Hope you enjoy reading about my travels recorded herein!
Sorry, the pictures aren't working - the hosting service for them went down, and I haven't fixed them yet.
Actually, now they work! - re-hosted them, so enjoy.
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Monday, 22 April 2013
Jorgenson Park 4 hr, 2013
Sitting with complaining legs as I type this: having competed in the Jorgenson Park 4 hr MTB Marathon yesterday I'm feeling a little delicate in the lower half region. Well, the upper half isn't all that uncomplaining either!
The JP 4 hr Marathon is the first in a series of 5 races on the yearly calendar for the Marathon crowd in Perth - well I say Perth but it actually is spread out a bit around the state, with this year seeing the inclusion of rounds in Dunsborough and Karratha!
The series is organised by a bunch of MTB enthusiasts going under the moniker of Single Track Minds - click to check out their web page, events for 2013, and operating philosophy.
Last year I did the Jorgenson 4hr and the Kalamunda 50/50, both organised by Single Track Minds, and have no idea why I didn't blog about it: 2012 wasn't a year of stellar blogging on my part. Or it could have been something to do with the fact that the 2012 Jorgenson Park half killed me, and the Kalamunda 50/50 finished me off! For someone who pottered around occasionally on the MTB (at least in terms of ride length) both were a rude shock and amply demonstrated that road bike fitness has nothing to do with MTB fitness. I suffered rather hugely from leg cramps, especially on hills, and the ignominy of walking larger rises was forced upon me on more than one occasion during the events. I guess I learned quickly that MTB'ing places more rigorous demands upon one's legs than the road, especially with all the out-of-seat work needed.
So, to this year's JP 4 hr.
I decided to take a much more stringent management approach to my ride this year, with strict lap completion criteria, energy and fluid intake, and on-bike technique. Of course, all this is of little value if you decide to forget it all in the heat of the moment, but after a rather nutty first 3rd of a lap I soon woke up and adhered more to the plan.
Last year I'd completed a total of 7 laps for a distance of 40km (yes, I know: it seems very feeble!) and had basically knackered myself after 4 laps and well within half race time. The final three laps consisted of cramp-filled struggles around the course with long interludes in the solo rest area in between. Out of the 4 hours of the race, I had a riding time of just under 3 hours. Not saying I didn't enjoy it, but it was an eye opener!
This year I stuck to my plan - no great over-achieving dreams but an aim to do 8 laps at a steady and measured pace, with blocks of two completed laps followed by whatever amount of time left out of an hour per those 2 laps to rest.
I ended up doing the 8 laps for a distance of just over 50km on the slightly longer course, and with a riding time of a little over 3 hours. So, my management plan got me an extra 10 km and 1 lap over the 2012 race at a much improved pace, and with only a small period of cramp on the 8th lap after first raising its niggly little head on the 7th.
I ended up finishing the 8th lap with around 15 mins of the 4hrs remaining - not close enough to do another lap, but a big enough gap that 9 laps next year will be the goal. A realistic goal I think, as the strategy of 2 laps and then a rest for the remaining hour time was, upon hindsight, a little generous. I spent a fair amount of time resting (I rested between the 7th and 8th laps as well as I'd started to cramp a little on the 7th), and getting less rest minutes between lap blocks should easily give me enough time next year for a final lap time allowance of 30 min. With an average actual riding-only lap time of 22 mins per I should be fine.
It was a much more fun experience this time around - sticking to the timing plan, ensuring hydration and nourishment, and making sure I rested my legs when riding by staying in saddle when I could (my full suss helped greatly here) meant I was much fresher out on the track, and rather than fighting the track, rolling along with it.
Of course, post-event I was thinking I'd slacked off and taken it far too easy and another lap was there for the taking - this morning however, with sore legs and a even sorer shoulders (got to get rid of that tendency to death-grip the bars!) I think I made the right decision, and 9 laps can wait until next year!
Ride Safe!
The JP 4 hr Marathon is the first in a series of 5 races on the yearly calendar for the Marathon crowd in Perth - well I say Perth but it actually is spread out a bit around the state, with this year seeing the inclusion of rounds in Dunsborough and Karratha!
The series is organised by a bunch of MTB enthusiasts going under the moniker of Single Track Minds - click to check out their web page, events for 2013, and operating philosophy.
Last year I did the Jorgenson 4hr and the Kalamunda 50/50, both organised by Single Track Minds, and have no idea why I didn't blog about it: 2012 wasn't a year of stellar blogging on my part. Or it could have been something to do with the fact that the 2012 Jorgenson Park half killed me, and the Kalamunda 50/50 finished me off! For someone who pottered around occasionally on the MTB (at least in terms of ride length) both were a rude shock and amply demonstrated that road bike fitness has nothing to do with MTB fitness. I suffered rather hugely from leg cramps, especially on hills, and the ignominy of walking larger rises was forced upon me on more than one occasion during the events. I guess I learned quickly that MTB'ing places more rigorous demands upon one's legs than the road, especially with all the out-of-seat work needed.
So, to this year's JP 4 hr.
I decided to take a much more stringent management approach to my ride this year, with strict lap completion criteria, energy and fluid intake, and on-bike technique. Of course, all this is of little value if you decide to forget it all in the heat of the moment, but after a rather nutty first 3rd of a lap I soon woke up and adhered more to the plan.
Last year I'd completed a total of 7 laps for a distance of 40km (yes, I know: it seems very feeble!) and had basically knackered myself after 4 laps and well within half race time. The final three laps consisted of cramp-filled struggles around the course with long interludes in the solo rest area in between. Out of the 4 hours of the race, I had a riding time of just under 3 hours. Not saying I didn't enjoy it, but it was an eye opener!
This year I stuck to my plan - no great over-achieving dreams but an aim to do 8 laps at a steady and measured pace, with blocks of two completed laps followed by whatever amount of time left out of an hour per those 2 laps to rest.
I ended up doing the 8 laps for a distance of just over 50km on the slightly longer course, and with a riding time of a little over 3 hours. So, my management plan got me an extra 10 km and 1 lap over the 2012 race at a much improved pace, and with only a small period of cramp on the 8th lap after first raising its niggly little head on the 7th.
I ended up finishing the 8th lap with around 15 mins of the 4hrs remaining - not close enough to do another lap, but a big enough gap that 9 laps next year will be the goal. A realistic goal I think, as the strategy of 2 laps and then a rest for the remaining hour time was, upon hindsight, a little generous. I spent a fair amount of time resting (I rested between the 7th and 8th laps as well as I'd started to cramp a little on the 7th), and getting less rest minutes between lap blocks should easily give me enough time next year for a final lap time allowance of 30 min. With an average actual riding-only lap time of 22 mins per I should be fine.
It was a much more fun experience this time around - sticking to the timing plan, ensuring hydration and nourishment, and making sure I rested my legs when riding by staying in saddle when I could (my full suss helped greatly here) meant I was much fresher out on the track, and rather than fighting the track, rolling along with it.
Of course, post-event I was thinking I'd slacked off and taken it far too easy and another lap was there for the taking - this morning however, with sore legs and a even sorer shoulders (got to get rid of that tendency to death-grip the bars!) I think I made the right decision, and 9 laps can wait until next year!
Ride Safe!
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
MTB Track - Forsyth's Mill
Just getting back into the MTB groove after a break from late 2012.
I've decided to try and hit up a few more tracks this year as I tend to get stuck into riding just a couple of favourites - chiefly because it takes me forever to learn the layout and only then do I get up any semblance of speed!
Anyway, hitting up the Perth Mountain Bike Club website I picked out Forsyth's Mill near Sawyers Valley, which sounded fairly good and not too far of a drive (45 mins from my inner city suburb as it turns out).
Nice drive out to the place on an early morning weekday, arrived at 6:45am to an empty and well laid out carpark, complete with picnic tables and ablutions block, and some cool but just-up-sunny conditions, and after a quick warmup, checked out the trailhead info and then crawled off down the trail for an initial exploratory lap.
Ended up doing three laps for 17km in total (the main blue level trail is 5.5kms) - was thinking of a fourth but my shoulders were complaining after my having tried to go through trees instead of around them! No offs, but a few grazes from this non-advisable tree-butting technique.
Short story: looks like I have another track to slot into the favorites!
Characterised by the closeness and abundance of trees throughout a significant portion of the circuit (there's quite a few close tree gaps to squeeze through, including a through-tree, and more than one low hanging branch), the run is nevertheless very flowy with no great elevations changes, and one I'd characterise as toward the easier blue diamond level.
Whilst generally narrow, the track is fairly smooth, with only a couple of rock garden sections (nothing too challenging in that regard, although one garden is strategically placed at the end of a longish slow, winding climb) and the major restraint to progress is the often tight twistys and proximity of trees to thread around. There's generally a small or sometimes larger berm on the turns (a few with loose pea gravel) and maintaining speed is fairly easy, although if you are on a 29er as I was, some of the tighter turns require you to use all available real estate. Passing may be a bit of an issue, with the occasional wider fire trail sections spread apart and quite short in length.
Apart from the aforementioned rock gardens, there is little in the way of other natural ground impediments, with the occasional small log over and odd rock drop. On the last portion of the track there are a number of TTFs classified as single black diamond, including a Shore feature comprising a ramp, small gap jump to a flat and then a metre drop off; a wood ramp log over, and a log ramp log over. Didn't try the Shore as I'm a bit of a safety weeny when I'm riding by myself, but the ramp and platform are fairly wide, the gap isn't that great as long as you carry some speed up the ramp from the clean approach, and the drop off isn't anything too daunting, with the landing area straight and clean. If you'd rather take the B line around these TTFs no problems, as both the black and blue lines are clearly marked on top of very visible yellow poles. Interestingly, only the B line for the wood ramp log over ads any significant time penalty if you are racing around.
There are a couple of really great sections in the last third of the track: a very swoopy and bermy turns section which is huge fun and rewards smoothness, a short twisty up and down section with jumps and dips through close dense forest, and a two jump series which can be taken at high speed as long as you remember the 90 degree right hand berm immediately you hit the ground after the second jump!
All in all, a great little track, and one that doesn't require a lot of familiarisation but will reward repeated laps with noteable speed increases. As a lower intermediate level rider, I really loved it.
There is also a very short green level track for beginners, although as it merges with the blue level track at the end, keep an eye out for faster riders.
Here are some details about the track location etc: Perth Mountain Bike Club - Forsyth's Mill.
Ride Safe!
I've decided to try and hit up a few more tracks this year as I tend to get stuck into riding just a couple of favourites - chiefly because it takes me forever to learn the layout and only then do I get up any semblance of speed!
Anyway, hitting up the Perth Mountain Bike Club website I picked out Forsyth's Mill near Sawyers Valley, which sounded fairly good and not too far of a drive (45 mins from my inner city suburb as it turns out).
Nice drive out to the place on an early morning weekday, arrived at 6:45am to an empty and well laid out carpark, complete with picnic tables and ablutions block, and some cool but just-up-sunny conditions, and after a quick warmup, checked out the trailhead info and then crawled off down the trail for an initial exploratory lap.
Ended up doing three laps for 17km in total (the main blue level trail is 5.5kms) - was thinking of a fourth but my shoulders were complaining after my having tried to go through trees instead of around them! No offs, but a few grazes from this non-advisable tree-butting technique.
Short story: looks like I have another track to slot into the favorites!
Characterised by the closeness and abundance of trees throughout a significant portion of the circuit (there's quite a few close tree gaps to squeeze through, including a through-tree, and more than one low hanging branch), the run is nevertheless very flowy with no great elevations changes, and one I'd characterise as toward the easier blue diamond level.
Whilst generally narrow, the track is fairly smooth, with only a couple of rock garden sections (nothing too challenging in that regard, although one garden is strategically placed at the end of a longish slow, winding climb) and the major restraint to progress is the often tight twistys and proximity of trees to thread around. There's generally a small or sometimes larger berm on the turns (a few with loose pea gravel) and maintaining speed is fairly easy, although if you are on a 29er as I was, some of the tighter turns require you to use all available real estate. Passing may be a bit of an issue, with the occasional wider fire trail sections spread apart and quite short in length.
Apart from the aforementioned rock gardens, there is little in the way of other natural ground impediments, with the occasional small log over and odd rock drop. On the last portion of the track there are a number of TTFs classified as single black diamond, including a Shore feature comprising a ramp, small gap jump to a flat and then a metre drop off; a wood ramp log over, and a log ramp log over. Didn't try the Shore as I'm a bit of a safety weeny when I'm riding by myself, but the ramp and platform are fairly wide, the gap isn't that great as long as you carry some speed up the ramp from the clean approach, and the drop off isn't anything too daunting, with the landing area straight and clean. If you'd rather take the B line around these TTFs no problems, as both the black and blue lines are clearly marked on top of very visible yellow poles. Interestingly, only the B line for the wood ramp log over ads any significant time penalty if you are racing around.
There are a couple of really great sections in the last third of the track: a very swoopy and bermy turns section which is huge fun and rewards smoothness, a short twisty up and down section with jumps and dips through close dense forest, and a two jump series which can be taken at high speed as long as you remember the 90 degree right hand berm immediately you hit the ground after the second jump!
All in all, a great little track, and one that doesn't require a lot of familiarisation but will reward repeated laps with noteable speed increases. As a lower intermediate level rider, I really loved it.
There is also a very short green level track for beginners, although as it merges with the blue level track at the end, keep an eye out for faster riders.
Here are some details about the track location etc: Perth Mountain Bike Club - Forsyth's Mill.
Ride Safe!
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Lots of riding – not much talking. Talking about some things is too depressing.
Been a while – been a long while. Masses of kms have passed under the wheels but little to write about: guess I have been focused on the blog as a space to write about new toys, but there haven't been any of those of late.
The Colnago CX-1 road bike has become a much loved tool for experiencing life at the top on the roads and bike tracks of Perth, whilst the Mach 429 29er has proved to be a king of the off road trails. Guess it's a nice position to be in not to crave for something new to re-engage my enthusiasm for biking – the fact that these two weapons have proven to be the kind of bikes that can give me the “day one” enthusiasm when I pop my bum in the seat for every next ride is a great thing.
Am hankering for some more road tours of the US – it's been a long while and there are so many new places to visit that the treasure of choices is mouth-wateringly mind blurring. The need to plan such stuff is something that Real Life intrudes on, plus there are so many quality blogs, pic sites and tour reviews that, whilst not a complete replacement, they at least satiate a little the thirst to actually get the arse up and out there! Still, time marches on, and soon I'll be having to ride in the autobus if I don't get out there again!
My other major interest in cycling, the competitive side, has always been a mainstay, at least in terms of watching (rather than active participation). I've always been fascinated with the racing scene, especially the Euro based campaigns. To me they represented the pinnacle of the sport, not just in the competition itself, but also in the majestic backdrops that serve as the playgrounds for these epic races: they always inspired me to travel and to hope one day that I may set wheel upon them.
