Cyclist?

climbing stairs on comeback street

2012-01-29T00:56:00.000-08:00

Well Im starting to see a large light at the end of a pretty testing period, im in girona im back on my bike and things are looking up,

I left home for the team presentation on the 4^th of jan, as exciting as it was it was also a huge tax coming to the snow of luxeburg strait out of summer and being sooo jetlagged standing on a stage for a few hours while the new team was revealed. It made me realize just how huge this whole operation is. I cant really describe to people in nz what cycling Is to Europeans but something similar to what rugby is to us. Anyway Im glad I went to December camp because coming over was easy as I already knew most of the team and staff .

After a few days in lux we had our own private charted flight to palma Mallorca which for a rookie like me was pretty cool, rolling up to the airport and seeing the team logo on one of the screens.

Mallorca was a 2week training camp and by the looks of the guys after their training it was pretty tough, I would of probably lost the plot sitting through another camp not being able to ride but after declaring world war three on my knee/ITB syndrome it started to come right which briefly made me the happiest man in the world until I realized just how unfit I was. I was only riding 2 hours max at about half the pace I normally do 6 hour rides at and I would come home and sleep and be rooted for the whole arvo, the camp was actually really cool, getting to know the guys more and by the end of the camp I was able to do parts of the rides with the boys or the development team sometimes. We stayed at a mint resort with all the mint german food ran at full German efficiency. Got all my new toys from the team which kept me in good spirits.

So on to girona, I rolled up from camp and found nelson mate and garmin rider jack bauers place with his flat mate jack 2 and started getting shit sorted. First 5 days was a mission- got a bank account, phone, social number and all that carry on but the worst was finding a new house, my new flat mate Nathan haas was a few days away so I was lone wolfing the hunt for a place. Looked at heaps and found none, was getting pretty frustrated in the end I said I would look at one way above what should probably spent on a house im in for 50nights a year but holy shit it was an awesome house, il call it investing in mental health.

heres a sick ride out over la tossa de mar with jack 2

The next day bauer and Nathan rolled into town we sorted some cash together and got the keys, two good mates from back home in nelson who are doing a world tour had made some loose plans to try get to girona- as we were walking back to jacks I saw to gypsys walking down the street I recognized and boom we all moved into our new place. Lucky they were both engineering students because the new house is like a large wazjig puzzle. Most of it is run of electronic key pads that cyclists arnt qualified to operate so the engineers are nutting it all out for us. Real good to catch up with the boys and we are slowly

Making our house a home.

Right, knee is coming right I did the hardest ride ive done since the injury yesterday with jack and nate, 4 hours not too far away from normal cruzing speed, it all felt good and heading out again before a few rest days heading into team camp number 3 back in Mallorca, originally I was going to be racing the challenge Mallorca at the end of the camp but the team has pushed my racing all the way back to late march with the criterium international because of the injury which is smart but of course id love to be racing, the good news is im coming back to nz after camp now so I can get the last of the summer and train and club race my way back to top form in the comfort of home so il be touching down on feb 12

the boys have just proved themselves useful again, finding an old internet router in the house and hooking it up for us, not sure whos getting charged but i guess we will find out.

coming in hot

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2012-01-12T07:02:00.001-08:00

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kicking rocks on struggling street

2012-01-06T06:13:00.000-08:00

2012, New Year, new things. I guess this year has the potential to be huge for me. To be honest im not off to the flying start I had envisioned for myself in last august when pen hit paper for radioshack Nissan trek, I’m still sidelined with a knee injury- all up its been over 8weeks since I last rode. I had planned to be doing a final tune up in the sunshine of nelson heading into nationals this weekend but instead Im sitting in London airport watching the rain and wondering what the hell im doing in Europe in January. im pretty sure It was Christmas just the other day. the team has its official launch in Luxembourg in a few days and from there we head down to the little Spanish island of Mallorca for team camp, im hoping like hell my knee heals up enough so I don’t have a repeat of calpe and sit in a hotel all day while the boys train hard. Not training is allot harder than training in fact the time ive been injured has been the most frustrating time in my life and would have been allot harder if it wasn’t for the other good things going on to take my mind of it so thanks to everyone who has been patient.

This is the 6^th time ive left home to come do some time in Europe, its by far the hardest point in the season, leaving my friends and family at home- not to mention my girlfriend is always a challenge that doesn’t seem to get easier, but having this injury makes it about 600 times worse

This knee is bound to influence my season in someway however being an optimist Im picking it will be a blessing in disguse. Ive always struggled at the end of the year from doing to much so maybe a slow start is maybe what I need??? Il guess we will find out. so far Ive always ended up in the right place so here’s to hoping.

Anyway, now is when it all really starts im here in Europe and its time to flick the focus switch- it always takes a while to get my head out of nz and in to Europe. As soon as this knee comes right its game on and il be going hundys to catch up. Till then patience seems to be the million dollar word and im grateful that the team staff seem to have allot more of it than I do and are making sure that getting me fixed takes priority over getting me racing. Im not sure that itchy feet quite covers my feelings about getting back on a bike.

Just a quick word on my time back in nz. Sorry to the local scene I couldn’t do more racing or train with any of the local hitters, il make up for it when I come home mid season and make a bid to take back the winter series jersey I won when I was 17. But seriously thanks for all the support and messages. I think I has about 15 doctors, orthopedic surgeons physios working to try solve the puzzle of my knee injury. Have to give a special mention to physio Lyndon chandler for cutting his annual holiday to pieces to fit me in, again local caretaker warren borlaise for pestering the shit out of the specialists for appointments until they decided it was just easier to try fix me at Christmas than deal with warrens phone calls.

Its 3pm and the sun is setting. There’s something wrong with this continent…

Peace,

frustration station

2011-12-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

errghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

well i made it spain and id normally be telling you how mint this week has been, meeting everyone and enjoying some of the beautiful Spanish coast line in some awesome december weather but unfortunately for old G.B things have gone a bit pair shaped. last wednesday i picked up a knee injury probably after a session at the gym and its stuck with me. i thought a few days rest would of seen me right but after getting off the plane it was still bad.

theres pluses and minuses for spending two days on a plane to come to spain and sit in a hotel brooding and going insane while everyone trains. the pluses is that i have accesses to the best doctors and treatment and while im sulking in my hotel room im staying off my feet getting full recovery, something that isnt soo easy back home.

the obvious minus is that theres not allot of distractions from the fact that time is ticking and im not getting leaner, fitter or stronger for a very big year ahead. im due back here in just 3weeks for the start of the season and i havent ridden a bike in a month!!!, its probably turning into border line insanity but as im reminded its all part of being a pro cyclist.

i couldn't ask for more support from the directors and the staff who have taken all the pressure off me to make sure i dont rush it and make a full recovery before trying to get back on the bike again- injuries are exceptionally motivating and for the first time since my break im truly chomping at the bit to get back on the bike and do good things

the team and staff have all been welcoming and seem like top guys. new bikes rock and just got myself some new north wave shoes that feel amazing.

ive noticed there is a large group (or several small groups) of english tourists pottering around the hotel all day. i ran into one lady in the elevator and asked what they were doing- she told me they came to this particular hotel for a month every december she said after 3.5 weeks she was "a little bit bored" ive been here 3.5 days and would literally kill for my knee to come right so i can get the hell out of this hotel - if only i had the composure of the english.

will keep you posted,

an optimistic but slightly manic GB.

on the road again....

2011-12-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

all to soon im back in holding pen at LA international airport. 2 planes down and 3 more and a bus ride to go before i reach calpe, spain for the first training camp with Radioshack Nissan -Trek. i know its cliché but it literally feels like 3 weeks ago i was sitting in this same cell waiting to come home from europe. i guess it has only been 2months and no way do i feel remotely ready to leave home and do it all again just yet. luckily its not for 8months this time round. its going to be a pretty quick trip. 11 days away from home and a good percentage of that will be spent on a plane. pretty excited to get there and spend a good week in spain with the team and start learning the ropes of the pro tour. i think i have associated trauma with airports and shit house airplane food. ive done 3 full international seasons now and i think leaving to live in france when i was 18 was such a bad (but bloody good for me) experience, i have irrational phobia of traveling or at least leaving nz.

pretty crazy looking out this window and seeing the spot where i was first picked up by u23 trek livestrong swanny reed and mechanic Bill before our first team camp in solvang this feb. meeting the team for the first time and seing how sick our nissan team cars were. i guess the same thing will happen when i touch down in spain but somehow 29 of the worlds best riders seems a little more daunting than dale parker running to give me a bro shake the first time i meet him. hard to actually comprehend everything thats gone down since then- im sure my memory skips allot and remembers basically arriving for the season and leaving for the off season- everything else is pretty blurry

so to summarise, im in transit to calpe spain, im pretty bloody excited about it but not so excited about leaving my sanctuary of aniseed valley in december for a euro winter. southern spain just sounds warm so im sure it cant be too fresh just yet.

a side note- the U.S visa system is rediculous. im sure i probably ranted about it last time i came through but holy shit its a brothel. im in a square room waiting for 2 hours while they reful the plane but for some reason i need a transit visa and to be finger printed. my usa residential visa isnt good enough and if i dont have a proper transit pass they want to detain you- im trying to leave, detaining me wont make your country safer bro.

just got my boarding call. next stop london,

coming in hot.

going pro.....and one off season to remember

2011-11-28T14:35:00.001-08:00

So, the blog was a little slow but for those that don’t have facebook or follow cyclig media im off to the pro tour! Absolutely stoked to say Radioshack Nissan-Trek will be my home for at least the next 2 years. I have to say thanks to so many people that helped me get here but it is too difficult to name them all. my family friends who have been so supportive and encouraging and at times very patient with me while I wasn’t always the easiest person in the world need a mention, and my sponsors and people that helped me from the start when I needed it most, village cycles, brent and warren and the local tasman wheeler club. The reception ive had Coming home to nelson has been pretty humbling. This season has been one I will never forget, I was on the worlds best development team with the best people for the job and for the first time since I started racing internationally I laughed all season long and with Axel at the staring wheel we did good things. The livestrong boys I lived with in boulder became some of my closest mates and the people I met around Europe and America were a bloody good laugh

So there it is im mixing it up with the big boys next year, more on the team later.

So whats next?

I finished southland and was faced with 3weeks of no riding. To be honest when you ride your bike everyday of your life the thought of spending a month without doing it is a bit daunting. I needed a break but was a little paranoid I would go insane however im 2.5 weeks into the break and I have not stopped, im on a mission to cram a years worth of normal 21year old stuff into 3 weeks and at this rate I might just make it. Ive hardly seen my bed since I stopped riding- I spent some epic time tramping up mt Arthur, we got a few curve balls from some dodgy maps and snowy weather but had a great time and was really nice to get away from the world especially just after announcing the new team.

I was home for about 15 minutes, had a narrow loss on the touch rugby field with our team “the alter egos” and headed up lake rotoiti with a car full of fishing rods and rifles and shotguns for and awesome few nights at a friends batch.

I came home Friday morning and got ready for my very late (8months) 21^st lear up. It was a bloody good night with some loose speeches, a yard glass and a dance floor. It was pretty sad at the end of the weekend saying goodbye to allot of people. It was the last time my core group of mates will be together for a good 5 to 10 years- uni has finished and instead of coming back and living it up in nelson each summer the team are all heading to different corners of the globe to start out in the “real world”. Most people have gone through this period in their lives but im sure we will all meet again when we are 35 and move back to nelson…

so now im on the final stretch of my rest time, currently on a boat heading to wellington with a friend mitch before picking up another and tripping our way up north to take on the round taupo cycle challenge, ive never done this race but heard good things and with no riding in 3 weeks im little worried about getting round, if im worried I would hate to think what my friend mitch is thinking- he has probably ridden a total of 160km in his life is going to be balls deep in fatigue by Saturday afternoon.

Again, truly thank you to everyone, I feel particularly lucky to be in such an encouraging environment with G.Cs all around me. The last weeks have been some of the best and I have had and the break I needed but its nearly time to get back into it. Im not sure how training for a pro tour season will vary from any other ive trained for but Im under good guidance from my team and all I can say is its going to be hard. Its still important I make the most of being home, it seems im hardly here now. Next week im go to spain for 2 weeks then I come home for christmas only to jump back on a plane and head away again. It’s a big ask to spend that much time away but you get that on the big jobs…..

You will hear from me soon and maybe more regularly.

Docking in steep.

going pro.....and one off season to remember

2011-11-28T14:35:00.000-08:00

So there it is im mixing it up with the big boys next year, more on the team later.

So whats next?

You will hear from me soon and maybe more regularly.

Docking in steep.

southland wrap.

2011-11-06T16:12:00.000-08:00

ok, southland done and dusted and to be honest im feeling a little bit lost. coming in to Invercargill on the last stage of the tour i was watching the kms count down and then finally i realized i had 1km on the 2011 season to go. i sat up and thought about it and what a good year its been, the southland tour was a really good way to go out. i made some moves up the crown range but my lack of form was exposed and the best i could muster was 4th after roulston pulled out.

i was in 3rd overall behind my boy josh atkins and paddy bevin. however i completely lost the plot the next day on the way to gore. i just wast strong enough. it blew to pieces in the x winds and i couldnt ride across the groups to the front. i must of been on a bad day i was calling grupetto when some guys still managed to get to the front. fatigued has struck as my legs have run out of power and my heart rate just isnt moving. i rode a miserable 160km in the laughing group in the strongest winds. i was one grumpy bastard, luckily my team mates were there to keep me company, 25mins behind the front we rolled in.

we went and had a commisatory beer in town and woke up the next morning to snow and sleet. we were down to 4 riders in the kia team but we knew we had to make up for the previous stage. the am time trail was cancelled so i jumped on the rollers and warmed up hard for the shortened 75km stage back into town. from the gun i was going hundys for the break and eventually slipped into the days move. the pace was super high all day but about 10km from town but a small group playing sit in the gutter if you can caught me. i couldn't and rolled in to the finish.

the boys were super strong and kieran hambrook got up for a 5th in the stage. i have to say kieran has turned some heads this tour. he was sent home from france early this season after breaking his collar bone and has only been back training for 4 weeks and has what is known as retard strength, it just needs to be harnessed.

ok, thats it from me. again a huge thanks to everyone involved. the amount of effort and enthusiuam that goes into this tour is amazing. ive just spent last night shooting rifles and the morning riding motorbikes around southland farms and enjoying the world famous southern hospitality. this a fun tour and one of the only where every rider in the race gets on the beers on the last night and celebrates finishing. im ready to get home and spend some time soul soothing at home in nelson before i have to get on another plane and get to europe for december camp. somewhere in the next 3 weeks i plan on being a normal person, have my overdue 21st lear up and try my hand at the gym

thanks again, il have some big news for everyone in the coming weeks

southland part 2.

2011-11-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

Hump day,

Well made we have made it half way thru the tour and have set up camp lakeside in te anau. Pretty exciting 2 days since the last blog entry partly due to terrible weather and a team stage win.

Day 3 up bluff hill was a disappointment for us all, we put a man in the break and I got a very easy ride all the way to the hill but the cold wet conditions got the better of me and all I could manage was a 5^th place. I hit the hill in a good position but couldn’t get any traction on the hill so was forced to ride in the saddle the whole way up the 18% hill. I was down about 40rpm and just couldn’t produce any power and watched them all ride off in front of me, I think I hit a max of about 160 bpm and went home empty handed after loosing the u23 jersey after thinking I was going to take yellow.

