Well it's about to begin all over again. The track world cup circuit kicking off with round one in Kazakhstan but before I depart at the end of the month thought I would touch base to let you know how the past few weeks/months have been going.
I celebrated my 28th birthday in September and enjoyed immensely the bunnings voucher from my team mates so that I can get some new plants for my garden. A past time I really enjoy. Training has been going well and steaming ahead through the Adelaide winter with a nice break from the cold where we enjoyed the warm weather and hospitality of the United States of America.
Upon return I was made aware officially of my nomination and election by my peers into the inaugural UCI Athletes Commission. A new initiative where one male and one female representative from around the world will represent their peers and their thoughts, ideas and concerns to our governing body the UCI with Florian Rousseu 'French National Track Coach' to head the body as the Commissions president.
I also had some time to return home to Rockhampton with my husband Mark to witness the wedding of Miles Olman and Jayne Murray, both of whom are great friends of ours. It was a beautiful wedding and a really fun night which saw for the first time in a long time the whole group of friends together who trained and hung out as young teenagers back in the day when cycling was new to us. I am so lucky to have such a big group of legendary mates!
It is an absolute honour for me to be voted into this position, one I hold very proudly to my chest and hope that I can have an impact for the riders of the present day but also for the riders of the future. The first meeting is in Switzerland late November but given the timing of my flight back from the first world cup in Astana it is not possible for me to make but I will endeavour to catch our President at the world cup and join the first meeting via the internet. Got to love technology.
We also had the opportunity to have a good hit out racing the Sydney International Sprint Grand Prix Oct 8-9th which drew media interest. For me I was interviewed by Rupert Guinness from the Sydney Morning Herald who was really easy to talk to and he is story on me was full page in the sport, was half page in the news section and a promotional line also. To see coverage of this magnitude for women's cycling and indeed women's sport was very touching and I was so proud so thank you Rupert.
The competition in Sydney saw some truly powerful and fast racing from both our senior and junior u/19 riders. It was a tough competition for our boys being a selection race for the first world cup. With 8 riders vying for 3 positions on each world cup team, world title team and the Olympic team, the competition and performances were fierce and inspiring to watch.
This month (October) I was also featured in the National Breast Cancer Foundation magazine "PINK". A charity I have been an ambassador for now for just over a year. I was privileged to be included in the nationwide magazine and was pleased with not only the story of mine that they shared but the photos from the shoot post worlds. It is so nice to dress a bit girly for a change.
I also received in the mail something much unexpected. An invitation to attend a function in the presence of her Majesty the Queen, Prince Phillip, Prime Minister Gillard and partner Mr Mathieson. My ever so kind, thoughtful husband immediately wanted to offer his ticket to the event to my mum who is beside herself and looking forward to a night out with the ladies... me, my mum, the PM and the Queen J
I made the trip across to Melbourne for the launch of the Melbourne 2012 Track World championships which saw great media interest. Shane Perkins and I represented the team in front of a media throng interested in how our training was going and what our thoughts and expectations were with such a big season before us. It was so nice to see a strong genuine interest in the many media parties there and Shane and I had a very unique and scary experience riding track bikes on the rollers on the sky deck of the Eureka tower where the launch as held. Concentration is key when riding on the rollers but looking down and seeing 89 floors of nothingness beneath you through glass was white knuckle fever type stuff! Great experience though and so nice to share it with Perko.
Ticket sales for the worlds are only days in and in the first few hours more tickets were sold then in the first 3 days when the world titles graced Melbourne back in 2004. Not too many people get to experience one home world titles but for me having stuck around as long as I have I get the absolute privilege to experience it twice. I hope that the boisterous aussie crowd will spur me on to more great memories in the hisense arena so I can keep that rolling into London but that is still a long way away yet. For now the focus is on the next race which is the Astana world cup in Kazakhstan. Hopefully Borat is on holidays somewhere because I don't think he would be a pretty sight in -12 degrees Celsius.
