Patients is a little word that has taken some years to become part of my make up. Aslong as i can remember i have always been in a hurry to do things. Unfortunately i am realising now, perhaps a little late, that it has prevented me achieving my chosen endevours to a much higher level. Anyway can dwell on the past and better late than never to realise this i guess?
The reason i have finally come to this realisation is cycling has taught me that you must build the foundations to get where you want to go. Again it has taken 3 years in this sport to realise this but i feel i am starting to get there. It has come about as this season has not begun for me like previous years where i am usually toward the front end of the fields and full of optimism for the year. Things just seem to be a little tuffer in the crucial points of the races where i am usually coming good and i need to be patient to let these sensations return. Luckily in my new team i am able to ride in the role of domestic and help the team leaders to success which allows me slowly build my conditon. Being a professional sport you also are quickly reminded when you have not spercifically prepared for a race when things get hard, you are quickly put in your place and thats how it should be.
For me this year there a couple of good reasons why i am little behind at this point. Firstly my recovery from glangelor was long and has meant i am 3 months behind in my preperation compared to previous years. Secondly when you race every week with only 5 days recovery in between it is impossible to train and do the specifics required to reach your full potential in the races. The most important thing is i accept this and learn to work around it and balance better my recovery, preparation and racing. Although i am only now giving this process to required attention i finally like i am building toward getting the most out of myself in the races. The sensations are good for 90% of the time however i need to patient (for the first time in my life) and put together the process to get there. I hope in the future to be writing a blog about implementing this process and how it worked effectivly for me!
The great thing about this sport is the ones that put in and prepare best will always be the ones up front. There are not many miracles in cycling where major results are achieved with little or now preperation. It is impossible to fox your way around up to 7hrs of intense racing, across mountains, flats, cobbles and brutal winds and come out the strongest. No it is a sport for those committed to the sport and those most commitent and "patient" in there preperation not leaving a stone unturned who will more often than not be the ones the fans come to watch and enjoy the spoils of there success. Back to my problem, it is quite simple, if i want to get to this point in the sport i simply have to patient!
Cameron
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Columbia
Currently I am in the trento region of Italy, just north of Venice in the mountains. Today I begin the giro del trentino. The reason for this blog however is that I have just leant a little about the Columbian culture!
My room mate for the week is one of our star riders Jose serpa. He is an amazing climber and has 3 wins to his credit already this season. It is not his cycling I want to discuss however. Since rooming with him for the past 24hrs I have noticed he spends an unusually large amount of time on the telephone and by this I mean almost constantly. Puzzled by this attraction to the telephone I just raised this with him and his response was very interesting.
It turns out the Jose has 3 wifes in Columbia. No wonder the poor bloke is on the phone 24hrs a day, he deserves a medal for keeping ontop of that situation. In australia most blokes struggle to keep just one wife informed of what's going on let alone multiplying this by 3!
This is what I love about cycling. It is an international sport and the things you learn and experience are often things far removed from the bike. It is a educational sport in its very own unique way!
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My room mate for the week is one of our star riders Jose serpa. He is an amazing climber and has 3 wins to his credit already this season. It is not his cycling I want to discuss however. Since rooming with him for the past 24hrs I have noticed he spends an unusually large amount of time on the telephone and by this I mean almost constantly. Puzzled by this attraction to the telephone I just raised this with him and his response was very interesting.
It turns out the Jose has 3 wifes in Columbia. No wonder the poor bloke is on the phone 24hrs a day, he deserves a medal for keeping ontop of that situation. In australia most blokes struggle to keep just one wife informed of what's going on let alone multiplying this by 3!
This is what I love about cycling. It is an international sport and the things you learn and experience are often things far removed from the bike. It is a educational sport in its very own unique way!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Settling In
The last 2 weeks have been very productive for me. I have finally settled into my appartment in monaco and been able to resume a normal recovery from race and training schedules. Added to that, having my own kitchen to prepare my favourite meals and i cant complain about too much at the moment. You may think living in and out of hotels is fantastic and to a certain extent it is great, having your bed made, your washing done and fresh towls is certainly a pleasure after a long day in the saddle, however, it is funny how you miss also doing these things for yourself. I know it may be odd but i love washing my cloaths and cooking my dinner and even on the odd occasion i make my bed and challenge myself to do so at the same standard of the hotel is very enjoyable. Certainly being on the road is good but it does make you appreciate the simple things you get to do when you are home.
