Home soil. For once the euros have come to our dusty brown lands to battle it out for the penultimate world cup of the year and the final race on my calendar for the season.

I was a little under done training wise, having suffered a nasty cold for about 4 weeks but had gladly kicked it just in time for the race. I was fresh to put it mildly, but at least I had that on my side.

Riding into the mount Stromlo ‘arena’ we were greeted with a surprisingly large crowd! The weather was fine and the course, different to the usual Stromlo course threw out some new challenges with a very technical climbing section. I enjoyed the course and found myself making good speed on the flowing descents and having bits of trouble most laps on the climb.

After starting off pretty well I hovered around 25^th for the initial part of the race. I was in good company with Liam Killeen, Christoph Sauser and Olly Beckinsale floating around to name a few. My legs were feeling strong and I had enough punch to keep the speed over the steeper pinches in the course.

Putting the hammer down for the last lap I finished in 19^th place and 3^rd U23. By normal World Cup standards this would have been an unbelievable result, but due to the diminished field it was not quite so good. I was still extremely excited to step onto what I hope will be my first of many World Cup podium appearances!

After some good celebrating it was time to back up for what was to be a mud bath affair of the short track race. As we were riding out to the course the rain began to come down heavily. Macca and I decided best to find refuge under a bridge and take the soft option. Thanks to Paul Brosnan for rescuing us… Jumping out of the car I had just enough time to strap on the number plate and BANG! We were off. My ice block legs kicked into gear ok and I managed to work my way up through the greasy mud to a top 10 position. Getting lapped out 2 laps short of the finish I was about 8^th of a slightly star studded field.

Overall a fantastic weekend was had and I now eagerly look forward to next years World Championships in Canberra in September. For now though, it is finally a time for rest and I will have a some time off the bike to refresh mind and body for what I hope to be a super successful 2009.

Thanks to the Cycling Australia – TIS MTB Team, particularly team mates Dan McConnell, Paul Van Der Ploeg and coach Neil Ross for the fun times.

Thanks to my coach Chris Clarke and all of my friends and family for their continued support. Thanks also to Castlemaine Cycles, Torq Nutrition, Oakley Eyewear, The Victorian Institute of Sport and The University of Melbourne.

Once again the world famous Castlemaine 6hr has rolled upon us. Beggining off with the saturday night shenanigans, of which I opted out to keep an eye on team mate Dan McConnell in Beijing, the weekend was sure to be a success.

The whole field took off without me as I was apparently the only won who hadn’t jumped the gun in the crazy, hectic mass start. I ended up what seemed like almost dead last as we embarked on lap one. I had opted for first lap honours as pairs partner James Maebus had done it last time.

I was feeling ordinary to say the least. Supporting a nasty virus for four weeks it was now in the ‘lung’ phase. I was planning on blowing it out to smitherenes with two cracking laps off the bat. It went somewhat to plan. My horrible feeling legs managed to get me through the field to hand over the baton to Jim with a bit of a lead on the rest of the field and some sore, coughy air bags.

By lap 6, my fourth, I crawled us back to a slight deficit on the other Torq lads. That was all we saw of them. As the race went on the self titled ‘dream team’ went on to prove more of a ‘dreamin’ team’ and we slipped further back. Aparently we were both counting on the other to prop up their slowish lap times… It didn’t work. We still managed a bronze medal in the pairs category and after 6hrs at the helm we had clocked up 13laps. Not too bad.

The weekend as a whole was a great success, a good turn out, evryone seeming to be enjoying themselves and plenty of weiry legs in cars on the way home. A credit to the MTB superpower that is The Rocky Riders MTB Club. Thanks to the crew for all their hard work that made weekend operate with ‘well oiled machine’ status.

Thanks to Torq once again for their tender loving care, ohh and superior nutrition. Thanks to the CA National – TIS MTB Team, Friends and Family, Chris Clarke, Uni Melb Sport, VIS, Castlemaine Cycles, and Oakley.

Starting my weekend off with the criterium in Sturt st, I endeavored to open things up and test out how things are going. After a few weeks with training affected by a cold I was unsure how things would pan out over the weekend that was host to the state championships.

I got through the 45minute race feeling pretty good. My first crit for well over a year and I was having no trouble staying towards the front of the race and when the last few laps came around I was caught a little further back than I would have liked but ended up in the bunch (19^th) of the 80 or so strong field. I was pleased with how things felt on the bike and was looking forward to the 150km road race. Back home to Barkers Creek for a sleep in my own bed!

The pace was solid but not rediculous for the first few of the 15 lap road race around the familiar 10.2km ciruit at Bunninyong which has seen numerous National Championships. A few smaller breaks trying to get off the front. I sat tight realising they weren’t getting far. Around lap five the 100 strong field was slowly getting whittled down, a break snuck off and started to look quite serious with all the major teams represented. Thinking I probably should get out there things heating up over the next lap with guys trying to jump across. Finally I joined a group of around 10 an started to make my way across what was now about 2.5mins.