I've pretty much come around to the fact over the years that the exploits of the riders are not necessarily something to hang your hat on: the judgement of history is that it has rarely been about a simple “man vs man in all their natural supremacy” battle. I do not ascribe to hero worship – there to me is a deep well of disappointment for those that dive in. I've tried to view it as entertainment, a gladiatorial spectacle, albeit with a slightly more even playing field than Christians vs Lions! I've always been a skeptic re: the superhuman feats that the pro-cycling marketers have hinged the sport's success upon: the need to create myths of mere humans seems to me to be an ultimately futile exercise, as humans are demonstrably renowned to be just that. And yet, to see the current predicament of the sport is nonetheless disheartening and a little crushing – I guess even in the most profound of cycnics lies some still pool of hope.
But what to do? At various times I rail against the Lances of the sport, all the participants who lie, cheat and bully. I fume at all those facilitators and enablers who cover up, vacillate and protect. I mumble bitterly against an administration which propogates the cleanliness of the sport whilst aiding and abetting sham procedures which serve to prop up the whole collapsing edifice. I vent against all those who taint the sport, seeking restitutive penalties against committers, enablers and blind followers.
And yet, at the end of the day, I just don't know what to do? Am I really going to devolve into the it's all too hard pack?
Really?
Maybe.
Fuck it, I am just going to go out there and ride my bike – after all, that's what started it all for me.
Ride Safe!
The Colnago CX-1 road bike has become a much loved tool for experiencing life at the top on the roads and bike tracks of Perth, whilst the Mach 429 29er has proved to be a king of the off road trails. Guess it's a nice position to be in not to crave for something new to re-engage my enthusiasm for biking – the fact that these two weapons have proven to be the kind of bikes that can give me the “day one” enthusiasm when I pop my bum in the seat for every next ride is a great thing.
Am hankering for some more road tours of the US – it's been a long while and there are so many new places to visit that the treasure of choices is mouth-wateringly mind blurring. The need to plan such stuff is something that Real Life intrudes on, plus there are so many quality blogs, pic sites and tour reviews that, whilst not a complete replacement, they at least satiate a little the thirst to actually get the arse up and out there! Still, time marches on, and soon I'll be having to ride in the autobus if I don't get out there again!
My other major interest in cycling, the competitive side, has always been a mainstay, at least in terms of watching (rather than active participation). I've always been fascinated with the racing scene, especially the Euro based campaigns. To me they represented the pinnacle of the sport, not just in the competition itself, but also in the majestic backdrops that serve as the playgrounds for these epic races: they always inspired me to travel and to hope one day that I may set wheel upon them.
I've pretty much come around to the fact over the years that the exploits of the riders are not necessarily something to hang your hat on: the judgement of history is that it has rarely been about a simple “man vs man in all their natural supremacy” battle. I do not ascribe to hero worship – there to me is a deep well of disappointment for those that dive in. I've tried to view it as entertainment, a gladiatorial spectacle, albeit with a slightly more even playing field than Christians vs Lions! I've always been a skeptic re: the superhuman feats that the pro-cycling marketers have hinged the sport's success upon: the need to create myths of mere humans seems to me to be an ultimately futile exercise, as humans are demonstrably renowned to be just that. And yet, to see the current predicament of the sport is nonetheless disheartening and a little crushing – I guess even in the most profound of cycnics lies some still pool of hope.
But what to do? At various times I rail against the Lances of the sport, all the participants who lie, cheat and bully. I fume at all those facilitators and enablers who cover up, vacillate and protect. I mumble bitterly against an administration which propogates the cleanliness of the sport whilst aiding and abetting sham procedures which serve to prop up the whole collapsing edifice. I vent against all those who taint the sport, seeking restitutive penalties against committers, enablers and blind followers.
And yet, at the end of the day, I just don't know what to do? Am I really going to devolve into the it's all too hard pack?
Really?
Maybe.
Fuck it, I am just going to go out there and ride my bike – after all, that's what started it all for me.
Ride Safe!
Friday, 1 June 2012
Mach Attack: Pivot Mach 429
A while back I bought a MTB – a 2011 Giant XTC 29er 1 Hardtail. After some months of riding and racing, and a suffering back to boot, I decided I needed to go Full Sus to alleviate the back pain and keep up with the sport. To alleviate the wallet pain, I determined to graft as many parts as possible from the XTC onto a new frame.
So, after much research (I wanted to stay with the 29er theme) and some trusted advice from the guys at Cycles Bespoke (thanks Chris and Angus!), I ended up with a 2012 Pivot Mach 429 frame (Large size).
So, straight into some piccies! (click on the pic for a larger version)
Here's a shot of the non-drive side of the bike - looks really nice in stealth anodized black.
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Drive side of the bike.
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Drive side again from on high.
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Front of the bike (bell has now disappeared - not a useful tool on the trail!).
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Cockpit - the original XTC Giant 110mm stem has now been replaced with a 90mm Thomson for a little more control and reduced reach. The BBB flat bar has also been replaced with an FSA K-Force 18mm riser bar - slightly less backsweep but more width and a slight upsweep. Also, new brake system - XT levers here.
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Front end showing the Fox F29 100 RL fork with 15mm Thru axle, Sun Ringle Black Flag Pro 29er wheel fitted with Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin bag, and the new Shimano brake setup (XT caliper with Ice-Tech Rotor and Pads).
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Mid-bike drive side showing the Pivot's DWS suspension featuring Fox RP23 Kashima Coat shock. Pedals have been changed to XT Trail style.
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Mid-bike non-drive side DWS suspension.
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Chainset drive side.
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Rear wheel disc. Axle is 142 x 12.
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RD and 11-36 cassette. Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evo Snakeskin bag.
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So, how does the sucker ride?
Well, this is just going to be a 'first impressions' of the frame and ride write-up, because I've done probably just over 8 hours of racing on the bike: that and my relative newness to MTBing means I am nowhere near competent to ride at the level or conditions this bike can cope with, nor I am sufficiently schooled to incisively comment on its capabilities or ultimate performance. Still, a few observations can't hurt?
First off, the bike is as stiff as a plank on the trail: no squirms, wallows or flexs. It goes where it's pointed and stays there (the fact that the pilot doesn't always point it where it should go is not its fault!). The frame and axles are basis of this, with the Sun Ringle wheels also exhibiting ample lateral stiffness.
I've experimented with the suspension settings front and rear over the course of races (including a 4 hour enduro during which I tweaked a little) and arrived at a good setup for me.
The Fox fork is set to 22% sag (for an 87kg guy like me that equates to 90psi in the fork) which gives it a reasonable compromise between total amount of travel, small-bump compliance and bottoming out. Rebound speed is set to the fast side of middle - no pogo-ing but quick enough not to pack down under repeat hits. May have to experiment with oil volumes a little - I would like a little more small-bump compliance but decreasing air pressure leads to more bottoming. Still, the fork is elegant rather than drastic when it bottoms, and the travel is progressive and rates ramp up nicely with good feel.
The DWS suspension with the Fox RP23 Kashima shock is just perfect. The shock has various pro-pedal settings but I just don't use them - it stays fully open. Set the correct sag via the indicator and it's all go. The DWS suspension is like the proverbial magic carpet - rolls over everything with no fuss. I really do forget about it - I know it has bottomed out but only because the indicator tells me so. No pedal bob, no loss of propulsion or motive power, no stiction - it feels as efficient as my old hardtail. Except when it comes to climbs - there it tears the HT a new one. This thing climbs like a rocket strapped to a set of wheels. Just sit down and crank it out is my advice.
Making the switch to the XT brakes has been a revelation. Power is incredible but the modulation of that power is even better - 1 finger braking, no matter the level of stopping force required, is the reality, and it's one less thing to concentrate on.
I am so much loving this bike right now, and I am feeling real progression in my riding each time I go out on it. It's great coming to grips with the trail, and having a bike which isn't putting any obstacles in my way performance wise lets me concentrate on what I can achieve out there. I'm confident I'll never be limited by this bike in the XC environment - which is a great thing to know.
Ride Safe!
So, after much research (I wanted to stay with the 29er theme) and some trusted advice from the guys at Cycles Bespoke (thanks Chris and Angus!), I ended up with a 2012 Pivot Mach 429 frame (Large size).
So, straight into some piccies! (click on the pic for a larger version)
Here's a shot of the non-drive side of the bike - looks really nice in stealth anodized black.
Drive side of the bike.
Drive side again from on high.
Front of the bike (bell has now disappeared - not a useful tool on the trail!).
Cockpit - the original XTC Giant 110mm stem has now been replaced with a 90mm Thomson for a little more control and reduced reach. The BBB flat bar has also been replaced with an FSA K-Force 18mm riser bar - slightly less backsweep but more width and a slight upsweep. Also, new brake system - XT levers here.
Front end showing the Fox F29 100 RL fork with 15mm Thru axle, Sun Ringle Black Flag Pro 29er wheel fitted with Schwalbe Nobby Nic Evo Snakeskin bag, and the new Shimano brake setup (XT caliper with Ice-Tech Rotor and Pads).
Mid-bike drive side showing the Pivot's DWS suspension featuring Fox RP23 Kashima Coat shock. Pedals have been changed to XT Trail style.
Mid-bike non-drive side DWS suspension.
Chainset drive side.
Rear wheel disc. Axle is 142 x 12.
RD and 11-36 cassette. Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evo Snakeskin bag.
So, how does the sucker ride?
Well, this is just going to be a 'first impressions' of the frame and ride write-up, because I've done probably just over 8 hours of racing on the bike: that and my relative newness to MTBing means I am nowhere near competent to ride at the level or conditions this bike can cope with, nor I am sufficiently schooled to incisively comment on its capabilities or ultimate performance. Still, a few observations can't hurt?
First off, the bike is as stiff as a plank on the trail: no squirms, wallows or flexs. It goes where it's pointed and stays there (the fact that the pilot doesn't always point it where it should go is not its fault!). The frame and axles are basis of this, with the Sun Ringle wheels also exhibiting ample lateral stiffness.
I've experimented with the suspension settings front and rear over the course of races (including a 4 hour enduro during which I tweaked a little) and arrived at a good setup for me.
The Fox fork is set to 22% sag (for an 87kg guy like me that equates to 90psi in the fork) which gives it a reasonable compromise between total amount of travel, small-bump compliance and bottoming out. Rebound speed is set to the fast side of middle - no pogo-ing but quick enough not to pack down under repeat hits. May have to experiment with oil volumes a little - I would like a little more small-bump compliance but decreasing air pressure leads to more bottoming. Still, the fork is elegant rather than drastic when it bottoms, and the travel is progressive and rates ramp up nicely with good feel.
The DWS suspension with the Fox RP23 Kashima shock is just perfect. The shock has various pro-pedal settings but I just don't use them - it stays fully open. Set the correct sag via the indicator and it's all go. The DWS suspension is like the proverbial magic carpet - rolls over everything with no fuss. I really do forget about it - I know it has bottomed out but only because the indicator tells me so. No pedal bob, no loss of propulsion or motive power, no stiction - it feels as efficient as my old hardtail. Except when it comes to climbs - there it tears the HT a new one. This thing climbs like a rocket strapped to a set of wheels. Just sit down and crank it out is my advice.
Making the switch to the XT brakes has been a revelation. Power is incredible but the modulation of that power is even better - 1 finger braking, no matter the level of stopping force required, is the reality, and it's one less thing to concentrate on.
I am so much loving this bike right now, and I am feeling real progression in my riding each time I go out on it. It's great coming to grips with the trail, and having a bike which isn't putting any obstacles in my way performance wise lets me concentrate on what I can achieve out there. I'm confident I'll never be limited by this bike in the XC environment - which is a great thing to know.
Ride Safe!
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Report – Michelin Pro 4 Service Course Tyres and Shimano Ultegra 6700C Carbon Road Pedals
Michelin Pro 4 Service Course Tyres
As blogged a while back, I decided to go back to Michelin tyres on my roadie, specifically giving the new Pro4 Service Course Tyres a go.
I documented my initial impressions were good, with excellent cornering and feel, but with the caveat that I had no idea how they would wear.
Well, a follow up to that: I still have no idea how they wear because they didn't last that long! Bought 4 new tyres, and within a couple of weeks 3 of them (I never put the 4th one on) had been rendered useless by cuts caused by glass shards.
These tyres seem to be very sensitive to any amount of glass, no matter how tiny – in short they have no discernible puncture protection at all. What's more, when they were cut by glass shards, all three experienced lifting of the outer tread from the inner carcass along the cut, so the old super glue fix didn't work. Three tyres disposed of after less than 100 kms on each – not a stellar track record! Needless to say the remaining tyre sits forlornly in a cupboard whilst the reliable Vittoria Rubino Pros went back on where they remain to this day: same pair after 1000 kms with no punctures, even picking up a little glass on the way, which incidentally would have seen the Pro 4s self-demolish!
So, Michelin Pro 4s – no thanks!
Shimano Ultegra 6700C Carbon Road Pedals
Short and sweet: I put them one, they look nice, save a little weight, and feel great under foot, with a wide platform and sensitive tension adjust. After that, forgot about them!
Recommended!
Ride Safe!
Friday, 16 December 2011
Gone Tubeless: The Mountain Version
A while back I bought a MTB – a first for me, and in honour of this decision to get dirty I decided to go big – 29er big.
Ended up with a 2011 Giant XTC 29er 1. Broke it in by commuting to work on it on bike paths – yeah makes a lot of sense but...
Anyway, that first example died an ignoble death after being run over by a blind-arsed dufus of a motorist who watched me coming through a roundabout and then at the last possible second decided to blow the giveway sign and plow into me. I was put onto the bonnet and then ejected when he hit the skids, doing a nice three point landing and then bleeding profusely over the road via a nicely scratched up face and nose. One trip to the emergency ward via 'waammbulance' later showed I was only superficially damaged, which was more than could be said for the 29er – it had a terminal case of hole-punched-in-the-frame-itis and severe non-roundess-wheelus.
Eight months later and various dealings with an almost completely intransigent insurer, I got the new MTB – exactly the same model bike!
So, this time the bike and I hit the trails (literally on a few occasions!) with the upshot being that I decided the abundance of punctures had to go away, hence the title of this post. I herein document this mod.
I decided on SunRingle Black Flag Pro 29 wheels. Good value, good feedback online and I liked the looks – well at least of the black rimmed and gold hubbed version: the gold rimmed and black hubbed version was a little too bling for me. (Piccies at the end of the post). Here's a link to the SunRingle site:
SunRingle Black Flag Pro 29 Wheels
The Pros come with the Stan's No-Tubes system rims (apparently SunRingle makes all of Stan's rims anyway) beautifully pre-fitted with the yellow sealing tape, and including 2 x tubeless valves, 2 x 59 ml bottles of Stan's Sealant, and featuring 28 double butted spokes per wheel, QR9 rear axle, and fittings for QR9, QR15 (which the Fox fork on the Giant has) and 20mm thru axle for the front hub: pretty much the full deal in one package. The red anodised freewheel looks nice, sounds good and works fine. The gold anodised hubs look just dandy in my opinion.
Tyre wise, I went with Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evo Tubeless Ready Snakeskins 2.25s: a little high tech for my neophyte skills but they were a good deal, and the Maxxis Aspens that came on the bike were a little too thin (2.10) and a little too slick for my liking (great for flat hardpack tho).
I also decided to keep the original set completely built up for swap in as a commuting set, so the new wheelset had the same Shimano discs and cassette (11-36) placed on it - plus some red anodised disc bolts: goes with the few other red ano bits on the bike!
