Winter Wonderland

Well after some friggin cold weather on Friday we finally got the snow we had hoped. After a couple of dumps during the week plus another 10cms overnight we had excellent skiing today. A early start but much needed during school holidays. We found snow in the trees on the road to Lake Mountain, 8km above Marysville. Looked like Jack Frost had been out with a icing sugar sifter!!! We arrived to find the temp -1, no wind, blue skies and 10cms of the driest snow I have ever seen.....real northern hemisphere like snow. Not to mention that the resort management had hit the trails with the snow cat (first time this season giving us classic and nice corduroy skate lanes!!! Had to pinch myself to check it was not a dream!
Enough rambling I will let the photos do the talking......
Lake Mountain road

The Camp looking towards Jubilee.....my favorite

The start of Echo Flat near the machine sheds

Me at Panorama

TC looking tired after Panorama

Triangle Junction

So a fantastic ski until a snapped my pole strap and had to ski back out of Jubilee back to the car minus a pole.
You should have seen the day trippers for snow play....unbelievable.....the queue at the gatehouse stretching almost 1-2km back towards Marysville...... Back tomorrow

Wet Morning

Awoke today to hear the firm pitter pat on the roof of the house. I had envisaged hitting Lake Mountain again but am pretty tired from the weeks activities. I was not too sure how the snow was going after watching it start to fizzle on the web cams yesterday. I checked the cams and reports this morning to find a soild dump of 5 - 10 cms and still snowing steadily. With more snow still to come out of the next storm cycle over the next couple of days I am hoping for 5 days of skiing from Saturday.
So as it was way to wet to head out on the bike even I decided to sit down for some toast, a hit of java from the gaggia (the best ever wedding present), and to browse the latest pages of the bike porn collection......got to love new bike porn!

Other good news to hand is that Gerro has made the Tour team. He loves playing stuff down like it is the norm. Come on its the TDF.....the biggest sporting carnival in the world. Fingers crossed for Gerro for a stage win. He came close a couple of years ago pegging a 3rd in a break away. Many late nights of TV watch starting from Saturday on the good old SBS!!! Cant wait...........

funny shit I see at work

Ok as some might know I work in a ICU. The thing is that we often get paper work, stories, hear or see things that make us laugh. This is one example that I see from time to time and had to share it.
At one stage this chart was part of a study that was performed where we had to rate stools....thats right people how good is your poo!. I thought it almost worthy to be printed on a T shirt for a laugh. Now according to the Bristol stool chart there are several types of stool;
If I had type 1 stool, personally I would expect to be small and fluffy with big ears and found in a paddock....yep you guessed it.... a rabbit.
Mmmm Type 4, thats one snake not to be messed with. Treat it carefully and lets face it, its not a sausage you want to share at a BBQ.
Type 5 ...McDonalds Mcnuggetts goes in and comes out just as it started....shit!
Type 6 and 7 we all know. We have all experienced it after a night out on the grog with dodgy take away!

This next picture shows a 12 lead ECG. Its a pretty standard find in a medical history. The ECG is a electrical picture of someones heart. It should be all in straight lines with the various electrical pathways. This patient I think was trying to impress the female nurses. Go on work it out! ......Trust me it shouldnt look like John Holmes tockley!!

Great way to start a day

I am lucky sometimes when things pan out my way. As a shift worker I can sometimes start late. This is handy when you want to get in a ski which I did this morning. It had rained overnight resulting in a crispy surface. Got out on the classics for a 2 hr burn session. Weather was perfecto....lots of sun and not too much wind.

Found a igloo but no eskimo's!


Another sign to add to the collection....rocks eh...no shit, thats why it is called Lookout Rock
Driving home I swang past Lilydale airport...shit these planes scare me as the come into land.

Anyhow hopefully some more snow later this week with some nasty weather predicted...fingers crossed!

Signs...I like it!

Two signs I love.
The first is a sign we bikers should see more often!

The second a anatomically correct toliet sign which I spoted at the Bright brew house..love their beer.... check it out!

Chase The Sun

Well firstly we were chasing the sun but it wasnt to been seen!!
The recon on Saturday proved to be a epic on its own with a trail system where every low lying spot had accumulated water, thus becoming mud after the usual crowds riding there. I even managed to get a cut tyre on the recon from some lovely blue stone chips. The night prior to the race we had around 6mm of rain....great for the dry garden but not good on a already water logged MTB trail system.
Race day on Sunday saw us greeted by overcast and rain threating skies. Got out to the course and thanks to a wicked car park permit...lucky number 69...(a meal for two some would say)...we got into setting up.

Camp Onespeed Only

Got the tent up and ready and awaited for Shaney to arrive on the mo-ped (he arrived looking like a michelin man in his mo-ped shit). T and I volunteered him for first laps as we did all the set up. Shaney did us proud with a couple of good laps and came back filthy from the single track...or should I say swamp tracks.

hey Shano... styln as always, Assos hides mud...not!

T headed out for a couple of laps post Shano's return and was keen to get himself a photo or two by yours truely, even slowing down to pose. He pulled out a couple of good laps to place us well.
Then it was my turn to hit the course. By the time I had headed out it had dried somewhat and the mud had become the consistancy of cookie doe. On the climbs it was like riding through wet sponge....sloooooow was the name for the day. I was hanging for the fire trail stuff so I could get some speed up. I didnt have much in the tank so was forced to run some of the up hills as I couldnt get some grip at times. Forget heading in a straight line it was where ever the bike wanted to go. Decents were fun with lots of drifting through the corners and the climbing greasy.
Team Onespeed Only had a ball of a day and ended up a nice 6th on the Teams of 3's which we were all happy with.
A large thanks goes out to the FGP team for a fantastic event and look forward to the next round in August.