Power outputs in TdF & doping
… these numbers reflect, in my opinion, an overall lowering of the performance level in the Tour compared to the last 2 decades. And this is a positive sign that doping control measures are having an effect.
that’s Ross Tucker, from Cape Town, in his blog The Science of Sport: Power outputs from the Tour de France.
I put forward the opinion a few months ago that the unpredictability at the Giro d’Italia, with riders losing big chunks of time, and even strong teams being unable to control the race, was a mark in favour of the idea that there’s less doping. And Ross puts up the numbers that seems to show performance has worsened. That’s a good thing.
Nico’s work behind the lens
The Goat Track, originally uploaded by nicholas.odonnell.
Nick captures some fine cycling action. This is local racing legend Steve George on the Goat Track.
Tewantin leaves you wantin’ more
Bruce and I had a couple of days at Noosa during the school holidays. On one of those days, we went mtbing in Tewantin State Forest. Three of the trails (Turn 10, Snake and Bloodwood) are among the best I’ve ridden in SEQ. Love riding there, and I will go back again as soon as I can!
Tewantin mtb from ademack on Vimeo.
Bruce & Andrew go for a ride in Tewantin State Forest
A journey in the winter sun (part 2)
Roseneath Cottage, Allora. A lovely spot to stay. Sholto, Bill, me poking my head out from behind JF, who is holding my Enigma.
So after a fun evening in Allora, including learning a card game called ‘May I’, we gathered ourselves up to launch forward towards Koreelah. At this point, you (my imaginary reader) may well be saying to yourself: Where the hell is Koreelah?
That’s a good question, and I don’t think I really know the answer. We just rode all day and got there.
The second day saw us heading towards Yangan and Killarney on some pretty quiet back roads. I got first shift in the car, so some of the excitement of the morning came from lending my titanium-framed road bike to JF. He really enjoyed riding it.
I decided my method of ‘providing support’ from the van would be to go on ahead of the three riders, park the car and jump on a bike and ride back towards them. The level of ‘support’ offered would be minimal, but if required, I could always go back to the car which would be at the most 10km away.
With this modus operandi I met the group twice in the morning’s ride, once near Freestone, and later on about 8km out from the lunch spot of Yangan.
For the second day in a row, Sholto and I managed to subvert John’s plan of making lunch from pre-purchased ingredients. Sholto went for the most massive burger available in Yangan, and of course i had some hot chips. It was winter on the Darling Downs, remember, and after a morning’s ride, nothing is better than hot chips.
After lunch I got back on the bike, and Sholto took the wheel of the van. We rode to Killarney by early afternoon. The plan for the day was just to ride down to Koreelah, which over the border in NSW. From Killarney, its south to Legume, then east and south to Koreelah.
But I put the challenge out to Bill … surely we had time for a side-trip of about 22km for the climb to Queen Mary Falls. In John’s original planning we were staying over the hill from Queen Mary Falls. But in the final draft, we were missing the climb altogether.
With plenty of daylight up our sleeve, Bill and I decided to ride up to the Falls. JF would continue on the route as per plan. Sholto eventually decided to drive the support car to the base of the climb, and then chase Bill and I up the hill.
So Bill and I made it up the climb to QMF, and went for a saunter to view the Falls. When we came back we were surprised to find Sholto waiting for us at the picnic grounds. So the three of us rode back down the hill together, and Sholto jumped back in the car to head off to Koreelah.
Bill and I enjoyed the ride over the border and past Acacia towards Legume. Beautiful country side. Once we left Legume, the road surface began to deteriorate, but the scenery was no less gorgeous.
We found this to be typical of this area of northern NSW over the next two days. The road surface was terrible on so many places, with massive potholing and poorly repaired bitumen. But we were riding through such lovely country we didn’t mind.
We arrived at the turn-off to Koreelah to find JF waiting for us. And about 5km of dirt road into Kumbee Homestead B&B. No problem, we set off on the dirt road, which started with a major downhill. Much to JF’s horror, Bill and I flew down this hill. John followed at a much more sedate pace.
We all made it to Kumbee Homestead, a fantastic location by the way, without either a dirt-road caused mechanical or accident, so there was no need for alarm!
End of Day 2.
A journey in the winter sun (part 1)
I’m playing catch-up here, because I have had the privilege of three great weekends of cycling in a row, and, as the headmaster said to the inflatable boy who brought a pin to school, I have let everyone down (by not posting anything about any of it to this blog).
