A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Smithstreet
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Smithstreet » Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:56 pm

ldrcycles wrote: I'll just have to hit O'Reilly's and Binna Burra extra hard to make up for it :twisted: .
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... :shock:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Sat Mar 22, 2014 2:53 pm

Only 16.5 hours to go, yes i'm excited :D .
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Re:The Adventures of LDR and Friends

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:22 am

In which they ride up some big hills :) .

But to give this story it's full background we have to go back to Saturday when, after a very busy morning at work, i headed down to brisneyland to a mate's place where he suggested going out to have "a couple of beers". I was hesitant given the required early start on Sunday, but eventually agreed on the proviso that we get back by 8pm. Well you can guess what happened, "a couple of beers" turned into a pub crawl and i got back at 11:30, quite drunk.

Accordingly the 4am start the next morning was painful, very painful indeed :) . Chatting to t-rav in the car on the way to canungra helped to wake me up though, as did my customary pre-ride Big-Bag-o'Calories from Maccas. We arrived in Canungra pretty much on time and after introductions and prep we set off about 7am.

We spun along quite happily for the first few kms, but when Sarabah bridge appeared i reinforced my anti-social reputation by taking off from the front. Initially i didn't feel quite as good as hoped and thought i might get caught but within a few kms i had settled at my preferred 95% effort and the others were far back in the distance. From that point on it was a simple matter of just holding that level of effort for another 25odd kms, simple!

The climb was absolutely crawling with wallabies, all of them adorable and many of them remarkably tame, most just stared at me without budging as i rode past, though there was one little one who hopped over to mum and stuck it's head in her pouch to hide :D . There was also a large labrador type dog at the alpaca farm, having a good old kip in the sun on the centreline of the road who wouldn't move for anyone.

By the top i had managed to take nearly 6 minutes off my previous time, up to 47th on the Sarabah cattlegrid-O'Reilly's segment (though about 18 minutes off the KOM :shock: ) and still felt really good, compared to my last time when i was shattered.


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After a short rest we turned back for Canungra and unsurprisingly i was left for dead, especially on the top few kms through the jungle, where the road is in ATROCIOUS shape at the moment. I still enjoyed the descent at my very moderate pace :) .

I downed a very welcome oat slice at Canungra where we farewelled one of our group who had suffered enough, and we headed for Beechmont. While the climb up the back of Beechmont was jolly steep it wasn't particularly difficult with my circus clown gearing, however there were hundreds, maybe thousands of motorbikes heading towards canungra, which combined with the narrow road to mean the car drivers behind us had to just sit there at 12kmh and wait. The noise, fumes and worry of having an impatient or angry driver behind made for a rather unpleasant time until things finally cleared up a bit.

To start off with i wasn't feeling very strong but soon perked up and took off again. In due course i stopped at a mobile traffic light to wait for the others, which turned out to be only smithstreet and t-rav, our 4th rider having decided to turn back at the top of the climb. So on we went, and while the scenery was stunning, the road disappointed me slightly, being undulating rather than the constant slog i had been hoping for. The climb up Binna Burra itself though was amazing, towering trees above the narrow ribbon of bitumen perched on the edge of a cliff hundreds of metres above the valley. By this stage the work was starting to tell and i was crawling along just keeping pace with the other 2.


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After a delicious meat pie and several cans of coke in the restaurant at the summit (which looked down over Hinze Dam to the Gold Coast skyline)

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we headed back downhill again, and again i took it very steady, stopping a couple of times for photos. The next shot is looking up towards Best of All lookout, which i am desperate to get up to soon.

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After running the red light at the roadworks because all cyclists are bastards :roll:

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we eventually got back to Canungra, tired and hungry. Smithstreet headed towards the pub, while t-rav and i raided the supermarket for a litre of orange juice and a litre of chocolate milk respectively (among other foodstuffs).

An absolutely cracking morning with great company :D .

http://www.strava.com/activities/123179220/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Re:The Adventures of LDR and Friends

Postby Smithstreet » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:54 pm

ldrcycles wrote: Best of All lookout, which i am desperate to get up to soon.
Name a day/date that suits you and we'll go from there. I'm keen also.
To make it 'worth your while' coming down from the sunny coast, we could 'add' a little bit extra! 8)

Perhaps something involving Tamborine as well.... :twisted:

Let me work on a course and we'll get a show of hands.

