New Team...big changes.

I have some exciting stories to telland i will be more diligent over the next wee while. I will start off with our team presentation in Mallorca and training camp then i will give the inside scoop on tour de qatar.

Im curently trying to get to california to start another camp before the tour of cali.

pease out but ill be back

Leaving Town:

Its bloody crazy how quickly it comes around each year. It only seemed like a few weeks long my season in the states this year.
Things started crap for me with Tour of California. I couldn't push my Grandma off the toilet the whole week. I have no clue why I crept so bad which is a little bit scary. I can tell you this...its was not from the lack of training.
Then we hit McLane Pacific weekend where I dropped myself. Turns out it was worse than originally thought. I knew it was bad and did whinge quite a bit (not as much as Tim Johnson) to Katie how my left leg had no stability and lacked power. I tried not to make excuses and boxed on with the Commonwealth Games. I crept there as well. I actually was going well enough considering but was a very marked man on the track being the reigning champ in the Points Race and Former World Champ in the scratchy. Anyways...it turned out to be a fractured head of femur and I had a mid season break...4 weeks total rest. And the rest of the season went very well with 2 of the biggest wins of my career in Reading Classic and Philly.

However now Im back safely in Melbourne. That plane trip is far to long. The sooner we can travel at 2000miles an hour the better.

Going away party organised by one of my besties Chuck Coyle. Done totally last minute which is so like Chucky and I. I think it was better this way cos then only close friends made the effort to turn up. We cranked up the BarBQ and lined up a few brews and just talked utter crap for a good number of hours....standard. We rolled into town but everyone was pretty tanked and town fizzled and we headed home. All I can say is thank god I was travelling 2 days after that night and not the next day. My head....not good!

Being home....or my 2nd home....is always great. Possum and I have pretty muched done bugger all. I have already cruised Akland Street for Chocolate Mud cake and Fish and Chips. Both a treat for the offy....well actually truth be known I dont reserve those two things for only the offy...what are you gonna do. I have a weakness when it comes to these. But I dont fight it and I still dont whinge as much as Tim Johnson aka the stoner and never will.

Next on the agenda for me is set up my new bike from Cannondale. I got a sweet new System6. Cant wait. I will get straight into the gym on Monday and back on the bike at the beginning of September. But until then Im going to enjoy my off season and hang out with possum and go on holiday with my bro Chris and his wife Cheree on the Gold Coast.

Future races include the Sun Tour here in Melbs...then prolly our Nats cos they are actually in Sunny Dunnos....the ol home town. I cant promise Ill be stomping but I will show up for sure. Then I have the Southland Tour then a World Cup on the track mid to late Nov.
Next major race for Health Net is the tour of Cali again. I am determined not to suck this time. Again...I cant promise anything though...haha.

Ill be in touch some time soon...prolly from the Goldy.

PS Good luck and Congrats to all the Kiwis competing at the World Mountain Bike Champs in New Zealand. Must be a great feeling to ride Worlds infront of a home crowd. I can tell you the closest I have been was when I won here in Melbourne. It was half Kiwi crowd and half Aussie. They had to drag me off the track cos I would not stop celebrating.

USPRO Crit Champs:

This turned out to be a bit of a let down for team Health Net. It seems we have hit some bad luck over the last couple of weeks...wrong direction in tour de toona...team crashing out in Charlotte...i guess the bad luck happens in 3's. So it does.

On the Saturday night before the Champs there is a Pro/Am race. Half the Pro distance on the same circuit and twice the number of riders. Its always crazy fast this race because the safest place in this race is at the front. 200 odd riders line up.

I was given a free range for this race and allowed to go on the attack. And I did exactly this. I had great legs. I found myself solo for a couple of laps then in the only very serious break of the night. I was so hopeful of this move sticking that I was lapping through so hard that I was blowing the break to bits. Whoops...I have to remember when in a move only do your share because if the move is destined to stay away it will do so if every team is happy with the combination. As it turned out I was the fastest guy in the break and a number of teams were not happy about their rider going against me to the line...so it all came together.
Team Health Net took control of the race about 3 laps out (3miles). It was the best leadout we have done all year. It was so fast that no other team could even come beside us. I was a little gassed from being up the road all night so elected to be the last guy in the leadout for Karl. I hit it about 600m from the line and delivered what I thought was Karl to 100m before the last corner...unfortunately Ivan Dominguez had grapped my wheel off Karl and he took the win. Karl rocked up for the bronze.
Ivan even came up to me after the race and said thankyou for a text book leadout....haha....just like we did last year but racing on the same team....whoops!

