Hi there,

Wow, is this 2 updates in under 12hrs! i think so! I just want to let you know a few things from NZ.

I am now under the sports management company called SBSM. Also known as Scotty Browns Sport Management. Its vital i have great support moving forward, and its something ive really wanted and needed so its the news i wanted to share with all my friends who follow me, support me and push me toward my goals.

Alot of you in New Zealand will know the ever glowing Scotty from having the best bike shop in the country. His passion for cycling is immense, and on entering his shop its hard not to soak up this passion too!

Ive known Scotty since i was a kid growing up in Ashburton.. Just starting out it was the place dad had to take me on our trips to CHCH. Since then Ive grown up over the years being a regular in there, and now got to know him on a more personal level.. We both are so similar, and im so motivated knowing i have backing from SBSM in the future.

I know all of you want to know what im doing in 2012. There is speculation about the olympics on the track, and for sure its on my mind.. But we are just going through the process of sorting out what is best for me, in which ever path i decide to take..

Im excited though and i hope all will be revealed soon.. I will be involved in some amazing projects also, and thats thanks to SBSM. Its truely motivating stuff, and what drives me.

So for now, stick with me! All will be revealed soon..

Now im off to suck up some air, cause from now on, we only head up! im really motivated, happy and sure all is heading where it needs to head..

thanks again for you support, its something that means alot, and goes along way.. Especially after the year ive had, not having any major results, but knowing your all behind me.. its great and thanks..

talk soon
roly

Hi there,

Well today started great.. i woke up feeling super, had a nice easy roll this morning, great feelings but the race didnt go how i had envisioned it.. however, i still felt strong and think im coping well with the altitude..

I just really struggle in tts to judge pace.. On the track we get calls each lap, you know if your on, or not.. on the road its totally up to you.. its easy to say push all the way, which is what i did today, but in hindsight i think it would have been best to relax more in the first 3kms, which had a number of short climbs, then really put the power down in the home stretch..

No excuses here though. im still happy and know that im on track… but i just wish i could get it together and nail a tt. i have the power, but you really need to know you body, and the limits.. thats something ive got to work on..

But a huge positive that come out of today was the fact that we won the race with the german tourist, Patrick Gretsch. What a legend.. i mean not only did he win, he won ahead of some very big names.. Ok so it was more a course for him. and for sure he wont win the overall here, but still its an amazing feat.. youve got the tour de france champ here, 2nd place also so he really dealt to them today and it made me happy.. He is a super guy, fun to hang with, and he is nicknamed the tourist just cause he floats around here and there, relaxed, shopping etc etc.. again, massive congrats to gretschy.. stellar effort..

we also saw a strong teejay today, and also the local poster boy mr danny pate.. i think we had 3 in the top 15 which is a really nice start, and takes the pressure off our shoulder in terms of winning a stage.. the flipside though, is from now on the air gets thinner, and we will be riding on the front tomorrow to try and hold the jersey as long as we can..

we have a great team here as ive mentioned before, and the boys are all really motivated after today. its going to be a great week.

I felt today as if i can do something here, but ill just take it day by day.. im thinking about starting with an actual straw in my mouth, taped so it limits how much air i get in my lungs.. then heading up towards 3000m ill take it out and fly! no im joking, but its better than the other way around!

tomorrow we have a hard day altitude wise. the profile looks hard also, but the teams know that gretsch probably wont be a contender in this race so i expect some help,actually im praying for some help from the big teams! we have a 20km climb then it drops down in a big valley and finishes up a hard we lump so it will be interesting to see how the body feels..

im motivated, happy and really enjoying being here.. still ill take it day by day, just monitor my body and see how it goes.. opportunities will come i just know it, its about being ready and able when they present themselves…

ill update everyday so keep reading..

thanks for your support, you guys all ROCK!

ciao
roly

Hi guys,

Well all is going well here in colorado, and with only 2 days before the race kicks off most of the teams and riders have made there way to colorado springs..

We have had a great time this week, mixing both training and fun throughout the week..  We sort of had to really, just so the week passed by!  Its actually nice to see a few places, i mean ive got a passport full of stamps, but cant really say ive seen all those places so this week in the states has been good.

Ive had a good week training wise..  easy for a few days post the tour of utah, allowing to body to recover from what was a super hard race with the altitude plus my crash…  then got the working over by a chiropractor here in the springs and now am feeling alot better..  i had a few days light then two pretty hard days with some power efforts just to keep it up..  now its legs up and just rest up for what lays ahead..