Btw, nice write up. It was another good ride in good company.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Stefan_A » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:16 pm

yes lachlan, nice write up again. I know those routes well. last year SS et al were going down there every weekend it seemed.

I'd petition you to try a Currumbin Creek start taking in either Springbrook Numinbah Valley Tyalgum Chillingham Murwillumbah....once you view that country, you'll want to kiss the Sunny Coast goodbye and migrate there tomorrow :)

and then there's Pottsville, Mullumbimby, Federal, Byron, Bangalow, The Channon, Nightcap NP territory....

these areas have to rate high as Australia's best tour cycling territory imho.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:21 pm

Still talking about Tamborine smithstreet, I thought you had learnt your lesson on Sunday :lol: . I'd say about 3rd or 4th sunday in April would probably work for me but it would take a very strong pack of wild horses to keep me away :D .
Stefan_A wrote: I'd petition you to try a Currumbin Creek start taking in either Springbrook Numinbah Valley Tyalgum Chillingham Murwillumbah....once you view that country, you'll want to kiss the Sunny Coast goodbye and migrate there tomorrow :)

and then there's Pottsville, Mullumbimby, Federal, Byron, Bangalow, The Channon, Nightcap NP territory....

these areas have to rate high as Australia's best tour cycling territory imho.
A bit too much of that is on the wrong side of the border though, i don't want to catch southerner-itis :lol: . I already want to move to Canungra, Sunday only confirmed that i'm head over heels in love with the O'Reilly's climb, it's even better than Bellthorpe. I had a good look over the south east on google maps today at work (raining so it wasn't busy) and discovered the "tilt the view" function, absolutely amazing stuff, about as close as you can get to flying over places without a plane. It really showed off the contours of the land down there, and up through the Brisbane River valley too (which reminds me SS, i should have my MTB ready to hit up Monsildale soon :) ).
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Stefan_A » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:34 pm

It's interesting to take in the relief contours of the Tweed shield volcano, and a good explanation. Then you start to nicely understand Springbrook, Binna Burra, O'Reillys et al.

Based on your last write up Lachlan, I can not help but think how much faster you'd go fueled by cleaner energy. :) Maccas before climbs!? my goodness!

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Re: LDR goes to the big city!

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:57 pm

So to follow on from this morning's post and finish the story of the weekend, after eating every form of carbohydrate available in Canungra i dropped t-rav back home and then went to my brother's place in Enoggera.

There he reminded me that he had fixed his road bike (which i sold to him after crashing it at 95kmh back in 2008 and moving to MTB for a while) and wanted to go for a ride. Given he rides once or twice a month i had assumed this meant 10kms or so pootling around on the Kedron Brook bike path and so i happily agreed despite the considerable pain in my everywhere from the morning jaunt.

Well it turns out he wanted to ride to Nudgee Beach (aka Nudgee Stinking Mudflats :) ) and back, a ride we have been meaning to do together for several years. I didn't realise until we got there that it was a 50km round trip, so with that getting my day over 170kms and 3,500m, i was destroyed by the time we got back. Of course as we passed the Nundah crit track on the way out i couldn't help myself and put in 2 laps at over 40kmh :) .
After a nice hot shower and as much tucker as i could thieve it was time for some well earned sleep.

On Monday morning the alarm went off and i somehow managed to convince myself to stick to the plan and ride to work over at Archerfield. I have always been confident at riding in traffic, but Brisbane in peak hour is something else and i had been a bit apprehensive. With the traffic volumes in mind i didn't just ride big, i rode mack truck, and in the whole 27kms i didn't have any troubles at all. Well, at least not from the traffic...

It turns out my very long top tube guide was not sufficiently detailed, so within a couple of kms i took a wrong turn. By that stage i had already discovered the problem with planning my route on Google Maps, it isn't topographic, so i didn't know that there were some really steep climbs in my way that were most unpleasant after Sunday. Once i got back on track though things went smoothly again until i reached the intersection of Sherwood and Ipswich Roads, which was to put it politely, confusing. Accordingly i got lost in suburban Salisbury, so sent a text to SWMBO for nav assistance.

Her "assistance" led to a dead end street, so i just :roll: and carried on in a "that-a-way" direction until by dumb luck i reached Beaudesert and Granard Rds. From there i knew i was close but didn't want to waste time so called up my workmates in Noosaville and, once they had stopped laughing, discovered i was only a couple of blocks from my destination.

