birthday celebrations

Ok firstly thanx to all who have wished me a happy birthday today. Yes I am getting old at the age of 32. I share this birthday with another bloke who unfortunatley wont be celebrating anymore birthdays after his sudden and untimely death this year.... thoughts go out to crakers family.
Anyhow had a brillant birthday....low key was the plan. Had a decent sleep in and scored some cool gifts from the wife to go with the new 29er (arriving sometime soon!). Headed out for a bite of breaky at a local cafe and then hit the dirt for a single speed fix out at lysterfeild and then off to the movies to top it all off.
Great thing about lysterfeild is most of it is protected from the wind (110km an hour winds here in melburn yesterday) so it was warm in amoungst the trees....plenty of time working on them tan lines! Few trees down but thats cool as it adds to the fun of trails. Speaking of trails I see the trail smurfs have been at it cutting 2 sections of new trail. Should be good in a few weeks when the trails are cut in a bit more. Winter had a bit effect on some of the low lying areas resulting in some heavily rutted areas. Looking at the piles of rock and sand around the loop, there is soon to be some improvements made.
Novemeber is right on the door so it means one thing....Movember! thats right people I am loosing the chops for a month and getting some form of upper lip fix with a few of the lads from work..... it will be a sight to behold!

aahh girl monday

blind corners!

Yesterday as I had a day off from the salt mines I headed up the Dandenongs for a pedal. Taking my time (I aint no mountain goat) I cruised up the 1:20. 2kms from the top after the false flat I was checking out the view I looked down and saw a bloke with a motorbike in the scrub. He was a bit daze and asked him if he was alright. He was amazingly. He had lost it coming around the blind corner and slid over the edge of the road. I still cant believe that he missed a big gum tree and numerous rocks and peices of timber he could have impaled himself on. All he had wrong with him was a 20 cent peice of skin off his knee. His bike looked pretty messed up and stated that his insurance had ran out 2 days ago! Lucky for him that some one saw him cause if he had fucked himself he could have been in the scrub for a while.
Shout out to NZ Gav who was hit by a car this week on the Tour of the Burbs....get better cause we need you for the 24hr race.
Well done to Richie E for the 4th place in the melburn to warnie yesterday. A lazy 300km race (longest in the world now I believe) averaged 40 odd kms/hr for just over 7 hrs. Long hard day in the office!

as if mountain biking aint hard enough

Hats off to this bloke who is doing the croc trophy at the moment in Northern Australia. Most able bodied people would find the race difficult enough with out having to do it on a hand cycle.... Makes you think
a) life aint that bad when you reckon you are having a bad day and that life could be worse
b) take a leaf out of his book and get the most out eaqch and every day
c) toughen the fuck up!

girl monday

its heating up

Ok the first taste of summer has hit us with a 33 degree day yesterday. After saturdays efforts I some how managed to get a dose of food poisioning. So with the day off work I headed out to the last stage of the Sun Tour and found a shadey place to sit and contemplate.
Managed to catch up with some of the famous and infamous colorful characters of Australian cycling. Seems like some are going to have a tuff year ahead with some of our local guys missing out on contracts at this stage for the next 12 months.
Managed to push my way through the throng of people surrounding the SRAM Bissel tent and got a few quick words from Rich. Lucky bugger now gets to front up to the Melburn to Warnnie (have fun with that 297km blast) next Saturday before some well earned time off!
Checked out the SRAM display.... OK the SRAM Red groupset looks cool but $3000 for a group set..... mmmm maybe not, I will stick with the Dura Ace thanks!
Caught up with Shane and wished him ahappy birthday.... I promise the present is comming!!! Ended up with Big Al and his new lady for a quiet ale at Transport in Fed Square.
Me, well this week try and get some decent riding in this week, work alot as usual and work out what the fuck to do for my birthday...... I was hoping that my 29er would be here but every time I check for its arrival date it has moved further away (might be here in mid November!! might have it dialed in for the KONA).