So, got the stuff. Now what to do with it!
I'd read some horror stories about getting tubeless stuff set up, and my trepidation wasn't helped when I caught a cautionary tail involving the tyres I'd just purchased!
Still, armed with a viewing of the Stans Video, some soapy water, and the required Stans equipment, plus wheels and tyres, I set forth.
Turns out, for this particular combo, getting it done was easy as! Here's my procedure in step-by-step form:
Sitting down, hold the tyre upright with side facing you, take a rim, with tube hole at the topmost position, and place it completely inside the tyre well (with discs brakes I had my disc side facing me). At this stage make sure that you a) have the tyre in the correct rotation direction if applicable, and b) the tyre is dressed relative to the rim properly (i.e. labels where they should be in relation to the valve). Because the tyre fits onto the rim fairly tightly, even with only one bead on, it's hard to rotate the tyre to the correct position if the dressing isn't done first.
Start inserting the outer tyre bead (the one facing away from you) into the far side of the rim, commencing at the bottom. Work upwards, both sides evenly. I found doing it this way meant I was only having to move one half of the tyre onto the rim at a time, and also towards the end of the insertion process when the remaining bead gets tight towards the top of the rim, you can use your hands (and a suitable cloth – I used a dish towel) over the top of the tyre to grip the rim with the tyre in the palm of your hands, like you are gripping a motorbike throttle, and twist towards you. Doing it this way I was able to get all four beads of the 2 tyres on without using any levers (it takes a little time, but it worked for me).
Once the first bead is on, turn the tyre 180 degrees on it's vertical axis so the unattached bead is facing you and insert and secure the tubeless valve into the rim (it should be on the top of the rim if you've started the install the way I did). Check the dressing! Then, rotate the wheel along it's direction of travel so that the valve is on the bottom of the wheel, spin the wheel another 180 vertically so the unhooked bead is facing away from you, and repeat the second bead installation in the same way as the first, making sure that the bead on the bottom is inserted between the valve and the rim wall. Bead insertion was tight towards the top but the grip method above worked for me again.
Now, you have a tyre on the rim, oriented and dressed correctly. Time to inflate!
First off, get some thoroughly soapy water (I took some soap pieces and put them in a jar of warm water, put on the lid and shook vigorously until the water was very cloudy) and apply it with a cloth to the inside rim and the outside of the bead all the way around on both sides of the wheel. Place the tyre on the ground upright with the valve at the bottom and attach a floor pump and inflate. I found that this combo of tyre and rim held air instantly, the beads sealing against the yellow rim tape all the way around the tyre, and the tyre bead sealed with a 'thwack' or two against the rim at about 30 psi. I inflated to 40 psi (the maximum recommended by SunRingle) and left it for a few moments – no soapy bubbling at all!
Now for the sealant. Deflating the tyre saw the beads unhitch from the rim but remained sealed against the tape. Unscrew the valve portion of the tubeless valve and using the Stans 59ml bottle (whose nozzle fits directly inside the empty Presta valve) slowly squeeze all the contents into the tyre, and reinstall valve innards. At this stage I didn't move the tyre – I inflated it first again, the tyre beads seated in the rim with the same 'thwack' and the tyre went straight back up to 40 psi. Then I did the old Stan's Dance to distribute the sealant all around the inside of the tyre.
Leave laying horizontal disc side up over night to check for leaks and rinse and repeat for the other wheel/tyre! Like I said, for me with this tyre and wheel combo, easy as!
Next morning, the wheels were at the same pressure and no sign of any Stans Sealant anywhere (it could still be heard sloshing around inside the tyre). They have remained like that since with a little air from time to time.
So, piccies at completion! (couldn't be arsed waiting to take individual component pics - just wanted to get them together!)
I'm happy.
To me they look nice, ride great, no punctures and an overall weight saving over the standard Giant setup of around 600 grams – excellent!
I'll put up a longer term impression when the tyres have worn out – which the Racing Ralphs seem to do fairly quickly I've heard.
Ride Safe!
Ended up with a 2011 Giant XTC 29er 1. Broke it in by commuting to work on it on bike paths – yeah makes a lot of sense but...
Anyway, that first example died an ignoble death after being run over by a blind-arsed dufus of a motorist who watched me coming through a roundabout and then at the last possible second decided to blow the giveway sign and plow into me. I was put onto the bonnet and then ejected when he hit the skids, doing a nice three point landing and then bleeding profusely over the road via a nicely scratched up face and nose. One trip to the emergency ward via 'waammbulance' later showed I was only superficially damaged, which was more than could be said for the 29er – it had a terminal case of hole-punched-in-the-frame-itis and severe non-roundess-wheelus.
Eight months later and various dealings with an almost completely intransigent insurer, I got the new MTB – exactly the same model bike!
So, this time the bike and I hit the trails (literally on a few occasions!) with the upshot being that I decided the abundance of punctures had to go away, hence the title of this post. I herein document this mod.
A. Equipment
I decided on SunRingle Black Flag Pro 29 wheels. Good value, good feedback online and I liked the looks – well at least of the black rimmed and gold hubbed version: the gold rimmed and black hubbed version was a little too bling for me. (Piccies at the end of the post). Here's a link to the SunRingle site:
SunRingle Black Flag Pro 29 Wheels
The Pros come with the Stan's No-Tubes system rims (apparently SunRingle makes all of Stan's rims anyway) beautifully pre-fitted with the yellow sealing tape, and including 2 x tubeless valves, 2 x 59 ml bottles of Stan's Sealant, and featuring 28 double butted spokes per wheel, QR9 rear axle, and fittings for QR9, QR15 (which the Fox fork on the Giant has) and 20mm thru axle for the front hub: pretty much the full deal in one package. The red anodised freewheel looks nice, sounds good and works fine. The gold anodised hubs look just dandy in my opinion.
Tyre wise, I went with Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evo Tubeless Ready Snakeskins 2.25s: a little high tech for my neophyte skills but they were a good deal, and the Maxxis Aspens that came on the bike were a little too thin (2.10) and a little too slick for my liking (great for flat hardpack tho).
I also decided to keep the original set completely built up for swap in as a commuting set, so the new wheelset had the same Shimano discs and cassette (11-36) placed on it - plus some red anodised disc bolts: goes with the few other red ano bits on the bike!
So, got the stuff. Now what to do with it!
B. Assembly
I'd read some horror stories about getting tubeless stuff set up, and my trepidation wasn't helped when I caught a cautionary tail involving the tyres I'd just purchased!
Still, armed with a viewing of the Stans Video, some soapy water, and the required Stans equipment, plus wheels and tyres, I set forth.
Turns out, for this particular combo, getting it done was easy as! Here's my procedure in step-by-step form:
Sitting down, hold the tyre upright with side facing you, take a rim, with tube hole at the topmost position, and place it completely inside the tyre well (with discs brakes I had my disc side facing me). At this stage make sure that you a) have the tyre in the correct rotation direction if applicable, and b) the tyre is dressed relative to the rim properly (i.e. labels where they should be in relation to the valve). Because the tyre fits onto the rim fairly tightly, even with only one bead on, it's hard to rotate the tyre to the correct position if the dressing isn't done first.
Start inserting the outer tyre bead (the one facing away from you) into the far side of the rim, commencing at the bottom. Work upwards, both sides evenly. I found doing it this way meant I was only having to move one half of the tyre onto the rim at a time, and also towards the end of the insertion process when the remaining bead gets tight towards the top of the rim, you can use your hands (and a suitable cloth – I used a dish towel) over the top of the tyre to grip the rim with the tyre in the palm of your hands, like you are gripping a motorbike throttle, and twist towards you. Doing it this way I was able to get all four beads of the 2 tyres on without using any levers (it takes a little time, but it worked for me).
Once the first bead is on, turn the tyre 180 degrees on it's vertical axis so the unattached bead is facing you and insert and secure the tubeless valve into the rim (it should be on the top of the rim if you've started the install the way I did). Check the dressing! Then, rotate the wheel along it's direction of travel so that the valve is on the bottom of the wheel, spin the wheel another 180 vertically so the unhooked bead is facing away from you, and repeat the second bead installation in the same way as the first, making sure that the bead on the bottom is inserted between the valve and the rim wall. Bead insertion was tight towards the top but the grip method above worked for me again.
Now, you have a tyre on the rim, oriented and dressed correctly. Time to inflate!
First off, get some thoroughly soapy water (I took some soap pieces and put them in a jar of warm water, put on the lid and shook vigorously until the water was very cloudy) and apply it with a cloth to the inside rim and the outside of the bead all the way around on both sides of the wheel. Place the tyre on the ground upright with the valve at the bottom and attach a floor pump and inflate. I found that this combo of tyre and rim held air instantly, the beads sealing against the yellow rim tape all the way around the tyre, and the tyre bead sealed with a 'thwack' or two against the rim at about 30 psi. I inflated to 40 psi (the maximum recommended by SunRingle) and left it for a few moments – no soapy bubbling at all!
Now for the sealant. Deflating the tyre saw the beads unhitch from the rim but remained sealed against the tape. Unscrew the valve portion of the tubeless valve and using the Stans 59ml bottle (whose nozzle fits directly inside the empty Presta valve) slowly squeeze all the contents into the tyre, and reinstall valve innards. At this stage I didn't move the tyre – I inflated it first again, the tyre beads seated in the rim with the same 'thwack' and the tyre went straight back up to 40 psi. Then I did the old Stan's Dance to distribute the sealant all around the inside of the tyre.
Leave laying horizontal disc side up over night to check for leaks and rinse and repeat for the other wheel/tyre! Like I said, for me with this tyre and wheel combo, easy as!
Next morning, the wheels were at the same pressure and no sign of any Stans Sealant anywhere (it could still be heard sloshing around inside the tyre). They have remained like that since with a little air from time to time.
So, piccies at completion! (couldn't be arsed waiting to take individual component pics - just wanted to get them together!)
I'm happy.
To me they look nice, ride great, no punctures and an overall weight saving over the standard Giant setup of around 600 grams – excellent!
I'll put up a longer term impression when the tyres have worn out – which the Racing Ralphs seem to do fairly quickly I've heard.
Ride Safe!
Sunday, 4 December 2011
New Gear – Michelin Pro 4 Service Course Tyres and Shimano Ultegra 6700C Carbon Road Pedals
Michelin Pro 4 Service Course Tyres
So, after many years of faithful service from Vittoria Rubino Pros, I decided I once again wished to visit the land of Michelin tyres. I'd used and loved the Pro2s but then hadn't had much luck with the Pro3s – they seemed to cut up quite badly and puncture more readily, something that didn't go down well at their price point which I recall was quite steep.Snagged myself some of the new Pro4 Service Course Tyres (still not cheap) - in red of course, one must ensure the synchronicity of the colour scheme – and away we went.
Fitted up fairly easily on my Campy Eurus 2-Way fit wheels – no levers required – and pumped up to 105psi front and 115 rear (they max out at 116psi recommended) they immediately announced their difference even prior to the first ride.
They have a decidedly different profile to the Rubinos, and most other tyres I suspect. Their profile would be best described as angular – in fact when first on the tyre and unridden, they have a very triangular shape: sidewalls slightly angled away from the rims, then an obvious straight-ish inward canting line into a sharpish circular peak. Once ridden, this triangle does round out somewhat, but after 400-odd km, they still retain a visible angled peak to them.
So, they look weird: how do they ride? Well, in a word, terrific - once you adjust to the decided rapid tip in on cornering that such a profile logically delivers. The rapidity of the tip in is very noticeable, especially the first time you lob into a corner and heel over at speed – the bike quickly transitions to laid over mode and sends a little shiver of caution through you: it does feel like the tyre is hinting at sliding away from under you. But it never does – once thru the transition period the tyre just sits nice and firm and I soon became very settled with it. I'd go so far as to say that cornering on the tyre is confidence inspiring: it rolls into the lean and then just hangs on and hangs on. If you've ridden some of the later motorcycle tyre shapes I think that the Pro4s behaviour will be quite familiar.
Haven't used it in the wet yet, but the tyre seems fairly sticky, and the solid feel in the dry on cornering should transfer to the wet I suspect.
No idea how they wear yet – frankly I'm not that concerned: grip and feel is more an issue to me than saving a few bucks.
Velonews online has a prelim. write up – hit them up for a look.
Velonews Michelin Pro4 prelim review
Shimano Ultegra 6700C Carbon Road Pedals
For some reason, I've never been one to experiment with pedals – I've always been a fan of SPD-L, especially the more recent platform size and shape, and never bought anything but Ultegra. I had been tempted by the Dura Ace Carbons pedals but their skyhigh price put me off.
So imagine my interest when the Ultegra Carbons came out – same wide platform, carbon, and far less expensive than the DAs. And then the best news of all – only 10 grams heavier per pedal than the DAs! Personally, that pretty much rules the DAs out of the equation for me and likely 99% of everyone else. So of course, me purchase them!
Aside from the aforementioned weight difference to DAs (the Ultegra Carbons are significanty lighter than their alloy equivalents – around 50 grams or 16% per pair) info indicates the Ultegra Carbons have a twin bearing system compared to the DA Carbon's triple set, and are made with short fiber carbon rather than long fibre. I'm assuming this translates to a stiffer pedal for DA, but with my meagre output it's not like I can test that theory!
So, wide platform, low weight, nice black look and reasonably priced I think – what more could you want? Oh, for info sake, install is by Allen key only.
There's a first look preview on Bike Rumour online – again, go have a peek if this is your thing!
Bike Rumour Ultegra Carbon Road Pedals preview
Ride Safe!
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Oh my God – I forgot to do a Tour De France Write up!
Went through the agony of watching it (late nights and all), but never the chore of writing about it (here's the abridged version).
So, mucho congrats to Cadel Evans, first of my countrymen to ever pull on the maillot jaune on the podium on the Champs Elysees!
Félicitations monsieur Cadel!
Thoroughly enjoyed the race : all the drama, shenanigans, terror, incessant whining, petty drama, heroics, and sheer guts and determination.
Cadel won it how he usually rides: to the edge of his ability and digging deep. His style isn't for everyone, but I think it's his singular strength. In the past, he's definitely cracked big time on a crucial point, but this year he stayed strong and took his destiny into his own hands: a resolve which he's perhaps lacked in the past at Le Tour. A huge effort and an inspirational one.
Chapeau Cadel!
Apart from the win, my rider of the Tour: Thor Hushovd. His two stage wins were epic: he's really making a show of strength on long rolling stages his forte now, and the race is all the better for it.
Chapeau Thor!
Not sure about the teaming of Cadel and Thor on the same unit, but time will tell! Roll on BMC 2012!
Ride Safe!
Sunday, 10 July 2011
A Deadly New Threat – Bombers on Bicycles
This from the only-in-America hotline.
Apparently the bike lanes of New York City are now a haven for terrorists bent on seeking out targets for their insane upcoming campaign of the blanket bombing of New York City. It has occurred to a CBS2 reporter – one Marcia Kramer – that the bike lanes springing up around NYC are the perfect delivery routes for terrorists intent on meeting out revenge on the infidels, and in particular the Israeli variants.
