So i've finally gotten around to writing about our last day in Kutztown. Have to admit, i've been putting this off because frankly i didn't want to face the fact that the trip was over. it was definitly an experience of a life time and i wouldn't change a second of it!!! well maybe just one :P
so after a big night last night, safe to say it was pretty hard to wake up at 4:30am to say bye to Brodie's mum good ol' Kath :p. but shes totally worth it :P She had to catch the bus to NY at 5:00 because she was on an earlier flight. It was definitly sad to say bye because she is such a nice person and she had been a great help! especially over the last few days. Don't know what we would have done without her!!!
Anyway, went back to bed after that for a few more hours then woke up at a more decent 6:30 (glad to see that even after 5 weeks of not having to wake up at ridiculous o'clock, my body still feels the urge too! oh well, guess it'll make adjusting back home a little easier...) to pack up my track bike and cram some more stuff into the box before the rest of the girls made their guest appearence several hours later. we then decided to venture down to the bagel bar for old times sake. I had a egg and sausage bagel absolutely delicious! and even tried a french toast bagel! no joke, it was litterally a bagel ... but it tasted like french toast. pretty much one of the yummiest things ever! thats one of the things i miss about the US is the food and the sheer variety of it! i mean they think of everything! there is just so much to choose from! Your probs thinking that i'm a weird one but hey, what can i say. I love my food and in the US there is certainly a lot of it!pretty sure i was sad to part with my banana bread oatmeal...creamy honey just doesn't cut it! i'm sorry. And Pop's ice cream...wish we had a little ice creamery like that back home.. they had everything! have to admit, was a bit of a fan of the old choc chip cookie dough... never got to try the cake batter or cupcake ice cream though.. oh well, theres always next time ;)
Back to the point, after our breakfast, we ventured down old main street and took some last minute pictures to try and capture the atmosphere and try and remind us of all the cool things we have done here. Thats one of the hardest things i'm finding back home is trying to describe everything and our experiences to everyone... you just can't! like the time in the crit at Fitchburg when all the girls busted their butts off for me. they gave everything! and you can't describe how good it felt working so well in a team like that...and all the funny things you try and recreate but turns out 'you just had to be there'. Like our late night escapades to Turkey Hill to get slurries...:p
I'm getting pretty side tracked ay lol. When we returned home, we pretty much cleaned for about 3hrs lol. i swear to god i dragged 20 bike boxes up from the basement! was feeling my arms the next day! and it was soo stinking hot! we were seriously sweating all over the place. charming. i know :P. Safe to say the house was cleaner and in a better state than when we got there! But it was worth getting all the cleaning and bags done early because it meant that we were able to have lunch with the young medalist crew and say our last goodbyes. Didn't quite realise how hard it was going to be. these people have been like family and best friends to us over here. they have always offered to take us places, keep us entertained lol, listen to our stories...God i miss them. I miss our rides together, our random get togethers and parties at Zach's house and freaking out whilst watching disturbia... the frogs and the bonfire...everything. they have all been so kind to us! and all the people we met at racing.. they welcomes us with open arms! no joke, i have about 100 new friends on facebook and i plan on keeping in touch with each and every single one of them.
So after lunch, we said our goodbyes and Bailey (shes such cutie, wanted to adopted her and take her home with us) gave us some young medalist kit which was great! now i have a new wind vest and arm warmers to face the elements with back home and i will be reminded of the trip everytime i wear them. Then our lift arrived to take us to the airport...When we got there it took us litterally forever to check in. We were tag teaming to get inside to the aircon cause it was about 37 odd degrees or something out there. so we'd take shifts standing outside with the bikes. When we finally checked in, we had some dinner and walked around for a bit until it was time to board the flight. I think it was at about that point that i realise that i was actually heading home...
The first flight didn't seem to take long at all! on that particular leg, i wrote letters to Audrey and all of the girls just thanking them for everything. They are probably some of the coolest people you'll ever meet and i miss them terribly! can't wait to see all of them when they come down for Nationals!! will be on the side line cheering them on for sure!
The next leg was the long one, Stockholm - KL. Mind you, with a little help from too many $1 sleeping pills i bough over the counter, was pretty much out for the whole flight! which wasn't such a bad thing...think i watched about 1/2 a movie? and got woken up for meals.. which really probably weren't worth waking up for lol.
In KL was when it started to get tough. This was where we were splitting up with the WA crew (ie Audrey, Mickey and Lara). Needless to say there were tears on all the girls' behalf...Who would have thought we would create such a strong bond in 4 weeks? pretty sure i would adopt them all if that was possible! Mickey bough Brodie and I comfort food (ie choclate lol) for the way home.. got through about 1/2 of it before i even started to feel the teeniest bit better!!
So we said our goodbyes then headed to board our flight. This was it. 1 more flight then i was home. The dream was over. It was back to reality. We got into Syd and said goodbye to the QLD people (Brodie, Thommo and Mitch) which was equally sad then headed to coustoms so we could all catch our domestic flights home. Our plane got delayed in KL so we litterally had about 30min to get our bags and clear coustoms. it was tight. we didn't really get to say bye to Pat, Pete and Angus because they were rushed to their connecting flight in a seperate terminal but we still keep in contact. Sam and I were met by our parents who were freaking out trying to get us on the last plane back home. we had about 4min to get everything checked in then had over to domestic. it was a close call but we made it. Then it was simply a 30min flight back home where i was greeted by my sister. It was great to see her again. safe to say i missed her a bit. So said goodbye to Sam and wished him all the best for the VIC states that weekend (bet he would have been stomping) then headed home.
So yeh, that was it. I was back home. Unpacking my bag, i was reminded by all the good times an things i have achieved over there. I went over there having just come out of a massive hole, feeling pretty down about things, never having won a bike race and generally at a loss about things. Over there, it was like a massive weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was able to forget about everything that was going on back home and finally be the person that i have always wanted to be! Have to admit, thats one of the toughest things i'm finding at the moment. When i stepped off the plane it was like i hit a wall. it was back to reality. everything i left behind had come back. it was back to the same old stuff... the same daily grind. the honeymoon was over. It is really hard trying to refocus at school because i have realised that there is so much more to life, so much more that i could/would rather be doing. But with any luck, i'll be back there next year. for longer.
I hopped back on the bike on Monday. safe to say i basically wore every piece of clothing i owned. thats another tuffy... went from riding at half way decent hour, in the warmth with probably some of the nicest/funniest/coolest people you'll every meet to waking up at 5 to train in the dark and freezing cold hans solo. oh well...guess i can't complain.. people are a lot worse off. and if it means i'll be able to go over there next year or continue my form back here... then it's totally worth it.
Just like to say a quick thank you to everyone who helped make this experience probably one of the best experiences of my life so far. It is definitly one to remember. it has given me hope and the friends that i have made are pretty much awesome. So to those who have stuck by me, supported me and believed in me i'd like to say thank you. Would list you all individually, but that would probably take years lol :P and besides, you all know who you are ;). Who would have thought that in 4 weeks we would have achieved so much? met so many new friends? or been to so many places? i certainly wouldn' have.
as you can tell, i'm avoiding wrapping this up because like i said earlier...i just don't want to face the fact that the trip is over. but i guess i'll have to. one day. but for now, i keep my photo keyring attached to my bag and look at it at every chance i get.
Just another thing, this blog started off as a diary just basically for me and my family to keep track of things whilst i was over here. Little did i know i would have randoms coming up to me at races saying 'oh your miffy! i've read your blog...'. So turns out i got a few more people than my Mum reading this. Got me in trouble a few times but hey. Just like to say thanks to the people who have been following me (not litterally of course lol) throughout my trip and for sitting through my long and pretty average entires lol... you deserve an award :)
wow, this entry is massive.. pretty sure i have written a novel. if only i put this much effort into my school work :P
Until next time (cause there will definitly be a next time ;) )
take care
and safe riding
xo Miffy
P.S If your ever looking at coming the AUS/ would like me to send you stuff from back here, let me know and i'll be sure to hook you up :p
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
the last post
only have 1 more post to go. will write it up as soon as i finish unpacking my suitcase and my room becomes no longer a health hazard. its gonna be a big one... so stay tuned.
xo
xo
Final words from Audrey
Audrey Anderson has been the driving force behind this whole trip. Without her, we wouldn't have been able to experience half the stuff that we did. She is an inspiration to us all and words can't express how thankful we are to have had her with us o the trip.
love you Audrey!!
xo
Nicole Reinhart Tour PA 18-19th July
July 20 4:32pm
Location: Kutztown PA
17-18 Women GC winner of the Nicole Reinhart Tour: Myfanwy Galloway ( ACT)
15-16 Women GC winner of the Nicole Reinhart Tour: Michaela Anderson ( Perth)
15-16 Women 2nd GC Nicole Reinhart Tour: Brodie Stewart (QLD)
15-16 Women 4th GC Nicole Reinhart Tour: Lara Freiberg ( Perth
Wished to ackowledge the Nicole Reinhart Foundation , and the hard work it is doing for cyclist by donating all theirwinnings today back to the Foundation. Miffy Galloway when speaking with Mr Michael Reinhart turned to her fellow Team Budget teammates and asked if they did not mind donating their winnings back to the foundation. In quick agreement, the girls unconditionally handed back their prize money to Mr Michael Reinhart saying, todays win for the women was not about the prize money but the satisfaction of racing and going beyond your limits.
I have worked closely with these young women for the past 4 weeks, and the maturity they have displayed has been overwhelming. They came over her to experience international racing and leave here with memories of more than just racing. They will leave with memories of friendship from the local Lehigh Valley Cyclists, they will leave with memories of laughter at Betty’s in Kutztown for Lunch, they will leave the USA with memories of their final night at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome where tears and heartache were overwhelming them....
These young women, have a place in my heart not because of their sucess, but because of the smile they bring to my face.
To Brodie on Friday night when you took time out of the racing
to buy your 2 team mates a simple tee shirt, and take it around to the international racers to write words of encouragement to cheer Lara and Mickey up …as their coach of 4 years was not around...was inspirational.
To Miffy when you finished the Fitchburg tour, and received your medal...in front of the fountain...and said you need to cut the 2nd place GC medal into 4 peices for each of your team mates was inspirational.
To lara your ride at Fitchburg on the final day, to attack and try to help your team mate try to gain some 12 seconds she needed was inspirational. Your whole 4 weeks of racing has been inspirational as you have raced above your expectations of yourself as a rider.
To Michaela your ride on Friday night Speed night in the Scratch Race...with your team mates riding with you...was inspirational. To see you all lift after a hard week, and help attack as they blocked and counter attacked for you could go on to get a 2nd place in the Scratch race after such a shakey start to the night was inspirational…
So to you young women, don’t change, and maybe in being who you are you will honour the memory of Nicole Reinhart
Audrey Hendricks-Anderson
Team Budget Forklifts USA Manager
a lonely night without a coach…
love you Audrey!!
xo
Nicole Reinhart Tour PA 18-19th July
July 20 4:32pm
Location: Kutztown PA
17-18 Women GC winner of the Nicole Reinhart Tour: Myfanwy Galloway ( ACT)
15-16 Women GC winner of the Nicole Reinhart Tour: Michaela Anderson ( Perth)
15-16 Women 2nd GC Nicole Reinhart Tour: Brodie Stewart (QLD)
15-16 Women 4th GC Nicole Reinhart Tour: Lara Freiberg ( Perth
Wished to ackowledge the Nicole Reinhart Foundation , and the hard work it is doing for cyclist by donating all theirwinnings today back to the Foundation. Miffy Galloway when speaking with Mr Michael Reinhart turned to her fellow Team Budget teammates and asked if they did not mind donating their winnings back to the foundation. In quick agreement, the girls unconditionally handed back their prize money to Mr Michael Reinhart saying, todays win for the women was not about the prize money but the satisfaction of racing and going beyond your limits.
I have worked closely with these young women for the past 4 weeks, and the maturity they have displayed has been overwhelming. They came over her to experience international racing and leave here with memories of more than just racing. They will leave with memories of friendship from the local Lehigh Valley Cyclists, they will leave with memories of laughter at Betty’s in Kutztown for Lunch, they will leave the USA with memories of their final night at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome where tears and heartache were overwhelming them....
These young women, have a place in my heart not because of their sucess, but because of the smile they bring to my face.
To Brodie on Friday night when you took time out of the racing
to buy your 2 team mates a simple tee shirt, and take it around to the international racers to write words of encouragement to cheer Lara and Mickey up …as their coach of 4 years was not around...was inspirational.
To Miffy when you finished the Fitchburg tour, and received your medal...in front of the fountain...and said you need to cut the 2nd place GC medal into 4 peices for each of your team mates was inspirational.
To lara your ride at Fitchburg on the final day, to attack and try to help your team mate try to gain some 12 seconds she needed was inspirational. Your whole 4 weeks of racing has been inspirational as you have raced above your expectations of yourself as a rider.
To Michaela your ride on Friday night Speed night in the Scratch Race...with your team mates riding with you...was inspirational. To see you all lift after a hard week, and help attack as they blocked and counter attacked for you could go on to get a 2nd place in the Scratch race after such a shakey start to the night was inspirational…
So to you young women, don’t change, and maybe in being who you are you will honour the memory of Nicole Reinhart
Audrey Hendricks-Anderson
Team Budget Forklifts USA Manager
a lonely night without a coach…
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
tour de FCCC day 2
Today was our last race of the trip and the Tour :( a 20mile crit. Like yesterday, it was a combined 15-16 and 17-18 crit, so i was riding with the other budget girls. Mickey and Brodie were tied for first place in their age group so it was going to be a good day lol. there was going to be blood :p. Plan was for Mickey and Brodie to get away then I was going to bridge over to them so Budget was going to be off the front (Lara wasn't feeling too good after the heatstroke yesterday, so decided that she could help block in the bunch). Turns out I broke away with Brodie and then Mickey bridged across. So the plan was still working. This was at about 7 laps to go. We built up our lead and by 4 laps to go, knew that we were going to stay away. Started pulling mass dog turns and told the girls that I would lead it out with 1 lap (around 2.5km) to go so that they could have an equal sprint and may the 'best man win' to decide which one of them would take home the win and the tour. at about 200m to go, girls came round and Mickey took out the sprint from Brodie. Was a great ride and was stoked to be able to finish with the girls on such a strong note. Rate that as prob one of the best rides from them of the tour.
After that, hung around to watch the boys and had to wait a while for presentation lol. While we were waiting, Colleen (Who was 2nd on GC) came over and showed us how to make Smores!!! OMG.. prob one of god's best ever creations.. was pretty much delicious. omg.. i'm hungry just thinking about them. She also gave us changing towels (kinda hard to explain... its like a towel skirt so u can get changed) which was pretty awesome! She was really sweet :).
At presentation, got awarded 3 gold medals for each of the stages and a trophy and another changing towel for overall GC and some more pasta and oil for the sprint primes which was really cool :). I also picked up 100 bucks in prize money which I donated to the Nicole Reinhart Fund (sort of like the Amy Gillet Foundation here in Aus) and got the rest of the girls to aswell which they were more than happy to do. And the founder (Nicole's dad) was really happy and interesting to talk to. It is great that there are foundations out there which are supporting the career of aspiring junior cyclists! At presentation, also made a speech on behalf of Budget, thanking everyone for their support. Everyone has been great to us.. and we will def miss them!
After the boys presentation, we went home and packed the rest of our bikes and junk. I was surprised that everything actually fitted.. took a bit of organising, but it worked :) was pretty impressed if i do say so myself lol.
That night, the Young Medalists were having a bonfire for us at the Semian's. Was prob one of the best days of the trip. It was awesome. It is Brodie's b'day tomorrow so they decorated the front of the house in b'day decorations for her which was real sweet and Toni also caught her 2 frogs as her present (yesterday she caught one and made Brodie kiss it haha was really funny). Anyway, so arrived and had some food then decided to jump in the pool. It was really nice :) haha just hung out with the girls in the spa. was cool.
I also met another girl whilst we were there, Leah. She's pretty cool :) had a good time. She let me drive her car! I was like 'yeah, i've always wanted to drive on the wrong side of the road..' and she asked if i wanted to drive her car lol.. so i did :) just up and down the street, but was good. So driving on the other side of the road, tick :D.
