Life udpate!

So what the hell has been happening?? So much!

Here's the overview -

America is awesome. The people, the places, the weather. The food. Oh, the food.

The racing is fast and furious, and mostly fun. There's a few gremlins in my head still, but I know the 'spark' is still there.

There's been plenty of crits, and a few road races. I managed to win a sprint jersey & come 2nd overall at the SRS Albany race, round 1 of a series, however unfortunately I'm not going to be able to defend as the team will be at North Star GP in Minneapolis.

We raced last weekend at the Parx Casino Philly Classic, which didn't go as well as hoped, but it was a pretty awesome experience. The crowds were amazing. 'The Wall' was insane. For the Melbournites - picture Yarra St, but stretch it a good 3 x longer. Repeat 5 times at race pace, entering from close to a standstill due to the technical turns beforehand. Yep, ouch.

Then it was off to Canada for the GP Cyclist Gatineau, another UCI 1.1, things improved for this one and the team worked amazingly and Flavia managed to get in the winning break. A photo finish later and she was announced 2nd! I tried to help Joanie for the sprint, and moved her up, where she managed to take 11th. Happy days!

Now we're in Minneapolis, Minnesota ahead of the North Star GP (used to be Nature Valley). It's an NRC race and all the top teams are set to be there so it should be good fun! It's been so long since I did a proper stage race, it'll be interesting to see how the legs go over 5 days, 1 x TT, 2 x Road Races & 3x Crits! Let's hope this year there aren't any tornado's to cause stage cancellations....

Walking in to a host house with a good coffee machine, everyone sighs in relief.

MERICA

It's official. Chipolte post mountains ride beats Moes - any day.

Loving the riding here!

Just some post ride snake wrangling... ummmm... MERICA

At least the long car journey to Canada was done in relative comfort!

Where has the time gone? 3 weeks in the US already!

It's hard to believe that I left Aus 3 weeks ago.. Since being here I've already raced 6 times, across 3 different states, spent about 25-30 hours in the car traveling to said races, met some amazing people and ridden in some beautiful places!

Instead of a blow by blow, here's more of a picture blog - 

My new training grounds, just outside of Athens Georgia. Beautiful country roads everywhere!

The 'pond' out the back of where I'm living.

The view from out the back deck. Such a great spot, I love it here!

First ride, first coffee stop. Jittery Joes, an Athens institution!

First ride with the team, pre Charlotte Crit

Whole Foods = Heaven.

I've been so luck to have been able to stay with some amazing host families already. The Tussey's from Winston Salem had a beautiful house, set on a Golf Course.

The Men's & Women's race are run on the same courses right after each other. It means the fans get to see more racing and the festival can be made much bigger!

It's ok, I've found my favourite apples!

Cafe/Bakery in Winston Salem, needless to say, this is where most of the riders ended up.

Some dirt road action out the back of Watkinsville

Chipolte! YES!

Posing at the Athens Twilight Crit, watching the men's race.

Big group shot from pre Athens Twilight Dinner!

The Twilight weekend contingent at the Dowd Hostel for itinerant cyclists

Blue skies, smooth roads = happy cyclist

Up next is the rest of 'Speed Week'. There's 3 more races to go, and whilst I'm still struggling a little with my post accident phobia of being in the bunch, I'm hopeful that things will keep improving with each race!

From there we have a bit of a break in our racing schedule, and I'm super excited to get some time at 'home', suss out the local riding a bit more and do more than just a few 1-2hr reco rides. Really keen to head up north a little to ride some of the Georgia Mountains with some of my awesome team mates!

Exciting News!

Well, finally all the paperwork is done.. The Visa is approved, the flights booked, the International Licence is in the mail, so it’s time to announce my exciting plans for 2014!

America!

This year I’ve been lucky enough to sign for the Georgia based Garneau Factory Team - http://lgfactoryteam.com/

I head off in just over 2 weeks, and whilst the form is lacking after my broken collarbone incident, I’m excited to get over there and to experience the amazing race culture I’ve heard so much about from all my friends who’ve raced there! I'm sure I'll get race fit pretty quick after what I've heard of how fast the crits are!

Plus, anyone that knows me, will know that the team kit is perfect for me -

Follow the team blog on our website, or the team twitter @LGFactoryTeam, for up to date info and race reports. I’ll still be blogging and keeping you updated on here too, and trying to keep a bit more consistency in updates over the 6 months that I’ll be away!