"If you want to go big, you have to dream big"

Yesterday's vlog is now up. My new quote.

"If you want to go big, then you have to dream big."

My Food Friday

Today is My Food Friday. Have a look at what I eat throughout the day and feel free to take tips from what I eat if you want to live a healthy lifestyle.

Breakfast:

2x toast with peanut butter and honey
1x 300ml orange juice

Morning Tea:

1x Peanut Butter sandwich
1x raw chocolate bar (vegan)
1x small container of stir fried noodles and vegetables
1x 275ml popper (unfortunately this is full of artificial sugar)

Lunch:

2x Salad wrap (egg, spinach, mayonnaise, potato, lettuce, carrot, beans)
Water

Afternoon Tea:

1 Large Berry Boost Juice

Dinner:

1x bowl of stir fried noodles and vegetables
1x 300ml juice
water

Desert

1 bowl of 'So Good' dairy free ice-cream

One other thing that I wanted to put in was that I had 6x 600mL bottles of water. Over the course of the day I tried to continually keep sipping from the bottle and refilling it as soon as it was empty. Every time I was going to the toilet I was peeing clear which is a perfect way to find out if you are hydrated or not. This technique uses the simple principle of the more concentrated your urine the more dehydrated you are.

I think today I have eaten really well and has been one of the best days. After talking about the junk food in schools I have been finding it especially easy to stay away from it and just sticking to water at lunch time. In some cases it's hard to sustain this lifestyle when you are surrounded by so much advertising and media but you just have to bring yourself back to the reason of why you started it? It can be so different for so many people e.g. wanting to lose weight, you've set a goal, you're unhappy and so it continues. I truly believe that it's super important to lead a healthy lifestyle because it's the easiest way to feel the best. I've noticed that after eating all this today that I don't come home hungry and I feel fresh and well nourished all the time rather than having grease and oil all over your hands.

Tips For Staying Hydrated

Here are some of my tips for staying hydrated. Remember to stay away from sugary drinks.

School Junk Food

Check out yesterday's vlog. Sometimes these don't finish uploading before I need to go to bed but they'll always be up the next morning. Today I talk about School Junk Food and how bad it is and how I fell into the trap on my first day at school.

Fracture Clinic Results

Last night my vlog finished uploading after I had gone to bed, so here it is. I hope you enjoy and thanks for watching.

Reynolds Assault Clincher Wheel Set Review

I've been using these wheels for about 6 months now for training wheels as well as racing. The positives outweigh the negatives big time for the wheels. For the money these wheels are fantastic, they are about $1500 plus or minus a bit because the price may have changed since I bought my set . The specific model of my wheels are the Reynolds Assault and are roughly around the 30-40mm mark.

On my bike I run the clincher version of the wheels but a tubular set are also available. Preferably I would recommend clinchers over tubulars if they are being used as an everyday wheel set and this is because when out for training rides you are easily able to change the inner tube whereas if you have tubulars you have to replace the whole tyre.

What is so good about this size is that they are perfect for flat riding because once you are around the 35km/h mark they roll really nice and when placed in situations where there are cross winds these wheels are big enough to cause any disturbance. As well as being suited to the flat they aren't too deep either and this makes good wheels for hill climbing where as a 50mm wheel is not as versatile.

Over the course of me using these wheels one major problem with regards to handling is breaking on a decent but just breaking in general. Now for the whole time I've used the designated Reynolds carbon break pads but I've found that they start to burn when under heavy breaking and it's hard to take off speed which makes corning difficult. I didn't realise this until I swapped back to heavy alloy wheels for some training.

I really like the versatility that these wheels have. One thing that I've noted is if they're being used as an everyday wheels you must watch out and keep a good watch on the bearings. Once water and dirt get in them they start to corrode. I had to replace the bearings in my back wheel not long ago.

Despite this I think these wheels are fantastic and they wouldn't be classified in the budget range so they are a bit higher quality but not over priced. They're definitely worth having a look at if you're after a decent set of wheels.

Reflecting on my crash + returning to Cairns

Well today was the day that I travelled home from Adelaide. The focus is not as much on my day but reviewing and going through what happened the night of my crash where I dislocated my shoulder.

Check it out and remember to jump onto YouTube and follow my channel as well as giving it a thumbs up.

Stage 6 Vlog + hanging out with Lotto Soudal

As well as my vlog from today I did get some photos with a few people and my yearly photo with Adam Hansen.

