Hi there,

Well a few days have passed since I last wrote. I’m still feeling frustrated with no real riding and only resting which is something i dont do well at all! I havent been the best patient either.. sorry…. Just putting that out there

The scan didnt show any major tear though, which i guess is a good thing due to the fact that no surgery is required. There was fluid around the capsule though which means something was pulled or tweaked, possibly from that good old tug on my leg and the chopping and changing of saddles.

Ive just got to take it day by day and follow the advice from the doctors. Ill keep resting it, icing it and take it from there.

I did just get off the rollers. I felt like a monkey shagging an ink whale though lol! I rode 15mins, my first ride all week. Well lets be honest, I didnt even hit 3 figures on my SRM, so it was a roll if anything, far from a ride! I have to test it just to see how it feels over the weekend and if I dont pull up sore tomorrow morning then thats a good sign. Naturally all my attention was on the hip where I had the pain. It didnt feel 100%, but walking around after the roll I dont feel worse. thats got to be a good thing.

Im hoping that after a few more days taking it easy ill be back on the road again this week.. Im now flying to europe on the 13th with my partner so thats something that is certain. It will be nice to get to europe and set up our base once again in Girona.

Thanks for the support.. Hoping good news is going to follow soon!

Ciao
roly

hi there,

well a lot has happened since the end of the tour down under.. i finished the race feeling really positive and excited. i was confident i was heading in the right direction, and looking forward to the upcoming tour of qatar.

i should be packed up right now, ready for the next race of the season.. instead im not!

tomorrow i go in for a MRI scan on my hip joint.. i havent ridden for a few days due to a problem that i think i picked up over in adelaide. its hard to say exactly what caused it but ive been in a whole world of hurt the last few days. mentally aswell as physically.

i think the chopping and changing of saddles probably irritated my hip joint. just with the different saddles. one being slightly different to the other etc. then after willunga i got the masseuse to release my hip joint by pulling on my leg while up on the table.. i get this done often as it feels good after a rub. this time though, i am sure it was slightly too hard.. not his fault by any means, but i knew straight away that it was a hard pull. i got off the table, and felt ok.. no dramas, but the next day i just felt a little heavy and sore in the hip and groin area.

i still finished the race with no real issues, had monday off traveling and tuesday and wednesday i just rode very light.. it was my first hard ride back on the thursday that i knew something was not good at all. i had huge amounts of pain in my groin.. hip and my glute.. the pain started off in my groin, and ended up feeling like a sciatic nerve injury. something id never felt before.. its not a typical cycling injury which is making me go insane. just the unknown is whats making me feel a tad down. ive ridden once since, and it was unbearable.

today i seen deb robinson, the all black doctor and tomorrow im in at 11am for a mri scan to see whats really going on.. deb seems to think its a hip related issue, but the hips are so complex that only a scan will really reveal what the problem is and how we go about getting me back doing what i love.

i should know the outcome tomorrow afternoon.. then its on to the next phase of planning the comeback.. then focusing on each day as it comes. doing nothing at this time of year isnt easy though. i wont lie.. especially when there is only one thing i should be doing and thats riding, and racing in europe.

im trying to stay positive! as negative as i may sound.. easy come easy go right?! everything happens for a reason is also something else i live my life by. which i always tend to follow up pretty quicky with ‘im not sure of the reason’!

the team have been very supportive though which is a really nice feeling.. its hard enough being injured, even harder having pressure to come back.. they know i was good at camp, and good in down under… so missing one race wont change alot. my goal is to be back in the saddle asap, but for now i need rest so that when i come back im 100% ready to rock.

ill update more in the next few days after we have a diagnosis and a plan! the years still long, and as a few have put it, its better now than later…

thanks for reading,
roly

hey there,

well another edition of the tour down under is now done and dusted…  im happy its over, and happy to be sitting on a plane right now heading back to the best place in the world..  christchurch!  it was another epic race, with great weather too.  the atmosphere in amongst the race was just unreal.  if you cant afford the trip to the tour de france, i strongly recommend you make the trip to adelaide next year.  its the closest thing you’ll get to the tdf, and its wine country!  so many kiwis made the trip over this year and it was great to see.  i just want to say a BIG thank you for all the support.

the last stage today didn’t start how i had hoped..  i was really wanting a nice easy relaxed roll off the line, a few laughs, get some more sun on our ridiculous looking tan lines, and then ‘maybe’ we could just increase the pace from 20km/hr to 30km/hr.. NOPE! dreams are free!  it was on from the gun.. full full gas.  i think we had over 50km/hr average for the first 45kms, which is unreal considering there was quite a lot of corners… at the finish on a course with 7 corners we had an average of 46km/hr….  