The race kicks off on monday afternoon with what looks to be like a 6km downhill prologue..  few bumps, few turns and before you know it we will be on to stage 1..  this week for me is all about building the engine so to speak!  we are now at 2000m altitude and its basically the lowest point we will be at all tour.. so its going to be brutal..  one of our riders rode indepence pass today, a climb we will do later in the race, its over 3000m and lets just say, a banana skin on the side of the road would have probably been eaten had he found one!  it was brutal.. not the climb so much, just more the fact that you are so high that your body is working overtime trying to keep up..

we also have a stage with a 25km dirt road to go up..  again well over 3000m, so heres hoping the suns out, or it is gonna look as if we have all been in paris roubaix.. it will be a good race though.. a few more pro tour teams here means more control over what can be a wild bunch at times!

again its been great being here in the states.  man they are such nice people, and have confidence to burn..  i guess us kiwis are all a bit shy, but not the yanks..  well they dont seem to be anyway, but its great to see if you ask me!

we are just back from dinner, few riders and our director brian holm.. for those of you who know brian, youll know he is a great guy.. for those who dont, lets just say if the earth starting cracking he wouldnt be so stressed.. he just goes with the flow, and its always fun having him in charge of any race i do..  he got asked for id tonight too, and at 50 years old, thats something..  i just laughed, i had none, everyone had theirs so it was off to starbucks instead..  I wasnt the most popular person lol…  all we wanted was a tea, or a coke, haha we all had a laugh then laughed even louder meeting an australian who lives here in colorado, man she had an accent that you could only wish the movies had.. it was the strongest ever, and a laugh to go with it.. it was great entertainment!

tomorrow we will go out on the tt bikes to check out the tt bike..  it looks on paper pretty straight forward but will get a better idea tomorrow after riding it a few times…  i feel good, so lets just see.. this tour for me will be survival, and taking it day by day..

thanks for reading and i hope your all well…

roly

Hey guys,

Well today was super hard.. super fast and in the first 2hrs we averaged 48km/hr at the highest altitude covered in the race… its was horrible! so fast, and it was not flat in those first 2hrs either.. It was like a race where every single person wanted to be in the break…. myself included..

I tried a few times to get in the moves, but just found that it was too fast for anything to get away, and trying to recover from any attacks was very very hard.. to put it blunt i suffered!

i still dont feel great after the crash, but this week ill be seeing someone here in colorado springs to get my body straightened.. it was just the hard knocks to the body that has made me feel this way, plus they say the altitude really starts to hit you hard after a few days.. They were right. Any effort or attack took a long time to recover..

Today i didnt finish.. i was in a group but to be honest i just didnt want to be there.. i had had enough and felt there was no point flogging a dead horse! so i stopped at the top of the first climb, with 60kms to go…

It was unreal though, faster than ive experienced in a long time… then we hit the first time and the good old colombians, who live at 3000-4000m all year, well basically since the day they were born, lit the race right up and drilled it.. there was an explosion in the peleton and it split hugely.. i started at the back which didnt help one bit in the slightest, but that was due to me not knowing the course, and down the back getting bottles.. i still felt ok, but when the group exploded i had to fight my way through alot of riders before thinking whats the point!

PureBlack today secured the sprint jersey with Roman Van Uden, and then nursed him all the way to the finish making time cut by about a minute.. i was in the follow car by this stage watching, and as the clock was ticking, you could just see them all thinking, will we make it, or wont we.. they did, and he ended up with the jersey which was pretty awesome for the kiwi team..

today you seen a glimpse of what george bennett is capable of in the mountains.. probably right when i thought what the hell am i doing, he was on the front for levi, setting tempo.. big respect there, cause the course was very hard. i think he was there right till the last climb, then his job was done.. and levi won the tour.. big future for this kid, and again another kiwi to watch, and great to see.

right so now we are in colorado, and its awesome.. its at a higher altitude, and where the tour will start so its going to be good.. this is the lowest point in the race, so its going to be another hard one.. but with utah in the legs in the heat and altitude, and a week recovering at a higher altitude i think by the time the race begins, ill be alot better.. the body would have fully recovered too so im really looking forward to the racing..