I left this photo extra large because Adam Hansen is one of my biggest inspirations 

Kenny Dehaes

Thomas De Gendt

Remember to stay tuned for a brand new blog/vlog tomorrow, which will include a summary of what's planned for this coming week. Will I be able to get back onto the bike? Stay tuned to find out.

Day in the life on Stage 5 of TDU

Here is a video that has a look into my life at Stage 5 of the Tour Down Under here in Adelaide. After watching it on YouTube I found a few editing errors where the background noise is really loud, so that might be something that I have to learn for future videos. Anyway I hope that you like it and stay tuned for more videos in the near future because I had fun making this.

Remember that tomorrow there will be a brand new blog or maybe even a vlog, depending on how I feel. Another beautiful day to come.

Quicky on who I met

So today there is no blog. I finally made a vlog of my day and it's currently uploading to YouTube and once that's done I will have it on here. One thing that I didn't include in my vlog though was the people that I met because I only got photos with them. First off I found Chris 'MACCA' McCormack in a cafe in McLaren Vale and I was able to get a quick photo with him and he didn't mind because he remembered me from Cairns Ironman when I rode alongside him for almost the whole run let of the race and at the completion he gave me his sunglasses which was a very special moment for me.

Posing with Macca

The second person that I met was Rohan Dennis the current leader of the Tour Down Under and second place on today's stage. I just spotted him wandering around the village after an interview and had a quick photo and chat.

Recovery & Did I speak to soon?

Recovery? It varies from person to person, from injury to injury. For me these two weeks have felt like a lifetime. It's almost difficult to comprehend how hard it is to hurt yourself and then travel away to an event thats all about the activity that you love most, the activity which resulted in you injuring yourself. I find it hard to put this puzzle together. The puzzle of why this happened at this time and I find it so frustrating because I'm so confused. My recovery though is going strong, I'm spending more time out of my sling when I'm at home, but it feels so weird. My tricep keeps twitching when my arm is free and it's almost so constant that I have to put the sling back on. Pain is temporary, but quitting will last a lifetime.

Checking out the scenery 

I'm finding it hard to talk about anything interesting in these blogs because every day is almost identical to the last.

The little blue Hyundai Getz made it's biggest journey today out to the feed zone before crossing back, racing the riders by car to get to the finish line. Once I was at the finish line I was seated in the grass area watching the race on the big screen TV. I thought to myself while I was there that I wasn't going to film the finish today, nothing exciting will happen and plus I can sit here and watch the whole thing without having to fight people for a position, risking that my shoulder will get bumped or knocked. In that same thought I realised that there hadn't been any crashes yet and how good that was for the riders. It wasn't until about 150 metres to go that everything went to chaos and riders went everywhere. Yep that's right, I spoke way too soon. I felt a weird sensation go throughout my body because what if, maybe I jinxed the whole thing?

After watching chaos unfold we got into the car and began the 40min journey home. Upon arriving back into Adelaide I saw a car which had sign writing on the side which had the words 'Thanyapura' a sports resort that's in Phuket which is run by world champion triathlete Chris 'Macca' McCormack. Within about 30 seconds we were passing the great man himself as he rode back into the city. I was able to get a quick video of him and we went passed in the car.

Driving alongside Chris McCormack

Just like yesterday we ended up back at the tour village. But today was different. Everyone was talking about the crash and everyone was trying to get a glimpse of the broken bikes. Something that I was a little bit fascinated about was with everyone taking photos and then posting them online, is it good or bad publicity for the manufacturers. I bet they don't want people seeing their brand of bike posted all over the internet when it's in a million pieces. Anyway a rider from Lotto went down so it was a bit sad for the team but I did manage to take some photos and sorry to the owners of these company's but I wouldn't expect a bike to stay together if it hit the ground at 75km/h with a number of other riders. So here are my pictures of the Ridley Noah SL ridden by Kenny Dehaes.

Cracked Ridley Frame

The handle bars are bent and totally ruined

Tomorrow is the key day for general classification riders so it will interesting to see what happens when they contest Old Willunga Hill two times around. Stay tuned for brand new day with a brand new blog.

Stinking hot day + bringing out the artist

The biggest problem with my arm being in a sling all day is that I'm not getting any circulation to my right hand and I've noticed that my hand is starting to dry out and it looks as though the skin is starting to break apart. Since I've been home tonight though and had my arm out of the sling, my hand has started to go back to normal which is quite interesting.

