Tour Down Under
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters' Club
Team UniSA-Australia Supporters' Club
Date of Birth: 14 February 1985 (19-years-old)
Born: Adelaide
Weight: 68kg
Height: 1.75m
Occupation: In the last 2 years I’ve been cycling fulltime. I haven’t worked at all this year. Last year I worked on and off for Polar Heart Rate Monitors – an important training aid for athletes.
Cycling competitively: I’ve been riding since 2001 – about four years.
Club: Norwood Cycling Club.
Bike: Avanti
Sponsors: Avanti – since about March of this year.
Fastest speed clocked on a bike: Somewhere between 110km to 115km/hr. It was in a Tour on the Mount Borbor stage.
Longest distance on a bike: Probably over 300 km. It was doing a training ride in the morning. I did 200km around the hills and then raced at Regency Park that afternoon, I did 100km there.
Recent achievements:
Career highlights: Winning the stage in the Sun Tour. I won the Tatersalls Cup this year as well. They’re my two highlights so far.
Ambitions for 2005: To race overseas next year and to get into a professional riding team. And live the Pro life style, what I am doing now but with some money in my pocket.
Overall cycling ambitions: I’d like to ride the World Titles (Under 23).
Years with Team UniSA: Two
Years in the Tour Down Under: Two
Most gruelling part of the Tour? Last year the whole tour was gruelling. I’d just come out of Under 19s where the longest race I’d ever done was 110km. I didn’t actually know I was going to ride the tour until about January 7. I had no idea and I hadn’t really trained for it. I got a phone call from Brett Aitken who said he’d pulled out of the tour and wondered if I wanted to ride in his place. I was really happy. But I got slaughtered in the race. By the end I wanted to just drop back and sit at the back of the bunch, but I kept it up.
Best part of the Tour? The first race, the city race, was really cool with all the people and the atmosphere. It definitely seems people know a lot more about cycling now. I really do like the time in the lead up to the tour because everyone is nice to you on the roads. Everyone is really good in the weeks before the tour happens.
How do you prepare for the Tour? Doing an intensive training
camp in Bright, Victoria where we do about 200km a day in the mountains,
riding up
Falls Creek and Mount Hotham and all of those big mountains. It’s been
pretty hard. We clocked about 1400km in that week.
I do about 800 to 900km a week outside of the intensive camp. Today I
did 150km, tomorrow I’ll do about 110km. I vary it as well, such as
strength endurance efforts, big gears up Norton Summit. I then rode
across to the nationals course and did about 10 to 15 sprints up the
hills in preparation for the nationals.
What do you hope to achieve in the Tour? My aim is to try and get on the podium for one of the stages. It would be awesome to get on the podium.
Nickname: Rexy
Pets: I don’t have any pets, but my mum has a cat and a dog. We don’t have any pets in Caulfield in Melbourne where I’m living with two other good friends, who are also cyclists.
Someone you look up to: Stuart O’Grady. I’d love to be like him. He’s an all-round bike rider and a nice guy. Tour Down Under will be the second time I ride against him, which will be very cool. The great thing is everyone knows everyone in South Australia – it’s a great community in cycling. People look out for each other.
A saying or motto you like: Go hard or go home.
Fave music: Ministry of Sound. I enjoy dance, electronica and drum and bass.
Fave TV show: My Wife and Kids.
Fave movie: I saw Bad Santa recently. It was crass at times, but there were some funny bits as well.
Fave actor: I don’t really have one.
Fave food: Ice Cream. A big bowl of it.
