My 'Mint' Slice

It’s been a while since I’ve written. Many of you know that on my return from the USA I opened my bike bag to discover that the bottle cage on my frame had been knocked out of the frame, taken a sizeable piece of carbon out of the frame. My nightmare of a trip continued even once it was over. Now in retrospect it’s been a good thing that happened for two reasons:

1)      Cannondale came to my immediate rescue with a lovely new green, black and white Slice- Hence the name ‘Mint’ &

2)      I was partially compensated by Qantas (couldn’t believe it!)

 I fortunately had been in contact with Ed Waterston, the new marketing manager of the Australian branch of the Cycling Sports Group in regards to sponsorship. So on hearing about my situation he came to my rescue, sent a new TT frame up to Johnny and the boys at Cyclezone Mooloolaba to build my new stead. And build her they did.

Last weekend I had to spend a day in Sydney to attend a Physio related course so made the most of the trip and took the time to go and meet Ed & Lucien at CSG. With most of my sponsors interstate I rarely get a chance to meet many of my most important supporters face to face. It was great to hear about the future plans and goals in regards to ambassadors and sponsorship that Ed and his team are working towards and I’m really excited to be a part of the future of Cannondale within Australia. I have been riding their bikes since 2009 and am happy to keep my rear end on them. Also having the support of John Carey and his team at Cyclezone Mooloolaba  is invaluable as they have always kept my equipment running smoothly and been more than generous in support. Even living south of the boarder I still make the drive to them if need be.

I also had the opportunity to catch up with Annie Rogers, from OSHE, earlier that week and she was kind enough to give me the new 'So Sensitive' skin care range which I absolutely love. Definitely have a look at her site online, where you can order products if you are interested in trying them: www.oshe.com.au

So since being back from the USA I have enjoyed a couple weeks break- partially forced due to the lack of a bike. Getting back into training wasn’t as horrendous as I expected, although freshness appears as fake fitness! I have had a few minor interruptions to the training with a cocktail party in Brisbane, my trip to Sydney and learning to again manage my part time Physio job and the training. Everything has now fallen back into routine and I’m now back in my normal life of eat, train, sleep, work and looking ahead to the future.  A big part of the last couple months has been having some proper treatment on a few ongoing niggles that I had during my USA trip. As a physio I am quite a big hypocrite about managing injuries. It also involved sitting down with Gilsey to identify a couple of training errors that potentially could be contributing to have these ongoing issues and coming up with some good solutions to these problems. For the first time since moving down here I finally feel I’m on track and am really looking forward to the last few months of this year.

Next up I’ll be heading to china to compete in the Weihai ITU long distance triathlon on the 23rd of September. I raced in Weihai in 2010 with a good result (3rd) and hoping to show some improvement this time around. For the remainder of the year I will be racing around Australia and perhaps a couple of Asian races thrown in there for good measure.

Stay tuned…..

Rachie xo