8th February 2012

A MOTORCYCLIST is due to leave Bridport today on a road trip to the other side of the world.

Building contractor Rob Booth is taking a five-month long motorbike journey across the globe to “find himself” after suffering from depression.

The 46-year-old was inspired by a similar trip taken by movie star Ewan McGregor in the TV series Long Way round.

Mr Booth will ride more than 12,000 miles to his home in Wellington, New Zealand after attending his daughter Christina Wareham’s wedding.

The route will go across Europe, through India, China and Australia.

Mr Booth said he was relaxed about taking the journey, which he is using to highlight Dyslexia Action and depression in men.

The dyslexia sufferer said: “I’m off to find myself. I’d suffered with depression and wanted to stop the world and get off but rather than do that I’m going to ride around the world and find out who I am and challenge myself.

“I’m quite relaxed about it and I suppose I’m looking forward to the first time I fall off and see my new bike sliding down the road and have my heart broken. 

“Then I’ll pick myself up and get on with the rest of the trip.

“But there’s nothing I’m worried about because it’s all part the challenge. 

“It’s the bad times I will look back on with fondness, the times when I was swearing and cussing and regretting ever starting, but that’s the whole point  - the challenge of it.”

Mr Booth is a keen motorcyclist and used to compete in motorcross competitions as a youth.

His BMW GS1200 Triple Black adventure motorbike cost £15,000 and will weigh around 300 kilograms when fully loaded. it is a similar bike used by mr McGregor in his TV series.

Mr Booth said: “the show really did inspire me and also left me wanting to know more, there was a lot of stuff they didn’t tell you about the experience. But they had back up, I won’t be having any of that. It’s just one man and two wheels.”

Mr Booth said he had wanted to complete the adventure for two charities but had chosen Dyslexia Action after suffering with the condition since he was a pupil at Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis.

He said: “I choose that charity because I wanted to do it for a cause close to me and, because I didn’t get any help with it, I wanted to raise awareness for people who have.

“also I want to raise awareness of depression which is one of the symptoms of being dyslexic.”

Mr Booth will upload his current location, photographs and videos of his adventure on spotadventures.com – his tag is 1man2wheels. 

You can also follow him on facebook.com/pages/Robs-way-round

 If you would like to sponsor Rob go to justgiving.com/1man2wheels or text UKNZ80 followed by the amount you would like to donate to 70070.

PICTURE: Rob Booth prepares for his five-month adventure across the globe to find himself after suffering depression

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Credit: Connie Carello

Canadian Football Offensive Lineman for the Edmonton Eskimos and former Sault Ste. Marie resident, Aaron Fiaconni is using his career as a football player to bring attention to a serious issue most men would often shy away from. It has only been within the last couple of years that Prostate Cancer has become a topic more widely discussed and promoted through a month-long event known as ?Movember.? Originating in Australia in 2003, the movement addressed men?s health issues including depression. the rules, according to the official movemeber website are as follows, once registered at movemeber.com each ?mo bro? from the beginning of the month must be clean shaven and must grow a moustache, the moustache may not adjoin side burns or the handlebars of the chin, and each member must conduct himself like a gentleman. You may ask, how does growing a moustache help serve the cause? It not only allows those suffering from Prostate Cancer to recognize your MOcontribution as a sign of social support and assistance in the promotion of awareness but enables social organizations to host fundraisers and events to donate proceeds to further fund research. Aaron, has formed a team on movember.com where in which people can pledge him or make online donations for the cause. he is currently the Captain of the Hairy Hogs and has raised nearly $1,200 dollars individually and $21,644 with members from the Eskimo Football team. His reason for putting in the time to do so was very emotionally impacting as Prostate Cancer has affected a close family relative, his father Ken, ?Prostate Cancer in particular is kind of dear to my family as my father has been dealing with the illness for over two years now, receiving radiation treatments at the new hospital. when something like this happens to someone in your family, you go through a lot, anytime you hear the word Cancer it has a negative spin. You tend to focus on the negative and forget that there is some good that does come from such horrible circumstance, and Movemeber is one of them. my father is a testament of the human spirit and a beacon of light and we need to keep battling on.? Speaking with Ken and having the opportunity to meet him allowed me to really understand how much strength combating an illness like this takes. he truly is an inspirational man who does not let his situation hinder his optimism. Currently on his 28th treatment and with only 5 more to go, Ken is in high spirits and openly discusses his diagnosis with the intention of helping others, ?I was diagnosed in December 2010 and received chemotherapy by February. I should have gone for a check up much earlier as I started to experience symptoms. It did not occur to me that it could be Prostate Cancer at the time, but when it affects you personally you are more willing to find out about symptoms, your awareness increases and you find yourself willing to learn.? According to Ken, education was the prominent message he wishes to offer others and encourages men to take a PST blood test (Prostate Specific Antigen Test) as it can detect issues early on. in addition to this, Ken could not be more proud of his son Aaron and of all the other MObro?s who helped join the cause through the growth of a moustache or through donations. ?The support is growing and it is nice to see people willing to look a little silly for a month and drop their macho bravado to draw attention to a cause very close to my heart,? Aaron states. to help Aaron or others raise some cash for the stash please visit the link below, ca.movember.com/mospace/1501154/#. Local2 could not be more proud of those who participated this year!

