Tomorrow when the war Began

Well, every epic night has a day that follows it, and this was certainly one to be remembered. It was decided as Coach Cam left his car at mine, that we should have some breakfast. This concept seems alot easier to grasp than it was in a practical sense in our morning states.

Anyway, after much brainstorming on the location for which this feast was to occur it was decided that Abbortsford Convent Precinct would surely have something open, being hippies. Rudely to our disapointment this was not the case, and the only thing open was Lentil as Anything, for those who are unfamiliar with the concept behind this place, its quiet simple, you pay whatever you believe the meal to be worth, whether its $100 or nothing. Anyway after walking into this fine establishment Cam was already letting them know what they were doing wrong, but thats a story told far better by him.

Lentil as Anything being a primarily organic embrace the sunlight facility, they didnt really offer servings suited to a hangover, no one wants mixed curries for breakfast, so when she wasnt looking we ran, literally ran. We hadn't even had any food, cam hadnt even sipped his water.

We ran out of one of the only places in Australia that you don't actually have to pay.

We then went and spent our life saving gorging ourselves on brunswick street, at the only place i could get away with not wearing shoes, i was having locating issues.

And then we were confronted with the saga that became the cooked vegies in the back of the car that had an inbuilt water/coolant/oil feature.

Luckily it was only a matter of time before real life resumed, which meant a lovely trundle with the lads.

Which turned into a violent trundle where we hit each other with big sticks.
And ate quality athlete food.
Coke and Pizza - Performance Nutrition

In the end it was almost 3 hours for 35 kms, 15km done on bike paths yelling at people in italian

Pickle my liver and call me brandy

Well another christmas night has been and gone, THANK GOD. As much as I enjoy all my friends turning up and getting me drunk, my body can only handle it once a year.

I'll add more to this later

My leg isn't broken......

The Return to Goldies

Well it had been a long time since a did a days work, and being back at goldcross really didnt change that theory one bit at all. As with every christmas the staff tend to go a little coo coo. As illustrated by Bretty and Steffo, Christmas Cowboys.


It was a bit of a shock going back, especially when all the brands on my work shirts Goldies does stock anymore.

Real Pro......

Life from a bag

Well I thought seeing I have this blog I might as well use it. The last few weeks have contained an element of randomness that even I waasn't ready for. With the end of uni for the year I thought what better to do than to head back to bright for a couple of days, mainly for tour of bright and some good old fashion training. Three weeks later I return to Ballarat, having travelled over 1500kms, with one pair of jeans and one pair of shorts.

At least I got some new cycling gear from BBB who's team I'll be riding for in the upcoming bay crits. It's an awesome field, and I'm sure to feel the burn big time, but we have a young team which I think could be one of the more aggressive teams in the peleton. Hopefully we can get up and get a result on one of the days.

Team BBB
Manager – Vaughan McVilly
16.Lachlan Norris
17.Rob Doyle
18.Chris D’Amelio
19.Adam Phelan
20.Michael Phelan

So come down and check us out, BBB is going to have couches and coffee's going. Hopefully I can maintain some form, the aftermath of my little dancing incident has the doctor calling for a cease/reduction of training and some perscription meds to drain the fluid. I asked for some CERA, but apparently it isnt on PBS so it would cost to much.

ULN - Professional Development

Saturday saw a return to melbourne, and a farewell to swordie and gemma back to shabangabang. It also saw one Rob Doyle try to pull some funky moves on the dance floor to impress. I guess looking back it was doomed right from the begining, and the ending well no one is to impressed with the guy who pops his knee out, pops it back in and then drives home with a handfull of ice down his pants.

So with all this out of the way, it was time to get back in to bay series training and what better way to do that, than a training trip to Marengo (or merengo if you ask norris).

This little town sits right next to apollo bay and has to be one of the most scenic beachy places I've been to. Not that im a beachy person, but I was impressed. After some minor direction issues from my host, like streets that were courts and a's that were e's I was finally there.

And what better way to fit in, but to play a good old game of kings. Lach and I weren't drinking due to the 180km hell loop epic planned for the following day, but I will say that playing kings with water is hard. To the point of over hydration and broken sleep.

All around was a pretty peaceful few days, even got time to watch the lads struggle with the modern technology known as fishing rods.

Where's the Porsche?

Week after tour of bright was fairly productive, usually I sit on my arse jaded with the effort cycling requires. That would go on for 11 months until the next Tour of Bright. Had Pip, Dan and Lisa from Drapac-Porsche staying for a couple of days after. It motivated me to ride, unfortunately it motivated the inner wine drinker with in me too. But I guess it was good to let go and live the euro life for a couple of days.

Joe and Stu coped the main grunt of Pat Lanes Sunday Session Hair Salon, skullets all round. Luckily pip and I escaped unharmed with stylish number 4's.

Tour of Bright

Well, it's that time of year again, tour of bright time. Although this year has been a surprising different lead up. The past 3 years I've done this event it has been after a year of drinking and eating, and minimal bike riding let alone racing. This has to leave me quietly confident, well until cyclesport drops me in A grade, but I guess that to can be taken as a good sign.

Lead up week was good, did some alpine kilometres with Cal, looking back it was maybe a few to many alpine kms, but it's all for the greater good. We also managed to set a new coffee to ride ratio, 4 minutes and 10 seconds. There was almost a second stop some 20 minutes after that, but it seemed somewhat excessive at the time. So we waited a further 20 minutes for good measure.

Tour of Bright was good, feeling average the first day was bad. But it gave me a bit of confidence to think outside the box and challenge for the sprint king, something I wouldn't of previously considered, Ended up equal first. As we were riding down hotham at the end I think I can quote Cal in saying he would cry if I won. But it was not to be, countback went on GC (a new concept to me), but at least if you check the results on cyclesport it says I won.

Can I claim that as a victory?