i felt good, but not great, this was probably more mental than anything being the last stage…  this stage for me was one that didn’t really interest me.  its for the pure sprinters.  its pretty dangerous too and the last thing i wanted was to be spending the week all banged up before i head to europe..  i just helped the team as much as i could then sat back and watched the finale take place… 

the big gorilla (greipel) won again today..  he is super impressive and so powerful.  honestly his calves are as big as my quads.  he aint fat, he is ripped but man he has some muscle. hence why heading up hill he tends to go backwards at a great rate of knots!  his team did a great job today.  they rode perfectly.  you hardly seen them all race, but with 2 laps to go you started to see their train forming hoping to set their man up for the win.  you again seen a stellar lead out from hendy to set andre up.  hendy is a super fast sprinter himself but leading out he is one of the best in the world..  if he sprinted himself he could run a top 3, but that just shows how strong andre is having hendy at last man..  when hendy does his job right, which he does 99.9% of the time, andre is sure to win.  unless the wee pocket rocket cav is there with his train.  then its a real fight!  its like big man vs wee man lol!

lets talk about watts aye….. i was in the lift with my old team mate from last year, mark renshaw.  he run 2nd today and he said he could do nothing better to beat andre.  he was just sprinting full gas on andres wheel and doing
 1550 watts, which is huge for his weight.  so im guessing andre was hitting somewhere around 1700-1800w.  pretty phenomenal!  watts are always interesting.  i think cav’s max is only around 1400w.  but cause he is so low he goes very fast.  andre is much bigger than cav and has to produce upwards of 1700w at the end of a race to beat him.   so highest watts doesn’t necessarily mean you will win.  you have to have a cool head to win first, a good team and of course the big B word..  belief!

for our team it was a very successful week.  we won the teams classification and tiago was on the podium in 3rd place.  jan bakelandts was 6th.  benatti had some top 5s in the sprints, and the team was just a very strong well drilled unit.  very often do you see the whole team in front at the top of a climb, and up willunga we did that.  it was a special feeling..  and although i felt sick at the top of the climb hearing jens say ‘@#$% boys, its time to go to work’  it was awesome to see the peleton go from 140 riders down to 20!  and we still had 6 guys there.  

the willunga stage for me was a very important stage mentally.  although im not in top form, i got up the climb with the best guys, i was super strong after it, and now as i sit here and reflect a little i am really confident that my form is right where it should be.  its a strange feeling thinking that im not in top form but yet in this stage i felt better than what i felt when i was flying last year.  im not sure what that means but heres hoping its a good sign!

right so now im half way home..  i am back in chch for 10 days before heading to qatar on my way to europe..  goal for the next week is to firstly, recover and then get a good block of training in so that im ready for the dirty x winds that will greet us in qatar..

i get a feeling its going to be a good year..  heres hoping!  thanks for reading and again, thanks for all the support.

see you
roly

hi there,

well today the race was electric.. so many people, so much pressure within the peleton and i think the riders put on a real show for the public in the finale.. radioshack-nissan-trek played a massive role in the last 40kms of the race today, and it was great to be apart of it.

everyone knew that the race would only really begin when we hit the base of willunga climb for the first time.. but it wasn’t all easy up to that point. you could feel the pressure, it was unreal. the wind put everyone on the edge of their seats and you had to always be ready incase a team went hard in the side wind sections of the race..

as it turned out, all the stress and nervousness was for nothing, although there was a large number of riders out the back after the side tail wind section.. come the base of the climb the first time it was a full peleton ready to rip the race apart. there was a nasty crash just before it with a uniSA rider. he hit the deck hard, face first. man it looked bad so i hope he was ok. what this did though was clear the way for me to get right to the front before the base of the climb, and thats where i stayed..

being heavier than the climbers its always going to be hard to get up the top of the climb in the position we were told we HAD to be.. but i along with my whole team were there.. which was unreal seeing we have 3 climbers here, and 4 guys that go ok on climbs, but aren’t mountain goats.. i actually felt super on the climb and in the meeting this morning the plan was to have everyone get over it, then we go to work..

i think there was 40 guys over the top and it was really windy up there. with no descent it was hard to recover, even harder with the plan now ready to go ahead. the goal was simple. have numbers. then put the whole of the front group into the gutter with only our team getting shelter.. so off we went, and slowly one by one the front group went from 40 odd, right down to 20. having 6 in the front group of 20 was pretty unreal. we seen yesterday that the team was strong, but this was just confirmation that we are all at a good level so early in the year.

i cant even describe the feeling of going uphill full gas, to then not have a downhill to recover! we had 7km of flat and crosswinds before any freewheeling was to begin. by that stage the field was in shreds, and the plan was going 100% to what we talked about..

