Bluff to Sydney (and everything between)

Well what can I say, the lack of blog posts says it all. Things have been pretty chaotic over the last few months...awesome but chaotic!

I've spent my summer putting in some big km's as well as working full time in the Nelmac Nursery. My jobs been pretty sweet just rocking round hanging flower baskets and mincing round the nursery. Couldn't have asked for a better summer job really. And best of all the boss is happy with my work and is keen to hook me up with a job next summer too. He's even mentioned helping me out with funding some papers in horticulture while I'm overseas this year. GC

On the riding front I've been all over the country and even across the ditch since being back. I rode the Chch Festival of Cycling, Tour of Southland, NSW GP, Tour de Vineyards, Elite Nationals and this week I'm heading up North for NZ Cycle Classic (NZ'S only UCI Tour). I've enjoyed being back racing with the L & M Group Racing lads and Canny...haha.

The crosswinds of Southland brought back some fond memories of Belgium...just hanging out in the gutter. I was feeling strong as an oxe but just lacked a bit of speed for the tour which ewas not suprising after spending most of my buildup climbing mountain passes in Switzerland! But hats off to teammate Joe Chapman who swept up the KOM jersey once again...why hasn't that old man just keeled over and died yet?

After Southland Canny offered me a trip to Sydney to race the NSW GP and I reluctantly agreed. So after a weeks off the bike I started some speed work for NSW. The crits themselves were an awesome experience racing some big names in Professional Cycling. Day 2 in Wollongong included a gruelling 600m course on top of a hill by the seas. To top it off there were huge gusts with winds on the coast measuring 80kmh! Needless to say the field blew to pieces in the first few laps. Overall teammate Gatey finished 3rd which was a mammoth effort for the level of racing! The trip was topped off with a big Sunday night out in Cronulla with the lads and a few other awesome kiwi lasses who also raced the crits.


Elite nationals...well thats another story. My job was to look after newly signed teammate Anthony Chapman. So while the rest of the team headed up the road we sat back and cruised in the pelo until we hit a little climb known as Dyers Pass. As expected the pace up the climb was high...so high I got a new max HR. Anyway, I was only just hanging on over the climb (sometimes had to chase on for up to 5km) but after 5 laps it became too much and I was dropped like a rock off the Empire State. Unfortunately Chappy suffered a similar fate after cramping up on the climb. Only 20 of the 80 starters finished and as nice as it would have been to be one of those few, I can't say my result was suprising. The level of racing was nothing to be snivelled at. Big shout out to GB though coming across the line with National Champion Hayden Roulston after an impressive ride (the vomit on his toptube says it all!)

So whats next for me? Well this week is NZCC which will be my last main race in NZ riding with L & M Group racing. And at the end of Feb I'll be heading over to Belgium to ride for the same team as last year (CT Tomacc) based in Poperinge West-Flaanders. This year the team has signed 10 international riders including NZ teammate Tom Francis and former Tomacc Teammate and kiwi Matt Wheatcroft.

I actually went to the doctors for a syphillus test (thats another story) a few weeks ago and the doctor said, "ahhh you were here at this time last year too." I asked what my problem was last year and she said I was suffering from fatigue. I remembered the dark place I was in at this time last year. Unfit, sick, no team lined up and ready to jack cycling in (so stoked I didn't). But it's no suprise that last years season was a bit up and down when you begin the year like that. So this year I'm in complete contrast. Motivation is through the roof, got some huge km's in the legs and I'm fizzing to get back to Belgium and tear up some Belgie roads...just gotta hang onto it for the next month or so!

Hope you enjoyed that little novel, I'll get the posts going a bit more frequently to keep you all up to date.

And good luck to all the kiwi riders already starting their seasons in Europe. I have max respect for all of you suffering the Euro winter.

Peace

Benchy Style

So thought my training was coming along nicely in my prep for Southland until I rolled up to my first race back in NZ, Tuesday Night Worlds. The race was pretty brutal with some epic crosswind that’s pretty rare in Nelson. The race splintered to pieces and I ended up getting myself dropped by the big boys…sweet.

Anyway, rocked up to the final round of the Benchmark series yesterday. Was fizzing to test to the legs out and ride along-side the L & M Group boys. The race was definitely a lot cruisier than Belg, it was a pearler of a day and I was feeling like a beast. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite find my way into the break even though I had the legs to. So coming into the finish there were still 3 boys up the road and with a hairy final corner I couldn’t quite hit the front so ended up about 15^th.

Above: The lunge for the line. Congrats to Rob Reid for winning the overall series title. (Notice me mincing in the left hand gutter).

Canny also hooked us up with the sick new Champion System team kit with our new Giro Aeon helmets. Check the photo:

And speaking of new, since I've been back I've been hitting up the new Avantiplus store on Queen St Richmond. It looks pretty tight and the boys in there are alright I guess. So get in there and check it out. Respect

Euro Farewell

Found this little passage I whipped up a few weeks ago but never got round to posting. Might not make sense cos I was jetlagged as a mofo when I wrote it.