In Kramer's world, the bike lanes will become avenues of death, with militants, bent on reeking havoc on the very bedrock of democracy that is NYC, careening back and forth delivering payloads of hate, death and destruction on their two-wheeled conveyances of Satan. And all whilst inconveniencing the smooth and rapid flowing transit system that are the cars, taxis and buses of NYC, because of course, everyone knows that the myth of traffic congestion in NYC is the vile spewing of communists intent on demolishing the American way of life.
Clearly the continued construction and extension of these highways of hell, themselves a punch-in-the-gut to the ideal of a four-wheeled utopian symbol of democracy, is an open invitation to militants to pack their frame tubes full of whatever exploding shit they can get their hands on, slip into their most figure pleasing slinky lycra or the latest in hipster fashion, and rocket their two-wheeled IEDs down these avenues, unimpeded by rule of law or gridlock, delivering their mayhem to wherever the hell they like.
Sounds ideal, although I'm guessing that Kramer likely hasn't factored in the probability that, what with the chances of getting hooked by a car, doored, hit by a bottle thrown from a vehicle, flatting on the innumerable bits of sharp gutter rubbish, decked by a kamikaze pedestrian, nailed by a mutt running around on a leash, or even brained by a head on collision with a fellow terrorist 'salmoning' their way alongside said route, the success rate of this delivery system isn't going to be that spectacular.
Shit, methinks said terrorists will likely figure out pretty quickly that it's cheaper and more effective to buy a backpack, pay the cab fare to where they wanna go, and then complete the journey via a brisk and healthy 5 minute walk to their intended destination. They'll definitely arrive less sweaty and stressed out, and in one piece (just before they blow themselves into the exact opposite of that).
So, we salute you Marcia Kramer for revealing this latest threat presented by the scourge of cycling! Mind you, a little exercise needed there Marcia – your whale arse is showing. Maybe a little trundle along the bike lanes of NYC...?
Ride Safe!
Apparently the bike lanes of New York City are now a haven for terrorists bent on seeking out targets for their insane upcoming campaign of the blanket bombing of New York City. It has occurred to a CBS2 reporter – one Marcia Kramer – that the bike lanes springing up around NYC are the perfect delivery routes for terrorists intent on meeting out revenge on the infidels, and in particular the Israeli variants.
In Kramer's world, the bike lanes will become avenues of death, with militants, bent on reeking havoc on the very bedrock of democracy that is NYC, careening back and forth delivering payloads of hate, death and destruction on their two-wheeled conveyances of Satan. And all whilst inconveniencing the smooth and rapid flowing transit system that are the cars, taxis and buses of NYC, because of course, everyone knows that the myth of traffic congestion in NYC is the vile spewing of communists intent on demolishing the American way of life.
Clearly the continued construction and extension of these highways of hell, themselves a punch-in-the-gut to the ideal of a four-wheeled utopian symbol of democracy, is an open invitation to militants to pack their frame tubes full of whatever exploding shit they can get their hands on, slip into their most figure pleasing slinky lycra or the latest in hipster fashion, and rocket their two-wheeled IEDs down these avenues, unimpeded by rule of law or gridlock, delivering their mayhem to wherever the hell they like.
Sounds ideal, although I'm guessing that Kramer likely hasn't factored in the probability that, what with the chances of getting hooked by a car, doored, hit by a bottle thrown from a vehicle, flatting on the innumerable bits of sharp gutter rubbish, decked by a kamikaze pedestrian, nailed by a mutt running around on a leash, or even brained by a head on collision with a fellow terrorist 'salmoning' their way alongside said route, the success rate of this delivery system isn't going to be that spectacular.
Shit, methinks said terrorists will likely figure out pretty quickly that it's cheaper and more effective to buy a backpack, pay the cab fare to where they wanna go, and then complete the journey via a brisk and healthy 5 minute walk to their intended destination. They'll definitely arrive less sweaty and stressed out, and in one piece (just before they blow themselves into the exact opposite of that).
So, we salute you Marcia Kramer for revealing this latest threat presented by the scourge of cycling! Mind you, a little exercise needed there Marcia – your whale arse is showing. Maybe a little trundle along the bike lanes of NYC...?
Ride Safe!
Thursday, 28 April 2011
UCI World Cycling Tour, Perth 2011 – Just so I could say I did it.
On the 14th-16th of April, Perth hosted the Australian round of the UCI World Cycling Tour, of which the Road Race held on the 16th, was a qualifier for the UWCT Final.
From the UCT Website, here's their intro blurb:
“A new cycling tour for amateur riders that will ultimately crown age group World Champions is being launched by the UCI in 2011. The UCI World Cycling Tour (UWCT) is a series of UCI-sanctioned races that will be held all over the world. The UWCT will comprise a maximum of 15 qualifier events, leading to the UWCT Final, the former UCI Masters Road World Championships. The top 10% in each age group of the qualifier events will automatically have the right to compete in the UWCT Final and race for the coveted UCI rainbow jersey.”
Run by CIC Events Management and Bicycling Western Australia, the 2011 event is the first year of a 3 year contract for CIC to run the round, so hopefully it will be around in Perth for a while.
So, I decided that I too would join the ranks of the elite and undertake the race, with no thought as to personal triumph, glory, or an invite to the Finals: rather my thoughts were to whether I'd die in the process of completing a lap of the course.
One incentive for competing was that, if one was lucky enough to be 50 or over (yay me!), one got a reduced distance/lap burden: 6 laps of the course, as opposed to 8 for the 18-49s! Well, with concessions like that, who couldn't take up the opportunity? Well, as it turned out, lots of cyclists, but then it takes guts and supreme confidence in one's abilities to submit oneself to such a challenge: neither of which I had, more just a complete lack of perspective of just what I was getting myself in for.
Now, it could be said that the course wasn't that hard in the overall scheme of things – 6 laps totaling 81.5 km and 800 meters of climbing – but given it was the first race I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how I'd pull up, or indeed if I'd pull out part way through!
For interest's sake, here's the links to the road course route and elevation profile maps:
UCWT Perth 2011 Route
UCWT Perth 2011 Profile
The 50-54 and 55-59 age categories were started together, with the overall start times staggered from lower to higher age groupings, hence we went off near the end. There were a total of 51 entries into the 50-54 age group, quite a turnout, and, combined with the 23 riders in the 55-59 group, it made for a biggish bunch start and peloton for the first 3 laps.
After those initial 3 laps, I was basically doing a solo around the course: after getting dropped off the back of the bunch via the twin hit's of Spring and Malcolm St inclinations 3rd time thru, it was farewell to the pack and hello to me, myself and I.
Had fun trying to stave off cramping calves and then quads on those last three laps, with my inflating lap times testimony to my physical predicament and the necessity of hauling my own fat bum around the course sans the 'suck' of the group.
Still, made it home in 2hrs, 39mins and 55 secs, at an average of 32.1 km/h, in 30th place out of 51 (quite a few DNF's), so I was relatively happy, even if my legs weren't. Whilst a vast 20-odd minutes behind the winner of the 50-54's, my finishing position was, apart from a very brief spell in the top 10, the best of the day for me in my age group, so I had soldiered on after losing contact. The last lap was pretty much a dawdle, with my quads refusing to function above 30km/h. My heart rate dropped from an average of 171 to somewhere in the low 140s, so at least my cardio wasn't too bad!
Would I do it again – yeh, why not! Given it was my first ever race, and with bugga all training, I think I could make some definite improvements with a program and some weight loss (87 kgs is too much to haul up any kind of rise!)
Kudos to the organisers for a sweet event, cheers to the fellow intrepids of the Wolfe Pack who competed in the race, and many thanks to the Wolfe Pack Cheer Squad who made it memorable!
So, roll on UWCT Perth 2012.
Ride Safe!
From the UCT Website, here's their intro blurb:
“A new cycling tour for amateur riders that will ultimately crown age group World Champions is being launched by the UCI in 2011. The UCI World Cycling Tour (UWCT) is a series of UCI-sanctioned races that will be held all over the world. The UWCT will comprise a maximum of 15 qualifier events, leading to the UWCT Final, the former UCI Masters Road World Championships. The top 10% in each age group of the qualifier events will automatically have the right to compete in the UWCT Final and race for the coveted UCI rainbow jersey.”
Run by CIC Events Management and Bicycling Western Australia, the 2011 event is the first year of a 3 year contract for CIC to run the round, so hopefully it will be around in Perth for a while.
So, I decided that I too would join the ranks of the elite and undertake the race, with no thought as to personal triumph, glory, or an invite to the Finals: rather my thoughts were to whether I'd die in the process of completing a lap of the course.
One incentive for competing was that, if one was lucky enough to be 50 or over (yay me!), one got a reduced distance/lap burden: 6 laps of the course, as opposed to 8 for the 18-49s! Well, with concessions like that, who couldn't take up the opportunity? Well, as it turned out, lots of cyclists, but then it takes guts and supreme confidence in one's abilities to submit oneself to such a challenge: neither of which I had, more just a complete lack of perspective of just what I was getting myself in for.
Now, it could be said that the course wasn't that hard in the overall scheme of things – 6 laps totaling 81.5 km and 800 meters of climbing – but given it was the first race I've ever been involved in, I wasn't too sure how I'd pull up, or indeed if I'd pull out part way through!
For interest's sake, here's the links to the road course route and elevation profile maps:
UCWT Perth 2011 Route
UCWT Perth 2011 Profile
The 50-54 and 55-59 age categories were started together, with the overall start times staggered from lower to higher age groupings, hence we went off near the end. There were a total of 51 entries into the 50-54 age group, quite a turnout, and, combined with the 23 riders in the 55-59 group, it made for a biggish bunch start and peloton for the first 3 laps.
After those initial 3 laps, I was basically doing a solo around the course: after getting dropped off the back of the bunch via the twin hit's of Spring and Malcolm St inclinations 3rd time thru, it was farewell to the pack and hello to me, myself and I.
Had fun trying to stave off cramping calves and then quads on those last three laps, with my inflating lap times testimony to my physical predicament and the necessity of hauling my own fat bum around the course sans the 'suck' of the group.
Still, made it home in 2hrs, 39mins and 55 secs, at an average of 32.1 km/h, in 30th place out of 51 (quite a few DNF's), so I was relatively happy, even if my legs weren't. Whilst a vast 20-odd minutes behind the winner of the 50-54's, my finishing position was, apart from a very brief spell in the top 10, the best of the day for me in my age group, so I had soldiered on after losing contact. The last lap was pretty much a dawdle, with my quads refusing to function above 30km/h. My heart rate dropped from an average of 171 to somewhere in the low 140s, so at least my cardio wasn't too bad!
Would I do it again – yeh, why not! Given it was my first ever race, and with bugga all training, I think I could make some definite improvements with a program and some weight loss (87 kgs is too much to haul up any kind of rise!)
Kudos to the organisers for a sweet event, cheers to the fellow intrepids of the Wolfe Pack who competed in the race, and many thanks to the Wolfe Pack Cheer Squad who made it memorable!
So, roll on UWCT Perth 2012.
Ride Safe!
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Gone Italian: The Sequel
Time for a belated update on my Campagnolo 11 speed gruppo, a mash-up of various Campy bits, purchased and fitted onto my Colnago CX-1 back in August 2010.
The mix consisted of the following:
Record Ergopower Brifters
Coming from Shimano DA 7800, the shape of the Record brifters was different, but I have found them to be more comfortable and 'fitted' than 7800 overall. Whilst you 'lose' a position (you can't really grasp the Records palm down on top of the hoods) I found it of little relevance, as I ride them 'pistol grip style' for virtually the entire time I'm on the hoods, including a number of plus 4 hour rides. Never experienced any discomfort whatsoever, which is great. My hand size is fairly average for a 185cm guy, so I'm confident the shape would fit a wide range of riders mitts. The comfort comes down in part to the 'whale skin' rubber pattern on the hoods: it's compliant yet grippy, and a delight to use. The overall shape is also pleasing: moulds right to the palm and thumb close and tight with no gaps. The inwards tilt of the hood 'horn' assists here. The shape is also not too wide, with my thumb not having to stretch around the hood too far.
The overall size of the brifters is also ideal. Less bulky than the 7800s, they are svelte and compact and very functional. The levers are quite short, but ideally placed for me for either on-hood or in-drops actuation of brakes and gears. The sharpish recurve of the lever makes for excellent application of retardation forces and subtle modulation: 1st class.
The upshift lever is well placed and suitably sized – no missed changes here after an initial familiarisation period. The only point less than perfect here is that upshift stroke length appears to change based on which gear you're currently in. At the smaller end of the block, single upshift sweeps seem to require less arc of travel than those from higher in the block. I occasionally find myself fluffing a change from the 19 sprocket upwards (this on a 12-25 cassette with a ...19,21,23,25 end). Not sure if this is an adjustment issue, or just me being slack! Multiple upshifts in one sweep (to a max of 3 that I've used) don't seem to have the issue.
The downshift button is also fine, more so after the initial stiffness of 'brand new' is taken off via use. This was one area I was potentially concerned about – the button position looks a bit odd to me, but use has shown that's just a function of never having used Campy before. It falls readily to thumb in both hoods and drops, the drop actuation position not doubt being aided in my case by my short drop-length bars. No probs with adjustment whatsoever from DA – I accommodated to the different actuation methodology very quickly, and haven't had any issues reverting to the Shimano shift pattern when under duress! Love the multiple sweep changes here – I frequently use it on declines to go straight to a long gear.
Chorus Skeleton Brakes
I went for Chorus here because of the alloy finish, which look more pleasing to me on my bike. Given I haven't used Record or higher, I can't comment re: that comparison, but having come from DA 7800, I can say that the Chorus setup is just fine thanks. As good as the DA 7800 for feel and modulation, and ultimate stopping power. Does the job great, and I'm confident with them whatever the scenario.
Super Record Ultra-Torque Compact Chainset
Mainly went for these for the CULT bearings and the Cronitect bearing surfaces, which require minimum maintenance and no grease (just oil please!). So far, as smooth as butter, quiet as a mouse and no obvious flex. And they do look nice to me. The special anodization treatment on the chainset rings and teeth surface (nice in its matte black look) seems exceptionally durable, and chain noise is minimal, with extremely smooth changes between the 50-34 sets on the compact setup.
I went compact to get a more central chain run in my commonly used everyday gears, and that has worked well. I also liked the idea of a 34-25 combo as a bail-out gear: the 25 is like a 'free' gear on the 11 speed setup.
Record Front and Rear Derailleurs
Lovely look in black carbon and alloy, and equally lovely in operation.
Definitely more audible shift-wise than DA 7800, but I for one love the positive engagement 'clunk' and feel. I never have any doubt about a change being made. To me, a big improvement on 7800 – the whole setup makes the bike feel sharper and more alive. In addition, the chain tension seems tighter from the RD – there is far less chain slap in general riding than I recall from 7800 over bumpy or broken road sections.
Record Chain and Chorus Cassette
Not being a weight weenie, I'd probably stick with all Chorus here in future, just for the price differentials. Chain and cassette wear is non-existent at this stage, with the ultra thin chain seemingly strong as. A daily lube plus once-a-week full clean helps no doubt, but I'm gonna do that no matter what I'm running, so it's all good.
