Well time now to concentrate on the new cycling season. I have had some time off the bike to relax and reflect on the Nationals.

Without getting to long winded, Peter and I discovered that my freshening up period in the lead up to Nationals may have been a bit short. It is hard to really determine if residual fatigue affected me, whether the hot pace in the 1^st two laps put me too much into the red or whether it was a combination of both. I’m tending to lean towards the combination, but it is really a guess.

At any rate the training that I did for the lead up to the Nationals has put me in good stead for this year. I have lost a little bit of form from the Nationals, but that was to be expected with my time off and the bike and the casual approach to training up until the last couple of weeks. Needless to say there is still some firepower there as I recently won a crit race, my first real race since the Nationals.

It was from a break away I started at the 12 minute mark from memory. I broke away again from the original break away of 10 riders, in the 48th minute (I think). I was joined by two others, then another 3 riders 10 minutes later. It came down to a kick to the line which I scampered away to take by a bike length and a bit. I hit some solid numbers in that race which is promising for the season ahead.

Well this year I am no longer riding for Fly V Australia. This year the directors have taken that team to another level hiring such riders as Darren Lill and Jay Thomson. I am still part of the program, being a member of the now feeder team to Fly V, Virgin Blue RBS Morgans. I’ll be pretty much doing the same type of racing as I did last year with the potential to do some racing in Asia. I will wait to see how that will pan out.

On paper the Virgin Blue RBS Morgans team is strong, comprising of up and coming youngsters, including National track champions and Australian representatives. I dare say I will be the butt of some age jokes as I believe the next oldest rider in the team is 13 years my junior!!! Awwww man!!:)

We have our team launch in a couple of weeks then straight into a training camp. Hopefully I can join the boys for a couple of days in that camp, but I will have to see how work will pan out.

This year we are riding Merida Scultura 909 bikes with Dura-Ace 7900. Wheels are supplied by eHub and racing/casual gear will be supplied by 2XU. This year I will be using Quarq for my power data. BMW have jumped on board as well supplying the team with a couple of X3’s which have just been done up in team livery. They look awesome.

If I can stick some photos up here I will try, so you can have a look at the all the gear.

So for the moment it’s back to getting some consistent training in (currently impossible as we are experiencing the wettest February in 100yrs) to build on my current form.

Cheers.