Training camp pays off for Alex

Hey all it’s been a while!

So last time I left you, I had just come out of the rehab camp in Canberra and was keen to get racing. The last month, or so, has been full of packing and unpacking the suitcase. Just the way I like it. After 3 weeks at home training on the road by myself I was really keen to get OUT of the house and get into the warm weather up in Queensland for the training camp.

So, up to the Gold Coast I went with Richy and Don (Aaron) early on a Friday morning. And the weather was PERFECT when we got there, a warm 21 degrees and blue skies. I could already tell that it was gonna be a good couple of weeks! Briano (Stephens) picked us up from the airport and drove the half hour trip south to the crib for the week. Met up with the whole team minus Rohan. It was really good to see the boys again. It was time to get into some solid training in the mountains. We rode most of our rides through the Burringbar range, which was really nice. Most of the time we all were reminiscing about juniors and how each one of us had won or lost the races through here. On the first Sunday there, we had club racing out at Murwillumbah. The night before, the boys and I were gee’ed up for this race and telling each other how we were gonna win the race and smash everyone. But we were told by JV (James Victor) to not tear their legs off and attack straight off the line. Typical of Luke Durbridge, he ignores that and attacks straight off the line got to the first corner 500 metres down the road and had to wait for us because he didn’t know which way to go like the locals did. After that corner I stupidly followed Luke in the attack and so did the Pat, Mal and Bling. So not even a kilometre into this club race we had 5 of us off the front with NOT a local rider insight.  It was Nice to know that we all listened to our coach’s advice. Haha.  That ended up being THE hardest club race I had ever done and we still had to ride home. It was only a 70k road race but we were all smashed after it but all we could do was laugh about how we completely ignored JV and attacked the crap out of everyone.

Later that week we had some educated people come into camp and try to teach us about finances! Funnily enough, they succeeded in teaching us all a little something about the smart ways to use our money. Us cyclists aren’t usually the smartest bunch and the sight of a bunch of cyclists thinking usually is very rare and sometimes can be dangerous. Haha.

We had a really good first week of training at the camp and we all were starting to come into some really good form! Just in time for The Tour of Gippsland. The second week of camp was a LOT of fun. We got a bit more free time to chill out and swim in the beach. Each night we would have a bonfire out on the beach with toasted marshmallows. Yeh, I know right, we live a hard life.

So it was time for my first race back. We packed our bags for Gippsland and said goodbye to the Gold Coast for another year (credit to JV for choosing that spot for the camp). I wasn’t really looking forward to going to Melbourne back into the cold weather but I was SUPER keen to race. It would be my first big race in almost 3 months. I was nervous on the start line of the first crit. It was a bit nerve racking to be back in the big bunch after my fall that took me out of Europe and sent me home early. 5 minutes into the crit, I had already forgotten about that and I was loving it! The race was fast and hard! Coming into the last few laps my job was to be the last man to lead out Richy. With 3 laps to go, I had Richy on my wheel and we were making our way to the front. Genesis already had control of the bunch and had everyone lined out. Aaron, Nick Richy and I waited until 1 and a bit lap's to go before we over took the orange train and take over! Unfortunately, Richy lost my wheel through one of the corners and it left Aaron on the front as we got the bell and I was on Nicks wheel. I looked back and Richy still wasn’t on my wheel so I thought it was up to me… I come around the last corner in second wheel and kicked with about 150metres to go and ended up getting the win! Not a bad start to the second half of the season. First race back, first win! I was stoked. Thanks to all the boys for getting me right up where I needed to be and I had the easiest job of all just to finish it.

Throughout the week, Richy and I took turns on leading each other out but unfortunately couldn’t repeat the success we had on the first stage. The tour was full of madness with the terrible weather on the last 2 days. The last crit, we raced in the hail. That HURT! All in all, it was a really good week for the team. Pat got the climbers jersey, we got a stage win and several podiums.

Now I'm back home for the week and have had some time to catch up with some friends! It has been a good week at home just relaxing but in 2 days I head back down to Melbourne for the Tour of Geelong. Can’t wait.

See you later

Alex