Australia bound!

Well we are well into our new, short life style down under.  Finally accustomed to the time zone and the weather, we are getting stuck into some good quality training.

Seems ages ago now since I was heading down the M6 with my dad on the way down to John’s (Herety). Arriving at Johns was another interesting experience. Walking through the front door to find boxes full of Rapha clothing lined out on the living room floor, with swanny Dave rooting through it all distributing it into 14 different boxes for each rider.

 It was interesting to see John and my dad having a good catch up. A long time ago now since they were on Mick Bennett’s Eveready team back in the early 80’s. Mick was dad’s coach back when he was a junior and then went onto manage dad again on the Eveready team. And now about 30 years later, I am incredibly lucky to have support and guidance from Mick. Such an influential man in cycling, organiser of the two biggest events in the UK, the Pearl Izumi Tour Series and the Tour of Britain.

After saying good byes to dad for 3 months and giving Dave a hand with sorting the clothing, it was time to pack all my belongings into brand new team suitcases for leaving for Australia in the morning. An early start meant a quick coffee and straight into the car and on the way to the Airport to begin the long journey down under.

It was great to meet my new team mates and get to know each other. Mike, Luke, Tom and myself flew from Manchester to Abu Dhabi where we met Felix and Will for the second leg of our journey to Melbourne. After a long 18 hour flight, we touched down in Melbourne at around 10 minutes to 9 in the evening. Very kindly we were picked up by Sam Crome and his dad at the Airport to take us to our new home for the next month or so in Bendigo.

The next morning waking up in the warmth we took a little spin out on the roads to loosen the legs and made a quick stop for a coffee. It was a great experience to get out on the new roads for the first time. I’m loving how flat and straight most of the roads are!

Quick coffee in the sun

Since arriving we’ve had several group spins meeting the locals and getting to know the local star’s like Zak Dempster and Darren Lappthorne. Just riding along chatting away, I learnt loads. From Vuelta preparation to training methods, it’s a fantastic learning curve for me to meet guys like Zak and Lapperz. Both ex men in black too!

Group spin with the boys and Demmers

A few nights at Turtles for a BBQ and a few chilled beers has been on the cards too. I great way to get to know everyone and have a nice chilled night. I’ve made a lot of new friends here down under and myself and the guys are looking forward to having everyone round our place for a BBQ soon!

 Turtles BBQ

Having an amazing time here down under, I’m incredibly lucky to have been given such a fantastic opportunity and experience. A massive thank you to good friends and mentors Neil Martin and Mick Bennett for their words of wisdom along the way. To my Family and close friends for supporting me and giving me the life skills to make it this far. Also to manager John, Swanny Dave and coach Ken, thank you so much for all your support and giving me this opportunity to live the dream!

A short blog but a bit of an insight to how we are settling in here. I will be doing another blog just after Christmas ahead of the start of my racing campaign for 2014 and my debut for Rapha Condor JLT!

Heres a few photos of our place and out and about exploring!