how long does it usually take before rabies symptoms start showing up??? for example: say my dog licked infected blood yesterday morning, when will the symptoms show????

i hear it takes 10 days before the dog dies. can you tell me what aproximate day numbers the symptoms will show ??

Example: day 1 foam at mouth day two fever etc????

Firsly, how do you know the blood was infected? secondly, if you live in Australia there are no cases of rabies here. Also if you think your dog is infected it would be best to take the dog to the vet ASAP. a vet would know all about the symptoms. if you are unsure if your dog has contracted the disease you could at least call the vet who will be able to tell you what signs to look out for.

TEARS roll down Carmel Turner's face.

She takes one step, and then another, and then another. She doesn’t stop for half an hour.

Her husband Scott and their two-year-old daughter Grace watch in amazement.

She is on the treadmill in a room of their Langwarrin home and it’s the first time she has walked in two years.

It’s a moment she thought would never happen, after two years of hell.

"I just kept putting one foot in front of another, it was a miracle, it was incredible, it was surreal," she says.

Days earlier she had been one of the first people in Australia to have a bone marrow stem cell transplant for her multiple sclerosis.

After giving birth to Grace, like most first-time mums, Ms Turner thought it would be the start of a happy and fulfilling new chapter in her life.

But when Grace was just three months old, Ms Turner started suffering severe pain and had difficulty walking. "It was like someone stabbing me with a knife in my brain, it was excruciating," she says.

The energetic high school science teacher became a shadow of her former self, sleeping most of the time.

"the worst thing is you don’t know how much worse it’s going to get … I cried every night and I didn’t know what it was," she says. "I didn’t know what to do to stop the pain."

She would rise at 8am and be back in bed at 11am, not rising again until 3pm.

She couldn’t handle heat and stopped having hot showers. She wore a cooling vest, packed with ice, 24 hours a day. No doctor could diagnose her mystery illness, and one even told her it was post-natal depression and to snap out of it.

Finally, on February 19, 2009, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the nervous system that often affects young adults.

MS attacks the protective sheath around the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

THE first signs of the crippling disease emerged 12 years ago when she visited her GP complaining of numbness and tingling in her feet. But she remained fully functional. Her rapid deterioration was triggered by Grace’s birth.

She was put on a cocktail of drugs, pills and injections, which treated her symptoms, but did nothing to halt the disease and her downward spiral continued.

"I could barely walk. I was really bad," she says. "I used a wheelchair, a walking stick and a walking frame."

Mr Turner says: "She couldn’t even get to the other side of the kitchen without a walking frame.

"as soon as she was diagnosed, every day she just got worse and worse."

The couple were so desperate they bought $1000 worth of vitamins from a door-to-door salesman, who claimed they did wonders. of course, they did nothing.

She then heard of bone marrow stem cell transplants being done in Australia and she made an appointment with Canberra neurologist Colin Andrews.

For years, Australians have been flocking to countries like Switzerland and Israel to have this treatment, which has been around for more than a decade.

Australian doctors were reluctant because it was very risky. the death rate was 10 per cent, but has fallen to below 1 per cent.

The first transplant in Australia was done two years ago by Perth neurologist bill Carroll and since then a dozen have been done.

Dr Andrews says the treatment stops the progression of the disease, as well as reversing some of the damage it has done.

But it’s too early to call it a cure. "in 70 per cent of patients there is no evidence of occurrence of the disease over 100 months, but what happens beyond that we don’t yet know," he says.

Carmel and her husband pack their little girl off to live with relatives and start her stem cell bone marrow transplant in Canberra.

Haematologist Dr Michael Pidcock likens the process to rebooting the patient’s immune system.

SHE begins the two-month course with chemotherapy at Canberra Hospital to destroy her faulty white blood cells, so they no longer attack the nerve sheaths.

Back at their rented Canberra flat, she begins the gruelling daily task of injecting herself in her stomach with a drug to stimulate bone marrow growth.

Eight days later she is back in hospital, ready to have her bone marrow stem cells harvested.

