Thanks to everyone for their support, it was brilliant! I had limited access to the internet and so my reports were a little irregular to say the least but I did read all your comments as often as possible (even if I couldn't reply sometimes). They helped a lot to keep me focused on what the Games are all about and remind me what a great club I'm in!!!!!

My tme in Oz was excellent with the best bit being the Games at the end. It was really exciting and the best experience. I'm very happy with my results. A p.b. in the pursuit with 5th place and 9th in the TT is pretty cool. My favourite was the pursuit as it was sooo paced that it was enjoyable. All the credit for that has to go to Graeme Herd as he talked me through the pursuit from start to finish the day before and spent a lot of time pacing my laps so that I'd remember for the next day (yes, my memory is that bad!). The TT was hellish - what can I say? The course was harder than it looked and apparently I was shown in all my snotty glory at the end, although I've not yet seen that.... My first text after the TT was from Dawn (twin) and it said something like 'well done, you snotted all over the TV!!!!' oops, but at least the snot did impress her. In my defence, it shows I was trying!

Totally cool and thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks again to everyone.

p.s. Can Kirsteen post some contact details?

Late notice but for all you insomniac supporters here is the start sheet for the Womens 30Km TT,,,,

http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Schedul ... emID=30726

Go on Kat,,,,,,

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=152

The Games Village is great. Loads of different athletes from all different cultures doing things their own way! The best was the boxers from Ghana chanting/singing as they jogged down the road at 5 a.m.! It sounded great.

Just now I'm mainly training at the velodrome in between eating and sitting around. At this stage we're not allowed to walk around in the heat too much but our training is tapering so there's a bit of fill-in time. George is over now though so I can meet him on my days off (hopefully).

I'm starting to get a bit nervous about the pursuit as it's a pretty intense event. 12,000 people just looking a two people on the track - aargh! I'm sure I'll cope if i can still get on my bike by then after eating all the free food! Mmmmm.

I hope everyone back home is still out cycling in the -2 degrees. (George told me that's what it was before he left). It's to be 36 degrees here tomorrow. Yeuch! Glad I'm in the velodrome!

did you ride the composite team thing round that track/tt circuit?

Stevie

Hope your doing well out there!!!

We have all been following Evans results very closely here and looks like the team are in with a shout for a prize?

Not long before George meets up with you the lucky Basket.!!!

All the best and also all the best your coach G.Herd who hardly seems to get a mention of the solid hard work he does!!

Stevie B.

I've been doing tons of training lately and now I'm a bit run down to say the least. I've been doing a lot of bunch racing on the track, maybe twice a week, and my other miles and training round about that. There don't seem to be any time trials or pursuit races in Oz just now so I've not competed in my main events yet but I'm hoping to get in a team for a triathlon so I can do the time trial bit. Here's hoping as the TT bike is looking lonely!

Melbourne CG Track

On Saturday we went into Melbourne to race on the Vodaphone track which is the one to be used in the Commonwealth Games. I was very impressed and really liked it. It has quite a lot of seating and good facilities for changing (unusual in tracks I've been racing on in Oz!). It's also beside a lot fo the other CG facilites and stadiums so the area will be buzzing on race days. The race we went to was called the Austral festival which is famous over here and a local guy from Ballarat, who we go out training with, won the big Wheelrace. That was worth watching! The racing for women was really poor, we got a 12 lap (3km - same as a pursuit) scratch race and a 6 lap wheelrace (handicap event) and that was it! Not really worth the travelling. My legs were pretty tired and my intention of zooming off with 8 laps to go turned into towing the bunch for a lap and then giving someone else a go on the front! Oops. Kate managed to get 2nd in the Scratch race even with tired legs so that was good. On the Sunday I got up early and cycled up to an APR in a town called Wallace. The only problem was that we (Ivor Reid and myself) got lost and were running out of time so we went pretty fast to get there (it took an hour and a half of hard work to find the place) and then we jumped into group 4 of 6 as soon as we arrived and I was immediately dropped and TT'd for 40km on my own. Needless to say Sunday afternoon was spent like a zombie wandering around the house - similar to many Sunday afternoons back home after the bunch ride (except I don't have to do any ironing for work on the Monday).

On Monday I was down the local track practicing my starts on the pursuit bike. The local track is really good and pretty much unused. It's a 250m track similar to Meadowbank but with a concrete finish rather than timber. The centre oval is overgrown and it even has some weeds poking through the concrete on the track (Kate uses one particularly large weed as a marker to accelerate for her flying 500m efforts - we call it Ben). It would be a dream for the Scottish track rider to have this track in their area but the Ozzies prefer the larger 400m + outdoor tracks for racing. It has to be said that the larger tracks suit me better for bunch racing as well!!!!

I had yesterday off. Phew. It was decided that myself and Kate (Cullen) were lacking in finances so we went up to the local Sovereign Hill and panned for gold. We found a few flecks which we put in a small bottle but not enough to make our fortune so we gave up and instead went for a tour down a goldmine. This is the local attraction and not a figment of my imagination. There is a 1850's gold prospectors town set up with loads of actors and shops and tours and basically everything you can imagine that would happen in a gold town. An excellent way to spend the day!

Today I've been looking forward to using my TT bike in anger on the road but it is blowing a gale and going down the road sideways wasn't appealing to me so I had to return and attempt the turbo instead - booo!!!! But at least it's warm and sunny and I can do the turbo in the garden and not in the livingroom.......... that's if I can get my hr above 164...............