Birthday Blog

Quite a lot has happened since my last blog actually! While out riding I have seen a deer walk in front of me while out riding, a dead snake on the road, a house that looks like it is out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre or some scary movie! Seen groundhogs, squirrell's and chipmunks all on my rides near Kutztown! I have also had 2 birthday's because thats how I roll....

Well actually my birthday is today (July 30th) but it was yesterday (NZ time) so I have had birthday wishes for two days now which has been pretty cool! One year older and so much has happened in the past 12 months, I have gone from being cripple after Junior Worlds last year where I broke my collarbone, to getting on the podium in Europe and now racing in USA where some of the best track riders in the world have raced. One downside about having my birthday in USA is that I can't even enjoy a birthday beer with my dinner! (I turned 19, drinking age here is 21...) We are going to go to the local tavern/restaurant for dinner as they make some decent sized meals for a good price. Us cyclists eat a lot of food so a big meal is the norm in our house!

For those of you that thought I may have had a day off the bike, think again... I decided to do vO2 efforts on the erg! (High cadence efforts) I probably chose the best time of the day to do them as well, try 1pm when it is the hottest part of the day. This was not my choice, we only have one Erg so have to book it and Novie (Shane) had booked it from 10-1 so I decided I would be next in and do them outside in about 30degrees! I always enjoy the erg, I know it is going to be hard, but only as hard as you want to make it... It is probably one of the most punishing, and beneficial cycling tools made! The photo's and video's are of me doing my birthday erg efforts thanks to Shem, he was pretty sweet camera skills as you can see in the video ha!

Unfortunately I haven't recieved any big parcels in the mail from mum or any friends but i'm hoping they have been lost in the mail and will turn up soon haha!

We have track racing tomorrow night which is called "Tandemonium Night" where the highlight event of the night is the tandem racing, unfortunately i'm not going to be participating! I have seen some of the tandem's and they tend to get a bit flexy in their old age, who knows what might happen if ya chuck two big kiwi's (like myself) on one of the old tandems, so i'm happy to watch! There are other races for the Pro Am grade which is what we race in so am looking forward to getting on the track again, hopefully with the weeks training and efforts i've been doing I will be able to find some good legs and enjoy the track again!

Will update ya on the racing and hopefully get a few snaps of the racing too...

Over and out from the birthday boy

First week in T-Town

Hi all this is my first post on my new blog , still a bit shaky on how this thing works but I will give it a crack!

Arrived in New York at JFK Airport last Thursday 23rd July but my travelling wasn't done there, had to catch a bus to Kutztown which is about an hour and a half inland from New York but took well over 2 hours on the bus! Finally arrived in Kutztown which is where I will be living for the next 6 weeks.

Was straight into it on Friday and went for a wee roll around the area then had track racing that night at the velodrome in Trexletown (T-Town) which is an outdoor 333m concrete track! Some black clouds decided to roll in and cover the track but fortunately for us it decided to move on and let us ride our bicycles around in circles. It was a good feeling to be back on the track, the last time I rode my bike was March at track nationals in Invercargill where I ended up hitting the deck (once again) in my last race the Kierin final, I was a bit worried but decided to harden up and light the racing up with the rest of the kiwi boys!

There are heaps of kiwi's living here in Kutztown and racing the crits and track in the area. 6 of us moved on from Belgium with the BikeNZ Development Squad and met 2 other kiwi girls here Gemma Dudley and Jaime Neilson who we are living with. We had a good first night on the track , Shane Archbold won the overall omnium series for the night winning 2 races and getting second in another. My body was tired from all the travelling but I pulled up OK and helped the other boys out where I could!

Saturday was a 30mile (50km) crit about 45minutes from home. The weather was good hitting about 30-35degrees, we need air conditioners instead of heaters like back in NZ at the moment haha! Went well for the boys, Aaron got 2nd, Shane 4th, Jason 5th and Shem 7th. I was in the break with Jason and Shem but hit the wall with about 4laps to go so decided to shut it down and pull out, I don't want to push myself too hard in the first few days otherwise I will put myself into a hole and won't be able to find form for the rest of my time here!

Other than that all is going pretty well, settled into USA way of life pretty well. It is a bit easier than Belgium as they speak the same language and many of the foods are similar!

Will try keep the blogs coming if I remember!

Catch ya'll later