My little one bedroom crib in monaco is perfect for me. I have a bakery, coffee shop, small supermarket, and atleast 3 good italian restaurants within 50m of my front door. I live up on the rock near the princes castle so as he loves his sleep he puts a ban on people up there after 10 at night and before 7 in the morning so i always sleep like a log. Perhaps my favourite features of my crib appart from my laundry and kitchen are my nespresso coffee machine and cable tv. Although only 15km from italy it is almost impossible to get a good coffee in monaco so i rely heavily on the easy and user friendly nespresso machine to get me going in the mornings and perk me up in the afternoon. Secondly my cable television could not be any better, ok i dont get home and away which would be nice but i do have eurosport 2 which televises the AFL live every week. I am however going to write a letter to eurosport and ask that they do something about the aussie dude that does the comentary and stick with the regular dudes in aus. You cant beat bruce and denise so i dont see why they silence them and have some monotone dude who does not even know how to pronouce the names of the players, this is my only gripe with the tv. Also as an added touch the V8 supercars are telecast so it truly does feel like australia is a hell of alot closer than it actually is which is nice when in reality you're 20000km from home.
Tassi has a great presence in the principality with 4 riders and one top block nick named "Rock" who works for ducatti. We all catch up regularly and through in another 6 aussie riders and we can almost make the beach feel like bondi in the summer! As for the training well that is simply perfect, sure the traffic 10km either side of monaco in the summer is a little tedious at times but then its plain sailing along the mediteranian or inland toward the alps. The most famous stretches of road close handy include the final stages of milan sanremo (or the city to surf as i reffered to it in a previous blog) and of course a climb by the name of col de la madone or more simply as it is commonly known to many cycling fans around the world "the madone". Yes this is the climb that a certain man by the name of Lance Armstrong uses to test his condition and like the steep slope so much that he named a range of trek bikes after the slope. 12km @ 9% average gradient it is a pretty tuff obstacle on a training ride but also a good training road so i frequent it very often. Basically the area offers an almost perfect training environment but when you combine that with the laid back and super easy going lifestyle for me it is the perfect place to set up camp in europe.
Now i am settled in it time to resume racing!
cameron
My little one bedroom crib in monaco is perfect for me. I have a bakery, coffee shop, small supermarket, and atleast 3 good italian restaurants within 50m of my front door. I live up on the rock near the princes castle so as he loves his sleep he puts a ban on people up there after 10 at night and before 7 in the morning so i always sleep like a log. Perhaps my favourite features of my crib appart from my laundry and kitchen are my nespresso coffee machine and cable tv. Although only 15km from italy it is almost impossible to get a good coffee in monaco so i rely heavily on the easy and user friendly nespresso machine to get me going in the mornings and perk me up in the afternoon. Secondly my cable television could not be any better, ok i dont get home and away which would be nice but i do have eurosport 2 which televises the AFL live every week. I am however going to write a letter to eurosport and ask that they do something about the aussie dude that does the comentary and stick with the regular dudes in aus. You cant beat bruce and denise so i dont see why they silence them and have some monotone dude who does not even know how to pronouce the names of the players, this is my only gripe with the tv. Also as an added touch the V8 supercars are telecast so it truly does feel like australia is a hell of alot closer than it actually is which is nice when in reality you're 20000km from home.