So, let’s go back to Johnno’s June Journey.
Anarchy at the Giro
Amazing news overnight from the Giro dItalia. A split in the peleton, with more than 50 riders in the front group, and Vino, Cadel, Nibali and Basso, i.e. those previously thought to be the main contenders, all missing the move.
At the end of the day, the favourites lost 12 minutes, a massive amount of time. Plenty of finger pointing about who messed up, but it doesn’t really matter. Richie Porte, from Tasmania, a neo-pro in his first Grand Tour, has the maglia rosa, and a minute and some over David Arroyo, a Spanish climber.
Although the day was terrible from Cadel’s point of view, it’s making for a great race. And I think there are some positives for cycling as well.
A race in which there are no dominant teams, means that riders are more willing to attack, which absolutely makes for exciting racing. But it may also show that the peleton is racing cleaner than previous years.
One of the big advantages of an EPO-fuelled rider is quick recovery. They can ride day after day at the same level. Without it, riders are mere mortals like the rest of us. Super-fit and superb athletes, but not automatons. They get tired.
And combine that with rainy weather in Italy, and the demanding parcours of the Giro, and this is what you get.
So now there’s no clear favourite to win this Giro. Porte is untested, Arroyo has never been a GC contender before either. You have good all-rounders like Efimkin and Gerdemann in the top 10, but they are minutes back.
And Sastre, Wiggins, Vino and Cadel all have major minutes to catch up. Who knows how it will end? Not me, that’s for sure. But it’s going to be fascinating!
Vino’s back, this will be fun
Vino (right) and AC … here we go again?!
Alexander Vinokourov has, to use a Liggettism, set the cat among the pigeons. His win in last weekend’s Liege-Bastogne-Liege was straight out of the classic Vino repertoire — attack when nobody’s expecting it, and press home your advantage by continuing the attack all the way to the finish.
Well, so what? He’s a smart rider, a class rider as his palmares clearly shows. He’s also a drug cheat, but quite frankly he’s not the only rider in the peloton to return after suspension. Of the riders who have returned from suspension, Vino is quite possibly the only one who is tasting success at anywhere near the level they had before getting busted.
But the successful return from drug suspension is merely the latest phase in the fascinating career of Alexander Vinokourouv. And he is now a key figure in the drama of the biggest bike race in the world, the Tour de France.
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Bike Snob NYC: To Whom It May Concern: Letting Things Take Care of Themselves
Bike Snob NYC: To Whom It May Concern: Letting Things Take Care of Themselves.
I don’t ride my bike into the city during rush hour because I’m “concerned with the environment;” I do it because pretending I’m riding down the gullet of a giant salmon on a spring day is awesome, and sitting in traffic for two hours listening to terrestrial radio and then trying to find parking sucks. Being human and doing what makes you truly happy makes the world better; being “concerned” yields two toxic by-products: religion, and smugness.
So if I advocate anything (which really I don’t, since who the hell am I anyway?), it’s doing what makes you happy.
BikeSnobNYC captures one of my key points about cycling advocacy. Being worthy and green and all that stuff is (probably) fine. But I ride a bike ‘cos I like riding a bike. It’s fun and I like having fun. Every day!
Otway pix
These two pix show me absolutely caning it on the singletrack during the Otway Odyssey. There isn’t a pic of me trudging slowly up a very steep climb, but there was plenty of both during the nearly 8 hours that I was on the event.
And just for fun, here’s a close-up from the first photo above. Scary!
By the way … this chick rocks
OK, so you’ve not ridden a mountain bike in a serious race before? OK, so you’re in pre-season training before you go back to Europe. Fair enough.
OK, so according to you, you suck at riding single track. Sure, sure.
OK, so as part of your pre-season, you enter the Australian National Road Race championships, and solo off the front for seven laps of a 10.2 km course, just to get some hard kms into your legs.
And at the Otway Odyssey, against Australia’s finest and best prepared mountain bikers, you ride away on the fire roads to win by over five minutes.
And by the looks of this photo at the finish line, you would barely blow out a candle.
Judith Arndt, you rock.
(Those with long memories will remember Judith finished with a silver medal in the Athens Olympics road race behind our very own Sara Carrigan. On that occasion she was so angry about the exclusion of her partner Petra Rossner from the German team that she gave a single finger salute as she crossed the line, aimed at German Olympic selectors, apparently, but there for all the world to see. This is a woman with attitude.)