We again are staying in a super nice hotel, and with the race in a holidaying paradise i think it will only get better. we are pretty lucky and all the boys are loving life right now..

i probably should say this, but i will.. we had to go check out hooters tonight for dinner.. it was just something the boys, myself included had to tick off the bucket list.. it was great, good food, atmosphere and to us kiwis its really weird seeing children there, and couples! but we had fun, alot of fun…

last night i had a good catch up with the kiwi boys, starting off in the car park with a few beers.. then moving up to some deluxe suite which i dont even know how we got up there! but that was cool too. Man nothing beats hanging out with kiwis, in the states, having laughs, sick jokes that we all understand, and telling stories about races etc etc… it really capped off a good week and im real happy i come here..

righto, now its back to business… tomorrow we will ride an easy day, probably same the next. then ill try for a few efforts just to keep the power up.. the hardest thing this week is the eating… not eating too much i mean. whats coming up is huge, like never seen before stuff.. two times in one stage we will climb to a whopping 3800m… which basically means oxygen tanks will be needed.. haha.. this race will be slightly different with more pro tour teams here, meaning more control.. a gruppetto too, so that will help a whole lot..

ive slightly adjusted my goals now.. from going for a stage win to just getting through this race.. still with a 5km prologue id like to hit that real hard and fresh, then do what i got to do to get through and help the team… its going to be an interesting week..

will update during the week with a few stories.. we cant ride all day and theres lots to do here so we are gonna explore a few days also.. maybe even go up to the pikes peak on the mtb, so that will be awesome..

will talk again soon. thanks for reading, and i promise you i will have a result soon! but probably better to say once i return to normal air.. for now its all about sucking up this little air we have, then going from there…

cheers
roly

Hey there,

Well well well… Im not sure if its the affects of the crash, or the altitude but something is making life rather difficult right now.. oh man did i suffer today.. hard circuit race, and time cut was on the cards on the mind for many so i really had to dig deep.. for sure the crash is still in my body, im just so sore but thats only going to get better so im not overly stressed about it..

today we had a circuit race. 1500m of climbing and 11 laps.. at first i thought it was going to be way to hard to do anything.. the first time up the climb it was full gas, and i was like oh no! here we go! everyone was on the limit, apart from the mountain goats that either are super skinny, or have been at higher altitude before the race.. but then things settled down and i started to think i could do something.. the problem being a bigger rider than the typical climber is that when they go on the climb, well at altitude anyway, its really hard to go with them… thats how it felt to me anyway.. I was strong enough, and everywhere else on the course i was super strong too, but on the climb, well lets just say.. i sucked! haha

i was talking with jeremy vennell and guddy a few times during the race in the short bouts of breath we had, and we were both speaking what sounded like a foreign language.. something along the lines of ‘ what the hell, hurting, man, sand bagging the climb, done’ etc etc.. there wasnt really a moment to add xtra words in there, but funny cause we all knew what each other meant..

I can laugh about it now, but with the time cut being only about 9-10mins i knew that i had to keep riding.. Im not here to get time cut, and taken out of the race, plus im also looking at the bigger picture hoping to really pick up some massive form for the coming months post this altitude stint.. so for me, even if i wasnt in the front, i still rode as if i was..

i dont even know who won.. acutally, i dont know much about the race.. but i do know i was 7mins down so comfortably in the time limit, but there were alot outside.. ill be super pissed if they allow the others back in, just due to the rules stating this and that… which meant for me business even if i wasnt in the front..

teejay was super bloody strong today. he really is flying and i wish he had of followed the good guys on the first hard day, but he just wasnt ready then, but now he is! cause he could possibly win this race.. but now at 2mins back it will be hard.. the other climbers are going well, but tomorrow all guns will be blazing as we finish on top of some mountain which to me looks more like everest than anything else..

again tomorrow is training/survival, im just gonna race hard knowing that i have a week recovery before the tour of colorado… maybe get in a break, or atleast give it a good crack!

today was classed as a flat stage, but they must have been all drinking in the bar when they decided that.. typically a flat stage means that time cut is 5% and mountain stages can be up to 20% slower than the first guys… today was no flat day you dorks!! and im sure there will be a load of complaints..

im really impressed with a couple of guys.. george bennett is riding real well, and proving he has what it takes to ride pro tour very soon.. he had a job to do today and that was ride the front.. when i seen the poor buggar though, he looked like he just walked out of the salt factory hahaha… hey im not saying i looked better, but still, it was slightly funny… we have a staigaire here who is going well too, lachlan norris.. he is one to watch for the future, pity he is from auzzie though (joking , but he is a super nice guy, and i think he has the goods too.. then theres dale parker… i got big faith in this guy thats for sure! he will go far an was another today who had to ride the front for radioshack for their leader, levi.

so when we are talking about a 5% time cut, i think that george and dale were probably outside it… which is not really fair, due to what work they had to do.. others were dropped immediately and will be out for sure, so it will be interesting to see what the outcome is.. but when you work that hard, for the leader of your race you just dont want to be taken out of it.. plus levi will need his full squad tomorrow thats for sure.. but its cycling, and although not all rules are followed, this time cut normally is.. you see many times in the tour where they talk about it, and i think this years tour cav really had to pull finger on one of the hard days with the help of the team to get him through..

