Team Cyclingnews.com - Down Under - 2004

Athens, August 18, 2004

Crazy hot

By Josh Fleming

It's been awhile since last e-mail, so I'll back-track a bit.

After the last World Cup in Canada, I took a short break from racing while the decision on the second Olympic spot was being decided. Was a mentally very tiring two weeks while appeal was on.

Would quickly like to thank a few people for helping with appeal: Andrew, Ken and my family and friends for their support. Last half of July has been busy couple of weeks, racing every second day and getting things organized for travel to Italy and then onto Athens.

Left Belgium around August 5 for pre-Olympic training camp in Italy, where the U23 road guys are based; we drove from Italy up to a Swiss Cup race on the weekend which was a tough race, involving a long climb with one long, fast descent.

Finished just outside top 10; not such a good day, but was good to get another MTB race in the legs before heading to Athens on Thursday, August 12.

In the village now.

Opening ceremony was a buzz, crowd was amazing with many Australian flags in the crowd. Training in Athens has been good, mainly to get used to the heat, crazy hot. Solid 1hr road climb which starts right from the time you leave village.

Also have found some nice trials to ride on not far from village. We are 15 minutes from the MTB course, but cannot train on course until Monday the week before race, race is the 28th. Biggest factor is going to be the heat, 35°C most days. From what I can see of the course, it's loose ground and not a lot of shade to be found.

Look forward to getting on course on Monday. We are trying line up a lap on course with "Peter Brock".

Chat soon,
Josh