The work itself was tremendously enjoyable, working on the descendants of this old beastie

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while learning how to use computer programs partially written in Hebrew (no really, the company is based in Israel)


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The biggest excitement of the day for me was the lunch, i have been told it is not overly unusual for a company to provide lunch for it's employees but it is a tremendous novelty to me, especially when it was chicken satay sticks, coke and noodles with veggies and meat. One of the guys joked that the meat was probably cat, maybe even free range cat, but it tasted damn good to me :D .

It turned out that one of the blokes lived a couple of suburbs over from Enoggera, so it didn't take much to persuade me to accept a lift. Then it was time for some more food to pass the time waiting for peak hour to pass before picking up my sister in law from Herston and head back up the Bruce to Coolum.

Now that's a big weekend!

Luckily i decided against commuting on the bike today as the weather has now closed in, but i will still be needing a big dinner and good sleep tonight :) .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Smithstreet » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:16 pm

ldrcycles wrote:Still talking about Tamborine smithstreet, I thought you had learnt your lesson on Sunday :lol: (which reminds me SS, i should have my MTB ready to hit up Monsildale soon :) ).
I don't 'learn lessons' very well. Probably why my knees are 'shot'!!

Once your MTB is up and running, give us a hoy. We'll have to lock in a Tweed Range Rd loop out of Kyogle. It climbs up the western edge of the caldera to 1100mts and has, what I think are THE best views in SE Qld/Nth NSW. Probably best done after April when it cools down a bit as there are no water refills available in the 100km loop. (Unless the waterfall is running up the top)

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Fri Mar 28, 2014 8:03 pm

Cycling? Nope. But i have been busy all the same, especially yesterday, working in the pouring rain all day to finish the shed for the goats. It could of course have been finished many months ago but with no rain about they needed food a lot more than they did shelter, so building fences was the priority. My upper body is sore as hell today from throwing around bits of timber and roofing iron but the goats are lot drier and happier :) .

"Of droughts and flooding rains" has never been a better description for this country, only a couple of days ago Cedar Pocket Dam was as dry as i have ever seen it, yesterday it was overflowing after rising 7 metres. Kin Kin Creek went from just a handful of puddles to 4m at the newly installed gauge (this is the first flood since it was installed a year or so ago as a result of the terrible floods back in 2009) which i think would have put the water over the road in front of the pub; Stef and i had left town when it was at 2.5 metres and the water was just starting to creep across the lowest parts of the flats near town.


This is Pender Ck, about a kilometre upstream from the photo i took a week or so ago.

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And this is Kin Kin Creek near the middle of town.


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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:25 pm

A bit of an up and down day today, after knocking off work in Noosa at noon I made my way up to the farm where I planned to hop on the bike for a quick spin before getting into the hard yakka. With what seemed to be a favourable wind blowing I had high hopes of finally nabbing the Top of the range-Kin Kin pub KOM, but within a couple of kms a bit of rain passed through which made it less likely.

First up though was Williams Rd, a short dead end goat track that goes off the main road. I've driven up there a few times but it only occurred to me the other day to ride it. The first ramp isn't quite as steep as Postman's Track, but not far off it (my car wouldn't do it in 2nd) and thereafter it eases off quite a bit but still averages 10%. With fresh legs and my circus clown gearing I had no great trouble on the way up, but coming back down was tough, a matter of holding the brakes juust on the point of locking up the wheels on the damp road and hoping that would be enough.

With that safely navigated it was up to the top of the range and once I had reached the bottom I needed to open things up to make up for the lost time on the wet corners. Unfortunately it was at this point that my body decided to complain about not having done any riding since Monday morning and within a couple of kms I pulled the plug and just cruised the rest of the way.

After a quick shower to remove the thick layer of road grime it was back into the navy blue and steel caps and off down the paddock. Being a thoughtful wannabe racer I made sure to allow some time to get a proper before and after of the creek, just for you lot because you're special :) Awww etc.

Before-

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After-

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The only problem was I took off my boots to jump in the creek for that photo, and of course what do I step on?


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It's a good thing I've had more tetanus booster shots than most people have had hot dinners, but that point was all the way in and by god it was unbelievably painful pulling it out. Anyway with that bit of excitement out of the way it was back into the work, and while I am disappointed I didn't get more done (always expecting far too much of myself) I did actually make some good progress.

