the day before THE day before...

Okay, I'm all settled in with the Canadians. Have internet.... whu who! And finally uploaded pictures (all below).
Today I just had a 15minute spin and tomorrow one lap on course. That's it.
Wednesday at 2pm here is when we start. I believe that's 12 Tuesday night back home time.I'm very confident with the course... I think IV done 9 or 10 laps so should have everything dialled. Bikes working great, except my poor big chain ring which I have ground 7 teeth completely off cause of rock boulders... I’ll see if Shimano can help me out.
Weather is supposed to be sunny... partial cloudy but no rain which is good!
Still absolute freezing here though.
Ill update again after tomorrows ride...
Cross your figures for me :)

Okay so we found unlocked wireless at McDonald's after hours of driving around searching for internet. I have a billion pics to upload but would take about an hour per picture so I'm scrapping that idea for now (and a funny video).
On Sunday I will be moving in with the other Canadians and should have internet there.
Adam and I pre road the course today for our third time. I'm really starting to love it. The technical sections have pretty much all come together and did a clean sweep with no mistakes.
Tomorrow will be another day on the course and then that leaves us with a rest day, last pre ride day Tuesday and race Wednesday.
Ill try to get pics uploaded asap

thanks for reading :)

Update, Day 4

The dryness here has set in... our lips feel like burnt toast haha.
This country is absolutely beautiful! The people are the friendliest people in the world!
We love it here!
It was a rest day today so we went for a quick spin, checked out the Outlet shops nearby then went to the local market (adams paradise), made friends with a pair of cockatoos’s and before I knew it, we were already making dinner for night number #4. Only 6 days
till race day ahhh...

photo 1: Adam making friends with friendly Cockatoo
photo 2: Talking bird

photo 3: Adams Paradise (farmers market)
photo 4: All the cool fish

photo 5: Wondering who pays $13.00 for 1pint of fresh rasberries
photo 6: Barries HA... frozzen it is..

photo 7: Yay, we found Crocodile :P
photo 8: $31.99..pricey

Update, Day 2 & 3

Today was a great day! Gave ourselves a tour of the different parts of the city (with a tone of laughing and incredible amount of concentration at the same time, Adam caught onto the left side of the road and right hand drive super quick).
We pre road the course this afternoon... sooo glad we have a week on it before racing. Its appears to not have as much climbing as a typical World Championship course but there is still lots of technical sections. It’s a tone of fun. AND we ran into our first “family”(?) of kangaroos on the course. They were adorable :)
Second day pre riding the course went even better than the first. Except when I took a nice crash in a rock garden and landed on my chin and shoulder :S Never had a big scab on my chin before.
The course is super demanding on the upper body... thank god Adam had me doing my pushups and situps for the last 4-5 weeks haha

photo 1: Parrot City!
photo 2: Adam sippin on a long shot black

photo 3: Adam getting our bikes ready to ride (soon to be-expo area in the background)
photo 4: Freeeeeeezing!!!! It looks so nice out but I ending up riding with 6layers and that jacket

photo 5: First time seeing a Kangaroo family
photo 6: A lovely shot of up my nose haha...and nice new scab :S

Update, Day 1: Arrived in Australia

Crikey, we’re in Australia :) Only been here a couple hours and this word seems to have already taking over our vocabulary haha
So we arrived safe and sound. Flights went alright. Actually, our 15hour flight from Vancouver to Sydney went better than our 5hour flight from Toronto to Vancouver. It was hot, crammed and I was frustratingly fidgety. I didn’t drive Adam crazy though which is surprising haha...
We landed in Sydney this morning and took our last flight to Canberra not long after (very short flight). Turns out none of our luggage showed up. Got lost between Sydney and here in Canberra. The airline says it will be only a couple hours before it arrives cause there are flights going back and forth every hour.
We have our backpacks and that is it. We’re backpackin... it’s awesome!
Still waiting on our car rental to be registered... bit of confusion there, so we took a taxi to our accommodations. I thought I would pick the taxi drivers ear for the few minutes we had with him. Apparently the kangaroos are not uncommon to see at all. Almost over populated and may even come across a dead one on the road he said :( 95% of car accidents are “roo” related.
We don’t have Internet which isn’t fun... actually it sucks but our place is pretty cool. It’s a little cabin.
So it’s been a few hours already and no sign of our bikes which we want to build up so we can ride to get groceries. And our luggage for warmer clothes... brrr... I think they forgot about us. It is absolutely freezing here!
There’s not much to do right now so Adam is playing with a phonebook and map so when our stuff does arrive we can start exploring.
It’s now early evening and our luggage has finally arrived!! Mmmm CLIFF BARS (the ones we almost had taken away and fined $150.00 for having when entering the country in the airport. They were also pretty crazy picky about making sure everything was spick and span, show room clean, with no sign of dirt anywhere... thanks to Adam who spent hours cleaning them before packing whu who :)

