http://www.briztreadley.com Taking the long route to the coffee shop Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:44:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2010/by-the-way-this-chick-rocks/ [flickrset id="72157623496355582" thumbnail="square"] Where to begin with the Otway Odyssey? Perhaps it began just after the 2009 Epic back in August, when I was looking around for my next challenge? Or perhaps it really began after a friend did the 50km version of the Otway in February 2009, and told me stories ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2010/an-odyssey-the-quest-for-perfect-flowing-singletrack/ 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 ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2010/ready-or-not-here-it-comes/ [flickrset id="72157623244311597" thumbnail="square"] It's only a couple of weeks to go until the Otway Odyssey. As I've been saying in emails to people, I'm slightly terrified. The course profile tells why ... But I am also excited. So our wonderful back-to-the-70s summer weather has been a bit of a dampener on my training ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2010/southside-rats-summer-cup/ [caption id="attachment_323" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Me and Bruce ready to ride in the Bike for Bibles \'universities tour\' in 1991."][/caption] Bruce emailed me this photo, with the subject 'Has anything really changed?' Of course, the answer is no. Bike riding is still fun! http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/history/ 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 ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/look-shiny/ 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. [flickrset id="72157622674420071" thumbnail="square"] 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, ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/some-days-are-diamonds/ Go for a spin in Daisy Hill state forest with some mates. Keep the rubber side down, as far as possible. http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/what-to-do-on-sunday-afternoon/ One of my mtb friends,  Aaron is riding the Croc Trophy, which is billed as the world's hardest, longest, hottest and most adventurous mountain bike race. He's doing it without a support crew. That's one tough man. Chapeau, as the roadies say. Update: Aaron finished the event, 21st in Masters (40+) men. ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/a-regular-rider-does-the-croc/ 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 ... http://www.briztreadley.com/2009/see-he-can-win-with-good-team-support/