It then started to piss down with rain and when it rains here, it pours, so we had to postpone the bonfire whilst we waited for it to clear, so we decided to give out our Aussie sovenirs which was pretty cool. everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then Juan's uncle made a speech which was really sweet :) just talking about how much they enjoyed having us here and how we have inspired them..awwwww :'(
Then we had dinner and i attempted to play the nintendo wii. I officially suck at mario kart lol. i chose to be king boo cause it looked cute and my vehicle of choice was a bad ass looking motor bike. I'm all for look, not function lol. So did 2 rounds of that, and came dead last in both so decided to retreat back to the pool and chat to everyone else. Wasn't going to get in but got peered pressured into getting back in lol.. it was our last night there.. so why the hell not? I also decided to try some of the alchool they had at the party.. thought why not...try some American alchool.. was actually pretty good lol..watermelon flavored..so no, the drink in the paper cup wasn't lemonade ;) hahaha... gotchya there!
Then it was time for us to go home.. really didn't want to! Audrey had to basically drag us by the hair... but Kath had to leave at 5am so we had to get back. Said our teary goodbyes to everyone.. god i hate goodbyes... and then jumped in the car and ventured home
def rated today...was prob one of the highest rated days of the trip next to fitchburg. everything/everyone was just lovely.
Not looking forward to tomorrow... our last day in good old Kutzy.. :'(
xo
After that, hung around to watch the boys and had to wait a while for presentation lol. While we were waiting, Colleen (Who was 2nd on GC) came over and showed us how to make Smores!!! OMG.. prob one of god's best ever creations.. was pretty much delicious. omg.. i'm hungry just thinking about them. She also gave us changing towels (kinda hard to explain... its like a towel skirt so u can get changed) which was pretty awesome! She was really sweet :).
At presentation, got awarded 3 gold medals for each of the stages and a trophy and another changing towel for overall GC and some more pasta and oil for the sprint primes which was really cool :). I also picked up 100 bucks in prize money which I donated to the Nicole Reinhart Fund (sort of like the Amy Gillet Foundation here in Aus) and got the rest of the girls to aswell which they were more than happy to do. And the founder (Nicole's dad) was really happy and interesting to talk to. It is great that there are foundations out there which are supporting the career of aspiring junior cyclists! At presentation, also made a speech on behalf of Budget, thanking everyone for their support. Everyone has been great to us.. and we will def miss them!
After the boys presentation, we went home and packed the rest of our bikes and junk. I was surprised that everything actually fitted.. took a bit of organising, but it worked :) was pretty impressed if i do say so myself lol.
That night, the Young Medalists were having a bonfire for us at the Semian's. Was prob one of the best days of the trip. It was awesome. It is Brodie's b'day tomorrow so they decorated the front of the house in b'day decorations for her which was real sweet and Toni also caught her 2 frogs as her present (yesterday she caught one and made Brodie kiss it haha was really funny). Anyway, so arrived and had some food then decided to jump in the pool. It was really nice :) haha just hung out with the girls in the spa. was cool.
I also met another girl whilst we were there, Leah. She's pretty cool :) had a good time. She let me drive her car! I was like 'yeah, i've always wanted to drive on the wrong side of the road..' and she asked if i wanted to drive her car lol.. so i did :) just up and down the street, but was good. So driving on the other side of the road, tick :D.
It then started to piss down with rain and when it rains here, it pours, so we had to postpone the bonfire whilst we waited for it to clear, so we decided to give out our Aussie sovenirs which was pretty cool. everyone seemed to enjoy it. Then Juan's uncle made a speech which was really sweet :) just talking about how much they enjoyed having us here and how we have inspired them..awwwww :'(
Then we had dinner and i attempted to play the nintendo wii. I officially suck at mario kart lol. i chose to be king boo cause it looked cute and my vehicle of choice was a bad ass looking motor bike. I'm all for look, not function lol. So did 2 rounds of that, and came dead last in both so decided to retreat back to the pool and chat to everyone else. Wasn't going to get in but got peered pressured into getting back in lol.. it was our last night there.. so why the hell not? I also decided to try some of the alchool they had at the party.. thought why not...try some American alchool.. was actually pretty good lol..watermelon flavored..so no, the drink in the paper cup wasn't lemonade ;) hahaha... gotchya there!
Then it was time for us to go home.. really didn't want to! Audrey had to basically drag us by the hair... but Kath had to leave at 5am so we had to get back. Said our teary goodbyes to everyone.. god i hate goodbyes... and then jumped in the car and ventured home
def rated today...was prob one of the highest rated days of the trip next to fitchburg. everything/everyone was just lovely.
Not looking forward to tomorrow... our last day in good old Kutzy.. :'(
xo
Tour de FCCC day 1
Getting down to the last couple of days of the trip...Today was the start of our last Tour. The Nicole Reinhart Memorial Tour. Today we had a 4.2mile (7km) TT in the morn followed by a 20mile (round 35km) road race a few hours later. Not a massive day, but it was still going to be a challenge.
Rocked up with plenty of time to spare and started the old warm up on the trainer...It was an undulating TT so if i was going to do alright at any TT, it was gong to be this one. Didn't feel the urge to ride aerobars since it was so short and hilly so just ran the zipps. I was off last because we were late entries and I was chasing Brodie. Felt alright after the warm-up and was at the start line in time to see the girls roll off. The start was sorta downhill so i whacked it in the big dog chain ring for the start and did some mass track start lol..wasn't too bad...prob should have gone slighty smaller though. Anyway, so the TT didn't feel too bad, prob could have pushed slightly smaller gears on the hills (ended up doing semi-strengthies lol) but hey. Crossed the line and i had passed 2 other girls and was only a couple secs behind Brodie so didn't think went too bad. Turns out i won by 37sec which put me in good position for the rest of the tour.
We had a couple of hours before the road race, so we all just sat under the trees with the rest of the US juniors...I had a hoagie for lunch (sounds pretty gross ay lol...) which is kinda a sub sorta thing. anyway, i rated it. Then it was time for the RR. It was really heating up and as a consequence a few ppl got heatstroke including Lara. Was a tough ride. The race itself wasn't very exciting. I had no real need to attack cause i was leading by a bit, but the girls who were 2nd and 3rd were just sitting in.. it was like they'd given up alright..that they were content with getting 2nd and 3rd when they should have been attacking the hell outta me! Oh well.. their loss. The race was kinda starting to piss me off cause it was so slow, so i attacked on 1 of the hills wth 1 and 1/2 laps to go and the girl who was 2nd came with me which was alright. We had a bit of a gap and just cruised the last little bit. Decided to try my luck in the sprint so bout 300m to go stepped out and got it. Pretty pleased with myself :). I had also won the intermediate sprint so had increased my lead another 15sec with the time bonuses.
After that, we hung around to watch the end of the boy's race, then wandered home to have showers. Had to wait for ages to get into the shower so decided to go on the computer and turns out MaryAnn and Brian were on. so had a good cha to them about the World's RR and it was great to hear how well everyone did. Can't wait to get back and see them all. I miss them heaps.
Anyways, had a shower than a sleep while everyone was packing up their track bikes (mine was still at the track cause we didn't have enough room in the van) which was good... cause i really couldn't be bothered doing anything lol. That night, we went over to the Semian's for dinner and had taco's and watched Disturbia and chilled with the rest of the Young Medalists...its awesome there and the people are lovely. I can't get over how nice everyone is over here.. its pretty much ridiculous! but hey, i'm not complaining :)
We left there at around 9:30 so that we could get some sleep for our early start tomorrow (the crit and final stage of the tour was at 8:30am). So another successful day on the bike. Looking forward to tomorrow's stage.. gonna try get away with the girls. Should be good
xo
Rocked up with plenty of time to spare and started the old warm up on the trainer...It was an undulating TT so if i was going to do alright at any TT, it was gong to be this one. Didn't feel the urge to ride aerobars since it was so short and hilly so just ran the zipps. I was off last because we were late entries and I was chasing Brodie. Felt alright after the warm-up and was at the start line in time to see the girls roll off. The start was sorta downhill so i whacked it in the big dog chain ring for the start and did some mass track start lol..wasn't too bad...prob should have gone slighty smaller though. Anyway, so the TT didn't feel too bad, prob could have pushed slightly smaller gears on the hills (ended up doing semi-strengthies lol) but hey. Crossed the line and i had passed 2 other girls and was only a couple secs behind Brodie so didn't think went too bad. Turns out i won by 37sec which put me in good position for the rest of the tour.
We had a couple of hours before the road race, so we all just sat under the trees with the rest of the US juniors...I had a hoagie for lunch (sounds pretty gross ay lol...) which is kinda a sub sorta thing. anyway, i rated it. Then it was time for the RR. It was really heating up and as a consequence a few ppl got heatstroke including Lara. Was a tough ride. The race itself wasn't very exciting. I had no real need to attack cause i was leading by a bit, but the girls who were 2nd and 3rd were just sitting in.. it was like they'd given up alright..that they were content with getting 2nd and 3rd when they should have been attacking the hell outta me! Oh well.. their loss. The race was kinda starting to piss me off cause it was so slow, so i attacked on 1 of the hills wth 1 and 1/2 laps to go and the girl who was 2nd came with me which was alright. We had a bit of a gap and just cruised the last little bit. Decided to try my luck in the sprint so bout 300m to go stepped out and got it. Pretty pleased with myself :). I had also won the intermediate sprint so had increased my lead another 15sec with the time bonuses.
After that, we hung around to watch the end of the boy's race, then wandered home to have showers. Had to wait for ages to get into the shower so decided to go on the computer and turns out MaryAnn and Brian were on. so had a good cha to them about the World's RR and it was great to hear how well everyone did. Can't wait to get back and see them all. I miss them heaps.
Anyways, had a shower than a sleep while everyone was packing up their track bikes (mine was still at the track cause we didn't have enough room in the van) which was good... cause i really couldn't be bothered doing anything lol. That night, we went over to the Semian's for dinner and had taco's and watched Disturbia and chilled with the rest of the Young Medalists...its awesome there and the people are lovely. I can't get over how nice everyone is over here.. its pretty much ridiculous! but hey, i'm not complaining :)
We left there at around 9:30 so that we could get some sleep for our early start tomorrow (the crit and final stage of the tour was at 8:30am). So another successful day on the bike. Looking forward to tomorrow's stage.. gonna try get away with the girls. Should be good
xo
Sprinters' night at the track
So this morning we started back to semi-normal training. On the schedule, 80km in the morn incl. track session then the World Series of Bicycling that night.
We were meant to go out for our ride at 7am so got up and chowed down my raisin bran and froot loops and it was around 10 to 7 when i realised none of the girls were up. So went into their room and found them fast asleep... they obviously needed the extra sleep so thought we could postpone the ride for another 30min... 7:20am and they still weren't up. so i went in and woke them, which i felt real bad about cause they looked so peaceful :). So it wasn't until around 8:00 until we left. We decided to try and retrace the ride with did with Kate on the first day we got there and find the lake again as a sort of 'last ride' thing. We finally found the route, the one we had been trying to find again for the last 4 weeks...oh well, better late then never. We rode to the top of the hill where u could see the lake and the valley below. Pretty much one of the coolest views i think i'll ever see. So we sat there and hung out for a bit then we thought we'd give Audrey a call and just ask what time she wanted us at track. 9:00. It was 8:40 and we were 40km in the opposite direction. bugger. So we had to TTT it all the way to the velodrome. needless to say we were pretty buggered for the session which consisted of about 2 flying 200ms lol. my speciality. After that, we just rode home with the boys and took some pretty funny pictures if i do say so myself.
When we got home, we all rushed through our showers so that we were able to go to the King Of Prussia Mall, the 3rd largest mall in America. This thing was huge!! but was also quite expensive, so i didn't really buy much. Just got another shirt from A&F for good measure and some presents from Victoria's Seret since we only had 1hr there before we had to go to track.
Turns out that the trip back to the velodrome took longer than expected so we had about a 15min warm up before the 200m qualifying for the sprint rounds. I had a shocker and qualified 13th... top 12 got in. So i just missed out on having to ride off with Kaarlee (AIS) in the sprint rounds. bugger. lol
So that was me for a couple of hours until the program began. Had a super sprint (they eliminated half the field than it is a 3 lap scratch) which was pretty interesting.. showed my true track form by getting eliminated 2nd... To my credit though, my whole team was at the back and i saw them moving up so i decided to sacrifice myself to let them get through to the next round... shame someone dropped off after i got eliminated though...not happy jan.
That race didn't go exactly according to plan, and all the girls were having a pretty tough night as it was their first night of racing without their coach. We all had a chat and decided that in the last race (10km scratch) we'd give it everything. And that we did. At any one time, at least one of our riders was off the front. Mickey did exceptionally well after being off the front for nearly 10 laps then sprinting for 2nd. Very pleased with the girls, was very proud of them :)
Prob the coolest thing of the night though was after the super sprint when Lara and Mickey weren't feeling too great, Brodie went and bought 2x shirts and got all the riders to write a message of support on there for them, which they were more than happy to do!! riders included some of the AIS riders, ones we'd met over there and commisaires! all willing to show their support for the girls. Was really sweet :)
After racing, it was time to say our goodbyes to everyone... which was actually really sad. sad that this was the last friday night racing we were going to do and the last time we'd see all these friendly people and experience this great atmosphere. I say its the last, but hopefully not. I would love to come back and do this trip all over again next year. So lets just not say the last, but the last time for a few months.
I am definitely going to miss everyone we met at Friday night racing, they have all been so supportive of us and our cycling and always willing to lend us a hand and give us advice. Which we could bottle that atmosphere up and take it home...let me work on that...
Until next time
xo
We were meant to go out for our ride at 7am so got up and chowed down my raisin bran and froot loops and it was around 10 to 7 when i realised none of the girls were up. So went into their room and found them fast asleep... they obviously needed the extra sleep so thought we could postpone the ride for another 30min... 7:20am and they still weren't up. so i went in and woke them, which i felt real bad about cause they looked so peaceful :). So it wasn't until around 8:00 until we left. We decided to try and retrace the ride with did with Kate on the first day we got there and find the lake again as a sort of 'last ride' thing. We finally found the route, the one we had been trying to find again for the last 4 weeks...oh well, better late then never. We rode to the top of the hill where u could see the lake and the valley below. Pretty much one of the coolest views i think i'll ever see. So we sat there and hung out for a bit then we thought we'd give Audrey a call and just ask what time she wanted us at track. 9:00. It was 8:40 and we were 40km in the opposite direction. bugger. So we had to TTT it all the way to the velodrome. needless to say we were pretty buggered for the session which consisted of about 2 flying 200ms lol. my speciality. After that, we just rode home with the boys and took some pretty funny pictures if i do say so myself.
When we got home, we all rushed through our showers so that we were able to go to the King Of Prussia Mall, the 3rd largest mall in America. This thing was huge!! but was also quite expensive, so i didn't really buy much. Just got another shirt from A&F for good measure and some presents from Victoria's Seret since we only had 1hr there before we had to go to track.
Turns out that the trip back to the velodrome took longer than expected so we had about a 15min warm up before the 200m qualifying for the sprint rounds. I had a shocker and qualified 13th... top 12 got in. So i just missed out on having to ride off with Kaarlee (AIS) in the sprint rounds. bugger. lol
So that was me for a couple of hours until the program began. Had a super sprint (they eliminated half the field than it is a 3 lap scratch) which was pretty interesting.. showed my true track form by getting eliminated 2nd... To my credit though, my whole team was at the back and i saw them moving up so i decided to sacrifice myself to let them get through to the next round... shame someone dropped off after i got eliminated though...not happy jan.
That race didn't go exactly according to plan, and all the girls were having a pretty tough night as it was their first night of racing without their coach. We all had a chat and decided that in the last race (10km scratch) we'd give it everything. And that we did. At any one time, at least one of our riders was off the front. Mickey did exceptionally well after being off the front for nearly 10 laps then sprinting for 2nd. Very pleased with the girls, was very proud of them :)
Prob the coolest thing of the night though was after the super sprint when Lara and Mickey weren't feeling too great, Brodie went and bought 2x shirts and got all the riders to write a message of support on there for them, which they were more than happy to do!! riders included some of the AIS riders, ones we'd met over there and commisaires! all willing to show their support for the girls. Was really sweet :)
After racing, it was time to say our goodbyes to everyone... which was actually really sad. sad that this was the last friday night racing we were going to do and the last time we'd see all these friendly people and experience this great atmosphere. I say its the last, but hopefully not. I would love to come back and do this trip all over again next year. So lets just not say the last, but the last time for a few months.
