King and myself. As you can see, I am the clear winner, as i have greater thickness in mine, although Teddy has more area. We had different ideas of whether the contest was about thickness or area, so the judges called it a tie. Teddy has persisted with his, however I removed mine later that day after the comparison was made. I thought it best not to keep them once we got to warmer weather so as to avoid the silly tan lines they would leave.

Currently we are staying in Georgia, about 500 meters from the Tennessee border, atop Lookout Mountain, which is hard climbing to the finish of our training rides! We are staying with Eddy 'The Body' Hilger, who as mentioned in a previous post has lived up to his nickname, and he has a great house, and wife Carlee, and the two cutest kids going around. Jackson is three, and Kenzie is 18 months, and they are so much fun. Jackson is running around saying "G'day mate" in his Southern, three-year-old accent, and Kenzie is tiny and has this fluffy hair that stands up. Eddy sure is lucky to have them, they are so cute. The main reason for including these photos is so mum can see what she is missing out on! (Mum if you click on the photos they should enlarge)

So anyway dudes, I hope this gives you a bit of reading and viewing pleasure, and I will try and keep the photos coming each week. We are finally going to race again this coming weekend, and everyone is raring to go after such a long lay-off. Some of the team are starting a tour on Tuesday, while the crit dudes, which I am part of, start on Saturday. We will have some tough competition with a number of teams coming off the Tour of Georgia who will be strong, although we will be hoping they are tired!

Also, a couple of other team mates have started blogs of their own, so feel free to check out their sites too, as you may get to see some photos that I don't have. They will also be an interesting read - just click on the links to the right. If there is anything anyone wants me to write about, please leave comments so I can address that issue!

Stay cool y'all, and keep making comments in the comments section... I like reading them.

Team Presentation, then off to Georgia

2006-04-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hey dudes, sorry i haven't posted an update for a while, have not had access to the net, and wanted to have some cool photos to post for you to look at.
After the initial cold snap in Michigan, things started to warm up to somewhat bearable temperatures, and i was able to start working on a much needed tan, before it got cold again two days later. I was able to take some good form to our team presentation which was good, as we got to ride about 500m while people watched! The presentation went really well, and it was a chance for Priority Health to show us off a bit. You can check out our team website which has now been launched at www.teampriorityhealth.com so you can see team stuff and read about all of our riders.
We have been able to get some decent rides in with the local guys, and in the above photo you can see the biggest bunch ride we have had from Bob's house. We do around four hours as a group and Bob is our sprinter, after beating me in our mini sprint series, so i have my work cut out keeping him out of the wind and pushing him up the hills to ensure he is in prime condition leading up to the sprints.
We have had an absolute ball staying at Bob's and i don't think we have stopped laughing until i had to leave and head to Georgia. Bob and Heather are so much fun, and have been great entertainers and hosts. I am already looking forward to getting back to Grand Rapids, and hopefully there will be a few more leaves on trees, and warmer weather next time. One of the other things that is hopefully going to be in better condition is the road surface. You can see here in the photo that we have a number of pot holes to contend with while out training. The roads can be quite vicious, and Thor Zirbel found out the hard way by suffering a puncture, and in the process dinged his rim.
Back to the team presentation. After the event, we had a group ride from Bob's (as you may have gathered, its our only meeting place) and I was talented enough to have a tumble in his driveway and tear myself up pretty good! After the ride we had a party at Bob's palace, and got a heap of team issue stuff, like polo shirts, t-shirts, fleeces, hoodies, and cap. The best thing though was trader cards with our photo and profile on them, and boy have they been a hit since. I think i have given out somewhere around 50 so far, and most of them have been signed, incuding my phone number on the back! We went out for dinner on Saturday night, and big Thor Zirbel wanted to see if he could catch a photo of myself handing out a trader card to any chicks. He was sure i wouldn't be able to pull it off, but i proved him wrong, and the accent, along with my personal "business cards" made it all too easy to win the bet with him! I was laughing so hard all night, and the girls started getting aggressive when the cards ran out...

After the weekend was over and Easter lunch was finally digesting, it was time for us to head down to Eddy "the body's" place on the Georgia-Tennesse border, so after an 11 hour drive we arrived in the warm weather and up in the hills - the first we have seen in a while. And Eddy lived up to his nick-name, he looks like he has been carved out of stone at the moment, and seems to have pretty good form.

It is good to be down here in the warm weather training hard, and hopefully the form will be good come the crit series in a week or so. I have some sharpening up to do, and will be looking good after the fortnight in the sun! The team will be looking to get some good results in the crit series after unfortunately missing out on a start in Tour of Georgia, so will be out to impress, and on a personal level i would love to be able to win one of the crits, and hopefully get up on the podium more than once. I am starting to feel strong, and once we get to Athens Twilight, it will have been more than a month of not racing, so i will be jumping out of my skin and raring to go. It has been frustrating not racing, but i have been slamming the K's in, and it has been making me hungry for success.

Here is a photo of our first training ride in Georgia, I included it because it looks cool, and shows the nice roads we are training on for the next week or so. It was a pretty talented shot by Thor while riding along, and i know the friends reading this back in Australia like looking at photos.

Hopefully this satisfies the Brentmeister as he has asked me to hurry up and post a new update, and I thank all of the people who have posted comments, as they are motivating to read, and it is nice to know that there are people who do read this! So feel free to do that.