I was a bit devo about coming back to nz after a good season and not being able to win up a steep hill ,not only did I not win but there were sprinters and other big rigs riding rings around me. I use to think allot of people who race over in Europe or the states or whatever come here for some fun at the end of the year but it turns out most people are stomping, most of them better than they have all year and well -im down on struggling street a few days away from a month off the bike I feel like I should get in on the action but maybe I should of thought about that 6weeks ago.

Anyway our fortunes changed today after the boys rode out of there skin, a double stage day with the afternoon stage being the big one over black mount to te anau. We had joe lewis in the early break then we lit it up over the hill and I got in a good move ahead of roulston. But his team pulled us back and the days early move came back with us. After that we just started opening up in the final 30kms and a group of 5 slipped up the road with Kieran hambrook and alex meenhorst from our team in the mix. They dominated the last km with alex taking out the stage thanks to hambrooks handy work.

So weve had a few glasses of red, cracked a bottle of champagne and may head down to check the thriving metropolasis of te anau .

Ok, crown range 2mo

southland,

2011-11-06T16:09:00.000-08:00

ok a bit slack, i was writing some blogs for cyclingnews.com and didnt post them up here so il chuck up southland part one and two on this post.

In the scheme of things I think Invercargill gets a bad wrap. Coming back down here for the 4^th year to the same awesome set up with kia motors team and by far the most enthusiastic set of staff ive ever had is pretty exciting,

I have been getting consistently worse at the tour often referred to as the 4^th grand tour, as a junior I think I was top fifteen overall but haven’t been able to crack the top 50 since so this year I owe the team a bit more of a performance despite having the worst build up in a while. Wisdom teeth issues, injuries, sickness and a rugby world cup meant I wasn’t doing the ideal prep before coming here.

Weve just wraped up day 2 and so far so good. We lost a little bit of time in the 4km teams time trail but the boys scrapped together to get 4 of us across the line with no crashes or major dramas,

Day two threw us a few more curve balls. 160km of cross winds and dead roads isn’t exactly good for my sub 60kg frame but I managed to pull back some precious seconds on roulston but at one stage it looked like I was again heading for a disastrous result. We managed to stack our man nick king in the 9man early break and we sat back while rolys boys controlled the front and waited for the fun to begin. The winds kept getting stronger and it wasn’t log before it was full noise lined out in the gutter. I got blown completely off the road into the ditch, by the time I got back up I was 3^rd group on the road. I eventually caught the second and crawled up to the front of the race in time for some more gutter attacks, I eventually countered a roulston move and slipped off the front and was soon joined by 5 others. We built a good gap but the boys started pissing around in the final kms and I finished last in the sprint after trying to keep the pace high 23secs in front of the bunch.

I took the pink jersey (u23) with 1sec over livestrong team mate josh atkins but with absolutely disgusting weather on the way and a small bump called bluff hill tomorrow things are going to get a shake up. Luckily my teammates are hitters and know that I need some baby-sitting in the cold.

What ever happens Im having a bloody good time with a particularly animated team and of course some great banter in the bunch that is traditional to the mighty tour of southland.

Peace

Worlds and home, rugby and missing teeth.

2011-10-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Well given that its been close to 2weeks after worlds that I am giving an update means it didn’t go so well, ive been getting worse since Colorado and worlds at first seemed like a very easy race and somehow I was one of the few who got dropped. I came down sick before the race but thought I was fine on race morning, I think doing cold wet races in belge got the better of me in the lead up to the race but now i think there may have been something else going on.

Ive been home for a few days and its been pretty eventful. I started getting a pretty sore jaw around the worlds time and it kept getting worse and by the time I had done my first training ride here I was struggling to speak and swallow. All the uni boys had came up from chch for the weekend to watch the rugby so Friday night I stepped out to catch up with the crew. Saturday am I woke up and knew I had to get to some sort of emergency room asap. My wisdom teeth started coming through about a month ago but a very nasty infection had started wrecking havoc in my gob. I think it was one of the worst pains I have had and my whole body was in a state. I managed to get the tooth pulled and some drugs and came around and still made the rugby game.

Feeling a little worse for wear today so some more forced rest, the infection is retreating and I should be back pushing pedals tomorrow. Ive done a little reading and I think the wisdom teeth coming through playing a big part in my creeping the house down over the last month. With a bit of luck il come right for southland but if I don’t …well cross that bridge if I get there.

So its really good to be home and too see most of the guys get back to nelson was a treat. There’s some absolute drop kicks still milling around but overall I love it back here.

The house is under going some serious renovations with no kitchen and multiple walls missing so every meal is cooked between a microwave, rice cooker, electric wok and a jug set up on the kitchen table, dishes done in the bathroom life scattered around the house in various storage but home is home and I reckon it’s a pretty good place to set up shop. Ive got the ball rolling on sorting out this stomach problem and have a benchmark race in Christchurch next weekend so may tie that in with some specialists down there.

Ok, the all blacks just demoed Canada, just gearing up for the warriors in the NRL grand final, kicking off in 20mins

Get up the warriors,

gp wallonie

2011-09-14T12:30:00.001-07:00

Gp wallonie,

Every now and then a reality check can do a world of good and put us back in our places. My first race on Sunday I felt great even at the end I was still pretty strong so going into gp wallonie I thought it would be good to start giving it a bit of a nudge. The course was awesome. Ive never given Belgium any credit for having good places to pedal but around liege its wicked but bloody hard. there was legit hills all day. I took a hiding and I probably deserved it. I raced like a dumbarse thinking I could attack on the hills at the start and still be all jiggy at the finish. I never found the right break, I felt really good but just didn’t couldn’t get it together to get in the break and I spent shit loads of energy trying. After it slowed down a bit my legs seemed to get worse until 180km into the 200km race there was some gnarly cross wind. A whole group of us got split off, I rode across on to the back of the group but caught on at the base of a nasty hill and it was game over.

I rolled to the finish, pretty dark on things but taking the old mental note that this shit is next level. I handed my bike to the mechanics and as I walked on the bus they started laughing, turns out the old rear brake was stuck on, I was to fucked to care by that stage and went and chunned some snickers bars.

Anyways, Belgium whanau meet me at the race back in morsleede for a day to pick up all my gears, maybe go for a coffee ride with wade and the livestrong boys down the road in izegem. Smashed out the school work while I was in the last hotel so don’t have anything to heavy on my plate leading into worlds.

As for worlds. they decided not to put me in the tt, a little bit devo about it but its probably the smart thing putting all the eggs in the road race basket instead of going all out for realistically what could only be a top 20 in the time trail.

gp fourmies

2011-09-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

fourmies. first euro race with the shack and it was back to the good old french hotels and over cooked pasta. the race was 200kms long on a draining course, heaps of little rough roads and not a meter of flat road, just little sapping rollers all day. the break went off the line and we cruised for a while but with the greasy roads and wind it took allot of concentration. with about 50km to go we hit the finish laps, it was good to see bewley up there giving them some curry in a break, he got caught with about 8km to go. there was a bunch kick with about 80 of the 165 riders i was somewhere in that group.

i felt pretty good especially at the end and was good to get a euro one day race under my belt without dramas so i have a little bit of an idea whats going on and getting use to moving around an aggressive pelo. i found when the race was easy i struggled allot more to get up but when it got strung out it wasnt so bad holding a nice posy up front and the legs came alive.

anyway, im not really sure where i am right now i think im in belgium close to holland or france or luxemburg but the hotels 100 times better and im pretty rooted. ive got gp wallonie on wednesday which should be a sick race.

living the dream. (well the belgium version)

2011-09-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

after doing S.F.A since colorado in terms of bike riding it was time to open the legs and get some prep in for gp fourmie this weekend, there was a pro kermise 8km down the road that seemed to convenient to miss so another beautiful cold rainy day in belgium i got my pedal on.

the course was pretty rough it was a basically a 10km criterium with heaps of nasty corners all with a painted pedestrian crossing for good measure. it was one of those races were if you weren't gonna love it and get amongst it you would hate it and creep and count down the laps so after a good coffee with some livestrong team mates and a last minute pedal and brake swap i was ready to go. the first few laps i was going hundys for the early break but it went without me and then it slowed right up while FDJ chased. there was heaps of crashes, some of them pretty close to me and with the real racing around the corner i wasn't to interested in going for a slide today.

with two laps to go i started to feel a bit of lactic coming and with the wind and rain getting worse and the bunch more nervous it was time to call it a day. it was good- had a nice opener for fourmie and with sabine cooking up nice rice cake for me to smash on the way home it was a good day.

fully caught the world cup fever here in belge and about 10.30 am 2mo il be watching the ABs deal to the tongans il also be keeping a close eye on the russian team who i think just may be the dark horse of this years rugby world cup.

time to knock out a bit more school. i got my first assignment back from this semesters course and it was all g but not so confident for number 2 due a few days before worlds.

No stress

2011-09-04T12:47:00.001-07:00

For one reason or another my journey so far has been a particularly stressful one. I think once you step out of the boulder bubble the weight of reality strikes and your exposed to the rest of America that maybe im not cut out for. I was the last of the boys in the house so once I had found the plot after the tour and Sunday night I set about packing and sorting the house. I didn’t even get close putting it in the sorted pile. It should have been an easy task but nothing worked- little things like bike boxes and running out of rubbish bags just built up. After the hippies that own the house decided the movers were coming the day I left reed (team swanny) got taken out of action to help me to Denver airport and a shuttle driver was knocking on the door at 6.30 this morning. Things haven’t gotten easier since then. i managed to pack most of my things and get another 50kgs of kit and a guitar sent home to nz (well they are actually still sitting in the lounge, hopefully the movers don’t touch them) but the rest of the stuff just had to be chucked. (sorry reed for lumping you with the work)

After getting drilled with 400 usd of overweight luggage I made it Washington, I tried to order lunch and they didn’t even get close to getting me the right order then a guy spilled coffee on me and then got ragged at me, I let him know I was the devil. Anyway I have found my window seat and there’s something about planes that inspires a blog update.

im sure some of you have been reading the cycling press and heard the rumors surrounding the teams future. I think in the cycling world its best just to wait before speculating what will happen other wise allot of damage can be caused. With the stress of everything in the last few days I have hardly thought about leaving town but I know very shortly im going to miss boulder a whole lot. I have made friends there and a second home so no doubt il be back there before I race in America again,

next up is Belgium. Another change that I’m going to have to adapt to. Being unsettled and moving around the globe takese its toll. It may sound cool and sometimes its amazing but sometimes it’s the pits. Finding new roads and holding form thru the travel, eating well and keeping on top of the school are just a few of the obstacles. The saving grace this time Is im going back to wades Belgium whanau and reuniting the dangerous duo. Ive decided as much as id love to role home kick the feet up theres only another 3weeks where I have to push it for the season so I may aswell give it the jandal.

Anyway the moral is stress breeds stress. If your wired little things seem bad so as soul coach Shannon bateup always says “it doesn’t always work out as planned but it always works out”

No stress gb.

Nb. 4 days later I rememberd I was gonna post this and thought Id add a few days in belge. Basically ive done S.F.A since I landed. Night one I slept for 17hours which was insane followed by a night of 3 hours. Had one decent training ride but been reco most days. Went and watched a soccer game today was classic belgie folk on the durries and beers. It’s a nice time of year here in belge, cooler nights and warm days. Gonna be pretty busy between now and worlds

2011-08-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

beers and pizza we ready to go on the bus, all i can say is im blown away by the crowds here, people (people who know) are saying today rivaled the tour de france and there are some crazy spectators. america has put on a show and earned the rights to more bigger races. its allot funner than any euro race ive done and to these people its such a novalty so everyone gets behind it. pretty awesome feeling getting to denver. the boys rode bloody well today and levi has been a great leader making sure our hard work didnt go un rewarded.

over the hill today i was there with about 15 guys left but ive never pushed the stich that hard and i think ive torn the muscle that has been problematic as this time its not going away when i ease up. i was tailed off about 3km from the top and couldnt hang with the group of ten that made it over. we got back on in short time tho. i need a week easy and some big acupuncture needles in the stomach and il be ready to role again,

a huge thanks to all the people for coming out and screaming, holding signs and just getting loose on the sidelines, and again to everyone back home- its been a pretty magic intro into a pro tour team and all the support from the home land has made it even better.

thats part one of the stagier done, from here it gets allot less glamourous- no team chefs, no huge crowds and beautiful mountains and sunshine. no im off to the cross winds and cobble stones and rain of northern europe to do an apprenticeship in swinging on the back.

first things first though- enjoy the teams win

stage 5

2011-08-27T16:34:00.000-07:00

happy to tick that one off the list...

i knew today had the potential to be terrible for us so i got my tunnel vision on and the whole team stepped up today and theres some very tired boys sitting on the team bus with me right now, im one of them

sitting on the bus before the start alain stands at the front and holds the stage profile up, axel who is playing second director is standing behind him and is also holding up a stage profile. If you knew the stage the profile shows a big piss off mountain after just 7km of racing- i think the hardest hill of the race. axel caught my eye and covered most of the profile with his hand just exposing the mountain and smiled- i took that as get your arse over that hill with levi

ive decided now that there is something very wrong with my stomach and im going to get some scans done - the whole way up the hill it felt like i had a large spear in my side but i got to the top with 15-20 guys and a few of them had the same jersey on as me so controlled it as a break of 6 went away, soon the rest of the boys and the entire peleton was back and we got our chase on, with an hour left to race united health care took over the race and holy shit they chased hard. garmin lit it up on the last small climb of the day. a gap opened in front of me and i was too late, i got most the way across but couldn't close it down so 40 guys headed off into the distance and i did the standard tap home.

one to go, as roulston keeps eluding to "it aint over yet". look out mountain is in the parcourse for 2mo, ive race a TT up there earlier in the year and won. il be doing something similar in the morning.

the rain has just stopped and i can see denver up ahead, getting close to my stomping ground

looking for 2 from 2

stage4

2011-08-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

a pretty good day today but holy shit that was a hard start.

the other teams went to town on the attacks and we had to "surf" until the move went.

a few times i had to close some big gaps and went deeeeeep into the red, then we hit some pretty big hills and i hung on and crawled back to try help out again. altitude makes my job allot harder as fresh guys hit us when we cant recover

the break went and we rode with some help from sprinters teams until eventually they fully took the reigns and we sat back and rolled home. the first hour scarred me but the last 2 were easy enough, it started getting hard in the last 3km so i sat it up and tapped it home because the other teams are going to bring the noise 2mo.

till then ,

george

rest day.