I am definitely going to miss everyone we met at Friday night racing, they have all been so supportive of us and our cycling and always willing to lend us a hand and give us advice. Which we could bottle that atmosphere up and take it home...let me work on that...
Until next time
xo
Friday, July 18, 2008
A pretty lazy day
Well today was another slow start. The boys stayed with us and slept in the lounge room. we pretty much didn't get to sleep until close to 1:30am cause the girls decided to all sleep in the same room and we were talking junk for ages lol. My body decided to wake me up at 6:00am. pretty sucky since we were meant to go to Letterman's for breakfast and my stomach was already eating itself. decided i'd have cereal and skip Letterman's which was a good idea cause no one woke up until about 9 o'clock...
Hung around the house for a while after that and then at around 2 we decided we'd venture out to Lehigh Valley mall again. Was gonna buy some sweet body stuff from Victoria's Secret but decided since we were going to an apparently HUGE factory outlet place tomorrow... we Abercrombie and Victoria's Secret as well so decided to save my money until then :)
After shopping, we had bout 10min to get changed and leave to get the girls to the crit on time. The boys were taking their sweet time so the girls TTed out there. we were doing massive pace line, was pretty impressed... overaged 37km over about 16km lol haha..we got there just in time for them to sign on and race and then it started pissing down with rain and looked pretty much like a hurricane, so it got cancelled. And of course after everyone went home, the rain stopped. so we decided to ride back and found the boys riding out to do their crit. so we all rode home together and did a few more ks after that. all up 40km lol. hardcore. oh well, tomorrow is going to be a hard day. 80km incl. track sesh in morning then track racing at night. then the tour on the weekend.
not many days to go now :s
xo
Hung around the house for a while after that and then at around 2 we decided we'd venture out to Lehigh Valley mall again. Was gonna buy some sweet body stuff from Victoria's Secret but decided since we were going to an apparently HUGE factory outlet place tomorrow... we Abercrombie and Victoria's Secret as well so decided to save my money until then :)
After shopping, we had bout 10min to get changed and leave to get the girls to the crit on time. The boys were taking their sweet time so the girls TTed out there. we were doing massive pace line, was pretty impressed... overaged 37km over about 16km lol haha..we got there just in time for them to sign on and race and then it started pissing down with rain and looked pretty much like a hurricane, so it got cancelled. And of course after everyone went home, the rain stopped. so we decided to ride back and found the boys riding out to do their crit. so we all rode home together and did a few more ks after that. all up 40km lol. hardcore. oh well, tomorrow is going to be a hard day. 80km incl. track sesh in morning then track racing at night. then the tour on the weekend.
not many days to go now :s
xo
A Day of mixed emotions
so today was an up and down kind of day. On the plus side, we went to awesome factory outlets where got myself a mad pair or white oakely radars with pinkish lenses for 130 dollars... bargain.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A day of nothing much
Last night we herd the words most of us have been dying to hear for the last few weeks. 'Sleep in'. today, there was no ride in the morning, no long ks , just track racing.
Was still feeling average and pretty much just mentally drained just thinking about having to race again. But i did it. and it turned out not to be too bad :)
Spent the morning doing nothing of much importance... went for an 1hr walk just around because the girls went out for breakfast (i'd been up since ridiculous o'clock so was pretty much ready for lunch by the time they woke up :p) then came back and slept for a tad before Kath suggested that we go get our nail done ha ha... so get our nails done we did. the lady was lovely but i have to admit that it wasn't the best manicure i ever got... but it was relaxing.
We then wasted more time by cruising the streets trying to suss out the tattoo and peircing palours... looking at getting either an airbrush tattoo or a belly button piercing. Turns out that none of them do airbrush tattoos so turns out piercing it is! i should have a poll... get it done or not... all up it costs 50 bucks.. thats for ring and everything... didn't think that was too bad!
So after patrolling the streets for another few hours wasting time before track, finally got home and started to pack bag for track when Mickey and Audrey came home :) missed them heaps it was quite suprising...didn't realise you'd miss people you'd only known for 3 weeks so much! just shows how close we've all gotten.. and how hard it will be to say goodbye.
We headed off to track, was very unmotivated... jumped on the rollers for about 30min before heading to track and my legs felt dead. Warm up wasn't much better. On the schedule was 1km scratch, 8km points and 5km scratch. Not a massive night, so decided to get over myself and just get the racing done. Tonight we were trying to get Mickey up for the omnium win again and so did a lot of work for her, attacking, chasing, leading out... turned out well as she won the overall ahead of Carly Mculloch from Aus and Liz.
Had a good chat to some of the Aussies who are over here.. there seems to be nearly as many Aussies as there are Americans over racing the track at the moment..is pretty insane! But it was good having a chat and hearing bout their experiences, and hearing another Aussie accent ;)
So it was a good night, the boys also picked up some goood results! (see Rick's update)
Got back pretty late though, didn't head to bed until around 12pm...got a long ride to do pretty early cause we are going shopping and to a water park!!! can't wait.. sooo pumped its insane. gonna be a good day.
xo
Was still feeling average and pretty much just mentally drained just thinking about having to race again. But i did it. and it turned out not to be too bad :)
Spent the morning doing nothing of much importance... went for an 1hr walk just around because the girls went out for breakfast (i'd been up since ridiculous o'clock so was pretty much ready for lunch by the time they woke up :p) then came back and slept for a tad before Kath suggested that we go get our nail done ha ha... so get our nails done we did. the lady was lovely but i have to admit that it wasn't the best manicure i ever got... but it was relaxing.
We then wasted more time by cruising the streets trying to suss out the tattoo and peircing palours... looking at getting either an airbrush tattoo or a belly button piercing. Turns out that none of them do airbrush tattoos so turns out piercing it is! i should have a poll... get it done or not... all up it costs 50 bucks.. thats for ring and everything... didn't think that was too bad!
So after patrolling the streets for another few hours wasting time before track, finally got home and started to pack bag for track when Mickey and Audrey came home :) missed them heaps it was quite suprising...didn't realise you'd miss people you'd only known for 3 weeks so much! just shows how close we've all gotten.. and how hard it will be to say goodbye.
We headed off to track, was very unmotivated... jumped on the rollers for about 30min before heading to track and my legs felt dead. Warm up wasn't much better. On the schedule was 1km scratch, 8km points and 5km scratch. Not a massive night, so decided to get over myself and just get the racing done. Tonight we were trying to get Mickey up for the omnium win again and so did a lot of work for her, attacking, chasing, leading out... turned out well as she won the overall ahead of Carly Mculloch from Aus and Liz.
Had a good chat to some of the Aussies who are over here.. there seems to be nearly as many Aussies as there are Americans over racing the track at the moment..is pretty insane! But it was good having a chat and hearing bout their experiences, and hearing another Aussie accent ;)
So it was a good night, the boys also picked up some goood results! (see Rick's update)
Got back pretty late though, didn't head to bed until around 12pm...got a long ride to do pretty early cause we are going shopping and to a water park!!! can't wait.. sooo pumped its insane. gonna be a good day.
xo
Monday, July 14, 2008
More from the coach
Oley Valley Road Race Sunday 13th July
July 13 10:20pm
Location: Oley Valley, PA
Aussie Junior - USA Success
It was another day in the office for the riders in the Team Budget Forklift as they forge a name for themselves during the hot American summer as they competed in the Combined Pennsylvania & New Jersey State Junior Championships today.
Again our riders raced very professionally and the results were outstanding. We sent Peter Johnstone to a Criterium which he also won so it was a huge day for the Team here in the US. And after hearing that Sarah Kent and Luke Durbridge had both medalled at the Junior Worlds – Team Budget FL members were ecstatic. With young Aussies like Megan Dunn, Ashley Ankudinoff and the TP & TS boys winning World Medals it has been a great day all round.
TodayR17;s race was organised by our host Coach – May Britt Hartwell’s Club - Young Medallists. May Britt is a World and Olympic medallist and has been a great help coordinating her club as they look after our needs here in US.
Patty Lane and Brodie Stewart had the 1st taste of success here in the US with Patty winning the 17-18 Men RR and Brodie the 15-16 Women’s RR. Miff Galloway continued her dominance with a solid win in the 17-18 Women RR as well as QOM prize.
Lara Freiberg must be the most improved cyclist on this trip with a very strong 2nd place in the 15-16 Women’s along with Gus Tobin taking 2nd in the 16-17 Men RR.
Thomo Richards took 2nd in the 17-18 Men’s while Mitch Mulhern was 3rd.
Aussie Results:
15-16 Women
1st Brodie Stewart
2nd Lara Freiberg
15-16 Men
2nd Gus Tobin
17-18 Women
1st Miff Galloway
17-18 Men
1st Patrick Lane
2nd Thomas Richards
3rd Mitchell Mulhern
The trip raps up in another week and I am sure the riders will have many stories of their time in the USA.
.
Rick Lee
‘Cyclewest’
0413 867 440
lee57@optusnet.com.au
http://www.cyclewestcoach.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Genge Wins in USA Share
July 13 10:12pm
Location: Pieffer Hill, PA
ACT cyclist riding for Team Budget Forklifts won the Cat 1/2/3 Pfeiffer Hill Classic in Pennsylvania USA today in sizzling heat. As the temperature gauge approached 100F the plan today was for the team to ride for Sam and give him the responsibility to finish off the bike race, he did this in great style.
From the start the Team Budget FL riders showed absolute dominance sending Patty Lane and Gus Tobin away and putting the others under pressure to chase, this break came back and then we had Peter Johnstone, Mitchell Mulhern & Patty Lane in a very serious break. Gus abandoned this race as we hope for better things for him in the PA/New Jersey State Championships tomorrow.
Thomas Richards and Sam Genge attacked the bunch taking 2 riders with them and in the last half of the race Sam moved across to the break, shortly after Thomo took care of the remaining 2 riders and we had all of our 5 riders away and the bunch shattered.
Sam who had saved his legs [as per the plan] went on to record a solo victory with consistent Patty Lane 2nd, Thomo Richards 3rd, Mitchell Mulhern 4th and Peter Johnstone 5th.
After the finish Sam said “it is a really strange feeling to have 5 guys working for you so my legs felt great, at one stage I went to the front of the bunch and was about to pull a turn and “Thomo” told me to get to the back and rest It was a great team race and I really know that the guys did it for me today”
We rested Michaela Anderson, Lara Freiberg and Brodie Stewart and gave Miff Galloway a ride in the Cat 4 Men’s, Miff raced very well and looked like running 3rd until she got a huge “chop” in the finish and came home in 5th place.
We now move to the State Pennsylvania/New Jersey Road Championships tomorrow and Peter Johnstone will race a Criterium in Bethlehem PA
Rick Lee
‘Cyclewest’
0413 867 440
lee57@optusnet.com.au
http://www.cyclewestcoach.com
July 13 10:20pm
Location: Oley Valley, PA
Aussie Junior - USA Success
It was another day in the office for the riders in the Team Budget Forklift as they forge a name for themselves during the hot American summer as they competed in the Combined Pennsylvania & New Jersey State Junior Championships today.
Again our riders raced very professionally and the results were outstanding. We sent Peter Johnstone to a Criterium which he also won so it was a huge day for the Team here in the US. And after hearing that Sarah Kent and Luke Durbridge had both medalled at the Junior Worlds – Team Budget FL members were ecstatic. With young Aussies like Megan Dunn, Ashley Ankudinoff and the TP & TS boys winning World Medals it has been a great day all round.
TodayR17;s race was organised by our host Coach – May Britt Hartwell’s Club - Young Medallists. May Britt is a World and Olympic medallist and has been a great help coordinating her club as they look after our needs here in US.
Patty Lane and Brodie Stewart had the 1st taste of success here in the US with Patty winning the 17-18 Men RR and Brodie the 15-16 Women’s RR. Miff Galloway continued her dominance with a solid win in the 17-18 Women RR as well as QOM prize.
Lara Freiberg must be the most improved cyclist on this trip with a very strong 2nd place in the 15-16 Women’s along with Gus Tobin taking 2nd in the 16-17 Men RR.
Thomo Richards took 2nd in the 17-18 Men’s while Mitch Mulhern was 3rd.
Aussie Results:
15-16 Women
1st Brodie Stewart
2nd Lara Freiberg
15-16 Men
2nd Gus Tobin
17-18 Women
1st Miff Galloway
17-18 Men
1st Patrick Lane
2nd Thomas Richards
3rd Mitchell Mulhern
The trip raps up in another week and I am sure the riders will have many stories of their time in the USA.
.
Rick Lee
‘Cyclewest’
0413 867 440
lee57@optusnet.com.au
http://www.cyclewestcoach.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Genge Wins in USA Share
July 13 10:12pm
Location: Pieffer Hill, PA
ACT cyclist riding for Team Budget Forklifts won the Cat 1/2/3 Pfeiffer Hill Classic in Pennsylvania USA today in sizzling heat. As the temperature gauge approached 100F the plan today was for the team to ride for Sam and give him the responsibility to finish off the bike race, he did this in great style.
From the start the Team Budget FL riders showed absolute dominance sending Patty Lane and Gus Tobin away and putting the others under pressure to chase, this break came back and then we had Peter Johnstone, Mitchell Mulhern & Patty Lane in a very serious break. Gus abandoned this race as we hope for better things for him in the PA/New Jersey State Championships tomorrow.
Thomas Richards and Sam Genge attacked the bunch taking 2 riders with them and in the last half of the race Sam moved across to the break, shortly after Thomo took care of the remaining 2 riders and we had all of our 5 riders away and the bunch shattered.
Sam who had saved his legs [as per the plan] went on to record a solo victory with consistent Patty Lane 2nd, Thomo Richards 3rd, Mitchell Mulhern 4th and Peter Johnstone 5th.
After the finish Sam said “it is a really strange feeling to have 5 guys working for you so my legs felt great, at one stage I went to the front of the bunch and was about to pull a turn and “Thomo” told me to get to the back and rest It was a great team race and I really know that the guys did it for me today”
We rested Michaela Anderson, Lara Freiberg and Brodie Stewart and gave Miff Galloway a ride in the Cat 4 Men’s, Miff raced very well and looked like running 3rd until she got a huge “chop” in the finish and came home in 5th place.
We now move to the State Pennsylvania/New Jersey Road Championships tomorrow and Peter Johnstone will race a Criterium in Bethlehem PA
Rick Lee
‘Cyclewest’
0413 867 440
lee57@optusnet.com.au
http://www.cyclewestcoach.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Doing it Hans Solo
Woke up this morning feeling slightly better than I did yesterday. Had a good night sleep and woke up and a half way decent hour of the morning as we weren’t meant to leave until 9:00. So I got up, had an insanely huge breakfast and then checked the emails only to find Brian and MaryAnn on the old skype! It was really nice to talk to them, to hear from some friendly voices from back home. I needed it. Have been feeling pretty down the last couple of days (if you haven’t managed to pick that up in my entries already lol…looking back on them now I sound a bit like an emo…) because I’ve been feeling tired and I’m sick. Anyways, they seem to be enjoying South Africa and were just about to head over to the track to see the day’s session.
After our chat, went and got myself ready and we cruised over to the race.
We all rolled over to the course pretty easily as we were all boxed from our last 4 days worth of racing… was going to be a toughy. Went to rego and we got a free powerbar with our entry. I scored banana!! YAY! Was pretty happy since I hadn’t tired it before.. most people say its gross but I’m a bit of a fan..shhh lol. Our race started at 11:00 and it was starting to heat up. Just like it was yesterday, it was 38 degrees on the start line. The race was around 50km. 3 laps of a 17km loop circuit with 1steady 3km climb each lap with KOM points on the top each lap. The girls headed off at a pretty cruisy pace, not much was happening… when we got to the hill I went to the front and set my own pace then at 500m to the summit I attack to get the KOM points and gapped the bunch to pick up max points. Had a bit of a break going but waited for Elspeth (one of the US juniors that we train with) to catch up as she had broken away too and we had a little break going for about 5km then got reeled in by the bunch on the downhill. On the second lap, same deal. Pace wasn’t anything too special and then I attacked again to get max KOM points. That time I had gapped the bunch again but no one was chasing, so with 30km left of the bike race, I was doing it solo. It was a split second decision but glad I made it. So I did probably the longest TT of my life lol and managed to stay away for the rest of the race. Not sure exactly how much I won by but I think it was around 3min? Its not the easiest way to win a bike race, but it sure as hell feels good once you’ve finished. Pretty sure I nearly got heat stroke though it was so hot lol.
