Tour Down Under
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters Club
Date of Birth: 18 July 1979 (25-years-old)
Born: Adelaide – but I also lived in the Northern Territory. We moved to the Alice Springs when I was 2 years old and moved back to Adelaide when I was 20.
Weight: 78kg
Height: 1.78m
Occupation: I work as a fulltime carpenter for King Form in the city. I did my apprenticeship in the Alice. My current boss, Vince, has been really supportive over the years and allows me to take time off to pursue my goals. It really helps when you’re riding competitively and training a lot. I return to work in February.
Competitively cycling: Since I was about three-years-old when I first started BMX racing. I then converted from BMX to cycling with mountain biking, and finally road cycling when I was 21-years-old. Basically, I was born on a bike.
Club: Kilkenny Cycling Club and the Adelaide Mountain Bike Club.
Bike: An Avanti Coarser. I'm getting the 2005 model for the TDU.
Sponsors: Avanti, JT Cycles, SpyOptics and Slime Sealant.
Fastest speed clocked on a bike: Aorund 96-98km/hr coming down Coach House Drive at Norton Summit.
Longest distance on a bike: 270km – it was a training ride halfway through this year. I was on the bike for seven and a half hours. It was quite an epic. The tailwind certainly helped that day. The longest race I’ve done is 160km. It was the Mount Gambier 100 Mile Classic, a major race of the year and a handicap event.
Recent achievements:
Career highlights: Getting 23rd at the Mountain Biking World Cup in Port William, Scotland, in June this year. That was a pretty special day finishing near the world top 20 in mountain biking. It’s such a nice place at that time of year as well. And also, coming second at the National Championships this year in Eildon, Victoria.
Ambitions for 2005: At the moment I’m really training for the mid-year comps and also looking to have a competitive road National titles. They are here in Adelaide, three days before the Tour Down Under starts. I did 15 laps last year and hopefully I can top that this year!
Overall cycling ambitions: To make the 2006 Commonwealth Games mountain biking team and if I’m still going well, the 2008 Olympics team. I made the Athens Olympics Australian Team, but my selection was overturned in the tribunal. It was disappointing, but you just get on with it and move on.
Years with Team UniSA: This is my first year with Team UniSA.
Years in the Tour Down Under: This will be my first Tour.
Most gruelling part of the Tour? Tour Down Under will be my longest endurance ride on a road bike. I’ve done a couple of similar races on the mountain bike, like a tour type race. But this will definitely be the longest and, I’m guessing, the toughest.
How do you prepare for the Tour? I do about 700 to 800km a week. Going on hours, I probably do about three to four hours every day. And I have a rest day in there as well. I did 18 hours last week and will do about 22 this week. I keep a good diet generally but I do concentrate on what I eat in the final four weeks leading up the event. During this time I am disciplined about what I eat – not overeating, eating the right food, plenty of fruit and veg and not getting too much carbohydrates on board.
What do you hope to achieve in the Tour? I really just want to get through the whole tour and finish. But then again, I think that if I’ve got good form, then I want to do well. But it is hard to prepare against the calibre of the Down Under riders. They’re just unbelievable cyclists. So it depends on how they’re going at that time of year, and how I’m going and what the weather is doing and I suppose a bit of luck as well.
Nickname: J-Blood – jungle blood. It’s a play on my name – my coach gave it to me.
Pets: I don’t have any pets.
Someone you look up to: Stuart O’Grady. He’s a great rider and I look up to him a lot. Cadel Evans for his mountain biking endeavours.
A saying or motto you like: No pain, no gain.
Fave music: Various, Funky House.
Fave TV show: My Wife & Kids
Fave movie: The Bourne Supremacy
Fave actor: Matt Damon
Fave food: Seafood. I love it.
