Check it out!

On the weekend Keally and i got to go and stay up in the Georgia mountains, at my friend and sponsor, Tom Palmer’s house. It is right up the top of a hill, and has an amazing view out of the back room, and off the balcony. It was so peaceful and relaxing to get away for the weekend, with no bikes involved, just some R & R!

This place was absolutely stunning! Here is Keally standing on the back deck, with the amazing view in the background!

Just down the hill, there was a really nice little lake, with an entertaining area, which makes for a great barbeque place.

Just down the road, there was a nice river running under the bridge, so it needed a photo too! Check out the people floating down the river in tubes!

Probably the most stunning thing we saw, was the sunset! There is just something about sunsets that just relax you, and… i dunno, they’re just great! This photo was taken off the back deck, sitting in the rocking chairs, chatting away, just thinking about how great the whole thing was!

Another thing we did, was turn turtle rescuers! We saw three turtles on the road, so being the good Samaritans we are, stopped, picked them up (well Keally did that), and put them off the side of the road. I guess they will probably wander back out into the traffic’s path, but it was nice to think we might have made it’s life last a few hours longer!

Well, that was the exciting weekend i had. It was great, and so nice and relaxing. Now i have four weeks to train the house down in preparation for Tour de Toona, and the big crits that follow. There was supposed to be a race this weekend nearby, but it got cancelled due to the fourth of July holiday next Wednesday.

Maybe we need to head back up to the mountain house…!

Laters…

… I have been slacking it, really bad, all with good reason, of course!

I did hope to get out a post before Philly, but the places we stayed had no internet, then i was sick, then i got lazy, then went to Savannah for a race, then decided to be lazy again, followed by a couple of days off, thinking i had nothing interesting to report on, then i found some photos that would help make a half-good blog entry, then i just now got all excited for putting up a new post, and being very good about getting regular, weekly (if not more often than that) posts up! I wont get too carried away, but that is what i will shoot for!

So Philly is old news now, not much from there, aside from being sick with a cold/flu for the race - fun! Neil had a great race and snagged the KOM jersey, so a huge congrats there. After that, we headed back to Athens, and i headed down to the Georgia coastal town of Savannah, for a GA Cup race. This was my first ever GA cup, so i was pretty excited. Thad Dulin and i were the only Jittery Joe’s guys there, so that made for an interesting opening team time trial!

Luckily, Thad is a motor bike, and we smoked it. We were put with four guys we didn’t know, and lost two of them in the first kilometre - probably due to Thad cranking it up to 64km/h on the flat sections! We ended up winning the stage by about 50 seconds, so i picked up my first win of the year! Wicked - a win’s a win!

Thad cleaned up the crit too, and here is a picture of him on the podium:

We headed down to river street Savannah (which was so nice), for the evening, and had a meal and relaxed with a few beers. Savannah is a really historic town, and there was just a really good ‘vibe’ down there, with people walking, playing music, and the river in the background.

The next morning we had the road race, and we maintained our GC spots of one and two, so that was wicked good! Here is a picture of the two of us on the podium:

We had a great time down in Savannah, and had a bit of success too. Thanks to our support crew of Keally and Dixie, and Tommy and Sarah too, who were cheering, and taking these photos for us!

On the way out, we drove past this old fort thing, so i had to get a photo. I know its not much, but this thing had a moat around it, and spikes in the moat to stop intruders. It was pretty exciting for me really, because i have never seen such a thing, aside from in the movies! Anyway…

After getting back from Savannah, i have started a few days rest, to rejuvenate the body, and get ready for a huge block of training before heading into Tour de Toona, and the big crits. I am pretty excited about it!

This weekend, Keally and i are heading up to the Georgia mountains for a couple of days, to get away, so that should be good.

Check this out, my old boy sent me the funniest email this week, of a cute little Irish girl ringing up a demolition company, trying to get her school knocked down! It is hilarious, she’s eight years old, and her accent just adds to how funny it is! Turn up the volume, and “fill your boots man”!

Ok dudes, hope everyone is well, and i hope i get some comments after being slack for so long!

Laters…

Hey dudes,

We are currently in the middle, or start, of Philly Week, the biggest races for the year, i guess some would say. Philly race itself used to be the US National road race, but that has changed. It still is the biggest race for the year though.

Last week we were in Arlington, Virginia, which is right next to Washington DC, so i got to check out some cool sites while out training. It would have been cool to see these last year, but we weren’t in town long enough to see them. It was a great experience though, as the monuments in DC are pretty spectacular, on the world scale of man-made monuments, and they are just fascinating to see first hand.

The Washington Monument is HUGE! I cant say much more than that! It can be seen from miles away, and when you get up close, it is just unbelievable!

This war memorial is just new, so i am told, and it is in between the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. It is pretty cool how all of these monuments line up with each other, with nothing in between. The war memorial is pretty cool too, with fountains pumping water in the air, and even a mention of Australia in there somewhere!

The Lincoln Memorial is pretty massive too, and is at the end of this huge fish pond. Well, it may not be a fish pond, but it is really, really long! I guess it is most famous for its place in Forrest Gump, where Jenny runs into it from the side and meets Forrest. Well, up on the right a bit further is where she did it! This was the main monument i wanted to see, after seeing it in the movie. I had seen glimpses of the others when driving by in the past, but the big pond was the one that interested me most - and also, it cant really be seen when driving past!

The Jefferson Memorial is supposedly the least recognised of these monument, which i was told by a few locals. I found this weird as i thought it was the most impressive. It was HUGE, just like all the others, but it just looked like a much more impressive building too. This picture is actually from the back of it, but it shows the Washington Monument in the background, just to show how it towers over everything!

This horse statue was out the front of the White House, which i forgot to put up a picture of. The reason i took this photo though, is because i can include a fact: this guy on the horse died in battle. If there is a statue with a horse up on its hind legs, with a rider on it, it means the rider died at battle. Write that down.

Here is another interesting building i came across on my way to the monuments. There were heaps of great buildings everywhere, with some amazing architecture, but this one stood out to me because it is the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Carnegie is the suburb i have lived my whole life back in Australia! I know that isn’t interesting for anyone other than me, but i reckon some people back in Oz might think its funny, even the the Carnegie cycling club members!

Well, as far as racing goes, we have struggled a bit, until Willo came through with a very strong 6th place in Lancaster yesterday. The crits have been hard and fast, and another Carnegie cycling club member seems to be dominating! Coming up we have Reading, then Philly, so that will be exciting.

I will endeavour to put out another post later in the week. I have been internet-less the last few days, but i know i will have net this week, so i should be able to get another post out.

Hope all is well back in Oz - I am pretty sure it is, because the mighty Dees finally got a win on board, and are now on track to win the premiership! You may notice i haven’t mentioned them once this season, as they haven’t won yet. I think it is a good sign, so maybe Jittery Joe’s can follow suit!

Stay cool dudes… Laters