Brodie and Lara also rode really well, Brodie breaking away for 2nd overall and 1st in the 15-16yrs and Lara got 2nd in the same age group. Very proud of them :-D
In the boys, Pat and Thommo crossed the line together (Pat got the win) and Mitch brought it home for 3rd. Another good day for the team.
At presentation, they present awards for the KOM and I got 3 boxes of powerbars and a hat! The flavors were banana (YES! Lol), apple and cinnamon and berry which I was pretty stoked about because you can’t get them back home and I was keen on trying them before I left! Then they presented the state medals for each category (which we weren’t eligible for) and then the overall placings. The overall place prizes consisted of medals for top 3 and Norwegian cow bells (May Britt Hartwell is Norwegian) which was pretty cool. So picked up a medal and cow bell as well as some Colavita pasta and oil! Didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself! Haha was pretty pleased with my little stash.
in the break
KOM presentation
Overall 17-18yr
My little stash :)
The girls then got a lift home (no way in hell I was going to ride home up the massive berg…) and then we all got ready to go to a BBQ at one of the US junior’s (Zack Semian) house. Their house is HUGE its pretty much insane and it backs onto a forest. Way cool. So we hung out there for about 5hrs and talked to everyone and it was really fun! Except the part where it rained and I got wet… and when I spilt beer on my leg.. lol. Rick also did a talk for the people there and he suddenly asked if I would like to say a few words…I was like ummm ok yeh sure! He was talking about racing and stuff and I had this massive speech about how you have to trust yourself as a rider and trust that you’ve done all the right training, trust your coach and all that sort of stuff (was pretty please with it might I add lol) but just before he asked me, he was saying how he thought I was a bit of a superstar and didn’t know why I wasn’t getting results back in Aus and that he thought it was because I was riding in the shadows of another rider. So just as I was getting started on the trust thing I started to tear up!! Was pretty embarrassing lol but its just i’ve copped so much shit from people telling me that I wasn’t going to make it as a roadie and blah blah blah and I have been given the opportunity to ride for myself and I’m finally beginning to trust myself and my ability and to have someone like him tell me that I’m a half way decent bike rider is a good feeling. So I felt like a bit of a knob but hey.
We then pretty much just cruised home and went straight to bed. Was a pretty long and eventful day but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to hopefully not doing much tomorrow. We have 80km on the program but I’m gonna see if I can reduce that… just slightly lol
Oh! Before I forget. Congrats to all Aussies for getting such great results at Worlds!! Tom picked up gold in the TP, Paul bronze in the Kieran , Megan gold in the scratch, Ashlee gold in the IP and Sarah silver in the IP. You’re amazing :-)
After our chat, went and got myself ready and we cruised over to the race.
We all rolled over to the course pretty easily as we were all boxed from our last 4 days worth of racing… was going to be a toughy. Went to rego and we got a free powerbar with our entry. I scored banana!! YAY! Was pretty happy since I hadn’t tired it before.. most people say its gross but I’m a bit of a fan..shhh lol. Our race started at 11:00 and it was starting to heat up. Just like it was yesterday, it was 38 degrees on the start line. The race was around 50km. 3 laps of a 17km loop circuit with 1steady 3km climb each lap with KOM points on the top each lap. The girls headed off at a pretty cruisy pace, not much was happening… when we got to the hill I went to the front and set my own pace then at 500m to the summit I attack to get the KOM points and gapped the bunch to pick up max points. Had a bit of a break going but waited for Elspeth (one of the US juniors that we train with) to catch up as she had broken away too and we had a little break going for about 5km then got reeled in by the bunch on the downhill. On the second lap, same deal. Pace wasn’t anything too special and then I attacked again to get max KOM points. That time I had gapped the bunch again but no one was chasing, so with 30km left of the bike race, I was doing it solo. It was a split second decision but glad I made it. So I did probably the longest TT of my life lol and managed to stay away for the rest of the race. Not sure exactly how much I won by but I think it was around 3min? Its not the easiest way to win a bike race, but it sure as hell feels good once you’ve finished. Pretty sure I nearly got heat stroke though it was so hot lol.
Brodie and Lara also rode really well, Brodie breaking away for 2nd overall and 1st in the 15-16yrs and Lara got 2nd in the same age group. Very proud of them :-D
In the boys, Pat and Thommo crossed the line together (Pat got the win) and Mitch brought it home for 3rd. Another good day for the team.
At presentation, they present awards for the KOM and I got 3 boxes of powerbars and a hat! The flavors were banana (YES! Lol), apple and cinnamon and berry which I was pretty stoked about because you can’t get them back home and I was keen on trying them before I left! Then they presented the state medals for each category (which we weren’t eligible for) and then the overall placings. The overall place prizes consisted of medals for top 3 and Norwegian cow bells (May Britt Hartwell is Norwegian) which was pretty cool. So picked up a medal and cow bell as well as some Colavita pasta and oil! Didn’t do too badly if I do say so myself! Haha was pretty pleased with my little stash.
in the break
KOM presentation
Overall 17-18yr
My little stash :)
The girls then got a lift home (no way in hell I was going to ride home up the massive berg…) and then we all got ready to go to a BBQ at one of the US junior’s (Zack Semian) house. Their house is HUGE its pretty much insane and it backs onto a forest. Way cool. So we hung out there for about 5hrs and talked to everyone and it was really fun! Except the part where it rained and I got wet… and when I spilt beer on my leg.. lol. Rick also did a talk for the people there and he suddenly asked if I would like to say a few words…I was like ummm ok yeh sure! He was talking about racing and stuff and I had this massive speech about how you have to trust yourself as a rider and trust that you’ve done all the right training, trust your coach and all that sort of stuff (was pretty please with it might I add lol) but just before he asked me, he was saying how he thought I was a bit of a superstar and didn’t know why I wasn’t getting results back in Aus and that he thought it was because I was riding in the shadows of another rider. So just as I was getting started on the trust thing I started to tear up!! Was pretty embarrassing lol but its just i’ve copped so much shit from people telling me that I wasn’t going to make it as a roadie and blah blah blah and I have been given the opportunity to ride for myself and I’m finally beginning to trust myself and my ability and to have someone like him tell me that I’m a half way decent bike rider is a good feeling. So I felt like a bit of a knob but hey.
We then pretty much just cruised home and went straight to bed. Was a pretty long and eventful day but I have to admit, I’m looking forward to hopefully not doing much tomorrow. We have 80km on the program but I’m gonna see if I can reduce that… just slightly lol
Oh! Before I forget. Congrats to all Aussies for getting such great results at Worlds!! Tom picked up gold in the TP, Paul bronze in the Kieran , Megan gold in the scratch, Ashlee gold in the IP and Sarah silver in the IP. You’re amazing :-)
Hitting it up with the Men in 100 degrees
How am i feeling? Still boxed. Had a late night at the track, gettin back close to 12:00pm meaning it was barely 8hrs until we had to leave for our next race. Had a much needed chat to Brian...really needed to hear from people who look after me back home. Don't get me wrong, love all the training we are doing and all the racing but i've never done so much of it and training as well... its just all starting to take its toll
have to go to bed.. will continue this later lol.. prob best to sleep on it anyway before i continue my rant :P
Now that I’ve slept on it, I don’t really feel like going on a massive rant. I shouldn’t be allowed to.
Anyway, on today’s race schedule was a Cat 4 men’s road 61km road race out at Peiffer hill in Reamstown which is an Amish community. When we got there, there were stacks of Mennonite spectators all dressed up and we passed I passed by the local school during my warm up and the school’s motto was ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’…They have such different values and philosophies from us… its quite interesting actually.
Back to the race. As I was saying, I was racing Cat 4 men. There were only 6 women in the Cat 3/4 and they were only riding 31km… There were about 30 men signed up for Cat 4 so at least it should have been a better race. The first 5km of the course is all down hill, then it kicked up for about 100m round a bend, then downhill/flat for another 2km then was Peiffer Hill which was about 500m long (really took its toll after 6 laps of it though) and then some more downhill and a rise to the finish. Was a tough little course that’s for sure and it was disgustingly hot. On the start line, my SRM said it was 39 degrees…gross. The pace was pretty decent from the start and someone had a dig basically every time up Peiffer hill, including myself. The field pretty much stayed together until the last lap where some guy rolled off the front. The bunch just missed catching him (bout a bike length behind at the finish) and I got chopped in the sprint just as I was getting started and got pushed off the road. Managed to hop back on and get 5th. Reckon I could have run 3rd but Oh well, its just a Cat 4 club race lol. Picked up some prizes for 5th though, including some hammer gels, drink bottle, energy gu stuff (smells sickly sweet and tastes like callipos..) and a $20 gift card for a bike shop! Now I can go buy awesomely cool flavoured powerbars.. Yay :) I forgot to add that we also got given a goodie bag when we picked up our rego...haha it was full of hammer nutrition stuff including massive white capsules (they look like panadol capsules) which were meant to be good for 'rehydration' lol...will upload the photo and you can have a look for yourself! Thommo took some before the race and thought they were pretty good though! they just look tad suss...
On the way home, we stopped off via Maccas so the boys could get some food and Rick went to sleep whilst we were waiting for them in the car so I decided to play with the TomTom. Managed to find the settings and was playing around with them. It also has a variety of different sounds on it. Now the TomTom makes a ‘Moo’ sound every time you go over 40kph hahaha…you should have seen Rick the first time he herd it. It was when he was asleep and it scared the hell out of him. Hillarious. And when it went off for the first time… everyone went silent and was like ‘what the hell was that’… lol probably the funniest thing all day.
We didn’t get home t’ill around 4pm because we stayed and had a chat to all the race organisers and volunteers which was really nice. Everyone is so lovely over here! But I went straight for the couch and slept for a couple of hours.. Then we made lasagne and chilled for a bit in the living room on the couches some more then headed off to bed. Need all the sleep I can get for the state titles tomorrow! I woke up with a cold this morning.. was sounding pretty strange and feeling average…hopefully I’ll be alright for tomorrow.
Mickey and Audrey went to North Carolina to see family this morning so the house is pretty quiet lol.. but they’ll be back on tues.
Take care,
xo
have to go to bed.. will continue this later lol.. prob best to sleep on it anyway before i continue my rant :P
Now that I’ve slept on it, I don’t really feel like going on a massive rant. I shouldn’t be allowed to.
Anyway, on today’s race schedule was a Cat 4 men’s road 61km road race out at Peiffer hill in Reamstown which is an Amish community. When we got there, there were stacks of Mennonite spectators all dressed up and we passed I passed by the local school during my warm up and the school’s motto was ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’…They have such different values and philosophies from us… its quite interesting actually.
Back to the race. As I was saying, I was racing Cat 4 men. There were only 6 women in the Cat 3/4 and they were only riding 31km… There were about 30 men signed up for Cat 4 so at least it should have been a better race. The first 5km of the course is all down hill, then it kicked up for about 100m round a bend, then downhill/flat for another 2km then was Peiffer Hill which was about 500m long (really took its toll after 6 laps of it though) and then some more downhill and a rise to the finish. Was a tough little course that’s for sure and it was disgustingly hot. On the start line, my SRM said it was 39 degrees…gross. The pace was pretty decent from the start and someone had a dig basically every time up Peiffer hill, including myself. The field pretty much stayed together until the last lap where some guy rolled off the front. The bunch just missed catching him (bout a bike length behind at the finish) and I got chopped in the sprint just as I was getting started and got pushed off the road. Managed to hop back on and get 5th. Reckon I could have run 3rd but Oh well, its just a Cat 4 club race lol. Picked up some prizes for 5th though, including some hammer gels, drink bottle, energy gu stuff (smells sickly sweet and tastes like callipos..) and a $20 gift card for a bike shop! Now I can go buy awesomely cool flavoured powerbars.. Yay :) I forgot to add that we also got given a goodie bag when we picked up our rego...haha it was full of hammer nutrition stuff including massive white capsules (they look like panadol capsules) which were meant to be good for 'rehydration' lol...will upload the photo and you can have a look for yourself! Thommo took some before the race and thought they were pretty good though! they just look tad suss...
On the way home, we stopped off via Maccas so the boys could get some food and Rick went to sleep whilst we were waiting for them in the car so I decided to play with the TomTom. Managed to find the settings and was playing around with them. It also has a variety of different sounds on it. Now the TomTom makes a ‘Moo’ sound every time you go over 40kph hahaha…you should have seen Rick the first time he herd it. It was when he was asleep and it scared the hell out of him. Hillarious. And when it went off for the first time… everyone went silent and was like ‘what the hell was that’… lol probably the funniest thing all day.
We didn’t get home t’ill around 4pm because we stayed and had a chat to all the race organisers and volunteers which was really nice. Everyone is so lovely over here! But I went straight for the couch and slept for a couple of hours.. Then we made lasagne and chilled for a bit in the living room on the couches some more then headed off to bed. Need all the sleep I can get for the state titles tomorrow! I woke up with a cold this morning.. was sounding pretty strange and feeling average…hopefully I’ll be alright for tomorrow.
Mickey and Audrey went to North Carolina to see family this morning so the house is pretty quiet lol.. but they’ll be back on tues.
Take care,
xo
Tandemonium
Friday. feelinga bit smashed after racing and that was the only thing i could think of to open this blog entry...very original i know.
So we had a rec ride this morning, left at 7:30 and did our usual cruise to the track and back.. racked up just over 40km... Then came back and chilled for a bit and then decided to wander down to the local pool.. only to discover it wasn't open for the public untill noon. So we just sat outside the fence under the trees in the shade and fell asleep on the ground. hey, it was peaceful alright?
After that, we then headed over to the supermarket Weis and did our grocery shopping and i picked up some more of my banana bread oatmeal.. hmm... oatmeal...lol. i'm a bit of a fan. we also got more baking stuff so we can bake cookies and muffins.. or eat the dough before its cooked because there just happens to be too much of it ;-)
Mickey, Brodie, Kath and Audrey then went out to a chinese buffet and Lara and i stayed home (not a great fan of the old chinese) and then had a sleep. turns out i slept for close to 3hrs lol..must have needed it! By the time i actually woke up it was pretty much time to get ready for track. Tonight it was 'Tandemonium'..in otherwords the USA national tandem sprint championships. We still had racing on though, had an elimination, 1 mile scratch and a 5km scratch with premes.
Rode the elimination pretty averagely...when i went to kick i had nothing left in me. it was going to be a long night. Mickey got 3rd and so was the designated omnium rider for the night. In the 1 mile race, decided to try do full team lead out. Lara, Brodie, myself then Mickey... worked a treat! althought was pretty stuffed trying to do a 2 lap turn...then in the last race was absolutely buggered.. tried to do best for Mickey and chased down a bunch but after the 3 lap turn was rooted and called it a day. Mickey rode amazingly and came from 10 back to win it and the omnium. good night for the team.
After racing, the velodrome has free food for the athletes and offcials so you can all socialise and stuff. met some pretty cool people including Marty Nothstein. kinda didn't know he was 2000 olympic sprint champion and went to athens and stuff aswell.. so was pretty embarassed when he said he'd been to sydney for the olympics and had to ask what for...lol. it pays to do your research! and spoke to the commentator, the velodrome director and other awesome people!
So yeh, another night of racing.. still got 2 more to go.. have 8hrs until i'm suppose to leave for my next race. great. don't get me wrong, i'm loving it over here... i just need a rest day and soon. i've hit the wall and i'm trying to run straight though it.
wish me luck for tomorrow. hope don't have to peel me off the side of the road
xo
So we had a rec ride this morning, left at 7:30 and did our usual cruise to the track and back.. racked up just over 40km... Then came back and chilled for a bit and then decided to wander down to the local pool.. only to discover it wasn't open for the public untill noon. So we just sat outside the fence under the trees in the shade and fell asleep on the ground. hey, it was peaceful alright?