She is hooked up to a machine, which her blood flows through and it extracts her stem cells, collecting them in a bag. Altogether six million stem cells are harvested, frozen and stored.

A month later, she begins a heavy course of chemotherapy to knock out her immune system and any remaining bone marrow cells.

On November 3, her big day arrives and her harvested stem cells are re-infused into her.

Days later, her white blood cell count drops to zero and with no immunity, she feels very sick, slipping in and out of consciousness.

"my wife doesn’t stop talking, but she didn’t utter a single word for 24 hours." Mr Turner is worried.

She develops two infections and is put on strong antibiotics. She has painful ulcers in her digestive tract.

Eight days after the transplant, her white blood cells increase, indicating bone marrow has regenerated.

On November 18 Carmel is discharged from hospital, returning to Melbourne to begin her new life.

She starts walking on her treadmill, sitting on her exercise bike and doing stretches for 2 1/2 hours a day.

One of her most triumphant moments is returning all her aids – her shower chair, toilet seat and food trolley – to the council.

"I’m starting to get my life back and hope. we haven’t had any hope for a very long time," she says.

"you feel like you’ve gone to hell and back and you’re finally coming home and getting better."

She hasn’t needed her wheelchair in three months. It is folded up and tucked behind the washing machine gathering dust.

"I feel 100 per cent better than what I was, I have no pain, I don’t cry myself to sleep any more," she says.

"I have not had one stabbing pain in my brain.

"I have not had one pain in my spinal cord since I had the treatment."

WHILE she no longer has MS, the damage it wreaked remains, but she hopes it will start to repair itself.

"I’ve only got a 20 per cent chance of having another attack, so hopefully this is the end of it," she says.

Ms Turner has been embracing the simple things in life, like tucking her daughter into bed at night and taking her to the park.

She has her first follow-up medical appointment next week, an MRI scan.

Dr Andrews says he expects the MRI to show a lot of improvement, but there may still be some evidence of damage from before.

But for now, Carmel Turner is just enjoying being a normal mum for the first time. the new chapter has well and truly begun.

Alarming new research shows smoking cannabis can trigger psychotic illness such as schizophrenia almost three years earlier.

A new report which analysed 83 studies involving 22,000 people found people vulnerable to mental health problems are likely to suffer symptoms at a much younger age by using the illicit drug.

The findings confirm that cannabis accelerates the onset of full-blown mental illness, which makes it harder to treat successfully.

A man rolls a joint: Experts claim ‘overwhelming evidence’ shows cannabis triggers schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders

Researchers in Australia behind the latest analysis in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal and British experts are calling for renewed public health warnings about the dangers of cannabis.

They claim ‘overwhelming evidence’ shows it triggers schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, perhaps through an interaction between genetic and environmental disorders or by disrupting brain development.

Dr Matthew Large and colleagues at the Prince of Wales Hospital, New South Wales, looked at 83 studies involving 8,000 people who used cannabis and other substances and 14,000 people who did not.

They found those who used cannabis developed psychosis about 2.7 years younger than those who did not.

Those who used any type of substance developed psychosis about two years younger, whereas the use of alcohol did not affect the age at which psychosis began.

Typical psychotic events among cannabis users are paranoid ideas, hallucinations, hearing voices or bizarre behaviour.

Dr Large said ‘The results of this study provide strong evidence that reducing cannabis use could delay or even prevent some cases of psychosis.

‘Reducing the use of cannabis could be one of the few ways of altering the outcome of the illness because earlier onset of schizophrenia is associated with a worse prognosis and because other factors associated with age at onset, such as family history and sex, cannot be changed.

‘The results of this study confirm the need for a renewed public health warning about the potential for cannabis use to bring on psychotic illness.’

Previous research shows one-quarter of the population has a strong genetic predisposition to develop psychosis and other schizophrenia-like symptoms after smoking cannabis.

The risk increases more than 10-fold in these people.

Experts warn that anyone with pre-existing mental health problems or family history is at increased risk of mental illness if they use cannabis.

Mary Brett, a trustee of CanSS (Cannabis Skunk Support), said the study’s conclusions provided ‘overwhelming evidence’ of the link between cannabis use and psychosis.

She said ‘We know from research done by the Institute of Psychiatry that adolescents who carry a particular copy of a gene are five times more likely to develop psychosis after smoking cannabis – 10 times if they carry two copies.

‘We’ve been trying to campaign for more awareness and a public health campaign is long overdue.

‘People are not listening to the evidence that psychosis happens quicker and younger to cannabis users, and it’s heartbreaking to see the consequences for individuals and families.’

