hayden brooks

It's been ages since I last typed something out for the website and an awful lot has happened.  I came home from the US a bit early so I could join up with the Virgin Blue team and race the National Series with them and what a great decision it was.  Hindsight is a beautiful thing - I was a little uncertain of how things were going to turn out when I booked my flight home but as well as getting to see all my loved ones, the racing has been fantastic.  I'm going to have to give a brief summary now I've left it so late.  So here's how my season in Australia has gone:

Tour of the Murray River - 11th overall.  Great race for the team - Kempy took the first two stages and we defended his lead for 10 stages.  Bernie had some great finishes and Rolfey was Most Aggresive a couple of times and 2nd on Stage 3.  Learnt how to work my arse off for the leaders jersey that week.

Goulburn to Citi - 27th.  Bit of a shame that half the team was sick cause I had pretty good legs.  I missed the break that went very early (and stuck it) but I felt great on Razorback with the front of the field.

Tour of Tasmania - 14th overall.  Big climbs, pissing rain, gale force winds, stacks galore, we had everything!  The team nabbed a stage win courtesy of the nipper Michael Hepburn, the Sprint Jersey for Bernie and 5th overall.  Satisfied with my ride but a lot of people were left with a bit of a sour taste with the amount of free laps the race winner had in a couple of crits.

Melbourne - Warrnambool - bunch.  300km!  No race will ever seem long again!  I couldn't believe how early the big guys started to hit each other.  I watched the race winning break of 12 go up the road with 150km to go.  Rolled in with the main field.  Leon Vogels managed 12th!  Glad I did it and will definitely do it again.

So, that's it so far.  One more race left in my season - the Noosa crit tomorrow!  Seems an awfully long time ago when Daz and I drove down to Nationals in Ballarat.  Once I get Noosa out of the way it'll be time to finalise a contract for next year and build up for my first senior National RR!

Nick Scultz Images - Zenfolio

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The Tour of Pennslyvania proved to be a great race for our team.  The race was run very professionally and the route from Philly to Pittsburgh had some tough stages.  The week was made even better because I picked Cass up from the Philly airport a day before the race started.  She was a huge help for me and the guys - not only was she handing up bottles in the feedzone but she was also busy before and after each stage doing our laundry, cleaning and filling bottles and heaps more.  We couldn't have done so well without her or our team support extraordinaire John Gable.  The highlight had to be Jamey's win into Bedford on Stage 3.  The win was made even more special because Bedford is home to the Cannondale factory and it was a big deal for a factory sponsored team to win in front of hundreds of Cannondale employees and their families.  After the stage we took a short tour of the factory and then had dinner with some of the staff.  Since we came back to New England, I have enjoyed an easy week and instead bike riding, I've been showing Cass a few of the beautiful parts of the Northampton area.  We also went into Boston for a day and took a tour, walked around the city and did a little shopping.  For the next three weeks, life is getting a bit more complicated.  Breakfast time now extends almost through to lunch while the Tour de France is live on TV!

There is a bit of a gap on the racing calendar this year with the cancellation of Tour de Toona.  We have a few one day races in July but it looks like a good oppurtunity to get in some k's in the bank to ramp up for the end of the season.

Wow, what a week of racing!  I drove out to Minnesota to race the Nature Valley Gran Prix last week.  I did the race two years ago when I was riding for Subaru and I really like it.  It's a little different to most stage races that we do, in that there aren't any big mountains.  The main obstacles come in the shape of brutal crosswinds on the two road races.  There were also three crits and a great 10km time trial ending up a sweet 1.5km hill.  Our original roster was a full 8 man line up.  The day before the race, A-Rat crashed while we were out spinning around.  He tore his face up really badly and spent a night in hospital.  Not long after we learnt Josh Dillon had crashed the day before his flight and fractured two vertebrae!  We were two guys down before a pedal had been stamped in anger.

The first day proved to be quite controversial - the late evening crit was abandoned halfway through after some rain and plenty of crashes.  One of the offical motorbikes came down and the commisaires decided to halt the race.  They then asked the riders if they wished to pull the pin on the stage and there was a resounding cheer of "yes!"  I heard alot of grumbling the next day - some riders were releshing the conditions and had made big tactical gains up until the stop.  I really benefited from the cancellation but I can understand why some of the big fellas weren't happy.  Mind you, there were a fair few really experienced bike riders on the ground.