After that, we then headed over to the supermarket Weis and did our grocery shopping and i picked up some more of my banana bread oatmeal.. hmm... oatmeal...lol. i'm a bit of a fan. we also got more baking stuff so we can bake cookies and muffins.. or eat the dough before its cooked because there just happens to be too much of it ;-)
Mickey, Brodie, Kath and Audrey then went out to a chinese buffet and Lara and i stayed home (not a great fan of the old chinese) and then had a sleep. turns out i slept for close to 3hrs lol..must have needed it! By the time i actually woke up it was pretty much time to get ready for track. Tonight it was 'Tandemonium'..in otherwords the USA national tandem sprint championships. We still had racing on though, had an elimination, 1 mile scratch and a 5km scratch with premes.
Rode the elimination pretty averagely...when i went to kick i had nothing left in me. it was going to be a long night. Mickey got 3rd and so was the designated omnium rider for the night. In the 1 mile race, decided to try do full team lead out. Lara, Brodie, myself then Mickey... worked a treat! althought was pretty stuffed trying to do a 2 lap turn...then in the last race was absolutely buggered.. tried to do best for Mickey and chased down a bunch but after the 3 lap turn was rooted and called it a day. Mickey rode amazingly and came from 10 back to win it and the omnium. good night for the team.
After racing, the velodrome has free food for the athletes and offcials so you can all socialise and stuff. met some pretty cool people including Marty Nothstein. kinda didn't know he was 2000 olympic sprint champion and went to athens and stuff aswell.. so was pretty embarassed when he said he'd been to sydney for the olympics and had to ask what for...lol. it pays to do your research! and spoke to the commentator, the velodrome director and other awesome people!
So yeh, another night of racing.. still got 2 more to go.. have 8hrs until i'm suppose to leave for my next race. great. don't get me wrong, i'm loving it over here... i just need a rest day and soon. i've hit the wall and i'm trying to run straight though it.
wish me luck for tomorrow. hope don't have to peel me off the side of the road
xo
Friday, July 11, 2008
What's in the box? Miff's in the box...
Today, after our epic day in NY yesterday, i woke up feeling absolutely smashed. Got back at around 11 and then went straight to bed. Did not pass go. My malfunctioning body clock then felt the need to wake me up at 7:00am which didn't help me at all...So i got up, chowed down some brekkie, updated the blog and checked my emails then obviously fell asleep because i woke up 30min later splayed across my laptop lol. it was around 9:30 when the rest of the team woke up and we realised that we were meant to be at the track at 8:45am to get a photo for the newspaper company...bugger. We rung Rick and the boys who were all still asleep and who had forgotten about it also. We rung up the photographer to apologise and rescheduled for when we were going to be at the crit later that night. So the rest of the day we spent doing very little...cruised around to the shops to get some supplies (ye good old dollar shop) and had some lunch, jumped on the rollers for about 30min to try and salavage what was left of my legs and boys came around and watched their dodgy copy of 'Harold and Kumar's escape from Guantanamo Bay'... it cost them 3 dollars from Chinatown and you can see why.. its a pirated copy and you can see someone's head in the bottom left hand corner and hear people laughing thoughout it lol..and did i mention that about 5min into it it cuts to 3/4 of the way though? ha ha. So yeh, pretty lazy afternoon... left for the crit at about 4:30 so we wouldn't miss the photographer again and then had the crit which started at 6:00. I was racing open with the boys just to get some better racing experience... my goal was just to last half way in the 30 lap crit...was majorly boxed! there were a few times where i was like 'nah, thats it, i'm gone..' but my stubborn self wouldn't let me pull out.. so i got to 3 laps to go to find myself still up there... and eventually finished with the group. The crit itself reminded me a lot of Bay Crits actually.. hard and fast. We did 48km in about 1hr10.. not too shabby, especially since i wasn't actually meant to race tonight.. but i wanted to give it a crack.. now i have 4 days of racing in a row.. prob not the best idea in the world but hey...
So that was my day. nothing very eventful happened but we crossed another day off the calendar.
OH. wait. i just remembered... Sam came across this site www.peteranswers.com and its insanely freaky... you type in a question and it knows the answer. no joke. like he typed in 'what bike does miff ride' and it responded 'fuji ridden by oenone wood' and 'what is audrey doing?' and it said 'scratching her head'...creepy... and it only works for Sam.. no one else... he found out who the boys will marry and if they will go to the olympics/worlds... it scared the hell outta me!
so yeh, guess something interesting did happen today
take care
xo
So that was my day. nothing very eventful happened but we crossed another day off the calendar.
OH. wait. i just remembered... Sam came across this site www.peteranswers.com and its insanely freaky... you type in a question and it knows the answer. no joke. like he typed in 'what bike does miff ride' and it responded 'fuji ridden by oenone wood' and 'what is audrey doing?' and it said 'scratching her head'...creepy... and it only works for Sam.. no one else... he found out who the boys will marry and if they will go to the olympics/worlds... it scared the hell outta me!
so yeh, guess something interesting did happen today
take care
xo
A Day in the Big Apple
Today we headed to the Big Apple that is New York City. We didn’t get back from the track until after 10pm making it 11:30 before we were in bed so it was another late night for us. What made it worse is that we had to wake up at 3:30am to catch the bus to NYC so we literally running 3-4hrs sleep. Not cool considering we had a pretty long/hard day yesterday. Still half asleep, we had to walk from our place to the bus station. Thought it was going to be an easy task considering we had the TomTom to help us but turns out we got lost. Luckily we were able to piece together some for of directions and we got there just as the bus was about to leave. Needless to say as soon as the bus pulled away from the kerb, I was out like a light. Next thing I knew we were in New York. We then split into 2 groups (guys and girls) and headed off to explore NYC.
First stop was breakfast. We hit up a café just outside the station and had probably some of the best French toast ever (Letterman’s watch out!). Then we decided to head down to Times Square. My first impressions of the city was that is was a lot like Sydney in the way that it is really busy, buildings everywhere, seems to be a smoggy tinge to everything… But one thing that stood out the most was the amount of advertisement all around the place! Every square inch of empty space seems to be advertising something.. its so colourful you don’t know where to look! So we went down to Times Square and saw them shooting ‘Good Morning America’ (their version of Sunrise) when a police offer came up to us (a woman) and said quite distressingly ‘Who y’all with? Who y’all with?’ so Audrey got pulled aside and came back laughing… apparently the officer had told her to tell Michaela to pull her shorts up because you could see her underwear… ha ha.
After that, we decided that it would probably be best to hop on one of the tour buses to see the attractions. We cruised down Broadway and 5th ave passing Greenwich Village, Madison square gardens, Empire State, Ground Zero and we got off at the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked over it and got some pretty good photos… it was amazing! I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic and after seeing the bridge in Sex and the City, had a sudden desire to go there lol. We then hopped back on the bus and travelled down to Battery Park past to the waters edge to try and see the Statue of Liberty. Our legs were sore from walking the bridge so we didn’t actually get to see it… bit of a shame really but we might be going back next week.
We then got off in China town to find Canal st and hopefully pick up some good fakes. We walked forever down to the street only to find no bags/purses anywhere! Bit disappointed, we walked another marathon back to the bus stop and asked the bus driver where they were. He said we were at the wrong end of Canal st and that the fakes were at the other end. So we trekked over to the otherside of Canal st. Within minutes we had dodgy people come up to us and whisper, ‘handbags, purses’ and would subtly hand us a sheet with the fakes on it. Its so suss! We had to hide the sheet and look at it whist the asian man kept a look out for coppers. Once we had selected the bags, there were phone calls made and after a couple of minutes, our asian lady left us and passed by a man and subtly grabbed his plastic bag. She walked back over to us and revealed the purses we had selected! It was sooo dodgy!!! Like someone trying to sell drugs in movies…I got a coach wallet, is alright.. plus needed something to replace the fake Louis as it got a tear down the side lol. Audrey and Kath then decided that they would like another bag but we had to change locations as there were police around so we got taken to the other side of China town to do more business. Was so illegal. China town in itself was also another experience. It was hot, as in 30 degrees plus and the fish markets were smelling, stuff everywhere… it was gross. We were all keen to get out of there to eat some proper food.
We hiked back to the bus stop (swear we walked at least 5km around China town! Feet were killing me!) and caught the bus into Greenwich village and had lunch at a little Mexican place. From there we walked another mammoth journey over to 5th ave to go shopping!! By that time I wasn’t really in the mood to do anything… was pretty much just hot and tired. The shops of 5th ave. were quite nice but all really expensive..Audrey, Mickey and Lara were stopping at basically every shop (who could blame them, the clothes were incredible) but Brodie, Kath, Dana and I weren’t too keen on spending at $100 for a shirt so we pulled ahead and trekked up 5th ave. I swear I have never done so much walking in my whole life! Honestly, I don’t reckon we sat down for more then 2-2h30 the whole day! We stopped at souvenir shops to get presents for back home... then in electrical shop to try and find Brodie an ipod (the shops were exactly like the ones in Zohan and we even got a dodgy taxi driver!).
We then headed over to the biggest Toys’r’us store you’ll see in your life (bit of a sucker for toys…) it had a ferris wheel in the middle of it! Then over to M&M World (same deal…the have M&M everything! You can even step on this plate and it tells you what M&M you are! Apparently I’m an ‘almond M&M because although I’m nutty, I still appear smooth’ or something like that lol….great. I also picked up some blue, red and white M&Ms to celebrate USA lol.. swear I’m not an M&M racist. We also sore a massive Hershey’s shop…had Baskin Robins then caught a cab to corner of 5th and 58 (because our legs were so sore) to go to Tiffany’s! We passed central park .. I really wanted to go on a carriage ride :(…But we pulled up at Tiffany’s and were surrounded by Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Prada, Gucci… everything! Def at the top end of town. Tiffany’s was amazing… but everything was so ridiculously expensive :S. We then rung Audrey to find out where they were and they sad they’d meet us at Tiffany’s because they were close by. We waited outside for 50min before getting a cab and retiring to the station to have diner before getting on the bus. Got back to good old Kutztown at around 10:30 absolutely legless… sore and sunburnt. All in all, it was a good experience although there were a lot of things I would have like to have done/ would have done differently… hopefully we get to go there again because I really want to go to Staten Island, go up Empire State and get a carriage ride in Central Park :)
Well I’m absolutely buggered and we have to ride early in the morning to go to the track and do a press interview…
Take care,
xo
First stop was breakfast. We hit up a café just outside the station and had probably some of the best French toast ever (Letterman’s watch out!). Then we decided to head down to Times Square. My first impressions of the city was that is was a lot like Sydney in the way that it is really busy, buildings everywhere, seems to be a smoggy tinge to everything… But one thing that stood out the most was the amount of advertisement all around the place! Every square inch of empty space seems to be advertising something.. its so colourful you don’t know where to look! So we went down to Times Square and saw them shooting ‘Good Morning America’ (their version of Sunrise) when a police offer came up to us (a woman) and said quite distressingly ‘Who y’all with? Who y’all with?’ so Audrey got pulled aside and came back laughing… apparently the officer had told her to tell Michaela to pull her shorts up because you could see her underwear… ha ha.
After that, we decided that it would probably be best to hop on one of the tour buses to see the attractions. We cruised down Broadway and 5th ave passing Greenwich Village, Madison square gardens, Empire State, Ground Zero and we got off at the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked over it and got some pretty good photos… it was amazing! I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic and after seeing the bridge in Sex and the City, had a sudden desire to go there lol. We then hopped back on the bus and travelled down to Battery Park past to the waters edge to try and see the Statue of Liberty. Our legs were sore from walking the bridge so we didn’t actually get to see it… bit of a shame really but we might be going back next week.
We then got off in China town to find Canal st and hopefully pick up some good fakes. We walked forever down to the street only to find no bags/purses anywhere! Bit disappointed, we walked another marathon back to the bus stop and asked the bus driver where they were. He said we were at the wrong end of Canal st and that the fakes were at the other end. So we trekked over to the otherside of Canal st. Within minutes we had dodgy people come up to us and whisper, ‘handbags, purses’ and would subtly hand us a sheet with the fakes on it. Its so suss! We had to hide the sheet and look at it whist the asian man kept a look out for coppers. Once we had selected the bags, there were phone calls made and after a couple of minutes, our asian lady left us and passed by a man and subtly grabbed his plastic bag. She walked back over to us and revealed the purses we had selected! It was sooo dodgy!!! Like someone trying to sell drugs in movies…I got a coach wallet, is alright.. plus needed something to replace the fake Louis as it got a tear down the side lol. Audrey and Kath then decided that they would like another bag but we had to change locations as there were police around so we got taken to the other side of China town to do more business. Was so illegal. China town in itself was also another experience. It was hot, as in 30 degrees plus and the fish markets were smelling, stuff everywhere… it was gross. We were all keen to get out of there to eat some proper food.
We hiked back to the bus stop (swear we walked at least 5km around China town! Feet were killing me!) and caught the bus into Greenwich village and had lunch at a little Mexican place. From there we walked another mammoth journey over to 5th ave to go shopping!! By that time I wasn’t really in the mood to do anything… was pretty much just hot and tired. The shops of 5th ave. were quite nice but all really expensive..Audrey, Mickey and Lara were stopping at basically every shop (who could blame them, the clothes were incredible) but Brodie, Kath, Dana and I weren’t too keen on spending at $100 for a shirt so we pulled ahead and trekked up 5th ave. I swear I have never done so much walking in my whole life! Honestly, I don’t reckon we sat down for more then 2-2h30 the whole day! We stopped at souvenir shops to get presents for back home... then in electrical shop to try and find Brodie an ipod (the shops were exactly like the ones in Zohan and we even got a dodgy taxi driver!).
We then headed over to the biggest Toys’r’us store you’ll see in your life (bit of a sucker for toys…) it had a ferris wheel in the middle of it! Then over to M&M World (same deal…the have M&M everything! You can even step on this plate and it tells you what M&M you are! Apparently I’m an ‘almond M&M because although I’m nutty, I still appear smooth’ or something like that lol….great. I also picked up some blue, red and white M&Ms to celebrate USA lol.. swear I’m not an M&M racist. We also sore a massive Hershey’s shop…had Baskin Robins then caught a cab to corner of 5th and 58 (because our legs were so sore) to go to Tiffany’s! We passed central park .. I really wanted to go on a carriage ride :(…But we pulled up at Tiffany’s and were surrounded by Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Prada, Gucci… everything! Def at the top end of town. Tiffany’s was amazing… but everything was so ridiculously expensive :S. We then rung Audrey to find out where they were and they sad they’d meet us at Tiffany’s because they were close by. We waited outside for 50min before getting a cab and retiring to the station to have diner before getting on the bus. Got back to good old Kutztown at around 10:30 absolutely legless… sore and sunburnt. All in all, it was a good experience although there were a lot of things I would have like to have done/ would have done differently… hopefully we get to go there again because I really want to go to Staten Island, go up Empire State and get a carriage ride in Central Park :)
Well I’m absolutely buggered and we have to ride early in the morning to go to the track and do a press interview…
Take care,
xo
Thursday, July 10, 2008
A Bad day
Today on our schedule was track racing! But we also had to do a 80km ride in the morning. Hopped on the bike and my legs were still sore from the weekend… I was tired and really unmotivated. Anyway, cruised around for just over 3hrs. When we got back, had some food and checked the old facebook and email, had a shower and retreated back to bed.. god I was stuffed! woke up about 2hrs later and basically just cruised around and ate anything that i saw until it was time to leave for racing.
Corrine, a lady i met up in Union Vale who was also at Fitchburg, was coming down and so we met up and she gave me a cycle cap from her club which was pretty cool! She also wrote us a list of things to see and do when we go to NYC tomorrow. She's really sweet!
Anyway, on the racing schedule tonight was an Elimination, 5km Scratch and then a 6km Points race... In the scratch I did a few attacks but my legs were shot and then got boxed with about 5 people left...In the scratch same deal and my legs had nothing left for the sprint. After the scratch i was feeling really down and tird and quite sick so Rick and I decided that i was done for the night. Mickey did really well though, winning every event and so did the other girls! Seemed that a hard weekend of racing did them good where as it completely boxed me! Damn.. well hopefully I feel better tomorrow because will need all my strength to walk around NYC for 12 hrs lol
So not a very exciting day, prob a bad day...Haven't really had any of them yet so thats good... Think it's just cause of the 2 week hump... your bit tired, missing home and friends.
Take care
xo
Corrine, a lady i met up in Union Vale who was also at Fitchburg, was coming down and so we met up and she gave me a cycle cap from her club which was pretty cool! She also wrote us a list of things to see and do when we go to NYC tomorrow. She's really sweet!
