A new look for a new beginning :)

One of the little projects I have been working on for a couple of months is in the final in stages of completion, and not a minute to soon!

Upon hearing the news that I would not be sporting ACTAS kit for the 2010, I started considering the idea of designing my own personal kit. Although I am very proud of my local cycling club (Canberra Cycling Club) and would be honoured to race in club colours, it was suggested to me that I get some personal sponsors on board and ride in my own kit to try and promote myself as a rider and get some much needed financial assistance.

A close cycling friend of mine Tiffany Cromwell, a rider from South Australia currently competing with the Australian National Team, is a freelance fashion designer whose kit I have been flaunting for the last couple of months. She runs her own fashion label Tiffany Jane and I am loving her Signature kit in Black and the Star Gazer kit in white and pink. The clothing has all the features you are looking for in a quality kit from the fresh and unique design to the breathable and comfortable material it is created with.

As a big fan of Tiff's work, I thought who better to design my kit then Tiff herself! And before I knew it she had come back to me with a design better than anything I could possibly have imagined...I love it!! Thanks heaps Tiff :)

I am currently in discussions with some clothing manufacturers to help put this kit into reality, but hopefully i'll be sporting my new kit in no time!!!

Until then, check out the design and let us know what you think!!!





I will post a progress report in the next couple of days of all things on and off the bike! I have an interview with the PR people from Lorna Jane on Tuesday so fingers crossed it goes well!!

Take care
xx

Lorna Jane Ambassador for 2010

As promised, this entry is not going to be all dark and gloomy but rather about something great that has happened over the past week!

Just before Easter, I sent a sponsorship proposal to Lorna Jane clothing company asking if they'd like to support me for the 2010 racing season. Earlier this week I received an email from the head office saying that I'd been chosen to be one of the ambassadors for the Lorna Jane label!

For those of you who are not aware, Lorna Jane is an Australian multi-million dollar women's fitness-inspired brand created by Lorna Jane Clarkson in Brisbane back in 1989. Since then Lorna Jane has built her company based on motivating women to achieve their best through Active Living with concept stores all around Australia and in Singapore.

I have been a long-time admirer of Lorna Jane clothing and strongly believe that women deserve to look and feel fabulous when being active. Lorna Jane achieves this with their current range of active wear which can be view at the online shop at http://www.lornajane.com.au/content/cms/Active/3799/

I am very honoured and feel very privileged to be chosen to represent such a renowned brand and look forward to being able to further help promote active and healthy living amongst women and be a worthy role model for women in the community!!

Stay tuned xx

I miss that...

Today I went for my longest ride in say.... 2 months?? Nothing epic, just a 3hr loop around Cotter-Uriarra but cruising around, it reminded me what I’d been missing out on and with the Canberra Tour coming up at the end of the month, I couldn’t help but think about where I was this time last year.

This time last year I was locked up with 12 other girls on a 6 week altitude camp at the AIS. I was eating, breathing dreaming cycling. I didn’t have to work, or cook (unfortunately i still had to clean) and all i had to do was ride my bike. To those non-cycling enthusiasts, this could seem like a nightmare but to those aspiring cyclists, this was a dream. I underwent gruelling training that was designed to ‘bring us back on our knees’ and as a consequence I was rewarded with impressive form which saw me place 3rd in 2 stages of the Canberra Tour. As a result of all my hard work, performances and dedication I showed throughout the camp, I had been given a scholarship with ACTAS and the honour of being chosen to represent Australia in the Australian National/AIS team in the Giro Donne in Italy, arguably the biggest Women’s race in the World, and the Tour of Limousin in France. I felt as though I had the World at my feet, that I was one step closer to living the dream and had finally proved to most importantly myself and everyone else that I had what it took to make a career as a professional cyclist.

Fast forward to 2010 and it seems as though that world I had in front of me has crumbled at my feet. I had a shocker Nationals, got sick just after and couldn’t ride the Women’s Tour of NZ and the level of training I have been able to complete since then has been embarrassing to say the least. And to answer a few questions I’ve heard: Yes, I am still cycling. No I do not go out partying every night therefore purely inflicting this on myself. Yes, at the moment I am fat and slow but you know what? I can change that... you can’t change the fact that you’re a douche and finally Yes. I can handle this. You have no idea.

I am back working (I now have 4 jobs...) and seemed to have gone from having all my doors open, to all of them slamming me back in the face. What makes it even harder is that I no longer have the support that I use to, in the time where I could use it the most.

Reflecting back on all of this, I couldn’t help but think what has changed and what I wish hadn’t...

I miss being the one who made everyone else suffer in training/races, instead of the one begging for others to take mercy on me

I miss having the lean physique and able to fly up hills, instead of resembling a heavy weight line-backer who is struggling to simply haul their butt up there

I miss the pain you feel when you’ve known you’ve given your all, instead of the stabbing pain i get in my chest every time i make an attempt at anything ‘hard’.

