Category Archives: Bike Week

Post Bike Week post

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You know that there’s no week that I enjoy more than Bike Week. For someone who loves bikes and may possibly be slightly ADHD, a different bike event (or several different events) every day for 9 days, is pretty close to heaven.

To be right in the middle of it the whole time is great fun. By the end of it, I’m tired and punch-drunk, but still having a great time. I was fortunate this year that my role for the Big Day (Sunday 24 March, when we had the Coot-tha Challenge and the Great Brisbane Bike Ride, and the Family Fun Ride) was to help manage the start line, and then be the MC for the finish site at South Bank. Easy & cruisy.

But although the Big Rides day is the climax of the week, I find the smaller events to be more fun and more personal and more interesting. My favourites this year were the ones that I was heavily involved in: Cyclocross, of course, and MTB Film Night. I was also heavily invested in the success of the Women’s MTB ride, which I couldn’t go to, not being a woman, and being busy with putting signs out on that day anyway (in case I was tempted to cross-dress or have gender realignment so I could attend).

What I like about this pic is that everyone is smiling, except Besty who has her back to the camera. Nice.

What I like about this pic is that everyone is smiling, except Besty who has her back to the camera. Nice.

I’ve given cyclocross plenty of blog-time already.

MTB Film Night was a triumph in my book. The event was Emma’s idea, and at least 80-90% of what happened was all her vision as well. We turned Epic Cycles into a relaxed and funky movie cinema for the night, with big screen and pizza and beer. About 70 people had a great evening, and during the film itself Emma and Imo and I mostly hung out outside and chatted and relaxed.

It came at the end of the day when we had Ride to Work Day at Brisbane Square, so it turned out to be one of those days where you start work at 5 am and finish at 10.30pm. You don’t want to do that too often. It turns you into a zombie.

Epic in cinema mode. A great night!

Epic in cinema mode. A great night!

So a few days after Bike Week, the zombie aspect is wearing off and I’m starting to feel like I could eat up a few more interesting bike rides soon. Some family circumstances are conspiring to keep me from that just at the moment, but down the track I’m hopeful of reporting on some mtb events, and more CX racing of course, and the occasional dirt-road Audax. Watch this space.

It’s always personal

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It was the first cyclocross of the year, and there was lots of fun, and it was a great event, the start of Bike Week, and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it, and there was a really good race in A grade between Darren Nightingale and Matt Williams, and in the open race there was the already famous duel between Emma and Imo that will go down in history and Yannick and Momo the two brothers finished one-two in the Junior race, and the flags and the arch, and the beer and the crowd and the grass and the sun and the sweat.

'Andrew! You are being beaten by a CHILD!' Yeah, I know ... and he is damn fast.

‘Andrew! You are being beaten by a CHILD!’ Yeah, I know … and he is damn fast.

But what you want to know, on my blog is: What was MY race like?

I’m so glad you asked.

It was a very busy day, with quite a lot of Bike-Weeky things to do earlier in the day, and then the set-up of the venue. While Brad and Scott and co were setting up the course, Emma and I set up the PA and the pop-up marquee for the judges, the flags and the start-finish blow-up arch.

And once the racing started I was on the public address system for the Junior and Open races, and occasionally casting increasingly worried glances around the assembled crowd to see who I was going to press-gang into becoming temporary MC during the A & B grade combined race. The answer to that was Darren Flood. The right man in the right place.

So with at least 20 seconds to spare I jumped on my bike, having first pressed my thumb into the tyre … that’s about 30-40 psi. I think.

The A graders look fit and fierce. So all we timid B graders shuffle back out of their way.

The first corner and first straight just leads to the stairs, which are a battleground for A graders. The rest of us funnel into the stairs, and after negotiating an M1-style traffic jam are through and out the other side. Could have done with an easy-listening radio station to pass the time.

The A graders are long gone, and I find myself dicing with Yannick, the youngster who had been way too good in the Junior race. I don’t know how old he is … maybe 13? Anyway, he looks a lot fitter than I do.

But we race each other for a couple of laps, and the second time through the start-finish area, Darren on the mic tells us that we are leading B grade. That was pretty much the signal for me to muck up the next re-mount, and then on the off-camber steep section of the course lose my front wheel and fall off.

At this point Imogen, spectating with the same enthusiasm that she earlier brought to racing, screams at me: “Andrew!!! You are being beaten by a CHILD!!”

Fabulous heckle.

So from first, I slid straight to fifth. Which was probably the right spot anyway. Clinton, the eventual winner, had worked his way through the B grade traffic and was clearing out. Yannick was dicing with Paul (father of one of the kids he had beaten in the Junior race) and Ron from Balmoral.

Paul had family revenge on Yannick by finishing second, but Yannick held down third.

A few times that group of three looked close enough that if I could just put my foot on the gas I might latch onto the back of the group. But when I tried to “step on it” I realised very quickly that I was already at my limit.

Cyclocross is like that.