Race Day Sunday...

This is Pro only...10x safer and 100k. We had in the back of minds of trying to get the stars and stripes jersey for our team next year. We had a great chance in this with Kirk Obee in a small break or the young fulla Kyle Gritters in a bunch kick.
The race was pretty tame till half way. Again I could not believe how good my legs were...It seemed like a super easy race to me but after talking to people afterwards it was anything but. I looked after myself most of the race and started following a few moves late in the piece. Nothing was sticking. Kirk was having a blinder and was in every move that went...and if they didnt go...he did...solo. Unfortunatley for him nothing stuck and it came down to a traditional bunch kick. Kyle and I were good to go. Coming into the last lap we had great position thanks to Mike Sayers. Kyle was pinned to my wheel and no one was moving him off it. 500m to go and he yells go...I hit it down the inside from about 6th wheel. I delivered the young fulla to prime real estate entering the last corner. He was 3 or 4th wheel with speed...then disaster...boof down! I heard the crowd go ohhhhhh....i just prayed it wasnt Kyle....no such luck for us. The poor guy went straight over the hay bails. What can you do...he was close....so close to the win...but no such luck. I really believe with the form he has had of late that he would have gone very close to pulling on the US Pro Champion Jersey. I know he will do in the future. He is so young and so talented.

Speaking about someone so young and talented I would like to take this opportunity to wish Gord Fraser a happy retirement. Not so young anymore but always very talented I have raced with Gord for 3 years now and learnt so much from him. One of the most professional athletes on and off the bike and always presents himself fit and healthy and reliable to race.
US Pro was his last race...we had a wee tribute to him the night before the race and he had a large tribute to himself the night after the race...well deserved!
Cheers Gord...Ill be seeing you around no doubt you will sidetrack me at some race for a beer or two.

Next up for this guy will be a race report about my going away party in boulder...then I hit the big bird to fly back to the arms of possum...

Who Looks Better On A TT Bike?

Ok so we have dug up some photos from the archives of a few TT positions. Please excuse the green and gold strip that possum is wearing....i tried to photo shop the colours out but no luck.

There is no question...i look just miserable in this position...i never have a fun time when Im doing this...Katie Koo on the other hand...its prolly no wonder she is World Champ in this discipline. Look how money she looks.

Sick Piggie!

This guy is fast. Max watts 2000. Nathan Seddon aka Guns. Lives in Sunny Dunnos...second home...the gym. This guy rocks up to to training sessions in the clink with a sports water, weights belt and a sleeping bag. He camps the night infront of the squat rack and wakes up and flexs to see if he has grown.

Here is a movie link to him flexing for you.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5281816467879887508&pr=goog-sl

Guns is current New Zealand Keirin Champ and has won about 10 other national sprint titles. Competed at worlds and commonwealth games.

If you need some solid guidance in the gym look this sick piggie up at http://www.nathanseddon.com

Guns' famous quote in the gym when i was training with him was...while looking at his legs with 200kg on his back in the squat rack..."if it aint broke dont try fix it...but f**k Im gonna try breaking em!"

Portland and Manhatten Beach.

Portland was a very tiring experience. It involves alot of sponsor stuff that i love so much. It was cool though to hang with the boys and flap the gums abit about nothing at all.
The race was very technical...7 corners in 700m.
The field was only about 80 deep and we had 5 riders there. From the blocks the gas was on and within 5 laps the field was reduced significantly.

Garrett and Kyle rode off the front early on and we never saw them again. Just after halfway I started attacking the field and finally Karl and I rode off the front for 3rd and 4th.

Early the next morning we were off to LA for a race on Sunday in Manhatten Beach.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=/photos/2006/aug06/manhattan_beachgp06/JI6V4283

there is a photo of me getting pumped by JJ in the sprint. I won this race last year and was pretty keen to try and do it again. Unfortunately Toyota sent a full squad of 9 riders. There lead out was very strong and I had to burn too many matches just to get into position.
Coming out of the last corner JJ and I were neck and neck having a drag race to the line...but...he won...comfortably in the end.

Manhatten Beach does not suck though...we had a quick bite to eat before flying out that night...the atmosphere down there is something straight off the movies.

Next up is USPRO Crit champs in Chicago. I love this race...its long and can be very hard.

