Christmas, nationals and the exciting year ahead

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Australia, January 2006

It's been a while since you heard from little ol' me, but there's been a lot happening! I changed teams for 2006, heading over to the Nobili Rubinetterie-Menikini-Cogeas team (what a mouthful!), which is great, because I love Italy! Then there was Christmas and New Year's to look after - Christmas is always good - I spent it with my family. I really love Christmas Day, but I hate the lead up to it - so stressful! Everybody gets all stressed about silly things, like what type of salads will be had, what kind of meats we want; who's giving which present...it's ridiculous! Who cares? It's really about the day, and I enjoyed it with my family before ending up at the ocean baths at about 8:30 at night in Newcastle. It was the most beautiful evening - really cool!

The week following Christmas I was preparing for Bay crits and national's, but there were a few more family duties to look after. New Year's Eve I spent at my friend's new restaurant - for us a digustation menu was the order of the day; it was a really nice way to say goodbye to 2005 and my friends before I was back into the racing. With Bay crits, nationals and the week during Tour Down Under I was away for a month. Another few weeks and it'll start all over again!

Recently I've been in Adelaide racing national's; it was one of those things...I was really disappointed in my time trial results - I'd worked like crazy to come up with a good result on the day. I was happy with my road race, even though I didn't podium. I felt like I tried everything, but wasn't with the winning move on the day - them's the breaks and life goes on! I had a lovely stay on Henley beach, which made it a great week - hanging with some of the crew was a whole bunch of fun.

I'm really looking forward to my new team this year. I've been wearing the kit for the last month and I feel really Euro pro and look really cool...ha! My new bike's really cool too - I've got a new Guerciotti and it's awesome. It feels really nice! I'm at home in Newcastle now, and my team are coming out to race the Geelong world cup and the Geelong Tour. Over the next few weeks I'm going to really focus on getting some good form for Geelong and New Zealand, and hopefully that'll carry over to the Commonwealth Games. More about the Tour Down Under week and my preparation for Geelong, etc in my next diary - stay tuned.

Arrivederci,
Liv