2011-08-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

one thing thats harder than going hard is going easy, its something that goes against all natural instinct but under strict orders i saved it all today and after levis very impressive tt im glad i did as il need every last watt of power to burn on the front 2mo

i actually felt very good today and had a ball, i cant believe the crowd. i nearly decked it trying to read a george bennett sign down thru the starting shoot and the whole way up the hill people were screaming go kiwi. i just tapped and soaked it up at the half way split i was actually on a good time but just completely shut it down on the hill.

i enjoyed the day but i would of loved to of given it a crack, my time trailing has come along way and this was a course for me. i guess it comes down to being a team though- if i went hard today and wasn't able to do my job 2m0 110% then thats not really being a team player is it. in the pro races if your not in the GC hunt or going to take a top 5 then save it for when you can, no one cares about a top 20. its hard and frustrating to explain so when people say well done on a top 50 all i can do i smile and say thanks.

so, just had a seriously good massage and about to hit dinner, thanks again to all the radioshack fans here, it seems people truley want us to win the race and thanks to everyone back home tuning in to watch. youl be seeing allot of me tomorrow.

laters.

gbizzel

stage 3

2011-08-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

today had everything, heat, intense cold, mountains, greasy downhills, gravel, crashes and even some crazy head spins and trippy stuff going on with vision.

day started hard, we had to ride very hard until a group we liked headed off up the road and then we set about chasing, we started with the three big units- dimy, j mac and ben hermans. the basically did it all but sitting in there wheels all day means we didnt get heaps of shelter in the block head wind, the pulled off at the bottom of independence pass when it was time for me to take over, it wasnt long before some big attacks whent down and i went back.

to be honest im struggling badly at this altitude, i couldn't get into the hurt locker i just felt weird and spaced out. i struggled back into a goodish group but started loosing my vision at the top of the hill and got really light headed. i hate it- normally my strength is just getting in the box and staying there but i cant do it here, im a little acclimatized from living at 5000 feet but that may aswell of been sea level when we are riding up at 12000 feet. some people just arnt good at altitude.

on the dh i froze up completely and dropped back trying to keep some heat in but i got super cold, strait into a hot shower and a good feed and i was all good.

levi lost the jersey on the dh but i think he will be good in the tt 2mo, for me its a rest day i will work out the time cut and ride as conservatively as i can so i can do my job better later in the week.

looks like we are doing this the hard way...

2011-08-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

stage 1 ,

TBH it was actually super easy until the last 5km then it was super hard, i tried to move levi up and then we hit the hill and i hit the breaks, after he was in front and i couldnt do much we rolled up the hill saving the pins for tommorow.

levi is on incrediable form and won the stage and took the yellow jersey. its only stage one,

its going to be a long week ,

bring it....

brolouge

2011-08-22T15:49:00.000-07:00

Brologue- like a prologue but down hill and a average speed over60pkh.

it was good to have the familiar voice of axel merckx back in the ear piece to guide me down the hill and to remind me not to bin it on the corners.

i felt fast but got a bit out of shape on a few of the bends, i finished about mid pack and enjoyed the crowd

love the people tuning in back home, levi finished 7th, i think its a awesome start for the team,

the finishing touch's

2011-08-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

teams presentations have always been a bit of a drag but last nites presentation was of the chain, we were up nearly last so the audience had the whole evening to go to town on the open bar and were in high spirits by the time radioshack hit the stage, it was a dress up VIP dinner consisting mostly of cougars and wealthy enthusiasts, jumping into the team photos and getting amongst it.

riding in the peleton next to guys like hincape and that never really sparked too much emotion or excitement in me, i guess mostly because we were trying to beat them but last nite was the first time i had a really big buzz from meeting someone in the cycling scene. as we walked into the presentation i heard the familiar voices of paul sherwin and phil ligget, i started road cycling because these guys had a way of making it sound so awesome so it was pretty cool to be introduced by them.

i ended up with number 13 for the race, im going for a new approach to the upside down anti bad luck thing and running it side ways

im off at about 1.30 local time 2mo so tune in on the net.

more hotels....

2011-08-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

going back to boulder in the few days between then and now made me realize just how much im going to miss it. the students are back in town and it was alive, i was devo i couldnt step out for a last taste with dale before he flew home but i needed every drop of recovery i could get.

spent a pretty awesome week chilling with my new indian friend and master chef Biju and coach allen and the rest of the radioshack boys eating out and sleeping in.

ive been working on the stitch thats been plaguing my season and made some good gains with an all round body fixer named charlie. a diaphragm massage is probably the worst feeling in the world its like being winded and stabbed at the same time, that along with some dry needeling and electric shocks and it was the most painful physio session ive had but we made good progress and at least now we have established its a fixable problem unlike the blood vessel theory which cant be fixed.

so here i am in another hotel, we made the short drive from boulder to colorado springs today, went for a nice easy spin and caught up on some great yarns from back home.

looking forward to clocking wizard sticks when im home,

dinner time, race starts monday its on tv or internet tv or somthing.

2011-08-15T11:01:00.001-07:00

Final stage,

Wow, we just won the tour of Utah- well levi won the tour of Utah but team radioshack was never too far behind him, we had a mammoth task on our hands with the Columbians hot on out heels and all of them in amazing form.

Todays stage panned out perfectly. First 80km was super fa

st with a break trying to get away. nothing that we liked

got established so had a bloody hard job keeping things intact. we hit the first climb as one big group. I happened to be last wheel after dropping back to the cars and I paid the price, the bunch blew to bits and I was right at the back. I slowly crawl

ed thru the shattered pelo up to second group and made m

y move across to the small front group. I got most of the way there but couldn’t close the final few hundred meters. I found some help in the form of kiwi glen chadwick and together we got a good little group of stragglers together. I felt like I ha

d let myself and the team down heaps by missing th

e group i should have been in just because I was to far back so we chased like a cat on fire and on the dh got back to the front of the race. Th

ere was maybe 20 guys there.

I spent a pretty long lonely time on the front controlling it over some hills with levi and janez guiding me through it all. Soon another group with phill and ben caught back on and the three of us ripped it into the bottom of the snowbird

finish climb where for me it was job done and I creept up the hill soaking in all the fans support.

yep thats a money tree handing out real money and that guy might actually be the devil.

photo credit Melissa Soltesz

This race was the first time in a while where I played a full support role. I kind of rated it- just burying myself and having someone on the team good enough to finish the job, it, being in that position taught me allot about leading teams in the future for the smaller races back home ect… you have to loose all personal ambitions for results and just hit it.

I had an awesome first race with the team, the response from the public has been awesome too. All the way back to boulder people knew about the race and how the team went. I was super impressed with the kiwis in the race too. Jack was bloody strong and pure black and the others weren’t there just to fill the pack- heaps of attacking and a sprint jersey to take home for roman van uden. It actually makes me a little nervous for the nz season!.

Bit devo was my last race with dale parker- well at least for a year. He is off home to oz. allot of the radioshack boys are coming to stay at our team house here in boulder as we have a little reco/training camp in prep for Colorado.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for cheering and stuff.

stage 4.

2011-08-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

for a race report probably read roadcycling.co.nz or something because i still dont know what happened, all i know is a massive group of 25 riders including allot of hitters got away and we chased, at first the whole team bar the two leaders lapped out then thru the mid section just four of the lads kept the tempo, they slowly faded and then htc attacked. after that it was down to me and phill to set the pace, another attack saw me crack with jsut under 4 laps to ride, i crept home,

stich is back which sucks,

stupidly hot,

awesome crowds and levi hung on to the yellow jersey so bloody day good really

had a good dinner, massage ect...

the boys who went out the hoop early got time cut so we are down to 6 2mo could quite hard

tt,

2011-08-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

for a brief second i thought i was scott dixon lining up at the start of the tt on the utah race car course. the illusion quickly vanished once i rolled down the start ramp.

director alian told me to ride conservatively and tap around the course so it was a pretty care free day, no pressure, just get some speed into the legs before what could be the hardest two days of riding ive had infront of me.

i went out a easy pace in the tt but the course was so fast it was easy to be sitting over 50kph. i started catching the guy infront and slowly picked it up and finished with a good tempo without going very deep.

its weird i didnt pay attention to my time or anything but have just seen on cycling news i was about 1min down on the winner and about 28th in the stage, i have gone a whole lot load harder in tts before but never much faster- i guess it shows the art of tt riding is being smooth and consistent and not doing what ive always done- rip it into the red zone and hang on and creep home.

anyway, Levi is first overall and janez is second. we are going to have a seriously big job on our hands defending against some stomping columbians but so far its all going to plan.

pretty late finish today, you guys can watch 2mos race live at http://www.tourofutah.com/tourtracker/

ok time for a "angry boys" episode look it up -crazy funny and it reminds me of the southern hemisphere

stage, 3, , ,

2011-08-11T16:16:00.001-07:00

firstly Jack Bauer is a HITTER!!! boosting it with 500 meters to go to take stage 3. i reckon well deserved,

as for us, we had a good day, it nearly went pear shaped a few times but the team had it covered. mancebo did the super classy feed zone attack previously seen at tour de vinyards 2008 which had me scrambling a bit, in the gutter with bottles everywhere trying not to get split off the back, janez was even further behind after taking a piss stop, everyone was at 6's and 7's for a while.

there were a few more dangerous splits in the wind but in general the day wasnt super hard, there was a few crashes at the end, bjorn was the only one of us to go down- luckily he is nails and didnt notice the blood or missing skin.

time trial 2mo, 5 pm is the first rider off, il be closer to 6.30pm thats nearly bed time for me these days.

geee beeeeeee

urah stage one,

2011-08-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

the heading was meant to say utah stage one but im to spent for editing today.

bloody tough day out but a good one for the radioshack camp. 3 laps with a nasty 5 km berg in there, had to stay pretty active all day chasing columbians up hills for the first lap, getting bottles and at one stage a super fast team chase to bring a split back. last lap up the hill mancebo attacked and i made the mistake of following him then trying to surge him. put me straight in the red zone at that altitude. levi attacked a few times and only a few guys could stay with him including team mate jani b. i went deep and struggled up the last few kms and got a good little group, we caught up to tom danielson and TJ vangarderns group, had a good little group going on about a 1min down on the levi and co up front, i was just playing gate keeper and just trying to keep out of trouble there was less than 20 of us in the chase group but small groups kept coming back through the cars and eventually about 40 of us finished 3mins ish down on the 5 up front.

today was bloody hot, dry and the altitude was killing me, theres and art at to riding at altitude which is basically dont attack or go into the red zone because your not coming out.

gonna sleep like a pippi tonight

2011-08-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

Prologue,

Well, putting on a radioshack skinsuit didn’t break my habbit of doing pretty shit prologues, I started pretty shit, had an really good mid section then cracked in the last 500 meters, allot to do in 2 kilometers up hill.

I lost 35 seconds to a crazy fast Columbian guy and was like mid pack overall so not drastic but times under 5 minutes are way too short for my muscle fibers.

As for my intro into the shack, its been off the charts. Its like Christmas again. New bikes, new kit and heaps of people taking photos of us, think it will take a while to get use to. Really nice guys and staff have been taking good care of us

The real race starts 2mo with a 187 km hard 3 lap race, levi and jani are doing well so will be on bottle duty.

Stoked that we just had a team chef fly in tonite so we arnt on the hotel food, potentially the worlds best tasting carbs?

cats out the bag...

2011-08-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

judging by my inbox and facebook wall i guess its pretty well known in the cycling world (well my cycling world) that im swapping up the trusted yellow and back for a new red strip with team radioshack as a stagier for the rest of the season...

stagier??? its basically a fancy word for trail period. basically you join the team from august first (today) and they see how they like you. its not just about results (but you better be flying when you take the start line) its more about your ability to help the team and slot in off the bike.

im pretty excited about mine. il be riding tour of utah and maybe another one here in the states then off to europe where i kick off the racing about mid september. il be doing some euro pro races that probably dont suit me that well but will be an awesome build up to the world champs (if i get selected).

its pretty weird to think that once i land in utah on sunday thats it for livestrong. i pack the kit up and try work out how im going to get everything home at the end of the year.

soo HUGE thanks to everyone for all the support, its really good to know people back home are cheering for me. its going to be a tough few months but i think a pretty awesome few months.

its not to long till i start thinking about coming home which i have to say is another pretty exciting prospect but ive got a pretty full plate north of the equator first.

il keep you posted on life from inside a pro tour team in utah. i fly down on sunday spend monday sorting out my new bike and pedals, cleats and all that jazz then hit the 5km uphill prolouge tuesday arvo.

university has decided i should hand in an assignment the same day utah starts so im balls deep in work- being overseas i never ended up with the "essential" assigned textbook -just another spanner in the works

procrastination blog,

cascade classic.

2011-07-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

If you follow this blog a bit you would have probably discovered the relationship between blog frequency and boredom, so sorry for the lack of updates but as far as a cyclist is concerned ive been busy. The plane im on is particularly dodgey flying out of a little place called Redmond in oregen slowly migrating back to boulder. Yesterday was the final and most exciting stage of the casade classic, a 6 day NRC race. In a nutshell it was a mixed bag. I had one of the funnest weeks of racing ive had in a while, bend oregen is an amazing place and ive already planted the seeds for my return on a fishing/hunting trip with the Boz. As for the racing itself it started pretty bad, got worse then made a dramatic comeback.

Prolouge, 2km I was never going to turn any heads on that one,

Stage one, hill top finish- this is where the problems started- the legs were good and the body was mostly fine except my stomach- it’s a problem ive had as long as I remember back in the mtb days. I think ive already had a moan about it this year but I keep getting the stich. Like when you eat and go for a run. Im hopefully getting into a specialist this week to sort it out. One relationship Im seeing is it always happens when its hot and ive had to much food or to strong drink mix any way I Wikipedied that shit and have got multiple theorys im working but it was killing all my intervals in boulder before cascade and the hill climbs on day one( I finished 8^th just in the front group of 9 at the summit ) and it hit me exactly 16minutes into my tt on day 3. It was pretty easy to see where it hit because I had a gps on me for time splits an I went from one of my fastest tts comparatively to freewheeling trying to nurse myself to the finish.

The crit day was allot better, no stich, no crashes and some pretty tight lines in a crit with an average of 50kph, pretty straight forward course so was pretty easy.

The last stage on day 6 was bloody hot, I had been way to quiet all tour and wanted to get some redemption for the piss poor performance all week, team plan was for me to hit the early move, and save the other boys if there was a sprint. I tried pretty hard and half way through the 140km 5 lap race I eventually found myself in a 9 man selection with 3 garmin boys and teammate ian boswell (local hero and hitter) garmin development had a yellow jersey to ride for as real cyclists race leader mancebo had missed the move. We had a stage win to race for. The break was always going to stay away it was just a question of how much and if it was enough for garmin to take the yellow jersey. At first I wasn’t that keen to give it to much juice but the chance to roll a certain team (well their director) who just screwed livestrong and garmin development over was to appealing and so we chipped in a hand and kept the rolling through- its a long story maybe some other time.

With about 7km to go I opened up some attacks and ian hit them a few times. The break got down to 6 of us. With 1 k to go there was 1 rider about 5 seconds off the front, ian was bringing him back so I could attack on the last berg but then chaos as we caught the womans convoy .somehow the kenda guy off the front snuck through and we all locked up the brakes and took some cyclocross lines through the cars and had a sprint for 2^nd, I got 4^th ian 5^th.

Fair to say an opportunity wasted but there wasn’t much we could of done differently. I was really happy with how I felt and how I rode, a little bit of miscommunication in the closing kms but we gave it a good nudge.

So that was the second time I meet allot of my team mates and the first time ive raced with - nate, ian, gav and Lawson but flet like ive raced with them 100 times before. Awesome team mates and staff was always going to be a very cool week.

Kind of hard to believe that if they cant turn around the Colorado/Utah decision it was the last time I would number up in trek livestrong kit with those boys for the season.

Im not done though, training hard got a few things in the pipeline and the end of my year is starting to take shape, tentatively saying il finish with worlds in denmark and of course the ever controversial tour of southland.

