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	Feb 29, 2006- From Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road... "The 12 Apostles": Great Ocean Road, Australia After final confirmation of the Commonweatlh Games team selection, I requested to go to Australia early in order to: acclimitize to the heat and time zone, to train in the sun and to race on the road. Since this time of year is late summer for Australia, all the cyclists are racing, and in good summer shape. Race miles is what I needed before competing in the first UCI road stage race and World Cup held in Geelong Australia. A previous teammate of mine who lives in Melbourne hooked me up with some great hosts to stay with for a few weeks: Mark and Lindsay!! Not only did they show me all the bike routes, race sites and not to forget to mentionLindsay's great cooking....they also introduced us to the authentic Aussi Burger with the Lot: A normal beef burger except with a fried egg and pineapple on it!!! This, of course, came with good ol' aussi style chips with sauce (aka. fries and ketchup!). The racing was perfect for getting the head back into the game. The clubs all put on safe well run races. No matter where you are in the world, racing is racing. Sport puts everybody speaking the same language. After a solid week and a half training and racing in and around Melbourne, I had a few days until the start of the Geelong Tour. So, with a backpack and a bike I headed to the train station with a friend and we took a train from Melbourne to Geelong. From there, we rented a car and drove to the Great Ocean Road. On route, we checked out Bells Beach: the famous beach of the surf world championships, Lorne: where the 2006 World Lifesaving championships were going on, and the 12 Apostles: the famous landmark made by the erosion of the cliffs by the ocean. We stayed in Apollo Bay, which is a small town on the ocean side, popular to australians for a weekend getaway. Early morning training rides took me on the Great Ocean road where I stopped to watch Koala's in the trees. A few days "on vacation" was a real treat!!! The rental car did us well, the left side of the road driving was tricky at first but sure kept me focused driving. Now it is off to go meet the new GIANT PRO team in Geelong for the start of race season!!! Part 2 coming soon..... -gina

Feb 29, 2006- From Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road...

"The 12 Apostles": Great Ocean Road, Australia

After final confirmation of the Commonweatlh Games team selection, I requested to go to Australia early in order to: acclimitize to the heat and time zone, to train in the sun and to race on the road. Since this time of year is late summer for Australia, all the cyclists are racing, and in good summer shape. Race miles is what I needed before competing in the first UCI road stage race and World Cup held in Geelong Australia. A previous teammate of mine who lives in Melbourne hooked me up with some great hosts to stay with for a few weeks: Mark and Lindsay!! Not only did they show me all the bike routes, race sites and not to forget to mentionLindsay's great cooking....they also introduced us to the authentic Aussi Burger with the Lot: A normal beef burger except with a fried egg and pineapple on it!!! This, of course, came with good ol' aussi style chips with sauce (aka. fries and ketchup!).

The racing was perfect for getting the head back into the game. The clubs all put on safe well run races. No matter where you are in the world, racing is racing. Sport puts everybody speaking the same language.

After a solid week and a half training and racing in and around Melbourne, I had a few days until the start of the Geelong Tour. So, with a backpack and a bike I headed to the train station with a friend and we took a train from Melbourne to Geelong. From there, we rented a car and drove to the Great Ocean Road. On route, we checked out Bells Beach: the famous beach of the surf world championships, Lorne: where the 2006 World Lifesaving championships were going on, and the 12 Apostles: the famous landmark made by the erosion of the cliffs by the ocean. We stayed in Apollo Bay, which is a small town on the ocean side, popular to australians for a weekend getaway. Early morning training rides took me on the Great Ocean road where I stopped to watch Koala's in the trees.

A few days "on vacation" was a real treat!!! The rental car did us well, the left side of the road driving was tricky at first but sure kept me focused driving. Now it is off to go meet the new GIANT PRO team in Geelong for the start of race season!!! Part 2 coming soon.....

-gina