I miss racing...and celebrating with the team after a good day in the office, instead of hearing about it all the next day on cyclingnews... or even facebook.

I’ve changed...change back. I miss me.

Now is where you start playing your violin solo I know... But everyone has a right to a whinge every now and again and i’m using my pass to one today.

I know that everyone encounters setbacks, it even happens to the best. Talk to pros and you’ll hear the all too familiar story of time off for broken bones, glandular fever...Most recently Heinrich Haussler, who was seen as a hot favourite for the Classics, tore a ligament in his knee and was forced to withdraw from his whole classics campaign and reassess his goals for the rest of the year. I tell myself these things every time I think ‘why does this only happen to me??’ and when the recovery stage seems to be drawing on or centuries. It happens to the best.

At the moment I am still working hard to plan my racing season but it seems as though I now have to play the waiting game to hear back from people...A hard thing to do when patience isn’t you’re strong point but as hard it is to believe, people do have other things to think about than me :P

I also want to take this time to congratulate all the girls in the Australian National/AIS team or a fantastic start to the season. You are all doing a great job, I only wish I was there to say this in person.

I promise my next entry won’t be as dark and emo, hopefully i’ll have some good news to report!!
Until then,
Take care xx



Remembering the good times...


Chloe and I in Italy

So...Now what??

The most important race on the Australian Calendar has been run and won, so what is next you ask?

Well after Nationals, it seemed as though my body had finally cottoned on to the punishment I had made it endure leading up to Nationals and had decided quite abruptly that enough was enough. I had to have some time off the bike to let myself recover both physically and mentally. There was a lot of pressure leading into Nationals (I have to admit, most of it was self inflicted) as a good result there would pretty much set me up for most of the year, or at least open up a few opportunities and give my 2010 season a good kick start!

Recovery days soon turned into weeks and I still wasn’t getting any better. By this stage I’d had blood tests for every virus/deficiency known to man and was still with no concrete answers to justify the reason I was feeling so cr@ppy. Frustrating to say the least.

I decided to go on a little holiday to get my mind off things and had a generous offer from my sister’s Godmother and my mother’s long-time friend, to come and stay at their beach houses in Adelaide. An offer which proved too good to refuse! I was also fortunate that a few of my closet friends in cycling would be down there during the same time that I would be! Carlee Taylor lives in SA and Lauren Kitchen was going to be staying with her to train before heading to New Zealand and Chloe Hosking was going to be down there also! I was staying right on the waterfront at Henley Beach for the first few days then moved down the road to another beach front house at the Grange. The houses were both at least 4 bedrooms with the house at the Grange being 5 stories, so I had plenty of room to move!! The master bedroom was on the top floor but it was definitely worth getting lactic during the walk up there! The view from the room was amazing; it opened up onto a balcony overlooking the beach and at night you could actually fall asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing down below... remind me why I came home??



view from Henley house

Perfect locations, great company, awesome riding and probably most importantly, good coffee!! Most of the days were spent accompanying Chloe for parts of her epic rides preparing for her up and coming season with HTC-Columbia, riding along the beach or through the hills. It was probably one of the most enjoyable bike riding trips i’ve had for a long time. Cruising through the hills overlooking the city and riding with a great bunch of people made for a welcome relief from everything back home and most importantly, I was able to reflect on the months passed and reassess my goals in cycling. I realised that cycling is still my main passion and it is what motivates me to keep ploughing on when the going gets tough. I am still determined to make my passion my ‘job’ and make a career as a professional cyclist; and for this to happen, things need to change.

I am now back with my former coach MaryAnn Simpson and doing things old school, going back to basics and what I know works for me. I learnt a lot during my time at ACTAS and am grateful for all the support they have provided me with over the past year; however I realised that it is their job to provide champion athletes and I am unable to meet these standards in my current state. I hope that I will soon be in a position where I can work with them again in the future.

So what’s next for me you say?? Well when I stop making a career of contracting every virus known to man, which unfortunately doesn’t pay very well and does not have a World Championship, I plan on heading over to Europe to race. I am still working out finer details however I plan on heading over at the end of May and staying there until the end of August. I feel that in order to continue to race at the level I have been and to achieve my goals, Europe is where I need to be. After my experiences last year, I am looking forward to going into the 2010 season knowing what I need to improve on and using this year to make myself a confident and strong rider in the European peloton.

In the meantime I am working hard as a personal trainer with A'hern Fitness and at the Uni Pub to fund my trip and am slowly but surely chipping away at my Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science with the University of Central Queensland.

Oh, and did I mention I got a new ride?? That's right, I am now the proud owner of a Cervelo r3SL thanks to the BikeShed. The Trek is still with us, just taking a hard earned rest :D




the new ride (photo thanks to Bron ;) )

Life is forever changing its course so no one knows what tomorrow will bring...all I know is that as long as I am racing my bike, I’ll be happy :)

Until next time.

Take care xx