Keep it deep

dwars het hageland

2011-07-04T00:36:00.001-07:00

So about an hour till I board the plane, enjoying a pretty average coffe at the euro take of starbucks, having just ordered a decaf soy latte and typing on a laptop my manhood has taken a knock. Yesterday’s race was a brothel. To be honest I sucked there was not one particular reason why it was just one of those bad days. The legs weren’t 100% and the problem was compounded by a head that wasn’t really in the game. Shit bumpy roads, 200 riders, wind and death ridge every where normally id be up for it and for about 150km I was. gave a few little nudges but was never going anywhere particularly fast. With about 50km to go a huge 25 man split rode clear and put 4mins into the group. It was race over us kiwis had marc Ryan and peter Latham up there. So race gone but the bunch just kept smashing it, with way to much gutter time for a 190km race. Once I lost any sniff of a result or helping someone from our team get a result that was it. 20km to go it was curtains for me.

You know you’re on a shit day when you have jack Johnson stuck in your head and when the race averaged 47 kph for close to two hours from the gun you need to get your matt hofman bmx on and take all the hotlines and curb jumps you can to stay at the front and yesterday I wasn’t that guy.

Got through check in and security no dramas. Talked a 300 euro excess down to 40 with a yarn that they only charged me that on the way over-it was only after I realised I flew British airways on the way here and American airways on the way home.

Happy indepenceday yo.

AMMUUUURRICA !!!

worth a watch,

2011-07-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

Allen lim has been helping me out with a some training ect over the year heres a little talk he gave in denver a few months ago, maybe the inspiration you need to get you through the kiwi winter

home stretch in belgium

2011-07-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

On another train hence another blog, the train is heading back to aarschot where im hoping someone in a bike nz car will pick me up and take me to B berg to spend my last 3 nights in Belgium before flying back home, well American home just in time to mount a kiwi flag on our mailbox for july 4^th independence day.

Im more than ready to shoot the gap, not that my last 2 weeks haven’t been a good laugh but chomping at the bit to go knock out some massive kms to get me back in shape for the end of the season, Belgium is good for allot of things but 5 hour base km rides isn’t really one of them. I was lucky enough to be adopted by rik and sabine and what I thought would be some of the mentally toughest weeks of the season turned out to be some of the better ones.

My kermise career came to an abrupt end last Sunday when I showed up and was told I wasn’t allowed to race because I was in a continental team, I thought about sunny billing the comissares and boosting it to another kermise down the road but he told me they had a meeting a few days prior and because I had been getting a few results here and there in the kerimises they had specifically mentioned that George Bennett cant race anywhere in the amateur races. Not wanting a suspension I tried to organise some flights back to the U.S a week early and although the team did all they could to help a brother out there was no flights available so I was faced with my worst fear: training in Belgium

a few local beverages in roaselare followed by a theme park the next morning in iper roller coasters and zebras are always a good past time. ( one of the boys had a nasty hangover it was about 30 times worse after the roller coaster) then it was time to get stuck in. it had continued to rain every day since touching down but to make up for it the sun came out with 40degrees giving me a mild bout of sun stroke after a 5 hour ride with not enough water. Ahh Belgium the world be full of pussys without you!

So a few days of pushing pedals and my arms seemed sorer than my legs but I just kept doing the belgie fist pump and thinking what would a Latvian do right now = train up and down the same cannal for 4hours. With a few days strung together, an easy one today and some fire ups 2mo il be ready to go for the doctor in Sundays uci 1.2 race dwars het hageland. Im racing with the new Zealand team. Will be good to re unite the kiwi livestrong trio with vinkle and jush plus a few other track boys

So that’s my lastest week in Belgium. I guess il write the next one on the plane back to the states. Ive had some missons on the travel front before and the one ahead of me can definitely go into the “misson” pile. I have 2 bikes a couple of bags and have to get to Brussels fly to somewhere then to Denver then catch a bus to boulder then somehow get all of my shit home and being july 4^th when I touch down everyone will either be pissed to bits or hiding from the festivities- my collar bone still not up to much when It comes to lifting. Oh and to top it off some slippery gypsy stole my iphone I will be watching a few episodes on bear gryils “man vs wild” to get me mentally prepared.

First the bike race,

kermise the frog

2011-06-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

A week and a half has gone by since my voyage west to Belgium and even wester to flanders last nite I started my 4^th race since being here another dirty Belgium kermise, my first kermise was last Friday nite, Clinton avery rolled up to me to go off the front early break, after a few laps me and him were lapping it out snatching premes of the locals, I started the race with 40 to 1 odds from the bookies these plummeted down to 16 to 1 until I punctured and that was race over,

Im staying with wade and his Belgium parents sabine and ric who are taking extremely good care of me making sure I don’t get to lean and that I have a bigger fan base than any of the locals.

Being new on the Belgium seen the bookies don’t know me yet, allot of them know trek is a well-respected team but because I punctured in the first race I still had long odds so this inspired a whole raft of ric and Sabine’s friends and family to come watch Sundays race and throw a lazy 20 down on me to win, we cut a deal I ended up having the chance to bring home a few thousand bucks if I won. I raced my arse off but wasn’t the best game of chess ive ever played and all I could summon up was a 7^th place and 50 bucks. The kermise went straight past the front door of the house so after the race a pretty large game of soccer,. Kiwis vs Belgium broke out and come Monday no one could walk and I had a pretty smoked big toe. the rain continued Monday but I squeezed in a few hours and on Tuesday I had my first pro kermise. I was under the impression one or two pros showed up to these but there was a pretty stacked field with lambukredit, vaconsoli, veranda williems, katusha top sport having pretty big teams there with one or two from high road, rabobank and lotto. The wind was getting stronger and on each of the 15 laps more people would get split off, it got down to about 25 of us with 4 off the front, I found the easiest place to be was attacking or lapping with the teams trying to split it so I didn’t have to grovel in the gutter. Last corner I was in ok posy for the bunch kick but a guy lost it in front of me and that was the sprint gone I rolled across 25^th , I think I took a preme somewhere where I was trying to go solo, was a pretty good day racking up 200km

The next morning I made my way back across the country and eventually got picked up in aarshcot and taken back to the bike nz house to sit the first of my exams. Sport management was up first it was pretty tough but hopefully I span enough yarns to get the green light. Next morning was sports coaching paper, I busted it out faster than I thought I would and it wasn’t long before I was back on the train returning to my new Belgium friends in the west. A quick lunch and it was back on the bike for another kermise. 6pm start it was pretty cool – the first time me and wade had lined up together in a long time however the dangerous duo wasn’t so dangerous wade was coming back from being pretty crook and I had a whole book of excuses but still went ok made all the early breaks but legs were “wooden” missed the one move that stuck but the legs came around really strong at the end and i eventually got another chase group off the front, we were pretty close to catching them at the end. I rolled second in the kick for 11^th place.

Today has been spent taking a breath. Went for a role around the Belgium nationals finishing circuit with nico mattan and another pro doing recon, theres a nasty cobble section in there

Wades got an interclub so il go get my look on tomorrow maybe throw a few hours of pedalling in before back to the kermise scence on Sunday.

this yarn escalated, i wont hate you if you skim read it.

peace

waffles, frits and real shit roads (and a wrap of fletche')

2011-06-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

you guessed it, beeelgium.

i arrived in belgium after fletche' du sud, got dropped at the bike nz house about 8pm by 9pm i was cracked and wondering what the hell i was doing in belgium and wondering why i didnt jump on the plane back to nz for a week or two but then i remembered i needed the racing and belgium has a race on everyday if i need it so i dropped of some gears and the next morning headed west to zwevelgium to meet some kiwis and get ready for some kermise racing belgie styles.

fletche' du sud was a mixed bag,

the prolouge was ok i rolled 30th, stage one i made the 15 man split but then we got caught, later that stage i managed to kane myself with a feed bag.

stage 2 dale made the break but got caught i tried to help gypsy lewis in the sprint but the russians were strong.

stage 3 was a hard stage finishing at the top of a punchy hill after hard finishing circuits. i found my self in the days early move and progressively got caught by more and more groups on the road and eventually the peleton, i was stuffed after my early efforts and ended up 2nd group somewhere in the 20s

final stage. nothing to loose right? well actually i lost a little bit more skin to the luxemburg roads along with a shoe and some riding kit. first hour was stupid hard the bunch whitiled down to about 50 with hundreds of attacks going i finally started to feel the bunch getting tired and wacked it up a hill as hard as i could, joined by 2 others. as we were establishing the gap we came up to a roundabout which was wet i was over enthusiastic and ended up sliding for what felt like forever. all three of us jumped up and kept sprinting, we were joined by 2 others from the group and that was it - we were in the days breakaway. after a damage assesment i seemed ok i needed a new shoe (which was successfully swapped on the road) and there seemed to be allot of blood which im still not sure where from and of course the normal cheese grated skin on the hips and shoulders ect.. we worked well together but were caught 5km shy of the line and the stage ended in yet another bunch kick.

my efforts earned me the most aggressive rider overall for the tour and a kiss from some local luxemburg podium girls so the 100kms off the front and the missing skin wasnt in vain.

went for a ride today, still feel like shit mostly from crash number 1, i couldnt get much stiffer anyway so crash number 2 was just annoying. belgium is grey and im struggling to see how i will survive the next 20 days here but im planning on racing myself to death and then only doing reco rides for 2weeks then get into proper training back in the states becasue no one, not even eddy liked training in belgium.

by the way that twitter account isnt mine or me, some gypsy trying to make me loose a bet.

peace

Ah shit i crashed…

2011-06-11T00:10:00.000-07:00

I was overdue, I had 2 pretty near misses in the prologue warm up and race yesterday and kind of had a feeling that one was coming my way in the next few days. Its weird that when you think your going to deck it you normally deck it...

Took a feed bag to the handle bars in the feed zone about 90km into the 162km stage. Got back up pretty quick but was tender and it got worse throughout the stage, the worst part was dropping my chain at the bottom of the finishing circuit hill and having to sprint up behind the cars to get back on. Anyway I finished with front group.

After the race the team doc checked out my collar bone and there was a pretty nasty lump half way down that looked to him like a brake, so we went to hospital and got some x rays and they came clean so its just some tendons and soft tissue damage , probably the best news ive ever got at a hospital.

Early in the stage me and dale found ourselves in a 17 man split, the shit thing was only 7 of us were lapping (stupidly hard) while the other 10 sat on, we had a bout a 30sec gap for ages but the bunch never let us go far, I tried to go with more but I was spent.

Then I hit the deck, then tried to help bring a break back on the last hill and got jumped and swung on the back for a while, I wasn’t allowed to eat after the stage in case I needed surgery so all and all I burned more matches yesterday than I have to get me through the next 3days, this morning I feel like ive been hit by a bus.

.if I can get through today (I will) then I should pick up 2mo. Theres always a weird chemical reaction when you crash that makes you feel terrible but at the end of day worse things will happen

only one thing for it, early break

G.b

so this spanish guy spits in my face...

2011-05-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

then i said, "i would fight you but i dont want to go to jail for murder"

well, thats what i inferred if its possible to infer a death threat wearing lyrca...

me and broski were heading out on a cruz and about an hour in a car pulls out, we swerved only to look up to a little girl stepping out on a pedestrian crossing, another swerve but joe caught her face with his shifter, nothing serious. we stopped a few people gathered around ect...

the girls farther was getting pretty upset, we explained about the car and it was an accident and all that but this guy was pissed off. he argued with a big group of locals who saw the whole thing it went on for a while and no one was understanding anyone. we were over it and started to leave but the guy grabbed joes bike to stop him, it sort of escalated then he grabbed my bars and spat in my face and called me (roughly translated) and american piece of shit.

now i was angry and potential infected with rabies, a small brave Spanish man stepped in and we eventually we headed our separate ways, we got about 20meters down the road then saw the police arrive so we flipped it and went back to explain, next thing an ambulance arrived and it was back to full drama, when spainairds argue it sounds like they are dealing with the fate of the universe

the police were cool, massive chillers who seemed to be creeped out by the farther bung eye they brought us to the station, a few impossible conversations and let us on our way.

so thats yarn number one,

yarn number 2 was Saturday night in girona, (sorry lads not as interesting as your hoping)

it was the final of the champions league soccer, Barcelona vs man U, i was sitting in the apartment and heard a huge roar across the city so i went down to check it out

heres the reaction from Barcelona 2nd goal

i thought about cheering when man united scored but i dont like soccer enough to raise my voice and valued my life.

ive got another good video about some protesting gypsys, we joined in

choice,

G.B

gerona!!!!!!!! (her-o-na)

2011-05-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

ive migrated from my mansion on the hill down to the working class apartments in the city center, its great being down here amongst it, im starting to get a feel for the city and the epicness of the riding here,

part of the reason we came to girona was to check it out as a place to live if we ever get the call up to the pro tour, im pretty sold on one day moving here as a european base. its not often climbing mountains makes me smile but i had a stupid grin on my face riding up around osors today and ive heard theres even better out there,

so far ive creept up rocacorbra (not even close to the right spelling) i think while im here i mite have a stab at the record to give myself a benchmark but will see if i get motovated to suffer like hell for 28 minutes and 45 seconds or more.

i rode to the beach

smashed some ice cream and did some bird watching

did a bit of a power test today 5 minute one, that wasnt as fun as the beach ride

getting some quality kms in trying to find the house once back in girona, toady i racked up close to an hour riding around the city getting progressively more angry

got the uni assignments handed in so taking a breather from the books then getting stuck into some study before exams in a few weeks

final stage of ronde d l'is-hard

2011-05-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Wrote this a few days ago forgot to post it,

Somehow after an epic night of (f) muck ups Ive woken up in a hotel in girona after finally hitting the sack sometime in the early hours of this am, going to plan we were meant to arrive about 9pm last night but It went a bit pear shaped with podiums, presentation, A questionable GPS and some very well hidden keys. anyway im in spain so anything ive learnt about living in Europe over the past 2 years is out the window.

Yesterdays final stage went well but we didn’t pull it off, we got close enough for me to feel gutted even though we still finshed 2^nd (me) and 3^rd (joe dombrowski) on G.C

The night before the stage I could harldy sleep I was super excited and couldn’t help but think we were going to take the jersey, the yellow was strong but not as strong as the results showed and it was 2 against one. There were two huge mountains to get over in the stage and as soon as the first one approached we hit the front with a team attack isolating the yellow jersey, for the next 5km me and dombroski just 1-2 him until he eventually he had to let one of us go- it was joe. He got across to the early brake (we had josh who smashed it for a km then popped off) the gap grew

the descents were loose. There was so much fog and rain you literally couldn’t see more than 10meters in front so every now and then a hair pin corner would pop out in front of you and the old death grip came into play.

Throughout the day the group whittled down and by half way up the second hill there was me, the yellow jersey and 2 other guys about 1.30 back on joe and a Russian. He was in virtual yellow and I hadn’t pulled a turn all day, the yellow was chasing hard and somehow brought the gap back.

