I must admit that when I heard that Geelong had been chosen as the venue for the 2010 U.C.I. World Championships I thought...why? It's an Industrial city, not very aesthetically pleasing and in Victoria. South Australia has had a long running battle of sporting greed with Victoria since they 'stole' the best Grand Prix in the World off us. We retaliated by staging the Tour Down Under and the Eastern States cycling bodies have been green with envy and putting their corporate dollars together ever since to try and upstage us yet again.

You never really know how beautiful an industrial city can be until you ride your bike around the nooks and crannies and the organisers of this race have done a great job in show-casing the best bits to the World....from a spectator

There are some wierd looking trees...

And some wierder looking art...

But as a background for fit dudes in lycra I'm not complaining.

It's not until you realise just how much a race like this can interfere with the infrastructure of a city that you appreciate how much organisation goes into such an event. Traffic is in semi-chaos, residential areas are in lockdown and the locals are having to consider alternative forms of transport...I've lost count of the number of times someone has said 'fucking cyclists!!"

I rode 147.8km yesterday in search of some nice pictures for you guys. It looked like the sun might show it's face as I rode around the coast towards Geelong from my beach haven....but even he/she decided it was too cold and remained tucked up behind the clouds.

Thank goodness for lycra to brighten the place up a bit.

Being midweek, most of the spectators at the moment are cycling fans and so the areas set aside for spectating, with huge TV screens and catering are deserted whereas the corners, chicanes and coffee shops are packed. Those who live on the course have plugged in the extension cables and brought their plasma TV's roadside so as not to miss anything .

I decided to perch myself at the top of the steepest part of the TT course yesterday....I wanted pain etched in faces, dribble dangling off ear lobes and fat guys hanging out of cars yelling encouragement in a multitude of languages. I got what I wanted.

It was amazing to see the different climbing styles on TT bikes, Millar, LuLu and a Moorenhout seemed faster at the top of the hill with high cadence whereas some of the other guys (Rogers, Larrson, Grabsch etc,) looked laboured. Cance didn't even get out of the saddle!!!

Some prick stole my beautiful carbon fibre frame mounted pump from my bike while I was spectating so the ride home was cautious and hopeful. It was so cold as night set in that as I rode along the Ocean Road to the warmth of my appartment I was covered in dew and it took a good long soak in the shower to be able to feel certain extremeties once again...but it was all worth it.

Today is the Men's U23 Road Race.....I'll be cheering for the Aussies (of course) and taking some more happy snaps.

If anyone's out on course they can call me on 0402383263 if they wanna catch up somewhere.