It was reported yesterday that respected GP Dr Hans-Christian Raabe claims he was sacked as a government drugs adviser for holding ‘embarrassing’ views about homosexuality.

Dr Raabe, a ‘traditional Christian’, was appointed to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs less than a month ago and has not had the chance to attend a meeting.

Home Office officials said he had failed to disclose being a co-author of a study suggesting a link between homosexuality and paedophilia.

The Advisory Council was the centre of controversy in 2009 when its chairman David Nutt was sacked for insisting cannabis was less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite reports of liver damage in some women using black cohosh to ease menopause symptoms, clinical trials testing one major brand of this herb have so far found no evidence that it is to blame, according to a research review.

Extracts of black cohosh, a plant native to North America, are marketed as a "natural" form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and are most commonly used to treat hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

Studies so far have come to conflicting conclusions about whether black cohosh works.

There have also been concerns raised about its safety. Reports of liver inflammation and liver failure in a small number of black cohosh users prompted some countries, like Australia and the UK, to require warning labels on the products.

But it has never been clear that black cohosh was to blame for those cases of liver damage. in most cases, doctors were unable to account for the patients' drinking habits or use of medications that can harm the liver.

And many postmenopausal women who are plagued by hot flashes and night sweats prefer to try black cohosh instead of taking hormones. Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, has been controversial since 2002, when the Women's Health Initiative, a massive government-sponsored clinical trial, found that women on HRT had higher rates of heart attack, stroke, breast cancer and blood clots than placebo users.

Experts now advise that while HRT is effective for menopausal symptoms, women should take the lowest possible dose for the shortest time possible.

For the new study, reported in the journal Menopause, researchers combined the results of five previously published clinical trials of the black cohosh product Remifemin. together, the studies involved more than 1,100 women who used either this black cohosh product or a comparison substance — either an inactive placebo or a hormonal medication called tibolone — for three to six months.

Overall, the researchers found, 88 women dropped out of the studies, but none did so because of abnormal liver enzymes, a potential sign of liver damage.

And there was no evidence that black cohosh triggered harmful changes in liver enzymes. in both the black cohosh and comparison groups, about 5 percent of women developed abnormally high levels of a liver enzyme known as AST.

On the other hand, of 37 black cohosh users who had abnormally high AST levels before treatment, 62 percent saw those levels drop back into the normal range during therapy.

The study was led by Dr. Belal Naser of Salzgitter, Germany-based Schaper & Brummer GmbH & Co., which manufactures Remifemin.

But an expert not involved in the study said the findings are consistent with other evidence that black cohosh is safe for the liver.

Dr. Richard B. van Breemen, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy in Chicago, was part of a 2009 clinical trial that tested black cohosh against a placebo, standard hormone replacement and red clover — another alternative therapy for menopause symptoms.

They found that over one year, black cohosh was no better than the placebo for easing hot flashes and night sweats.

But there was also no evidence that the herb harmed women's liver function.

"although black cohosh did not prevent hot flashes in menopausal women in our study, we found that black cohosh was safe," van Breemen told Reuters Health in an email. "in particular, we tested for liver damage in our study and found that black cohosh was not hepatotoxic (toxic to the liver)."

That trial, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was not included in the current analysis — which focused only on trials of Remifemin.

that narrow focus, van Breemen noted, is a weakness of the study.

still, he said, "the conclusion…that black cohosh does not cause liver damage is consistent with the results of our investigation and many other clinical trials."

in general, experts do advise that women stop using black cohosh and tell their doctor if they develop any potential signs of liver toxicity, including abdominal pain, dark urine or jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes).

Three months worth of Remifemin tablets costs about $30 in the U.S. — roughly the same as Premarin, a widely used hormone replacement drug.

SOURCE: bit.ly/gANnQZ Menopause, online January 11, 2011.

Posted December 18, 2010 12:15:00

New testing has found the first New South Wales cases of a super bug that has killed thousands of patients in European and North American hospitals.

New South Wales Health says 21 patients tested positive to a virulent strain of Clostridium difficile, not detected in Australia until earlier this year in Melbourne.

Some of the symptoms include mild to severe diarrhoea, fever and stomach pains.

Professor Lyn Gilbert, chair of the New South Wales expert advisory group on health care associated infections, says New South Wales Health are now testing regularly for the bug.

“Some cases have been identified almost by chance in northern Sydney that have occurred over the last couple of years in several different hospitals in northern Sydney,” she said.

“None of them as far as we can tell have particularly severe disease, contrary to what happened in the northern hemisphere where it often was more severe than usual.”

