Howdy y’all!

Here is another delayed update, from the sandwich factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This has become somewhat of a regular hang out before the Spartanburg crit, as we spend a good 3 - 4 hours here last year, and today, it is going to be around 6 hours! Here is the cool place, with great food, and decent coffee, even if it isn’t Jittery Joe’s coffee:

Last week I had a visit from my parents, and it was great to see them, and also great for them to see how living and racing is for me here in the States. We had a great time, it was just a pity we didn’t have long enough together! Mum and Dad got to meet Keally for the first time, and her parents too. Mum goes nuts with the camera, so we got heaps of photos taken, which is always good for the collection, and gives me some to put on the blog too!

Mum has always been nagging me that she never gets a photo on my blog, so here she gets a go:

This picture is Mum’s first appearance on here, and that might keep her happy for a while now! Keally has also been giving me a hard time about not having a picture up on my new missing saddle blog, so she is also making her first appearance, although i can be sure there will be plenty more of her throughout the season! In my defence, when i was originally loading pictures onto the photos page, i started to put some up of Keally, but i overused my storage limit, so they couldn’t be uploaded!

Dad has had a couple of pictures up before, and that is what Mum got up me about! I think he has one doing some work in the back room back in Oz in the last photo he was in, all dressed up as a handy man! This time he got all dressed up in my Jittery Joe’s kit, and got on my training bike, and we went for our first ride together in months. It was great! He couldn’t stop talking about how great all the Louis Garneau gear was (which is true), and loved riding the bike too!

Mum and Dad got their first Jittery Joe’s coffee experience during their visit, and i think ended up losing count of how much coffee they had after about twenty visits in the first day! Mum is one of those people who likes to have a latte just before bed! Below is a picture of the portable Jittery Joe’s Airstream caravan, which is a saving grace at many of the races we go to throughout Georgia! There is nothing like getting the best coffee available, anywhere we go!

I have started a bit of a “team mates shrine” in the apartment, gathering up various memorabilia with my good team mates on it. I still need the Willo and Shirl coffee cup sleeves, but i have managed to get a hold of something pretty cool; the David Villeux model pose! Check it out! Man, is he gonna cop it from everyone when we see him next! I reckon there might be a career for him doing this sort of thing, doesn’t he look pretty?! Sorry though ladies (and guys!), he has a girlfriend!

I have been trying to get a Willo cup sleeve, and asked for one the other day at the coffee shop, but apparently they were all out. The dude behind the counter made one for me though, complete with the blood on the face and all!

For those who didn’t know, Athens Twilight was a race of carnage really. There were pile ups everywhere on the dark circuit, and in the main one, Willo cut his eye open. He continued to race on to third place, the first time a Jittery Joe’s rider has been on the podium. He looked super bad-ass too, cos there was blood all over him and his face on the podium. The race, although having a good result for the team, couldn’t have been much worse, as we had four of our five riders go down in crashes, three breaking helmets, and unable to start the next day, and Jeff, tipped by many to be the favourite for the series, breaking his wrist, requiring surgery. Our thoughts are with Hop for a speedy recovery.

Well dudes, i might get some food, and get ready to race soon. Thanks for reading, and feel free to make heaps of comments!

I will hopefully get an update about the entire crit series out at the start of next week.

Laters dudes…