Tassi has a great presence in the principality with 4 riders and one top block nick named "Rock" who works for ducatti. We all catch up regularly and through in another 6 aussie riders and we can almost make the beach feel like bondi in the summer! As for the training well that is simply perfect, sure the traffic 10km either side of monaco in the summer is a little tedious at times but then its plain sailing along the mediteranian or inland toward the alps. The most famous stretches of road close handy include the final stages of milan sanremo (or the city to surf as i reffered to it in a previous blog) and of course a climb by the name of col de la madone or more simply as it is commonly known to many cycling fans around the world "the madone". Yes this is the climb that a certain man by the name of Lance Armstrong uses to test his condition and like the steep slope so much that he named a range of trek bikes after the slope. 12km @ 9% average gradient it is a pretty tuff obstacle on a training ride but also a good training road so i frequent it very often. Basically the area offers an almost perfect training environment but when you combine that with the laid back and super easy going lifestyle for me it is the perfect place to set up camp in europe.
Now i am settled in it time to resume racing!
cameron
Friday, March 26, 2010
IMG00031-20100326-1012.jpg
Go the cats!
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IMG00029-20100326-0759.jpg
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
City to Surf (italian style)
On saturday the 20th of march i particpated in my first city to surf sporting fixture, italian style. Like the sydney fun run, the italian version commonly known as Milan Sanremo, begins in the hustle bustle of the busiest city in the country and finishes in perhaps the busiest beach side suberb in the country. Luckily for both race the roads are closed to traffic giving all a clear path to torture themselves in the respective events.
Having never done the sydney event i can only report on the italian version which i competed in on saturday. The 300km journey was completed in just under 7hrs therefore averaging close to 44kmph. Ouch. The race started under grey skys however the rain conveniently held of until the roads became smaller and more twisty and undulating at the 100km mark, just what you dont want. The race however started well for use with fabrice placing himself in the breakaway of 3 riders relieving the pressure from our team to ride at the front. A welcome chance from the week before in tireno adriatico! At 100km in the race started and with the rain came the inevitable crashes, luckily neither my team mates or i ever went down however the road blocks it created caused many splits and nervious moments. This continued for the next 100km and with 100km to race the sun was out and the race all together and we were happily racing along the mediteranian with a lovely little tail breeze towards sanremo. All seemed to be perfect. Then i dawned on me that my pockets were still filled with food. This unfortunately for me meant that during the previous 100km i had forgotten to eat as much as i should have and was suddenly hungry! I quickly gobbled down as much as i could but in a race of this intensity and duration, when you are at the stage where you are hungry, it is to late to reload, you body is depleted and it was just a ticking time bomb as to when i would bonk! (go hunger flat where your blood has no glycogen and it basically tells your brain to stop your body working so jolly hard).
I tried to think possitively and keep eating hoping for a miricle. Had a few chats with our team captain scarpa and i was geed about helping out in the finarly! I spent the next 60km jostling for position trying to get to front and when we hit the cipressa, the first of 2 decisive climbs which come in the final 20km, i went for the gas pedal to get to the front and help out or captain for the day ginanni. Alas the power did not greet my pedals and as Ginanni came to fore i put on the hazard lights and got spat out the backside of the peleton. At the top of the climb i found myself in a small group with non other than last years race winner mark cavendich and had regained hope that perhaps his team would come back for him! They did not and we would eventually role in 6min behind the winners. As i said before on the cipressa ginanni came to the four, attacking numerous times on both the ascents and decents, and again on the final climb the poggio in an attempt to steal the victory. The climbs were not so brutal at only 3-4km and 4-5% however the italians have this amazing ability to find the most dangourous decents to ride a bicycle down. They really do love to see crashes. For some of the best riders this is also i place where they take there opportunities to win races, ginanni is one of these riders and made some bold attempts at escapeing on these goat track! Unforunately on this occasion he cooul not break the shackels of the peleton and when the bunch reformed just before the finish he was to finish 7th in the sprint, still a very very good result in the first major classic of the season.