Bannock Crit. Denver, CO

Pretty much promised myself I would not race this race because the night before is the Bank of America Crit in Charlotte, NC. Such a long travel day to get back to Denver and then turn around and race after a late night on the town...ouch.
So...I raced! Imagine that. Some guys were doing it...blah de blah...so I tagged along. I was feeling ratshit for most of the ride. I was feeling the effects of last nights efforts...both the race and the pub...
It was about 35degs out and I couldn't stomach any drink. I was pretty much miserable for 90% of the race. I remember the good ol days when I could rock up to any race and drill it after getting home at 5am. No such luck these days...Im geting old or soft...or both!

Anyways...to cut a long story short...I snivelled my way into a 4 man break and won the sprint to the line. I was nice to win after the disappointment of the night before. Had no expectations of winning but when I put myself in a winning situation my brain takes over and I try as hard as I can to win from it.

Im looking forward to a rest cos my next engagement is a sponsor treat!!! I get to do 6hrs of signing posters and taking photos....oh yeah....and then after that cool stuff I have to try and win a couple of bike races.

Bank Of America: Charlotte,NC

We normally fly in the day before this race and meet up with the 24hrs of Booty ride organizers for a few drinks and nibbles. The 24hrs of Booty ride raises money for cancer. In its first year it was 1 guy who raised about 5g on his own that year. 4yrs down the track he has about 1000 riders doing it and raised over 450gUS. Its for a great cause so I never mind turning up and talking a bit of shop to some old fullas about bikes and spandex.

We bought our 'A' squad for this crit as 1st place across the line would be presented with a lovely little check of 25gUS. As you can well imagine I was more than happy to try and take it off there hands.

The race was going pretty stock standard as far as Crits in the US go. Toyota United and HealthNet were more than happy for things to come to a bunch kick because we are both confident in being able to win the race that way. The other teams...Kodak, Navigators etc were trying to get guys in moves to take pressure off there sprinters and put more on us. A break did finally noodle off the front and got a good advantage over the field. At one stage they had about 45sec on us. With about 15laps to go Healthnet took control of the front and started eating into the lead of the 3 riders off the front. After about 6 laps of chasing we had the gap to 10sec...No worries...So we thought! That's when the shit hit the fan. The rain came pouring down. We had 7 guys lined up to get me to the finish straight for the sprint. We all went around corner one....The boof! All 5 down except for me and one other.
Because of the free lap rule (which ends at 5 to go) they all got back in. By this time the break had snuck out again to about 15-20sec. Unfortunately at 4 to go Karl and I crashed. Bugger...No free lap. So what looked like a dash for the cash in the final 300m became a victory to an opportunist break that managed to stay away because of the mayhem happening behind. Hats off to the boys on the win though...having the courage to give a break a go on the fast course.
We were pretty upset with how things turned out obviously but Oh well...What are you gonna do...Things could be worse. You could wake up naked in a hospital the next morning, missing your clothes and not remember any details of how you got there...Aye Karl!

Missing Possum:

If anyone knows the whereabouts of my loved one...please send her home to me asap. Im missing her.
No seriously...there was a day of mourning in the entire city of Boulder yesterday. The 2nd of August has become a public holiday for Boulder, Colorado. This tragic day was when Katie Mactier jumped on the big bird back to Melbourne. Bugger me I was a lost wee fulla for a while. Im not sure how I will cope...

Tour de Toona:

Oh what a miserable tour for Health Net/Maxxis.........
I dont really want to go into too much detail but lets put it this way...a comedy of errors the entire week cost us the race. The final nail in the coffin was when our chasing group got misdirected so we lost another 35secs. Oh it was frustrating to say the least. We were in yellow...(Karl Menzies) and we had 5 Healthnet boys drilling back the break. At the line Karl was only 46secs behind the winner of the stage. Take out the missed turn....boof....we are still in yellow comfortably. Big Karl was somewhat filthy with proceedings actually.

Positives...personally speaking...not too many...I found out again I cannot do 20min climbs well. Especially seeing as I have done no hill training. My range is definetly 5-7min climbs or shorter. I can do those well.
The one positive is I felt very good power in my sprint. I never got a chance to fully unleash it for a win other than the first day where Karl and I lost each others wheel. I came out of the last corner there about 7th and managed to roll 3rd in about 100m sprint.
The last day crit I gave it a red hot one to try and gain time on the field for Karl to move back up on GC...Karl and I were jamming...again...great sensations of power so I am happy with that aspect of form.
I have got some very important crits coming up starting this weekend with Bank of America in Charlotte. 25g for the 1st guy across the line. This race is always a brothel. Everyone wants a shot at the coin. Crashes a plenty every year I have done it...finger crossed I can stay clear.