Overall Assessment
In a word: wrapped!
The setup is such a pleasure to use, with excellent braking and changing, great ergo, and positive and strong feel (I love the engagement vibe and sound!).
In combination with the Colnago CX-1 frame and Eurus wheels, the move to Campy 11 speed has given me a bike which I enjoy riding every second, and when I dismount after a ride, I'm thinking about the next one. The gruppo has really added to the character and flavour of my ride and it's been a pleasure to own and operate.
A great choice, and a hands down winner for me.
Ride Safe!
The mix consisted of the following:
- Super Record Ultra-Torque Compact Chainset
- Record Ergopower shifters, front and rear derailleurs, and chain;
- Chorus skeleton brakes and cassette.
Record Ergopower Brifters
Coming from Shimano DA 7800, the shape of the Record brifters was different, but I have found them to be more comfortable and 'fitted' than 7800 overall. Whilst you 'lose' a position (you can't really grasp the Records palm down on top of the hoods) I found it of little relevance, as I ride them 'pistol grip style' for virtually the entire time I'm on the hoods, including a number of plus 4 hour rides. Never experienced any discomfort whatsoever, which is great. My hand size is fairly average for a 185cm guy, so I'm confident the shape would fit a wide range of riders mitts. The comfort comes down in part to the 'whale skin' rubber pattern on the hoods: it's compliant yet grippy, and a delight to use. The overall shape is also pleasing: moulds right to the palm and thumb close and tight with no gaps. The inwards tilt of the hood 'horn' assists here. The shape is also not too wide, with my thumb not having to stretch around the hood too far.
The overall size of the brifters is also ideal. Less bulky than the 7800s, they are svelte and compact and very functional. The levers are quite short, but ideally placed for me for either on-hood or in-drops actuation of brakes and gears. The sharpish recurve of the lever makes for excellent application of retardation forces and subtle modulation: 1st class.
The upshift lever is well placed and suitably sized – no missed changes here after an initial familiarisation period. The only point less than perfect here is that upshift stroke length appears to change based on which gear you're currently in. At the smaller end of the block, single upshift sweeps seem to require less arc of travel than those from higher in the block. I occasionally find myself fluffing a change from the 19 sprocket upwards (this on a 12-25 cassette with a ...19,21,23,25 end). Not sure if this is an adjustment issue, or just me being slack! Multiple upshifts in one sweep (to a max of 3 that I've used) don't seem to have the issue.
The downshift button is also fine, more so after the initial stiffness of 'brand new' is taken off via use. This was one area I was potentially concerned about – the button position looks a bit odd to me, but use has shown that's just a function of never having used Campy before. It falls readily to thumb in both hoods and drops, the drop actuation position not doubt being aided in my case by my short drop-length bars. No probs with adjustment whatsoever from DA – I accommodated to the different actuation methodology very quickly, and haven't had any issues reverting to the Shimano shift pattern when under duress! Love the multiple sweep changes here – I frequently use it on declines to go straight to a long gear.
Chorus Skeleton Brakes
I went for Chorus here because of the alloy finish, which look more pleasing to me on my bike. Given I haven't used Record or higher, I can't comment re: that comparison, but having come from DA 7800, I can say that the Chorus setup is just fine thanks. As good as the DA 7800 for feel and modulation, and ultimate stopping power. Does the job great, and I'm confident with them whatever the scenario.
Super Record Ultra-Torque Compact Chainset
Mainly went for these for the CULT bearings and the Cronitect bearing surfaces, which require minimum maintenance and no grease (just oil please!). So far, as smooth as butter, quiet as a mouse and no obvious flex. And they do look nice to me. The special anodization treatment on the chainset rings and teeth surface (nice in its matte black look) seems exceptionally durable, and chain noise is minimal, with extremely smooth changes between the 50-34 sets on the compact setup.
I went compact to get a more central chain run in my commonly used everyday gears, and that has worked well. I also liked the idea of a 34-25 combo as a bail-out gear: the 25 is like a 'free' gear on the 11 speed setup.
Record Front and Rear Derailleurs
Lovely look in black carbon and alloy, and equally lovely in operation.
Definitely more audible shift-wise than DA 7800, but I for one love the positive engagement 'clunk' and feel. I never have any doubt about a change being made. To me, a big improvement on 7800 – the whole setup makes the bike feel sharper and more alive. In addition, the chain tension seems tighter from the RD – there is far less chain slap in general riding than I recall from 7800 over bumpy or broken road sections.
Record Chain and Chorus Cassette
Not being a weight weenie, I'd probably stick with all Chorus here in future, just for the price differentials. Chain and cassette wear is non-existent at this stage, with the ultra thin chain seemingly strong as. A daily lube plus once-a-week full clean helps no doubt, but I'm gonna do that no matter what I'm running, so it's all good.
Overall Assessment
In a word: wrapped!
The setup is such a pleasure to use, with excellent braking and changing, great ergo, and positive and strong feel (I love the engagement vibe and sound!).
In combination with the Colnago CX-1 frame and Eurus wheels, the move to Campy 11 speed has given me a bike which I enjoy riding every second, and when I dismount after a ride, I'm thinking about the next one. The gruppo has really added to the character and flavour of my ride and it's been a pleasure to own and operate.
A great choice, and a hands down winner for me.
Ride Safe!
Monday, 16 August 2010
Goin' Italian...
So, I've always been a Shimano groupset man, but with the Colnago CX-1 now a fixture in my riding, and the old Dura Ace 7800 advancing in age...
Time for a switch! So, splashed out on a Campagnolo 11 speed gruppo recently (imported from Ireland thanks to the good sirs at Slane Cycles, from whom I'd also picked up my CX-1 frame) and after paying a little duty, it has arrived!
I decided to go with a mixed gruppo as follows:
Well, if I'm a bit slower whilst my brain rewires itself I can always spend the time looking at my Garmin Edge 500.
Went for the 'neutral' colour (black and silver) as the pic above shows - looking forward to getting it on the bike and spending many hours playing with its setup, and the data it gathers.
Ride Safe!
Time for a switch! So, splashed out on a Campagnolo 11 speed gruppo recently (imported from Ireland thanks to the good sirs at Slane Cycles, from whom I'd also picked up my CX-1 frame) and after paying a little duty, it has arrived!
I decided to go with a mixed gruppo as follows:
- Super Record Ultra-Torque Compact Chainset: mainly interested in the CULT bearings and the Cronitect bearing surfaces - no grease required! (a little oil may be used);
- Record Ergopower shifters, front and rear derailleurs, and chain;
- Chorus skeleton brakes (wanted the alloy colour) and cassette.
Well, if I'm a bit slower whilst my brain rewires itself I can always spend the time looking at my Garmin Edge 500.
Went for the 'neutral' colour (black and silver) as the pic above shows - looking forward to getting it on the bike and spending many hours playing with its setup, and the data it gathers.
Ride Safe!
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Au Revoir Le Tour, Now What The Heck Do I Do? : Stages 19 and 20
Watching the peloton circulate up and down the Champs-Élysées on Stage 20 of Le Tour, it was the old familiar feeling which gripped me: what am I gonna do now! It's hard to let go of the anticipation and thrills one gets each night when you know the Tour is on and another stage is up and running. It's a real downshift when it's done and dusted for another year.
Firstly, to a thrilling and tense Stage 19, the long 52 km ITT from Bordeaux to Pauillac. On a dead flat, generally non-technical course, it was anticipated that Alberto Contador would extend his 8 second lead over Andy Schleck to something pushing 1 and a half to 2 minutes. Seemed perfectly reasonable to me, given the past history of Schleck re: ITTs, plus his rather lackluster Prologue performance where he lost 69 seconds to Alberto, and that in only 8.9 kms. True, that was over a more technical course and with water on the roads, but still...
What transpired was anything but that, with Schleck dishing it out in spades to Contador, slowly eating into his meager 8 second lead, and at one stage appearing to actually take the virtual maillot jaune briefly after around 20 km into the stage. For a long time it was very close, with Andy appearing to be riding much more smoothly on the bike, whilst Alberto was continually having to pull himself back on his seat, being forced to ride sur le rivet to keep a hold on Schleck's times. Over the last 12 kms, Contador slowly began to eke out some time as Andy tired, but it was slow going, and Alberto was suffering whilst Andy remained stoic in face and body.
To his credit, Alberto pushed on in the last 6 km and it was only here where he made notable inroads over a slowing Schleck, eventually crossing the line 39 seconds ahead of Andy, and 35th back overall. (Make of that time differential what you will - as many have pointed out, that was the total time Alberto turned around on Andy when the Luxembourger had the chain loss on the Port de Balès: personally I think there were other time issues of more 'concern': including the neutralization of Stage 2 where Andy stood to lose significant time, and his poor performance in the prologue).
The relative slower performances of the latter third of the field was a generalised one amongst them: the wind came up and turned into a significant cross wind/headwind, so Alberto's 35th place didn't mean much in the scheme of things. The changing conditions certainly benefited the earlier riders, time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara amongst them. He ran in some 17 seconds ahead of second placed man Tony Martin (another nice ride), and 1 min 48 sec ahead of Bert Grabsch in 3rd. A great win, but it would have been interesting if he'd gone late in the day with the changed conditions maybe? Well, maybe not either - he looked very strong.
In a superb performance, Denis Menchov of Rabobank started 4th to last and rode the wheels of his bike in the changed conditions to run over the top of Samuel Sánchez and grab his 3rd spot off him by a decent margin: the 'Silent Assassin' had made podium! (I was particularly pleased as I'd picked Denis to go 3rd in this Tour).
And so, onto the final Stage 20: the jaunt from Longjumeau to Paris of 102.5km, the first 49 of which are, by tradition, a chance for the riders to loosen up, flit about and gasbag with each other, and generally ham it up for cameras. Alberto and his Astana team mates quaffed the usual celebratory champers, others played silly buggers, and Team Radio Shack put in motion what turned out to be a rather shabby and ill-advised stunt regarding changing jerseys after signing in in their usual garb (the message of jerseys numbered 28 for the 28-odd million cancer sufferers world-wide was admirable but the execution was not. I would've been more impressed if the jerseys weren't readily identifiable with the Radio Shack logo - I guess sponsors and the Livestrong cause are insatiable PR demons).
Arriving at the Place de la Concorde, Team Astana lead the peloton over the finish line for the first time, and then it was pretty much every rider for himself up the Champs-Élysées. As per usual, a breakaway soon formed, peaking out at around 11 riders and 30 seconds advantage with 4 laps remaining, but it was slowly wound in by the teams of the sprinters, although team Lampre-Farnese Vini, protecting their maillot vert man Alessandro Petacchi, were more than happy to site back until late in the stage, wanting to let the breakaway suck up all the intermediate sprint points on offer, as the points race would come down to placings on the line between the top 3 contenders Petacchi, Cavendish and Hushovd.
HTC-Columbia did most of the work and swallowed up the breakaway just before arriving at the Place de la Concorde on the last sweep heading for the tunnel. Arriving at the flamme rouge, it was the now traditional lead-out chaos, with teams scattered about the place and the main sprinters basically with each other in a group at the head of the race. Arriving on the Champs-Élysées, Thor Hushovd was getting a tow from team mate Brett Lancaster, and he was first to launch, but he was quickly swamped by Mark Cavendish on his right, and Petacchi on his left, and it was game over for the God of Thunder and his green jersey aspirations.
It was game over for all those interested in the stage win too, as Cavendish blasted away and won cruising. Petacchi stayed strong for 2nd ahead of Julian Dean, and by virtue of this earned himself the maillot vert.
Contador rolled in with the pack for Tour win number 3, with Andy Schleck in close attendance cementing 2nd, and Denis Menchov soon thereafter confirming his 3rd.
So, final results:
Ride Safe!
Firstly, to a thrilling and tense Stage 19, the long 52 km ITT from Bordeaux to Pauillac. On a dead flat, generally non-technical course, it was anticipated that Alberto Contador would extend his 8 second lead over Andy Schleck to something pushing 1 and a half to 2 minutes. Seemed perfectly reasonable to me, given the past history of Schleck re: ITTs, plus his rather lackluster Prologue performance where he lost 69 seconds to Alberto, and that in only 8.9 kms. True, that was over a more technical course and with water on the roads, but still...
What transpired was anything but that, with Schleck dishing it out in spades to Contador, slowly eating into his meager 8 second lead, and at one stage appearing to actually take the virtual maillot jaune briefly after around 20 km into the stage. For a long time it was very close, with Andy appearing to be riding much more smoothly on the bike, whilst Alberto was continually having to pull himself back on his seat, being forced to ride sur le rivet to keep a hold on Schleck's times. Over the last 12 kms, Contador slowly began to eke out some time as Andy tired, but it was slow going, and Alberto was suffering whilst Andy remained stoic in face and body.
To his credit, Alberto pushed on in the last 6 km and it was only here where he made notable inroads over a slowing Schleck, eventually crossing the line 39 seconds ahead of Andy, and 35th back overall. (Make of that time differential what you will - as many have pointed out, that was the total time Alberto turned around on Andy when the Luxembourger had the chain loss on the Port de Balès: personally I think there were other time issues of more 'concern': including the neutralization of Stage 2 where Andy stood to lose significant time, and his poor performance in the prologue).
The relative slower performances of the latter third of the field was a generalised one amongst them: the wind came up and turned into a significant cross wind/headwind, so Alberto's 35th place didn't mean much in the scheme of things. The changing conditions certainly benefited the earlier riders, time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara amongst them. He ran in some 17 seconds ahead of second placed man Tony Martin (another nice ride), and 1 min 48 sec ahead of Bert Grabsch in 3rd. A great win, but it would have been interesting if he'd gone late in the day with the changed conditions maybe? Well, maybe not either - he looked very strong.
In a superb performance, Denis Menchov of Rabobank started 4th to last and rode the wheels of his bike in the changed conditions to run over the top of Samuel Sánchez and grab his 3rd spot off him by a decent margin: the 'Silent Assassin' had made podium! (I was particularly pleased as I'd picked Denis to go 3rd in this Tour).
And so, onto the final Stage 20: the jaunt from Longjumeau to Paris of 102.5km, the first 49 of which are, by tradition, a chance for the riders to loosen up, flit about and gasbag with each other, and generally ham it up for cameras. Alberto and his Astana team mates quaffed the usual celebratory champers, others played silly buggers, and Team Radio Shack put in motion what turned out to be a rather shabby and ill-advised stunt regarding changing jerseys after signing in in their usual garb (the message of jerseys numbered 28 for the 28-odd million cancer sufferers world-wide was admirable but the execution was not. I would've been more impressed if the jerseys weren't readily identifiable with the Radio Shack logo - I guess sponsors and the Livestrong cause are insatiable PR demons).
Arriving at the Place de la Concorde, Team Astana lead the peloton over the finish line for the first time, and then it was pretty much every rider for himself up the Champs-Élysées. As per usual, a breakaway soon formed, peaking out at around 11 riders and 30 seconds advantage with 4 laps remaining, but it was slowly wound in by the teams of the sprinters, although team Lampre-Farnese Vini, protecting their maillot vert man Alessandro Petacchi, were more than happy to site back until late in the stage, wanting to let the breakaway suck up all the intermediate sprint points on offer, as the points race would come down to placings on the line between the top 3 contenders Petacchi, Cavendish and Hushovd.
