Goldfields, Cyclocross and all the stem you can chew

As of 3:42pm today, I am officially in the off-season. In the spirit of Jans Ullrich, the off-season will involve:

• Pinot
• Discotheque
• A fairly relaxed attitude to skin folds
• At least one affair with a model

Sprint finish at Timor - winner was awarded a warm Powerade (Image (c) Russ Baker)

This photo is from a lovely photographer whose name I don't know. Sorry - please let me know and I'll credit you!

CX... the most fun you can have in a onesie, guaranteed.

Four days after Shipwreck we started the Tour of the Goldfields, otherwise known as the Tour-To-Replace-Herald-Sun-Tour Tour. I do like Ballarat, and despite the announcement that the NRS would be extended by an extra tour having sunk my little heart a little further and my resolve to get post-Timor blood tests done a little firmer, it was super cool to be racing a tour with the team again.

...and having 2kg of sourdough from Iain at Fruition helped too. Yes, it is all about the food...

Getting our aero on (vomit not seen in shot) (Pic: JXP Photography)

Very proud to win this one. We had a ball. (Pic (c) JXP Photography)

Quite unintentionally I ended up scoring the leader’s jersey after the TTT. I can’t really take credit for it – i just happened to be the one in the VIS wearing it – but it was a nice end to the TTT from that morning.

Smiling mostly because a new jersey means one less wash I need to do post-race (Pic: Mark Gunter)

Passing the yellow jersey to Nettie Edmonson after stage 3. I later tried to spike her food but she survived. (Pic: JXP Photography)

Going into the last stage we had a few cards we could play, but our best chance was to get Chloe ‘Quads’ McConville up for the GC win. It didn’t work out, but it was one of the best days of racing the NRS has seen. Cross-winds, gutter action, breakaways – we did all we could to steal the jersey back from SASI but they held onto it after a battle royale that will be one of my fondest memories of the NRS this year.

The final GC - Chloe 2nd, Nettie 1st, me 3rd. After the photo we took Nettie out back, beat her up and stole her teammate.

So that concludes my 2012 racing season. I’m taking the next few months off racing, mostly because my body is a wreck post-Timor and I’m not in the mood to get really really sick, which is what is going to happen if I do any more racing anytime soon. It’s been a heck of a year. I try not to get too self-indulgent on Ride Happy, but I am really proud to have won the Cyclocross national series and to have finished 2nd in the national road series. Neither were expected and both were fantastic. At the time you are just trying to survive till the next race, but looking back on it it’s been just amazing. I am lucky to have the support of a top crew (including VIS and Apollo) who give us cyclists amazing equipment, coaching and support to let us live out this surreal existence. Most of all, I’m lucky to have Supercoach and Ryan ‘Diamonds’ Moody, who make sure the VIS trips are fun and professional. So thanks guys, it’s been awesome.

Ride Happy.

Tagged as: Cyclocross, NRS, Tour de Timor