ok well ill update tomorrow regardless of whether im cross eyed or not.. haha.. its been a great week and i am loving it still… great race, great country, and huge amount of passion.. whats not to like about it really..

thanks for reading, and youll hear from me soon!

roly

hey there,

well today i felt as if i did a good ride considering how i felt when i woke up! i was stiff on waking, with my neck and back really sore.. but just did the best i could.. no excuses, rode hard, and it was a fast course.. bit gutted i had to ride with injuries from yesterday, but still, i felt fairly good. I really didnt wanna ride this morning, when your body takes a high speed crash, then gets knocked around by others hitting you it really tenses up… but im glad i did ride, cause things could have been a whole lot worse today thats for sure!

Teejay won today, an amazing ride and an awesome birthday present.. he turned 23 today, and what a future ahead he has.. to win is one thing, but he put away some big names that he did was awesome to see.. My other teammate gretschy was also super. He was in the hot seat, which means he waits in a assigned seat till his time is beaten, and this afternoon it was for a good hour or so.. he started early and looked as if the time he set was going to win the race.. then levi beat it buy a few sec and teejay beat it by 10s.. so another super effort from the team..

i knew the time of gretsch, 17.43 and coming under the km to go banner i was about 17.30 so a few words were exchanged under the little breath i had left! haha.. but still,i fought on, and ended with a smile on my face knowing that i still did a solid ride.. on that, i averaged 50km/hr… teejay 53km/hr…. which equated to a minute slower than him..

everything happens for a reason, its what ive always believed in and continue to do so… i need time to recover now, straighten the old body out so i can be back firing. this will just take time, but im sure ill be back on track fast. we have some great people working with us here in utah, and that definitely helps.

now today there come some major changes in the GC. Levi is now leading, and with a short 130km stage tomorrow, with 11 laps up a 2km climb something tells me the colombians, who are of course my friends are going to make life difficult from the get go… thats what i would do if i was them, heres hoping they dont read my website! or facebook, or twitter, cause they got a lashing yesterday, which in hindsight wasnt the best thing to do so sorry for that… but still a hole is a hole… you hit it, you go down! so sharpen up.. there i go again..

anyway things are still great here. the team is buzzing, and its nice to see.. we all have our own goals for this race, but a stage win was a team goal and now we have one, the team want more.. 2 more testing days.. only tomorrow is a day i could have a chance, the next finishes up what looks like everest so ill count that one out!

but all in all this week has been awesome. ive loved being here, loved the atmosphere and its going to help a great deal heading into tour of colorado.. i think at that race it will be alot harder, with the lowest point in the race at like 1700m! but this stint here of intensity, at altitude will be better than going straight in fresh..

ok will update tomorrow with another report.. i look forward to the day when i say ‘i did it’, good is coming, i know it, but instead of beating myself up, im now just priming myself for whatever comes my way.. i just want to be ready and in top shape.. then its game on!

talk to you tomorrow, thanks for reading..

ciao
roly

Hi again,

Well today started well enough, but ended badly with 7kms to go with a nasty crash… im ok though, not alot of skin off but i just hit the deck hard, and really had alot of guys hit me, hence the goose neck i now feel ive got! it could have been worse though so im thanking my lucky stars..

It was a typical stage.. on paper looked hard but the profile was somewhat off, but it was a fast stage with a hard finish.. it suited me well and i had pretty good feelings so i was disappointed to crash..

But! Jack the super power Bauer won solo.. which was some positive news from the day.. super impressive ride to him and i was happy to hear that he won.. He has an engine that guy!

The pure black boys were again flying the kiwi flag, with them in all the attacks, which is great to see.. Guddy was in the last move which went close but the peleton was moving rather fast so they were caught about 10km out..
then it really was a draggy uphill finish, few false flats and splits in the peleton due to the crash…

just before the crash we were all in formation and it was super hard, i told teejay to go and he went like the clappers, only to be caught with 1km to go… he just about pulled it off and that would have been very impressive with the rate of knots the peleton was moving at… the team were great today. active and always near the front in what was a fast day, and again very hot.. so big ups to the boys..

i have to thank the pure black mechanic, he was there to give a hand and get me back on the bike.. my jersey is hard for the team to recognize, but the good old kiwi team did. so cheers!

righto, its massage time, then i hope to find a good chiro to help with the back and neck.. then we are off to the best italian restaurant in town apparently, where the utah jazz eat all the time.. no doubt we will get the vip treatment too, NOT!

so tomorrow we have a time trial. i want to be good tomorrow regardless of what happened today.. so just keeping positive..

will update tomorrow,
roly