I was on Beach Road a few months ago chattin to some guy from Sydney called Liam Kelly .

Is he any good? He seemed kinda strong

He's like a tractor on his day. I watched him take a half lap lead against a decent field with 2 laps to go in a hell wind at the Snow Wilson Open at Heffron Park and he kept it there to the line.

Has she been droppin hints to you too?
Going to see Richard Petti next wed to get it sorted! might race next week if allowed!

I was checking you guys out, thought you might be one of the CCCC (that's right isn't it) there that day. He did ride good that day. I have known him for a long time now, has a habit of trying to frop the whole group on long training rides by running red lights, weird things, he does, sets himself up for a heckling.

Strong though for sure, very into it. He flew his brother up from Melbounre one weekend to baby sit so he could ride that Sat mornign training ride.

Yeah there were only four of us CCCC riders there from memory. The Scarfe brothers, big Jim Moore (gone to Sutherland for 2006), and meself. Was a top day. Wished I'd brought me budgie smugglers along for a dip in the pool next door tho! Damned hot

Bloody Nora!!! That's a bit over the top!

Good honest bike racer.

Strong enough, but just making up the numbers like so many others when the big boys come out to play.

Yeah, I was being nice. Don't want to have a go at any-one really, I'm no legend, not even close, major field filler.

He got into it late and has the funds to buy any gear/food/training etc that may help. To me I think that's a bit much for Am/club racing. My $0.02. I'll always have a chat with him. Would like to ride one of his Fondi Clarus frames.

Ditto. And my "career" ended in 1999.

waht was your career Ed?

You know....I often ask myself that exact question.

Nice sidestep there Ed.

When you went off to do this career thing, what was your long term goal?

To avoid the rat race for as long as possible.....


You know, I used to head off to Kinglake on a weekday morning over the Chandler Hwy and look down at all those poor salary-slaves inching to work on the Eastern Fwy and think "Ha....that'll never be me!!"

Well.....

That was me too. I did a winter sport since high school until about 25-26 years old. Never wanted to work 9-5 and held out as long as I could. Actually became bored with what I was doing around 21 years old, but kept going as it was a good way to travel, get a bike (road or bmx) and ride all over the place, bring bike home and make money on it every time.

Had to get married and start populating the world though. Pre kids, house, own business, circa 2000 approx >600 kays a week, since kids around 200-250, sometimes a little more if really lucky.

I was only asking to see where you got to go, see and do. How involved you got.

yeah, me too

I barely worked at all until I was 20, then started working in gyms, and usually started work at 5pm

I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but he was in the VIS and raced in Holland for a couple of years

Yep....worked out I was never gonna be Stuart O'Grady when I was about 26 and that $300 a week working in bike shops wasn't gonna help me move out of Mum's place.

Didn't want to end up mid-30s and still trying to scrape enough cash together each year to get to Belgium.

no, no no....never VIS scholarship holder.

didn't you go to the VIS camps in Bright?

I must have done it all back to front then.

Started racing at 20, retired at 22 to a life of late night gigs, women, and alcohol. Married late, infected the world with my genes, then decided to chase a rainbow.

It's been fun so far, long way to go. Be interesting to see where genetic limit is / how badly the bod has been affect by years of abuse

My oath I did......just coz I hung around those blokes like dags on a sheep, doesn't mean I was any good at bike racing.

I don't like being serious, but was that a big let down for someone who I assume was super keen?

Not really. I loved the sport and had so many heroes, the transition to spectator and "former racer" was pretty easy.....but I still think about it every day. If I had've trained more, eaten better, gone here, gone there. But that's natural.

like I've said heaps of times, I figured out pretty early that I was totally gutless in a bunch sprint, and I didn't want skinny arms like Indurain


Did you have the total 'psycho' nerve for crazy bunch sprints, 100kmh mountain decents and criteriums in the rain?

Don't swaet it, ed. Bike racing is for obsessive-compulsive genetic freaks. There's a 99% chance you didn't pick the right parents anyway.

Can you guess how I feel about bike racing? That's why I like designing bikes and riding for fun - you're not sacrificing your entire life just to be .3 of a second faster than the guy in front of you.

Warnnies sponsors on the bike, !scroll up to message #1https://www.perthtalk.com.au/forums/s...=2108#post2108