Matty White

State Road Cycling Champs

Last weekend I decided to race the SA State Road Champs as a few mates and training partners convinced me to have a crack, and I thought it would be a good hit out beore I leave to Cairns on the following Monday. The race was at Williamstown which is about 60 km North of Adelaide in the Barossa Valley, and its a great place to train with vineyards, quite roads and hilly terrain. The bike race was 125km with a brutally steep 1.5km climb in it and it consisted of 10 laps. I decided to ride out to the race a few days before to clock up some extra kms, and in the meantime learned a valuable lesson! I rode through the gorge toward Williamstown which is a hilly 60km ride. I had the new LIGHTWEIGHT gen2s on my bike so I felt awesome going up hill, which caused me to go a little faster than I should have considering I was doing a 125km race, but my main aim in this race was to help my friend Kim Howard and his legacy team by getting in an early break and destroying myself.. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.. I attacked from the gun and managed to get away for about 65km with 3 other strong riders, all was going to plan until about the 80km mark going up the hill when my legs literally snapped in 5 pieces and from what I can gather they are still on the lonely roads of Williamstown! I only just managed to make it back to the finish in order to call my wife to pick me up. Overall it was a good hard day and it was great to race against some quality riders and moreso to stay away for so long in a small break. I hope I held the triathlete reputation up and got some respect from the cycling community! the race was one by Michael Stallard from Savings and Loans who is a great guy and really deserved to win. I am writing this from sunny Cairns at the moment and its fantastic up here. I have some great photos which I will post later this week, but its full lock down for me for 4 weeks in prep for Hawaii. My new MERIDA Warp TT bike is due in anytime this week. It was the main attraction at OZbike the other weekend and MERIDA pulled some massive strings to get it, so I can’t wait to debut it at Port Douglas Half on the 16th Sept. Until next time train safe and to all my Adelaide and Melb mates.. hang in there as the weather looks terrible.

Matty

Yeppon Half Ironman Pics!

Yeppoon Half Ironman – the low down

Well here it is the Matty White victory race report from my first half ironman win in Yeppoon. I am still pretty sore and sorry after a big effort on the course and an even bigger one trying to compete with Berkel and the boys at the after party, but its all good and have now set my sights firmly on Hawaii preperation which starts next week when I leave for Cairns for 4 weeks to grab some sunshine before the big Kahuna kicks off.

Yeppoon half is a race I had always earmarked to do but never got around to racing it as it was either too early in my season or I had some other commitment on, but this year I managed to clear my schedule align the stars and work it in, plus it was a perfect race to see how I would adapt to the heat as I was coming straight off the Adelaide winter. During the last 5 weeks I have been training really well with a great focus and managed to hit some really good long mileage weeks in the pouring rain and cold which gave me some confidence leading into the race.

I knew it was going to be steamy out there on the course as there was a long 1.7km walk to the start of the swim and I could feel the back of my wetsuit heating up nicely. The word on the street was that the temp was going to nudge 30 degrees by the time we hit the run. I managed to have a good swim to come out with the main players like Berkel and Watt with Tim Reed, and a few New Zealanders in tow. This group stayed together for most of the bike, I felt great on the Merida Warp 9 and the lightweight disc wheel was humming perfectly. The road srface is not the smoothest road around and I couldnt believe it when I saw people raicng in Speedo’s on that ball trembling road! doing it OLD SCHOOL deserves some serios respect! At the end of the bike ride NZ athlete Duncan Mnilne had built a solid 3 min lead at the start of the run, and as I lead the small group off the bike I wasnt sure how Milne would run in these conditions after such a big effort on the bike, and this proved to be right as I reeled him in after 6km of running. During this time Timmy Reed pulled up along side me and was running great, I actually though at that point he was going to dust me off. I hung tough and after a few km he started to drop back, and it was at this point I decided to conserve a bit of energy for the last lap as I was ever mindful of the heat factor creeping up. This tactic proved my saving grace as I looked behind me at 19km and saw Tim Berkel charging only 30m behind. Instead of getting to enjoy my last few km of my first win I had to sprint home taking the win by a scant 13 seconds…but it was all worth it in the end and I have the sunburn and blisters to prove it! I am back in Radelaide now and have a week here until I head back up north which I cant wait for….I have some great news in the next week with the new Merida Time Warp prototype hitting our shores, so as soon as it gets in I will post some bike porn for all you gear junkies, and the string tip is that it looks great. I will throw some Yeppoon half photos on the site in the next day or two when they get sent so hang tight and train safe.

check out the results and race report at http://www.capricornhalf.com/default.asp?PageID=183&NewsID=2346

Matty

New Sponsorships

It has been an exciting time the last few weeks in terms of sponsorships, DTR management has managed to secure some great support for me for the upcoming season with some reputable companies. Firstly WINNERS have come on board with their great tasting nutritional products, such as gels and energy bars. I actually raced and trained with these products during last season as they are readily available at most supermarkets, so to have a product that is tried and tested under race conditions takes out some of the guess work for me.. as the question is already answered and they do work. I also received a brand new TIMEX state of the art heart rate monitor which I am looking forward to using, I have not done much HR work before as I usually go by feel, so adding this element into my training should be quite beneficial. I am also welcoming a personal friend of mine and extremely knowledgable physiotherapist KYLIE RANKINE on board. Kylie is an outstanding and extremely knowledgable physio who will help keep my body together. Kylie is based at suite 8 116-120 Melbourne Street North Adelaide, she is not only a principal physio but also a Pilates Instructor, she can be contacted on 0408498170. I will update again soon as training at the moment is absolutely full on as the countdown to Yepoon Half Ironman is in full swing.

Matty

Ryders Performance Eyewear and Matty White team up for Media Launch

Check out the new Media Launch from RYDERS. Thanks to RYDERS, DTR Sports Management and Dan Peters Photography for the great work. I have included some exerts from the campaign which look pretty cool. Its an exciting time as it’s my first real media launch and its great to be involved with such an enthusiastic and personable company who not only support athletes but triathlon in general.

Check out the Ryders Eyewear Range