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.)
Ready or not, here it comes
Had a very good weekend on the bike, so now I’ve done all that will be done. This week is just about spinning the legs around, taking it pretty easy, and hopefully freshening up for the coming Otway Odyssey.
Saturday morning was a great road ride with Group 1 of the South Bank bunch, down to Wynnum via Cleveland. The pace was on early, and we shed a couple of riders over Camp Hill. Then it ramped up further as we got a bit tangled up with a small group of four which was slightly faster than our group. Anyway it all mixed in together from Belmont out through Alexandra Hills.
By the time we wound it up on the Wynnum Esplanade I was feeling like my form was as good as it’s ever been. Got swamped in the sprint, but it was fun anyway.
On Sunday afternoon Bruce and I went for a spin in Daisy Hill quite late. It was a beautiful afternoon, and the trails were well-attended. Quite a few times we had to give other riders a head start on trails so as not to catch them halfway along a singletrack section. The Haro felt good, my timing seemed good.
So as quite a few of my friends take on Grafton-Inverell, I will be slogging up a monster climb on my mountain bike. It’s going to hurt, and its going to be great. You can’t have one without the other!
History
Me and Bruce ready to ride in the Bike for Bibles 'universities tour' in 1991.
Bruce emailed me this photo, with the subject ‘Has anything really changed?’
Of course, the answer is no. Bike riding is still fun!
Look, shiny!
E’s got a spectacular new Bianchi … wow factor is through the roof!
New & shiny always catches my attention. In the past two weeks three of my friends have bought new bikes.
That’s not unusual really. There’s always a lot of upgrading going around, especially among the mid-life crisis crowd that I mostly ride with. As a sports-car substitute, a carbon-fibre framed road bike is probably cheaper and less hazardous to your health and your licence than say, a Lotus Elise.
And I love it when my friends get these new bikes. The buzz of it all. The excitement of making the decision to upgrade (or even the decision to buy your first serious road bike or mountain bike). The delicious agony of which bike to buy, which trick bits to get which will make the bike indelibly “yours”, tiny detail decisions about elements such as saddles, seatposts, right down to water bottle cages and handlebar tape. And the final thrill, showing off the new bike to mates on its first couple of rides.
But new & shiny only gets you moving for a short time, I think. Even the shiniest, newest, blingiest bike eventually becomes just your road bike, or your mountain bike. I have a beautiful road bike … its frame is made of titanium, for goodness sake. But do I even notice the Enigma when I’m riding 95% of the time? Not so much.
But even so, there’s something motivating about this newness & shininess. Perhaps its the commitment to training and improving your cycling that’s embodied in the purchase. Nobody wants to be that bloke who bought an expensive bike which now just sits in the shed, its flat tyres mocking him every time he goes to fetch a screwdriver or spanner.
So bravo to my friends on the new bikes! I hope to spend many hours riding with you enjoying your new purchases. And one day, but not anytime soon, I will rejoin the ranks of those who purchase new bicycles.
Some days are diamonds …
I had a great weekend, on and off the bike. It’s Tuesday now but I’m still buzzing about how good the weekend was.
The road-bike riding bit, first.
Saturday, OMG-its-very-early. A group of the South Bank bunch meets at BWL’s place, loads into three cars and heads down to Canungra, for an assault on O’Reillys (Green Mountains is the proper placename, but its universally known as O’Reillys).
The ride to O’Reillys is about 35 km: 10km to the base of the climb, a steady 13km climb to the next landmark, the alpaca farm, then a plateau section before the road kicks up again through rainforest to the guest-house and Lamington NP camping ground.
See, he can win with good team support
UCI Road World Championships: Men’s Elite Road Race, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com.
Cadel Evans kicks the butt of the Italian and Spanish superstars in the Worlds … after great support from Stuey O’Grady, Simon Gerrans, Mick Rogers, Wes Sulzberger et al.
Cadel played out the last lap absolutely perfectly, and actually took advantage of a tiny tactical error by the Spanish. He responded to the Joaquin Rodriguez attack that was just supposed to be a softening up move for Sanchez or Valverde, and made it into the winning move. Great tactical awareness combined with having the best legs gave him the chance for the daring escape on the final climb.
This was a win for the ages. Just brilliant.
Grafton to Inverell
The race was on last week. Congrats to friends who competed and all did awesome rides:
From the results page, here are my highlights:
- Craig Dickson, 10th in B grade, in 7:03:22.20
- Craig Briant, 23rd in B grade in 7:05:56.36
- Liam McCarthy, 44th in B grade in 7:34:03
- Aaron Pickett-Heaps, 28th in C grade, in 7:28:01
- Dean Winchester, 46th in C grade, in 7:40:16.02
Legends.
Everybody loves Jens, part II
Saxo Bank - Taking The Lead » Archive » a message from jens.
This is why.
“I am better than expected. I’m a bit beat up, and hurting a bit, but nothing that’s going to kill me.”
Everybody loves Jens
“It was horrifying to see Voigt crash out of this Tour de France on Tuesday, not only because he is smart and honest and loyal and funny and tireless, but also because it happened in a place where he is usually in his element, flying down a mountainside on a mission.”
Bonnie Ford, ESPN, who is an excellent writer on cycling, in a piece called Jens Voigt is the conscience of cycling.
Di Luca was on the juice, sorry ’bout that
The International Cycling Union (UCI) announced Wednesday that it has suspended Italian Danilo Di Luca for two positive tests for the EPO derivative CERA. The LPR-Brakes rider’s doping control samples showed evidence of the banned blood booster on two occasions - on May 20 and 28th during the 2009 Giro d’Italia.
via Di Luca Positive For CERA In Giro | Cyclingnews.com.
Hmm, I’m just so sorry to have predicted this.