The rest of the week was really cool.  The night time crit in downtown Minneapolis on Friday night was unreal - it was reported that there was upwards of 30,000 screaming fans watching us tear around the course.  I was pretty happy with how I rode.  I had been hoping to have one really exceptional stage result.  I didnt do badly but had consistently mediocre days; nothing amazing.  I ended up 41st overall, 9th amateur and 4th young rider.  The best thing about the week was getting some fantastic form for next week's Tour of Pennsylvania.  The race will be one of the biggest of the season for us young fellas on the team.

During the week, the Toowoomba Cycle Club also ran the inaugural Jon Brooks Memorial.  I have heard from various contacts that it went well and the race was tough.  I am so proud to know that my Dad had the same positive effect on others that he had on me.  I am so lucky.

I'm also very excited to hear that my good friend Nathan O'Neill will be back racing before the end of the year after his sentence was reduced following a hearing with CAS.  Toowoomba cycling is doing very well right now - Jared Graves is off to the Olympics in Beijing, Rolfey and Kempy joining forces on Virgin Blue and O'Neill revving up again!

Looking forward to bringing you some great news from Tour of Pennsylvania!

Well, I have been extremely slack updating the site over the past couple of weeks.  I thought before the next big chapter of the season begins I would briefly wrap up what I've been doing the last few weeks.  After Hood, I had a few easy days of light riding and recovering and did a couple of local crits here in New England the following weekend.  It's amazing the form doing a week with the big boys brings you - winning the Saturday crit at Safford Springs raceway felt almost a little too easy.  The following day was a much bigger crit in downtown Hartford, Connecticut.  With a pretty non-selective course, it came down to a big bunch gallop, and after having a nice position a few laps I out I lost a few spots on the second last lap.  I decided to blast through as many gaps in the last lap as I could and somehow moved high enough to get 15th.  Not great but I definitely didnt suffer at all.

Since Hartford I havent raced but I'm doing a small crit tomorrow in Rhode Island and then beginning my two day drive over to Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix.  I have a busy month - I'll have a few days back in New England after the 5 day NVGP before driving to Philadelphia for the 6 day Tour of Pennsylvania.  This is the first edition of the U25 UCI stage race and it looks to be a big deal.  The field will have teams from Europe, Canada, Australia, USA and South America and the stages look pretty serious!  My lovely girlfriend Cass will aslo be joining me for a few weeks too!  I'll keep you posted how it all goes!

The Mount Hood Cycling Classic was a great race this year.  I was pretty happy with how it went considering the field was even more deep than last year.  A few stages were a little different this year, including the first two in inner city Portland.  I had a good time trial mid-week and finished fairly strongly in the downtown Hood River crit.  We had perfect weather - well at least I loved it because it was stinking hot for most of the week!  I have had more than enough time in leg warmers in New England so it was good to get my sweat on!  The few weeks before the race had apparently been super wet and there was deep snow across a few roads, forcing a route change on one stage.

Unfortunately the travel to and from Oregon was a total nightmare!!  Sitting around in airports for hours on end can get bloody boring.  Whitey engaged a total stranger in a 30 metre dash on the airport wheelchairs, which was a good laugh.

I will be training and racing around New England for a little while until my next big adventure over to Minnesota for the Nature Valley Grand Prix in June.  After this past week, I have been jaded by air travel and I'm gonna make the 20hr drive to the race.  It will be another tough stage race but this time the major obstacles are not big mountains but powerful winds!

Thanks for those people that have left me messages and birthday wishes!  I really enjoy reading them.  Until next time, take it easy.

I am spending most of today in airports due to some bad weather sweeping through the eastern states today.  The three of us (SteveO, Whitey and I) are on our way to Oregon for Mount Hood but we got to Hartford this morning for our flight to Portland and found it has been cancelled.  We have a nice 4hr wait until we can fly to Texas and then another flight over to Portland, which wont arrive until midnight!!  Aaarrgghhh!!  Being slugged $100 for a bike box always stings but especially when you have to sit around in an airport lounge all day!  It makes for good people watching though.