Editor’s note: Current or retired, he’s the most successful Australian rider by far. yet in some circles, he’s regarded as the forgotten sprinter who in the face of opposition like Cavendish, Farrar and Greipel, should simply bow out quietly. Robbie McEwen has never been one to do that, and tells Anthony Tan in what may be his final season, there’s plenty of fight left in him yet.

For some reason, failure often brings out the most interesting stories.

“I wanted to do something different,” Bradley Wiggins told the UK’s Guardian newspaper of his new book, on Tour, “and avoid your normal Tour de France classic where the photographer is hidden in a field of sunflowers. I wanted to give an honest insight into a consuming Tour. It’s turned out pretty interesting because there aren’t many books out there documenting someone’s failure.”

Robbie McEwen, still Australia’s most successful rider if one judges success by the number of victories and about to enter his sixteenth professional year, is also in the midst of penning his autobiography. It’s unlikely to be released until sometime after next year’s Tour de France; maybe the year after if he has a blinder of a season and decides to ride in 2012.

But like Wiggins, it was almost as if he was riding this year’s Grande Boucle in a parallel disaster zone with the Briton.

“Oh yeah, yeah, it was the worst ever [Tour de France],” McEwen tells VeloNews when we pay him a visit in his home state of Queensland in late November, on his first pre-season training camp with his new Australian-registered team, held in the trendy beachside town of Noosa.

“With those two crashes it was the worst, the most painful, the most suffering I’ve done … and for little or no reward. Nothing better than a fourth place – which is terrible. in a way it was quite an achievement to make it to Paris in the condition I was in, especially after those two crashes – it just absolutely wiped me out.”

Like Wiggins, McEwen chose to ride the Giro d’Italia to prepare for the Tour. it worked out fabulously for ‘Wiggo’ in 2009 and riding the Giro-Tour de Suisse-Tour de France has been a tried and true formula for McEwen since 2002, the year he took the first of his three green jerseys and thus ended the reign of one of the world’s best sprinters at the time, Erik Zabel, who won the maillot vert a record six consecutive occasions between 1996 and 2001.

It was one of hardest Giri d’Italia in recent history, however, and as Wiggins recalled to the Guardian, “It felt like I’d spent all my tokens before the Tour. I took it easy in the 2009 Giro and the weather was fantastic and the course was nowhere near as severe. This year we pushed hard and I was seventh with a week to go – but, eventually, we broke. I then got sick and the Tour started disastrously.”

McEwen, far more seasoned at moderating his strength and still on the comeback trail after he smashed his left knee into a street sign at the 2009 Tour of Belgium and sliced his ligaments like a butcher taking to a pig, took things much easier right from the start of the year. “The first half of my season was all about building back up and getting racing back in my legs. and doing a good Tour Down Under – I didn’t win a stage but I finished fourth overall, which I thought was almost like a bit of a win. so I had a good, solid start.

“I knew the first half would be a really up-and-down struggle and really managing the knee, and trying to get general strength back in the left leg and just keep improving. and the first six months went like that – good days, bad days, bit on, bit off. By the time I got to the Tour de Suisse I was going really, really well – and I really felt the power coming back. and I went to the Tour in great form; I felt fantastic, I was riding strong.”

The signs that Wiggins was not the man he was at the 2009 Tour came quickly, and down with a thud. Normally perfectly suited to a race of 8.9 kilometers in length, the Brit would finish a lousy 77th and 57 seconds down on Fabian Cancellara. The team opened the first page of their Book of Excuses by saying because they decided to send him off far earlier than the majority of contenders he encountered the worst conditions. as Wiggins later admitted, it was more due to pomposity and the inexperience of his new team riding at this level: “I ended up up my own arse a little – and it was so far from the truth it was unreal.”

McEwen would have to wait two more days before his Tour de France campaign began to fall to pieces, although for different reasons.

On the crash-riddled third stage from Brussels to Spa, the Australian ended up with a gaping hole in his right elbow and by the time the medic was able to get to him and patch him up, he estimates he lost around 400 cc’s (400 ml) of blood. When he made it to the hospital, they gave him a tetanus injection without telling him – and was hit with the resulting symptoms: “I had pretty much all of ‘em – nausea, headache, muscle pain, lead legs, and five days of fever – I was f–ked.

“And those next days [in the first week] were all sprints. I mean, the next day [Stage 4] was the Roubaix cobbles and I came in the third group on the road – fourteenth – which is not a bad effort considering, I thought. But I felt even worse the next day and worse the day after that and I was up there and trying but I just had no power. I was struggling to stay in the bunch on the flat, really. and on the day I started feeling a tiny bit better [Stage 6], the TV guy from wherever he was – Eurovision (sic) or something – ran out and head-on into me after the finish line there.”