photo 1: Me passed out in the airport
photo 2: Adam and I chillin in the airport


photo 3: Backpackin.... whu who!
(luggage is lost)
photo 4: Adam rockin Live Strong everything

This is it, dont get scared now...

Haha.. k, obviously nothing to get scared of but that's the name Mark came up with when I asked everyone what the title of a quick good bye post should be.
Adam and I came up from Ellicottville this past Thursday, spent the night at his house and ate his parents famous chili, drove to Toronto and stopped at the Trek Store for a few last minute things and say good' bye to Barry and then sat in traffic for the next few hours while driving up to my house yesterday evening. Got four loads of laundry done which are all hanging around the entire first floor... kinda funny.
I just finished breakfast and now going to hop on my bike for an hour spin.
We fly out tonight at 8:30pm but will try and get internet along the way and keep this updated.
Crikey, we're off again haha

Great weekend
Saturday and Sunday were pretty big training days. A 4 hour ride now feels more like 2 which feels awesome to have back.
Adams mom and dad came down Sunday afternoon to visit for the day. We went out for lunch at the famous “Coffee Culture” and had a wicked grilled veggie and chicken Panini.
In the afternoon we did a little window shopping, stopped at fruit stands, drove all threw Allegany state park and made our way to the beach which was so much fun.

After a 2 hour detour, Mark (brother) and his team-mate Andrew Hunt from Planet Energy came late last night and are staying with us for a couple days to train.

Today I have another 3hour ride.... and lucky us... good ol’ thunder storm is rolling in

Friendly neighbour having Adam change her flat tire

Window shopping

Waiting patiently for rain to stop so I can start my ride

Mmmmm..... fruuuit


Playing in the super warm lake .. and trying to skip a rock

Flight plans are starting to come along. We are officially leaving for Australia on the 22... super super excited.
$2,377.00 a ticket and 26hour travel time... sounds a little much but after shopping for hour after hour, it's the best we can come up with :)
Yesterday was a rest day so we decided to check out the closest town with a movie theatre. I wanted to see Time Travelers Wife and Adam wanted to see District 9. sooo... we compromised on both :) My movie... not bad. Adams movie... uhh... the 2.5 lbs of cherries we ate each were good haha

Now im off for a 3hour ride...
not before an egg bagel though mmm...

Have a great day... thanks for checkin in :p

still alive... :)

Once again, time has come and gone and here we are two weeks later than my last post. Lots has happened... but at the moment im sitting on hold with the airline trying to organize flights to Australia.
Yesterday Adam spent over four hours trying to book flights and when we thought we had everything finalized.... I woke up this morning with three emails in my inbox and one voice mail to call asap due to changes in the flights. Who knew booking a flight was so hard.

Our plan is to fly to Canberra on the 22nd, arrive on the 24th and have 9 days before my race on Sept. 2nd. From there, fly to Switzerland on the 7th race the World Cup on the 13th, drive to Austria race the last World Cup on the 20th and then fly home on the 22nd of September.

On a good note, today is our first SUUUNNY day! Riding in the pouring rain for the last week has been... very wet.
Our team owner Barry Near and his wife have a house here in Ellicottville New York US. so this is where we have been training lately. (Barry, we have been using your neibours shopvaccum to help soak up all the water in the carpet) hehe.
The roads here are beautiful... despite the rain, there are tones of 20min climbs :) Okay.. just spoke with the airline... flight has been cancelled... ahh! time to start all over again :(
I seriously could not do this without Adam...
Time for coffee #2

Adams knee is slowly getting better. He did his first 30min spin the other day which gives me hope that he will be able to pre ride Worlds course with me in a couple weeks

We have been coming to this coffee shop for only a week and I think the Barristas already consider us locals haha
... time to go for a big day of training
bye for now...

Below is a picture of Peter and my legs days after Bromont World cup haha
Peter I guess usually has scraped legs and thought he would get a picture of mine so he doesnt feel like hes the only one with butchered legs haha... :p