A bit of a spin tomorrow morning and then rest on Monday ahead of a BIG week :) .

EDIT: I should mention too that at the peak of the flood the water level was about half a metre over the top of the bank on the left of that photo :) . Only a minor flood that one, in 2009 it was more like 3m+ above.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Mar 30, 2014 2:12 pm

I used things like that as a tooth pic Idry! :lol:

It is nice to see water in the creeks also. :wink:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:48 pm

Sorry for the wait between posts but the internet at home STILL hasn't recovered from my other half's discovery last month of "torrents". Luckily I have an incredibly cool boss who lets me stay at work and do whatever the hell i want (anyone need a frame sandblasted for example?), so i can use the lovely quick unlimited broadband here :) .

So, after Saturday's short ride i was hoping for something more substantial on Sunday, but was required out at the pistol club so had to settle for only a couple of kms tweaking the rebuilt MTB.

With that in mind the plan was for a rest day on Monday and then a nice long ride Tuesday. I think the world has some sort of problem with me making plans...

Monday afternoon i got a call from The Old Man to say that a bunch of billys had got into the nannies paddock and were causing all kinds of hell that needed a stop to be put to it asap. So out i went to the farm to muster the errant males, with some extraordinary moves i might add, for a couple of them i managed to just grab a horn as they ran past and swing them 360 degrees, grab the other horn and start walking them to the proper paddock before they realised what had happened :D . Even with my best efforts in wrangling and driving i was in bed much later than planned, but the show must go on!

Given that lead up, i was in much better shape than i might have been when the alarm went off at 1am, but 4hrs sleep is still not a hell of a lot, so i was some way off my best pace. By the time i reached the top of Steve Irwin Way it was half past 2 and raining (not to mention there was a constant and fairly solid headwind), whereupon i decided riding all the way to Caboolture could wait for another day and turned around. While i still didn't feel great the tailwind helped matter somewhat and i was very surprised to pull out a 2nd place along the way.

Well off what was planned but then 80kms in the rain at 33kmh is not too bad i suppose. Tomorrow morning should be easily over 100kms and then Sunday big things will be happening! Or should i say they may happen, it's not like i'm making any plans, you hear me world?
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby BianchiCam » Wed Apr 02, 2014 10:17 pm

Love it..

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Re: Wisdom

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Apr 03, 2014 5:51 pm

There is lot of wisdom on this thread, from Foo's "wisdom" of pedalling everywhere at no less than 200rpm, singlespeedscott's "wisdom" of having a 14 foot long top tube and smithstreet's "wisdom" of always adding at least one more climb to a route than is actually humanly achievable.

And so I present, LDR's guide to wedded bliss! warning, may not lead to wedded bliss

Thou shalt not say "no no get the hell away from me with that" when she gets a cold from work.

Apparently, having a clear path between boxes/piles of bike parts in the hallway does not count as "clean", "clean" is supposedly no boxes/piles. (and it's a "problem" when there are so many bikes in various stages of completion in the garage that it can't be used for car parking)

In a similar vein, the bathtub is not to be used for dipping frames in hydrochloric acid, damned if I know why but that's the rule it seems.

When you get back from a ride, you need to have a shower, Channing Tatum covered in sweat is "hot", LDR covered in sweat is "gross".

And lastly, when your better half posts a photo like this on your facebook while you're out riding, it's probably a good idea to arrange a drive to a prize home or something.

Image



So now that you are fully equipped for a long and happy marriage (or at least until your body gives out from all of that supersonic cadence in the superman position on your 15th HC climb for the day) it's time for the cycling news. And today it is not pretty, oh deary me no.

Following on from an invitation on Strava I rode at a steady pace up to Noosa to meet a triathlete for a Century short course, easy right? Well turns out Mr I-don't-wana-ride-too-much is Cancellara's twin brother, and within a kilometre I was struggling to hold his wheel. Even on the climbs I was pushing into the red to stay in touch, and climbing is my thing! After Eumundi I was on the front but a hell of a long way off an acceptable pace. A little past Yandina I cracked and would have been dropped if he hadn't waited for me. Getting dropped is one thing, but getting dropped on a climb by a triathlete? :oops:

All the same, 80kms at 30kmh is better than nothing, here's just hoping I haven't caught whatever the hell kind of plague SWMBO has. (oh yea don't call it the plague either, that doesn't go down well)
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A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby fil_farina » Thu Apr 03, 2014 7:24 pm

Gold. Gold. Gold!

