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My Diary Entries July 18, 2007
The month of July will always be a difficult month for my self and the girls I raced with in 2005, it’s a month were we remember what was taken from us in more ways than one. On this day, July 18th, we lost a friend and teammate (Amy Gillett) and yes it has been 2 years however it never gets any easier when this date comes around, for each of us 5 that survived we all have healed and progressed in different stages, some quicker than others.
Unfortunately for myself, my body hasn’t healed as fast as I expect and that is why I will be returning back to Sydney at the end of July to get myself back on track. Over the last 2 months I have been fighting sickness and my knee has been fighting me which has added a load of stress on me and I guess that has something to do with the virus I have. I have sat down with my team and explained everything and they were fantastic in understanding what was going on but before I go I will be racing with my Dutch team, the Thuringen Tour where the accident happened 2 years ago.
Those of you reading this entry I would like you to remember what happened and then think about how it made you feel when you heard and then think about how it would make you feel if it was one of your family members or friends, in this we should all understand that safety is the number 1 thing and that we can all make a difference so please be mindful of others around you and drive safe.
In loving memory of a friend and teammate Amy Gillett.
We shall never forget you and we will meet again. June 15, 2007 Ok so now I have been lazy in writing an entry and I don’t have an excuse for it but I am sorry. Over the past month I have been in Italy racing with the national team, to China racing with my team and back to Australia for 6 days to see my mum and dad.
I’ll start with China, What a tour it was totally flat which suited my team being Dutchies.
My team started the tour with a win so we had the yellow (Leaders) and green (Sprint) jerseys and from then on we had to protect our teammate which made the tour very hard, all the Chinese teams were working together and it started to get very dangerous because when ever anyone from a non Asian team wanted to do anything in the bunch the Chinese teams would block the road or push you into the gutter or swing off your jersey to pull you back and the comer sires didn’t do or say anything until the last day but even that last stage was bad. There was a brake away of about 6 girls and they were all Asian and my team and the Australian national team were trying to chase them back but the Giant team and the Chinese national team with some other teams also were cutting in on us and pushing us out of the way and doing everything they could to stop us from chasing however it was getting out of control because one girl start to punch us for trying to swoop off. (Not cool) but of course nothing was done. They stayed away from us but we were chasing as hard as possible but they were putting time into us which I couldn’t understand how 6 girls could put time into 10 girls swooping off although they didn’t have people trying to knock them off doing it either. Anyway we lost the yellow jersey which was very disappointing but 1 good thing to come out of this was that we work fantastic as a team and ended running 2nd, 9th and I was 14th and 19th on the overall so we didn’t do to bad. After the tour I headed back Aus to see my mum and dad and it was nice to go home even if it was only 6 days however it’s better then nothing. I didn’t realise how much I missed home till I was there and knew I had to leave again, it was great to spend some time with mum and dad and just sit and chat, although the weather was extremely bad while I was there and so I had a lot of days on the ergo but its better then nothing.
I also got to see Tom which made me much happier too, its been hard on the both of us having the distance but you know what they say “distance makes the heart grow fonder” the good thing is that he is in Europe on the 22nd of June for 3 weeks so he will get to see what I do. At the moment I am in London airport waiting for my connecting flight to Amsterdam where Emma will pick me up and then we go straight to a race on Saturday and Sunday then again Tuesday and then Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So I will fill you in about the races in a week. Smile…
May 9, 2007 Ok so I’m not being lazy in the diary entries, I have just been really busy racing and traveling. I am in Italy at the moment racing with the national team and doing some training in the hills also. We had a screening camp where we see the Doc, physio and Bio mechanics.
So as you can imagine I have been flat out….. Before I flew to Italy I raced a few 1 day races with my team which was cool because my form is coming up pretty good, although I think I need to do a little sprint training but besides that it’s good. My team and I are off to China at the end of May for a tour. Back to what I am doing now - well in the last 2 weeks I have raced 6 times so my season has started thank goodness, I was getting a bit bored not racing.
Over the last few days I had a chance to catch up with my brother, Graeme while we were both in the same place getting screening. I had bio mechanics with, Brian Maclane and not much changed with my bike except my seat went up 5 mm.
Giro de San Marino was this weekend it started with a prolog and two road stages, however I have to say there has been one bad thing coming in and racing with the girls and that is, they are all sick and just my luck I got sick and on the last day of the tour I had to pull out because I could stop coughing and I was vomiting also in the car on the way back and it wasn’t just me, Nikki also had to pull out on the 2nd day of the tour and she was 7th on GC. We got back and the doc came straight up to see me and gave me antibiotics so I have to take them till they’re all gone and hopefully I will come good.
I have to be ready for the Swiss World Cup next weekend, so I am hoping that things will start going my way… April 17th, 2007 Well I have great news….. I have been looking for a good set of wheels for some time now so I wrote to a few companies and I got a reply from Carbon Sports (Light weight wheels) offering me a sponsorship. Light weights are the best wheels on the market, they are hand made every detail is hand crafted!!! Stefan Behrens the General Manager has been fantastic in helping me out, my new wheels will be 16 spokes (carbon) in the front and 20 in the rear. If you would like more info on the wheels, check out their website at Carbon Sports On to another topic beside the great wheels, I have been racing a lot however it isn’t going as well as I thought but that’s ok because it’s only early and I had already discussed with my coach Wazza that July- August are the target months and I’m training pretty hard for that.
Over the last few days I have been doing quit a bit… Today I raced a club race with men again but this time instead of finishing with the women I kept going and finished with the men just to give me that little bit extra training all up it was 4 ½ hours. Tomorrow I have 170km with the guys again but I think my legs are going to be a little sore, I hope the guys legs are too!! Last Sunday I went into Brussels to see Nicolette (Nikki) a friend of mine from school and we cruised the streets and checked out all the tourist things, which was pretty cool to see a familiar face and friend… We caught up like girls do by exchanging our best gossip (hahahaha), unfortunately I didn’t really have any so she had to entertain me which I didn’t mind.
She is over here doing uni in Amsterdam and it sounds like fun. Anyway I have a race Saturday and Sunday this week so I will fill you in next week about that. Doei- aka- Bye
April 10th, 2007
Sorry my diaries have been a little scarce over the last week or so but I have been a bit of a jet setter and a little sick also. I flew to Italy to spend some time at the Australian national team base in Verase and lucky I did as the weather in Holland turned extremely bad just after I left. While there I had some physio with Karin Stephens. I was in pretty good shape with regard to my injuries though the extra bit of attention was really great. The training there is pretty hard because in any direction you go, it’s always up hill and coming from Holland it was a shock to the system although a good one.
I stayed in a little B&B on top of a 5km climb which is a nice little recovery spin home hahaha after a nice long ride. I got back to Holland on Wednesday the 4th and raced a club race on Thursday with the guys (hard-hard-hard!) We had an Avg. speed of 44kmph for 1 hour and covered 40km, I was quite sure what to expect because I had heard about it but had never experienced anything like it- If anyone has raced in Sydney at Heffron Park with the wind and the speed then double the conditions. I started to get a sore throat and headaches the next day and I have been fighting a cold ever since... I also raced a 60klm crit on Monday and once again there was a break away of 10. My team mate, Monique ‘tall’ won. I felt terrible the whole race because of this cold I have but when it came to the last lap I found something and Emma did an awesome lead out for me but I got caught out and got stuck back about 15th wheel so lucky the sprint finish was a long straight, I went and ended up running 2nd in the bunch sprint and 12th overall. My teammates all got top 20 which is awesome work.
I race again this Thursday.
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