HTC-Columbia did most of the work and swallowed up the breakaway just before arriving at the Place de la Concorde on the last sweep heading for the tunnel. Arriving at the flamme rouge, it was the now traditional lead-out chaos, with teams scattered about the place and the main sprinters basically with each other in a group at the head of the race. Arriving on the Champs-Élysées, Thor Hushovd was getting a tow from team mate Brett Lancaster, and he was first to launch, but he was quickly swamped by Mark Cavendish on his right, and Petacchi on his left, and it was game over for the God of Thunder and his green jersey aspirations.
It was game over for all those interested in the stage win too, as Cavendish blasted away and won cruising. Petacchi stayed strong for 2nd ahead of Julian Dean, and by virtue of this earned himself the maillot vert.
Contador rolled in with the pack for Tour win number 3, with Andy Schleck in close attendance cementing 2nd, and Denis Menchov soon thereafter confirming his 3rd.
So, final results:
- Alberto Contador the winner of Le Tour 2010 in 91:58:48;
- Andy Schleck, 2nd in GC and the winner of the white jersey at 39 sec back;
- Denis Menchov, 3rd in GC at 2:01;
- Petacchi winning the points classification over Cavendish and Hushovd;
- Anthony Charteau picking up the mountains classification; and
- Radioshack winning the teams classification by 9:15 over Caisse d'Epargne and Rabobank.
Ride Safe!
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Wake me up – I've got Sprinter's Stage Sleep Disorder : Stage 18
I admit it - I caught some drooping eyes watching this stage!
After the excitement and drama of the climbing, the 198km of Stage 18 fom Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux was a real snore-fest for me, and my mind and body sneakily crafted to eek out some snoozy-time whilst the tedium prevailed.
I'm not even certain that the breakaway, who escaped early and held out until the final participant Daniel Oss (Liquigas) succumbed at the 3.5 km mark, were anything other than resigned to their inevitable fate: I'm pretty sure a couple of the 4 escapees were catching some beauty sleep whilst pedalling on auto-pilot (something that should be absolutely ingrained after close to 3 weeks of riding). A pretty much pancake-flat stage across some less-than-breathtaking scenery, plus an escape closely monitored and given no latitude by the sprinter's teams all day, saw my adrenaline levels plummet to just above life-sustaining!
So, here's the summarized version: small escape groups goes, said group never gains more than 3.5 min and is left dangling like a dead fish, sprinter's teams ramp it up with 30 km to go, Oss provides the faux 'will he won't he be caught' tension, peloton control techniques gradually fall apart in the run in to the flamme rouge, most sprinters are left to kill their own food, Mark Cavendish pisses on them all for an easy slowing-down win (a muted 'Yay' begrudgingly crawls out of my lips), Julian Dean comes in fast over the top of Petacchi who (thanks to a badly misjudged effort from a fading Thor Hushovd sliding back to 14th), regains the maillot vert and sets up a 3-way scenario for disputation of that jersey on the Champs Elysées between himself, Hushovd (10 points in arrears) and Cavendish 6 more points back again (I'm betting on Cav. to win this now), Robbie McEwen claims yet another 4th - surely some type of award requires bestowing! - and no change in the top GC places.
So, it's on to Bordeaux and the Stage 19 ITT over 52 km from there to Pauillac. Methinks one for the TT specialists who still have some leg and lung power left: it's dead flat, non-technical and ready to be muscled into submission by the huge-quad-ed freaks! Maybe some rain or wind will spice up the equation, although the interest still centers chiefly on Schleck v Contador, and also to see whether Denis Menchov can wrest 3rd and the podium finish from a likely sore and bruised Samuel Sanchez.
For those riding just for the views, apparently there are some nice vineyards to eyeball: the thought of a glass or two of the old vin rouge plonk might entertain lesser mortals seeking survival rather than glory in the solo format.
Ride Safe!
After the excitement and drama of the climbing, the 198km of Stage 18 fom Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux was a real snore-fest for me, and my mind and body sneakily crafted to eek out some snoozy-time whilst the tedium prevailed.
I'm not even certain that the breakaway, who escaped early and held out until the final participant Daniel Oss (Liquigas) succumbed at the 3.5 km mark, were anything other than resigned to their inevitable fate: I'm pretty sure a couple of the 4 escapees were catching some beauty sleep whilst pedalling on auto-pilot (something that should be absolutely ingrained after close to 3 weeks of riding). A pretty much pancake-flat stage across some less-than-breathtaking scenery, plus an escape closely monitored and given no latitude by the sprinter's teams all day, saw my adrenaline levels plummet to just above life-sustaining!
So, here's the summarized version: small escape groups goes, said group never gains more than 3.5 min and is left dangling like a dead fish, sprinter's teams ramp it up with 30 km to go, Oss provides the faux 'will he won't he be caught' tension, peloton control techniques gradually fall apart in the run in to the flamme rouge, most sprinters are left to kill their own food, Mark Cavendish pisses on them all for an easy slowing-down win (a muted 'Yay' begrudgingly crawls out of my lips), Julian Dean comes in fast over the top of Petacchi who (thanks to a badly misjudged effort from a fading Thor Hushovd sliding back to 14th), regains the maillot vert and sets up a 3-way scenario for disputation of that jersey on the Champs Elysées between himself, Hushovd (10 points in arrears) and Cavendish 6 more points back again (I'm betting on Cav. to win this now), Robbie McEwen claims yet another 4th - surely some type of award requires bestowing! - and no change in the top GC places.
So, it's on to Bordeaux and the Stage 19 ITT over 52 km from there to Pauillac. Methinks one for the TT specialists who still have some leg and lung power left: it's dead flat, non-technical and ready to be muscled into submission by the huge-quad-ed freaks! Maybe some rain or wind will spice up the equation, although the interest still centers chiefly on Schleck v Contador, and also to see whether Denis Menchov can wrest 3rd and the podium finish from a likely sore and bruised Samuel Sanchez.
For those riding just for the views, apparently there are some nice vineyards to eyeball: the thought of a glass or two of the old vin rouge plonk might entertain lesser mortals seeking survival rather than glory in the solo format.
Ride Safe!
Le Tour 2010 - Tourmalet Round 2 - Let's Call it Even : Stage 17
From Pau to the Col du Tourmalet, a journey of 174 km on this the 'Queen' stage of the Tour, there was only ever one real battle of interest: the final 18.6 km battle up the Tourmalet, from the Adast side, between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.
A lot went before, but this final slugfest between the two protagonists was eagerly anticipated. Considered by virtually all pundits to be the last chance for Schleck to gain any meaningful time advantage prior to the ITT and hence start last in that stage, with all the inherent advantages of that position, there was no chance that it wouldn't come down to these two.
And so it did: as history will now read, it was Schleck who won the stage, and the battle, but it was Contador who may just have won the war of Le Tour 2010, plus a handy little lift in the popularity stakes courtesy of a gifting of the stage win to Andy. Not that Schleck didn't deserve the win - his relentless charge up the final 10 km of the climb, bringing a shadowing Contador with him, and fighting back against a withering Alberto attack at 4 km to take over the front running again, plus doing the favour to Contador of gapping the 3rd, 4th and 5th riders on GC by handy margins, were all reasons for him deserving first past the line.
But equally, it was also a win for Alberto: having stalked Andy all the way, and having reminded him with that strong attack that he was capable of pressing for a potential stage victory, Contador displayed admirable restraint and great poise to not contest the final meters to the line, half-wheeling Schleck in. Perhaps there was an element of contrition for a previous faux pas, but clearly there is a great respect and friendship between the two: their post-finish embrace was touching and fitting.
Sure, some may rail against a 'manufactured finish', but I don't agree. Andy stormed up the climb, Alberto in tow, and although I am not privy to their thoughts, it seemed fair to assume that if Schleck had not been able to answer Alberto when he attacked , Contador may well have carried on to the win. That notwithstanding, from a strategic point of view, Alberto did indeed have a win: retaining his 8 sec gap to Schleck and, barring anything untoward occurring to either of them during Stage 18, giving him the final start in the ITT and knowing exactly Andy's performance across the timed points.
I thought it was pretty Epic - so 'Bravo'.
Other highlights for the day for me:
Ride Safe!
A lot went before, but this final slugfest between the two protagonists was eagerly anticipated. Considered by virtually all pundits to be the last chance for Schleck to gain any meaningful time advantage prior to the ITT and hence start last in that stage, with all the inherent advantages of that position, there was no chance that it wouldn't come down to these two.
And so it did: as history will now read, it was Schleck who won the stage, and the battle, but it was Contador who may just have won the war of Le Tour 2010, plus a handy little lift in the popularity stakes courtesy of a gifting of the stage win to Andy. Not that Schleck didn't deserve the win - his relentless charge up the final 10 km of the climb, bringing a shadowing Contador with him, and fighting back against a withering Alberto attack at 4 km to take over the front running again, plus doing the favour to Contador of gapping the 3rd, 4th and 5th riders on GC by handy margins, were all reasons for him deserving first past the line.
But equally, it was also a win for Alberto: having stalked Andy all the way, and having reminded him with that strong attack that he was capable of pressing for a potential stage victory, Contador displayed admirable restraint and great poise to not contest the final meters to the line, half-wheeling Schleck in. Perhaps there was an element of contrition for a previous faux pas, but clearly there is a great respect and friendship between the two: their post-finish embrace was touching and fitting.
Sure, some may rail against a 'manufactured finish', but I don't agree. Andy stormed up the climb, Alberto in tow, and although I am not privy to their thoughts, it seemed fair to assume that if Schleck had not been able to answer Alberto when he attacked , Contador may well have carried on to the win. That notwithstanding, from a strategic point of view, Alberto did indeed have a win: retaining his 8 sec gap to Schleck and, barring anything untoward occurring to either of them during Stage 18, giving him the final start in the ITT and knowing exactly Andy's performance across the timed points.
I thought it was pretty Epic - so 'Bravo'.
Other highlights for the day for me:
- Carlos Sastre's entertaining but ultimately futile escapade of 120 km or so to attempt to put himself in the breakaway and a chance at winning the stage. I also liked his post-race comments about his scampering off the front of the peloton whilst Contador tried to slow the race down to enable Samuel Sanchez, 3rd in the GC who'd taken a nasty tumble, to rejoin: something along the lines of 'spoiled brats' interspersed with comments that no-one had waited for him during this Tour!;
- The aforementioned Sanchez, who initially looked like he'd done some serious damage in his crash, gingerly hopping back on his bike, rejoining the bunch, and then gamely plowing up the Tourmalet to get 5th on the day and even put a few seconds into his main GC rival for the podium, Denis Menchov;
- The flock of sheep which crashed the peloton's party on the Soulor by scaling the low side of the mountain onto the road, and then generally creating woolly havoc and mayhem with their scattered-like-a-grenade-had-been-lobbed-in-theirs-midst antics: a few of them even ran up the climb alongside the riders a la their human spectator counterparts. Mind you, I'm guessing that compared to the antics of some of the human fans, the sheep possessed a collective IQ overwhelmingly exceeding that of these cretins;
- Ryder Hesjedal kicking arse with an excellent 4th place, and Robert Gesink coming in 7th and offering some great support to his team mate Menchov; and
- Jurgen Van Den Broeck, not so much for his 9th place effort, as for his dissing of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who slummed it all day in the Ref's car and whose presence culminated in the creation of a media scrum at the top of the climb which hindered rider's movements to doping controls, and to team buses. Van Den Broeck, whilst heading to doping control, apparently rode through a TV interview 'Le Prez' was giving, causing Sarkozy's bodyguards to have kittens (Jurgen sadly wasn't packing heat with murderous intent), and later dished out some vocal treatment to the pres' car when it blocked his way off the mountain. Fucking celebrity world leaders! Jurgen should have bitchslapped the prez, mooned his guards, and stole his wife for good measure! Now there's an ending to the day I would've payed to see!
Ride Safe!
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Barredo almost channels Merckx whilst GC leaders sit and ponder : Stage 16
I'm fairly certain the large majority of the peloton would rather have pulled the rug back over their head than arise, pull on their cycling apparel, and prepare for the monster day ahead.
With Stage 16 from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Pau (199.5 km) repeating the same peaks of a stage famously won in long breakaway fashion by Eddy Merckx on a day long ago in 1969, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) almost channeled Merckx for the win, sadly falling agonizingly close. After considerable efforts to dislodge himself on the final climbs of the day (the Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque) without success, he finally managed to get the flea off the dog with a scintillating burst away from the 8 strong break group at the 44 km mark and soloed to within 1 km of victory, only to be caught under the flamme rouge.
On a day featuring two Cat. 1 and two hors categorie climbs (the Col de Peyresourde only 11 km into the stage, the Col d'Aspin, the Col du Tourmalet, and the double whammy Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque - OMGWTFBBQ!) those in the peloton not considering suicide as a tantalizing option would have been thinking GC time gains. In retrospect that was probably not going to happen, given the extreme nature of the day climb-wise, and the fact that getting over the summit of the final climb of the day still meant a 61 km trip to the finish line. And in actuality it didn't - the top 10 GC remained at status quo with carnage time wise only happening to lesser mortals.
Within 5km of the start of the race, and with the Col de Peyresourde looming (that'd make you hurl up your breakfast that early in the piece!) a bunch of 11 riders had gapped the bunch, and amazingly two of these riders - Lance Armstrong and Carlos Barredo - would remain a feature in the tete de la course for the rest of the day: clearly Lance was looking for a nice send off prize. Just before hitting the slopes of the Peyresourde, the lead bunch had swollen to 20, amongst the add ons one Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions, the number 10 GC contender.
Maybe the peloton had that in mind, because the lead bunch was never let much out of sight, and indeed a couple of additional riders (Alexandre Vinokourov and Carlos Sastre) made the shortish jump to them after the descent of the Peyresourde.
Ascending the Col d'Aspin, the break looked like being sucked up by the peloton under half a minute behind, so Sandy Casar let the cat out of the sack and scooted, with a bunch of riders following, whilst others cracked and went backwards into the loving arms of the main pack.
Climbing the Col du Tourmalet, the rider shuffle continued, with some faltering, and a few brave souls from the still close main group taking wing and joining: in all it was a fairly fluid time composition-wise for the escapees. It finalised at 10 members at the summit, mostly due to the fact that the main peloton had shut down somewhat, and the gap had gone out to over 3 minutes.
This gap continued to increase measurably over the journey to the Col du Soulor and, arriving at its base, the leaders were over 6 minutes in advance. Ascending, a number of squabbles broke out amongst the leaders on the road, with Armstrong being the initial antagonist with 2 runs, followed by Barredo and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) asserting their importance, and for a while it was a bit of a raffle who'd survive (Sandy Casar and Ignatas Konovalovas of Cervélo didn't).
Running off the Soulor and heading towards the final climb of the day, the Col d'Aubisque, the lead bunch obviously made a collective decision that they'd dropped everyone who was going to be dropped, and set about being good little escapees, climbing the Aubisque in relative peace and harmony. The only excitement here was the battle between Christophe Moreau of Caisse d'Epargne and Pierrick Fedrigo for the KOM points, with Moreau trying to sneak closer to current polka-dot holder Anthony Charteau (BBox) and Fedrigo trying to protect team mate Charteau's lead: in the final push, Moreau won it rather easily.