Like our new jerseys?

We lined up yesterday at Jiminy Peak ski resort in western Massachusetts after suffering an entire week of miserable weather in New England.  It culminated in rain, high winds and temps around 6 degrees!  Not great weather for bike racing!  Fiordifrutta rolled up with 9 riders for the 150km race with a nice little 1.5km climb up to the finish.  We took the first lap (30km) fairly cruisey but early on the second lap, I got away in a group of 16.  I also had Toby and Whitey with me, so our team had strength in numbers.  The weather was gradually improving and the roads began to dry out.  We swapped off turns and the group worked well together until we came to the final lap.  We had been given a time check of 4 minutes so we decided it was high time we started to attack the group and split things up.  After a few moves Toby made one stick and took 3 guys with him.  They dangled in front of the rest of us for a while but without an organised chase, they rolled away.  Toby blasted to a great win and I picked up 9th and Matt was 10th.  It was a good day for the team - nice to have the numbers and make an attack stick from such a long way out!

It's been raining all day and I dont think the temperature is going to reach double figures today.  Yuck, definitely not nice training weather!  At least it held off so we raced in the dry this weekend just gone.

There were only three of us racing at Sturbridge & Palmer this weekend; a lot of the guys were racing at the Eastern Collegiate Champs, so Josh 'JD' Dillon, Steve 'SteveO' Weller and I knew we were gonna be busy!  The 100km road race on Saturday started off well for us but both Steve and I had some mechanical problems.  JD and I had a nice two up TT to catch the bunch after I had to stop and un-jam my chain.  Steve pretty much rode the last 20km in the little ring.  Even so, we lit it up on the finishing climb but ran out of real estate to chase the break down.  We only ended up with 12th and 18th.

Sunday went much better although it was much colder.  It must have been about 10 degrees for the whole 130km! Brrr.  We played it conservative on the rolling course and the high speed descents discouraged any threatening breaks.  Dillon charged off with 7 others within 20km of the finish and blew their doors off with a few k's to go, whilst SetveO and I hung in and covered the field.  I managed to scrap for 3rd in the bunch kick up the final 1km drag.  1st and 11th wasn't too bad at all!

We will be racing locally for another two weeks then I'll be heading over to the West Coast for my first NRC race of the year.  It's a bit last in the year to be doing my first but I'll have plenty more to look forward to.  Hope everyone back home is doing well and enjoyed the long weekend - would love to hear from you!  Take it easy.

Back in the USA and racing!  I had my first race back yesterday in Upstate NY at the Battenkill-Roubaix Classic.  Yeah, I scoffed at the name aswell when I first saw it but the race was pretty bloody tough.  There was a lot of dirt roads in it and they started almost straight away.  The team had decided that we wouldn't be content to just let the race happen so we took it by the scruff of the neck and attacked like madmen for the first 45 minutes until a small group finally got away with one of our toughest, Josh Dillon in there.  The group opened up a nice lead whilst the bunch played around a bit the dirt roads began to take a toll on the field and whittled it down pretty severley.  I kept myself occupied by jumping on little attacks so no-one snuck away after the break and generally wore myself out.  We had kept our big sprinter Eric Schildge fresh in the bunch and although Dillon was caught coming into the finishing circuit Eric managed to take 4th.  A couple of guys had bridged late in the race, attacked from the front and stayed away through the final few k's of dirt and a good friend of mine, the Quebecois Bruno Langlois took the win.  Must be going pretty strong right now!

Between races, I'm back living in Northampton, Massachusetts.  There are a few "Fruits" in town this year and makes for good company on the long rides!  I first showed up here last week and it was freezing cold - no leaves on the trees, bit of snow out on the road side...  The race yesterday was getting up near 30C though so I'm crossing my fingers we've seen the last of the cold weather!!  We are racing a few more weeks locally before my first NRC race of the year, the Mount Hood stage race in Oregon.  I rode it last year and although tough as, I'm looking forward to going again this year.  The race has changed a little bit but I'm sure the mountain is just as big as it was last time I dragged my sorry carcass up it.

Catch you again soon!

Wow, what a busy past few weeks!