I’m so pleased that we put on a good event. And I am even more pleased that the racing was fun for all. And that I have the chance to do maybe six or seven of these races this year.

Two days later, this morning I still had some sore or tight muscles. More training needed!

An event that seems to need no additional plugging

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Dozens of women are expected to tackle a mountain in Bike Week’s inaugural Women’s Mountain Bike Ride at Daisy Hill this month.

Event organiser Rebecca Harwood said Daisy Hill Conservation Park provided a network of tracks to suit riders of all skill levels.

So it’s in the Albert & Logan News today, but it is already pretty damn near full. And AB and Emma and Imo and some of their friends will be there to make sure that all the new riders who turn up will have some experienced mtb-riding women to mentor them.

Basically, this is the Bike Week event that runs itself AND gets a fantastic outcome for more women cycling. WIN WIN WIN WIN!

And it’s free.

Places tenderly chosen, where the ache of antiquity was keenest

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When I went to the Lifeline Bookfest with Imogen, I picked up quite a few interesting books. I’ve chomped through one called The Football Factory which was a novel in the milieu of the English football hooligan culture in the 90s. And an Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, which was of course mordant and delicious.

Isobel was oddly triangular ...

Isabel’s face was oddly triangular …

And next up was The Portrait of A Lady, with Henry James. With movie tie-in cover, featuring Ms Kidman, made up and photographed in such as way as to have more forehead than would seem feasible for any single person.

But Henry James you can’t rush. You have to chew every sentence carefully, two or three times.

Like this one, soon after Isabel arrives at Lord Warburton’s stately home (“a stout grey pile … a castle in a fairytale” … it’s a long way from BMX Bandits!) for the first time:

“The day was cool and rather lustreless; the first note of autumn had been struck; and the watery sunshine rested on the walls in blurry and desultory gleams, washing them, as it were, in places tenderly chosen, where the ache of antiquity was keenest.”

I typed that out for you, because when I read that I understand what mastery is. I find it inspiring.*

I’m expecting to be feeling the ache of antiquity quite keenly by late afternoon on Saturday 16 March, because that is the day that the next featured Bike Week event (featured in this special Briztreadley series that is) will be held.

Cyclocross.

And I’m in this one, up to my neck. Organising, racing, spruiking, whatever.

The cyclocross race will be held in a place tenderly chosen, to wit Wests Rugby Union, at Toowong Memorial Park, Sylvan Road Toowong.

So I have no mastery of cyclocross racing, or indeed organising a race, or blogging about a race. But I do share with Isabel Archer her enthusiasm, her openness, her joie de vivre.

I’m not expecting Nicole/Isabel to show up on Saturday, any more than I really expected Anna Meares to show up last time.

But I am inviting you. Cyclocross is super awesome fun. 100% of the people I know who have tried cyclocross want to do more. The course we’ve chosen will be very doable on a road bike, so there are no real excuses.

Saturday 16th March 3pm. Enter here.

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* OK, there is no link whatsoever between Henry James and cyclocross. There just isn’t. But that sentence knocked me out. And I wanted it to be somewhere where I would find it again in the future. One of the reasons I have a blog is to remember stuff I like.

Here are your clues: It’s great, it’s a bike ride, and it’s in Brisbane

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A whole lotta people ready to ride their bikes. This was the Great Brisbane Bike Ride in 2006, the first year I worked for BQ on the event.

A whole lotta people ready to ride their bikes. This was the Great Brisbane Bike Ride in 2006, the first year I worked for BQ on the event.

So the Great Brisbane Bike Ride has a long history … I think it might go back to the late 1980s. The first one I recall being part of was called the Brisbane River Ride, and it was in 1987, and it was in aid of the Wilderness Society.

Back then, the Bicycle Institute of Queensland used to hold meetings at a centre for green concerns at Bennetts Road, Morningside. That little shop now houses a photography studio.

I don’t know why I’m mining the long history of the GBBR. Maybe because it’s not the big sexy event anymore, now that we have the BDO Brisbane Coot-Tha Challenge.

But there’s still a place for the GBBR. For young and old, for new riders and regular joes and josephines. I like that is has played its part in inculturating the river loop into Brisbane cycling.

And this year’s edition, is on Sunday 24 March. It’s going to be a beautiful day, I can feel it in my bones. Enter here.

Friday night at the movies, who cares what picture you see?

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Bike Week has two movie nights these days. Because we kept coming up with really cool films to show that were mountain bike based. And other films that weren’t about mtb.

So we have a MTB Film Night, and a Film Night.

This post is about Film Night. And Janapar.

Here’s what it’s all about:

23-year-old Englishman Tom Allen is all set for a successful career, but he finds himself persisted by the question of our time: isn’t there more to life than this? Leaving it all behind, Tom sets off on the ultimate quest for freedom.

For the next 12,000 miles, with neither maps nor guidebooks, Tom films the unfolding of his dream. Despite coming from an unexceptional background and having no athletic talent, he cycles and camps his way across three continents. But the journey takes an unlikely detour when he falls in love with an Iranian-Armenian girl.

