Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Wow moving to France - that's a huge move! The cycling sounds awesome so far

...nice nice nice day for a ride today.6 hours of heaven.

toolonglegs wrote:...nice nice nice day for a ride today.6 hours of heaven.

Hey 2Long, nice locations and must have been a great ride. Just like Sydney, right?

sogood wrote:

toolonglegs wrote:...nice nice nice day for a ride today.6 hours of heaven.

Hey 2Long, nice locations and must have been a great ride. Just like Sydney, right?

yeah sort of ...one car passed me for the first 50km!...it was rather early for the French.Then 2 good climbs in the Beaujolais Region.I have never been that far West from here before...the climbs are a bit easier in height/length and most importantly gradient!.First decent climbs in a while.1st on was 15km (AT) 4-5% and second was 10k (AT) 5-6%.
But of course the wind changed direction on the way back so it was head winds 1st & last 30km.
One thing going for Sydney is you don't have to go to far for some 3-4k climbs.For me here I have to go 30k East or West to get into descent hills.Although if I head towards the Alpes (east) I hit pretty good climbs straight away...15-20k in length and steep!.Like this one...
http://www.bertevers.nl/montduchat.html

toolonglegs wrote:...nice nice nice day for a ride today.6 hours of heaven.

Wow makes a change from Sydney where a good day is anyone that has less than 2 near death experiences

When do you start racing?

mikesbytes wrote:When do you start racing?

I wont be able to get a license till the 1st of Sept (I think,around then anyway)...but even thou I am doing the k's I dont feel very fast...need to start picking it up a bit.Heal felt Ok today so we will see how we go.

Darn !

I thought I saw you mid pack just on this first big climb !

Oh well, maybe soon then eh !

Keep us updated with the progress.. maybe not with the nice photos teasing us and rubbing our faces in it.. well... perhaps they are acceptable for context for a little while yet.

ha...me and climbing dont really go in the same sentence or paragraph,chapter or book! ...but I was disussing with the wifey about next year,she wants to climb mont blanc with me next august and I want to do the Marmotte and etape...so I have to start doing some proper exercise instead of cruising around enjoying the countryside ...but i will still take my camera with me

Decided to name today "Day Zero"...ie time to get ready for hopeful racing mid next month...after reading a few other threads (mainly from Alex!) I thought I would do some sustained efforts!...what a joke that was (on my behalf that is ).I know a road that is nearly flat and is all hotmix...better surface than eastern creek,about 6 km long.So I did 3 runs with about 2 minutes in between...first run struggled to get my heart rate up to 170bpm...and I am talking 5 ks to get from 150 to 170!.2nd run was a bit better and quicker,3rd run I decided to give it everything.Managed to keep my heart rate a 175 after the first km till the end.40km average speed wasnt bad either .But then I had to give up...vomited at least 10 times and noticed I was struggling to breath,warm and humid and forgeting to take asthma drugs didn't help!.So I took the long way home and cruised while looking off into the distance at the snowy and high and beautiful Mont Blanc (which I am aiming to climb next year!).
Notes to self!...
Dont eat dinner so close to doing efforts!.
Dont forget drugs!.
Name another day to start!

pfff...just read the post above...dream on sunshine!.
Anyway had to do my duty at club team tt today...ie:stand on deserted road and stop non existent traffic...so i took my camera along.Was there frezzing my arse off for hours...70-80 teams of 4...good turn out!...couple of cofidis pros and French national jerseys about....and in this photo (in the middle) is one well known 50year old lady on a nice olympic cervelo...that jeannie longo loves to race!!!.

Fantastic. Please take me on as your slave over my new year uni break. I will maintain your bikes for you. All I ask is for a place to sleep and some time to ride!

stretch wrote:Fantastic. Please take me on as your slave over my new year uni break. I will maintain your bikes for you. All I ask is for a place to sleep and some time to ride!

Sleep and ride is all I do some days ...as a slave you would have it easy!.