I’ve had some great racing here lately!  The Toowoomba Club held two races out at Oakey and they were great.  Had an awesome race in Saturday evening’s crit then had a pretty ordinary day in Sunday’s circuit race.  The race was run really well but it was a bit of a disappointing turnout for the A graders.

I missed the second race at Crestmead with a bit of a head cold but made up for it on the third race, just this weekend.  I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to get second in a big bunch gallop! The racing was heaps better than previously mainly because I think the new Virgin Blue team kept the Ord Minneters honest.  Daivd Kemp from Toowoomba looks to have a great setup on the new team and is surrounded by a stack of strong riders.  Great to see QLD racing catching up to the rest of the cycling world!

The major event has been the fundraising auction we held on March 1^st.  Without Rolfey, Patty and many more, the night wouldn’t have been such a success.  I was overwhelmed with the generosity of our tight-knit cycling family!  A huge thanks to everyone involved – whether it was donating an item to go under the hammer, bidding or even just showing up for a good night!

Paul Herbert laid down the challenge at the auction – for each person that showed up on the ‘Murray Greys’ ride on Wednesday morning with long footy socks (a trend Paul has been trying hard to set for ages) he would donate $50 towards my trip back to the US.  Such a great idea and proved to be heaps of fun!  Thanks Paul, and thanks to all those who suffered!

Ems - cheerleader at Crestmead #1.  Entire race in a break and caught with 2 to go.  Bugger!

I have been really slack in updating my site, so sorry if there's anyone left still reading it!  An awful lot has happened already this year.

The first major event was our National Champs in Ballarat in mid January.  I was happy with how I went.  They were a few little things I could have done a little better but I improved my TT time by 45seconds and felt comfortable in the road race until the last 15km.  It was a great trip - Darren and I drove down and on the way home stopped in a for a few days with his family in Nowra, NSW.  It was great to see Rolfey's old stomping grounds and have a few days easy on the bike.

I'm well into planning my trip back to the US again to race my second season on Fiordifrutta.  The team is bigger again for this year with 17 riders!!  I'm really looking forward to getting back into some serious racing and meeting my new team mates.  We have a few new races on the schedule for the year too!

On March 1st there will be an auction here in Toowoomba to help me raise the money I need to race abroad all year.  We have some VERY generous donations to auction off!  A genuine 2004 TdF Green Jersey signed by Robbie McEwen;  a limited edition Lance Armstrong Giro Atmos helmet;  MotoGP rider John Hopkins AlpineStar boots and gloves signed;  Chris Vermuelen's MotoGP gloves signed;  a magnum of Penfolds wine;  some amazing artwork and many more!  It should be a great night - all are welcome.  Email me for more info!

Racing has just started for me here in QLD too.  Feeling strong after all the hours I've been doing!

I have probably left it too long to be able to update any of what happened for the rest of my season in the US.  I've been home now for over 2 months and loving it.  Doing stack of training for the 2008 Nationals which will back in Ballarat, VIC in mid-January.  I have been working a bit too to save enough for the big trip again next year.  Another season with the FiordiFrutta team, which I am very excited about.  We just recently moved across town to a much newer house and we're still in the process of cleaning up at Water Street and it'll go on the market soon.

If anyone's still reading this, I hope you have a great Chrissie and New Year's.  Enjoy the summer!  Or winter if you're on the wrong side of the equator.

I should have done an update after Chris Thater Crit two weeks ago because now I have stacks to write about.  The Chris Thater Memorial was really cool if you aren't a big fan of crits.  They say it's a 'road racers' crit - not too technical, a little climb and a slightly longer lap.  I stuck my nose out off the front for a few brief moments early on and then got my legs ripped off for the next two hours.  The race was on local tv,  had heaps of spectators and in the beautiful arvo sun!  Not to mention the twenty grand up for grabs!  Nice.  I payed the price for being too far back with 5 laps to go and gaps started opening up.  Toyota-United had this wicked 'ProTour looking' lead out from 15 laps to go but it seemed to unravel with a lap or two to go.  I got pulled with 2 laps left and given a place in the 40's.  I got to watch a great finish so I wasn't totally bummed.

