Time for a change

Well the last couple of months I have been mulling over what would be best for next year.

Given I am tired and can't think of anything highly creative/amusing it's just a plain ol delivery of facts:

1) Finish Bachelor of Commerce next year. Back to full time. Time to get organised again. If I don't buckle down and finish it I never will!

2) Race for an aussie team. In the end this meant trading up what gave me the best opportunities but in the end I decided to leave the Victorian Institute of Sport and race for Genesys Wealth Advisors

So 2011 brings continued gym, physio and pilates work, a whole load of Economics and Management study  and a bunch of racing in Australia and Asia with a new team and a bunch of great guys. Can't wait.

Ciao,

Jono

The Dumplings the Czech and the V Train

Situation:
Friday Night, Preston, 6:00pm, Face deep in pig livers and soup dumplings; Cam Woolcock recieves a phone call.
"It's Sir Stuart Vaughan, he has two spare tickets to the track world cup tonight"
"Shit yes!"

So after hoovering our food in record fashion we saddled up and raced down high street and punt road to see the last two hours of track racing.

A summary:
-Elimination races are hilarious to watch. It's like a pantomime on wheels, so much fun. We need more!
-Anna Meares is huge and muscly. Pretty amazing athlete!
-Chris Hoy is even huger and muscly-er. Terrifying almost.
-Not a massive crowd, maybe the ticket prices were a touch steep? No infield  bar? Hell, the Melbourne Cup on Wheels on Friday has my vote, more racing AND the infield bar. Nice.

So fast forward twenty four hours and I am cruising down beach road at midday and I see a guy kitted up in the Czech Republic colours with calves bigger than my head (ego included), oh shit, he must be a trackie! And yep, he was racing the night before so a convo ensued;

Czech- " Oh hi, you race much at all, I see you have Belgique bike" (reference to my Museeuw bike)
Me- "Oh yeah but just on the road, not on the track, you race track yeh?
Czech- "Yeh I racing the World Cup on the Track, you know it"
Me- "Of course, I was watching you finish the omnium last night, making you race the kilo TT when aleady out of the medals is cruel, that looked  so hard!"
Czech- "Oh its very shit, so f**king hard, I want it over"

skip some boring convo

Czech- "Oh I see your team, Marco Polo, you know Pavel Stuchlik from Czech Republic?" (Pavel was a stagiare with our team this year, having lived with him for a month you could say I know him!)
Me- "Yes of course I know him!"
Czech- "*laughter* In Czech Republic we all one big family, everyone friend"

And we jabbered on some more, enjoying the sun and warm weather. His program sounds a bit bloody strenuous. 27 hours flying down to Australia, racing two days later, finish two days of non stop omni-liscious circular agony then jump back on the plane for 27 hours to the Czech Republic. Train outdoors* in the Snow for a week, then jump on the plane for a good 30 hours of travel to the next World Cup in Columbia. Try telling this guy that globalisation of cycling is a good thing!

*Note, I asked him about training indoors versus outdoors in winter and he said, "I train outdoors all the time unless really snow, I f**king hate, how do you say, yes ergometer, argh, so shit." I concur my good man, I concur.

But I love in this network how someone always knows someone who knows someone else who knows you. I guess we are just one big family. Group hug anyone?

And to finish a big thanks to the V-Train for those tickets. What a legend, the guy never stops giving (also turn off your sarcasm meter because I am being serious here). And his even better half, Wiki-Tills*, was there of course.

*Matilda can hereby be known as Wiki-Tills because she knows everything about the track. Everything!

Ride Time.

Ciao,

Jono