So I’m currently sitting in Los Angeles Airport contemplating whether these standby flights are really worth it. I’ve just done a 10+ hour flight from Heathrow to here but the flights are looking pretty full so I could end up spending the night in LAX. And to make things worse, they rolled my Speculoos…WTF!

The Belgie Send-off

Above: One of my las races in Belg

But apart from that little hiccup my overseas experience has finished off on a pretty good note. I finished up the Belgie season in mid-September  before trading in the Belg flatlands for the Alps of Switzerland. Switzerland was an awesome way to tie up the season. It was a holiday where I managed to sneak in a few decent rides in the mountains on the next-door neighbours old cannondale. I actually ended up wikipediaing Switzerland’s highest mountain passes and seeing how many I could tick off the list in the local area of Zurich. Have to say the scenery was epic and the amount of climbs around the place was unreal.

I also spent a fair bit of time with my Swiss cousins and auntie doing a few different things around the place. We went hiking, on a high ropes course, on the rodelbahn (similar to a rollercoaster down a mountain side where you control the speed) and hit up the Lindt Chocolate Factory down the road…such a dangerous place.

After Switzerland I spent a couple of days at young Reg’s place in England. That went pretty quick but I did manage to do a days labour roofing with Reg and the Old Fossil and knocked out a ride on the mounty through the English woods.

And now here I am. Sitting in LA hoping there’s a spare seat.

But anyway, there’s a few people I want to thank for the season. Big thanks to Kris Lozie and the beautiful Krista Lozie who took us in as their own sons in Belg. Also team director Gilbert  for all his help.  To my Auntie Joe for not just putting me up but treating me like royalty in Switzerland and Reg’s old man and mum for putting me up in England. And finally to the boys in the flat for a sweet season all round with some good times.

As for next year I’m planning on once again riding for Tomacc Cycling Team who are showing some interest in going Continental but I guess we’ll see. Either way I will be heading over to Belg in late February for a longer season of around 8 months.

As for now, my next big race will be the Tour of Southland with a few club races and a sneaky Benchmark round to get the peppiness back in the legs.

The Long Awaited

First up I wanna apologize to all the people I've been a bit slack with keeping in touch with since I've been over here. Pretty sure I'm not going to have any mates when I get home.

Well it's been a couple of months since the last post and a lots happened in that time. We now have five guys in the flat with the addition of another Englishmen and a young Australian lad named Skippy. Both are pretty good guys, apart from Steve (sorry Steve mate, it's nothing personal, you're just a bit of a dick). And I've also made friends with a gay barista at the cafe down the road. Even managed to get  few free coffees out of him the other day...MEAN!

On the cycling side of things we've now been introduced to a few different racing types. As well as the usual kermesses we've done a few criteriums which are not so prestigious but a good way of picking up a bit of coin as well as interclubs which are similar to kermesses but longer and include a convoy of team cars and always doping control so there is a much more professional element to it. The first few interclubs weren't so pretty with mechanical issues and illness interfering but the latest interclub was better. It wasa bout 160km in heavy rain and even included a few climbs which is unusual for Flanders racing. Unfortunately we missed the break and once it's gone you're racing for whatever place is left.

The crits have been a bit more eventful, we even managed to bag the win in one of the local crits. Steve won the bunch kick after a perfect leadout from Matt. I've also had some bad luck in the crits. In one I managed to roll a tub and managed to keep the bike up but wrote off my rear Zipp.

Speaking of crashes, young Skippy seems to have developed a taste for Belgium roads. I think he binned it something like 3 times in 2 weeks. The most spectacular when he hit a cone in the middle of the road and landed on his face. It was pretty sick. Even with the grazes on his face, he's still a damn fine looking young gentleman.. just like myself.

Just over a month ago we crossed the ditch to the UK for a week. Had my first introduction to racing in the UK and to be honest with you, I wasn't impressed. I did a small 1 hour race with about 30 guys on a pretty boring little crit circuit. It turned out about a quarter of the starters were on the same team (Team Felt) so the race was pretty negative. I finished 6th in a chase group and funnily enough, Felt came away with nothing after letting a break go with only one rider in a group of 4.

While in England we did manage to hitch a ride into London to check the sights. Matt and I saw all that stuff you need to see so we can tick London off the list. I was pretty impressed with how organised the Underground system is.

The other highlight of England was when we rocked up to the Henley Regatta, a multi day rowing event. We managed to scrounge some tickets into Liander Club were all the other class people mince around. So we jacked up a few mismatching suits and managed to get in. Turns out there was more going on up the road at the local student bar anyway.

Below: The Three Musketeers

                                                

Also rocked up to the medieval town Brugge the other day. I'd heard a legend about a cholcolate shop in Brugge that makes chocolate worthy of kings so we couldn't pass that opportunity. Turns out you ask for how much you want (in our case 2kg) of any type you can imagine and they chisel it off a giant block. It was so good...but so so bad.