This past weekend was a long weekend in the USA.  We raced the 4 day Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont.  The first day was a 14km mass start race, the last 10km were uphill.  Four of us drilled it on the flats leading up to the climb to string it out for our three climbers and then I pulled the 'chute and cruised to the finish.  This is the first stage race I have done that is decided by points rather than on time - to be honest I still don't have a clue how the points are divvy'd up.  We had an aggressive circuit race the next day and put a man in the winning 8 man break.  The road race on Sunday was the hardest course of any race we have done this year.  I can't imagine racing it with an NRC field - it would be brutal.  There were four decent climbs, the one to the finish was a beast.  The final 500metres was a 13% wall.  I spent 60km in a break and even did some driving on the front up to the last climb - I had one of my strongest days on the bike all season.  Unfortunately, my forks weren't looking forward to the final day downtown crit in Burlington.  They developed a small crack and I sat it out.

Next up is Univest, a race which I love.  I did it my first year in the States in 05 but missed out last year when we didn't get an invite.  The race is a one-day 170km rage in Pennsylvania with some tough finishing circuits.  I am really looking forward to racing with an NRC field for the last time this season.  Then that big bird home.  Two weeks!!

Bbrrrrrr!  I couldn't believe I was lining up for a race in August in a jacket and shivering!  Autumn really has started in New England and at the Tour of the Hilltowns on the weekend it was blowing a gale and very chilly.  Hilltowns was 160km and super hilly and was made very interesting this year with a diversion 40km before the finish.  The strong winds had brought down a powerline and we were sent through a paddock and down a sketchy dirt road descent.  I was in a break almost from the start and it survived all the way to the end and I ended up 7th.  The wind and two big climbs splintered the race apart and I got up the next morning feeling like a bus had hit me.  So I knew it was a good workout.

Heading over to upstate New York this weekend for the Chris Thater Memorial Crit which has a reputation as being a tough race.

One of the best parts about going down south was spending some time with Nathan O'Neill. I got to meet his baby daughter Lydia who is gorgeous. We went on a great ride around Lake Raban in north Georgia. The road ran right next to the water and was constantly up and down and around blind corners. It was great to see all the holiday houses on the water's edge and enjoy the cool breeze off the lake.

Nathan has set up his own business www.NateEndurance.com through which he offers lactate testing and also bike fitting. We had a look at how I sit on the bike and ended up changing quite a few things. I was blown away with how precise all the measurements are, especially his method for accurately placing cleats on my shoes. Generally, fitting cleats is a “looks-about-right-to-me” fiasco. What's stupid about it is though, it has so much effect on the overall position and ultimately, the power you put out. After just a few rides, I have started to feel much more efficient and natural on the bike. I recommend talking to Nathan about your position. He will be coming back to Toowoomba in the off season and it's the most pro setup you'll find. Interested? Shoot me an email.

I came back north by train from Georgia, which was a huge mistake. You definitely get what you pay for as far as travel goes. Although it was half the price of a plane ticket, I wont ever do it again. Maybe it's because there's less competition in the rail industry compared to up in the air. Long story short, my bike will get to Mass five days after I did. Thanks Amtrak.

I have heard some rumours that Darren and Sandy have started some training in anticipation of my return in Septmeber! Worries me a little! I will be having a nice off season break and looking for a job so they will probably be fitter than me!

Tour de Toona was tough this year.  Really tough.  We had some torrential downpours, sketchy courses, big mountains, a deep field and some freakish crashes.  Here's my back after stage 4 - "something's missing!", I hear you say.  You are right.  The road surface of Main Street of Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania is pretty unforgiving at 45km/h.  But I will forgive it.

It all started out with another(!) 100km crit on Saturday in Mt Holly, New Jersey.  It was pretty flat and nothing too scary.  I was having some weird stomach problems and took me half the race to come good.  Whitey got into a break and ended up taking the points and U25 jersey.  I was back in the field trying to help Josh Dillon get a good result in the bunch kick.  We got to the front a little too early and got swamped.

Toona is 7 days long and this year had two totally new stages.  They definitely made the race a lot harder but with a deeper field, the time gaps at the top of the GC were very small.  I was hoping to ride better at Toona than I did and the team also had some bad luck.  We lost a few guys to crashes or multiple flats.

