What is your current cycling goal

At the moment I am training hard for the Summer of racing in Australia. I only got back from Europe in the second week of November so I don't do any open racing until January. Spending time with my family and friends as much as I can in November and December is really important to me and I prioritise that over all the travelling at this time of the year. There is enough of that for the other 10.5months of the year! I will race everything in January - Bay Crits, Nationals, TDU and Cadel's Race so there is plenty to look forward to. Probably my first big goal is to try and defend my green and gold jersey from this year... that would be a dream.

When I am on the bike I....am determined, focused, happy and at times probably a little too competitive ;)

How did your love of bikes come about?

My father and grandfather both used to race when they were younger so I was definitely born into a cycling family. When I was 9 years old and my brother 7 years old, my Dad took us along to the Blue Mountains BMX club to have a try - we both loved it and spent five years there before Dad introduced us to road cycling at the Penrith Panthers Cycling Club. I was pretty terrible in my first race - it was a junior handicap and I was on my mountain bike, but things improved from there and I have loved it ever since.

Share a cycling memory

Cycling has always been a family affair - when my brother Nick and I were both juniors we used to go out riding with my Dad during the week and on the weekends. Like I said before, sometimes I am too competitive, and it would be fair to say this also runs in the family (you should see how intense board games can get ;)).

Nick and I used to sit behind Dad and have tactical meetings about how to drop him up the next climb or around the next corner... short rides turned into a suffer fest as we attacked and counterattacked each other trying to get rid of each other and of Dad. It was definitely a fun and painful way to train, but I think even Dad enjoyed it, as he has gone onto win multiple National Titles on the road in the Masters category.