ciao

mountain sunshine

Decided to finally bite the bullet and revisit one of my old haunts. The famous Mt Dandenong is one of melburns destinations for cyclists. I was a regular rider up in the blue hills in all seasons but often the ride to the base was a nightmare as melburn expanded, so I eventually binned it and opted for other routes. Today was a perfect example of fine spring weather with not a cloud in the sky, cool breeze and little traffic (trust me I was expecting a battle to get there). I did get myself lost trying to ride through some side streets for a quieter ride and ended up having to ride some single track to break on through back to another road.
I rode up the 1:20 route and through Olinda back down to Montrose and home a lazy 2 hr ride. Awesome views out towards the Yarra Valley. The ride up wasnt as bad as I remebered. Managed a reasonable time in the big dog. My thighs are feeling it now (secret training miles for Glenvale!).
Other news to hand is that we have put a supersixes team together with all the usual suspects for the KONA 24HR in December. Should be a blast, I believe that the area at Forrest has some Glen Jacobsen designed single track in it.
Ran into Gerro yesterday at threso's riding his new Credit Agricole 08 Look. Bloody nice bike. Nice Dura Ace carbon singles......might have to knock those suckers off when he aint looking.
Suntour..... following it a little, might have to check out a stage live soon!

Happy Monday

what the

Ok been a busy week. Managed to get out a few times to train despite some of the weather we have had. I headed to Glenvale with high aspirations afetr last week but after waking up feeling less than average I drove part of the way to the race. The truth of the matter is that I lasted a whopping 15mins. Fuck I am pissed at myself....next time. Rule number 1 is dont chase down a break in week 2 of returning to racing!

Good luck to richie and his team at the sun tour..... I want to see some results!

later

return to racing

Well today was D Day! I returned to the little place of pain called Glenvale for a 1hr crit which I was unsure about. I was expecting that my day would be done quickly as I havent raced on the road in over 12 months. I headed down to Glenvale and was sure that i would last only 15mins in B grade. Caught up with some familiar faces that I have not seen in a while, including Trent Lowe who I thought would have been on holidays by now after the European season. He looked good and seemed happy with his new team for next year.
Well the race itself was a blast. Nothing like screaming around a crit course in a bunch. At times I was flying, others creeping.....ah the memories of when I could do it with out tiring! I must admit that I suprised myself with making it 45mins til the elasitic finally snapped and let me loose of the bunch. The first 15mins were the worst, plenty of gutter time and chewing the bar tape! Next week I am aiming for the full hour but we will have to wait and see.
Riding home I well and truely got the bonk from hell. I had to stop at a service station and devour some Mars bars and a can of Coke.
Another shout out to Richie for his efforts at the Tour of Tasmania with another stage win (bloody super criter!! Just need to pull something of at the Sun Tour now!)



Keep the wheels turning til next time
Ciao

snakes

Ok spring means many things. Sunshine comes out sand so does the magpie, but the other thing that comes out is the trusty snake (everyone has some bike riding snake meeting story). In many areas where I ride on and off the road there is always the risk of comming across a snake. I am mainly in tiger snake country and these little fuckers are in the top 10 of the worlds most deadly snakes, are angry alot of the time and have some nasty arse venom.
I have been looking after someone in the ICU who had the misfortune of being bitten this week on the ankle whilst riding a bike (how unlucky... just out enjoying the weather) and is now knocking on deaths door. Didint help that he rode for 10 mins to get home. Makes me think that I will be packing the compression bandage in the kit this year when off road!
Busy week with a bit of training thrown in. Managed to get out on the roller skis and on the bike. I have got the weekend off so I am heading up into the hills for some training tomorrow and then racing on Sunday at the infamous Glenvale!



Well done to Richie with a win down in the Tour of Tassie..... hope to catch him soon for a pedal
Check ya!!



Oh and I want these socks that sock guy has made and previewed at interbike!