Anyway, I'm into my final month now so I'm just going to drive myself into the ground with racing I think. There are a few good local races coming up and hopefully at some stage meet up with K-Rex who's currently stagiaring with Marco-Polo in Belgium. Good stuff Rex.

And congrats to Goat-man who just got engaged to the beautiful Jess Morton.

Tot Zeins,

TA

The Good Life

I've been putting this post off for quite a while in the hope that I'd finally hit up the podium and have something to talk about. But unfortunately nothing to report on the results front. But the sun has come out, the legs have arrived and the results are on the way!

I've spent a few races now trying to help my team mate Matt take a win but unfortunately we haven't been playing the cards right so it's been pretty frustrating picking up a few top 5's but no wins. But it feels pretty good to be amongst it again. The number of kermesses we're doing has really picked up now that it's summer so I think that's helped get me humming again.

In  the next few weeks we will be introduced to our first interclub race as well as our first criterium the next day. The interclubs are a lot more team based and about 40km longer than the kermesses so that'll be interesting. Apparently the one we're doing is pretty sketchy though. Always crashes because of the narrow lanes, and if it's wet it's even more dodgey...should be a blast. Speaking of crashes, I stacked it pretty good a few weeks ago. Attacked into a corner on the first lap and totally misjudged it. Ended up off the side of the road in a ditch. Nothing major but still have something going in in my arm. Might get it checked out if it doesn't sort itself out. The criterium the following day is going to be even more interesting. Haven't had races back to back for over a month now and being a criterium I'm pretty unsure how that'll go.

In just over a week we're taking a little trip to the UK to stay with our English team mates family. Should be good to check out the sights in London and maybe a few other parts of England. 

Our team managers been pretty good to us lately. He invited us to a family function which was pretty big actually. We arrived mid afternoon and joined the family in testing out the seafood buffet. This was then followed by a BBQ, then a fruit salad and some french cheeses. And we had to shot before they cranked into dessert. Not a bad day out though.

That's the manager on my left and his son 2 to my right.

Matt and I also went and helped the manager out with picking up some food for his pet owls. This included picking up 2100 baby chickens (yes i know these are called chicks) that had hatched just that morning, taking them back to Kris' place and suffocating them all the death before freezing them. For our efforts we were rewarded with another huge meal put on by his wife Krista. Yup that's right, Kris and Krista...tragic eh.

Also checked out the beach a few weeks ago. Here's some photo's. Enough said.

Before I sign out just want to congratulate little Sean Hambrook on making the juniour worlds team who will be racing in the Netherlands in September. What a hammer.

That's it from me

TA

14/04/12 Dikkebus Kermesse

Elissa Bargh

This blog is dedicated to you Elissa. Matt might be too cool to give you a shout out but I'm not. Haha

Anyway, one month in and I'm still alive...but only just. I've been pumping out the races recently but unfortunately haven't pulled any results for a while. Just lacking a bit of top end as well as luck at the moment. But I still tend to come away from most races with a huge 10 euros in winnings. We had a race a few days ago and it was good to see little Spaghetti (aka Tom Delany in there). Still struggling to get over the fact that I let him roll me. But in my defense I did nearly lose my back wheel because of a dodgey scewer. I'd have to say I was in contention for crowd pleaser of the day after I got a few OOH's and AAH's when I just about took out a few posts and a crowd of people on the finishing straight.

In the last few weeks I've developed a taste for Belgium roads. Never mind the sketchy narrow lanes we race on with 130+ others, the training rides are proving much more dangerous. Last week I was out for a spin with my teammate Joe in typical Belgium weather (rain and wind). We were riding on a cobbled road when a car hit the brakes in fornt of us. I was only running the rear brake as my front had broken in the race the day before. So it pretty much goes like this: cobbles + rain + speed + one brake = stackage. I slid a fair few metres but luckily the bike was sweet and the kit stayed together!

Joe has been having a bit of trouble on the technical circuits lately so decided he'd do a day of practising cornering. And beeing the good guy I am I agreed to help him out a bit. So we found a little circuit and smashed corners all day. On the last lap it had just started raining and I hit a corner at pace and sure enough, laid it right over. The truth is Joe had me in the box and I just needed an excuse for a lie down. This time I wasn't so lucky, bent derailleur hanger and ripped up the kit a bit (including Joel's leg warmers). Luckily Joel still has trouble reading. Our team director owns the local bike shop so I think he's pretty stoked with all the business I give him.

Our team manager (Chris) has turned out to be a total good sort. He calls us his sons now. A few weeks ago we did a race and all the favourties went up the road. Apparently all the spectators were saying it was race over but Chris told them his sons were in the peloton and we'd bring it back. And sure enough Matt and I manged to bring it back with a bit of help from one or two others. That night he shouted us to the movies (which were in English) and then shjouted a round at the bar after.

The wife hunt is pretty non existent to be honest. I'm sure she's out there somewhere but I haven't really met many people our own age yet. So I'm battling on washing my own dishes and cleaning my own bike but I'll try a few birthday wishes this weekend and we'll see how that goes.

That's about all the excitement I've got today folks.

Bam Bam