Well I wrote this blog about a week ago and just realised I never posted it. So here it is. I will write another one after Gateway Cup finishes on Monday. It's the third race this afternoon of four so hopefully it will be a good form finder.
After a partly successful weekend in Indianapolis classes start at uni today. I've been pretty fortunate with my timetable this semester with my ealiest class at 11am and the latest finishing at 4pm. Will give me plenty of time to train and do other things.
Back to Indy, when we eventually finished squashing 8 bikes and luggage into our american team mate, David's, people mover Chev, Owen (the newly crowned Missouri State Track Champion), David and myself were on our way to Indianapolis on Friday evening. After some last minute changes we organised to stay at one of David's teammates house. Thanks to Tim and his family for putting up with us. With an extremely humid 35 celcius (95 faren.) day behind us we hit the velodrome on Saturday night not really knowing what to expect. We were racing many guys from the Marian College cycling team who we would be competing against at the track nationals in a few weeks. To be honest it was a wake up call and I found myself in desperate need of more leg speed. Owen and chev did much better then me with Owen being in a 3 man break with 2 marian guys. Unfortunately they worked him over but Owen was hapy with his ride...his time would come tomorrow.
On Sunday we raced a criterium at the Indy fair grounds. With a small field of about 20 we were pretty confident that we could go home with the win as we had four people in the race. After some early attacks by everyone in the team and then some awesome work by David to bring back a break Owen tried his luck again and went solo with about 25min left in the race. Everyone else just looked around and no one chased. Owen continually extended his gap and comfortably held on for the win. Owen's break gave me and chev a very easy ride to end as we just sat in. Unfortunately we weren't able to take a place. Everyone came away satisfied with how they raced though. Till next time, cya.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Living the Dream
Well I'm finally over here. After a 13.5hr flight to LA and then a further 3.5hrs to St.Louis our team manager; an all American 6'3", 250 pound tobacco chewing 6 car owning yank drove us to our dorm rooms at Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri. I was lucky enough to be offered a sporting scholarship along with 3 other Aussies; Owen Belton, Nick Chevalley and Paddy Kilmurray. Watch out Lindenwood! I thought one of the best things to do as I'm so far away from the people I left in Australia was to start a blog...seems like the thing to do these days anyway. So this is it and I hope to update it at least once a week. Hope you enjoy it.
Riding and racing wise it has been pretty full on so far. We have done a few small crits (short circuit races lasting about an hr) and some track (velodrome) racing so far along with a lot of training. The weekend just passed we had the Missouri State Track Championships. After only being in the country for a week and a half my room mate Owen has come away being awarded the MISSOURI STATE TRACK CHAMPION! Only Owen could manage it i guess. Overall it was a good weekend though and gave us a good taste 
of what the track racing is like over here and how we work as a team on the track. The next couple of weeks are just more crits, with a major series in 2 weeks and some more track racing. Of course these are all training events for the USA cycling National Collegiate Track Championships in Colorado Springs starting on 11th of September.
St. Charles is a beautiful town with a spread out population of around 60 000. The town center is right on the Missouri River and has an awesome historic main street which is st
ill cobbled and has plenty of bars, restaurants and shops. I've been here for two weeks now and one word to describe the United States of America so far...HUGE! The drive back from the airport amazed me, no one or two lane Pacific Highway here...4 or 5 lanes each way and all the time, entry ramps, exit ramps, over and under passes everywhere! I'm glad I haven't had to drive yet, I'm only just getting used to the fact THEY drive on the wrong side of the road here. Up till now my days have been very crusiey. They've basically consisted of riding, working, exploring the town and getting ready for uni to start. The riding is great around here and one of the first things you notice is how nice the drivers are to cyclists compared to back home; no horns, flying projectiles or side mirrors that shave your arm as they go past. If I travel one it doesn't take long until we are riding through corn and soy been crops with hardly a car on the road. Travel another way and it's not long until we are riding an awesome bike path around a lake and through a forest. Another thing that hits you is how green everything is here...no water restrictions or farming trouble to be heard of.
ill cobbled and has plenty of bars, restaurants and shops. I've been here for two weeks now and one word to describe the United States of America so far...HUGE! The drive back from the airport amazed me, no one or two lane Pacific Highway here...4 or 5 lanes each way and all the time, entry ramps, exit ramps, over and under passes everywhere! I'm glad I haven't had to drive yet, I'm only just getting used to the fact THEY drive on the wrong side of the road here. Up till now my days have been very crusiey. They've basically consisted of riding, working, exploring the town and getting ready for uni to start. The riding is great around here and one of the first things you notice is how nice the drivers are to cyclists compared to back home; no horns, flying projectiles or side mirrors that shave your arm as they go past. If I travel one it doesn't take long until we are riding through corn and soy been crops with hardly a car on the road. Travel another way and it's not long until we are riding an awesome bike path around a lake and through a forest. Another thing that hits you is how green everything is here...no water restrictions or farming trouble to be heard of.Riding and racing wise it has been pretty full on so far. We have done a few small crits (short circuit races lasting about an hr) and some track (velodrome) racing so far along with a lot of training. The weekend just passed we had the Missouri State Track Championships. After only being in the country for a week and a half my room mate Owen has come away being awarded the MISSOURI STATE TRACK CHAMPION! Only Owen could manage it i guess. Overall it was a good weekend though and gave us a good taste of what the track racing is like over here and how we work as a team on the track. The next couple of weeks are just more crits, with a major series in 2 weeks and some more track racing. Of course these are all training events for the USA cycling National Collegiate Track Championships in Colorado Springs starting on 11th of September.Until next time, stay safe and Live Your Dream.
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