Tommy Nankervis

Overdue Superweek Report

// July 31st, 2008 // 12 Comments » // A Day Down Under

OK, here is a post i started a while back, of Superweek. I was waiting on a few pictures to come through, and as it turns out, i could probably have done the post without them, as i have some other entertaining pictures too!

This is what i started a week or so back:

So I am now on the way home from Superweek, and feel all business-like while I am sitting here on the plane – typing! I am sitting on the run-way waiting to take off, enjoying one of those great “run-way delays”. We boarded the plane, and after sitting on the run-way for 30 minutes, the pilot told us, “the good news is we are going to Atlanta tonight… but the bad news is, we have a 90 minute wait till we take off.” How exciting!

Superweek was quite a successful trip for us three DLP Racing guys. We have started to make a name for the team, and have been working really well together. Spencer “Effin” Beamer knocked up a big win on stage 9, taking all the big teams by surprise with a brave attack, hanging on for the team’s biggest win of the year! I did my bit the next day too, escaping the field late in the race with two other riders. Unfortunately I got beaten in the sprint, by Aussie Peter Dawson (Olympic and World Champion, and World Record breaker!). I am disappointed to have come so close to throwing the arms in the air, but at the same time, all signs are there that the form is doing the right thing, and I have confidence for the upcoming big crits!

Here is Spencer “Effin” Beamer on the podium after his awesome stage win. Thanks to Scott for the photo! You have to check out how excited the other two guys on the podium are about being up there!

Here I am the following day, not quite as high up the podium as Spencer, but at the same time, it was great that out small team was able to stand on the podium two days in a row!

Poor Scotty went down during the week, and has a lot of skin off, but still did a great job all week despite the injuries and borrowed bike. I am glad to report that I stayed upright, and that is how it is going to stay for the rest of the season!

So now i have a bunch of other interesting pictures to put up. Some people may wonder what it looks like in the team’s area after a race, if you don’t have the luxury of a team RV or something like that… Well, here you go, i thought it looked pretty funny the way we just sprawled all of our stuff out all over the place, so it was well worthy of a photo!

Back home in Australia, Winter is beginning to hit. We are in the middle of Summer here in Georgia, and it is nothing you should be jealous of missing! Lisa my sister sent me some photos from her recent birthday, and i couldn’t help but post this picture of her and my brother Michael. I think there is a good chance it could be his debut on Missing Saddle too. Check it out, looks like he’s about to play Jesus in a play or something… Comments are welcome on this topic!

Here is Keally’s brother Eric also making his Missing Saddle debut. The snapshot of him on the John Deere ride on mower, complete with beer made this photo a must! Unfortunately i couldn’t get the lighting quite right, but if you look carefully, you get the gist of it!

While up in Milwaukee, i got the chance to head out for a photo shoot, for a new ’superman’ shot. It wont be too long now till the header of my page is changed, but here is a sneak preview of what it is going to look like once it is finished!

Thanks to Spencer for doing the photography, he did a pretty good job in making me look as ripped as possible!!!!

Off to Charlotte tomorrow for one of the biggest crits of the year. It looks to be another very tough race, and i am very excited to get out there and shoot for a good result – podium would be very nice!

One percent of Greenland’s population lives in one single apartment building, named Blok P.

HOTTE!

// July 19th, 2008 // 9 Comments » // A Day Down Under

OK, the last post i started became old news very quickly. I was mid-way through a 4th of July post, but ran into various internet difficulties, so that post got left behind, and we are moving forward. A couple of worthy photos survived, and some new ones have been added…

Some of you might be pleased to hear i have been given a complex by everyone’s comments on black socks, and you can be assured i have worn nothing but white ones ever since! It is raining outside now, so if it keeps up through till the race start, it is going to be pretty hard for me to wear some new white socks and have them ruined!

So you have to check this out for a laugh. I am currently in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home of “That 70’s Show”, racing Superweek with two of my team mates. While driving to stage 8, we saw a sight for sore eyes:

My first thought was a chick on a Harley, with no helmet, and i was in hysterics. Funny enough i thought, then i realised she was wearing high heels…

Spencer was driving, so i had him speed up, and when i saw the double wrist guards, excessive blubber, and the “HOTTE” license plates, i nearly wet my pants! Hilarious!

I don’t really know what to say about these photos above, but i strongly encourage you guys to make comments as to your thoughts…!

While in the Chicago, Illinois stretch of Superweek, Spencer and i were lucky enough to be hosted by Mitch. He was a great host, and we had a great time staying there.

There were two main highlights for me, from our time at Mitch’s place; my sinking of the black ball, off the break, with no other balls going in, in our game of pool…
And watching Mitch (white shirt) and his friends play their fortnightly poker game. It was a sight to be seen, with the nine guys sitting around playing poker, while they had poker playing on the BIG (DLP) screen behind them!

If there was a layer of cigarette smoke at head-level around the room, and some sort of organised crime going on, it would have really completed the image!
We had a great time watching them play while we played pool, and had a good chat with them, as well as eating a lot of their great food!

The week before i came to Superweek, i was meant to race Fitchburg, up in Massachusetts. The drive up from Atlanta is long, the best part of 20 hours. It maybe even took longer than that. What made it seem even longer was the confusion between our management and the race organisers, that left us un-registered, and us not being allowed to race. So the drive back seemed even longer…
At least we got to see the NASCAR branch of our team driving down the same Interstate on the way home:

Pretty cool!

Mum just sent over a bag of goodies too, which i really need right now with all the racing coming up! I guess it is a nice little treat though, but the three kilograms of junk food aren’t so good when they all get eaten in one sitting!

So there is a little bit of an update, and i am sure i can continue with my “second-half-of-year’s” resolution of more updating. I had a photo shoot yesterday to get a new header photo for the top of the page, so with a bit of luck that will be up and running soon.

I had a good thought after the comments on my last post; I think i can aim for one “bigger” post a week, with photos and the works, and then one or two other weekly posts that are a bit smaller, but comment provoking, just to keep all the readers interested. What are you reader’s thoughts on that?

In 2001, St. Patrick’s Day was banned in Ireland because of the scare caused by foot and mouth disease.

Update is on the Way…

// July 6th, 2008 // 7 Comments » // A Day Down Under

I have an update on the way, its just that i forgot my cable to load photos from my camera across to my computer, so i can’t put any pictures up this post… You know what i am like with making sure i have photos up in each post!

Thanks to everyone who commented last post, i appreciate it. 13 is impressive! I am pretty happy about that, having 13 readers is about ten more than i thought i had!

Just a quick question for Uncle John, what’s wrong with black socks?