Anyway, on the racing schedule tonight was an Elimination, 5km Scratch and then a 6km Points race... In the scratch I did a few attacks but my legs were shot and then got boxed with about 5 people left...In the scratch same deal and my legs had nothing left for the sprint. After the scratch i was feeling really down and tird and quite sick so Rick and I decided that i was done for the night. Mickey did really well though, winning every event and so did the other girls! Seemed that a hard weekend of racing did them good where as it completely boxed me! Damn.. well hopefully I feel better tomorrow because will need all my strength to walk around NYC for 12 hrs lol
So not a very exciting day, prob a bad day...Haven't really had any of them yet so thats good... Think it's just cause of the 2 week hump... your bit tired, missing home and friends.
Take care
xo
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Day at the shops
Only a short one today... nothing really much to write about except that we went to Lehigh Valley Shopping Center... probably had some of the madest shops around! As soon as we walked in Abercrombie and Fitch stared us in the face. I swear we were in there for around 1hr! Finally found a shop where most of the clothes fit me. YAY! So bought a few things (like awesomely cool moose shorts lol)from there and then cruised the rest of the shops. Found Victoria's Secret (its like Peter Alexandre but on steroids...) and bought a few things from there as well! And they had Build-A-Bear! a cool shop where you can make your own bears lol.. pretty sweet!
Well we were at the shops for about 4hrs... so that took up most of the day! Then we stopped off at the icecream factory on the way home (like the one in tassie) and had a choc chip vanilla milkshake with marshmellow sauce... hmmm... yummmy... was probably one of the tastiest things i'll ever eat!
Then we had to come home cause the boys were meeting us for a 30km ride to clear out the legs.
Rick also had a chat to us about racing and what his impressions of us at the race was. He said that he thinks i lack confidence when i ride, that i don't trust my ability and that i'm stronger than i think i am. MaryAnn tells me this all the time but shes my coach, shes meant to say it.. i guess if enough people (especially ones with a 'high power' so to say) tell you your no good at something and that you will not succeed, you tend to believe them...and i think that's what i've done. but it was good to hear that from an 'outsider' so to say. This trip has definitely served as an eye opener for me. I trust my ability as a bike rider a lot more and enter races with confidence that i have never had before.
Tomorrow we have a long ride in the morning followed by track in the arv. should be fun. think i might also get my radars!
xo
Well we were at the shops for about 4hrs... so that took up most of the day! Then we stopped off at the icecream factory on the way home (like the one in tassie) and had a choc chip vanilla milkshake with marshmellow sauce... hmmm... yummmy... was probably one of the tastiest things i'll ever eat!
Then we had to come home cause the boys were meeting us for a 30km ride to clear out the legs.
Rick also had a chat to us about racing and what his impressions of us at the race was. He said that he thinks i lack confidence when i ride, that i don't trust my ability and that i'm stronger than i think i am. MaryAnn tells me this all the time but shes my coach, shes meant to say it.. i guess if enough people (especially ones with a 'high power' so to say) tell you your no good at something and that you will not succeed, you tend to believe them...and i think that's what i've done. but it was good to hear that from an 'outsider' so to say. This trip has definitely served as an eye opener for me. I trust my ability as a bike rider a lot more and enter races with confidence that i have never had before.
Tomorrow we have a long ride in the morning followed by track in the arv. should be fun. think i might also get my radars!
xo
The Final Stage
So today was the final day... our last chance to win the tour. Our race was one of the 1st off (at 8:45) and so we woke up early to have our last buffet breakfast (god i'm going to miss it lol) and rolled over to the course. Today was different to all the other days, it was our last chance. somehow we had to pull 12sec back on a fast flat circuit. Our only hope was that the leader would do what she did the last couple of days and chase everything that moved.
So we warmed up, wasn't feeling half bad and we all rolled up to the line, got our introductions and the race started. From the gun our team attacked but the leader didn't chase..so mickey was stranded out in front for a while.. then when she got caught, another budget rider went. the leader still didn't chase. 'Dammit' i thought... why today did she decide not to chase? we went in with a plan and we were going to have to change it drastically in order to try and get me on a solo breakaway for the win. She was sticking to my wheel like glue (good move on her behalf, hey all she had to do was sit with me for the whole race and she had it in the bag!) and so i maneouvered my way around the bunch to try and drop her and it worked several times but she would mow me down. There were intermediate sprints for points and i won the first couple which locked me in the green jersey. so i didn't have to worry about the rest of the sprints for the rest of the crit which was good! Coming into the last couple of laps Rick shouted out 'follow the plan' and i was like great.. have to try and breakaway in the botttom corner. So i tried on the final lap and was out in front but had a sprinter on my wheel (omg.. her legs were huge!!!) and so when i attacked (about 400m out) she was on my wheel and steped out at about 50m to go and pipped me on the line... she wasn't even in contention for GC!! all i needed was the win (10sec bonus ) and to beat the leader by 2sec!!! I was about to grab that girl's jersey and pull her back...i was massively cut. really pissed off.
I really wanted to win the tour for the girls.. they worked so hard for me. They all had an opportunity to win the bike race but didn't go through with it because they were woring for me. Was pretty dissapointed. so left the tour with a 5th in the TT, 1st in the RR and the Circuit race and a 2nd in the Crit and 2nd in GC and won the points jersey.. so atleast I took home the green jersey..
In the boys race, Thommo took home to overall GC and Pete got 3rd in the stage.
After the crit, we cruised home and got all our stuff organised ready for the mammoth 6hr car ride home. We said bye to the Hincapie crew but i missed out on saying bye to the Mesa boys because i was too busy trying to pick up prize money... (picked up around about 475 for the whole weekend). It was sad saying bye to them because the people were so cool.. some of the nicest people i've ever met!
The car ride home didn't take as long as i thought it would.. it wasn't actually too bad! Had a good chat to Rick again and learnt some pretty cool stuff.
Was pretty stuffed when we got home, didn't sleep at all on the way back cause was trying to keep Rick entertained lol
So yeh, that was the end of our day... pretty long one but wasn't too shabby.. was dissapointed about coming so close to winning the tour, would have been a great one to have on the resume...
Tomorrow, we are hitting the shops.. can't wait! Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch... sounds sweet
xo
So we warmed up, wasn't feeling half bad and we all rolled up to the line, got our introductions and the race started. From the gun our team attacked but the leader didn't chase..so mickey was stranded out in front for a while.. then when she got caught, another budget rider went. the leader still didn't chase. 'Dammit' i thought... why today did she decide not to chase? we went in with a plan and we were going to have to change it drastically in order to try and get me on a solo breakaway for the win. She was sticking to my wheel like glue (good move on her behalf, hey all she had to do was sit with me for the whole race and she had it in the bag!) and so i maneouvered my way around the bunch to try and drop her and it worked several times but she would mow me down. There were intermediate sprints for points and i won the first couple which locked me in the green jersey. so i didn't have to worry about the rest of the sprints for the rest of the crit which was good! Coming into the last couple of laps Rick shouted out 'follow the plan' and i was like great.. have to try and breakaway in the botttom corner. So i tried on the final lap and was out in front but had a sprinter on my wheel (omg.. her legs were huge!!!) and so when i attacked (about 400m out) she was on my wheel and steped out at about 50m to go and pipped me on the line... she wasn't even in contention for GC!! all i needed was the win (10sec bonus ) and to beat the leader by 2sec!!! I was about to grab that girl's jersey and pull her back...i was massively cut. really pissed off.
I really wanted to win the tour for the girls.. they worked so hard for me. They all had an opportunity to win the bike race but didn't go through with it because they were woring for me. Was pretty dissapointed. so left the tour with a 5th in the TT, 1st in the RR and the Circuit race and a 2nd in the Crit and 2nd in GC and won the points jersey.. so atleast I took home the green jersey..
In the boys race, Thommo took home to overall GC and Pete got 3rd in the stage.
After the crit, we cruised home and got all our stuff organised ready for the mammoth 6hr car ride home. We said bye to the Hincapie crew but i missed out on saying bye to the Mesa boys because i was too busy trying to pick up prize money... (picked up around about 475 for the whole weekend). It was sad saying bye to them because the people were so cool.. some of the nicest people i've ever met!
The car ride home didn't take as long as i thought it would.. it wasn't actually too bad! Had a good chat to Rick again and learnt some pretty cool stuff.
Was pretty stuffed when we got home, didn't sleep at all on the way back cause was trying to keep Rick entertained lol
So yeh, that was the end of our day... pretty long one but wasn't too shabby.. was dissapointed about coming so close to winning the tour, would have been a great one to have on the resume...
Tomorrow, we are hitting the shops.. can't wait! Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch... sounds sweet
xo
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
From the coach
Young Aussies Do Well in Longsjo Classic
Written by Rick Lee, Team Budget Forklifts
Sunday, 06 July 2008
Longsjo Classic is the 2nd Oldest Cycle Race in the USA, it is the race where Henk Vogels had that life threatening fall on a super fast decent a few years back.
Riders from all over America and Internationals take part in the “Longsjo”.
The Team Budget Forklift squad arrived at the start in very wet and windy conditions and I am sure our riders were not looking forward to the tough conditions.
The course was outstanding and is a true road riders course with the finish at the Summit of a Ski Resort, so yes plenty of climbing today.
The organisation at this race in just out of this world and is a pleasure to be part of it.
Women’s Event:
After Miff Galloway ride in finishing 5th in the TT the previous day it was up to the team to support the team desire for a GC win here in Fitchburg Massachusetts. The girls raced very smart to ensure they put Miff and themselves in with a good chance of a Stage win and solid individual results.
Approximately 100 riders fronted for the event and it was a gentle affair until the final assent up to the summit. With 2km to go to the summit, we had 3 riders in the leading bunch of about 60 riders with Miff the dominant rider, she attacked at the 1.5km mark to go and was never headed winning the stage by 25seconds.
The result puts her in 2nd overall on GC and a big lead in the KOM. Michaela Anderson finished in around 20th with Brodie Stewart in the top 40. Lara Freiberg who had stayed in contention for the majority of the race still finished creditably.
We have the Circuit race tomorrow and then a Criterium on Sunday to decide the Tour. The team tactics will be a great experience for this young team and we will certainly put the Tour Leader under pressure.
Men’s Event:
Tactics today were simple ‘be patient’. The team was under strict instructions to not make any moves in the first 60km of the 120km race. Follow or close down any attacks and ensure we got Peter Johnstone to the finish in reasonable shape for the circuit race and Criterium to follow on Sat and Sun.
We had 2 riders in the top 10 on GC -Thomas Richards and Mitch Mulhern and we were to make a move up the assent to the Summit. The race went to plan very well with the guys being very patient until Thomo made a move about 5km from the finish, Patty Lane was tagging 2nd placegetter and Mitch was keeping things in order at the front of the chasing bunch as was Sam Genge and the baby of the group Gus Tobin.
Thomo went on to take a great solo win with Patty Lane 4th, Peter Johnstone found his climbing legs to finish 6th and Mitchell Mulhern 8th. This gave Thomo the Leaders Jersey and we now go into the races that I feel suit us needing to defend a small lead.
This was a great team effort and I am very proud of the way the guys and girls took un board some criticism and advice to race with commitment and desire to achieve our goals.
Top photo: Getting ready
Copyright Peter Ford (CSN)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, sorry to alarm you all, but I'm sure we now have your attention. The story behind the Dial 911 is as follows:
Team Budget Forklifts' rider, Thomas Richards from Queensland, wore the number 911 in the 49th Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in USA on the weekend, and as you all know 911 is the emergency phone number in the US.
In the Circuit race on Saturday where Thomo retained the Tour Leader's jersey the commentator said ‘“Dial 911 ladies and gentleman as Thomo Richards from Australia has just attacked and all the other riders will need emergency treatment, this young man from Team Budget FL is a star in the making”
Then in the final stage, a Criterium in downtown Fitchburg Thomo crashed with 7 laps remaining of the Tour and looked like his chance of taking out the Classic were taken away from him.
Well to finish the story, Peter Johnstone, who was also involved in the crash assisted Thomo to get back to the pits to get a replacement bike or repairs, at the same time a USA rider in 2nd place on GC hit the front trying to take a lap before Thomo could get back in on his “Free Lap due to mishap ruling”.
This then was countered by Team Budget FL riders – Sam Genge, Gus Tobin and Mitch Mulhern who quickly hit the front and took control.
By the time Thomo had arrived at the SRAM Pits, we had about 1 minute to get him in the race, the SRAM mechanics were outstanding getting him a new Orbea ready while they checked and adjusted his bike.
As the bunch approached they had his bike ready and we threw him in as the bunch went past. The last 6 laps were controlled by Team Budget FL until some suicide tactics from some lowly placed GC team.
Our guys maintained their composure and safely lead Thomo around the last few laps to a great team victory in this classic.
Peter Johnstone maintained our standing by stepping out and taking 3rd in the stage as well.
A Great job by the whole team!!!!!
In the Women’s event we had Miff Galloway in the Green Jersey and 12 seconds away from the Tour Lead. It was always going to be a tough job for our young team to claw back the 12 seconds but they tried their hearts out. Brodie Stewart continually attacked and as well took out a $100 prime.
Lara Freiberg was outstanding in the way she supported the team and attacked whenever there was a ‘stall’ and Michaela Anderson attacked and then lead Miff out in the last lap, a lead out that any Pro would be proud of. Miff took 2nd in the stage and failed by 9 seconds in winning the Tour.
The respect these young ladies have gained and contacts made will be great for their future.
Next year is the 50th running of the great race and past winners will be invited back and it is hoped Lance Armstrong will attend, we will be back for another crack at the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic.
Top photo: Team Budget Forklifts star, Thomas Richards...a great effort on the weekend
Copyright Peter Ford (CSN)
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
Written by Rick Lee, Team Budget Forklifts
Sunday, 06 July 2008
Longsjo Classic is the 2nd Oldest Cycle Race in the USA, it is the race where Henk Vogels had that life threatening fall on a super fast decent a few years back.
Riders from all over America and Internationals take part in the “Longsjo”.
The Team Budget Forklift squad arrived at the start in very wet and windy conditions and I am sure our riders were not looking forward to the tough conditions.
The course was outstanding and is a true road riders course with the finish at the Summit of a Ski Resort, so yes plenty of climbing today.
The organisation at this race in just out of this world and is a pleasure to be part of it.
Women’s Event:
After Miff Galloway ride in finishing 5th in the TT the previous day it was up to the team to support the team desire for a GC win here in Fitchburg Massachusetts. The girls raced very smart to ensure they put Miff and themselves in with a good chance of a Stage win and solid individual results.
Approximately 100 riders fronted for the event and it was a gentle affair until the final assent up to the summit. With 2km to go to the summit, we had 3 riders in the leading bunch of about 60 riders with Miff the dominant rider, she attacked at the 1.5km mark to go and was never headed winning the stage by 25seconds.
The result puts her in 2nd overall on GC and a big lead in the KOM. Michaela Anderson finished in around 20th with Brodie Stewart in the top 40. Lara Freiberg who had stayed in contention for the majority of the race still finished creditably.
We have the Circuit race tomorrow and then a Criterium on Sunday to decide the Tour. The team tactics will be a great experience for this young team and we will certainly put the Tour Leader under pressure.
Men’s Event:
Tactics today were simple ‘be patient’. The team was under strict instructions to not make any moves in the first 60km of the 120km race. Follow or close down any attacks and ensure we got Peter Johnstone to the finish in reasonable shape for the circuit race and Criterium to follow on Sat and Sun.
We had 2 riders in the top 10 on GC -Thomas Richards and Mitch Mulhern and we were to make a move up the assent to the Summit. The race went to plan very well with the guys being very patient until Thomo made a move about 5km from the finish, Patty Lane was tagging 2nd placegetter and Mitch was keeping things in order at the front of the chasing bunch as was Sam Genge and the baby of the group Gus Tobin.
Thomo went on to take a great solo win with Patty Lane 4th, Peter Johnstone found his climbing legs to finish 6th and Mitchell Mulhern 8th. This gave Thomo the Leaders Jersey and we now go into the races that I feel suit us needing to defend a small lead.
This was a great team effort and I am very proud of the way the guys and girls took un board some criticism and advice to race with commitment and desire to achieve our goals.