Coming into the finish there was 6 of us for the win, a Russian attacked and with maybe the strongest thing ive ever seen in a bike race he put a minute into us to take the stage. I got second in the kick thanks to a lead out from a very tired broski who helped with a lead out, So joe rode courageously all day, the team set us up very well and we nearly pulled it off,

Hats off to Kenny, he was strong and he team were smart.

i ended up 2nd in the green jersey and 4th on KOM, joe won the KOM and took 4th in green jersey,

we ended up 2nd on teams G,C and with some good placings in stages we were the dominant team

It was pretty humbling the reception I got from the French, i spent the last few years thinking they didn’t rate me one bit but this year it was different and felt good to be back there, all though it was only for 5days……….

so all done and dusted, spending the next few days staying levi leipheimers place (chur bro) then heading a little closer to town for the last few weeks of my stay, girona seems awesome at a glance

thanks everyone for all the emails and F,B messages ect… stoked to know people back home are keeping an eye on things,

does anyone know how to work apple t.v? levi didn’t leave a manual

G.B

stage 2 ronde d l ishard

2011-05-23T05:15:00.001-07:00

Judging by the introduction I got from the M.C at sign on today there was an expectation I would go alright today meaning the stage probably finished at the top of a big piss off mountain, superbangeres 19km of epic pyreneain mountain.

The first obstacle of the day was putting a man in the brake, dale stepped up and got away with a 13man group, the second obstacle was col de la mente’ a 17km bump in the road. By the top the bunch had whittled down to 8 of us we caught and passed all of the brake except one ambitious belgie from top sport vlanderen. Dale hooked on for a km but lost contact over the top few km, I had joe dombrowkski with me still. Over the top I was able to do something that has come from riding every day in boulders mountains- brake away on the descent. Me and pat lane from AIS got a bit loose and rode about 40 seconds into the chase bunch and caught the 1.30 on the lone belgie the 3 of us rolled but half hartedly and the bumsh behind shut us down pretty quick. Soon groups started regoinging us as we started the 25km valley to the foot of superbangeres. Dale managed to get back and rode straight to the front and put on show of force. He sat for about 15km with 20 guys struggling to hold the wheel, not one turn from anyone else – the directors beghind were wondering what team was lapping super hard at the front and when they saw it was one guy there was more than an eyebrow raised. He eventually succumbed to cramps as we hit the foot of the hill.

Coming into the mountain was breath-taking, (no shit you’re climbing a 20km mountain) but seriously it was amazing, the best scene from lord of the rings times 100, without getting full gay poet on you crazy windy roads climbing though mist and snowy mountains with lighting striking all around and thunder which sounded way to close.

There was some attacks ect and eventually joe got away with 2 others, I stayed glued to the wheel of who I thought was the strongest- roman bardet of chambery . Another rider jumped across while I kept the powder dry making roman close the gap, he looked pretty bad and was getting worse then I figured he wasn’t bluffing so I booted across the gap but it was too late Kenny elosande had left joes group alone. I caught joe and we worked together to bring him back but he was strong and eventually we finished 2 and 3^rd about 50 secs back.

It was a weird feeling, second is all good but we had just been waxed by a little Frenchie. I never really got the chance to go anaerobically deep, I waited too long. guys I thought were good shat out and guys I knew but didn’t think were that amazing rode amazingly. Id love to have that climb over again.

I did a pre race interview with a French website a few days before I came over, they tittled it with a quote saying I was bringing a very strong team with me to this race. All I can say is we are living up to it. Any gaps we close, unmanned brakes we have chased them all and have had a full lead out train into the base of each hill, we are leading teams GC by 5 minutes and I can honestly say I would be further down the ladder without these boys around me.

mini camp/euro trip

2011-05-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

back on the couch, back on the space legs chunning protein and anything else in sight. it seems to have become the routine over the last week and a bit, i had myself a little training camp here in boulder prescribed by dr allen lim. over the last 7 days ive spent over 35hours on the bike everyday crawling up the hills todays effort was close to 4700kjs with more than 4200 meters of climbing. a few days i spent the last hour or two behind the scooter trying to stop myself pulling allen off the scooter every time he threw in an acceleration, boulder turned on a stunner week for me and i think its what i needed to get me back on the horse for europe. we finished gila on sunday flew home monday and training began tuesday so i guess its been a two and a bit week block, taking a few days to freshen up then hitting the intensity before we fly out to europe on sunday, ive really enjoyed it its been a while since ive done the big kms i was doing under robin reid in the summer.

our european trip nearly lost its way after one of the organisers of circuto de montanies died and the race was cancelled but a phone call from andy shelck got us a ticket to start Luxemburg's fletch de sud, so its looking like ronde d lisard 20-22nd may then spending 2-3 weeks in gerona training, then heading up to fletch.

no u23 paris rubaix for me this year, at first i was a little disappointed just because i thought it would be epic but after going over my season focusing on the mountain races is definitely the right thing to do. its the first time ive been excited to go to europe since i was a junior going over to italy, it will be my 4th trip over the pond and i think going with a good bunch of guys is gonna make a huge difference.

i guess by now most of us have heard about the death of wouter weylandt in stage 3 of the giro, its a pretty odd feeling, on the same day teenager shamus liptrot of Adelaide australia passed away from the effects of a crash a few years ago, some of the boys knew him pretty well.

it lingers in the back of your mind hearing about this kind of shit, makes you think twice about passing the car half way down lee hill... a sad day for the cycling world.

doing a few little odds and ends getting ready to leave, tonite im starting a sleeping time shift so i dont get to jetlagged on the way over so if you see me online at 4am over here you know what im up to.

not much else to report, will hear from me after stage 1 of isard...

gilla final stage, yes i missed the 3 inbetween

2011-05-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

in brief, day 2 was a sprint, day 3 was a tt, team mate dale smashed it for the win, i didnt smash it for 18th place, day 4 was a crit, team mate joe lewis smashed it for the win i didnt smash it for another 18th place,

day 5, gilla monster

with dale in 4th me in 6th and joe broski in 12th we had some good options for the hardest day of the race, joe lewis wrapped up the sprint jersey in the first few km and then we turned out attention to climbing hills, first cat 2 climb nothing happened but the second time up the cat 1 gila monster climb i rode clear with race leader paco mancebo and chris baldwin we put a minute into the chase group of 6 up the 8km climb and caught glen chadwick at the top to make the group 4. after the dh we rode straight into the last big climb of the day, chadwick went out the hoop followed by baldwin, with just me and mancebo swapping off a 1.30 up on the chasers things were looking pretty good,

then i shat the bed and with less than 2okm to go and only small rollers to the finish i popped, got caught by the chasers, passed and then crept home

i was happy i could follow the best on the hills but devo i couldnt do the distance, mancebo was simply to strong

as for trek livestong, i think the other boys surpassed everyones expectations. with 2 stage wins, best young rider, sprint jersey, two other stage podiums 2nd on g.c and maybe even 4th aswell,

1st in teams classification and fantastic team work all round,

tour of the gila, stage une

2011-04-27T15:56:00.001-07:00

its been a pretty rough build up to gila but i got to the start and survived the hill top finish of stage one, robin reid warned me stage one was going to hurt like shit with the time off from training ive had and he wasnt wrong. the good news is i can only get better...

super easy first 146.5 km then i put the team on the front to string it out before the 5km hill climb to the finish line, then i started to hurt. the lads drove it popping off one by one but demoloshing the peleton untill there was just a handful of us left, i had team mate joey dombroski with me and between us we covered as much as we could on the climb but i was deep in the metophorical pain cave and couldnt attack myself..

joe attacked with 500meters to go i sat on some bissel guy and sprinted him but got pipped by alex howes for 4th

5th was all i could managed but joe rode awesome to take 3rd. the team today was incredible allot of good feedback from how organised the boys rode, everyone gave it 100% and is a pretty good feeling to be part of something that hurt other people pretty badly.

onwards and upwards

watch out for angry mexicans in the peleton, they will hook you and brake check you and potentially stab you.

G.B

wanna get lean?

2011-04-14T18:41:00.001-07:00

take a walk inside the trek livestrong u23 house and we will have you spewing yourself down to race weight in no time, three of us boys and one team massuse have fallen victim to one of the worst bugs i remember having, josh had it first and was back on the bike the next day so all going well il be ok 2mo to get training, i didnt get an eyeful of sleep last nite and spent the day on the couch, ive managed to eat half a piece of toast and go slightly insane watching bad american sit coms knowing i should at least be doing some study,

being the optimist im seeing this as a good thing, bassically boulder got more snow than ive ever seen last nite and if i wasnt crook i would of been out doing the 5.5hour ride i had down where more than likely i would of got hypothermia, crashed on the ice and decided i should retire,

so,

back on the horse soon,

a bored, dehydrated and nauseous G.B

saves a blog update,

2011-04-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

instead of writing a blog about my thoughts after first race in the states il use the copy paste function on the key board.

http://www.roadcycling.co.nz/201104063554/RaceTalk/first-impressions-no-us-racing-vs-european-racing.html

choice

redlands wrap up.

2011-04-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

saturday we had the inner city criterium, 90 minutes long, i can say allot about it other than i didnt do a whole lot just took it easy in the middle and stayed out of trouble and joe lewis was our man in the sprint but got caught up around a crash on the last corner meaning they never caught the solo man off the front, and finished 8th. pretty cool pure black got the first race win so hats off to them!

sunday. sunset loop. 12 laps, about 2.5 km uphill and then back down. i was sitting 14th in the general class and was only 27 sec behind the leader Francisco Mancebo who got 4th in the tour de france a few years ago. team plan was to stack the break with joe lewis or josh but it didnt work out so we played the waiting game. with about 5 laps to go the attacks started to come, i felt pretty good and followed a few, after a hard one from mabcebo i a

ttacked over him and got a gap, i was soon joined by john bennett and we worked well together and built a big lead,

after a lap i got the call i was the virtual race leader, we kept pushing real hard and soon the gap was out at 1.10 on the descent before we started our last lap i heard a painful sound behind me, i took one look back to see the other bennett bouncing down the road after hitting a pothole at 70kph. i knew straight away he wouldn't get back up from that so i kept going solo.

that basically stuffed any chance i had at winning the overall. i got caught at the top of the last lap and then just tried to help joe in the last local flat laps around the city. he got 5th in the stage.

so pretty dissapointing it didnt workout but i guess encouraging at the same time knowing we gave it a good nudge, the team worked awesomely throughout the tour and for the first race of the year the form felt pretty good.

after the race we had a team dinner, i came back from the toilet to find a huge cake waiting

pretty awesome little surprise, im pretty sure in my last years team i would of been dropped for even looking at a cake, happy riders are fast rider

we spent monday morning shooting hoops in the sunshine then went off to visit the cancer ward at the local children's hospital, it puts bike racing in perspective visiting those kids but was pretty awesome seeing their attitudes to life after everything they are going through.

all and all it was a bloody good weekend. lots of laughs with a cool team and support staff, back in boulder now managed to pick up a bit of the flu on the way home so taking it easy for a day or two.

thanks for the encouragement through the tour,

g,b

camp shoot

2011-04-02T07:38:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uChX9vIrZTc

redlands stage one,

2011-04-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

i actually feel allot like p diddy,

woke up to a beautiful california day inside of one of californias most beautiful houses, (border line if you can call it a house) its pretty amazing smashed a good breakfast and rolled out for a early start.

things pretty much went south from there...

day 2 (stage one) was about 200km on a pretty easy course with a smallish hill, with over 200 riders in the field staying upright was about as hard as today got, we didnt do such a good job,

i burned a few matches early trying to hit the Early break, a few looked promising but no luck so i turned attention to looking after dale and seeing if we could improve his 6th on g,c. and saving the pins for the end of the race, then the crashes started. we lost broski (joe dombrowski)early after he took a nasty fall, then we lost mike vink who has been feeling pretty under the weather lately so had to pull the pin, the booters slowly made their exits out the back of the peleton but the course wasnt hard enough to do real damage. coming into the hill on the last lap there was a huge pile up on one of the massive highways were we sit around 60kph, i got through by the width of my lycra but dale caught a stray bike part to his shin, he held it up but got a very nasty hole so he had to pull out,

the boys did an awesome job of leading me out into the bottom of the hill on the last lap while joe lewis stayed fresh as a sprint finish option, i attacked no one followed but slowly got pulled back, i went a few more times but got pulled back on the d.h

the group was down to about 30 odd riders with the early brake dangling at 20secs, i got my julian dean on played leadout man for joe, i was about as good at it as i am at scottish log tossing but got the elbows out and managed to throw a few headbuts and joe up to the front for him to do his thing, there was another massive pile up coming into the last km, 300meters to go joe got a nasty brake check but still got up for a top ten finish. the brake stayed away by a few seconds.

so it was a pretty stressful day but its hard to stay stressed in the place, the chiropractor has worked her magic, reed has given me a good massage and ive spent the arvo doing hot colds between the spa and pool, it must of been over 40 degrees today so having some downtime before team dinner,

pretty gutted we lost some of the boys today, i think i would of moved up on g.c

just a 90min crit 2mo, yuk

g,b

redlands tt,

2011-03-31T22:12:00.001-07:00

california is hot as,

got 17th in tt

dale got 6 th,

im 25 secs sown dale is 15 secs down,

rest of team went ok to

see you 2mo

g.b

racing clocks, golden h.c.t.t

2011-03-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

well to follow suit with the current time trailing craze im going through atm i did a hill climb time trial just out of boulder on Saturday, it was a 7.5 km climb up lookout mountain in a little town called golden. the record is held by tom Danielson of Garmin cervelo at 16.04 so i thought id give it a nudge,

had a pretty hard week leading in, went out the day before and did a few 20min threshold efforts on the climb and decided i was creeping to much to race but spent the night watching movies and talking shit with the boys and by the am was ready to roll. headed out early and sat around in the cold waiting to start, had a ok run up the hill but wasn't great think i saved a little too much for the finish and posted a 17.15 it was a pretty windy morning up the mountain so for the day it was enough to win with just over a minute back to second place.

it was a good taste of altitude racing again, a little easier than last week but still felt really restricted racing up here, i think a few more weeks and i will be dialed. id love to do things properly and when im a bit closer to peak form find a good day and taper to have a shot at the faster time but for now im pretty happy with where things are at this early in the year and hopefully i can really ramp it up before heading over to europe.

heading to redlands at sparrows chirp on Wednesday, race start Thursday

snowing today

g,b

to old for this shit..

2011-03-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

did i just go round for round with the nz warriors wing manu vatuvei?

oh wait it was just a gym session at ROOTS gym, i didn't even use weights and i still cant move properly (gym sesh was over a week ago now and im still crippled) i guess it highlights how specific cycling is, the faster i get on the bike the shitter i get at

every other facet of life so dr allen lim tells me its time to get hard and start straightening out the body

we go down to this little place called roots gym, if you have ever seen the movie dodge ball its just like the "average joes" gym. i think the 4 of us who go from the house would be some of the fittest people in town but watching us work out is like watching a morbidly obese person walk up a flight of stairs. any way along with that and adapting to my new time trail bike im pretty sore these days.

heres the new beast

well actually thats the race one the home one has a different paint job and i dont get to roll round on a disc.

ive done a sick set up with the RETUL boys, they put all these dots over you and play with lasers and videos and stuff to make sure its dialed in right, im starting to get use to the set up but not hitting the same watts as on the roadie yet but it will come, il put up a video of the set up sometime.

ive actually been really busy, i thought once i settled in i would go back to the quiet life of the years gone but not really.

in between spending 42 hours playing with brakes and handle bars and uci rules setting up my bike i had my first race, got a new mouth-guard and have been busting out some quality mountain kms.

so first race...

local boulder crit. 1hr long nothing to major right?

