So who the flippin heck is this Rhys fella anyway?

I am an amateur cyclist born and bred in Melbourne, Australia. Cycling is - always has been, and always will be - a huge part of my life. I first started racing as a 14 year old and never really stopped. Now I blog about it.

Europe:

In 2004, at age 22, I first headed over to Europe and raced for a local French team. The next year I was fortunate enough to join Belgian powerhouse Pacco - St Martinus, a hugely successful team which allows only the occasional foreigner (max of about 3 a year) ‘enjoy’ the life of riding the tough amateur kermesse circuit, typical of bike racing in Northern Europe. It was during this year, that I - with good friends Cameron Streistermanis and Mark Hooper - teamed up with kermesse star Guy Smet who went on to win an incredible 36 races during one season alone. With other stars like Joseph Boulton, Patrick Van Roosebroeck and Cedric Van Lommel on the team, we incredibly picked up more than 50 race victories for the season, averaging about two or three a week - and became the most winning team in Belgium. I am still on good terms with this team - now known as “WimiGames - Sint Martinus Cycling Team” - and it gives me great satisfaction to know that I am welcomed back by my team managers Willy Van Der Eecken and (former Tour de France winner) Lucien Van Impe.

Post-Europe:

In 2006 I was forced, mostly due to financial reasons, to stay in Australia and work, with little spare time for training and racing. Despite this, I managed to win a couple of local races here and there, which was fun .

My plans for 2007  remain relatively simple changed dramatically after the riders walked out of Team BSC/Scott in frustration. As a result, very little racing took place.

Why the flippin heck do I have a website?

The idea of having my own website started in mid-2004. At the time I was full-time racing in Europe and spent my many free hours surfing the net for the latest results and photos, always in the hope that I would stumble across something about me or with me in it. And occasionally there was. But mostly I noticed that the best sites were from the very guys I was racing. These guys had their own sites. And I didn’t. So I did a bit of research, decided Bravenet.com looked easy (and free), signed up and within a few weeks I had something going. But it didn’t look too flash in my mind, so I spent a bit more time on it, registered the name www.RhysSmith.com, and by April 2005 the site was ready and officially launched.

During 2005-06 I spent most of my time learning about how to have a good page rather than actually doing one, so content was a little low. By the end of 2005 I had redesigned the site, still using Bravenet, making it look a bit brighter and easier to navigate. One major problem I found with having a “free” site is that sponsors were everywhere, and I had no control over them. Another problem was that Google struggled to find my site at all, which meant the number of hits I would receive was relatively low.

In an effort to overcome these pressing problems, I did some more research. During the 2006 Tour de France I become very keen on the TdFBlog.com website, liked it’s style and, using www.WordPress.com, overhauled my site (a lengthy process) and relauched it in September 2006. And it is what it is today.

In August 2007 I made the surprisingly tough decision to stop updating my site. I no longer have the time or energy to write about “not much”. But I have left the doors open, should I feel there are some stories to tell and there is a need to continue blogging, I’ll do it. Just not for the moment…

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