We're racing, you aren't.

Gloat with me fellow Australians.

That is all.

I could swear I just read in another thread some Australian saying that his season had just ended.

12 month season down here. He must be a lazy barstid.

the racing never stops in socal. as long as you own a CX bike.

It was me. Can't speak for other states, but in SA, it's road racing and TTs over winter and criteriums over summer. Being a road racer, my season was over about a month ago, to give me a chance to do some periodized training for next road season.

However, I will gloat about the fact that I get to do my base training in glorious 30 degree sunny weather

Bingo.

SoCal Road and Cross

Please note that the last CX race of the season is the day before the first crit of the season.

Hmmm...Racing right now does sound appealing, but you are living on the ass-end of the planet (I think one of your own former PMs called it that). I guess life is full of trade-offs.

So, how is that drought? I hope that is no worse than ours.

lol. It's pissing down rain where I live at the moment and they've had major floods only 30km away twice in the last 4 months.

The only downside is having the blood rushing to my head all day from being "upside-down."

For some reason I thought the title said "Bloat".

We are the few...

Were still racing in Ohio, it's called cyclocross!!!

Gloat away Aussie.

New Yanks and jafas: why no one likes Aussies anymore

When I first started travelling, only about 10 years ago, everyone loved an Aussie. You walked into a pub, someone would hear your accent, and clap you on the shoulder and buy you a drink. "G'day," was an acceptable pick-up line.

You'd find yourself the token conversation piece at get-togethers, where you could persuade people that you wrestled kangaroos for a living. Doors magically opened, hassles were incredibly smoothed over, with the help of an Australian accent.

But it's all gone wrong ...

Try the old "g'day" line at a pub in London now, and at best you'll get a roll of the eyes, at worst a "piss off jafa".

(Jafa, by the way, is a phrase originally coined by Kiwis about Aucklanders, but is now the term used by Londoners when they hear our accent and think, "Just Another F---ing Australian.")

The disdain now shown for Australian travellers abroad (and by the occasional worked-up reader on this blog) is pretty worrying for those of us who love to travel, and were used to being treated kindly purely because of our nationality.

So what's happened to the lovable Aussie?

Firstly, we're suffering from a serious case of overexposure. The fact that Australia is so far away from anywhere else used to mean that not many of us made it to foreign shores. Now, not only do we have air travel, but we have extremely cheap air travel, meaning that any ****** who can manage to scrape together a few hundred dollars can go and prop up the tittie bar industry in ****et for a week or so.

It also means groups of blokes on buck's weekends can wreak havoc on the world in an "I'm sick of getting pissed at Establishment, let's go do it in Bali" kind of way. Travel used to be confined to people who were completely dedicated to it, who would spend all of their savings on that big trip away. Now, anyone can go and act like as big a moron away as they do at home.

But it's not just the buck's night crowds that are ruining our reputation. It's a real worry that Aussies in Europe are now being tagged "New Yanks". No offence to the old Yanks, but that's not something I want to be.

We're now seen as the arrogant, loud twats who complain when everything's different to how it is back home. Australians always had a reputation for liking a party, but now we're the obnoxious drunks, abusing the bar staff because their English sucks, whingeing that we'd kill for a Carlton Draught instead of this crap we're being forced to drink.

Australians are almost a comedy piece. People in Aussie-populated pubs will scream out "Aussie Aussie Aussie" just to have a chuckle at the inevitable slurred cries of "Oi oi oi!" from the bloke in the Wallabies jersey who would treat it as a sign of disrespect if you didn't answer the call.

Sadly, there's also politics to consider. Australia used to be barely a blip on the world political radar (and mostly still is); however, we're not the innocent, fun-loving little country we used to be (and New Zealand still is - see how easy it could have been?). Like the Yanks, we've dived into an unpopular war, taken powerful sides on a huge world issue, and generally tried to push around a bit of weight that we don't have. You might say politics and travel shouldn't be linked; however, people overseas know what we're up to. It affects all of us.

Another possible point, although I can't quite convince myself this is true, is jealousy. Is the "arrogant Aussie" tag just a way of brushing off the fact that many people would like to call Australia home? We do have it pretty good here. Do other people think that, too?

The bottom line, however, is that anyone who's travelled knows there are a lot of Australians out there acting like dickheads, and it's giving the rest of us a bad name. I've been to bars in Africa, only to watch a drunk Aussie get thrown out by locals for trying pull his pants down and run around the pool table. At the running of the bulls, I've seen Australians flip cultural respect the bird in favour of running in their favourite AFL jersey, rather than the traditional red and white costume. Once, at a cafe in Munich, a compatriot jokingly tried to draw a large swastika on my arm, seriously missing the hideous insinuation. I've been involved with groups of Australians on organised tours roaming Europe, laying waste to city after city.

It's not pretty, but we haven't hit rock bottom yet. When some other country's citizens start getting called "New Aussies", I'm handing in my passport.

Ever been embarrassed by Australians on the road? Why doesn't everyone love us anymore?


https://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archi...hy_no_one.html

that example is pushing it.

If they were Swans (or St George) fans they could have killed two birds with one stone.

Hehe what a pisser! That bloke is a bloody sook IMO. We have been making gooses of ourselves on the international scene since way back. Hell our diggers were the laughing stock of the British way back when. My great grandad had a piss funny story about getting on better with the Germans.

I dont blame ridgie-didge Londoners for being a tad sick of us. Similarly if you chat with a true Bondi local about the poms....it gets colourful.

Who really gives a toss what a bunch of stinkin' whinging pohms think anyway?

I really am moving to Australia. I've heard they're in need for all of the trades I know. Hopefully in 2-3 years I'll be an Australian.

What is this season thing you speak of? We in the bellybutton of the world don't have such things. What a quaint idea.

Race you anytime, anywhere...

Chopper scars me but:



Scares me more. But when I really think about it:



Scared me the most!

Pauline Hanson is Australia's very own George Dubya.

Thankfully her influence waned but it was truly ugly for a while.

Anyone else notice that Kevin Rudd came out last night in response to the latest boat people arrivals and said that if they form government they will end the "Pacific solution". I have to say that I'm not the greatest fan of either major party but I have to give him credit for at last standing up for something and not being afraid of the perceived racist views of the Australian public. That was the really damaging aspect of the Pauline Hanson phenomena, the major parties either playing on racist fears (coalition)or giving into it and saying nothing (labor).

Regards, Anthony

You Australians are funny. My boss at work is selling some bike stuff on Ebay, and he got a whole mess of stupid questions from Australians. The one that topped the chart was a question about a new [carbon] bike frame and fork, the guy wanted to buy it for $420 with a Centaur crank and brakes from another auction, including shipping!

If you want to see a whole mess of stupid questions, just scan this forum. I won't mention where most of the questions eminate from.