With the lead bunch descending to within 44 km of the finish line and the main peloton some 8 minutes distant and decidedly unlikely to win the gap back, Carlos Barredo made his jump for freedom from the group shackles, and sniffed solo glory. The remaining riders all seemed a little nonplussed (thoughts of "is this guy nuts?" likely ratcheting in their skulls) and took their sweet time about reacting, with the consequence that Barredo had skipped out to a 45 second gap after 14 km.
Although the gap slowly reduced from thereon in, at 5 km to go Barredo still had a little under 30 seconds, and he still believed, as did perhaps all we viewers too. Coupled with this was the fact that a few riders started to miss turns on the pull - the chance still was there! Alas, with two representatives each from Radio Shack (Chris Horner doing the work for Lance Armstrong) and Caisse d'Epargne (Ruben Plaza pulling along Moreau) Barredo's lead was slowly whittled away, and passing through the flamme rouge poor old Carlos sat up and dejectedly watched his pursuers scoot by onto possible glory, with his dreams of emulating Merckx fluttering away in their passing breeze.
Given the lack of credited sprinters in the group (what a surprise) the 8 riders huddled together like bait fish at a feeding frenzy, none game to go for broke, eyeing off each other whilst the line drew ever closer. Sitting at the back, Armstrong made a slow rush (hey is that a new oxymoron?) to the front at the 250 meter mark, which finally stirred the bunch, and those who had any gas left used it. Lance was pretty quickly overwhelmed and threw in the towel, whilst Pierrick Fedrigo, with most juice in the tank, came up the inside barrier for the win, followed by Casar and Plaza.
Carlos Barredo trickled in 28 seconds down, looking and no doubt feeling rather dejected: cheer up mate!, 'coz at least they awarded you the Days Most Aggressive ride.
In what was a massive effort, Thor Hushhovd had managed to drag himself over the lumps all day in the top GC contenders group, and so he found himself lining up for the final sprint home with nice green jersey points still available! Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) was his only competition but any real showdown didn't eventuate, and Thor took 10th place and the maximum remaining 6 points to cap off a great day by regaining the maillot vert. All praise the God of Thunder!
Stage 17 - THE SHOWDOWN!
Ride Safe!
With Stage 16 from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Pau (199.5 km) repeating the same peaks of a stage famously won in long breakaway fashion by Eddy Merckx on a day long ago in 1969, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) almost channeled Merckx for the win, sadly falling agonizingly close. After considerable efforts to dislodge himself on the final climbs of the day (the Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque) without success, he finally managed to get the flea off the dog with a scintillating burst away from the 8 strong break group at the 44 km mark and soloed to within 1 km of victory, only to be caught under the flamme rouge.
On a day featuring two Cat. 1 and two hors categorie climbs (the Col de Peyresourde only 11 km into the stage, the Col d'Aspin, the Col du Tourmalet, and the double whammy Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque - OMGWTFBBQ!) those in the peloton not considering suicide as a tantalizing option would have been thinking GC time gains. In retrospect that was probably not going to happen, given the extreme nature of the day climb-wise, and the fact that getting over the summit of the final climb of the day still meant a 61 km trip to the finish line. And in actuality it didn't - the top 10 GC remained at status quo with carnage time wise only happening to lesser mortals.
Within 5km of the start of the race, and with the Col de Peyresourde looming (that'd make you hurl up your breakfast that early in the piece!) a bunch of 11 riders had gapped the bunch, and amazingly two of these riders - Lance Armstrong and Carlos Barredo - would remain a feature in the tete de la course for the rest of the day: clearly Lance was looking for a nice send off prize. Just before hitting the slopes of the Peyresourde, the lead bunch had swollen to 20, amongst the add ons one Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions, the number 10 GC contender.
Maybe the peloton had that in mind, because the lead bunch was never let much out of sight, and indeed a couple of additional riders (Alexandre Vinokourov and Carlos Sastre) made the shortish jump to them after the descent of the Peyresourde.
Ascending the Col d'Aspin, the break looked like being sucked up by the peloton under half a minute behind, so Sandy Casar let the cat out of the sack and scooted, with a bunch of riders following, whilst others cracked and went backwards into the loving arms of the main pack.
Climbing the Col du Tourmalet, the rider shuffle continued, with some faltering, and a few brave souls from the still close main group taking wing and joining: in all it was a fairly fluid time composition-wise for the escapees. It finalised at 10 members at the summit, mostly due to the fact that the main peloton had shut down somewhat, and the gap had gone out to over 3 minutes.
This gap continued to increase measurably over the journey to the Col du Soulor and, arriving at its base, the leaders were over 6 minutes in advance. Ascending, a number of squabbles broke out amongst the leaders on the road, with Armstrong being the initial antagonist with 2 runs, followed by Barredo and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) asserting their importance, and for a while it was a bit of a raffle who'd survive (Sandy Casar and Ignatas Konovalovas of Cervélo didn't).
Running off the Soulor and heading towards the final climb of the day, the Col d'Aubisque, the lead bunch obviously made a collective decision that they'd dropped everyone who was going to be dropped, and set about being good little escapees, climbing the Aubisque in relative peace and harmony. The only excitement here was the battle between Christophe Moreau of Caisse d'Epargne and Pierrick Fedrigo for the KOM points, with Moreau trying to sneak closer to current polka-dot holder Anthony Charteau (BBox) and Fedrigo trying to protect team mate Charteau's lead: in the final push, Moreau won it rather easily.
With the lead bunch descending to within 44 km of the finish line and the main peloton some 8 minutes distant and decidedly unlikely to win the gap back, Carlos Barredo made his jump for freedom from the group shackles, and sniffed solo glory. The remaining riders all seemed a little nonplussed (thoughts of "is this guy nuts?" likely ratcheting in their skulls) and took their sweet time about reacting, with the consequence that Barredo had skipped out to a 45 second gap after 14 km.
Although the gap slowly reduced from thereon in, at 5 km to go Barredo still had a little under 30 seconds, and he still believed, as did perhaps all we viewers too. Coupled with this was the fact that a few riders started to miss turns on the pull - the chance still was there! Alas, with two representatives each from Radio Shack (Chris Horner doing the work for Lance Armstrong) and Caisse d'Epargne (Ruben Plaza pulling along Moreau) Barredo's lead was slowly whittled away, and passing through the flamme rouge poor old Carlos sat up and dejectedly watched his pursuers scoot by onto possible glory, with his dreams of emulating Merckx fluttering away in their passing breeze.
Given the lack of credited sprinters in the group (what a surprise) the 8 riders huddled together like bait fish at a feeding frenzy, none game to go for broke, eyeing off each other whilst the line drew ever closer. Sitting at the back, Armstrong made a slow rush (hey is that a new oxymoron?) to the front at the 250 meter mark, which finally stirred the bunch, and those who had any gas left used it. Lance was pretty quickly overwhelmed and threw in the towel, whilst Pierrick Fedrigo, with most juice in the tank, came up the inside barrier for the win, followed by Casar and Plaza.
Carlos Barredo trickled in 28 seconds down, looking and no doubt feeling rather dejected: cheer up mate!, 'coz at least they awarded you the Days Most Aggressive ride.
In what was a massive effort, Thor Hushhovd had managed to drag himself over the lumps all day in the top GC contenders group, and so he found himself lining up for the final sprint home with nice green jersey points still available! Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) was his only competition but any real showdown didn't eventuate, and Thor took 10th place and the maximum remaining 6 points to cap off a great day by regaining the maillot vert. All praise the God of Thunder!
Stage 17 - THE SHOWDOWN!
Ride Safe!
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Day of controversy, Day of Dreams: Stage 15
On a lumpy road from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon, topped out by the near-end-of-stage NC climb of the Port de Bales, there was drama and delight, as Alberto Contador gained the maillot jaune in a controversial move, and Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) gambled on a longish break and came up trumps.
In a day of dodgy moves, an even worse infraction occurred between AG2R team mates Nicolas Roche (team leader) and supposed team helper John Gadret. Roche punctured his front 6km from the top of the Port de Bales and, given the distance to the following team cars, asked Gadret for his wheel. Amazingly, Gadret refused and continued on! Now there's something to be pissed off about!
At the commencement of the 187 km day, the peloton was feeling decidedly stingy about whom should be let off the hook to run, and kept up a hot pace to nullify any glory seekers. It was over half race distance before a group finally escaped, much of the peloton no doubt cooked and no longer interested in keeping things together. This was evident when the break finally got away - they built up a commanding lead up around 11 min by the foot of the Port de Bales.
The break of 10 didn't feature any renowned climbers, perhaps lulling the main bunch into a false sense of security; although equally, there were no serious GC threats therein either. The Port de Bales soon sorted the lead bunch out, with rider after rider shelling off the increasingly small group. Thomas Voeckler was the strongest, and set off alone with 10 km left to the summit, followed by Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing) who tried gamely, but slowly bled seconds to Voeckler. Only these two, plus Aitor Perez (Footon-Servetto) were destined to make it to the finish line before the fast finishing top GC riders.
Some time earlier, reaching the bottom of the 19 km climb, it was Saxo Bank who had taken over the running, and they set a tough pace upwards, succeeding in shelling many riders, and catching and passing many of the initial escape artists. However, Astana remained largely intact initially, and more ominously, the hard working Saxo Riders were peeling off at regular intervals. So much so that with around 4 km to go (and over the increasingly steeper sections ramping up to 11%), the maillot jaune Andy Schleck found himself sans team mates and surrounded by the top 5 GC contenders, plus two of Contador's team mates. Schleck promptly attacked and took the top 5 GCers with him. Now in a select little group, the pace slackened momentarily while all considered what to do, allowing several other riders, including Astana's Vinokourov to rejoin.
Whilst Voeckler, Ballan, Perez and the remaining few from the escape bunch had individually slipped over the summit on their flight to freedom, Schleck went again and this time picked up some handy meters, with only Vinokourov quick on the pursuit. Then disaster for Andy: he appeared to drop his chain due to chain-suck, and was left spinning with futility whilst Vino passed him, although the Astana rider clearly slowed as he saw what had happened. No such niceties for Contador, who bombed by on Schleck's left (clearly aware that something mechanical had occurred despite his later assurances to the contrary), and took off, followed by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez some meters back. Meanwhile Schleck struggled to re-chain, and after several attempts, did so, but he'd lost 15-20 seconds, and precious momentum. Contador continued on, joined by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez, and this group clearly decided they weren't hanging around, seeting sail for the summit.
To his credit, Schleck made inroads into their gap up the climb, and arrived at the top around 12 seconds behind, with the other GC biggie Jurgen Van Den Broeck in tow. These two could not however make further time cuts, and over the final 21 kms (chiefly downhill) slowly gave up time to the hard charging group ahead.
Up in the distance, Thomas Voeckler was motoring on and cementing his dream win: Ballan trailing and go further adrift as the km fell away and being caught by Perez. In the end Voeckler, the French national road race champion, pulled across the line for a great win, 1:20 ahead of Ballan and Perez, and with two minutes to spare over the Contador group, who picked up the remaining breakaway riders in the run home.
Schleck ran in 39 seconds after this group, having towed Van Den Broeck most of the way, and thus out of the yellow by 8 seconds in the final tally.
Contador got some boos from the crowd when he collected the maillot jaune but it will remain a debated topic I'm sure.
Ride Safe!
In a day of dodgy moves, an even worse infraction occurred between AG2R team mates Nicolas Roche (team leader) and supposed team helper John Gadret. Roche punctured his front 6km from the top of the Port de Bales and, given the distance to the following team cars, asked Gadret for his wheel. Amazingly, Gadret refused and continued on! Now there's something to be pissed off about!
At the commencement of the 187 km day, the peloton was feeling decidedly stingy about whom should be let off the hook to run, and kept up a hot pace to nullify any glory seekers. It was over half race distance before a group finally escaped, much of the peloton no doubt cooked and no longer interested in keeping things together. This was evident when the break finally got away - they built up a commanding lead up around 11 min by the foot of the Port de Bales.
The break of 10 didn't feature any renowned climbers, perhaps lulling the main bunch into a false sense of security; although equally, there were no serious GC threats therein either. The Port de Bales soon sorted the lead bunch out, with rider after rider shelling off the increasingly small group. Thomas Voeckler was the strongest, and set off alone with 10 km left to the summit, followed by Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing) who tried gamely, but slowly bled seconds to Voeckler. Only these two, plus Aitor Perez (Footon-Servetto) were destined to make it to the finish line before the fast finishing top GC riders.
Some time earlier, reaching the bottom of the 19 km climb, it was Saxo Bank who had taken over the running, and they set a tough pace upwards, succeeding in shelling many riders, and catching and passing many of the initial escape artists. However, Astana remained largely intact initially, and more ominously, the hard working Saxo Riders were peeling off at regular intervals. So much so that with around 4 km to go (and over the increasingly steeper sections ramping up to 11%), the maillot jaune Andy Schleck found himself sans team mates and surrounded by the top 5 GC contenders, plus two of Contador's team mates. Schleck promptly attacked and took the top 5 GCers with him. Now in a select little group, the pace slackened momentarily while all considered what to do, allowing several other riders, including Astana's Vinokourov to rejoin.
Whilst Voeckler, Ballan, Perez and the remaining few from the escape bunch had individually slipped over the summit on their flight to freedom, Schleck went again and this time picked up some handy meters, with only Vinokourov quick on the pursuit. Then disaster for Andy: he appeared to drop his chain due to chain-suck, and was left spinning with futility whilst Vino passed him, although the Astana rider clearly slowed as he saw what had happened. No such niceties for Contador, who bombed by on Schleck's left (clearly aware that something mechanical had occurred despite his later assurances to the contrary), and took off, followed by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez some meters back. Meanwhile Schleck struggled to re-chain, and after several attempts, did so, but he'd lost 15-20 seconds, and precious momentum. Contador continued on, joined by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez, and this group clearly decided they weren't hanging around, seeting sail for the summit.
To his credit, Schleck made inroads into their gap up the climb, and arrived at the top around 12 seconds behind, with the other GC biggie Jurgen Van Den Broeck in tow. These two could not however make further time cuts, and over the final 21 kms (chiefly downhill) slowly gave up time to the hard charging group ahead.
Up in the distance, Thomas Voeckler was motoring on and cementing his dream win: Ballan trailing and go further adrift as the km fell away and being caught by Perez. In the end Voeckler, the French national road race champion, pulled across the line for a great win, 1:20 ahead of Ballan and Perez, and with two minutes to spare over the Contador group, who picked up the remaining breakaway riders in the run home.
Schleck ran in 39 seconds after this group, having towed Van Den Broeck most of the way, and thus out of the yellow by 8 seconds in the final tally.
Contador got some boos from the crowd when he collected the maillot jaune but it will remain a debated topic I'm sure.