The group wasn’t working well and as we hit the halfway mark of the race, I slipped into a good solid tempo up the climb. I was feeling good and I was hoping that by upping the pace the group could be culled to the few who were serious about crossing the gap to the front group. By the top of the climb I was on my own but before long fellow MTB racer Chris Jongeward joined me and we chopped off for the remainder of the lap. We were going fast, we were now about 1 and a bit minutes off the lead group as we commenced the climb. My legs began to feel ‘not so good’ and struggling to hang onto chris’ wheel up the climb he eventually got away from me. No mans land. It was further back to the bunch than to the front group so for the next couple of laps I had a crack at closing the final minute or so. But I was not making ground and my legs were running out of goodness so I decided to sit up and wait for the bunch.

I grinded the last few laps home and was super relieved to cross the line after a fairly tough 4+hours on the bike. Finishing around 30^th, the course had claimed about 60 victims to DNF. I was very pleased with the weekend, I had made use of a good opportunity to get the body into race mode before the final World Cup in 2 weeks time.

Thanks to friends and family, Chris Clarke, The CA National – TIS MTB Team, Castlemaine Cycles, Torq, Oakley, Melbourne University Sport and the Victorian Institute of Sport.

Well the cold has literally caught up with me. Battling to shake a pretty good bug for the last two weeks today I finally gave in to the last resort… a visit to the doc. Should be business as normal soon!

As the rain fell Saturday night, I begame a little pessimistic about the coming days race. Also, in an idiotic act of sleep deprivation I chose to stay up until 2am in the hope that Cadel may have claimed the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. Back up at 6 and off to the Lysterfeild, the site of the Commenwealth Games MTB race and a few National Series races in the past. I knew the area pretty well and was aware of the k’s and k’s of flowing smooth singletrack that existed in the park.

Pairing up with past National Team member James Meabus we were ‘All Torq’. Somehow managing to get out of the first lap, Jimmy began his assult on the 300ish field consisting of various sized teams and riders… After lap one we were in a close second thanks to Jims stellar start. I managed to pull out a resonable lap and consolidate a good lead by the end of lap 2.

And that is how the day went. It rained and got really cold, but feulled on Torq bars and Gels Jimmy and I produced consistantly fast lap times. With forty minutes to go (a lap took about 40mins) before the 7hrs was up, I was caught releasing some pre-lap fluids when Jim came into the interchange. Oops. A bad mistake, we lost around a minute but I was pretty sure we had a really good lead by then anyway. None the less I went out and smashed possibly one of my better laps of the day on adrying course. Coming home in 37minutes I was devastated to hear the commentator shouting “2minutes to go now” as I rolled into the finish.

Did we need to do another lap or could we sit it out and assume we had a bigger gap than 2 mins?? Somehow convinced I headed out for another. The nail in the coffin, and the end to a very solid 7 hrs 45 of racing. We were victorious by at least a lap. A great result and very releiving to find I had some really good legs all day.

Thanks to Team Torq for looking after us and keeping us warm in the magnificient Torq Trailer. Thanks to Cycling Australia National – TIS MTB Team, Oakley, Castlemaine Cycles, Uni Melb Sport, The VIS, Chris Clarke and all my Friends and Family for their support.

Well, having only put the winter woolies away about 7 weeks ago they have had no threat from moth chew. They are officially back out as I get stuck into training again after a few relaxed weeks on the bike. Finally getting in some longer rides I am feeling better each day!

After a distict lack of sleep and a weary 4am drive to Malpensa airport I was hopefull that everything would go smoothly for my return journey.

But I must have upset the gelati gods when I chose fragola for my final feast because after only 2hrs of travel the wonderfull Alitalia airline staff had managed to completely loose both my mountain and road bike and my bag in the void that is ’somewhere between Milano and Roma’. Damn, looks like I won’t be on the bike for the next few days…(or wearing clean clothes)

Villabassa is a small and extremely pictureseque town in the north eastern most piont of Italy. At about 1200m altitude the town lies in a valley bordered on virtually all sides by giant mountains and exposed rocky cliffs. Needless to say the 120km marathon race was not going to be flat, a mere 3800 metres of climbing to be covered. Pulling back the curtains on race morning I was quite blinded. The day was perfect, just the kind of thing you really hope for on an epic day like this.

With the pockets full of petrol and legs in good ‘marathon form’, having not done a ride over 4hrs for about 6 weeks, it was time to get serious. And serious it was.. starting off a the standard blistering world cup XC race pace, the body was quick to kick into gear.

