Friday, March 18, 2011

Win some free stuff!

Ok, long and short

IF you want to win a free pair of compression socks jump onboard with Zensah on facebook and 'like' them. Then follow the prompts. Easy.
http://www.facebook.com/zensahsports

In other news, I must confess, I had my socks on for the return flight from Malaysia (and they did the trick re 'cankles'), but I did have to take them off after a few hours of the flight there as for whatever reason (acclimatisation most likely) the plane was baking hot, so I couldn't hack any extra heat!

Malaysia was good fun albeit a bit flat but unfortunately the reports I wrote for our team  website from stages 3-6 all got lost in the wild world of the interweb. Given I have an essay to finish before I head off to oceanias in Shepparton I don't think I'll be catching back up on them unfortunately. I can quickly say the highlights (or lowlights) of our time were

1) Mark O'Brien's golf ball sized saddle sore*. Wow. just wow!

*Before editing this I spelt it 'saddle saw', now that would be a sight to behold...

2) Torrential rain, oh so much rain.

3) Bus transfers before and after stages. Not the most enjoyable, especially given the highly bureacratic nature of the race organisors. 10:00 start, 10k transfer, therefore 7:30 bus. Yeeaahh. Great. Then we get there and sit around for 2 hours then the buses return from the second leg (which we were not informed of) with all the Malaysians smiling thanks to that extra hour of sleep. Reminds me of Cadel's Spanish wheel change last year!

4) 10k neutral sections before stages at 15-20 k per hour. Yep, when you have a 220k stage coming up there is nothing more you look forward to than 30min of neutral. (sarcasm intended)

5) Starbucks. That's right, I went there.

6) Curry. Yum

7)  A block of cadbury given to us to lift our spirits pre stage.

8) Lots of space on our flights given the random 3am departures and arrivals.

Now it's back to the essay!

Jono

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Malaysia

Some reports from the race are here, if they are not there yet, they should be soon!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Got the whiff

Racing in Asia. I love it.

It nearly broke my heart to not be able to race my final two big Chinese races, Tour of China and Tour of Hainan, with Marco Polo at the end of last year. But I was a was a broken, buckled, overly metaphorical wreck.

But alas, with many an hour of rehab work I am back on track, and thanks to Genesys for having some faith and taking me on in my buckled state I am only a week away from a return to the Asian scene!

On the cards for the team is Jelajah Malaysia and the Tour of Korea. Both are going to be fantastic.

Malaysia will be a real shock to the system. Hot and humid, like a punch in the face. But the curries and catch ups with Malaysian friends from Marco Polo will make up for it. I cannot wait! The course is unfortunately flat but given it runs along some coastal roads before making its way south towards Kuala Lumpur I am hoping for some wind to tear it up. Maybe even some success like Marko experienced last year

Korea is going to be similarly fantastic. I can't really put words to how excited I am! I had such a ball racing there last year. The race was so well organised, I mean they even chartered a private flight to transport the entire race after stage one, the food was amazing (anyone say kim chi?) and the racing was really tough. It had everything, wind, rain, snow, mountains, highways, kim chi. Everything.

The only two downsides are that I have to bust my arse being back at full time uni, it's just one big game of catch up but hey that's life. Secondly, the flights start to drag, especially when your flight to Kuala Lumpur depart at 03:30 on Sunday morning! Ouch!

Here is a good recap from our Childrens First Foundation ride a few weeks back and some more talk on WattBike Max power comps, geez there are some good sprinters out there in the Genesys corporate world!

Time to grab a quick nap before heading off to the airport, I think this is going to be a disjointed night for sure!

Jono