So that was my first city to surf, be it sydney or milan, there is certainly no better was to get from the hustle and bustle of the city to the seaside party scene of the beach than by doing a sporting race!
cameron
Having never done the sydney event i can only report on the italian version which i competed in on saturday. The 300km journey was completed in just under 7hrs therefore averaging close to 44kmph. Ouch. The race started under grey skys however the rain conveniently held of until the roads became smaller and more twisty and undulating at the 100km mark, just what you dont want. The race however started well for use with fabrice placing himself in the breakaway of 3 riders relieving the pressure from our team to ride at the front. A welcome chance from the week before in tireno adriatico! At 100km in the race started and with the rain came the inevitable crashes, luckily neither my team mates or i ever went down however the road blocks it created caused many splits and nervious moments. This continued for the next 100km and with 100km to race the sun was out and the race all together and we were happily racing along the mediteranian with a lovely little tail breeze towards sanremo. All seemed to be perfect. Then i dawned on me that my pockets were still filled with food. This unfortunately for me meant that during the previous 100km i had forgotten to eat as much as i should have and was suddenly hungry! I quickly gobbled down as much as i could but in a race of this intensity and duration, when you are at the stage where you are hungry, it is to late to reload, you body is depleted and it was just a ticking time bomb as to when i would bonk! (go hunger flat where your blood has no glycogen and it basically tells your brain to stop your body working so jolly hard).
I tried to think possitively and keep eating hoping for a miricle. Had a few chats with our team captain scarpa and i was geed about helping out in the finarly! I spent the next 60km jostling for position trying to get to front and when we hit the cipressa, the first of 2 decisive climbs which come in the final 20km, i went for the gas pedal to get to the front and help out or captain for the day ginanni. Alas the power did not greet my pedals and as Ginanni came to fore i put on the hazard lights and got spat out the backside of the peleton. At the top of the climb i found myself in a small group with non other than last years race winner mark cavendich and had regained hope that perhaps his team would come back for him! They did not and we would eventually role in 6min behind the winners. As i said before on the cipressa ginanni came to the four, attacking numerous times on both the ascents and decents, and again on the final climb the poggio in an attempt to steal the victory. The climbs were not so brutal at only 3-4km and 4-5% however the italians have this amazing ability to find the most dangourous decents to ride a bicycle down. They really do love to see crashes. For some of the best riders this is also i place where they take there opportunities to win races, ginanni is one of these riders and made some bold attempts at escapeing on these goat track! Unforunately on this occasion he cooul not break the shackels of the peleton and when the bunch reformed just before the finish he was to finish 7th in the sprint, still a very very good result in the first major classic of the season.
So that was my first city to surf, be it sydney or milan, there is certainly no better was to get from the hustle and bustle of the city to the seaside party scene of the beach than by doing a sporting race!
cameron
Friday, March 19, 2010
Terra Race Wrap
The final days of turino adriatico were very nervous and although we had the leaders jersey, we were always on the edge of our seats controling the race for scarponi. Alas he started the final day with a two second lead to Stefano Gazelli or the gazelle as i called him, and he was unable to stop the gazelle from speeding to the bonus seconds in the 2 sprints during the stage and losing the lead and finishing second on a countback! Was a heartbreaking experiences for scarpa i am sure and the team felt dejected as we came so close to sealing the victory and the mood post race gave me good indication how great the margin is between winning and coming second to the italians in the cycling world! It is good to hurt as it is a positive reminder that you want to always strive to avoid this feeling in the future! I am sure we will re group and we must as it is only march and the big races are only just beggining so onwards and upwards!
For me was a great experience week. I rode in my first breakaway at protour level and had my first attempt at trying to attain the victory on this day. I fell short but learnt that perhaps one i may just make it to the finish before the rest of the peleton so for sure i will try this approach again in the future. Following this day i switched roles to domestic and this is a role i really fell comfortable with and a role i can really give all i have the cause. It was nice to feel a real purpose in this race, although it did require me to stretch myself to new levels of exertion, so much so that i stopped wearing my heart rate monitor which i have always believed to be an important monitoring tool, i was really really enjoying being able to contribute and understand how to apply this type of role to the team. I hope this skill will be a big benefit to me this season. Of course the recognition of your efforts from the team is always important more as a means of re assureing yourself that you did the right thing, to me this is important as i like to know if i make mistakes to learn for next time!
