… I mean the Vuelta Ciclista Mendoza.

So just a follow up from my last post… I was in transit to Mendoza, Argentina while i was sitting at the airport in Santiago, Chile. I was pretty brief with my typing in that post because i had about ten minutes of battery life left to type some words for the photos i had added to my post! On top of that, i haven’t been at the internet for too long at a time either.

Argentina is a very interesting place. The racing, and lifestyle is something i have never seen before. On top of that, it is the first time i have been to a place where English is not spoken at all!

The scenery is stunning here, with the Andes mountain range towering over Mendoza, making for a stunning backdrop to the city. Driving home from one of the ten stages, i took this bad ass photo from the car, with the sun going down behind the mountains. Wicked huh?!

The Andes are absolutely amazing. Driving alongside them, you can just see how relentless they are.

The racing itself has been quite an experience. It is the roughest racing i have ever done! There were about 190 starters in the race, and every single one of them has the need to do whatever is neccessary, to be in the first ten riders on the road! On the first day, leading into the finish, with one kilometer to go, a guy tried to punch me in the head with a backhander, in order to get the wheel he wanted! Insane!

Its pretty good really, because the fighting for wheels will no doubt keep us in good stead for the US racing. The other great thing, is that we have been racing so fast. Our aerage speed each day has been 41-45km/h every stage, so it has been good for the leg speed too.

The best way i can try and describe this racing is, it is basically a 150 kilometer motor paced kieren, with 190 riders, on roads as rough as Paris-Roubaix, with every rider needing to be at the front. I have not ridden Paris-Roubaix, but the roads are just that bad here that i can only imagine they are similar!

Here is our team that has made the trip down to Mendoza for the Tour of Argentina’s Roughest Roads! Don’t we look great in our red and white! We definitely have the coolest looking outfit in the peleton.

When we first arrived, we headed out for a ride up into the foothills, just above Mendoza. There were great views down to the city, and up into the hills, and there were some pretty cool houses up there too. It sort of reminded me of Romancing the Stone or Crocodile Dundee, with the South American mansions there. You may be able to see the house just in front of us in the photo, and the cool shadows make this picture look pretty pro!

That is another wierd thing down here. Each day we race at around 3 pm. Sometimes as late as 5.30. It is strange, but even though we are three hours ahead of US East Coast time, we do everything at about the same time (literally). We have lunch around 3pm, and dinner is around 10 pm!

We have been treated to some mean feasts here at the Hotel Eben Ezer. They put breakfast, lunch, and dinner on for us each day, and it is amazing! They really know how to put on a feed. There is probably a bit too much food though, and we are all going to return to the US overweight! haha! Also, we have had chiken parma, just like in Australia!

Paco, always the showman, has been great this race, giving us good massages and making sure we get all our feeds in the race. He is quite entertaining, and when i work out how to start up a youtube account, i will post a video of him lighting up the dance floor, while we were eating dinner! He sure keeps the team laughing with his antics, and that is with very little, to no English!

Downtown Mendoza has a great pedestrian mall, right in the heart of the city, and has a bunch of great coffee shops too. We have been spending some quality chamois time chilling here and drinking coffee.

Argentina has great pastries, as well as coffee, and today we sat and ate about 13 pastries and drank six coffees between three of us! That also means six soda waters too, because with every coffee comes a free glass of soda water.

Here is the craziest thing of all here in Argentina; the bathroom situation! Hopefully the photo comes up clear enough to make out the floor-plan. On the right is the basin, then the arse washer, then the the dunny, with the shower right above the dunny. You can probably make out the shower taps on the left, and the squeegy too. There are no curtains on the shower, and everything gets really wet while showering, so the squeegy is there to clean up after!

So there is an update on my Argentina visit. There will be more to follow shortly. I will put up a bunch of photos from the trip, so that will be good to look at, i hope!

I hope everyone is well.

Laters…

There are a million ants for every person on Earth.

Howdy!
I am sitting at the airport here in Santiago, Chile, typing this post! Pretty crazy huh?!

We have just returned from our Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife training camp, up in the Georgia Mountains. We stayed at the Hiker Hostel, with some great hosts, Leigh and Josh. The hostel is usually used for hikers of the Appalachian Trail, which runs from Georgia up to Maine, and the Hiker Hostel happens to be right at the start of the trail. It also happens to be right near the start of the infamous “6-Gap ride”.