I wanted to start my blog with something that's happening with my body since I dislocated my shoulder because I haven't said much about my recovery and today was almost the same as yesterday in regards to watching the race and then ending up at the tour village in the afternoon.

We started our morning in Norwood to watch the race start and just like always we wished Lotto good luck and before filming the start. After that we found a few mates from Cairns and kicked back at a coffee shop drinking a few not so good coffee's before heading up the mountain to watch the finish of today's stage.

Got this cool shot at the coffee shop

Once venturing up the hill we found our place on the last corner before the final uphill straight to the finish line. Situated about 150-200 from the line right in front of the big screen TV it was a perfect vantage point to watch the final hill before the riders battled it to the finish line. What I found was the worst part of the day was how hot it was. Unlike home it's such a dry heat here so you can just feel your mouth drying out and your skin burning rather than sweating to keep yourself cool. I think that in this sort of weather it's very important to stay hydrated and it's best to stay away from drinks with lots of sugar and colouring. I think this was my problem today because I just felt like a coke to quench my thirst but it just made me feel worse. Water is best in situations like this.

Our finish line vantage point

It was a young BMC rider who got the win today with Cadel Evans coming home second. We didn't stay long because we wanted to beat the traffic home. Back at the village in Adelaide we did the same thing as yesterday (not much changes for us), but I went for a wander around the outside part of the village taking some photos of some bikes trying to be artistic.

Tomorrow I am hoping to try and get out to the feed station to try and collect some bottles and feed bags before we jump back into the car to try and make it to the finish.

I will upload the video of the finish of the race to YouTube once this blog is up and I have been fed.

A brand new blog tomorrow with new photos but the same people. I'm liking doing this, blogging everyday and hopefully I'll soon gain enough courage to start making videos. I just feel kind of weird walking around talking into a camera, but it might be something interesting and something a little bit different for the future.

I MET JENS VOIGT + My day

Today was somewhat similar to yesterday with the exception of getting to the start line. I woke up and almost jumped into the car. We headed to the start line and caught up with Lotto Soudal and wished Adam Hansen good luck before they ventured their way to Stirling. I know that we have the car and we can see just as much as what I would see on the bike but I miss the frantic rush to get to the next destination, time trialling through the hills and jumping onto the back of random bunches before arriving in the next town.

Watching the start of Stage 2 in Unley

Despite just following the race today I met a superstar of the sport, Jens Voigt. To finish off his career he set the hour record which is a race against the clock for one hour to see how far you can get and he travelled more than 50km in that hour. He is also the man that came up with the quote "Shut Up Legs" and he would talk about him saying that when his legs were absolutely burning and he needed that little bit more encouragement. We had the privilege of talking to him for about five minutes before he had to go and it was such an awesome opportunity.

Meeting Jens Voigt

After watching the finish of stage 2 we headed back down into Adelaide to check out the tour village and upon arrival we heard of news that a BMC rider had broken his collarbone in an accident riding home from the race. This is super disappointing because we later found out that it was Australian Campbell Flakemore and he had a stunner ride today being in the breakaway group for most of today's stage.

Just like usual we went to hang out with Lotto team mechanic Steven and I managed to sneak a few cool photos in while he was working and more importantly showing us a few tips.

Getting some tips from Steven

Cool photo checking out Adam Hansen's handle bars

After scouting around the village for some cool bikes I managed to find a Canyon which is being ridden by team Movistar. This green machine looks super fast and maybe one day I'd like to get my hands on one. These brand of bikes are almost flown up the mountain by super climber Nairo Quintana.

Movistar's team bikes

On an overall I think it was a fantastic day and we topped it off by watching the local criterium racing. Again just like Monday night it was super quick and I quickly realised how disappointed I am not being able to ride or race while I'm down here. I guess these things just happen and I'm gonna have to deal with it and come back stronger.

GoPro Hero 3 Review

I wanted to try and stick with my blog schedule and review a product in Tech Shop Tuesday. So today I thought that I would review my GoPro hero 3.

I've been using this camera since I got it for my birthday last October. I know that there is now a hero 4 edition available but this camera works just fine. It's such a small portable camera which is awesome because when it's not in its water proof case it fits right into your pocket. As seen in the photos the camera is next to a standard AA battery. This goes to show exactly how small it is.

Standing next to a standard AA battery

Shows just how small the camera is

Another good feature that I've found is the use of wifi. This allows you to view your footage on your smart phone as soon as its been taken or if you don't have the back screen you can view what the camera is filming through your phone with a 5 second delay. The great thing about this feature is that it allows the user to quickly see if the footage is worth keeping or not and it can be deleted straight away so there is no waiting around.