First believing him to be an official chaperone pursuing stage winner mark Cavendish, a communiqué said the offender was a technician with the Tour’s official international broadcasting rights holder. “Some cockhead from the organization jumped straight out in front of me trying to run back to get the winner for the podium,” McEwen told Fox Sports. “He jumped straight into me (sic) handlebars. I was doing sixty f–kin’ k an hour.”

“Then,” McEwen says, “I was absolutely f–ked. There’s no other way to put it.” a broken body but no bones broken, he would make it to Paris, finish ninth – behind Cavendish again – on the Champs-Elysées and fourth-last on the overall classification, over four hours behind Alberto Contador, who now has more problems of his own than he would care to imagine.

There was good reason why he suffered intolerably like he did, though. he thought, as many others also believed, that he had a good shot at becoming road world champion by the year’s end – and what better way to do it than in your own backyard?

Then came the sting in the tail: his non-selection in the elite men’s Australian team.

“I said it at the time and I still maintain it was the wrong decision. I was preparing myself for the worlds and that’s why I struggled – that’s why I pushed myself through the Tour, to have the k’s in my legs, so I could then have a little rest and do a build-up towards the worlds. I won a stage in Eneco Tour [Stage 1] and was riding quite well there. Actually, I was riding better than quite well – I was riding bloody good. and they told me a day or two days after I won a stage in Eneco Tour that I wasn’t going to be selected for the worlds. I couldn’t believe it.”

The 262.7 kilometer parcours, which consisted of 85km stroll from Melbourne’s Central Business District to the 15.9km finishing circuit in Geelong, where 11 laps were to be completed, was considered a pure sprinter’s course to begin with, thought best-suited to a rider like Cavendish or Tyler Farrar. But as more riders gave their feedback – in particular, from a July visit by the Italian team – the pundits changed their thinking, and Philippe Gilbert and Filippo Pozzato became the outright favorites.

Regardless, McEwen, armed with a wealth of worlds knowledge, was convinced a sprinter would prevail – but one with experience and the strength that comes with experience, rather than a younger rider like Cav’ or Farrar.

“It’s hypothetical [if I would have been in the front group] but well, you’ve got to look at the history of riders like [Cavendish and Farrar]. they were probably a bit too young in that year, in 2006, but riders like that also went [to the worlds in] Salzburg where I ran fifth and there were four guys forty meters in front of us sprinting for the world title, and I beat the rest of the bunch and we were still only fifty guys. maybe I wouldn’t have been there but I never got the chance.

“I’d sort of been trying to trim down a bit through the season, just very, very gradually. and all that was with an eye on Geelong – just to get that little bit lighter, like two kilos lighter, race-weight – but take my time to get down there. and that was all going to plan and I put a lot of thought and effort into getting ready for Geelong. and that’s part of the reason why I was so disappointed because I’d been slowly but surely getting myself ready for it throughout the season. I knew the first half was going to be about just getting back to good racing condition, and then it was going to be fine-tuning after that and all the time, just dropping that little bit of weight. and it wasn’t that I was overweight – but you’ve just got to do that little bit more to make yourself a little bit lighter. It’s like a boxer coming into a fight.”

When the country’s national performance director and chief of the selectors, Shayne Bannan, informed him he wasn’t going to be part of the team, McEwen said he didn’t say much – he wasn’t able to.

“I didn’t get as far as saying ‘why?’” he says, “because I was just so shocked. and I said [to Bannan]: ‘I reckon that course will be a 30-to-40 rider sprint’ – and it was 30 riders and Thor won and Allan was third – he [Davis] did a great ride. But I still believe I deserved a place in the team. Whatever happened during the race, depending on how everyone was going and what was going on, I was prepared to ride as a team-man as well and I’ve done it before.

“But, I missed out and that was a huge disappointment,” he added. “To miss riding a worlds in your own country, and just to miss any worlds you think you can win. and now, I’ve just got to refocus and think about the team in 2011, and then actually getting on the start line and riding in Copenhagen.”

McEwen’s also had to get over the disappointment that his yet-to-be-named squad of 24 riders will not be a ProTeam next year but Pro Continental, and will therefore be reliant on wildcard invitations at the biggest races on the UCI World Calendar. He’s also a little disappointed one or two of his fellow Aussies didn’t make that “leap of faith” and join him, where a valued signature such as that of Michael Rogers or Richie Porte would likely have garnered one of eighteen ProTeam licenses from the UCI.

