Far out man – 100th post time! I find it hard to actually believe that I have managed to bang out this much material and ramblings! I didn’t really expect when I first posted on 1 July that the Dirty Nomad would still be rolling through 100 posts and updates.
Whats kept it going? Well, aside from the rather expensive travel that I have been doing, its really simple as to why I have managed to keep it rolling, from a motivation perspective that is:
YOU
That’s right, I have an awesome audience of super cool people who come back day after day, especially when they are fucked off and bored at work, so – Thank you to everyone who takes the time to drop by, read the ranting and provide the motivation to keep not only rolling, but writing!
One of the tricky things about doing a blog that is based on cycling AND traveling is that its not cheap! A good learning for picking a blog theme if anyone out there is mulling it over. Ad revenue so far has met forecast and added up to approx $0.00, so work to do on that front. BUT – the T Shirts are not far off people, so keep hanging on! Again, I have no idea who ordered what or how to get them to people, but will get to that.
So then – What do I do to make the 100th post decent? How about this:
The Dirty Nomad World Cycling Tour photo comp!
Well, not really a competition per se given I took all the photos… But, a chance to recap on all the adventures and pick a winning photo. Mainly this is just an excuse for me to use the voting functionality which I love now I have figured it out! I have tried to pick photos that really punched me in the face with their goodness.
Picking ONE photo per trip was tough to be honest, and it did make me realise how awesome these trips have been when I started going back through them all. So, here we are, the photos for each trip that I thought best summed up each experience! I tried not to be narcissistic with it (honest, which is hard for me). Here we go – Voting at the bottom:
1. Trans Provence – The Greatest week on an MTB ever
Ready to either rip the last downhill or rappel out of a black hawk and take down a compound
This shot says it all for me for TP – Awesome riding, views, trails and mates. Those smiles didn’t need any effort at all, they were involuntary!
2. Whistler – The Shredpocalypse
Its all about the eyes
The story behind this shot was funny, I was stuck behind a slow rider and had to abruptly stop when I saw the photographer sign, so had very little run up… I should have been higher in the berm, not had my tellytubby GO Pro on my head and my lift pass hidden, BUT, this is still my fav Whistler shot! GO the V10c…
3. Italy trip – Climbing with Clarso
We SO need the Doc here to explain all this rock
Italy… Ah… Its an absolute Photo model the whole time that place, so it was hard to pick to be honest. For some reason this backside shot of the Stelvio nails it for me, it was a week of epic climbing and scenery, which is what this part of the road was all about.
4. Japan trip – the Hawk tour of Niseko
Promise: Not staged at all (I was too broken), but this is the new Rapha website cover…
Japan – What can I say, I loved that place and can’t wait for another training camp there. There were a LOT of awesome shots, but man, this one nails it. Thanks to the genius of the Artistic Hawk Director, he makes me look like I am going a lot better up the Panorama Line here than I actually was. I was broken, but busting out of the mist resulted in my favourite shot so far!
5. The NZ Trip – Wellington
Calm, but ominous…
I took this photo by chance and it perfectly sums up not only Wellington that time of the year, but the general theme of that week. Some times in the most challenging times, its good to be able to see some light to aim for, which is what this photo portrays well. Fuck, that’s pretty deep, yikes! Apologies.
6. Spain trip – The Vuelta
Is this the BEST photo I have ever taken? I suspect so…
Ah, Spain… Its a legend. This photo was SO good it actually looks fake FFS, but it wasn’t. This was from the incredible day one ride, about 15kms from the finish of stage 16 from memory. The colours of the sky and water were insane, cut in half with the awesome landscape. What a super awesome place!
7. Abu Dhabi trip – Desert storm III
Going full gas… in the land of gas…
We had to have one from the GO Pro… Its been temperamental, but also instrumental in bringing some of the best footage throughout the DNWCT. I shall soon transact on the newest model! This photo stood out of me for not only the starkness of the desert, but also the craziness of the bike path and the quality of the rider in the shot – A good summary of the UAE really!
8. People’s choice award – The Dirty Volleyball team
Boys, girls, or both?
This one was so weird and classic that it got a lot of love… Thanks to a combo of Mr Parker’s attention seeking, my bear impersonation and general encouragement from the Hawk, we ended up with this shot with a trainee BOSS volleyball team. The photo only captures about 20% of their fever and enthusiasm which was unleashed on us…
So – to the Voting!! Click below to give the world your view on what did it for you from the world tour:
So, where to from here? Onwards, that’s where – There are some cool things in the pipeline and I am back on another Singapore Airlines flight soon to continue the adventures, with some cool stuff in the pipeline for November and December. If you want to stay in touch and not have to check back all the time, follow the post and I think it will let you know each time I update. Thanks for following, time to reset the goal to post #200!
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