Today I had the pleasure and the honour to meet one of Italy's and Pro-cycling's up-and-coming stars, and key lead-out man for the new Team Leopard-Trek, Davide Vigano.

It is interesting that the same phrase is true of Davide as I have heard it said of so many elite athletes: down to earth.

Davide is excited about the year ahead and his job as a lead-out man for Daniele Bennati for most of the year. The TDU is Davide's best opportunity for now to seek his own…

Aside from the extra riding that I have been able to fit in around family time these holidays, I have had the great pleasure of being able to take the family out on a few extended jaunts.

First, there was the SuperHero ride, which was a great success according to those whom I have spoken to since…

Unfortunately, I missed out on riding with some people who I haven't met before due to a mix-up in my understanding of where we were supposed to be meeting...

BUT...

I had a grand day out none the less.

Having missed the meet-up, I decided to head out North of the city, since I don't get many chances to go out that way. I headed out to Gorge Rd via Greenhill and Penfolds Rds and started to plod my way up the Gorge Rd. Off to my right I happened…

I sit writing this Blog post just days out from the one year anniversary of my entry (I could say "re-entry but I was never really a cyclist in the past... I just rode a bike from time to time as I had need) into the world of cycling.

A re-cap for those of you who are new to the forum; My family made a decision in June 2009 to go car-free for 6 months to see how we went. At that point, we decided since we were going ok with that we would continue to live a car-free…