6 trek boys rolled up, thinking it was like a club race back home, i went out for 3 hours first, we made our tactics be in every move then joe wins the sprint. easy.

turns out a local boulder crit is stacked with pros and old boy hitters, we got embarrassed, we were the only team to miss the winning break and dale did a super hero effort to try bring it back but i was to cooked to help and we got flogged, shit i laughed -welcome to racing at altitude beach dweller.

mouthguards.

so far this year seems to be the year of 1% ers. making small gains. i spent a few hours at the dentist the other day getting a mouthguard fitted that will increase power and stuff? if you know those power balance tests it basically does those times 10. it took an hour with my head plugged into a machine and moving my jaw 1mm at a time to get these readings. i only fainted once, heart rate got to low sitting down for ages and next thing there was no blood in my head and i was on the deck. so anyway this mouthguard showed up a week or two later, it seems to work in the little tests but will see out on the road. theres allot more science to it than the bracelets, it lines up your jaw and increase bite power or something, will let you know if it makes me the man at riding bikes, either way glad im finally wearing a mouthguard on a bike- its a contact sport.

training is ramping up, went up to 3000meters, stupid idea really its about -60 degrees up there and you have to breathe 50 time faster.

hoping to see these guys at some stage this year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=653PLUXWQuA

ok will be updating about a hill climb time trail in the next day or two,

better go do some study

im feeling a little defeated by "section 13- creating a successful team enviroment"

b(c)oulder

2011-03-11T19:33:00.000-08:00

so ive been in the mountains for a week today. on the whole i rate it.
i nearly died with the altitude a few times so didnt really train for most of the week, snuck in a 4 hr ride in the sun, i survived so that was enough to land me with a death session on the cards for the A.M.

since we couldnt really train we spent most the week making our house into a home. we did a good job and i turned my little dungeon into a study/peace mecca while dale turned the upstairs into the little rock, he actually brought a strobe and mushroom light and a set of D.J decks just incase i wasnt feeling motovated to smash myself on the bike.

boulder is amazing, everyone is either a student, smoking weed, riding bikes or saving the enviroment. the people here are super nice and have been really welcoming, went out for some dinner with locals that have a loose connection with one of the lads in the house and got shown around boulder, 35000 students is pretty loose.

view from top of flagstaff with gypsy and some locals.

training seems like it will be choice, big bergs everywhere just a bit cold to head up there yet. we had a couple days of snow but it changes over night to a beautiful 15 degree day wont be long till the leggies come off and the tan line comes storming back.

so, good people, good training, marginal form after a few weeks easier than normal but im feeling the love in what the locals call the "boulder bubble" (i think thats like piss off everyone who isnt spreading happiness) its a cool thing but hard to describe

so now camps over and im settled in its back to reality a bit. studying pretty hard to catch up on lost time with uni papers im doing but keeps my mind off cycling which seems a pretty popular topic in house of 5 amature cyclists.
hope everyone is well back home and people in chch are starting to get back on their feet. gutted i missed sonny bill play trafalger

ok
GB

last day of camp,

2011-03-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

last day of camp was a goodie, started out by visiting the local solvang primary school and played a bit of Q and A with the kids then spent the next 30mins being swarmed for autographs by a million 7th graders, the kids threw a few curve ball questions for the boys but luckily the trainers were on hand to feild them.

we then headed out for some bridging efforts which were pretty different but opened me up we finished the session with a 6 mile race back to the bridge,
everyone has had there day at camp, i was leaving it late with the two mountain days behind us i had still not had my glory moment.

coming into the last few hundred meters i was in great position to show off my massive 60kgs worth of sprint from the small group left, lawson came arond me to take it but posted his salut early and i moved my big frame past to take the win and take my moment in the solvang camp for 2011.

sooo big arvo of massages, packing more sponser product talks and learning time.
up super early to head to the airport with all my stuff so could be few kilos over weight, excited to move into the new house and find my new home in the mountains but gutted to leave the team as most head over to europe with the national american team,

awesome camp, couldnt of had a better intro to the team and super excited whats up ahead. great bunch of guys and a huge thanks to the swannys and mechanics for working so stupidly hard all camp,

out of touch for a while untill we get the net set up in the house so see you when i do.,
outties
gb

ive lost count i think day 6?

2011-03-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

gibralter. a big climb over looking the beautiful santa babra township, a big climb made way bigger by a wrong turn into bandit country.
todays ride was good for the soul. long, hard and postcard scenery to ease the pain.
we headed south for the beach and after about 75km we glided down the one of the greatest decents ive done into santa babara, through some private ranches and other places youve seen on the movies and eventually started climbing the 1000 vertical meters to the top, axel mercx was laying down the heat early on for the photo op but retreted to the car after he managed to drop his arch rival matt from trek, from there we just tempoed the hill to what we thought was the top, we dropped down a crazy canion untill the road turned to gravel, this was probably the first sign we had taken a wrong turn but we were to rooted to face the truth that we had to climb back out so we kept heading down, eventually one of the nissans caught us and after a few tears we started the ride back up.

by the end of the day we had a good 6hrs on the bike, heaps of climbing, and had seen one of americas great places, the veiw from the top is something to write home about (just pretend your reading this in a letter)

after dinner caught up with steve blick from oakly who decked us out with some more gears and learnt a bit about why oaklys rule so much,

off to visit some schools tommorow,
settle down josh....

tt day 5,

2011-02-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

rest day my arse...
easy spin early in the am, woke the legs then off for lunch. axel made us wait in suspense to find out who our partner would be for the 2 up time trial in the arvo. it was eventually revealed that bennett would be with Ryan eastman to create team beastman.

the stars were aligned, both similar heights and styles or rider we were quietly confident we had the trek livestrong team trail champs in the bag,
after doc allen lim made us chun a litre of sea water as prep (it was actually a little more complex but tasted the same) we finished out warm up and dailed in our tactics.

we started well and after 10km were 2 seconds off the pace, kept it smooth but i dropped the ball on the dh tail wind and couldnt keep the leg speed going, too many hard pulls at the start and team beastman slowly fell to bits, loosing 16 seconds over the 22km to take the last spot on the podium, kiwi josh atkins teamed up with world tt medialst lawson (awesome) craddock to take the title,

somewhere in the day was a photo shoot with the team more spa and more massage, some funky chiroprators loosened things up to so feeling pretty good lying in bed about to strap on the ZEO which monitors sleep patterns, aparantly im the worlds worst sleeper,

gee bee

Day 4 camp

2011-02-27T22:52:00.001-08:00

Another beautiful day here in solvalng California, we kitted up early and headed out under the shadow of mt figaroa which dr allen lin had planned us to head up a few times, after about an hour we hit the base and started out 5 minute efforts on the hour long climb, after about half way we hit the snow and snow turned to black ice, I got through the first section but dale wasn’t so lucky and hit the deck pretty hard, next thing theres treks left right and center sliding on the ice, I think 3 of the boys went down but they had basically stopped so no one is too bad now.
After nannering it thru all the ice we got as high as we could, rode down and went up the other side, this was pretty epic, after a few km of gravel and river crossings we got close to the top and death gripped it to the bottom,
Have had a pretty relaxed arvo with the massages and team meeting after dinner, learning so much from all the experience that is on hand, spent a good few hours going over the finer points of warm ups ect and tomorrow we will put them in place with the whole day being focused at tt prep with a hit out on the tour of California tt course in the pm,
Wish me luck because il need it,
Happy birthday carter and reed ,
G,b

day 3

2011-02-26T18:40:00.000-08:00

camp from a training aspect kicked off today, it was forcast for a piss awful day but i woke up to sunshine and i was a happy little cyclist.

mint breakfast, qucik breifing and then the lads headed out for a long base ride, the first 100kms was pretty social a few sponsors tagged along as well as direct axle merchx then it was tome to get down to some drills, allen lin the trainer split us into two teams and we practised lead out trains for the finish, we had some sick tactics for the first one with my long solo attack being piped a few meters before the line, luckily our team went 1,2,3 and 4, YEAAAAAAA TEAM ALPHA, j lewis leading the charge.

race two was a team swap up and slightly different tactics requrired, my lead out skills were disgusting but the boys pulled another win,

final swap up of teams was world war 111, usa verse the kiwis ozzies and robin the big german, puersuit world record holder dale parker saved our lead out train and team down under got the win.

real good ride in nice weather, it was still pretty cold but ok. my throat got worse today but it means it can only get better. spent the arvo having a team lunch and kicking it in the spa with the boys. a few more goodies to go in the bad and now im smashed.

nearly dinner time, joe suggests the ribs.
tomo is gonna be hard.
cheers
g,b

touchdown,

2011-02-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

well i made it here unharmed, picked up a bug on the plane but it hasnt stopped me heading out with the boys in the pissing rain,
day 2 of camp finished up today and so far it has been good times, i knew it would be a good set up but i cant really describe the step up from other teams, all i can say is the gear is very very cool, my new bike rocks (same as my other bike) my new shoes are 56 times better and the 2011 trek kit brings out my eyes.

its funny how things ive just put up with are being exposed and all the kinks are being ironed out. there is some ridiculous stuff like sleep neron monitors and custom nike casual shoes, little things that make this team best set conti team in the world.

that stuff is important but the best thing ive found so far is how easy it has been to slot into the team, the staff are super helpful, the boys are great and already everyone is geling really well. the attitude of this team is the polar opposite to the euro teams, all the help we need but at the end of the day we are respected and its up to us to do things right,

im enjoying it, im struggling in the cold to be honest but i should be able to get through, i think il have a shock when camps over and i move to boulder 1 mile high,

check out the photos and things on the team website.
bed time, i think ive kicked jetlags arse this time around but maybe im speaking to soon

gb

travelling gypsys

2011-02-23T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well, full cycle.
Im back in the airport writing about leaving and how good summer was and a taste of what im expecting ahead this year, I cant help but think back to this exact blog update in feburary last year en route to france, I have to say this one feels a whole lot better.
Im still a bit miffed where time goes, tomorrow kind of vanished to yesterday and now its actually time to start this thing, summer is over. The boys have gone back to uni, the mornings have a little nip and in a few hours il be humming to Katie perry singing California girls. I think ive timed my excitement run pretty well. I had sort of swept the thought of heading off this season aside so I could make the most of my time at home but over the last few days ive been getting pretty primed. Ive Said my fairwells and packed my bags without much order, at least I found some room for the guitar.
First up is camp in solvang California, ive heard good things about this place, here we get equipped and meet the team and staff along with the product sponsor reps who introduce us to the products., I assume we do some hearty training and get briefed on how the year will work.
After that we head to our new home in the mountains, boulder Colorado. Last week I was looking at the weather and the max was -15, I don’t know if ive ever been that cold. I melt in the rain and have a phobia of being cold so im pretty excited.
so summer was good from the start, on the bike I started my nz season with a win in the benchmark home final race, had a very fun tour of southland bar loosing 10mins in the crash. Trained super hard up to nats and the team had a ripper ride to take u23 title and also gave vinyards a pretty good nudge. After that I stopped riding hard and bluffed my way through a win at the tour of welly and then got pretty loose on the mtb with a second in the national 1.2 round and a win in the copper mine epic, I think by far the achievement for me was winning a bunch sprint in the nelson Tuesday night world champs
off the bike things were great, spent a bit off time chipping away at village cycles to keep me busy, saw the whanau around the country and said hello to my brand new baby niece. Saw some sick music at the b.d.o, ate to much bbq and drank whatever goes well with a bbq. I had a close mate live with me all summer and between dinner convo and my long training rides with the boys I solved the problems of the worlds 10 times over with allot of loose chat.
So thanks heaps to everyone who has been a part of my time at home, my sponsors have been very good to me and my parents kept me well above ground and look forward to seeing everyone again mid season if I can make it home for a while.
keep reading I promise that I will think about updating my blog regularly
peace,
gb

epic weekend

2011-02-21T00:24:00.000-08:00

my last weekend in nelson was a goodie, copper mine epic on sat, and a good send off from mates on sat night followed by a un optional cruzy sunday and a bit of bbq sunday nite to top it off.

the race was kind of important to me for a few reasons, home town, local sponsers and of course 500 bucks up for grabs. couldnt really afford a taper for the race so had to do it on the back of another long week of road kms,

in the back of my mind this was a big weekend to try get thru unharmed on and off the bike so i needed a big lead at the top of the hill so i could play it safe down through the apropriatly named boulder valley. i attacked pretty early and opened up a good lead. got to the top of the hill and made the bad call of chopping a beer that was handed to me. it hit me hard and made me feel pretty weird but maybe smoothed out my lines a little.

i was suprisinly ok down the boulder valley but got to the bottom and drama hit, i rolled my tyre, once i figured out how to use the gas pump i was all go again still in front untill i hit a creek and rolled the tyre again and cut the side wall, i fixed it up and thought the others must be getting close. by this stage the bike was a little worse for wear, after a few jammed chains ect i nursed her home. i hit the finish shoot and the chain took another dive, i could imagine being past in the last 100meters but i keept it calm, and snuck across for the win,

t rex (tim wilding) was a bit suprised to see me cross the line as he enterd the finish loop, the 6min lead was whittled to about 20 secs.

so what a day, what a night, a bloody good note to leave on. just a few days to collect my thoughts and some extra kms then off to camp.

il have a bit of a run down on leaving and the summer thats passed soon, but thanks to everyone for a great weekend.

jorge,

when they run out of tarseal..........