The availability of changing the mount or handle is awesome because it means that I can change from a small handle to an extendable one if I'm crowds which I'll be expecting over the coming days at the TDU. The only thing that I don't like is that you can't place the camera and the case on the ground together because the mounting points are on the bottom of the case. This becomes frustrating when placing the camera on the side of a course because there is nothing protecting it if it was to get hit. 

Each camera comes with a case and a few stick on mounts. There are lots and lots of different attachments that can be bought to go with the camera and one that I think is really good that I haven't got around to buying just yet is the wifi remote. It just allows easier use when the camera is attached to an extended pole. 

Other than this I think the camera is really good and it shoots really good quality footage. I got some awesome shots yesterday and a local crit in Adelaide with the sun in the distance. I'm hoping to use it a lot more in the near future to help me make videos and capture awesome moments. There is almost nothing bad to say about the camera, it's versatile and captures high quality video. I would recommend this to anyone looking to buy a sports action camera. 

TDU Stage 1 & My day

Today I woke up super late which took away our chances of making it to any KOM's or Sprint points on today's first stage. Fortunately enough we have our car and were able to get down to the finish line to see all the action on the big screen TV. There were four riders who went over the top of the KOM and had a one minute lead with 24km to go. It was so exciting standing at the finish because it was so calm and then all of a sudden security guards and police motor bikes came through and all the barriers were shut off. We managed to position ourselves 55m from the finish line and nervously watch the big TV as the break was slowly pulled in but also left dangling off the front.

After watching the exciting race unfold we headed into the TDU Tour Village in the centre of Adelaide and hung out with our favourite team Lotto Soudal and watched the mechanic Steven build Adam Hansen's brand new Ridley Helium climbing bike.

Once we had finished visiting the Tour Village we headed down to watch the final stage of the Santos Women's Tour which was a one hour criterium around Victoria Park. The same place where we watched last nights A grade crit. It was really good watching the best girls in the business battle it out for stage honours but also for overall victory and points jerseys. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos there but it was a good way to finish off the day.

It was an exciting first day of racing and I can't wait for tomorrow because it is going to be even better with a tough circuit finishing in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills Region. I'll have a brand new blog and some more videos of the race. Check out the Stage 1 finish which I shot from my GoPro hero 3.

A Grade Crit Adelaide

This is just a quick little video with a few clips thrown together of this evenings A grade crit here in Adelaide. It's nothing special but I just wanted to check out my editing skills and see how my GoPro went.

Enjoy.........

Meeting Freelee and Durianrider + My Week to Come

Today was a pretty awesome day for me, meeting the most amazing people who helped me change my diet and get on the pathway of healthy eating. I bumped into Freelee the Banana Girl and Durianrider at the Santos Tour Village Expo. I must say they were super friendly and I was able to sit down and talk with them for a good amount of time. Freelee also suggested that I start a YouTube channel which has given me more motivation to start vlogging and making videos. I found it kind of weird how I new so much of their lives from YouTube but they new nothing about me. Hopefully we might be able to stay in contact because I think it would be awesome to catch up with them again in the future and maybe even go for a ride with Durianrider once my shoulder is better.

With Durianrider and Freelee

After talking with these guys for around half an hour they recommended a good vegetarian/vegan restaurant for dinner which we went to. For an entré we had these sweet potato spring like rolls which OMG were fantastic and I definitely could have had more than just one and a half.

As well as that we had these gluten nugget things which again were amazing and dipped in a sweet chilli sauce topped it off.

For my main meal I had a noodles and stir fried vegetables. It was something a little different to what I usually have but I loved it.

My main meal for tonight

I have a big week ahead with the Tour Down Under starting tomorrow. Unfortunately we've had to get a car because I can't do any riding. I'm excited to watch some high quality racing over the next week but also disappointed that I have to sit in a car for the next week. I'm keen for what's to come and hopefully I'll be able to meet some more fantastic people along the way.

Sum up of my week + today and the race

Well this week has definitely not been the best that I've had. I started my week off on Monday dislocating my shoulder coming home from work, which put me out of riding here in Adelaide. I don't really think I can describe how I felt when the doctor said that my arm must stay in a sling for two weeks and that my bike can't come with me. I know it's not like the worst thing in the world but it felt like my heart sunk. I'd been looking forward to this for so long and to have this taken away from me in such a short amount of time really sucks.