Top photo: Getting ready
Copyright Peter Ford (CSN)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, sorry to alarm you all, but I'm sure we now have your attention. The story behind the Dial 911 is as follows:
Team Budget Forklifts' rider, Thomas Richards from Queensland, wore the number 911 in the 49th Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in USA on the weekend, and as you all know 911 is the emergency phone number in the US.
In the Circuit race on Saturday where Thomo retained the Tour Leader's jersey the commentator said ‘“Dial 911 ladies and gentleman as Thomo Richards from Australia has just attacked and all the other riders will need emergency treatment, this young man from Team Budget FL is a star in the making”
Then in the final stage, a Criterium in downtown Fitchburg Thomo crashed with 7 laps remaining of the Tour and looked like his chance of taking out the Classic were taken away from him.
Well to finish the story, Peter Johnstone, who was also involved in the crash assisted Thomo to get back to the pits to get a replacement bike or repairs, at the same time a USA rider in 2nd place on GC hit the front trying to take a lap before Thomo could get back in on his “Free Lap due to mishap ruling”.
This then was countered by Team Budget FL riders – Sam Genge, Gus Tobin and Mitch Mulhern who quickly hit the front and took control.
By the time Thomo had arrived at the SRAM Pits, we had about 1 minute to get him in the race, the SRAM mechanics were outstanding getting him a new Orbea ready while they checked and adjusted his bike.
As the bunch approached they had his bike ready and we threw him in as the bunch went past. The last 6 laps were controlled by Team Budget FL until some suicide tactics from some lowly placed GC team.
Our guys maintained their composure and safely lead Thomo around the last few laps to a great team victory in this classic.
Peter Johnstone maintained our standing by stepping out and taking 3rd in the stage as well.
A Great job by the whole team!!!!!
In the Women’s event we had Miff Galloway in the Green Jersey and 12 seconds away from the Tour Lead. It was always going to be a tough job for our young team to claw back the 12 seconds but they tried their hearts out. Brodie Stewart continually attacked and as well took out a $100 prime.
Lara Freiberg was outstanding in the way she supported the team and attacked whenever there was a ‘stall’ and Michaela Anderson attacked and then lead Miff out in the last lap, a lead out that any Pro would be proud of. Miff took 2nd in the stage and failed by 9 seconds in winning the Tour.
The respect these young ladies have gained and contacts made will be great for their future.
Next year is the 50th running of the great race and past winners will be invited back and it is hoped Lance Armstrong will attend, we will be back for another crack at the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic.
Top photo: Team Budget Forklifts star, Thomas Richards...a great effort on the weekend
Copyright Peter Ford (CSN)
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
Monday, July 7, 2008
More blood
On today’s schedule was 7 laps of a 5km circuit with a steep 500m climb (basically like Red Hill) every lap to the finish. We had 25sec to make up so the plan was to keep on attacking and hopefully I was going to be able to breakaway for the win (picking up 10sec in time bonuses) and put some time into the race leader. Rick had told us that the race had to be on from the word ‘GO’ and we had to do lots of repeated attacks to try and tire out the race leader.
So the stay started pretty much like the other days.. woke up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and wandered over to the buffet where i decided to be adventurous and have a choc chip pancake...yummy haha. Then we all headed over to the course (which was just outside the room where we were staying) and did all of our race prep. We then cruised over to the start of the race where they introduced all of the riders and since i was now holder of the green jersey and 2nd on GC, i got priority on the start line! It felt awesome! You get treated like a bit of a celebrity... could get use to that!
Anyway, the race started off and Mickey attacked straight of the gun and once she got back Brodie countered. This was the trend throughout the race as the race leader felt the need to chace my team mates down (probably not the best idea on her behalf but had a good chat to her and she is a rower and has only been riding for a year which could have explained the need to chase everything...and why she dominated the TT). The yellow jersey was tiring at about 4 laps to go... you could see it. She was about to crack. At 2 laps to go I thought 'YES' perfect time to attack her and just as I was about to step out, we got neutralized because the masters were catching us. we got neutralized for a good 3km which gave the leader time to recover... dammit.. so all of our work had gone basically to waste! With 1 lap to go and the bunch still in tact, had no choice but to attack and attack hard. Mickey jumped on the front at about 1km to go mark and just as we turned the corner at the base of the hill (500m to go) i went wide and attacked up the climb. I managed to stay away solo for the win picking up 10sec time bonus and putting 5sec into the race leader and 10sec into the main peleton. I also won each of the KOM point sprints giving me the green jersey for another day. After the stage, went straight over for presentation (wasn't going to miss it again!?!?!) and it is amazing how you get treated if you win a bike race over here! haha.. as soon as i crossed the line, the organisers were congratulating me and taking my bike over for the rollout and were offering me drinks and there is a special sort of 'holding area' while you wait for presentation. Its a great feeling :D
So I got presented with another green jersey and the stage win. The margin is back to 12sec going into the last stage: a 0.9 mile flat crit....its going to be a mammoth task but I hope we can pull it off... I really want to win it for the team, they have worked so hard for me over the past couple of days and it would be great to win it for them.
After all the racing business, we watched the boys. Pete won and Thommo finished in the bunch holding onto his 30sec lead. All in all, another good day for the team.
I then went and crashed for about 2hrs on my bed trying to figure out how on earth we were going to win this bike race tomorrow whilst everyone else was watching the rest of the bike racing/having lunch. Woke up just in time to see the pro men and women race which was pretty cool! Also ventured downt the the photography tent and saw some of the pictures they'd taken. They were awesome! They had great photos of the whole team! Maybe not as good as some of the ones Pat took though ha ha... Audrey should have then on her facebook soon and I wil upload them on here ASAP.
We then cruised over to dinner and had our final meal with the other juniors...They are some of the coolest people i've ever met and it will be really sad to say goodbye to them all tomorrow! I will miss the chats in the common room and having other juniors to talk to! Kutztown is lovely don't get me wrong but there aren't many kids there.. well none as cool as the ones we met!!
So today was another big day... got an even bigger one tomorrow!!! Its a mammoth task but i believe our team can do it.
Wish us luck
xo
So the stay started pretty much like the other days.. woke up at some ridiculous hour of the morning and wandered over to the buffet where i decided to be adventurous and have a choc chip pancake...yummy haha. Then we all headed over to the course (which was just outside the room where we were staying) and did all of our race prep. We then cruised over to the start of the race where they introduced all of the riders and since i was now holder of the green jersey and 2nd on GC, i got priority on the start line! It felt awesome! You get treated like a bit of a celebrity... could get use to that!
Anyway, the race started off and Mickey attacked straight of the gun and once she got back Brodie countered. This was the trend throughout the race as the race leader felt the need to chace my team mates down (probably not the best idea on her behalf but had a good chat to her and she is a rower and has only been riding for a year which could have explained the need to chase everything...and why she dominated the TT). The yellow jersey was tiring at about 4 laps to go... you could see it. She was about to crack. At 2 laps to go I thought 'YES' perfect time to attack her and just as I was about to step out, we got neutralized because the masters were catching us. we got neutralized for a good 3km which gave the leader time to recover... dammit.. so all of our work had gone basically to waste! With 1 lap to go and the bunch still in tact, had no choice but to attack and attack hard. Mickey jumped on the front at about 1km to go mark and just as we turned the corner at the base of the hill (500m to go) i went wide and attacked up the climb. I managed to stay away solo for the win picking up 10sec time bonus and putting 5sec into the race leader and 10sec into the main peleton. I also won each of the KOM point sprints giving me the green jersey for another day. After the stage, went straight over for presentation (wasn't going to miss it again!?!?!) and it is amazing how you get treated if you win a bike race over here! haha.. as soon as i crossed the line, the organisers were congratulating me and taking my bike over for the rollout and were offering me drinks and there is a special sort of 'holding area' while you wait for presentation. Its a great feeling :D
So I got presented with another green jersey and the stage win. The margin is back to 12sec going into the last stage: a 0.9 mile flat crit....its going to be a mammoth task but I hope we can pull it off... I really want to win it for the team, they have worked so hard for me over the past couple of days and it would be great to win it for them.
After all the racing business, we watched the boys. Pete won and Thommo finished in the bunch holding onto his 30sec lead. All in all, another good day for the team.
I then went and crashed for about 2hrs on my bed trying to figure out how on earth we were going to win this bike race tomorrow whilst everyone else was watching the rest of the bike racing/having lunch. Woke up just in time to see the pro men and women race which was pretty cool! Also ventured downt the the photography tent and saw some of the pictures they'd taken. They were awesome! They had great photos of the whole team! Maybe not as good as some of the ones Pat took though ha ha... Audrey should have then on her facebook soon and I wil upload them on here ASAP.
We then cruised over to dinner and had our final meal with the other juniors...They are some of the coolest people i've ever met and it will be really sad to say goodbye to them all tomorrow! I will miss the chats in the common room and having other juniors to talk to! Kutztown is lovely don't get me wrong but there aren't many kids there.. well none as cool as the ones we met!!
So today was another big day... got an even bigger one tomorrow!!! Its a mammoth task but i believe our team can do it.
Wish us luck
xo
Sunday, July 6, 2008
...take two
Well after i deleted my last post in sheer desperation i will try and re-write my mammoth entry which took me only for ages... dammit.
Well as Rick said, today there was going to be blood. Somehow i had to make up 50sec in the next 3 stages, with this one being the only real one to gain any significant advantage. Woke up to the sound of rain pouring outside our window. today was definitely going to be tough. had an early start to the day, headed off to breakfast at 6:30 and had a goodluck buffet consisting of the good old cereal and vegemite toast. We then cruised over to the course (it was only about 30min from town) and did usual race prep. it was still raining and it was freezing! thought i left the cold back home... was wishing i bought arm warmers like Michaela instead of laughing at her as she packed them...dammit.
So we headed off and the first part of the course was basically all down hill.. nothing too special. The commisaire said that henk vogels crashed going down it and broke his neck? kinda scare the hell outta me but the girls were going painfully slow down it so it didn't really matter... The second half of the course was full of shortish steep hills ontop of which was was the KOM points. My orignal plan wasn't to go for the points but found myself up there and managed to roll across the line comfortably to pick up the max points on each of the 3 laps. On the 3rd and final lap, we had to head up this massive berg with a bunch of about 20-30 girls still in tow. no joke, this thing was huge! It is like the base of Black Mt for about just over 1km.. but it is the top the climb so you cruise for about 2km at a solid gradient then like BAM! (ha ha) it goes uphill...I broke away at 1.5km to go and managed to get a jump on the pack. and swear to god it would have been quicker to walk the last 200m then ride up it it was that hard lol. Anyway, managed to hold off for solo win by 25sec. was quietly stoked as i wasn't too confident i was going to make it up the berg in one piece! to finish in a solo break uphill was an awesome feeling.. something always dreamed of doing! It was unbelievable.
The only thing i wa bummed about was that no one told me I had to stay for presentation at the top of the hill (i though it was down back at the start) so after freezing my butt off for 10min i decided to cruise back down to the bottom with the rest of the girls only to be told when i reached the bottom that they had done the presentation without me! so i missed out on getting top spot on the podium and picking up my green jersey. but i went over to the race director after the race to apologise for missing the presentation and he gave me the jersey then which was really nice of him.
Also a special mention should go out to the other girls Michaela, Brodie and Lara for actually finishing the race! and a even placing in the top 20! They were all sceptical about the race, especially the last climb but i was delighted to hear Rick shout out their names at the base of the climb. I'm so proud of them, it was their longest race ever and that berg was epic. Also in the boys, Thommo broke away and rode himself into yellow with a 30sec buffer. Pat, Pete and Mitch also place top 10 which made it a good day for the team.
After the race, we made our way back to the college where we had a good chat with the Hincapie and Mesa Cycles team who are all really cool! We started trading some of our Aussie stuff for a variety of their US kit. Michaela got the trade of the day, picking up a sweet Mesa cycles jacket (looks soooo hot), 2 shirts, socks and a bottle.
After our trading, we all headed off to a carpark to set off fireworks for the 4th of july! however, this was short lived as we got pulled up by the cops. Have to admit, i was a little puzzled that they pulled us up when the area we are in makes stuart flats look like the hilton.. thought we'd be the last of their worries! So yeh, we thought just what Rick needed.. to be called out to jail to pick the team from jail. Fortunatley the copper just sent us on our way. After the fireworks pretty much headed straight to bed as we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.. 25sec to make up in 2 flattish stages. It was going to be yet another tough day in the office... but i'm looking forward to the challenge.
Wish us luck
xo
Well as Rick said, today there was going to be blood. Somehow i had to make up 50sec in the next 3 stages, with this one being the only real one to gain any significant advantage. Woke up to the sound of rain pouring outside our window. today was definitely going to be tough. had an early start to the day, headed off to breakfast at 6:30 and had a goodluck buffet consisting of the good old cereal and vegemite toast. We then cruised over to the course (it was only about 30min from town) and did usual race prep. it was still raining and it was freezing! thought i left the cold back home... was wishing i bought arm warmers like Michaela instead of laughing at her as she packed them...dammit.
So we headed off and the first part of the course was basically all down hill.. nothing too special. The commisaire said that henk vogels crashed going down it and broke his neck? kinda scare the hell outta me but the girls were going painfully slow down it so it didn't really matter... The second half of the course was full of shortish steep hills ontop of which was was the KOM points. My orignal plan wasn't to go for the points but found myself up there and managed to roll across the line comfortably to pick up the max points on each of the 3 laps. On the 3rd and final lap, we had to head up this massive berg with a bunch of about 20-30 girls still in tow. no joke, this thing was huge! It is like the base of Black Mt for about just over 1km.. but it is the top the climb so you cruise for about 2km at a solid gradient then like BAM! (ha ha) it goes uphill...I broke away at 1.5km to go and managed to get a jump on the pack. and swear to god it would have been quicker to walk the last 200m then ride up it it was that hard lol. Anyway, managed to hold off for solo win by 25sec. was quietly stoked as i wasn't too confident i was going to make it up the berg in one piece! to finish in a solo break uphill was an awesome feeling.. something always dreamed of doing! It was unbelievable.
The only thing i wa bummed about was that no one told me I had to stay for presentation at the top of the hill (i though it was down back at the start) so after freezing my butt off for 10min i decided to cruise back down to the bottom with the rest of the girls only to be told when i reached the bottom that they had done the presentation without me! so i missed out on getting top spot on the podium and picking up my green jersey. but i went over to the race director after the race to apologise for missing the presentation and he gave me the jersey then which was really nice of him.
Also a special mention should go out to the other girls Michaela, Brodie and Lara for actually finishing the race! and a even placing in the top 20! They were all sceptical about the race, especially the last climb but i was delighted to hear Rick shout out their names at the base of the climb. I'm so proud of them, it was their longest race ever and that berg was epic. Also in the boys, Thommo broke away and rode himself into yellow with a 30sec buffer. Pat, Pete and Mitch also place top 10 which made it a good day for the team.
After the race, we made our way back to the college where we had a good chat with the Hincapie and Mesa Cycles team who are all really cool! We started trading some of our Aussie stuff for a variety of their US kit. Michaela got the trade of the day, picking up a sweet Mesa cycles jacket (looks soooo hot), 2 shirts, socks and a bottle.
After our trading, we all headed off to a carpark to set off fireworks for the 4th of july! however, this was short lived as we got pulled up by the cops. Have to admit, i was a little puzzled that they pulled us up when the area we are in makes stuart flats look like the hilton.. thought we'd be the last of their worries! So yeh, we thought just what Rick needed.. to be called out to jail to pick the team from jail. Fortunatley the copper just sent us on our way. After the fireworks pretty much headed straight to bed as we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.. 25sec to make up in 2 flattish stages. It was going to be yet another tough day in the office... but i'm looking forward to the challenge.
Wish us luck
xo
reminder to self
some people actually read this blog, so do not put things on it that you don't want them to find out to avoid awkward situations which cause public humiliation. will only do that once. never again.
Friday, July 4, 2008
A Shocking TT
So today was the TT. Had an earlyish start, was at breakfast by 7am. Another buffet... god definitley not going to starve here! they had everything you could imagine...blueberry pancakes, waffles... shame i'm racing! had to settle for toast and cereal ha ha..things we sacrifice for what we love :P!