2011-02-16T21:58:00.000-08:00

about once a year i get the urge to venture from the comfort and relative safety of the tarmac and hit the trails, the urge normaly last about 15seconds then i remember how hard it is and that i cant actually handle a mtb and i revert back to saftey first football,

no, i love mtb riding and racing but i got a wake up call when i came back to race a national round (uci 1.2) last weekend and got my arse handed to me on a plate my rotorua boy (man child) dirk peters i had a awesome time on a awesome track in front of an awesome crowd, but could only manage second. all things considered it was good and kept my name floating around the scence for another year.

had a pretty big week, somehow racked up a 9hr ride in there with a few more 5 and 6hrs rides, had a good road race on sat (snuck a win) then grabed a few hours extra before the mtb race on sunday so was pretty warmed up come race start, still a bit weary from a sat nite out with the lads.

first 3 laps was all good me and dirk opened a big gap on the rest of the feild, he sat on for a bit i thought he was dropping but he wasnt, 4th lap i hit him but he hit me back hard and i couldnt hold him on the d.h. he showed his class and made no mistakes. i misplaced the plot and couldnt hold it together kept making errors and started loosing massive time to him.

i rolled around pretty conservatively and held my second place, dirk peters take a bow. we battled as teenagers and i heard he had steped it up allot, theres the proof. if theres one person i enjoy racing and dont mind loosing to its him. he didnt even complain about my roadie antics like brake checks (eat your hart out yatesy)

so huuuuuge thanks to mr stylie-anou at hyperformance hardware for getting me going, and all the people for coming to watch. great to see all my mtb friends from yestetyear again and good luck to you all hope you stomp it overseas.

outties,

G.B

photos to come

(le) the tour (de) of wellington

2011-02-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

my last race in nz for the summer, shit thats a sad thought but at least it ended on a high note. since nats i rode my roadie bike about 4 times had a few pretty good nites out and a (the) big day out up in auckland so i wasnt in great nic but good enough to take the overall win.

day one i missed the move but luckily there was some good side wind sections so i was able to ride across to a small group alone then jump the group with a team mate in the next side wind and get a couple of minutes up the road into the break, with 12km

to go i hit them up the last hill and stayed away with pure blacks james williamson. i knew i couldnt sprint him so i just drove it hard to the finish and my suspicions where correct, he put about 40 bike lengths into me and i nearly cracked 500 watts in

the final dash.

day 2.

we finished up a 6km hill, pure black had 3 riders all round me on g.c so i thought they would hit me all day but instead they controlled the race and were happy to leave it up to a climbing battle , that was good news in my books, i won th

e climbing battle by just over a minute, and took yellow

day 3,

controlled the race, 45kph average, the team buried themselves and had a few mates pull some turns and the race never got out of hand.

day 4

last stage for g.c and it was 8 laps with a 2km hill each lap. pure black the AIS team and a few others on g,.c gave it a good nudge but they were trying to hit me on the hill and it meant i could take controll of the race. my team hit there straps and after a good break established they controlled it. with a few to go, the pace picked up and i got isolated, a few dangerous moves went but i just keept trying to feed off other strong teams and got there.

so that was it, tour won, oh yea there was a crit on sunday that didnt count for g.c or anything but i still had a bit of fun. everyone knew it didnt count except t

he ozzie jayco AIS team who was coming second with pat lane.

these guys pissed off and everyones asking about it so heres the long and short.

pat lane got up the road in the crit and got about a minute. his team mates back in the peleton where cutting me and doing anything they could to slow

me down thinking they were going to win the overall, after the race when they discovered wh

at everyone knew, they threw their toys. im not sure how they didnt know it was a display crit- they even told us again on the start line so i dont have much sympathy, they had a pretty good cry about it and threw some loose chat my way.

i had a pretty awesome time and have a huge list of people to thank, my team mates were amazing, no one had form on day one and by day thre

e we were the real deal, a few other mates for c

hipping in ( livestrong team mate Micheal vink and co) its hard to write down the appreciation for a group of guys who just ride the front all day for you and have enough faith in you to not balls it up, i think i gave alex meenhorst a few hart attacks with some of my on road decisions and team captian J.K definitely had less hair at the end of the week but hey, just keeping you on your toes.

it highlights the importance of having mates in the bunch or more to the points the importance of not having enemys in the bunch. i got the occasional pul

l from guys who just didnt want other teams to win for one reason or another,

the masusess were ridiculous, every night over an hour on the table, at one stage i had 2 masuses at once! my legs got better and better each day and im sure its just because i was racking up good table time, so emma and becks you rock.

manager john, well done you made it two in a ro

w, probably time to quit your day job. team Sponsors cardno thanks again for fronting up, without you there was no team, and a massive thanks to wellington public. the reception was pretty humbling. thanks for getting behind such a great event and i hope to see you all next year.

to the kiwi peleton, what a choice summer of racing that was, good luck to everyone heading away and starting the long build up to the tour of southland,

elite nationals,

2011-01-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

while most of the cycling world, (europe, america) have been taking it easy for there winter off season, me and allot of the other kiwi riders have been training pretty bloody hard for national champs.

after having close to a month off the bike after tour of southland i had a really short but sharp build up to the race. id say it was one the best build ups ive ever had to a race in my life, everything went perfectly and couldnt of asked for a better 6weeks of training.

3 (nearly 4 )30hr weeks, a week of racing and a short rest up leading into the big day was ideal and because of it i felt pretty good on race day.

we had our u23 race combined with the elite men and from livestrong there was 3 of us in the race, me josh atkins and micheal vink. before the race we put our heads together and decided vink was going to cover early moves and be agressive so i didnt have to waste any energy i was going to play the waiting game and josh was going to help me play the waiting game,

in the end, it was a great game plan as trek livestrong came away with a national jersey in the form of micheal vink. we had to cover all bases especially with a huge pure black line up and other large teams. going off last years race we thought the break would come back but with vink in the move it didnt matter that it didnt.

race started pretty slow and was very stop start with groups rolling off the front and a few pretenders rolling off the back, mike did an awesome job and got into the first move that didnt get far, around lap 6 of 12 a group off 11 rolled off the front on the flat section, vink slipped in there again and the bunch sat up, we rolled round super slow for a few laps with all the pre race favorites still in the bunch, vinks good work meant me and josh didnt have to do a thing, the gap got out around 6mins

somehow roulston slipped off the front of the group , i didnt even see him go i think i was getting a bottle or something but we missed it. the 1.5 km steep hill was the obvious danger section in this race and i dont think a single race defining move ended up going on the hill all day.

he rode across to the front and vink was in ideal position with great legs to hold on, behind i waited with the pure black u23 riders on my wheel. in a cross wind section someone dropped a wheel and 4 riders (henderson gudsel yates and my coach robin reid) just rolled off,

the small window of opportunity to jump the gap disappeared with pure black u23 riders camping on my wheel, if i jumped they would follow me across - i sat up and that was the race gone for me. the 4 man group eventually caught mike, if i had jumped we would of had a sprint finish on our hands, im allergic to sprinting and mike had been out in front for a while

all the other u23 riders, julien dean and a few other good riders looked at each other we let the race go all i could do was watch,

it was pretty tough for me to watch the race just dissapear but i know the boys would of done the same. at the end of the day we got the u23 jersey and thats all we needed to do. good start to the year in terms of how the boys worked together, vink had a great ride and josh was giving the team his best as-well. good signs.

the only smear on the day was joshes crash, he hit a few ripples in the road on a super fast dh, and went over the bars breaking his collar bone, its a clean brake and hes a super motivated guy so i dont think it will slow him down at all.

so, to the locals , i didnt win the jersey. those who arnt cyclist probably dont get the team element but we did good and did what had to be done and had a great day as a team.

i have never had a crowd like that, there were george bennett banners and livestrong support everywhere, mates sprinting up the hill in bib shorts with water guns, pirates drinking beers and Mexican girls in short shorts distracting me.

it made me realize how lucky i am, the boys who i grew up with arnt bike riders, there only interest in the sport is me and this whole build up to the race they have just been awesome, getting behind me in a huge way with a car load making the 800km round trip just to watch.,

secondly the support from a few individuals around my town in nelson, warren borlasie and brent sturm have been helping me out for years and put on a great weekend for me meaning i had to do nothing, and was 100% ready for race day.

my coach. robin reid. not only for putting in all the hours of programs but for coming out and training with me on key days. he had a pretty special ride at nats this year to take 5th but the whole he was in the break (from lap 1) he was trying to find out what was happening behind to wait for me to come across and help me win the bike race. i never did with the circumstance out on the road but its pretty hard to ever find help like it.

so thanks to everyone its been a great summer and theres still over a month to go for me here in nz. tour of wellington next up then il be back to base kms and some mtb riding for fun, but mostly racking up some hours with the lads and chipping away at getting ready for overseas.

thanks again really appreciate the support

g.b

tour de vinyards. 1-4 jan 2011

2011-01-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

im doing this update very retrospectively so forgive my lack of details or enthusiasm.

tour de vinyards is a local race for me that attracts some good names from around nz, i think its my favourite race of the year, mainly because everyone is just on a summer buzz, mates come out to watch and make inapropriate george bennett banners and somewhere along the line we ride up takaka hill (14km)

i was in pretty good nic heading into the race as nationals were just a few days later, i was definetly in a summer mindset heading in a after spending a new years eve with a few mates overlooking the beach with a bbq and struggled to get my race face on for day one.

small flat race circut so i just followed roulston around mainly, a huge group of 20 got 2mins up the road by the finish and we just pottered around with the hitters watching each other trying a few times to bridge across, luckily my TREK LIVESTRONG team mate josh atkins had slipped up the road so i had a pretty easy day.,

day 2, finish at the summit of takaka hill, josh was in great position to take the yellow jersey we had a good game plan but it all whent to crap when roulston decided to light it up half way thru, we both missed the move as we were trying to get bottles thru the feed zone and by the time we hit takaka i was 2mins down on roulston who had gone solo ahead of his breakaway group.,

i attacked as hard as i could at the bottom and passed everyone and caught roulston by about half way up the hill, unfortunatly it flattened off a bit and he was able to hold on the the back of me and outsprint me on the line.

day three, break went up the road blew out to 4 mins i slipped into 4th overall, we tried chasing and attacking and all of that but no luck, i was now 40sec down on andy hagen, an unknown for me from wellington,

last stage crit, couldnt pull the time back but gave it a good nudge, the boys came out to yell some abuse to make me go faster but was to hard to shake whole teams of riders with just me and josh,

overall had a great tour, never riden so bad tactically but felt strong and had good numbers all round, first race working with josh and we gelled pretty well out on the course so lots to look foward to,

thanks to all the locals for yelling and the club for putting on such a great event

G.B

gettin slizzard

2010-12-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

well doesnt time fly,

ive been busier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

to be honest the last few weeks have been full of things that slow me down short term but will help me keep the lid on a cold hinekin come july next year when im feeling thirsty, anyway i had a good time off the bike, felt a bit weird but got back into it with a pretty casual 30hr week of base kms,

i was really surprised how well it went, like always i felt crap for the first few rides but have slowly ridden into it, i was working 25 hrs at the bike shop so it was pretty full on, at the end of that week i traveled down the the tasman glass cycling team to race the chch festival of cycling for Peak Fuel. i had an awesome weekend, the road race on saturday was mixed bag, huge pile up after a few km i got caught behind, about 15 of us where off the back we chased like hell, soon i found some cars and was the only one from the whole bunch to make it back on, it was about half way thru the race i made contact with the bunch, hung there for a while and then when out the arse again, good times.

racked up a few good kms after the race and then had a top day with the boys chilling in Christchurch,

sunday was a day i would describe as a sole sooothing day,

up early for a 4.5 hr ride of just hills with bissel pro ride Patrick bevin and a team mate joel from nelson, beautiful morning, stopped for a smoko break in sumner and then got back in time to watch the city center crit, i was entered in the crit but was pretty cracked and decided not to ride,

i rode,

it hurt

the field was only about 40 but got shelled down to about 15, somehow i held on despite a few old boys attempts to drift me off the back i was stoked, the milk reco shake was coming up and i was trying to hold it down by boofing some coke, avoided the crashes and even threw a few in the mixer (disgustingly weak) the highlight for me was pitching it into the bottom corner after attacking way to fast, and coming soooo close to the barier and soo close to the ground i nearly pulled over to buy a lotto ticket, it could be discribed as "gettin slizzard"

toped off a mint 6hrs day, after just a week back on the bike im feeling ok, along way to go before nationals but i have 5 weeks.

thanks to all for a good weekend great laughs with team tasman glass,

norm and the peakfuel team looked after us bloody well at the race

back home in nelson, cut back the working hours from 25 to 4.5 so training will be a little easier,

check out the livestrong site, looks like the boys on camp are doing some exciting stuff right now,

fly like a G6

G.B

yeeeeeeeeeeah livestrong,

2010-11-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

well.

if you have been following (this blog or my general yarns) you would of heard or read i was off to v.c la pomme Marseilles for 2011, i guess im a filthy liar because im not.

i am stoked to annouce i will be doing business with u.s team trek livestrong for 2011.

something that has been on my mind for a long time but the big change came when v.c la pomme turned continental (for 2011). In france and i think maybe in Italy aswell conti teams are run off pro conti team rules, big races, 2year contracts ect.... all the responsibilities of being pro but in my eyes not really being pro.

its very easy to get lost in a world of 2.1 and 1. hc races without anyone really knowing you exist or without making big progress, i still have lots to learn heaps of strength to gain so i decided to evaluate,

i made a few calls and waited a few nervous days and with some help from some very cool people made the cut for axels group of 12 riders to let loose around the world for 2011.

since signing ive thought allot about things and have a huge sense of relief, a massive weight off my shoulders, ive lived in Europe the last two years on European teams and its no secret that i struggle a little with all the things that come with being a stranger in a strange town so to be able to fit in to society, enjoy time off the bike while being full time racing will surely boost the morale and put the enjoyment back in to it that i have been finding while in nz but had missed a little in france.

next year il be based out of boulder Colorado living in the team house with a awesome bunch of very talented riders. what is great is i still get to race in Europe but also get a good taste of the us scene. i have definitely had a bit of a thing about racing in europe but after looking into things and talking with all the boys who races there full time and i have gained huge respect for it and cant wait to give the states a nudge.

the team was annouced on cycling news today and since then the phones been busy and messages are rolling in, its pretty impressive how professional the team is, the staff have been great and really helpful in getting me ready to join the squad.

i dont know heaps yet, i know a few of the boys already i know our training bike look awesome (http://www.treklivestrongu23.com/)and i guess il be leaving nz sometime around feb, coming home for a breather mid year and somewhere in-between say bonjour to my amies in France or Spain or wherever we may roam.

if you are in french and struggle to read my loose poorly spelt english with the translator try this,

http://www.directvelo.com/direct-velo/actualites/11340/george-bennett-chez-trek-livestrong.html

ok thanks everyone for all the messages and calls, forgive me if i my answering service is delayed, i can tell you im having a fantastic time in new zealand with all the good people of nelson, staying pretty far away from bikes (well riding them anyway) and loosing enough form so that i will survive a very big year of racing in 2011.

choice,

G.B

recap tour of southland

2010-11-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

its now tuesday, im still sick and still slightly hungover after a fantastic finish to a wicked tour,

i didnt win, in fact after about 80km of racing i was 10mins out the hoop with nothing to show for it but a broken wheel and bent dueralier (that was on the way to bluff

hill stage 1)

normally i would of been pissed. however i had a wicked team of riders and support staff, the sun was shining and i was still in the race so i let it slide and looked foward to the next stages,

over the next few days we were all super active, alex took the k.o.m jersey from his 3 days of training. i got in a break all day that was caught 700 m

eters from the line that was gutting,

i also had a breif stint in the k.o.m jersey and finished up 2nd overall in that classification.

day 4 crown range sparked a bit of contraversey, i guess il take some time to talk about it,

there are 3 words that were thrown around allot in this years tour,

weather,

after party

etiquette.

etiquette came up early in the tour for something ab0ut a piss stop gone wrong, but it resurfaced about 300,meters from the top of the crown range when there was 3 riders left in contention for the win,

me, hayden roulston and jeremy yates. i was still about 8mins down on g,c. yates attacked but in the process hit a motorbike and crahsed, rolly waited like a good g.c contendor would (yates was the yellow jersey) i didnt wait. i kept riding but not 100% i was indecisive for sure if i had attacked like i was about to just around the corner i would of put abouslute meters into him while he was on the deck instead as soon as i saw him back up screaming towards me i started hitting out full noise again. there was only 100 odd meters left he pipped me to take the win, roulston who had been waiting got rolled by a few seconds for his efforts.

so., at 300 to go and theres a crash people dont normally stop, the exception being this was up hill. contador and shleck? if i was on g.c i would of but i wasnt. 99% of people in my life have nothing to do with cycling, there only intrest in the sport is me who does the sport and to them the idea waiting is uncomprehesiable.

