America: Week 1

Sooooo, this week has gone way too fast for my liking! I arrived after a long haul, unfortunately I didn't have Birdman to count up the hours of travel but I had a 12 hour layover in LA before flying into Philadelphia where Mandy and Jamie picked me up. Before we drove to my final destination, I just so happened to have flown in on the same day of one of America’s big one-day race the ParxCasino Philly Classic. So, I was very fortunate enough to have seen what the “Wall” was all about and see Team Novo Nordisk in action for the very first time and of course see some kiwis smashing it! The males raced around the 12 mile circuit 10 times and the females 5 times.

Again here is Stretch from the Harlem "Shakers" I mean't Globetrotters in one of LAX's Terminals

Unfortunately the first Friday night/US Sprint Grand Prix were cancelled due to the weather and were postponed until Saturday – which was not so bad. Mandy qualified first with an amazing time and a personal best of 11.93 and I qualified second, funny enough we both made it to the finals! This was the first time we had raced against each other and the first time the crowd had seen two female type 1 diabetics going head to head, which was a pretty awesome feeling! With Mandy only just making the transition from endurance to sprinting and me with more race experience, I took the win and 5th overall. You can find all the results for the night here. The racing definitely woke up the legs after training in the cold back home, but it was so good getting back into it! Racing recap can be found here.

Chris Knight/Special to the Morning Call/June 8 2013

Mandy and I after night 1

Going into the second week I have finally got use to riding and also driving literally on the right side of the road. The weather is looking nice for this Fridays Keirin Grand Prix, so am looking forward to that. I also have an exam at the end of the week so I will be studying up a storm!!

Adios :)

These cool looking barns are every

Run down cottage, came come soaking wet.

Borrowing this awesome Harry Havnoonian for the month :)

Rainy days