Nick Gates Foundation

Hi everyone.

It’s now the first week of 2009 and the first official week of my retirement. Since my last race in Townsville on November the 8th I’ve been pretty busy.

First up I had my wedding on the Gold Coast which was a 2 day affair – my wife is very similar to me and she doesn’t do things in halves – it was LARGE! Straight after we left for our Byron Bay honeymoon, and a few easy days in byron Bay was exactly what the doctor ordered.

After returning home and steadying the ship for a few days it was nice to get back on the bike and have a few rides. Nothing serious just some easy spins with a few mates and nothing more than 3hrs. The Nick Gates classic was a big day and I was very proud to be able to have my last race with the caliber of riders we had and the support from the local people in Townsville. It was exciting to see so many ambitious young cyclists – we had around 20 starters in the kids race plus the corperate race before the main event.

The main race was supported by 20 of the best pros in Oz and some of the best riders in the world. Throw in 20 good guys from Queensland and 15 hungry locals and you’ve got the mix of a good race. The curcuit we chose was right on The Strand and a hot dog style lap. The temperature felt like it was 50 dergees. After only 3 laps I was thinking “how long to go”? Since we’d ridden only 4 minutes, that meant 56 minutes to go!

The pace was on from the gun and by the halfway mark only half the field was left. With around 10 minutes left to race, I followed an attack from Scott Davis and we were away for a couple of minutes. Then Henk Vogels and Robbie joined us and we were going hard enough that I knew the bunch wouldn’t catch us. My biggest concern was hanging on.

Going into the last 3 laps I knew I had one good bullet left to fire, so I did. Robbie was covering Henk and Scotty everytime they moved, so with 1.5 laps to go I attacked and immediately got a gap. I was enough of a gap to hold onto the finish and a befitting way to end my 13 year cycling career – riding across the line, my hands in the air, in front of my family, friends, Belinda and the kids. It was great (and very emotional) to be standing on the podium with Henk Vogels (2nd) and Robbie McEwen (3rd) – two guys who I started my career with in 1993.

That evening was the gala dinner and we had close to 300 people attend. We had a great night with a few stories of days gone by plus a great auction with a lot of my mates donating items. Cadel’s TDF bike, Robbie’s green jersey, Matt Loyds Olympic jersey, Silence lotto jersey, Troy Bayliss’ helmet and a Danny Buderus Test jersey. We raised around $45,000 from the auction which was fantastic. It was also the launch of the Nick Gates Foundation and we presented 4 kids with their jerseys and the first in the foundation.

Dave Restall, the president of the Townsville cycling club, will be selecting a few more kids and the races which they will be going to throughout 2009. I’m looking forward to following the progress of these kids and helping them in any way I can.

2009 should be another great year for Australian cycling. There’s so much talent coming through – it’s a really exciting time.

To everybody who supported me through the Classic … THANKYOU. You know who you are and I look forward to seeing you all on the road.

NGF clothing will be available on the website really soon, so for any orders, questions or training tips, don’t be shy to email me at nicholasgates@bigpond.com

Keep Pedaling,
Nick