This is no different to the workforce and although there is great importance for the worker to know he has done the right thing with positive feedback, it is perhaps of even greater importance that the leader or boss is honest in therein there appraisel of your efforts, again if though fear of offending you dont tell someone what they did wrong how ill the person to do it differently the next time. This is perhaps the most crucial element to the success of anything where a team or group of people are involved, if feedback both positive and negative can be used constructively by the workers you will have a greater chance of a successfull team than if you sit on the fence through fear of offending. At the end of the day any feed back must be not pigion holed as good and bad but simply as positive as you are either learning or being re assured you are on the right track.
For me i was certainly a culperate in my time in rowing of being to positive specially when things were not going as well as they could have so i guess with some very poor rowing results and experiences behind me and unfortunately some cycling ones also, i feel that for me this is a crucial area for me to work on and be attentive to. Luckily in my new androni team i have found an environment that most certainly opperates in this way and i think the core of this is respect for each other, staff and riders and everybody wanting the same thing, success. I am sure that this is also the core principles of successfull organisations in the business world.
Tomorrow i race milan sanremo, usually best done in a car however the italians decided to create one of the biggest races of the year by having us race the 300km. Luckily for i once rode from my home at Mt rumney in the south of tasmania to lake barrington in the north east, also 300km however on this occasion i had one element i luckily will not have to face tomorrow and that is the bass straight sea breeze just to make sure it was super hard, i dont think the mediteranian sea can through anything like that at us. Also on that occasion i had my good mate bomma for company so will perhaps be a little quieter without him but i am sure there will be plenty going on to keep us all on our toes for the 7hrs.
looking forward to what i hope is another good day of team work with the androni boys
cameron
For me was a great experience week. I rode in my first breakaway at protour level and had my first attempt at trying to attain the victory on this day. I fell short but learnt that perhaps one i may just make it to the finish before the rest of the peleton so for sure i will try this approach again in the future. Following this day i switched roles to domestic and this is a role i really fell comfortable with and a role i can really give all i have the cause. It was nice to feel a real purpose in this race, although it did require me to stretch myself to new levels of exertion, so much so that i stopped wearing my heart rate monitor which i have always believed to be an important monitoring tool, i was really really enjoying being able to contribute and understand how to apply this type of role to the team. I hope this skill will be a big benefit to me this season. Of course the recognition of your efforts from the team is always important more as a means of re assureing yourself that you did the right thing, to me this is important as i like to know if i make mistakes to learn for next time!
This is no different to the workforce and although there is great importance for the worker to know he has done the right thing with positive feedback, it is perhaps of even greater importance that the leader or boss is honest in therein there appraisel of your efforts, again if though fear of offending you dont tell someone what they did wrong how ill the person to do it differently the next time. This is perhaps the most crucial element to the success of anything where a team or group of people are involved, if feedback both positive and negative can be used constructively by the workers you will have a greater chance of a successfull team than if you sit on the fence through fear of offending. At the end of the day any feed back must be not pigion holed as good and bad but simply as positive as you are either learning or being re assured you are on the right track.
For me i was certainly a culperate in my time in rowing of being to positive specially when things were not going as well as they could have so i guess with some very poor rowing results and experiences behind me and unfortunately some cycling ones also, i feel that for me this is a crucial area for me to work on and be attentive to. Luckily in my new androni team i have found an environment that most certainly opperates in this way and i think the core of this is respect for each other, staff and riders and everybody wanting the same thing, success. I am sure that this is also the core principles of successfull organisations in the business world.
Tomorrow i race milan sanremo, usually best done in a car however the italians decided to create one of the biggest races of the year by having us race the 300km. Luckily for i once rode from my home at Mt rumney in the south of tasmania to lake barrington in the north east, also 300km however on this occasion i had one element i luckily will not have to face tomorrow and that is the bass straight sea breeze just to make sure it was super hard, i dont think the mediteranian sea can through anything like that at us. Also on that occasion i had my good mate bomma for company so will perhaps be a little quieter without him but i am sure there will be plenty going on to keep us all on our toes for the 7hrs.
looking forward to what i hope is another good day of team work with the androni boys
cameron
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