Hi there. My name’s Amber Halliday and I am the proud AGF scholarship winner for 2009. Part of the deal is that I get this space to tell you all what I’m up to in the world of cycling but I thought I might introduce myself a little first.

Like Amy, I was a rower. In fact (time for a brag) I was a three time World Champion and two time Olympic rower. Rowing is a beautiful sport and I loved it from the moment I picked up an oar as a schoolgirl. But it is so tough; early mornings, blistered and calloused hands, cold days out on the lake and sweaty hours in the ergo room. It’s certainly a good way to build tough athletes.

We used cycling for cross training a lot in rowing and I was also an avid commuter on the bike for those extra training minutes. I guess that’s why, after a disappointing Olympic campaign, I came back from Beijing and spent a lot of time riding out my frustration on my pushie.

A few months later I had a go at a cycling lab test, was taken under the wing of South Australian Sports Institute Coach Gary West and headed for the cycling national championships.

My time trial results at Nationals and Oceania’s, having a go on the track and my surprise win of the Tour of New Zealand helped me get the AGF scholarship and here I am!

The scholarship allows me to travel and compete with the National Tem and next week I embark on a two month journey to the US, Canada and Italy with them. The last few months has been about training, training and more training with a quick trip to China last month.

The Tour of Chongming Island was a four day tour with a 1.1 UCI Time Trial the day before. I was there with MB Cycles, a Brisbane based team who I was fortunate enough to get a ride with in New Zealand.

Chongming Island is a pancake flat island off the coast of Shanghai. Our team started well with Bridie O’Donnell taking out the TT and myself in 6th place out of a field of 41. But the next for days would be about our sprinter Chloe Hosking. Tess Downing, Liz Young, Tahlia Paskin, Bridie and myself all worked to bring back any attacks so that Chloe could do her thing at the finish line.

Four days and about 350km later Chloe was in the yellow jersey and MB Cycles had taken out another tour!

By far the best thing about that trip was the team dynamics. It was a great group of girls and we had great support from Paul Larkin our mechanic, Anouska Edwards our soigneur, and MB himself - Marcel Bengston our director.

I’m still a the stage where I’m learning something new from every race and I can’t wait to have a go in North America and Europe. I’ll keep you posted!