Tour Down Under
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Date of Birth: 29 September 1983 (21-years-old)
Born: Adelaide
Weight: 64kg
Height: 1.75m
Occupation: I’m a student at UniSA, doing a Bachelor of Finance. Because of my cycling program and living in Europe, I study externally. I also work part-time as a Financial Planner at Godfrey Pembroke, I only just started there a month ago.
Cycling competitively: Six years.
Club: Norwood Cycling Club. I’ve been with them since I started racing on the roads.
Professional team: I was with South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) for a few years and with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Italy in 2003. Last year, I was living in Belgium riding with a Belgium based team. We were racing mainly one day races or tours. For example, we'd do a 10 day tour, then take a week off, then do more racing. In Europe you can race up to three times a day if you really wanted to. The main races we did were Belgium, France and Germany and Holland.
Bike: Avanti.
Sponsors: Avanti and JT Cycles.
Fastest speed clocked on a bike: Well, I’ve crashed going in excess of 100km/hr in Canberra about four years ago. I slid and consequently had a lot of cuts and scratches, which stayed around for a long time. There were seven of us in the crash and amazingly there weren’t any serious injuries, which was lucky considering the speed we were going.
Longest distance on a bike: Melbourne to Warnambool – the year I did it, it was 280km. They extended it this year to avoid any traffic issues. It took me six or seven hours to ride that distance, it was a hard day.
Career highlights: I had a few good rides in Europe. But winning the National titles in 2002 when I was 18 is definitely a highlight, as well as last year's Tour Down Under which was amazing.
Ambitions for 2005: This year I want to stay in Australia and concentrate on finishing university. I’ve raced in Europe for a few years, which is amazing, but after getting a bit sick this year I realised that I wanted to get university out of the way so I have it to fall back on. I’ve just got one more year to finish my finance degree at UniSA and get some practical work experience. Another goal is to keep improving in cycling and just see how far I go – be able to progress that aspect of things. Next year the Australian national series is changing and it’s going to be a lot better, so I want to concentrate on the nationals. I still might go to Europe for two months and do the really important big races, just not live over there like I have in the past so that I can still finish my degree.
Years with Team UniSA: 2005 will be my second year riding with the team. Last year was a very special year for Team UniSA, so it was great to be involved. It was a great start with the team for me.
Years in the Tour Down Under: 2004 was my first year in the tour.
Most gruelling part of the Tour? Probably once Patrick Jonker got the yellow jersey (leaders jersey) in the Tour Down Under last year and we had to help him stay in yellow by trying to control the race – which was really tough going. There were four of us that worked for the team. Luke, Gene and Pat were in the top 10, so they didn’t want to work because they were in a position to do really well. We had to go flat chat the entire time. For the first 100km we had to ride as hard as we could at the front of the race and control things as best we could. The last 40 odd kilometres are the hardest, but by that time we can’t control the race and the individual riders can look after themselves.
Best part of the Tour? In many ways, the gruelling part was also the best. Just being able to chop off at the front of the race and ride past all your friends and family. It is times like that which make it worth what you spend all your life and time doing. I think the tour has also helped in general awareness of cycling and how it works, from the tactical way that teams play the game through to general public awareness of riders on the road. I also prefer the hill climbs, when I’m in good form.
How do you prepare for the Tour? I had a break at the end of the European season this year. But I got back into it with the Tour of Queensland at the start of November. That was my first lot of training outside of local races. I try to get out and do about four hours a day. I do about 120km to 140km in that time. I probably do about 600km a week. I’d rather be doing 800 but I just don’t have time with working as well.
What do you hope to achieve in the Tour? I just want to play it by ear. As with all bike races, you go into it wanting to do as best as you can and see how things pan out and you go with whatever you’re best suited to at the time. Trying to get up there in the U/23 Classification, or help someone in the team out to do well.
Nickname: Jimmy
Pets: No
Someone you look up to: I’ve never had posters stuck on my wall or anything like that, but there are plenty of people I look up to, especially Australians in cycling that are doing really well. Australian cyclists are really doing well these days. There were a couple guys about 15 or 20 years ago that did really well – they really helped open the door for Australians going over to Europe. Then Shane Bannan set up the AIS in Italy about eight years ago and every year since he’s been taking a group of Australians to live there for eight months. Basically those guys that are going through the program are doing really well. There’s probably about 30 or 40 really good professionals and about another 50 that are riding in Europe and giving it a crack.
A saying or motto you like: Not really…
Fave music: I listen to all music – dance music, a bit of jazz and funk.
Fave TV show: Don’t really have time to watch any TV... Seinfeld.
Fave movie: Again, don’t get a lot of time to watch movies.
Fave actor: Johnny Depp.
Fave food: I love Pizza. I used to eat it almost every night in Italy – all of the time!