Stepping forward one week and looking back, I've still had a good week. I know that I can't ride and that sucks the most because I'm constantly surrounded by bikes and people who love bikes and all I can do is watch from the sideline. This has somewhat given me the opportunity to find some new things that I might not have seen if I was out riding. For example this quote which I find absolutely hilarious because it's so true and it would be something that I'd be worried about in the future.

One other interesting thing I found today was at the Santos Tour Village in Victoria Square and it shows what a pro cyclist would eat on an average day to keep their energy up and to stop them losing any weight. It's something that I found interesting because I think it was a lack of eating that caused me to get sick a week before the heading to Adelaide.

An average day of what the a rider would eat.

This afternoon brightened my day I had a big chat with the guys from pioneer about their power metre systems before heading off to watch the start of this years tour down under at the People's Choice Classic which is a 50km criterium around the streets of Adelaide and the second stage of the Santos Women's Tour. I must say that the women's race was super fast and it was awesome to see a local rider from Cairns mixing it up with the big names from around Australia and overseas. I was able to meet the new Australian Champion Peta Mullens and get a quick photo with her.

With Peta Mullens

In the mens race it was an absolute ripper with Marcel Kittel edging out to get the win over the other fast boys. Some fantastic racing and some near misses as always which make things exciting but also very scary as well because I know the feeling of coming off and having to have time off.

The fast boys coming through a tight corner

On an overall it has been a good week. Hopefully next week can be better with a bit more enjoyment than last week tomorrow marks one week since I dislocated my shoulder so lets just hope that I can recover as soon as I can and start riding because seeing all these bigs is driving me insane.

Trendy Bike Shop and Team Presentations

Today was supposed to be a vlog day about my training day but because of the dislocation in my shoulder I can't train. I'm in Adelaide though at this years Tour Down Under which means I can still talk about cycling. Today was a good day because it launched the TDU and all the teams were presented. I was able to get heaps of photos with lots of riders and some of the presentation.

Lotto Soudal- My favourite team

One of the coolest things I think I saw while out today was Jens Voigt's hour record bike which was on display.

Looking down on the top tube on his bike

At the teams presentation I met loads of big names which can be seen in all the photos below.

Mark Renshaw

Heinrich Haussler- New Australian Champion

Michael Rogers

Richie Porte

Marcel Kittel

Cadel Evans

Besides just looking at pro cyclists I found a super trendy little bike shop which sells fixed gear bikes (which I probably shouldn't be looking at because they're the reason I can't ride). Now it's called Treadly Bike Shop and can be found at 10/5 Ebenezer Place and its right behind Rundle Street in the centre of Adelaide.

Looking into the shop.

The bike shop can be found here.

Despite the pain and disappointment of not being able to ride, I'm still having quite a good time in Adelaide and everyday I'm becoming more and more eager to be out on the bike. With loads more cycling and racing to come, there will be loads more blogs and I know I've said it lots but there will be some vlogs as well.

What I ate + Hanging out with Greg Henderson

I was supposed to make a video today about what I ate, but when I sat down at the first cafe I forgot all about it. By the time I was ready for my next meal I didn't think it was worth it, so to make up for it I took some photos and I thought that I should still talk about my diet through a blog.

Breakfast:
I had a late breakfast which was two coffees and a banana muffin. We've found the best coffee shop in the whole of 'wherever I've travelled' and the owner remembered us from last year because we went there so much. I must add that I'm a big fan of bananas and this muffin was one of the tastiest that I've ever eaten. The café is called Red Berry and is located at 2 L'Estrange Street, Adelaide. If you're around the Adelaide area for the Tour Down Under then I recommend that you try this coffee shop, because I guarantee that you've never experienced anything like it.

Only thought to take a photo once it was gone.

Just a map to find the best coffee shop in town

Lunch:
We had a super cheap healthy lunch which consisted of alfalfa and avocado on a ciabatta style bread followed by some bananas and water. Plus pain killers for me because of my shoulder.

Dinner:
For dinner I had a different type of stir fry. This on had rice and was full of vegetables. The use of rice is good for me because it's full of carbs which is what I need because of my choice to be vegetarian, topped off with a vegemite base.

This afternoon we were walking around the city and bumped into a big name cyclist, Greg Henderson. He is Andre Greipel's final lead out man before he is released for the sprint and I thought that I would share this photo and all the photos that I get with any pro's while I'm away because I wont be able to ride. So here's Greg and myself.

Hanging out with Greg Henderson.