On the road to Superweek

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July 15, 2008

G'day,

I am walking along aimlessly with four hours to spare, getting run over by wheelie bags and getting stopped by people standing still acting like a chicane in the middle of passage ways. I must be at an airport!

I am back on the road, heading to Seattle to race BC Super week in and around Vancouver. We will race two three-day tours, both consisting of a prologue, crit and road race and two stand alone crits. I have fond memories from Gastown two years ago so I look forward to getting back there. I also loved my time in Seattle last time I was there, it's a cool city.

I was going on this trip, then not going, then going again. It was all up to how my hand pulled up and how much training I got in. My hand healed quicker than expected and I was riding with less pain than expected after two weeks so I got the nod to head north for these races. Not only to race, but to get race fit for Charlotte and Tour of Utah. I'd love to say I was gee'd for Tour of Colorado but like many of the other races in recent times, it's been cancelled. There is not too much left on the calendar for this year.

After Tour de Beauce, I had almost four weeks back in Nashie. I could only mange 2-3 hour rides and felt like I was glued to the road for at least three weeks. One day I was considering throwing the pushy in the river 5k from home. However, I didn't and I feel a lot better on the bike now and have been putting in the good miles again. I don't think I will shock anyone with my outstanding form but I am certainly keen to race, and race hard. I have no pressure, no expectations; I just want to race my bike.

While I was back in Nashie I had a fair bit of time on my hands seeing I wasn't doing a whole lot of training when I first got back and I couldn't exactly hit up the golf course. I have started dabbling in coaching and been working on setting that up. The last few weeks though, my girlfriend Ali has been back in town for two weeks before see heads to Euroland for a trip.

We threw a barbie for the 4th of July here, but put it on Aussie style. A good ol' fashion barbie with some front yard cricket, before riding down to the centre of Nashville on our town bikes to watch the fireworks. It took us five minutes to ride home verses the 40 minutes in the car. The car drives were irate.

Summer has hit Nashie and that means it's early starts in the morning on the bike, and a lot of sweating whatever you do. It also means it's town bike season. Of a night it's good to just cruise down to dinner, the coffee shop or the bar on the townie. I think I have clocked up just as many miles on my rusty old townie that I have on my race bike for this season.

I just want to throw thanks out to Doctor Ross who helped out a lot when I first crashed and the legend and good mate Craig O'Neill who got right onto setting me up with a hand specialist as soon as I stepped back into Nashville. The comeback would not have been as easy.

Cheers,

Willo