“It’s disappointing that the reception by the Aussie riders wasn’t as warm as what [Pegasus Sports team owner] Chris White and everybody had hoped. But we understand their position; they want to have a guaranteed program, they’re still building their careers and there was that very real risk of them coming across and us still not getting a ProTeam license. although that’s where they’ve got to have faith in themselves and say, ‘Well, we may be Pro Continental, but with us in the team we’ll get a wildcard.’ only time will tell next season if they should’ve stayed where there are or come here.

“But, anyway, we’re not going to look back,” says McEwen.

“It’s probably a better step for us to do first, rather than be obliged to ride the whole [World Calendar] program. maybe that’s the step we need to take, being Pro Continental, because we can still get invites to big races. and hopefully we can get [an invite to] a Grand Tour. We’re already getting invitations to some really good races. in a way it was disappointing, in another way it was realistic; that’s the step we need to take. I mean, I definitely would’ve been happy if we got a [ProTeam] license, but I s’pose there would’ve been just a bit more recruiting to do as well, then.”

At 38 – he’ll turn 39 next June – does he feel like his body is changing at all? is it growing stronger, but at the expense of some speed – speed that in the early-to-mid 2000s, went largely unmatched? and if so, will he start targeting different races?

“Nup. No, I’m still going to focus on the sprint,” he says. “I’m not going to try and change what I am – I’m going to try and maintain, as best I can, the abilities that I’ve got.

“If I’m as explosive or as fast, I don’t know; It’s been hard to tell since this leg injury if I’ve had some natural decline or any problems I’ve had is all through the injury. I have lost a bit of power because of that injury, but I’ve noticed there’s been flashes of it in races, where I haven’t won many races this season – I won two races – but I had a couple of others where I won the sprint right behind a breakaway group in a big race and gone, ‘Shit! That would’ve been a really nice one to catch ‘em this time.’

“So I have those moments [where I say to myself], ‘Yep, I’m still bloody fast’.”

Does he get pissed off that he’s sort of ‘the forgotten sprinter’ and everyone’s talking about Cavendish and Farrar and Greipel and Hushovd?

“Oh, it’s all about instant satisfaction and being up with the latest and people want to talk about new names and create new battles. You sort of even get the impression of ‘wait for the old ones to go away’ so [the media] can really concentrate on the younger ones. I mean, I’m really hoping to get a start in the Tour Down Under so they can talk about Cavendish, Farrar and Greipel and I’d love to have a photo of me right in front of them on the finish line!” he says, grinning like a kid that can’t wait for Christmas.

So what is it exactly you want to get out of 2011, in what could well be your final year?

“I want to win a couple of races, that’s for certain. I want to get a few wins. I want to help some of my team-mates win. help the younger guys develop and establish the team, and get it that credibility on the road, where the bigger teams are really keeping an eye on us and saying, ‘this is a serious team that we’ve got to watch out for’. and also giving the signals to the race organizers that when they take our team in a race, that we’re good value, that we’re getting results, that we’re racing aggressively. and that we can take on the bigger teams on paper.”

At the end of the interview, we talk about his autobiography and whether it’s been cathartic in a way, purging out the bad times but still remembering the good. it if it’s to be released towards the end of next year, has it been written with retirement in mind?

“Ahhhh well, I haven’t written the ending yet,” says McEwen with a wry smile.

“I’m not so sure it’s going to be about, ‘And then I retired’. because the book is up to about now, but it’ll be a sort of ‘to be continued’ because I’ll still be racing the 2011 season when the book comes out. so we’ll see what we can squeeze into it and what happens between now and final edit.”

Realizing life in advertising was nothing like “Mad Men” and buoyed by the Olympic Games in his Australian hometown of Sydney, Anthony Tan turned his back on a lucrative copywriting career in 2000 in pursuit of something more cerebral. Combining wordsmithing with his experiences as an A-Grade club racer and a season racing in Europe, a career as a cycling scribe beckoned. More than 10 Grand Tours and countless Classics later, it’s where he still is today. he has been a contributor to VeloNews since 2006. in 2010, he won Cycling Australia’s media award for best story.

