Team Cyclingnews.com - 2005

Team Journal Entry - September 8, 2005, by Kane Oakley

Riding for the Amy Gillett-Safe Foundation

Howdy,

Bad Homburg (Germany) was the place to be on Sunday 28th August. I heard that the Burgers were great there! That's what our German connection "Bobby" said, so Cody, Daniel and I set off in the team car - destination: Koln - to pick up Bobby, then off to Bad Homburg (near Frankfurt). The reason for the trip was to compete in a criterium. http://www.rsc-bad-homburg.de/

The four of us were the Australian Team on this very important day. The organiser made it a fund raiser for the Amy Gillett-Safe Cycling Foundation. It was a big day, with about four different races from young to old, beginners to pros. At the end of the day, the organiser raised 2500 euro which went to this great charity. It felt good to be part of the day's racing and be able to help out for this great Foundation. It's good to see the cycling world and Australians get behind it and help in any way they can.

The race went well with plenty of early breaks that each of the boys were involved in. Bobby went off the front and got himself a sprint prime and Jugs (Dan) come home strong too, with a good bunch kick for the minor placings. Great day had in the sun by all.

Last week we had three 1.1 races in four days, which took it's toll on most of the riders. The Diesel award goes out to "Worm" as he was the only team member to complete all three. We have two or three big races in the next week, which should be good! Time to refill the tanks!

Well, the weather is meant to be great here for the next four days - sun sun sun! It's about time. On these days it's rude not to stop at a coffee shop and try to expose our baker's tan look to the sun. Gotta love the bike kit tan line!

Schaal Sels-Merksem, Bel (1.1) 30th.

You know it's going to be a hard race when it crosses the border into Holland; small farm roads and heavy winds!

Yes, it's true! Summary: there where 20 riders up the rode, none from our team (oh yeah, Tom was there for a while)! Boof! So Chady, Hamish, Dag and I got on the front and swapped off, riding for the diesel "Worm." We did this for the last 40km, until we hit the local laps. Needless to say by this time we were all chewing our head stems and in the "Box." The hot day affected some of our riders; Worm's engine wasn't finely tuned for the sudden increase of temperature. Cody, Worm, Dag and I finished the race - OK, a result. Don't like the DNF's.

OVER!!!

Kane "Munge" Oakley