I got a lift down to Georgia after the race and I am going to spend a week here catching up with all the people I got to know whilst racing here the past two years.  I'm taking the train back up to Mass and will get ready to have a strong ending to the season.  Still some big races coming up - Chris Thater 100km Criterium, Green Mountain Stage Race and the UCI ranked Univest Grand Prix.

Back in late June we raced a night time criterium in downtown Rochester, New York. The race is UCI ranked and 2 hours long and doesn't get underway until 8:30pm. It seems the entire city comes out to watch and apparently there were arond 35,000 spectators around the course and on rooftops. I was stoked to stay in the race all the way until the end. The field was lapped by a break of 6 and I was blown away at how quickly these guys can ride their bikes! A real eye opener!

The next evening we raced another 2 hour crit in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. I was part of a 10 strong breakaway that lasted 1hr45min and we got caught with 4 laps to go!! So close!

Next up was the four day Fitchburg stage race here in Massachsetts. I got a real taste of what some of the workers on the big teams go through on Saturday's road race when a dangerous break got away and quickly put 6 minutes into the bunch! We had seven riders in the race so we saved two guys and the rest of us went to the front and swapped off. We pulled the break back to two minutes so our boys had a chance of bridging up to the front on the finishing climb. In the end we didn't get the result we were capable of but FiordiFrutta had 9^th and 14^th overall.

This past weekend, Mum and I did a little driving around New England and got to see some beautiful places. The best part was taking the cog railway up Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The mountain is enormous and it's mind boggling how the train gets up the tracks. The maximum slope the tracks reach is 34.7% with an average of 25%!!

The team are all racing the US National Champs this weekend and then the following week we have the 7 day Tour de Toona in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Toona this year looks to be a brutal race with a star studded line up. Can't wait to race with the big boys again!

Kicking back at base in Northampton and loving the lazy life! Mt Hood was a fantastic race and I was stoked to get through it unscathed and with a few good rides.  The second last day went up to the ski resort at Mt Hood.  It was an unrelenting climb for the last 50km!  I got through the criterium but was sketch out of my head.  There were a few crashes in front of me and just never really got settled but the legs were okay.  I finished 31st I think which isn't bad.

Next up for me is a few local races and some training before Fitchburg Classic begins at the end of the month.  Mum will be here to visit me and will get to see the race and then hang around afterwards for a few local crits.  Fitchburg is a big race that I did last year.  It's only about an hour and half from Northampton so it's as local as big races get for our team.

Deep into the Mt Hood Stage Race - two stages left.  I had three awesome days of racing so far this week and I couldn't be happier.  Unfortunately I was pretty cooked going into todays 30km time trial and didn't have much strength in the legs.  The good news is Toowoomba still came out on top because Nathan fought his way back into the lead and it's looking like tomorrows HUGE mountain stage will be a massive showdown amongst the big boys.  140km tomorrow.  Last climb - 50km long.  Stay tuned!

Hi everyone! I am back in Massachusetts and enjoying putting my feet up for a few days after two weeks on the road in Arkansas. Tri Peaks was a bloody tough race but we had fantastic weather and I had a few good rides. With our big road trip, I can now tick off 25 states that I have visited in the USA too!!

On our drive back from the 'Dirrty South' we had to drop my team mate Will off in New York City. Will lives right in the middle of all those big buildings and we dropped him off at about 5am on Tuesday morning. There was no traffic so we were able to drive around and see all the sights in about 10minutes! The sun was just coming up and there was no smog – it was fantastic!

Last night my flat mate John and I headed down the road to a local high school where they had a fireworks display to celebrate the seniors graduating. Apparently one of the student's parents owns a fireworks company and put it on for the graduating class. We stood out in the farm fields and watched as the light show went off and it lasted for nearly half an hour!

So I am spending a few days around Northampton. Just doing short and steady rides each day before I fly out to the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in Oregon (on the west coast). This may well be one of the toughest races of the year – not only because there are SO many climbs but also because the very in-form Nathan O'Neill will be there to defend his title from last season!

Hoping to do well out there next week – can't wait to tell you how it goes!

