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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Tour of CaliforniaMost of you by now know that I did not finish stage 3 of the Tour of California, but will not know the reason. The weather
for the first 3 days was totally brutal. It rained from stage to finish and most days were 5 hours long. The terrain was another
factor that did not suit me (hills) stupid hills. On stage 3 we started off nice and easy then the race course directed us
straight up a category 1 climb for 6 kilometers and it blow the race apart, not to mention that this was only 10km into a
170km day! Because of the weather and most of Team V coming straight from Australia we really suffered with the conditions.
I'm now sitting in bed crook as a dog and totally bummed, mainly because this was the biggest race of my career and I
feel its just gone down the drain. Anyway this is bike racing at it finest.......
Now on antibiotics for a week
and back into it straight after that. Next race is called Tour of Murrieta which I won last year so the team will be gee'd
for that.
Sorry for the disappointing news but trust me no one is more dissapointed than me.
JC
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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Cycling Central Report
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Sunday, February 8, 2009
First race, Boulavard Road RaceHello everyone,
Well my trip to the US was fairly easy. However sitting on a plane for 13 hours straight is never
fun!
The Aussie's boys and I arrived on Thursday into LA airport. we then ventured down to a place called Encinitas
which is about 2 hours south of Los Angeles. The house that we have been hooked up with for the next week before we head to
Tour of california is incredible. I have no idea how this worked out but non of us are complaining. Just picture
something that you would watch on MTV television "its that big".
So we had our first race called the
Boulavard Road Race and we all had high expectations of eachother. This was also the first race that the Aussie's
and American's had togther. On the morning of it was raining and freezing cold, so it was not good coming from summer
30 degree's into raining and 1 degree, not to mentioned that it started to SNOW on the start line! yep that's right
snow.......
So there's not much else to report from my end in regards to the race except that Team V/ Australia
made their presents felt with Ben Day winning, David Kemp 3rd, Charles Dion 4th and Bernard Sulzberger 5th. Very good start
to the US year.
However today is another race called the Red Trolley criterium and I have to make
up for yesterday's softness ha.
Talk soon.
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
New team, New yearWell what a past few months it has been. I haven't updated my blog for awhile mainly because I didn't think I would
need to with the way my cycling career was going and the economic world is. Most of you know that the new team
V/Australia has taken shape and I'm very happy to be involved with such a great team and program. The
good news came of the first Australian Professional Cycling Team called Team V Australia presented by Successful Living. I
signed the deal to be the teams main sprinter for 2009 on December 15th when I got a call from team owner Chris
White. I had so many negative thoughts running through my head all through October, November and December that I was just
not going to sign a new contract for 2009. There are so many guys and friends out there that were in the same boat as me and
even though I had a fairly successful year my confidents was very low. One of the positives to this team is that Henk
Vogel’s from Toyota-United would be retiring and taking on a new challenge as a ‘Director Sportif’ for the
team. The team’s line up seems to be very strong with riders such as Ben Day, Nathan O’eill, Scott Davis and the
2009 Australian criterium champion Bernard Sulzberger. We will compete in America, Asia and Australia with the hope of competing
in the Tour of California this February. It feels great to be apart of something that is getting produced out of your own
country and we are hopeful to make our mark globally. My first team race will be the Jayco Bay Crits in Melbourne from the
2nd to 6th of January and then we head to Ballarat for the Australian Road Championships on the 11th.
With Bernard winning the criterium championship, it would be nice for one of us to take home the road jersey as well.
All the best.
JC
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