Yesterday was toastie ....I had on these clothes!
1 pair Socks
1 pair Winter Boots
2 pairs of Bootie Warmers
2 Pairs Winter gloves
2 pairs of Bib knicks
1 full length skins leggings
1 pair full length leg warmers
1 pair knee warmers
1 singlet
1 pair arm warmers
1 long sleeve top
1 long sleeve winter top
1 fleece sleeveless vest
1 wind vest
1 assos rain jacket
1 very wooly hat
...and a certain fluffy thing
I was actually warm (apart from on the 10 km descent)...except for cold feet after 90 min and freezing hands for the first part of the ride but after the first camera stop they never got cold again...weird.Was about -4-6°C...not sure what the wind chill factor was at 60kph but it was cold.Still I reckon I could handle -8...as long as it is dry...which it was today with very little black ice.Did I ever mention how great the riding is around here .
Very bad quality youtube here...how do you improve the quality?.
Enjoy your summer!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocdfr0EVVT8

looks amazing! all that gear must of weighed you down though

ni78ck wrote:looks amazing! all that gear must of weighed you down though

...only about 5 or 6 kilos worth.But you dont need much water so save a kilo there ...but even the bottle I took was pointless as the top froze solid so it was useless!.

You're crazy TLL... I love it . I liked the video too.
I was at Orange last week and the snow was bucketing down. I didn't have the bike with me though.

TLL getting ready to go for a ride http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=r6tlw-oPD ... re=related

Spiza wrote:TLL getting ready to go for a ride http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=r6tlw-oPD ... re=related

Brilliant - only in the US can you find 10XL shirts (I hope ). 10XL FFS, that's huge!!!

You're a hard man, I don't even like the winters here Looks a bit fresh . You haven't got a mag trainer by any chance . I'd be wimping out and hitting the spinervals sessions.

simply awesome....riding in France...this has got to be in any cyclists' bucket list!

TLL you shame me.

I sook about the winters in Perth. Off to hang my head in disgrace

...that t-shirt clip is crazy!...there are some seriously big people around!.
Funnily I am not a big fan of heat,30C is too hot for me to ride in...where as today was a pleasant 8C.As long has you have enough gear on it is no problem,if it rains it is a problem or if it is really cold and you have a mechanical / puncture it could be a bit of a serious problem.
Was riding to my bunch ride today and was looking west to the Beaujolais and looked like they had a lot of snow over that way...above about 400m...nearly turned right and headed towards it but have been training hard this week so thought better of it....it is all an adventure...the tougher the challenge the more it attracts you right! .
Yes I do have a mag trainer but I save that for the really bad days when it is wet and windy.But I can only do 1 hour on it at a go,cant ride on a trainer slow...so aim to do a 1200kcal hour session and then fall off it.I can only do it once or twice a week so try to get outside when I can....plus Cavebear is still breathing down my neck in BJ so need to keep a few K's up my sleeve...I think he might just pip me at the post knowing the insane K's he can clock up on a weekend!
PS...now if I had an mtb I would really be able to go silly places!!!...black ice wouldn't look as frightning on fat tyres!.

If you had fallen off you would of bounced with that lot on

Wow what a ride...I nearly had to be pushed out the door,the fog was getting thick at it was about -7° out.I put on 30 separate pieces of clothing.The only difference from normal was a pair of motorbike waterproof mittens over the top of 2 pairs of gloves (one heavy duty winter pair and a pair of under gloves) and a pair of sexy red hot pants...well not really,they where a pair of cut off waterproof over pants that I sometimes wear in heavy rain....amazingly I did nearly 3 hours with only thumbs and toes getting chilly in the last 30 minutes.Oh I also had 1 full rain jacket and 1 vest,usually only have one or the other...but today I went for both.
It wasn't a very fast ride,7 extra kilos of clothing weighs you down and seems to constrict movement a bit!.But seeing that I was only going to do an hour...75kms was a bonus!.It was one of nicest rides I have ever done...after 1 hour the fog really poured in,and considering everything is white already it knocked visibility down to about 50meters or less,normally that would be a concern but stuff it...only about 5 cars passed me going my direction in 75kms so being run into from behind wasn't too much of a worry .It was getting very cold by the time I got home...ice was forming all over me,check out the ice on my chest in the photos!,my bottie covers had huge amounts of ice on them after 30 minutes.I put boiling water in my drink bottle with cordial,it was frozen solid after 90 minutes ...But what a great ride!!!.I really wish I had a mtb so I could get up into the high alpes!!!!.
PS...my wifey aint much of a photographer