Australia dials down its pandemic alert statusIn the wake of an influenza season that was milder than last year’s, Australian health officials today announced a downgrade in the country’s pandemic phase from "protect" to "alert." Australia had been in "protect" status since Jun 17, 2009. the "protect" phase focuses on identifying and protecting people at risk for serious illness, while the "alert" phase involves increased vigilance for a new flu virus or a change in a circulating virus, the Department of Health Ageing said. "This is consistent with the WHO’s [World Health Organization's] recommendation to continue ongoing vigilance in the early post-pandemic period," the agency said. the WHO declared the world to be in the post-pandemic period on Aug 10, while cautioning that localized outbreaks were likely to continue. the Australian officials said they maintained the "protect" status at that time because their flu season was still under way and a late surge in 2009 H1N1 cases was still possible. the statement said the pandemic H1N1 vaccine would remain freely available until Dec 31, when all doses will reach expiration.Dec 1 Australian announcement

Pneumonia more severe in pandemic than in seasonal fluSpanish and Chilean researchers who compared pneumonia cases associated with 2009 H1N1 flu and seasonal flu found that H1N1 patients were younger and had more severe disease than seasonal flu patients, according to a report in the European Respiratory Journal. the authors gathered data on 75 consecutive patients treated at a hospital in Chile for pneumonia and H1N1 flu from May through July of 2009, and compared these cases with those of 52 patients treated for pneumonia and seasonal flu between 2003 and 2008, most of them consecutive patients at a hospital in Barcelona. the H1N1 patients were younger than the seasonal flu patients (mean age, 39.7 versus 69.6 years) and had fewer preexisting illnesses and a lower rate of alcoholism. the H1N1 patients had a 28% rate of respiratory failure, versus 12% for the seasonal flu patients, and the death rate in the H1N1 group was about twice that in the seasonal flu patients, although this difference was not statistically significant.Nov 25 Eur Resp J abstract

Poll finds risk groups underestimate flu threatNearly two thirds of Canadians who have chronic medical conditions don’t believe they are at greater risk for flu complications, according to survey findings released yesterday by the Ontario Lung Association. the results also revealed that 80% say they forego seeing their doctors, because they believe their symptoms are manageable and 70% don’t consult their physicians, because they assume that the only treatments are over-the-counter products. Dr Anthony D’Urzo, a family medicine professor at the University of Toronto, said in a statement that people with chronic conditions and flu-like symptoms should seek medical care quickly, because measures such as antiviral drugs can reduce complications and hospitalizations. the findings are based on an online survey of more than 1,000 people with chronic medical conditions that was conducted in October by Leger Marketing, according to Postmedia Network, a Canadian news service.Nov 30 Ontario Lung Association press releaseNov 30 Postmedia story

Study tracks H1N1 vaccine protection from moms to newbornsExpectant mothers who are were immunized against the 2009 H1N1 virus passed protective antibodies to their babies that lasted at least 5 months, according to Italian researchers who reported their findings today in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). the study includes 75 consecutive women from Milan in their third pregnancy trimester who received an intramuscular dose of MR59-adjuvanted 2009 H1N1 vaccine in October and November of 2009. Women’s blood samples were obtained at delivery, 2 months, and 5 months, and babies’ blood samples were drawn within 2 days of birth and at 2 and 5 months. Sixty-nine mother-baby pairs completed the study. All mothers had hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) titers that were considered protective during delivery and follow-up. Infants’ mean antibody titers at birth decreased progressively during the 5-month follow up. Transplacental antibody transfer was calculated to be 0.55, and the estimated half-life of passively acquired maternal 2009 H1N1 antibodies was estimated to be 83.4 days. the authors said that flu was circulating in Milan during the study period and that some of the participants could have been naturally exposed to the virus, but they said the chances were unlikely.Dec 1 JAMA extract

Russia reports good flu vaccination progressRussia’s top public health official today said 31.5 million people, just over 22% of the population, have received flu immunization so far, RIA Novosti, the country’s news service, reported. Gennady Onishchenko, chief sanitary doctor, said the vaccine campaign started in early October and has already been completed in 71 of Russia’s 83 regions. the federal government has paid for vaccines for 27.8 million (16.6 million adults and 11.2 million children) of those immunized so far, while employers have paid for the rest.Dec 1 RIA Novosti story

ONE of the mysteries of Parkinson’s disease is a step closer to being solved after Sydney researchers identified a simple way of diagnosing the condition.

Despite obvious physical symptoms at later stages, Parkinson’s disease – the second-most common neurological condition in Australia after dementia – is extremely difficult to diagnose. But now doctors may be able to use ultrasound to identify changes in the brain, increasing the chances of early diagnosis.

Associate Professor Kay Double, a principal research fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia, believes Parkinson’s disease can be diagnosed using a simple 10-minute ultrasound. Ultrasound is inexpensive and safe, unlike most brain-scan technologies, she said.

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Early tests had been promising and her research team was recruiting more people to be tested.

Until now, doctors had been forced to rely on ambiguous physical symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness and slowness of movement.

“The problem is these symptoms can all occur for many other reasons,” said Professor Double, explaining that about 30 per cent of initial diagnoses were incorrect.

Delays in diagnosis meant long periods with stressful, unexplained and often untreated symptoms.

Amy Corderoy