jens was flying.. jesse was too.. i was good but not great, but after the downhill i felt super.. i just needed that bit of recovery to get back into the groove of things.. our number 1 was so far back at one stage i had to go back and get him.. i then brought him back up to the front, and started working again.. but he is so small and too nice, so let other riders muscle him out of that position.. generally, when your team is on the front your leader gets the first free wheel to stay out of the wind.. but when its cross winds its dog eat dog and you have to really be aggressive to stay near the front.. before i knew it, it was hard in the gutter again and i looked back and tiago was really struggling.. again at the back. grrrrrrrrrr…. so off i went again. brought him back up just before the base of the climb and then he and our other 2 climbers went to work..

tiago was 3rd today.. which is a great result.. he is here on no racing, unlike most of the aussies.. valverde won, in his first race back for 2 years after serving a doping ban…. he has trained full gas for 2 years though so he was always going to be one to watch.. plus the fact that before he was suspended he was the number 1 guy in the world for many years in a row..

after we placed our guys in the right position myself, jens and jesse swung off… and cruised up the climb taking in all the atmosphere.. it was unreal.. and had a real tdf feel to it.. it was dangerous actually, but you just feed off it and it makes you ride harder.. there was so much support for us though, so many kiwis out there which was so cool to hear..

right thats enough from me… heres hoping half the peleton is out on the booze tonight so we get a easy stage tomorrow.. but i doubt it.. its going to be fast and we will look after tiago to conserve his 3rd overall.. and we will try and get benatti up for the win in the final stage..

then its home time and i cant wait.. it will be a short stop though, so ill be spending as much time with my partner, claire, and my wee boy moses.. and of course ill be training my ass off to capitalize on this block of racing so that my form continues to rise..

will update tomorrow.. again thanks for the support. you guys rock….

see you
roly

hey there,

tough wee stage here today, and this time it started how 90% of pro races typically start.. full gas.. with the race going uphill for 9km from the start it was always going to make the legs scream just a bit… and they did!

i don’t think the break went away till after about 30kms.. your probably reading this asking, why wouldn’t i know when it went away? simple really! im not in top form, far from it so all i was looking for was the wheel in front of me due to the speed we were going and the top of the dirty climb.. this is how we normally race in europe, and as hard as it is i actually prefer it. im a rider that needs to go hard and suffer before my legs actually come good. today the legs were great and its given me great confidence that my form is tracking along a good upward curve.

at times during the tour I’ve had to remind myself that im here on only basic training. im fit, but im nowhere near the level i was last year. the reason I’ve done this is to allow the racing to lift me up a level without too much stress.. all looking towards being in top shape for the classics which start mid march. so far during the race i thought maybe i should have come here with a heap of intervals under my belt, but thats only my ego talking! so today for me answered any self doubt that had been floating around in my mind cause i felt really strong..

it was hard today and pretty hot. up and down all day with a nasty climb with 20kms to go.. the teams with the climbers really hit the bottom of the climb hard. they went full gas to try and unload some of the sprinters before tomorrows uphill finish. i decided to just ease myself into the climb, and not go so far into the red that i would blow a fuse…. it turned out to be a good choice. i felt super on the climb and was within myself and at the top there was massive splits in the peleton.. there was only 40 guys at the top, and i was in there along with 5 other teammates.. so we had 6 there, which was pretty impressive and shows the teams strength…

coming into the finish we did the lead out to the best we could.. its always hard not having a lead out train like i have had in the past but we just about got benatti up for the win.. he finished 2nd today which was great to see. i felt as if i didn’t have that real top end power that i would normally have but like I’ve said before it will come when i train that system.. still it was a good day for the team, and personally a good day for thy head!

tomorrow is the day we have all been waiting for. last year we had 2 laps up wilunga hill, and finished in wilunga at the foot of the climb. tomorrow we have 2 laps up the climb, but we finish on top which is going to decide who could win this race.. still the sprinters have the advantage right now, and have time bonuses up their sleeve so that means the pace up the climb the first time is going to be hot… it has to be to get rid of the sprinters. my goal is to survive the first time up there, then put my teammates into position to win this race.. it will be an exciting day out and the atmosphere is going to be unreal.. it was last year, and now with it finishing on top its going to be even bigger..

so tune in tomorrow night with what i hope is great news.. its going to be a hard day, but i reckon our guys have the legs to win tomorrow, and maybe win the race..

thanks for reading, and to those here in adelaide a big thanks for all the support!

ciao
roly

hi!

well the stage today was one that was full of nothing but STRESS… basically all day it was stressful due to the wind, and doing a lot of riding close to the coast. everyone was nervous that there was going to be cross wind, and there was but just not quite enough of it. there were times when the peleton split up, but then there were some trees etc that gave everyone cover so the field come back together.