Josh and Leigh cooked us an amazing breakfast each morning, and the same goes for anyone who stays there!

Our team spent a week up at the hostel, riding in the hilly terrain, and also did a lot of meeting and greeting of sponsors and team mates. It was a great week, and we have a really great group of guys. Everyone has been getting along so well, and there is a great vibe about the team.

Here is the team:

We have the coolest kit this year - red and white, with yellow stitching; it looks so bad ass! Here I got to pose for the first photo taken of us in our new kits, between Hekman and Hagman.

I am going to be riding a full Louis Garneau outfit again this year, from helmet, through bike, through clothing, through shoes.

Yes, they are sitting in the oven! The new model of the shoes are heat-moldable, so you heat them in the oven, put them on, and they mould to your foot – wicked!

We have a great soigneur on board this year, Paco. He is a tireless worker, and we will be sure to have good legs all year with his great massages. Here is a picture of him, although you may only be able to see his head and pants, as he blends into the armchair quite well!

The new outfits look so cool. So does the Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife team! It was freezing for this ride, and as you can tell, we had no Winter gear on! The team is going to stand out pretty well this year with the red and white:

One of our young riders, Andrew Talansky, is super keen, and a future talent for sure. He needs his phot on here, just because of his sheer diligence. We did six hours during the day, in the hills. We got home and ate, and relaxed, then he got his kit back on, and from 8.30 - 9.30, he spent his time getting his position perfected on the trainer!

We had a great time at camp, and from the feeling there, it looks like we are going to have a great year ahead of us!

There will be more updating in the coming days, but for now, my battery is running out, and i do not have an adapter to charge it up here at the airport!

I hope everyone is well, and you will hear from me soon…

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

… In the USA now! I have been for a while, but have been lazy, or out of internet access, hence the non-existent updates of late.

Here is a post for the trip over, and then in a couple of days, I will have one up from our Toshiba-Santo presented by Herbalife training camp. This is more or less just a post to get myself back in the swing of things, and to show a few pictures i wanted to post before i put up a heap from training camp.

I got to enjoy some good training in Oz before heading over to the US Winter. Melbourne is great for training and the Dandenongs are a favourite. For a minute out training in the hills, I could have been forgiven for thinking I was back in Georgia already. Check these out:

A road named after the State i live in:

And…

The Confederate flag! I have no idea what it is doing in Australia?!

My flight to Atlanta was on the 26th of January; Australia Day. I made the most use of Australia Day, possibly the most of any Australian on the day, as i got to enjoy it for 40 hours or more! It could be arguable as to whether it was enjoyable to sit on planes for 20 hours, but i did get a few hours in LA before my connecting flight to Atlanta.

My good friend Marc was waiting in LA for me when i landed, and we went down and enjoyed some time in Santa Monica.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, my flight was cancelled, and i was put on an earlier flight. I would have had no clue of this, but Keally, my amazing fiancee, was on the ball, and had checked my flight details while i was on the plane. She checked me in online and made sure i was able to get on my new flight! This was great, because i was able to see her sooner, but it meant my time with Marc was limited.

We had a great time catching up, and even got to see a guy on the Santa Monica pier playing a steel pan! I started chatting to the guy, and if you can see close enough, he has a Trinidad and Tobago National flag on his steel pan. I told him i had recently been there, and also found out he knows my friend Emile Abraham! I should also quickly say a congratulations to Emile on recently winning Trinidad and Tobago’s “sports star of the year”!

Here’s another cool photo; the view of the distant mountains from the Santa Monica pier. It was a beautiful clear morning, and when it is clear like it was, you can see why everyone wants to live in California, it really is stunning!

One thing i made sure of for this year, is that my Vegemite supply was going to last. Last year Mum had to make a shipment, so this year i made sure that doesn’t have to happen! I am at our team training camp now, and none of my new team mates are willing to give it a try!

I am at training camp this week, and then make a quick trip home before heading off to Argentina and Chile for a three week trip. It is going to be a great experience, and will definitely give me some practice at my non-existent Spanish! The only problem is all the time i am going to be away from Keally since i arrived back in the States

Anyway dudes, more to come after i return from training camp.

Laters…

US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen.