A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:42 pm

Another fantastic ANZAC .303 shoot today. It got damn hot out there, even with gazebos over the firing line, and the wind conditions were very tricky. After last year's debacle with 65yr old milsurp ammo that couldn't hit the side of a barn from the inside, I had great expectations from the excellent quality (and much newer!) commercial ammo I had bought.

Well, no. Tie for second last :lol: . The issue is just lack of experience, for all the years I've done pistol and rimfire rifle shooting, fullbore competition is a very different kettle of fish, and I'll need plenty of practice to get the hang of it. I still had a great time, just being able to consistently hit the target from half a kilometre away is seriously cool.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby singlespeedscott » Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:32 pm

Always thought the .303 to be highly overrated. I always laugh at the 1000 yard windage on the sites. The only way you would hit anything at that distance is part of a full company firing a volley simultaneously. The .308 is a much better cartridge.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:14 pm

You'd best hope my old man doesn't hear such blasphemy! :lol: He competed in Queen's Prize shoots for 20 odd years with No 4s with aperture sights, and shooting a "possible" (sub 2MOA) was the norm. There were half a dozen really good shooters on Sunday doing the same, and that's just prone with a sling, no rests.

If anything, the .303 is woefully under rated, so many write it off because rear locking means it must be inherently inaccurate :roll: or that it's no good as a hunting round (the 100kg+ pigs I took with single shots last year would definitely disagree on that point!) I'm planning on fitting a scope to a No1 Mk3 to shoot F class next year, and then I'll be able to see just what the old girl's capable of.

All else aside, they're gorgeous old things :D


The plan this morning was for about 60k, but with a late start and my legs utterly worthless after 2 days off the bike, I had to content myself with 38k. Off to bed now for an early start tomorrow to make up for it, plus more in the evening to bludgeon those legs into submission!
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:00 am

God I hate living on the coast in the wet season. 50 of the planned 60k this morning, hopefully Hughie has finished by this afternoon.


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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:44 pm

Not enough time to get fully up to date, but I'll at least make a step in the right direction.

Sunday I was up at 3:30 to head for Murgon again, planning on 210kms. The wind forecast (aka worthless soothsayer predictions) had been for a very light easterly, right until Saturday night when suddenly they changed their minds and decided it would be a strong south easterly instead. Great, thanks.

Autumn has definitely arrived, and after only 1km I went back to my car for gloves to complement my wind jacket. Naturally, for once the wind forecast was correct, and off I set, gradually grinding away. A herd of camels beside the trail at Wondai provided some distraction-

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(the other 7 wouldn't let me close enough for photos)

and I kept crawling along, on and on. And on.

A Focus pulled out on front of me as I was doing 60kmh down through Barker's Creek, on a straight stretch, with no trees, bright sunshine and me wearing hi-vis :roll: . No harm done, and once back on the flat I was back to my 23kmh grind.

I finally reached Nanango after THREE AND A HALF HOURS of headwind, and popped into the servo for morning tea. Suitably refueled (Coke, chocolate milk, and 2 meat pies) I turned away from the wind and oh the glorious feeling that followed. Too glorious in fact, because I ended up averaging 50kmh for the last 3k into Kingaroy. With 105kms already done, that was not a good idea.

The journey back north to Murgon was reasonably paced, but the legs were protesting about that tough start to the day, and the fact I had forgotten to apply both sunscreen and deodorant added to my discomfort. The likelihood of completing the loop from Murgon out through Cloyna to get the 200km was looking marginal, and when I got back to my car to find a flat tyre, that likelihood became zero quick smart!

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I'd had practice during the week with fitting new tyres to Mrs LDR's car, and rotating tyres on a work van, so that was quickly sorted and I headed north to investigate a lookout I had seen some vague descriptions of online.

It turned out to be only a short distance from Murgon, up some beautiful climbing roads. I'll definitely be out there with the road bike at some point.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:49 pm

God damn it, time to rewrite another post :evil: .


After Sunday's 6.5hrs of pain I wasn't really all that keen on heading back out there, but I'd already arranged to meet Foo in Nanango (the first time we'd caught up in 3 years or so) so up at 4am. That was later than it should have been, so with the wind forecast to be even stronger I kept driving through to Wooroolin before getting on the bike. With a shorter distance and a deadline to keep, I wound the effort level up and managed a surprisingly reasonable pace through to Nanango, arriving there 10 minutes before Foo came through.

Naturally, after 3 years there was a lot of blathering on to do, until I suddenly realised that I had been sitting in the shade for a long time, and had very cold legs and a belly full of works burger. The climb back up towards Kingaroy was going to be fun...

Naturally, the wind had died right down, so my hopes of attacking the "2 miles to peanut town" segment were dashed (even with my form improving, a 52.3kmh average does not come easily) and I just made my gradual way back to Wooroolin. After zig zagging around the village 3 times to get a single kilometre (it's a jolly small place) I had 100kms on the clock and was ready to head for home.


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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:22 pm

Still playing catch up.

On ANZAC Day I decided to hop off the TT bike for a change and test out the 29er on the unsealed trail between Kilkiva and Goomeri. A mate had ridden it recently and leapfrogged me on the segment for the climb to Kinbombi, and honour had to be upheld!

This was the same mate I rode the trail with in October last year, and who shared (with somewhat less vitriol) my views on the incompetence of Gympie Regional Council's trail building efforts. He had mentioned the surface settling a little, so I was keen to see what it was like.

Well, those sections I could see through the knee high grass :roll: .


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The surface has improved a little, but given how utterly appalling it was to start with, that is very faint praise indeed. It was still rough as guts, but at least it was now rideable. Still strewn with hundreds of rail spikes waiting to slash a tyre though (and the aforementioned long grass doesn't make it any easier to spot those spikes). I had forgotten just how many gates there are on this trail though, dozens of the damn things, most of which are completely unnecessary. I was still in a reasonable mood though, until I came to Wide Bay Creek.

This originally had a fairly substantial bridge, but little remains of that. With no bridge, how do you think Gympie Council would approach the crossing? A concrete culvert? Dump a bunch of rocks in there?

No. Nothing. Well not NOTHING, they did put signs on the top of the creek banks advising walkers/riders to take their shoes off before going into the waist deep stagnant muddy water.


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Call me precious, but this is a god damn joke. Gympie Council were handed $600,000 to build this trail, and the result is 45kms of the most appalling surfaces, over the top gates that don't need to be there, and dangerous/pathetic creek crossings. It would cost very little to put a basic crossing here, and to deck the bridge over Kinbombi Creek instead of cutting incredibly steep paths down the creek banks and covering them with loose gravel to make a deathtrap. They don't though, because they don't care. I'm really struggling to convey my feelings without running foul of the no swearing rule here!

So after putting up with the bone shaking surface and stupid creek crossings, I was in a cranky mood as I approached the base of the Kinbombi range. As I came up to the corner that marked the start of the segment I put the hammer down, pinballing off the rocks on what was a very dangerous surface when all of a sudden...it came good.

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As I said to my mate (and anyone else who would listen) the climb to Kinbombi would be incredible with a half decent surface, and somehow it now (mostly) has a good surface. I find it hard to believe that 6 months of weathering alone has been able to remove all the holes and large rocks that were there in October, but then it's even harder to believe that Gympie Council have actually done anything either. The result is what counts though, and it was wonderful. Without constant rocks to concern me I could actually let my legs do their thing, and soon enough I was happily crouched over the bars TT style holding 28kmh uphill. At 4.9kms of perfectly consistent 2% gradient it is a delightful climb, and I was a bit sad to reach the top. Taking the KOM by a minute and 20 seconds helped though :D .

From the top of Kinbombi through to Goomeri the trail had been completely unrideable due to insanely large rocks put down as a "surface", and while it had improved a lot, it was still a very poor excuse for a rail trail, made worse by struggling to actually see the surface through more long grass.

After a little over an hour and a half I reached Goomeri station and stopped for a quick bite to eat.

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My water bottle was half full (or half empty?) and I tossed up whether or not to refill it, but South Burnett tap water doesn't seem to agree with me, and I figured I could be back in Goomeri on what I had. Oh yes, I didn't mention the time did I? By this point it was 10:30, on what was turning into a pretty warm day...

Off I went, straight into a headwind. Charming. It made the downhill run on Kinbombi disappointingly slow, though still great fun, and didn't hurt my speed too badly on the flat. The temperature kept climbing, so when I found an irrigator spraying out over the trail 11kms from Kilkivan I enjoyed it so much I hopped off the bike and ran back through it again :lol: .

The water eventually ran out 4kms from Kilkivan, at which point it was of no concern. 56kms all up in 3:13, unless Gympie Council has a sudden epiphany and decides to actually finish the job they sort of started, the only thing that will get me back on that trail is losing the KOM. In the meantime I'll continue to ignore Kilkivan-Murgon and refer to the rest as the South Burnett Rail Trail, because they actually give a damn about it.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Tue May 01, 2018 10:53 pm

Friday and Saturday were unremarkable short TT rides around Noosa, then on Sunday morning I headed out for 40km with about 30% gravel on the CX bike. Aside from giving me a sore back, it reinforced that while the concept of the CX bike is great (most of the speed of a road bike, with most of the comfort/handling of a mountain bike), the reality falls a long way short. So far short in fact, that the Avanti will be up for sale as soon as I manage to get pics of it.

So, on to the really good stuff!

Now all this riding on the rail trail has been good training, but it isn't quite the same as Innisfail-Cairns. For starters, I-C is basically a straight line, so the wind conditions should be consistent all the way, not the 50% (or more) headwind I get out Kingaroy way. I was also keen to see just where my form was at, so on Monday morning I got up at Yuck o'clock and drove down to the northern end of Steve Irwin Way. Simple plan, ride 87.4km as quickly as I could, and see if that was faster than 2:24:24 (the current Innisfail-Cairns record).

A solid tailwind was forecast, but it didn't really get going until later in the day. While it was a little annoying, only having a mild tailwind makes for a more conservative benchmark.

After a short spin to get the blood flowing, I set off towards Caloundra, and happily spun away. For a whole 2.4km until I hit the first of many, MANY red lights. In spite of the red lights and a few dumb motorists getting in the way, my average speed on the flat stayed around 40-41kmh. The hills that started around Coolum didn't do too much to the overall average, and I felt strong through to around the 65km mark on Noosa, when the first cracks started to show. By 70kms (leaving Tewantin) I was really starting to hurt, and suffered through Cooroibah and Cootharaba, with an average for those 14kms of "only" 34.8kmh.

At 84.5kms I popped, and just struggled as best I could until the magic 87.4 came up and I gladly hopped off.

So, the mark to beat is 2:24:24, and an average of 36.3kmh. Monday's effort (excluding red lights)- 2:24:49, and 36.3kmh :mrgreen:

With nearly 2 months of training still to go, I'm over the moon with that!

With that, April came in at 1,269.7kms, the biggest month I've ever done. With the wet season finally behind us (fingers firmly crossed!) I should be able to improve on that again this month.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby marty_one » Wed May 02, 2018 9:08 am

ldrcycles wrote:April came in at 1,269.7kms
That's an impressive distance to be able to ride in a month. With my time constraints the most I can get in, in a month is about 900km. So far this year I have managed 3000km before a minor procedure to remove some skin cancer (basal cell) from the back of my neck sidelined me for the past 1.5 weeks. Being in Melbourne and the weather going crazy its going to be a bit tough keeping the kilometers up.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Sat May 05, 2018 9:36 pm

marty_one wrote: Being in Melbourne and the weather going crazy its going to be a bit tough keeping the kilometers up.
Much as I complain about the rain up here I know it's nothing on the rain, and wind, and cold down there! Oh and the crazy heat you sometimes get (though at least it's a dry heat).


51kms of mostly steady spinning this morning. Mostly...


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I was intending to do just a short spin in the morning before another 87k flat out effort on monday, but the wind forecast for tomorrow is just delicious, so I'll see what the legs have got :twisted: .

Oh and I almost forgot, today I FINALLY replaced the rusty, twisted old Campagnolo front derailleur with a nice second hand Ultegra unit. I don't often need the small chainring of course, but when I do it will be very nice to access it without shifting with my foot!
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Sun May 06, 2018 9:31 pm

Howling gale all day, and I did 11.5km :evil:

After yesterday's ride I knew my legs wouldn't be fresh today, but with 40kmh tailwinds up for grabs I had to try. But I was right, and straight away it was obvious 90km of hell was out of the question. I settled for the ~10kms I had originally planned on, and headed for home. Infuriating, but looking on the bright side, at least I'm reading my body well.

It also left plenty of time for mowing and whipper snipping which is nice. The poddy calves are coming along very nicely, and thanks to Winnie, I can confirm the electric fence works really well :lol:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby foo on patrol » Mon May 07, 2018 4:13 am

Have you tried the approach to nutrition like we talked about? Bout bloody time you started reading what ya body is tellin ya, it's only taken 5-6yrs. :lol:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Fri May 11, 2018 11:44 am

foo on patrol wrote:Have you tried the approach to nutrition like we talked about? Bout bloody time you started reading what ya body is tellin ya, it's only taken 5-6yrs. :lol:

Foo

It's not so much reading my body, as actually acting on what I read :lol: . Haven't found that split locally yet but still looking.

After Sunday's disappointment, I headed to Steve Irwin Way again on Monday morning as originally planned. There was still a fair bit of wind around, but it was more easterly and far less consistent, so likely to be as much a hindrance as help. I felt straight away that my legs weren't razor sharp, but certainly far better than the day before and with a careful approach a good time should still be up for grabs.

A few kms in on Caloundra Rd there was a radar check sign, to my great enjoyment it registered me at 42kmh. My average up towards Kawana was a bit lower though at around 38, thanks to the wind tending head-cross. The public holiday had the traffic very light, so interruptions from red lights were few and far between. Things were basically a holding pattern through to Coolum, where I took advantage of the downhill into town to hold mid 50s along the flat (for a bit longer than I should have :) ). The new front derailleur was a delight for the Peregian water tower climb (just because I only use it once in 87k doesn't mean it isn't important!) but by there the edge was already starting to come off a little. I kept pushing, and the rain started in Noosaville, making for a damp finish.

By the time I got onto McKinnon Drive, my legs were pretty unhappy with me, and there was a fair bit of talking out loud to keep focused. It apparently worked, as I managed a PB for the 14k segment which I was very happy with.

The end result was 2:26:56, 19 seconds faster than the previous week in spite of the crummy conditions. That's enormously encouraging with a month and a half still to go, especially as the Innisfail-Cairns route appears to be a bit easier than the one I'm training on.


Now before I catch up on the rest of this week's rides, a quick note on Innisfail.

A week or two back, find_bruce brought my attention to Road Rule 85, which is a remarkably comprehensive rule prohibiting any record attempts without permission from the state police commissioner. After checking with Dave Alley (of round Australia run and cycle record fame), I cobbled together an email to the commissioner. Well this morning I got a reply, and er..it isn't quite as straightforward as I was hoping.... :shock:

Out of time just at the moment, but I'll put up a full run down later today on the record attempt thread.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Sat May 12, 2018 5:24 pm

Only 24 hours later than planned, but I was stuck under my family's house til 10:30 last night battling with their plumbing (off there again now to finish the job, yay for 110yr old Queenslanders...)

http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewt ... 9#p1447789

Feel free to have a good giggle at my expense. :)
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Tue May 22, 2018 9:11 pm

Back again now that I'm (hopefully) getting on top of the record paperwork.

Winter is well and truly here, it was incredibly cold yesterday morning, even with the thickest jersey I own. On one hand it meant I could push hard without overheating, on the other hand that cold air is very slow. The best scenario would be high intensity without all the cold air, I wonder how I could make that happen....

It so happened that a rubbish truck appeared just where I wanted, and then sat on a very consistent slightly-more-than-the-limit for the whole of Noosa Parade. I was a little disappointed to see an average of "only" 50.3kmh when I uploaded the ride, that was worth a mere 3 seconds on my best unpaced effort. Although it must be said, I had a strong tailwind for that, and was in tears afterwards from the pain :lol: . No tears this time around, and after the truck went on it's way I got back to the usual loop. The second time along Noosa Parade I was sitting on 38 when a box truck came along, and I was pretty pleased to get up to 55 clicks to get on him. The rest of that loop and the next was uneventful, until I hit the morning traffic in Tewantin.

Up til then my average was sitting on 36.2, the slow cagers took it down to 35.9 for 61kms. With the amount of intersections and the cold, that's a nice number.

After that it was over to the aquatic centre for Winnie's swimming lesson (been going since she was ~4mths old), then down the coast to see Dave Weir about some tweaks on a project bike. The feral pigs are back at my parent's place (after a council trapper removed 30odd from the valley last year), so I headed out in the afternoon with the 303, bayonet fixed. I found the pigs easily enough, rummaging around in some thick, 7ft tall grass. But do you think I could get a clear view of a single one? After half an hour of stalking all I had to show for it was a thick covering of cobbler's pegs, and when the pigs eventually twigged that they had company, off they went :evil: .

On the plus side, my whinging annoyed Mrs LDR so much that she's ok with me getting a 12 gauge. Well she didn't actually say "yes", but she didn't say no either :mrgreen: .

On the topic of approval, Cairns Council has given me the go ahead for the record attempt, so now I just need to wait for TMR and the Cassowary Coast Council to get back to me. Fingers firmly crossed!
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby singlespeedscott » Wed May 23, 2018 9:38 am

Just need to get rid of the rifle mate and get a couple of dogs and a good knife. See it as a bit of cross training.

I used to do that years ago when I lived out Inglewood/Millmerran way. I’d go for a 10k run with the dogs in the morning and bring a knife with me. When they found a pig the run would then involve a few sprint intervals and weights session at the end to haul the carcass back out to the track to pickup later for the chiller box in town :)
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Wed May 23, 2018 9:18 pm

If you ever see me run you'll know straight away why that option isn't one I'm looking at too closely :lol:

Another 40k this morning, not as cold as monday but the legs weren't at 100%, so I had to be satisfied with a 1:09 or 35.1kmh average.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Fri May 25, 2018 9:16 pm

Another 40k hard effort this morning, and the warmer temps really helped. Having slow cars/trucks in the way didn't help, but I still managed my 2nd fastest time for the loop with a 36.6kmh average. That needs to improve, but still pretty good. Just under a month to go until Innisfail, and while Cairns Council have been very helpful and already sent through the approval (and then sent it through again after I realised I had put the wrong time on it :oops: ), I haven't yet heard from Cassowary Coast or TMR. It hasn't actually been long but it feels like forever, and I'm running out of fingernails to chew on :lol: .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:20 am

Sorry for the wait, fretting about approvals is a very effective writer's block! The go ahead came through from Cassowary Coast Council last week; they even went so far as to say "we are supportive of your attempt and have forwarded this information to our media department" :) . On the other hand, I rang TMR on Wednesday and was told the relevant person was on another call and would ring me back "maybe this afternoon but definitely tomorrow". Thursday came and went, so I called at 3pm Friday and was told "he's gone home already, but I'll make sure someone calls you on Monday". No prizes for guessing how many calls I had yesterday :roll: . I'll ring again today, fingers firmly crossed, teeth firmly gritted.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Jun 06, 2018 10:22 pm

Last Sunday (not the one just gone, the one before that) a bloke from Toowomba rode the rail trail from Kingaroy to Goomeri. Nothing especially unusual there, but he nabbed my KOM for Kingaroy-Crawford, along with 2 others. Hmm, that's annoying.

Ride title- "Kingaroy Goomeri SBRT one way. No TT bike required"

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Sure it was in jest, but there's no way I was going to let that stand! So the next Sunday off I went to Kingaroy with the 29er.

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Yes that hulking great bike is a tight squeeze in Little Red :) A towbar (mainly for the purpose of mounting a bike rack) is in the near future.

While the forecast 3 degree start temperature didn't materialise (it was nippy but still fine in a short sleeved jersey) the forecast 18kmh tailwind was nowhere to be seen either :? .


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It was already 7:30, so I couldn't just sit around; off I went. Now this Peter bloke had posted a 34.7kmh average to Crawford. On a mountain bike, on a 5.3km segment that's 70% uphill (albeit the very gradual uphill of a rail trail). Even with a tailwind, that's a mighty solid effort. I gave it a good go, but ended up with "only" 33.1kmh.

The next target was Tingoora-Wondai, 7.6kms and virtually all downhill. There's a nice downhill cutting coming into Tingoora, so I came across the timber bridge at 40kmh making an unholy noise with the big 2.1" tyres. After slowing down a little for the annoying chicane barriers at the road crossing, I hit the throttle and got up to about 45. To my great surprise, I was able to hold it there, 29ers really do roll incredibly well. Holding that for more than 7kms though...

Yea that hurt a LOT. By the 6k mark I was suffering, and the final uphill km into Wondai was really ugly. But it was enough, 39.1kmh to get the KOM by 14 seconds. At this point I was going to have some food before carrying on to Goomeri, but where was the food?

That's right, back in Kingaroy, on the front seat of Little Red. That, plus SEVERE discomfort from the TT effort on the decidedly non-TT friendly saddle that came with the 29er, convinced me to turn back to Kingaroy. Unfortunately by the 48k mark I hunger flatted badly, and had to limp the remaining 12k with stomach cramps.

To be continued..
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:44 pm

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Oh. My. %$&*#(AT) God. Just when I think I've reached the summit of Mount Ridiculous Bureaucracy, the clouds part to reveal yet more insanity to clamber over.

The latest? I need to apply for a Traffic Disruption Permit, so that I can get the Road Corridor Permit which expressly forbids me from disrupting traffic in any way..... I have an overwhelming desire to laugh, cry, and bang my head against a solid surface all at once.
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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find_bruce
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby find_bruce » Thu Jun 07, 2018 9:21 pm

When you are on the road ... deep in the hurt locker ... & ready to throw in the towel to come back another day, the thing that will drive you onward is the reasliation that giving up will mean going back through the ridiculous bureaucracy again and you will push on, letting out an anguished NOOOOOOO! anything but that :D

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ldrcycles
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:10 am

find_bruce wrote:When you are on the road ... deep in the hurt locker ... & ready to throw in the towel to come back another day, the thing that will drive you onward is the reasliation that giving up will mean going back through the ridiculous bureaucracy again and you will push on, letting out an anguished NOOOOOOO! anything but that :D
Nailed it :lol: .
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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ldrcycles
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby ldrcycles » Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:15 pm

Main Roads approval is finally done! Now I just need to put that together with all the other nonsense and send it off to the police on Monday.

So, back to last Sunday's ride.

After finally making it back to Kingaroy I hot footed it to Maccas for some bulk calories. 60kms of riding isn't a lot to show for 320kms of driving, so I was hoping I'd recover in time to hop on the bike again at Murgon. As we all know, Maccas is cracking good stuff, so at 11 o clock I pulled up at Murgon and pointed the 29er east.

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Once I was out of Murgon (and past the assorted rubbish and drug implements strewn about :roll: ) I warmed up nicely and wound the effort meter up. While the trail has improved dramatically since I last rode it in October, it's still pretty poor, with deep sand towards Murgon, and dangerous ballast rocks at the Goomeri end. Strava trumps personal safety of course, so I kept flat out and managed nearly 3 minutes off the KOM :D .

Of course, I then had to get back to Murgon, and that sure as heck wasn't going to be breaking any records. I took the opportunity to get some more photos.


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While I've still got a bee in my bonnet about the condition of Gympie Council's section of the trail, it's at least rideable now, and that got me thinking. A quick message to the SBRT facebook page confirmed it; no one has done an end to end return on that trail.

176kms on the mountain bike, shouldn't be too hard right? I find out on Sunday :D .
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 4- The Comeback!

Postby singlespeedscott » Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:29 am

That sounds like fun
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