Friday, December 31, 2010

Nice way to start a New Year

So the 'original' plan was to take a quick trip down to Ballarat in early January to have another racing 'experience' in the heat on the tough Mt Buninyong course. 

However, things that I plan seem to have a habit of transforming themselves into something else...

and in only the last few weeks, this initial plan has changed into travelling down to Victoria a bit earlier, to race for 4 days at "Bay Crits" (the 2011 Jayco Bay Criteriums) as well...

and just today, we will be adding in the Geelong Amy's Ride on Sunday morning too!


Rather than one week off work to do "just" one race, I now get one week off work to do 5 races, watch even more racing, and ride in support of the Amy Gillett Foundation!

Accordingly, if you know what I am like, you know that I am also thinking that this is a great way to start 2011. :)

To any and all of you reading my blog, have a super end to 2010, and I wish you all the best for 2011.
http://www.amygillett.org.au/amys-ride-victoria-2011
And thanks to Leigh Schilling for some of the above photos.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

An interesting perspective...

I don't claim to have any knowledge on ProTeam cycling, and teams, and sponsors, and all the political dramas that seems to be involved with them.  However, with the huge amount of "chatter" about Pegasus Sports going on at present, it is hard not to think about how it may (or will) affect cycling in Australia.

If you haven't already seen it, I need to share this link with you...
from Jonathan Vaughters...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/jonathan-vaughters/the-geox-paradox
even if you may not agree with this perspective, it is worth the read...
if only to stimulate some more thoughts on how things might need to change in the future for cycling.

"Cycling has such an incredible emotion and beauty to it, and its events are unique and brilliant in the world of sports. To settle for anything less than a solid, understandable, and clear interaction between teams and events does not do the sport justice." - JV.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Thoughts away from cycling...

So this might be getting a bit "deep" for my blog but a lot of stuff has been happening to me in the last month or so, and this week I had one of those "explosion" weeks...

Maybe you've had one yourself and you know what I mean?  Everything seems to be going along "fine", but you are also aware that you are right on the limit, and then just one small (or large) thing has to happen, and suddenly everything is definitely not "fine" and is quite the opposite; and you are left with picking up the pieces again after the "explosion".  Anyway, while I have been busy with work and life and all sorts of stuff, I have also been 'attempting' to find some time to read a book given to me by a friend (Eckhart Tolle's The Power Of Now)...

and this just happens to be quite thought provoking for me right now...
"What is freedom for you?  What is happiness for you?  Often your mind tells you that you cannot get from here to there.  Something needs to happen, or you need to become this or that before you can be free and fulfilled.  You think that something is saying that you need time to find, or sort out, or do, or achieve, or acquire, or become, or understand before you can be free and complete.  Your mind sees time as the means to freedom and happiness, but in truth this is the greatest obstacle to you ever "getting there".  You think you might not be able to get there from where you are now.  But the truth is that here and now is the only point from which you can get there.  You "get" there by realising that you are there already.  Nothing you can ever do in the future, and nothing that you have ever done in the past will get you any closer.  You do it now or not at all."

...ok, after that, I promise the next blog posting will not be so "sombre".  :)