After chowing down yet another massive meal, we headed off the the TT course because our first rider (Brodie) was off at 10:09. Lara was off at 10:12 Mickey at 10:18 and me at 10:20. I was seeded just outside of the top ten out of a total of 71 riders which wasn't too shabby! Our preperation mind you wasn't without drama. Brodie, Lara and I had our numbers in our bags which were getting driven over by Audrey. With about 10min until Brodie was off, we still had no numbers... everyone was starting to stress because we were not going to be able to ride with no numbers but as it turns out, just as Brodie is about to head to the line and beg to be able to ride, Audrey shows up with our numbers...yes, there is a god. Lesson lernt: always carry your number with you.
Warm up went according to plan, meaning I rolled around for about 45min and tried to do a few efforts to try and rescue my legs which were feeling less than average to say the least. Rocked up to the start and the 2 girls infront of me didn't show up, so i was chasing a girl who was 1min30 in front of me. Dammit... I always go better if I have someone to chase! Anyway, the start itself was pretty cool, they used a ramp like they do in the TDF which made us feel special ha ha.. wish they did that back home!
So started the TT, had it in the big ring and got about 1km from the start when my legs started to hurt... was going to be a long 10km TT. It was a straight out course and the road was shocking! like seriously... there were potholes left right and center and it made it impossible to get into a rythm.. ended up sitting on the double yellow lines in the middle of the road because that was where it was smoothest. This TT felt horrible.. I was slugging it in the bg ring the whole way, then my gears started messing up and I was getting distracted... all in all it was probably the worst TT i've ever ridden. As I crossed the line, felt dissapointed in myself to say the least. We all cruised down to the bottom and hung around waiting for Rick to come back with our times... turns out i finished 5th out of 71 riders with a 20:58, 50sec off the pace and Brodie did a high 21, Michela a low 22 and Lara a 24. So I was the best place Aussie and now our official GC rider... pressures on.
The boys did well also, think Thommo was best placed with 7th and Mitch also got top 10 (I think). Pat had the ride of the day completing the 10km TT in 43min... he had a mechanical and had to get his bike fixed and they wouldn't give him a restart but he needed to finish to be able to start tomorrow so he just road up it... unlucky.
for the full results, check out http://www.longsjo.com/Results_files/Download_Stage_One_Results.pdf
After the TTs, we hit up the recovery and another buffet lunch.. was a massive meal! still can't get over how good the food is...
We then hit the road to check out tomorrow's road course... the finishing hill is so steep it actually scares me (to give you an idea, it finishes at the top of a ski slope)... as Rick put it, 'tomorrow, there will be blood'
Tomorrow, there will be blood...
After chowing down yet another massive meal, we headed off the the TT course because our first rider (Brodie) was off at 10:09. Lara was off at 10:12 Mickey at 10:18 and me at 10:20. I was seeded just outside of the top ten out of a total of 71 riders which wasn't too shabby! Our preperation mind you wasn't without drama. Brodie, Lara and I had our numbers in our bags which were getting driven over by Audrey. With about 10min until Brodie was off, we still had no numbers... everyone was starting to stress because we were not going to be able to ride with no numbers but as it turns out, just as Brodie is about to head to the line and beg to be able to ride, Audrey shows up with our numbers...yes, there is a god. Lesson lernt: always carry your number with you.
Warm up went according to plan, meaning I rolled around for about 45min and tried to do a few efforts to try and rescue my legs which were feeling less than average to say the least. Rocked up to the start and the 2 girls infront of me didn't show up, so i was chasing a girl who was 1min30 in front of me. Dammit... I always go better if I have someone to chase! Anyway, the start itself was pretty cool, they used a ramp like they do in the TDF which made us feel special ha ha.. wish they did that back home!
So started the TT, had it in the big ring and got about 1km from the start when my legs started to hurt... was going to be a long 10km TT. It was a straight out course and the road was shocking! like seriously... there were potholes left right and center and it made it impossible to get into a rythm.. ended up sitting on the double yellow lines in the middle of the road because that was where it was smoothest. This TT felt horrible.. I was slugging it in the bg ring the whole way, then my gears started messing up and I was getting distracted... all in all it was probably the worst TT i've ever ridden. As I crossed the line, felt dissapointed in myself to say the least. We all cruised down to the bottom and hung around waiting for Rick to come back with our times... turns out i finished 5th out of 71 riders with a 20:58, 50sec off the pace and Brodie did a high 21, Michela a low 22 and Lara a 24. So I was the best place Aussie and now our official GC rider... pressures on.
The boys did well also, think Thommo was best placed with 7th and Mitch also got top 10 (I think). Pat had the ride of the day completing the 10km TT in 43min... he had a mechanical and had to get his bike fixed and they wouldn't give him a restart but he needed to finish to be able to start tomorrow so he just road up it... unlucky.
for the full results, check out http://www.longsjo.com/Results_files/Download_Stage_One_Results.pdf
After the TTs, we hit up the recovery and another buffet lunch.. was a massive meal! still can't get over how good the food is...
We then hit the road to check out tomorrow's road course... the finishing hill is so steep it actually scares me (to give you an idea, it finishes at the top of a ski slope)... as Rick put it, 'tomorrow, there will be blood'
Tomorrow, there will be blood...
'I'm every woman!'
So today was a travelling day. On the schedule: 6hrs of non stop road tripping fun. We were leaving our home of Kutztown to whom we have all grown quite attached to, to head over to Fitchburg to mix it with the big guns. We travelled from pennsylvania, through New Jersey, New York, Conneticet and finally to Massachusettes (or however you spell it lol). I was designated TomTom operator (pressure was on, expecially through New York, will explain later) and therefore got to ride shot gun! Yes!.. I was in a car with Rick, Michaela, Gus, Thommo, Mitch and Pete. Everyone pretty much slept the whole way but I was trying to keep Rick entertained (down side of being front seat passenger...). So the road trip itself wasn't too interesting, however, there were a few highlights or things that stood out along the way:
- Driving through New York city... can't wait to hit that up on wednesday! So excited.. it was beautiful!
- Probably not so beautiful was the driving through the Bronx... definitley feared for our lives at some spots hahaha.. nah not really, but its still a pretty dodgy end of town homies.
- Driving over George Washington bridge.... pretty darn cool
- Being stuck in massive traffic jams, added about at least 1hr to the trip... probably one of the not so cool things...
- Getting ripped off at Starbucks... I got asked for 6 more cents (forgot to include tax in the price of my cinnamon and raisin bagel), lets also note that i was wearing my aussie shirt and aussie shorts.. then Thommo walks in and hands over 1 dollar for his 3 dollar muffin and just as he reaches for more money, the cash lady says 'oh don't worry about it, your from Australia'... he wasn't even wearing Aussie shirt.. just aussie shorts.. so she must have been looking at the label on the back to notice that... anyway, pretty sure i got jipped.
- Rick wacking out the dance moves and signing to songs like whitney huston's 'I'm every woman' and the song from pricilla queen of the desert! ha ha.. good times.. was quite amusing... hence the title for this post
We finally arrived at Fitchburg State college (where we are staying for the next 4 days) at around 3:00 (we left home at 7:30...) it was a long trip. We found our dorms which consist of a communal common room and bathroom and 4 seperate rooms each with 2 single beds. they are basc to say the least and we will call them home for the next few days. The showers flood and our bathroom is a pond with water at least 1 cm deep all over the floor... apart from that, they aren't half bad.. i mean i found wireless internet!
After sussing out our accomodation, we hit up the rollers because it started to rain then hopped in the car to see the TT course. It doesn't look anything like the course profile. The profile made it look like a hill climb which made me pretty excited but turs out it is just a gradual uphill with lots of rolling downhill.. it is going to be a strong person's course...
After looking at the course, we went over to the opening dinner and had a huge buffet. safe to say I ate waaaayyyy too much haha.. but it was good. Ha ha...i just remembered..When we were registering for racing, i was wearing skins uder my shorts and the lady at rego said ' i love you tights! is that actual stitchig? (refered to th purple stitches on the skins), that looks really fashionable!' I started laughing and was like 'Really? Thank you...I personally thought I looked like a bit of a dork but thanks anyway!"... It was funny lol...We then cruised home and set up our bikes for the TT then it was off to bed because tomorrow is going to be a looooong day.. well not so much a long day but a decisive one.
Wish us luck!
xo
- Driving through New York city... can't wait to hit that up on wednesday! So excited.. it was beautiful!
- Probably not so beautiful was the driving through the Bronx... definitley feared for our lives at some spots hahaha.. nah not really, but its still a pretty dodgy end of town homies.
- Driving over George Washington bridge.... pretty darn cool
- Being stuck in massive traffic jams, added about at least 1hr to the trip... probably one of the not so cool things...
- Getting ripped off at Starbucks... I got asked for 6 more cents (forgot to include tax in the price of my cinnamon and raisin bagel), lets also note that i was wearing my aussie shirt and aussie shorts.. then Thommo walks in and hands over 1 dollar for his 3 dollar muffin and just as he reaches for more money, the cash lady says 'oh don't worry about it, your from Australia'... he wasn't even wearing Aussie shirt.. just aussie shorts.. so she must have been looking at the label on the back to notice that... anyway, pretty sure i got jipped.
- Rick wacking out the dance moves and signing to songs like whitney huston's 'I'm every woman' and the song from pricilla queen of the desert! ha ha.. good times.. was quite amusing... hence the title for this post
We finally arrived at Fitchburg State college (where we are staying for the next 4 days) at around 3:00 (we left home at 7:30...) it was a long trip. We found our dorms which consist of a communal common room and bathroom and 4 seperate rooms each with 2 single beds. they are basc to say the least and we will call them home for the next few days. The showers flood and our bathroom is a pond with water at least 1 cm deep all over the floor... apart from that, they aren't half bad.. i mean i found wireless internet!
After sussing out our accomodation, we hit up the rollers because it started to rain then hopped in the car to see the TT course. It doesn't look anything like the course profile. The profile made it look like a hill climb which made me pretty excited but turs out it is just a gradual uphill with lots of rolling downhill.. it is going to be a strong person's course...
After looking at the course, we went over to the opening dinner and had a huge buffet. safe to say I ate waaaayyyy too much haha.. but it was good. Ha ha...i just remembered..When we were registering for racing, i was wearing skins uder my shorts and the lady at rego said ' i love you tights! is that actual stitchig? (refered to th purple stitches on the skins), that looks really fashionable!' I started laughing and was like 'Really? Thank you...I personally thought I looked like a bit of a dork but thanks anyway!"... It was funny lol...We then cruised home and set up our bikes for the TT then it was off to bed because tomorrow is going to be a looooong day.. well not so much a long day but a decisive one.
Wish us luck!
xo
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Oakley radars...
Well today started off much like any other day... at 6am. its killing me. Anyways, so i did the usual: have breakfast, check emails... write yesterday's blog...then it was about 7am when the boys rocked up ready to go for a ride. The rest of the girls were still in bed as we weren't expected to go riding until 8am...So yeh then got ready for our ride. pretty impressed, left the house at 7:15. On the schedule today was 100km and 5x3km efforts.. was always gonna be a long day. We headed over to the velodrome to do the efforts on the crit course. Those efforts were so intense it was pretty crazy. Never felt so sick in my life. I was so lactic that my legs wouldn't stop shaking! thats never happened to me before... obviously don't train hard enough lol. After the efforts we headed to the track to do our 'media interview'. we cruised around the track on our road bikes pretending to sprint and generally acting stupid...I also got interview (because i'm captain for the girls haha) along with Rick and Tom richards (captain for the team/boys). Pretty sure i made an idiot of myself, saying things like 'chillin' and 'awesome/great/unreal'... poor people probably had no idea what i was going on about! It was meant to be aired at 6:00pm tonight and we got someone to tape it, so hopefully they did and i can laugh at it haha.. or die of embarassement, either way.
After the track session, we finished off our k's and then headed home. Had some lunch and then the girls all played our M&M monopoly which was pretty funny haha... then had to take my bike to the bike shop to get the front derailler adjusted and Pat had to get his gear cables replaced. Audrey and Rick had gone out so we had no choice to ride our bikes over there and they said that they would take 3hours to fix them... so we hung around for a little bit.. which was alright, gave me a chance to check out some awesomely cool oakley radars (white frame with pink lense).. tryed them on... think i might get them.. wasn't 100% convinced.. but for $175 they are worth it and now that i'm thinking about them i realise how much i actually want them hahaha.. should have bought them. dammit. Oh well, they'll be there when I get back from Fitchburg (hopefully).
After a while we finally got a hold of Rick who picked us up and the bikes were all sorted. Then came home, chatted to the coach, went out to dinner and the had milky way ice cream from pop's (awesomely cool ice creamery...i love ice cream. if you can't already tell).
So that's it. my day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we head off at 7am for Fitchburg, our 4 day marathon tour. not sure what the internet is going to be like so might not have any posts for a while but will upload them as soon as i get back (sunday night).
Hope all is well,
Take care
xo
After the track session, we finished off our k's and then headed home. Had some lunch and then the girls all played our M&M monopoly which was pretty funny haha... then had to take my bike to the bike shop to get the front derailler adjusted and Pat had to get his gear cables replaced. Audrey and Rick had gone out so we had no choice to ride our bikes over there and they said that they would take 3hours to fix them... so we hung around for a little bit.. which was alright, gave me a chance to check out some awesomely cool oakley radars (white frame with pink lense).. tryed them on... think i might get them.. wasn't 100% convinced.. but for $175 they are worth it and now that i'm thinking about them i realise how much i actually want them hahaha.. should have bought them. dammit. Oh well, they'll be there when I get back from Fitchburg (hopefully).
After a while we finally got a hold of Rick who picked us up and the bikes were all sorted. Then came home, chatted to the coach, went out to dinner and the had milky way ice cream from pop's (awesomely cool ice creamery...i love ice cream. if you can't already tell).
So that's it. my day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we head off at 7am for Fitchburg, our 4 day marathon tour. not sure what the internet is going to be like so might not have any posts for a while but will upload them as soon as i get back (sunday night).
Hope all is well,
Take care
xo
Cookie dough, fudge and oreo ice cream, moo moo style
So today was a rest day, and after our marathon trip yesterday i'm glad that i'm allowed to sleep in. Well that is if you call waking up at 7 a sleep in lol. Anyway, had a pretty slow start to the day. Went for a bit of a walk around main street to check out the shops and figure out what i'm going to buy everyone :) hehe so that was fun. Then came home and had lunch and hung around for a bit longer than in the afternoon we ventured out to 'the promenade' which is a shopping center about 45min away. Decided to use the GPS to get us there but it took us to the wrong 'promenade' and it turns out it was 45min in the complete opposite direction. so a trip that was only meant to take 3/4 of an hour ended up takin us 2hrs.... not very cool. by the time we got there, was pretty unmotivated for shoppng so attempted to remotivate myself with an icecream from moo moo's (USA's cold rock).. cookie dough, fudge and oreos... hmmmmmm... yummy.... did do a bit of shopping though. The girls all chipped in to get M&M monopoly which is pretty cool.. would have been cooler if it came with M&Ms...
then we went for dinner at a place called 'Pita Pit' its basically subway but with pita bread.. it was oh so good.. yummy. would totally go off in Aus! Whoever reads this and starts it up, i totally get a margin of the profits :P
We then went over to the lollyshop... absolutely amazing! u can even pick your own coloured M&Ms an you could buy smores.. hmm... look at the photos if ur interested :P
After the lolly shop we hit up RAVE, the cinema to see Zohan... prob one of the lamest movies i reckon i've seen in my life. ever. thanks bron for recommending it haha..
Then we pretty much headed home and fell straight to sleep..
pretty uneventful day looking back on it but hey, not everyday can be full on! Tomorrow looks like its going to be one of those days.. 100km and 5x3km efforts.. hmmmm
Until next time
xo
then we went for dinner at a place called 'Pita Pit' its basically subway but with pita bread.. it was oh so good.. yummy. would totally go off in Aus! Whoever reads this and starts it up, i totally get a margin of the profits :P
We then went over to the lollyshop... absolutely amazing! u can even pick your own coloured M&Ms an you could buy smores.. hmm... look at the photos if ur interested :P
After the lolly shop we hit up RAVE, the cinema to see Zohan... prob one of the lamest movies i reckon i've seen in my life. ever. thanks bron for recommending it haha..
Then we pretty much headed home and fell straight to sleep..
pretty uneventful day looking back on it but hey, not everyday can be full on! Tomorrow looks like its going to be one of those days.. 100km and 5x3km efforts.. hmmmm
Until next time
xo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)