That's all for tonight, i have an early start tomorrow, sort of, but i plan on posting another update in the next two days because i have more photos i would like to publish, and i want to show you the team bike too, for those who haven'e yet seen it, so happy reading folks, and check out the next update in a few days.

Stay cool dudes...

Chill(ing) in Grand Rapids, Michigan

2006-04-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hey dudes, there has been very little action here in the last week or so since I arrived, other than a lot of training, and cold weather. It has been great staying with Bob, the man behind Advantage Benefits - one of our team sponsors. We are staying in a great house, a bit out of town, and it is really peaceful and country-like here.

After recovering from our epic series of flights across the country (where you can see Rich and I made ourselves comfortable at the airport with the lap top set up as a movie theatre), we set out to find all of the good roads in the area to go training on. We are currently having a break from racing after the California leg of the NRC, and soon head off to Georgia to stay at teammate Eddy (the Body)'s house, where we will have a training camp and get ready for the criterium series that follows Tour of Georgia. Somehow our team missed a start in Georgia which is frustrating, but we will be out to prove we were worthy of a start through the rest of the season.

This is a photo of Rich and I at the top of one of the bigger hills in the area. As you may be able to see, it is an epic ordeal just to reach the top, and provides us with heaps of different options for our descent! This picture also depicts the great variety of scenery Michigan has to offer in the early Spring - basically dead trees, fresh off the snow season. Before arriving here, i was told the area was dead flat, but its far from it - you are always riding up or down, just like in the picture below, and all of the hills are 200-500m long, although i should say 600-1500ft!

When we went to the mall the other day on a particularly cold and wet day, as we got out of the car, we had to run to the mall entry to escape the snow fall - talk about cold! Its good too though, as that is one thing we dont get to experience too much in Australia!

After a lot of searching we have come up with a few circuits that cover all of the hardest roads in the area, and we will do laps of that during the week. Weekend rides start from Bob's house, and all of the members of his club team head out for a bunch ride. It is good to go training with a group to break things up, but we have to deal with constant attacks from the bunch with everyone trying to race us! One of the other potential hazards I have encountered while training is the 'deer stampede'. As Bob's house is out of town, there are plenty of wild animals about (including Bob), and three times this week I have had a heap of deer run out across the road in front of me, the first time there were at least ten, and the next two times about six or so - this only happens within a kilometre of getting home. In this picture, you may be able to make out the deer on the road between the two trees, they seem to like Bob's backyard, but are a bit camera shy, so i haven't been able to get up close yet.

Coming up now I will put in another solid week of training, and we will have our Priority Health media event on Thursday, so that should be good having an 'official' team launch, then we have Easter weekend, and then head off to Georgia to begin another couple of months on the road racing all over the place. I'm looking forward to leaving the winter gear at home and training in the sun down at 'The Body's' place. It will also be good to be back together as a team again and to have a bit of fun with all the boys.

Next entry should have some photos of the team presentation, our bikes, and the team kit we race in. -Laters

The Season has Started

2006-03-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

After arriving in the USA just over a month ago, it has been hard to settle in anywhere, as i havn't stayed in one place for more than a week at a time - its a bit of fun living like a nomad though. The month in California was good, we got to meet all of our team-mates, directors, and mechanics, and also had a little bit of success in racing.

When i flew in at the end of February, i stayed with our team leader, Glen Mitchell. Talk about a guru - Glen is the biggest legend ever! I was looked after so well, and we got to do some great training rides - even if they were all in the pooring rain. It was good to stay with another 'sort of compatriot', a Kiwi, to ease my way into the American lifestyle, and he was able to give me good advice not just on racing and training, but how to prepare for spending the year with Americans!!!!

Seeing as this is my first entry, i will not enter into the fine details of the last month's racing and events, but i will endeavour to keep this site up to date on a weekly basis, so as readers are not wasting too much time reading essays. What i can say though, is that i am extremely happy to have joined a team full of such great people, with great staff, mechanics, and riders. We have been having heaps of fun, and everyone has remained in good spirits through all of the training in the cold, rainy, and sometimes snowy times. We have had a few good results, with Brent winning the Best Young Rider jersey in San Dimas, Glen getting 2nd in the Road Race, and myself getting second in the Criterium. At Redlands, Brent was 12th on GC, and Rich had top 10 finishes in the Crit and Road Race. In all we have a well balanced team full of great guys, and it is going to be exciting watching the year unfold, and seeing the success that will come with it.

On some of our various road trips, we have been lucky enough to bump into various famous people, with Richard taking advantage of this rare photo opportunity.

This chick was so hot, and more than willing to be photographed. Happy St. Patrick's Day...

This is our "bad ass" team van and trailer, we also have a team car to match. The trailer is full of wicked good Ridley Damocles painted in team colours, Easton wheels - which will be winning a lot of races, awesome Bell Sweep R helmets in team colours, DMT shiny white shoes, and San Marco white saddles. Fuelling us during races is Enervit race food.

Yesterday Rich and I arrived in Michigan after flying out from California - talk about a tough flight! We left Cali at 6.30pm Monday, and by 10am Tuesday we were in Michigan. That involved three flights, with various length stop-overs at each airport, and little, if any sleep. I can't complain though, as Mark (director), Benno the Bear and Lucky Pete (mechanics) are still driving as we speak, and wont arrive till tomorrow morning, and they are pretty much doing it in one hit.

Anyway, i hope everyone back home in Australia is doing well.

Goodbye.

2006-03-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

More info to come when i have more time to write.