The first nastily steep and loose climb took around forty five minutes. I was feeling pretty solid on the climb, staying just below threshold with relative ease. I picked up a few places and then on the descent again starting bringing guys back. Starting off loose, fast fireroad we continued to drop into some fairly technical, rooty and rocky singletrail. It always makes things interested when you hit a track for the first time at race pace, and I had to adopt my A-game to stay upright. Then, all of a sudden my straightline technique beginned to show its downside as I heard the formiddible spray of air and sealant coming out of my rear wheel at a rapid rate.

After fixing the flat pretty quickly I continued to descend gingerly, now not having a spare for the remaining five hours… Coming through the feed zone I was told I was only around four minutes down on the leaders, not bad after an hour I thought and I kept the speed on the flat section that followed.

Its about here that things get a bit blurred, feeling strong for the first three or so hours, I kept a good tempo on the climbs and tried to remain smooth on the down, now with a CO2 induced pressure of about 50psi in the rear tyre. At least I wasn’t going to pinch flat… It did however make the loose graveling fireroad descents a little precarious. Some time after feed zone 2 I found myself comig into a sharpish right hander a little warm and the rear wheel skipped out into a drift. A drift I held nicely right across the road and over the four metre or so high, stump and rock riddled, 50 degree embankment. Thankfully I landed smoothly on my head. Shaken but not stirred.

The climbs in this blurry middle section of the race were as brutal as the first and theres was an hour in there I found myself with only one bidon. One empty bidon. Not ideal. The sun had some kick in it and I was relieved when finally Ivan swung me a feed bag full of liquids and other carbohydrate rich goodies. I quickly gorged myself and prepared for the remaining 50km or so. The dimming lights had regained some glow.

The next memory is seeing the 30km to go sign. A good sign to see but 10 would have been nicer. It was here that the lights really began to dwindle. A belly full of undigested carbohydrates and a pair of quite digested quadracepts was not helping the issue at all as I took on one of the final climbs, a 14km, mostly road drag at about 13% gradient. I began to go backwards. The mental battle really bagan here. The next 30km of my life was to take for ever, well at least 2hrs.

Final feed zone and 15km of steeply undulating terrain to go. I declined everything, verging on giving some of the stuff in my stomach back to the boys on the way through the feed zone. But I managed to hold it in and by now the battery pack was completely out of charge. Im not sure how I got there but when I rolled through the finish line with a smidge under 6hrs on the clock I was stoked. And completely nailed.

The race was given to Roel Paulison from Belgium after a contriversial, tangled, gravel rashed last 100 metres of sprint with world champion Christoph Sauser. What a way to end the day hey!

Well done to all the other Aussie crew battling it out there and thanks to the support crew. Thanks to the Cycling Australia – TIS MTB Team, Castlemaine Cycles, Uni Melbourne Sport, The VIS, Oakley Torq, Chris Clarke and my friends and Family.

And that closes the chapter on a hectic 13 weeks, 15 races, a dozen flights, close to 50 hrs in the van, countless torq gels, loads of lactic acid and plenty of good times. Its now time to jump on the cattle class express back to the lovely big brown (possibly coldish) land.

Brilliant blue skies, green hills and snow capped peaks greated us as we rolled into Champery, nestled in the heart of the French Alps. I was travelling in style for a change, swapping the transit van for one of the newer fleat of ford focus’. I was accompanied by Dave McPartland and Mark Williams, more accustomed to the road side of things these boys were in for a treat.

We all cut a lap of the totally new course which included a long gradual rooty, rocky and very technical descent followed by a brutal bitumen/fireroad climb. I liked the course and when the time to head to the start line came around I was, although struggling with a little post Worlds low motivation, ready to go.

A poor start saw me back in the 20’s somewhere and I managed to pull back guys on the descent, which was too my tastes, particularly nice and dry! Laps 2 saw me trade a sealant gushing wheel for a freshy and 3 and 5 of the 7 were my best but I managed to stay quite consistant throughout the race. Finishing in 14^th place and 4^th U23 I had managed to scrape inside the top 15 which put a little arthur ash in the sky rocket for some post race rehydration. Once again I had found myself having a consistant, decent day, but still nothing quite special. One race to go now, the Marathon World Championships next weekend and then I can lay to rest this hectic three month spring racing season.

Thanks to the Cycling Australia National – TIS MTB Team, Friends and Family, Chris Clarke, Oakley, Melbourne University Sport, The VIS, Torq and Castlemaine Cycles.

Just a quick note to congratulate Team mate and close friend Dan “Mac Dad” McConnell on being selected for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Pending any appeals that may go on he is set to be conversing in chinese in august. I must admit I am a little jealous! If it couldn’t have been me, you could not select a better bloke… All the best mate.