Filmed over four years with cinematic ambition, Janapar – named after the Armenian word for journey – is an honest and life-affirming tale of finding what you’re looking for when you least expect it.

We’re all about love here. Apparently.

Get along to the El Dorado at Indooropilly at 6.30pm on Friday 22nd March for a FREE Bike Week Film Night. Can’t miss it. Free. FREE!

 

Never washing spiders down the plughole

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Bright colours & Citycycle bikes are sure-fire hits at 10-speed dating.

Bright colours & Citycycle bikes are sure-fire hits at 10-speed dating.

Single? Are you a bike rider? You might get more matches on OK Computer, but what you really need is another cyclist. Someone who understands why you wake up at 5 am, even without the alarm. Someone who understands the equation N+1. Someone who sympathises when some bitch/bastard steals your Strava ratings. Someone who can match their socks & gloves with their handlebar tape.

And that, my friend, is why we have 10-speed dating as an event in Bike Week.

It’s on Monday 18 March. (I know you already memorised the program so you could ask me intelligent questions when you interview me on the radio. I’m telling all the others.)

OK, perhaps it’s a bit hetero-normative. Maybe sometime down the track we will expand our minds/horizons. But for this year, it’s boys meeting girls, and girls meeting boys.

And boys and girls riding along together chatting. Until the siren goes. What could be nicer?

Bike Week’s 10-speed dating is a bit of light-hearted fun that has been going for four or five years now. I doubt whether any lives have been dramatically re-shaped as a result. But as far as I know, it is the ONLY Bike Week event that sells out every year. As I write this, we are at 92% of capacity for women, and 89% for men.

So sign up today, or you’ll be on the waiting list.

And FREE. Always mention FREE.

Map-maker, map-maker make me a map

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(Apologies to Sheldon Harnick)

Bike Week is just around the corner. So for each of the eleven days that we have until events start, I’m going to highlight one of our fabulous events.

A collective noun of MTB orienteererses. (Image from MTBO.com.au)

A collective noun of MTB orienteeringers. (Image from MTBO.com.au)

MTB Orienteering is first! The event is on Saturday 23rd Match, the second weekend of Bike Week (here’s the program link, you will want to refer to that regularly).

From the Bike Week info:

Looking for a different kind of challenge on a bike? Multi Terrain Bike Orienteering is the sport of cross country cycling, combining riding and navigation. Using specially produced maps, riders navigate their way along roads, tracks and trails to control markers (checkpoints) placed at specific locations. Riders interpret the map to decide which is the best way from one control to the next, introduces some challenge, so that it’s not all about speed. It’s suitable for anyone who can ride a bike and great for families, groups or solo riders.

If this sounds interesting to you (well it does to me! it sounds like awesome fun!), then here’s the link to enter, for the grand total amount of NOTHING. No, it’s not that I am giving you the link for free (it’s kinda hard for me to charge you for links cos how or why would you pay me … do you understand how the internets works at all … why do I have to explain this to you??) what it is is that the EVENT IS FREE.

I don’t know how Craig Steffens (long-time MTBO organiser) manages to put on an event like this for free. I’m just happy that he does!

And it seems like the event will be held in and around the Boondall Wetlands. Nice place for a casual fun explore.

And free. Did I say FREE?

Check out the Facebook group for MTBO … these people are having lots of fun on their bicycles. And they have funny things growing out of their handlebars.

Tomorrow: 10-speed dating. Oh yes.

A heroic tale from cycling’s sordid past

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Well I sometimes hear that competitive cycling has a sordid present as well as a sordid past.

But then you can always find sordid wherever you go. It’s in all of us, what matters is how we deal with that, and how much we let out. And when.

Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor was a leader and a pioneer. The first African-American man to be a world champion at any sport. He made the big bucks, and was arguably the biggest sporting star IN THE WORLD at the turn of the century (19th to 20th). But when he came to Australia, it was both triumph and tragedy.

Jim Fitzpatrick wrote a book called ‘Major Taylor in Australia’, and as part of Bike Week this year, he gave a talk last Thursday evening at Rabbit Hole Cafe, West End, about Major Taylor, a mostly forgotten story from our nation’s mostly forgotten cycling history.

The interview linked above was conducted just before Jim’s talk.

For me, this was the most enjoyable evening of a very enjoyable Bike Week. A chance to enjoy the company of lively friends and hear some empassioned story-telling.

Other Bike Week things that were fun …

  • MTB Film night  at the Villager Hotel in George St. Astounding riding, amazing scenery, convivial atmosphere, and a gentle pedal back to BQ afterwards.
  • Film night, at the Schonell at UQ. Pizza and documentaries. Everybody should try to see ‘Where Are You Go?‘ … ask me directly for BQ’s copy when you see me next. (Don’t ask me for the mtb films, because I promised to loan them to someone already but I have to prise them out of BQ Emma’s grasp first).