After a VERY long drive (22hours!), we made our way south for the Joe Martin Stage Race in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The race is an NRC event and drew a pretty stacked field of the top Pro teams in the US. The race is 4 stages in three days – 2 long road races, an uphill TT and a downtown crit. The first two road races were not selective enough to split the main field and although there were some big breakaways, Team Healthnet was able to pull everything back together for a bunch sprint. The 4km uphill TT was not fantastic for me – I felt like I rode the first half well but faded a little towards the end. My team mate Matt White rode a blistering time that was good enough for 14th!!

It was the crit that had me the most worried though. I had read an interview with one of the big team directors a few days before and he said he thought it was the hardest crit in the NRC. A little wall up to the finish followed by a series of corners, a screaming downhill and a drag back up to the wall. I didn't do anything amazing in the race. I managed to ride close to the front the entire race as the bunch splintered behind me. I made it to three laps to go after the 90minutes and blew and finished a few minutes down in 48^th out of 120 starters! The race was brutal!

Our next race is Tri-Peaks which starts on Thursday. Being so close, it will be almost the exact same start list as this week's race. The course is much hillier and a day longer aswell!

Thanks to everyone who has left birthday messages for me! It was fantastic to have so much support throughout the week!

The Tour of Virginia is over and I'm back up north in Massachusetss. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the 6 day race.  The prologue and crit on Tuesday went well for me and the team had three riders in the top 15.  However, disaster struck in the first feed zone of the first big mountain road race on Wednesday.  Our number one rider, and stage winner from last year, Josh Dillon, was knocked off by a feeder, scraping him up and damaging his bike.  Josh lost a fair bit of time and the team morale was pretty low. I made it through the second mountain stage okay aswell, not losing too much time over the two category 1 climbs throughout the 180km.  I woke up the next morning though with a head cold and very tight chest.  I decided it would be best in the long run not to try and continue.  It was a really hard decision to make and I was very disappointed not to finish.  I helped out in the feed zones for the rest of the week and the team rode really well - Matt White got 10th overall and Toby Marzot was 3rd in the U23 classification!  I have a bit over a week now until we drive back across the country for Joe Martin Stage Race (3 days) and the Tri Peaks Challenge (4 days) in Arkansas. Both are pretty big races and another good oppurtunity to get in some great experience.

Fingers crossed I get to move into the apartment I will be renting for the next 5 months today or tomorrow.  Looking forward to having my own space and somewehere to base myself out of.

Hope all my friends back home aren't too cold and you're all still riding your bikes!

The shin dig we had down the Cow on Saturday night proved to be a pretty big night but definitely one to remember - if you could.... I couldn't! Thanks very much to all who came and enjoyed the evening with us!

I've just spent my first night here and today I get to meet my new best friend – my bike. Pictures to come soon! It's been cold here this week aswell – apparently snowing occasionally too. Yuck.

This is the view from my hotel room in Taiwan!  Nice mountians, shame about the smog.

So here we go.  I've tried to update the site countless times over the past month or so but really couldn't think what I wanted to say.  As all friends of our family will know, my Dad passed away due to a stroke and further complications early in February.  He died a fit and healthy man and doctors are at a loss to explain to us what caused it.
540 people came to Dad's funeral - a true testament to how widespread his influence was.

I had a tough time riding my bike whilst Dad was sick and after his passing.  If not for Darren, Liv and Sandy, it may have taken quite a bit longer to get back into training.  I have raced a few times since aswell and definitely starting to find some form again.

Late in January, I found out that the team I had ridden for in '06 and was returning for in '07, collapsed.  The news nearly knocked me off my feet.  Hard to come to terms with when one day you're being asked for bike and clothing sizes and the next the team has no money.  So began a frantic search to find somewhere to go racing for this season.  Nathan was a huge help and eventually I managed to score a spot on FiordiFrutta, who are based in the north-eastern states of Connecticut and Massachusetts.  The team has previously been ranked #1 amateur team in the US and I'm very excited to be going to a team with such a great track record.  However, this means I wont be living in Georgia and will have to meet a whole new set of people.  Very daunting!!

It's one more month to go now until I fly out so time to pack in lost of k's.  Thanks to all who came to Dad's funeral or sent cards or flowers - your support made an unmeasurable difference!

Darren and I at the Roller Derby down at the Spotted Cow.  Not sure if this is before or after I stacked it.