what pissed me off, was the aftermarth, ok feel free for yates ect to say what they want,but its all the booters who dont know a thing about it- jumping on the bandwagon that annoyed, me, poeple jumpiing on face book, one of yates team put a post up saying "karma catches up with people when they least expect it" maybe that karma came the next day when yates put his jacket thru his front wheel and crashed?

maybe i should of stopped, yates doesnt strike me as the kind of guy to let me roll across the line in front if i had. im glad the majority of the peleton came up asking why i didnt go harder and i guess if im going to cop a bad wrap from it i should of at least got the glory of winning the stage but maybe in the heat of the moment i didnt make the right call, the next day when a similar event happened i definitely had a different initial thought.

i believe i am an extremely fair and respectlfull bike rider, some people who are telling me about the un written rules need to worry about the written rules first.

so thats that cleared, learning curves.

moving on.

the next day i was in the mix again, got very cold and wet on the way out to black mount but found my self off the front of the race with josh atkins lapping to up for a long time, we were breifly caught but got away again, unfortunatly the 2nd time we were caught was as roulston attacked the small 7 man group in a cross wind we didnt stand a chance of getting on the back, i finished 7th in the stage,

the final day,

stage one, waited till about 20km to go and gave everything to try force a split, nearly worked for a few km but came back, in the arvo stage i managed to get away pretty early in the peice and only got caught in the dying kilometers,

throughout the tour i felt really good, i didnt go in with great form but had heaps of confidence and sometimes you can lie to yourself enough to ride fast.

huge thanks to everyone its hard to name them all but robin and kay for looking after us, bobby and rick from southland vechile sales and all the boys, alex meenhorst (manhurst) , richard usser (russia) micheal cuppit (mick) ,karl moore (spud) will dickeson (to well respected for a nic name)

3 weeks off the bike, started doing a bit of part time work at village cycles so if your around come in for a yarn.

first proiroty is to help one of my very good mates ben conning celebrate a solid 21 years this friday nite, and enjoy a few weeks of a slightly normalier life.

if you ploughed thru this whole post, well done and thanks for reading you deserve a rest

G.B

southernland

2010-10-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

yuk, tour of southland time agian, starts monday the weather doesnt look to bad but im sure at some stage itll be very windy very wet and very cold, the last two always bring me close to retirement but im actually looking forward to a good week, got a cool team this year with me alex meenhorst will dickenson and karl moore (spud) all returning for the kia motors -svs team with new imports- multisport and coast to coast legend richard usser and another ozzie rider who i will find out soon.

feeling ok, did a 200km epic trying to get some form back after my rest week in taiwan and although i nearly died on the way home it seems to of brought me up again so now jsut cruzing into the first stage and hopefully by about the middle of the week il be firing, if not il be shelled first cross wind section and loose 3hrs a stage,

sweet, stay tuned.,

g.b

typhoons in taiwan

2010-10-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmmm, well this week has been different, im over in taiwan for the taiwan cup, a cycling festival to promote cycling in taiwan, orignialy we hac a few days riding with two races planned, but a big piss off typhoon hit and changed all of those plans, fortunatly im not one of the 20 people still missing in landslides ect...

the organisors hit panic stations and we spent the first few days here sitting in buses and trains that couldnt get anywhere with all the damaged roads ect... it was insanly tireing and pointless but i got to experience inner city culture of taipei, we ended up in sun moon lake in central taipei and on saturday the taiphoon had past so we had a small training/publicity session, it was the first time in a week i had got the bike out the box so i made the most of hit and by the end of the day had fitted in a good 3.5 hours hard. all well and good, that nite we chilled out ate crap ect.... about 9pm they told us the next day they had organised a race for us. 10km flat 25km up hill. oh shit.

there was some big names here but mostly on holiday. oscar ferre, robbie hunter, amets txurruka ansola, tadej valjavec and a few more,

race started and after a few km of the hill it was down to me the euskatel rider and the ag2r rider, i attacked and soon it was just me a mr euskatel euskadi who looks like he weighs 30 kilo.

we climbed for ages, then kept climbing. i was ok but got some real bad stomach crap rode thru it but did some damage still feel the stich today. with what i thought was 5 km to go i attacked him and got a good gap and help him off for a while but he came back. we had no idea where the finish was, there was no signs, nothing. we knew we werent going up the whole 35000 meter climb so when we saw a little village we both started sprinting, he dropped me and i conceded 2nd, so i thought. no line and we kept climbing, 4km later he was still just 20secs ahead of me. as we passed a feed zone they yelled 1km, i started hitting it to pull him back. after 2km of pushing i realised it was the finish, then i got another 1km to go call, i was starting to feel shit and then i got the 8km to go and i nearly died.

i plodded on untill i had gone "franglie" as the french say. bassically it had been to fast for me to eat and had completly run out of sugar, we started the climb close to 400watts, i was now doing about 50 watts. weaving across the road just to keep my balance i was so slow. i have never been so close to stopping and walking, i has the shakes and felt very strange, maybe allitude was playing a part to. anyway it was good to make it to the finish in 7th.

lessons learnt, wicked part of taiwan and finnally some hard training before southland wich will be very hard after my complete rest week here in taiwan. il try pull some binge training in the few says im home before the start.

back in our palace of a hotel with the electric toilet, dont press the wrong button.

flying home today, will be sleeping on the street outside the domestic tonite to catch the early plane home to nelson, shit i love flying....

benchmark final round

2010-10-19T23:37:00.000-07:00

Benchmark final round,

well its been a very hard last few days with the death of my grandfarther but on saturday I raced the final of the benchmark homes cycling series, at first I wasnt going to race but I thought it would be good to get out the house ect... in the end it worked out well.

Had a pretty weird old race

it was one were I rode way to agressively, rode across splits and was generally really active but still found myself with a mass peleton including the woman at the 80km mark worried I had used all my energy while allot of other hitters had got a free ride.

Around the 100km mark there was a small excuse for a hill in the race but it was big enough for me to attack and ride hard 1km and split 7 riders of the front, 7 soon became 3 after false flats and rollers. With one small finishing lap to go (6km) I got away solo to hold of the two chasers by 10secs to take the win

looking back I didnt ride a partucuarly smart race at all, I think I was to motovated to win and with desire to win comes parnoia of missing the break so I tried to cover everything, luckily I had good legs on the day

have to thank the tasman team for giving there best, first time ive ridden with the team in years and glad to say they have made a big step upWas fun to be racing back in nz, same faces as before allot of them now allot stronger

now sitting on a plane to taiwan. Id love to tell you what im doing there but to be honest I dont know, taiwan festival of cycling I think just one race but some bunch rides and a small time trail.

It will be my first ride with my new team la pomme marselies so I guess its more to meet the team and disscuss the new good news that hopefully will be annoced soon. Im not sure what the first 5 days of the trip are for, hopefully being a bit touristy in taiwan.

Thanks,

G.B

Hugh Bennett.

2010-10-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

On Thursday the 14th of October 2010 my grandfather Hugh Bennett was killed in a car accident at the impressive age of 91.

he left a huge hole in the Bennett family and the mapua community and will be sadly missed but fondly remembered by everyone who knew him

Very hard to describe him in writing so I wont try all il say is what a man. Lived a fantastic full life until the end and was the most influential man I have ever met. Extremely selfless, tolerant and talented.

A huge support to me in anything ive tried and has played a huge part my life to date.

If theres such thing as a great funeral we had it. It emphasized the hugeness of his life.

WORLD CHAMPS

2010-10-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmmm, well mixed bag from the world champs, i didnt achieve my goals of top ten or my dreams of better but i took allot of positives.

the course wasnt hard enough, it was hard but at worlds everyones good so it needs to be very hard to avoid a bunch kick. i always made the splits and climbed at the front of the race when i needed to, attacked in the last few laps a few times to try get away but with such strong teams i was always dragged back, i felt great all day and still had more to give but just had a terrible sprint, really boxed in and could hardly get out of the seat.

the atmosphere was insane, everyone screaming go kiwis and the team where bloody good. i got dragged around all day without having to see the wind so i was fresh when it counted so thanks to the boys.

theres a more indepth strory about how it all panned out at http://www.roadcycling.co.nz/RaceTalk/bennett-sets-kiwi-fans-into-frenzy-at-worlds.html

big thanks to all the staff too, you guys were awesome a month of my life in ozzie that il remember and take allot from.

stoked to be home still a bit smashed from a few big days and nites in geelong but after a few days of not much il be ready to start training next week for a few last races of the season including the taiwan cup with my new team and tour of southland before hanging the bike up for a while. either way i can breathe out a little now and enjoy it.

i was going to do the nelson festival starting this weekend but after finishing 2nd in the wheelers tuesday nite champs bunch kick to coach robin i decided i need to go catch some fish or something

ok thanks for all the words and messages of support its pretty humbling seeing how many people have been following my progress, looking forward to a summer of catching up with everyone ive missed so see you soon,

cheers

G.B

worlds build up race, ballarat

2010-10-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

pretty sweet lining up with cancellara, potzato and heaps of other big names of the sport for the pre world champs hit out race on the aussie nationals course a week out from worlds. it was even sweeter making my way into the early move.

it was a hilly course, i waited after the intial breaks had strung it out a little bit on the first hill then had a crack, next thing i knew i was swinging on the early move that turned into a split with some big names in there, we eventually got pulled back and another move went,

i felt really strong all race and last few laps attacked up the hills but couldnt shake the group. last lap i rode across to a few big hitters at the top of the hill but we didnt work very well and got swallowed pretty quickly,

didnt sprint think i rolled over about 50th ish , was a real cool race and managed some good training after nearly killed myself with a 40 minute effort,

tour of tasmania

2010-10-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

tour of tasmania

the tour of tasmania started terribly.

Its no secret I dont do snow and I melt in the rain so when the snow got thicker I got slower, the first crit blew the race down to 40 guys and I was in the thick of it, the arvo stage was freezing and I punctured at the worst time, I chased for sooo long and eventually got back on the back of the peleton but that was short lived and 2mins later it broke on the dh and I was all frozen up and preatty smashed and couldnt ride across the gap loosing a few minutes overall.

The next day was cold, got a little bit crook the day after it warmed up and I came out to ride properly after we lost some time on teams tt and from day one I attacked on the arvo stage of the day on a the hardest course of the tour. Rode most the day in a group and eventually got away for the stage win, the bunch all over the show mostly 5 -25 minutes behind me so I rode into 2^nd on g.c

my legs that day were really good, just felt good and the countinued for the rest of the tour, the overall leaders team were pretty diminished so the bike nz boys stepped up hugely and rode the front heaps, were strong and made sure I never really had to try that hard.

On the 2^nd to last stage we made our move to take the overall win, on the big climb I attacked and dropped gordon but not by enough with the strong headwind, the guys who stayed with me wouldnt role so it turned into a tt race betweed me and a jayco boy who was working vz gordon and team drapac, we lost and gordy joined back up and held onto the tour lead.

Last day the boys controlled the bunch, I tried once or twice to shake gordy but I wasnt going anywhere on a flat crit course, so I ended up 2^nd overall.

I gave the race the kitchen sink a few times and it didnt work, a bit of bad luck here and there and a great ride from gordon means 2^nd was all I could do, absoulutly stoked with how I felt in the tour leading into worlds,

huge thanks to ken a greame for looking after us and to the boys who rode so well all tour. one of the funnest bike races ive done

Launcheston to new norfolk.

2010-10-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

As part of the build up to melbourne world champs i was in aussie doing a series of races first up was a 208km race down the small island of tasmania. A break whent with one of our boys in it. The race then blew up over a long 8km mountain, I was in the front and sat on the rest of the way. The 4 man break blew out a huge lead and we sprinted for 5^th , I finished 10^th was a cool race wicked place and good training. Setting in with the new zealand team was really easy and good day out soaking up some k's and some u.v rays.

ozzie

2010-09-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

some pretty sick times in aussie lately. good things happening won a race training hard ect... will tell you about my adventures soon, internet situation is less than ideal

worlds and ozzie

2010-09-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

bloody good to be home and on sat they named the squad to take on the world champs, my name was in there so its also bloody good.

whats not so bloody good is sickness, my family is sick and im trying my best to dodge it so hopfully it works out.

il be heading to australia on sunday racing the norfolk to launcheston on tuesday 14th the the 6 day tour of tasmania starts on the 16th

mite get a start in the worlds pre race the following saturday against the big boys practise my sprinting with cavendish

mite do the benchmark round this weekend if theres any roads left after the quake, and if its not raining or cold so actually i probably wont do the benchmark round this weekend.

mite be bloody good.

g,b

pillat final stage

2010-08-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

couldnt help but feel allot of the "you stuffed up big" talk the team got last nite after the first road stage was pointed at me and herbets ,redemption day, last day racing in france i thought i shouldnt hold back,

it started at the foot of good hill. herberts attacked blocks, i waited till it got strung out a bit and rode across up the hill, we left the breakaway on the first hill and started on a 2 up mission, we were soon joined by a group and passed the next 3 mountains taking all the sprints first and second and the same with the mountain points. the break whillted down from 10 to 4, we were eventually reeled in just under 20km to go. i was spent. and rolled out the bag.

it was kind of all guns blazing hoping we could pull it off, we made a good show of it i guess but rode a bit hard and didnt save much to hold off the chasing teams. we ended up with k.o.m jerseys and combative jerseys so wasnt all bad

packing time,

g.b

tt pillat

2010-08-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

stage 4, 10km tt

last night they told me i had to role the time trail easy so i got go hard in the arvo, after we saw it was a hard course though i got the green light to go hard, it started with a 4.5 km decent, in hind sight i should of used the road bike not the tt bike i lost most of the time on the dh and climbed up the other side alright, finished 14th wich is ok for me in a short tt but would like to do the race again.

stage 2 pillat

2010-08-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

pillat stage 2,

pretty tough profil, I felt like I had things under wraps on the first two mounts of the day always in the front group of 5 or 6. it came back to together and then a group slipped away and then another, soon 18 guys up the road, the worst part was they whent away when it was super easy and no one reacted. This wouldnt normally be a problem, a team would chase and we would be back to proper racing but the reality is this race is an all catergory race. This means you have good teams and some shunters to, somhow every good team (except roanne) had made the group so no one was there to chase. There was about 30 left in my peleton. I called the boys to the front and it looked like they were going to go from were we left off yesterday and have a team time trail to bring it back. We had a guy pacing and the others were getting organised, the hit the front and about 300 meters later a motorbike came past with a time check that said 2.50. the guys all looked at each other and said stuff this were not chasing a gap that big down, that was it, we rolled to majority of the stage and snail pace like we were the groupetto or something. We are about to have out de briefing I hope my director is pissed off but he probably wont be....

g.,c gonski, tt in the morning and a road race afternoon. Stage win for roanne is needed for the team.

tour du loir -pillat, stage 1, ttt

2010-08-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

tour du loir -pillat, stage 1, ttt

team time trail. 15Km,

my last race in france for 2010 kicked off with a ttt, ive done a few ttts now but that was one of the first ive done fully decked out with the whole team on tt bikes ect and I loved it.

we rode bloody well considering it wasnt our A team for stage one, we ended up 2^nd by 0.1 seconds. Yep a 10^th of a second stoped us from carrying the yellow jersey into the first road stage. I can think of 50 places we could of gone a 10^th of a second faster, the obvious place was when somehow some cars found there way on the circuit and we were held up at a round a bout loosing maybe 5secs so a bit gutting but at least we are in good step for the rest of the race