i had a much better day, legs felt 100x better than the day before too. so even though we never got a result i was a much happier chap knowing that the old me is somewhere inside my body, and i am guessing ill just get better from here on.. well im hoping anyway!

it was only 130kms today, so a very short stage… but like i said. stressful. we had to always be ready, at the front or not far from the front.. the last few stages we have really relaxed during the start of the stage, something much different to the last few years, but today we only relaxed for about 5kms. then it was stress city, and all for nothing! i guess its best to be ready cause you never know what could happen, but it really takes it out of you being on the edge for 3 or so hours.. coming into the finish it was pretty sketchy with roundabouts, traffic islands and then every rider wanting to be on the front..

we were all well placed, then i got really hit hard and ended up to far back to help our sprinter. its just like that some days. if you get knocked around, you lose momentum, and its hard to come back.. there was so many near crashes, and sometimes i wonder what on earth the race organizers are thinking having real technical finishes just due to the safety aspects of the race.. but again thats cycling..

we all survived and no one had any real trouble. we had jan from our team in the break today and he picked up 4s in time bonuses which moves him up close to the overall lead… it now gives us 3 cards to play so all is good for us heading into the last few days of the tour, and most importantly, the big stage that finishes a top of wilunga hill.

today we have the same distance of 130kms to ride.. it has a hard start, then a tough wee climb with 20kms to go… it will be interesting to see what happens, and the last climb could be a real launch pad for a few riders to attack.. we will have our climbers ready to go should that happen. it doesn’t look like a decisive stage but this is a crazy world we live in, and we have to be ready…

a bit of a boring report today… only bit of laughing material will come yet again from jens.. he commented after the stage that when he and stuey ogrady were riding on the front with 10k to go they just about had 80yrs between them.. pretty unreal, and just hearing the way jens tell the story is even better.. we are all like kids listening to his stories at the dinner table.. great way to pass the time..

right, ill update after the stage.. would be really nice to give you all some good news.. either about myself (that will come this year trust me!) or about one of my teammates.. we do have a shot to win this race, and what i seen the other day from one of our riders says to me that he has the legs to rip the race apart… time will tell!

cheer for reading…
ciao

Hi there,

Well this time last year i was sitting in the hilton where this race is based thinking man, i could rip this race apart cause my legs felt that good… one year on im sitting here thinking man im suffering like a pig!

today in down under i suffered.. this could be for a few reasons but at the end of the day, my legs today were like dead weights that did not wanna come out and play at all.. no matter what i did i felt as if i was on day 20 of a grand tour.. heavy, lactate and just that feeling every cyclist hates! at the end of the day i just have to say it was a bad day, and know it could have been worse.. tomorrow is a new day and im now focusing on that.

ive been having trouble with my saddle for a few weeks now.. i just cant find one that fits me well so that i can roll the hips and get the full power out like i used to get with my old team.. when you change teams you change equipment.. i had to change the saddle the day before the race so im really battling the old head and heart which is not helping the legs… i will find one soon though, i know that, but for now this is a bit of a problem.. to most of you your probably thinking thats its just a saddle, no big deal.. but when you actually live on this thing, it does have to fit you like a glove.. if it doesn’t, you have problems.. under carriage problems! lets just say the thought of me sitting on a saddle right now makes me wanna cry cause im pretty sore.. nothing a good nights sleep and another change of saddles wont fix though!

right now I’ve had a whinge its on to the race.. we were blessed with 30 degrees today, and it felt cold at the start compared to yesterday.. a break went early, with only 2 riders in it.. so again the peleton went on holiday mode.. chatting, laughing and just letting the 2 up front go out to about 11mins. everyone knew the finishing circuit was hard BUT this time, the sole rider in the front (one guy sat up) won.. silly move by the guy that sat up! he had 7mins going into the last 19km lap, and he won by 1min.. pretty amazing, and it went to a guy called will clarke. super nice guy, and i guess it gave the peleton a real wake up call..

our team had a good day.. we had 4 guys in the front group today and our two classification riders were safe up there so all is good.. the real day for them is on saturday, up williunga hill, so for them now its all about saving energy so that when the road goes uphill they have the power and the reserves to win this race.

tomorrow we have what is typically a sprint stage.. we did this stage 2 years ago. it has a nasty start with 5kms uphill and then it finishes in victor harbour.. last time it was major x winds going into the last 10k, and our team rode perhaps the best we have ever rode.. my teammate won, i played a big role and we were all buzzing after it.. would be nice to do the same tomorrow..

so for now im sitting here saying all my prayers hoping the legs actually decide to join me in this race.. haha.. im sure they will eventually… onwards and upwards..

thanks for reading..
roly