Ride Safe!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Schleck and Contador tango, Riblon flys the coop: Stage 14
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador had a little track stand tango on the slopes of the Ax-3 Domaines today, whilst an initially bemused Denis Menchov and Samuel Sánchez looked on and then decided to sneak off for some small time gains over the two. Meanwhile, in a huge and brave effort, Christophe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale) had long flown the coop and scored a great win.
Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines was the first foray into the Pyrenees for this year's Tour, and it was nice little 184 km 'softener', with the juicy Port de Pailhères, a non-categorised climb of some 25 km at an average 7% starting at 130 km (but preceded by a false flat of the same distance), and the shorter 9 km Cat 1 of Ax-3 Domaines right on the finish.
Being gluttons for punishment (and this has been a punishing Tour) a bunch of nine riders headed off on the obligatory break at the 25km mark - the bunch had no GC threats but did include eventual winner Riblon, which demonstrates the magnitude of his ride.
Reaching a maximum of ten minutes advantage over the peloton, the breakaway must have pushed a few buttons in the Astana team, as they started to set a high pace in the main bunch well before Pailhères, whittling the lead bunch's advantage down to around 4 min at the foot of the climb proper. The fact that Astana was pulling the train seemed a little strange - whilst long, it seemed doubtful the Pailhères was the type of slope to break Schleck, and equally, it gave Team Saxo Bank a nice rest break from previous arduous days.
At the foot of the climb, Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) made a jump and left the peloton, attempting to emulate a previous win on the same route in 2003, whilst up ahead the leading group of nine had come apart, with Riblon making a similar move, and only Amaël Moinard (Cofidis) and Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step) able to follow, although Van De Walle exploded half way up.
On the climb, the Astana train continued to shed riders off the peloton, and Schleck kept a close eye on Contador. At differing times, an additional three riders set off in pursuit of Riblon up the long climb: first off was Rafael Valls Ferri (Footon-Servetto), followed by Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) and then Damiano Cunego (Lampre). Whilst these riders eventually merged together and caught Sastre, Riblon had meanwhile crested the climb, having distanced Moinard a little. The AG2R rider then made a slightly messy descent to the foot of Ax-3 Domaines, allowing Moinard to almost latch back on, but Riblin started the climb with some speed and that was the end of Moinard.
Meanwhile, arriving at the climb some 2:30 minutes behind the leader, Astana started to ramp it up, with Vinokourov prominent at the pointy end, and it was chiefly his efforts which saw all riders bar Riblon caught on the slopes.
Contador had been shadowed by Schleck the entire climb and had thrown in a few unsuccessful break attempts at various points, which Schleck was on to instantaneously. Then, in a moment of some surreality, Contador slowed to an almost complete stop and Schleck did likewise: it was a match race on a climb! Menchov and Sanchez, both close in attendance, did double takes, and one can only imagine what was going through their heads. Then, after another backward glance, they both decided they were out of there and hit the gas, with thoughts of time gains in their minds. Vinokourov didn't know what the hell to do, but wisely decided to hang around with his team leader, who snapped out of his trance, and pedaled off with Schleck again in close attendance. Truly weird!
Mind you, Christophe Riblon wouldn't have given a rat's arse if they were beating each other down with their bidons I'm sure - he was off with the fairies celebrating his win in the final km home: a great solo ride after a huge long day in the breakaway.
Menchov and Sanchez came in second and third locked together, having gained a small 14 sec gap over the tangoing pair of Schleck and Contador, who zoomed in with a group which also included Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).
So hats off to Riblon for the win, and a big thanks to Alberto and Andy for the dance show!
Ride Safe!
Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines was the first foray into the Pyrenees for this year's Tour, and it was nice little 184 km 'softener', with the juicy Port de Pailhères, a non-categorised climb of some 25 km at an average 7% starting at 130 km (but preceded by a false flat of the same distance), and the shorter 9 km Cat 1 of Ax-3 Domaines right on the finish.
Being gluttons for punishment (and this has been a punishing Tour) a bunch of nine riders headed off on the obligatory break at the 25km mark - the bunch had no GC threats but did include eventual winner Riblon, which demonstrates the magnitude of his ride.
Reaching a maximum of ten minutes advantage over the peloton, the breakaway must have pushed a few buttons in the Astana team, as they started to set a high pace in the main bunch well before Pailhères, whittling the lead bunch's advantage down to around 4 min at the foot of the climb proper. The fact that Astana was pulling the train seemed a little strange - whilst long, it seemed doubtful the Pailhères was the type of slope to break Schleck, and equally, it gave Team Saxo Bank a nice rest break from previous arduous days.
At the foot of the climb, Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) made a jump and left the peloton, attempting to emulate a previous win on the same route in 2003, whilst up ahead the leading group of nine had come apart, with Riblon making a similar move, and only Amaël Moinard (Cofidis) and Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step) able to follow, although Van De Walle exploded half way up.
On the climb, the Astana train continued to shed riders off the peloton, and Schleck kept a close eye on Contador. At differing times, an additional three riders set off in pursuit of Riblon up the long climb: first off was Rafael Valls Ferri (Footon-Servetto), followed by Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) and then Damiano Cunego (Lampre). Whilst these riders eventually merged together and caught Sastre, Riblon had meanwhile crested the climb, having distanced Moinard a little. The AG2R rider then made a slightly messy descent to the foot of Ax-3 Domaines, allowing Moinard to almost latch back on, but Riblin started the climb with some speed and that was the end of Moinard.
Meanwhile, arriving at the climb some 2:30 minutes behind the leader, Astana started to ramp it up, with Vinokourov prominent at the pointy end, and it was chiefly his efforts which saw all riders bar Riblon caught on the slopes.
Contador had been shadowed by Schleck the entire climb and had thrown in a few unsuccessful break attempts at various points, which Schleck was on to instantaneously. Then, in a moment of some surreality, Contador slowed to an almost complete stop and Schleck did likewise: it was a match race on a climb! Menchov and Sanchez, both close in attendance, did double takes, and one can only imagine what was going through their heads. Then, after another backward glance, they both decided they were out of there and hit the gas, with thoughts of time gains in their minds. Vinokourov didn't know what the hell to do, but wisely decided to hang around with his team leader, who snapped out of his trance, and pedaled off with Schleck again in close attendance. Truly weird!
Mind you, Christophe Riblon wouldn't have given a rat's arse if they were beating each other down with their bidons I'm sure - he was off with the fairies celebrating his win in the final km home: a great solo ride after a huge long day in the breakaway.
Menchov and Sanchez came in second and third locked together, having gained a small 14 sec gap over the tangoing pair of Schleck and Contador, who zoomed in with a group which also included Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).
So hats off to Riblon for the win, and a big thanks to Alberto and Andy for the dance show!
Ride Safe!
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Le Tour 2010 - Vino: you lose one and then you win one! : Stages 12 and 13
Well, Stages 12 and 13 of Le Tour were basically the Alexandre Vinokourov show, with the Kazakh rider making powerful attempts to take a stage win: failing at the first on stage 12 but hitting the podium heights on stage 13.
Stage 12 was a 210 km journey from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende, a 'lumpy' traverse, with four categorised climbs from the start to the finish at Mende’s aerodrome on Montée Laurent Jalabert. The up and down nature of the course, plus the nasty little Jalabert climb (around 3 km at between 11-13% adding a real sting in the tail) served up an interesting stage.
With a few initial breaks attempted and failed, and a sizzling pace set by the peloton, a real break only formed about 50km into the race on the Col des Nonières. But it was a large break of some sixteen riders, and featuring relative heavyweights Alexandre Vinokourov, high placed GC contender Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin - Transitions), Andreas Klöden (Team Radio Shack) and the Green Jersey holder Thor Hushovd (Cervelo).
The presence of this break at the front saw team Saxo Bank of the yellow jersey leader Andy Schleck forced to do some hard work to keep this strong bunch within shooting range, a task they were only initially partly successful at, as the leading Hushovd engaged in some strong riding and battles for the sprint points on offer.
The task for Saxo Bank became even more intense when a split in the lead group, initiated by Andreas Kloden, saw Vinokourov, Kyrienka and significant GC contender Hesjedal go with him. With the gap getting upwards of 4 minutes at one point late in the race, Hesjedal was getting a little closer to maillot jaune virtual than anyone an Saxo Bank would've liked.
So, Saxo Bank dug in, and with the help of Cervelo and Lampre, slowly pegged back this group, and had wound it back to 45 seconds when the leaders hit the nasty Jalabert slopes. Vinokourov then wound up the pressure and, one by one, dropped his 3 followers, and set off for victory.
Alas for Vino, Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha set off in pursuit with 2 km left on the climb and Alberto Contador, seeing his main rival Andy Schleck a little inattentive, also blasted off, quickly leaving Schleck 10 seconds behind and unable to bridge the gap. Rodriquez and Contador kept the pressure on, and wound in and then swept past the Kazakh rider, who attempted to stay on the wheel, but never quite made it back.
Atop the climb, Contador lead the longish sprint to the line with Rodriquez poised on his wheel. The Katusha rider sat, and then with 150 m to go passed Alberto and sprinted in for the stage victory, Contador right on his heels. Vino had struggled manfully in dogged pursuit and came in only 4 seconds down, with maillot jaune Schleck arriving in a group containing Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Denis Menchov of Rabobank and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Lotto (3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in GC) at ten seconds down.
So, close but no cigar Vino!
With this in mind, and potential stage glory burning a hole in his gut, Stage 13 (from Rodez to Revel over a continually undulating but trending-downhill 196km) saw act 2 of the Vino show unveiled. On this occasion, sensing perhaps that his heroics of yesterday from a long way out might have tweaked the interests of many GC riders (and possibly even Contador's) too early, Vino bided his time.
The early break of Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky), former yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) was a strong one, but these three never really got let off the leash, even despite their co-operation and very brave efforts: the peloton had adjudged them too tough a break to let slip.
So, after battling manfully all day up and down energy-sapping rises, never being afforded much latitude by peloton chases spread around amongst the chief GC and sprint teams, they were reeled in to within a minute in the last 45 minutes of the stage.
HTC-Columbia had signaled their intentions to attempt to make this a sprint stage for their main man Mark Cavendish, despite the presence of a climb of some significance (the Côte de St-Ferréol at around 2 km in length and 5-6% gradient topping out only 8km from the line) suggesting it wasn't likely, and it was their efforts that saw the breakaway absorbed on its base and early slopes.
Heading up the climb, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) made a powerful dig to break clear, and hovered on the brink of success for some minutes, before finally redlining. Vinokourov, who'd followed Ballan out from the pack a little in arrears, didn't crack, passed the BMC rider, and put 15 seconds into the hard-chasing but disorganised looking peloton, a brief period of hesitation amongst them ultimately insuring a Vino victory.
So, Vino powered down the long final straight to the line, ending up with the win by 13 seconds over a fast finishing Mark Cavendish (with a great individual effort to make it over the climb in contention and set himself up for the sprint) and a strong Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini (another great climb and sprint which rewarded him with the reclaiming of the points jersey over a fading Hushovd). The top GC contenders all cruised in right behind this sprint, claiming the same time as Cavendish and hence no change in GC fortunes.
Tomorrow - the Pyrenees!
Ride Safe!
Stage 12 was a 210 km journey from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende, a 'lumpy' traverse, with four categorised climbs from the start to the finish at Mende’s aerodrome on Montée Laurent Jalabert. The up and down nature of the course, plus the nasty little Jalabert climb (around 3 km at between 11-13% adding a real sting in the tail) served up an interesting stage.
With a few initial breaks attempted and failed, and a sizzling pace set by the peloton, a real break only formed about 50km into the race on the Col des Nonières. But it was a large break of some sixteen riders, and featuring relative heavyweights Alexandre Vinokourov, high placed GC contender Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin - Transitions), Andreas Klöden (Team Radio Shack) and the Green Jersey holder Thor Hushovd (Cervelo).
The presence of this break at the front saw team Saxo Bank of the yellow jersey leader Andy Schleck forced to do some hard work to keep this strong bunch within shooting range, a task they were only initially partly successful at, as the leading Hushovd engaged in some strong riding and battles for the sprint points on offer.
The task for Saxo Bank became even more intense when a split in the lead group, initiated by Andreas Kloden, saw Vinokourov, Kyrienka and significant GC contender Hesjedal go with him. With the gap getting upwards of 4 minutes at one point late in the race, Hesjedal was getting a little closer to maillot jaune virtual than anyone an Saxo Bank would've liked.
So, Saxo Bank dug in, and with the help of Cervelo and Lampre, slowly pegged back this group, and had wound it back to 45 seconds when the leaders hit the nasty Jalabert slopes. Vinokourov then wound up the pressure and, one by one, dropped his 3 followers, and set off for victory.
Alas for Vino, Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha set off in pursuit with 2 km left on the climb and Alberto Contador, seeing his main rival Andy Schleck a little inattentive, also blasted off, quickly leaving Schleck 10 seconds behind and unable to bridge the gap. Rodriquez and Contador kept the pressure on, and wound in and then swept past the Kazakh rider, who attempted to stay on the wheel, but never quite made it back.
Atop the climb, Contador lead the longish sprint to the line with Rodriquez poised on his wheel. The Katusha rider sat, and then with 150 m to go passed Alberto and sprinted in for the stage victory, Contador right on his heels. Vino had struggled manfully in dogged pursuit and came in only 4 seconds down, with maillot jaune Schleck arriving in a group containing Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Denis Menchov of Rabobank and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Lotto (3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in GC) at ten seconds down.
So, close but no cigar Vino!
With this in mind, and potential stage glory burning a hole in his gut, Stage 13 (from Rodez to Revel over a continually undulating but trending-downhill 196km) saw act 2 of the Vino show unveiled. On this occasion, sensing perhaps that his heroics of yesterday from a long way out might have tweaked the interests of many GC riders (and possibly even Contador's) too early, Vino bided his time.
The early break of Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky), former yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) was a strong one, but these three never really got let off the leash, even despite their co-operation and very brave efforts: the peloton had adjudged them too tough a break to let slip.
So, after battling manfully all day up and down energy-sapping rises, never being afforded much latitude by peloton chases spread around amongst the chief GC and sprint teams, they were reeled in to within a minute in the last 45 minutes of the stage.
HTC-Columbia had signaled their intentions to attempt to make this a sprint stage for their main man Mark Cavendish, despite the presence of a climb of some significance (the Côte de St-Ferréol at around 2 km in length and 5-6% gradient topping out only 8km from the line) suggesting it wasn't likely, and it was their efforts that saw the breakaway absorbed on its base and early slopes.
Heading up the climb, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) made a powerful dig to break clear, and hovered on the brink of success for some minutes, before finally redlining. Vinokourov, who'd followed Ballan out from the pack a little in arrears, didn't crack, passed the BMC rider, and put 15 seconds into the hard-chasing but disorganised looking peloton, a brief period of hesitation amongst them ultimately insuring a Vino victory.
So, Vino powered down the long final straight to the line, ending up with the win by 13 seconds over a fast finishing Mark Cavendish (with a great individual effort to make it over the climb in contention and set himself up for the sprint) and a strong Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini (another great climb and sprint which rewarded him with the reclaiming of the points jersey over a fading Hushovd). The top GC contenders all cruised in right behind this sprint, claiming the same time as Cavendish and hence no change in GC fortunes.
Tomorrow - the Pyrenees!
Ride Safe!
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