Dear Yukio,

Thanks for your wonderful email I received a couple of weeks ago.
I have been very busy as well and forgive me for being a bit lazy with the late sending of my email.

Best wishes for the new year my friend and may 2004 be a happy and prosperous new year for both ourselves and our families. Hopefully in 2004 our paths will cross again somewhere. Unfortunately I did not get to ride the Tour de China this year but one of my big goals is to ride the tour again in July 2004.

How is your family my friend? The picture of Yuuya was great and you also looked very well Yukio.

Alex and Kathy are doing wonderfully, and you will see by the photo's how fast the little man is growing. It won't be long now and he will be pedalling away with Dad.

I have had a very good end of year with my bike racing. In September I took the family to Kathy's home town of Brisbane and I participated in the Australian Veterans Cycling championship in a place called Mooloolaba and won the gold medals in the road race and the criterium. It was a fantastic holiday and we also had a week to catch up with family and relax doing a bit of sightseeing. I've attached a few photo's from our trip.

Two weeks ago I had the best ride of the year and won the Western Australian Open State Criterium Championship in a field of 60 riders, most of them nearly half my age and fulltime riders. The British Olympic Endurance Team was also riding as they are here to acclimatise for the Athens Olympic Games next year. There were only three of us left at the finish, I finish 3rd across the line behind the two British boys, but they were not eligible for the medals so the State Title went to me.

At the moment the weather is very very hot, so it is hard to get out in the afternoons training. I try and get out very early in the mornings so it is not too hot.
I am riding the Australian Open Criterium championship starting on the 2nd January and the Perth Criterium Series from the 3rd to 5th January. I will let you now how I go, but I am not going to put too much pressure on myself as it is the off season.

As always, it was wonderful to hear from you. I hope you enjoy the photo's and I know that we will get to go fishing together sometime in the future.

Looking forward to hearing from you again soon my friend.
Take care and give all our love to your family.
Your lifelong friend.
Steve