New Kit and A report Written with Low Blood Sugar

A lot happened today. Possibly the most visual moment was the acquisition of the new uniform. Very flattering on the thighs, if you are into drawing attention to them. Which you wouldn't need to unless it was happening automatically, and then its just basically stating the obvious really. Speaking of stating the obvious, my arse still looks okay in them.

We also continued on from yesterday's media training - what to say, how to construct it, how to think about it, how to draw benefits (or consquences) from your own personal story. Interesting stuff in theory, but in application a lot tougher. Later this morning we applied this in front of the camera, with media trainer Cary running some interviews for us. Morgan was a bit of a natural with a great story, and here is her photo which is the real reason for mentioning her (although she did do a very good job, despite her nerves!):

Kiwi Tim also had a good crack at it. I was last to have a go and probably had way too much time to think about things. What came out were very considered responses. How to be natural and calculated at the same time? aarrrgghhhhh

But we'll get a bit more practice this week. Here's Tim and the reason for mentioning him - again, having his photo and no one else's:

Then it was onto the distribution of the uniform. Unfortunately there was a mistaken belief that as I had arrived early, I had already taken my share of the uniform. Once this was clarified (I had no new uniform), and without much left in any of my size, including no leg warmers, I ended with a bit of a mish-mash. Still, its a nice cool kit and it should be great to wear. Getting the uniform low-down by Tom:

Later we headed out to 'Sky Drive' for some video shooting for DLife and someone else

And then we got to crank it up on the way home with a joyous ride. The cameras, both sitting in the back of two vans with the boot up (I will not say trunk), allowed for us to ride a bit freely. As it was the first excursion out on the new bikes, and the first opportunity for new comers to strut their stuff, and for old comers to prove that they still have it, even if - ahem - they are actually only in base phase and really shouldn't be raising their heart rate unnecessarily, or just for opportunities to ride in front now that Joe and Phil were pretending to do the latter, there was the obligatory attack the shit out of each other or just go to the front and ride as hard as you can for the above reasons.
Once the pissing contest was over, legs burning and lots of gasping, compiled with loud statements of exactly how many hours have been ridden since commencing 'base training', we did what anyone else would do: started the pissing contest all over again. And again all the way back to the hotel.
So when I say joyous, I mean it was joyous it all its seriousness joyousness.
The bike feels pretty tidy to handle, but for a couple of weird things: it whistles at speed, and under acceleration, it doesn't seem to want to go much.
These could be explained by the following discoveries post-ride:

1. the bike is actually too small for me. Its a 51cm! Might need a longer stem!

2. I didn't have good legs for sprinting. Joe and I went out again briefing to re-cap the sprint-offs. I failed miserably in coming out from his leadout.

3. No explaination so far for the whistling. And no, it wasn't me. I was breathing too hard from the pissing contest/s.

Lastly, we had another dinner. here is a shot of Andy; super-duper photographer with cool German accent despite a long time resident of New York, Poby; and Nathan.

We get to work with Poby later this week, and from all his off-the-cuff introductory speeches (how many introductory speeches can you have?) and cool dinner company, it seems like it will be 'good fun torture' - his words.