Aussie living in UK wins Felt-Cyclingnews Tour sweepstakes

Martin Houston, an Australian living and working in London, has won the Felt-Cyclingnews.com Tour sweepstakes. Houston, who correctly answered the qualifying question, was chosen randomly from more than 16,000 entries. He will receive a 2009 team Garmin-Chipotle AR road frame valued at more than $3,000 USD, thanks to our friends at Felt Bicycles.

"I am stunned," Houston said after receiving notification of his win.

35-year old Houston said he has raced road and track at club level back since his teens. "I trained when the weather was good (which is most of the time in Australia) and have obsessively read Cyclingnews.com daily since I found it online several years ago. (My boss will attest to this)."

Houston says he fell out of the riding habit when he and wife Adriana moved to the UK. "After virtually not touching a bike in two years, due mainly to work commitments, I have just recently joined my local club (Welwyn Wheelers) with the intention of getting back into riding. The club has been very supportive of the efforts of a desk-bound man-mountain in getting back into the cycling groove, and I hope that I will be able to start racing in the club colours soon."

The Australian father of a four year-old daughter – and soon to be a second child – will be upgrading his current road bike with the AR frame and it will complement his current track bike – "a 2008 Felt TK2 (Amazing co-incidence really), which I really enjoy taking to the club track sessions."

Houston commented he's enjoyed watching the Garmin-Chipotle team's rise in recent years. "Like most people I have been following the development of the Garmin-Chipotle team and hope that they (like a couple of the other majors) will help to bring cycling forward away from the media-history of the last few years. Christian Vande Velde's efforts – in particular in his effective comeback to the top of cycling – indicate that the team is a great place to ride."

Once again, thanks to everyone who entered the sweepstakes. The correct answer to the qualifying question of 'what leading USA track cyclist and 2006-07 individual pursuit world champion is also sponsored by Felt?' was, of course, Sarah Hammer.

We'll be announcing the CSC-Saxo Bank team jersey and BBB Attacker sunglasses winners in the next few days. And stay tuned to Cyclingnews.com for upcoming sweepstakes as soon as we line up the prize sponsors.