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby foo on patrol » Thu Apr 03, 2014 11:52 pm

Idry Idry Idry, get your priorities right will you!!!! :roll:

Cycling comes first, then the Wife, then the pistol thingy and then the goats.:mrgreen:

Foo

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby cancan64 » Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:13 pm

You forgot to mention that you shall not repeatedly tell the wife that you will be home by 9 when you know you will be lucky to get home by 11.....again.
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Smithstreet » Fri Apr 04, 2014 5:00 pm

foo on patrol wrote:Idry Idry Idry, get your priorities right will you!!!! :roll:

Cycling comes first, then the Wife, then the pistol thingy and then the goats.:mrgreen:

Foo

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I'm not 100% sure you got that order right Foo.. 8) :lol:

Once again, a great read Lachlan. Chapeau.

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby ldrcycles » Sat Apr 05, 2014 7:31 pm

Nothing is happening tomorrow. BIG BIG HUGE nothing :D . And all of that nothing starts in about 8hrs :mrgreen: .
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby Smithstreet » Sat Apr 05, 2014 8:24 pm

ldrcycles wrote:Nothing is happening tomorrow. BIG BIG HUGE nothing :D . And all of that nothing starts in about 8hrs :mrgreen: .
Look out.. Here we go!! :wink:

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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby foo on patrol » Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:51 am

Twas good to finally meet you Idry and show you how us Old Farts ride here on the Island. :mrgreen:

If we don't see a write on here today, I know that Steph has given you a belting for being late. :lol:

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Re: Ow ow ow

Postby ldrcycles » Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:18 pm

Well it has been quite a while since my last properly long ride but all the same that hurt a lot.

The plan/not-plan (nudge nudge wink wink) was to be in bed by 8 last night but when Herself got home from work I reminded her where I was going the next day to be greeted with "Don't crash, and don't wake me up!" So that was the catalyst for a D&M about how I don't crash on purpose and it's not like it really happens that often etc. We came to a mutually acceptable agreement (she thinks it but doesn't say it :) ) but by that time it was 11:30 :o .

So as a result the 1:30 alarm was absolutely excruciating, and while it took me a while to get going I eventually rolled out at 2:40. Within just a kilometre I was greeted by a thick wall of what I thought was fog, which turned out to be smoke from a small bushfire. Luckily it only continued for about 100m, it wouldn't have been fun riding though it much farther. Right from the get go my legs felt like rubbish, but I had allowed myself a very generous time to get down to Bribie so just took it steady.

By the time I reached Maroochy it was a little after 3am, and I was surprised and somewhat disappointed at the number of people who were just starting to call it a night and stagger home. I mean as a red blooded male seeing several dozen attractive young lasses in a state of half dress and full intoxication was not unpleasant but you would think people could find a more productive way to spend their time. Like going for a bike ride perhaps :).

For the next few miles things were pretty uneventful, though a bit nippy once I moved away from the coast, until it was time to venture into the creepy forest of Beerburrum.







So when nature called it was with some trepidation I pulled over to the side of the road, but it was a little after 5am with the sky starting to show the faintest colour and it was a much more welcoming place than it is at 2am. Especially as I could hear a few roosters crowing, everyone knows yowies eat roosters so it stands to reason that they wouldn't start crowing until the yowies have finished hunting for the night. Hey, whatever I need to tell myself!

It was still dark as I came into Caboolture, but the large Sunday markets at the showground were already packed, so I was on high alert for morons (none in evidence fortunately). After just one turn in the middle of town it was on to the Bribie Island road, and what an astonishingly long and boring road it was! Mile after mile of bloody swamp, even the beautiful sunrise couldn't help it. When I finally reached the bridge over Pumicestone Passage I decided to take the footpath rather than the roadway as I couldn't see it making much difference at the speed I was doing.

BIG mistake, even with 42cm bars on my bike it was a ridiculously tight squeeze and it certainly didn't help that the path was covered in seaweed and piles of bait fish! Once I was on the other side (vowing never to use a damn footpath again) it was time to find a servo to rustle up some food and black gold (Coke) in the hope that would perk me up a bit. I was a bit on the tooth so ran out of room in the jersey with a bottle of chocolate milk still to find a place. Obviously the answer was the same as always, shove it up the knicks! Mind you, a 500ml chocolate milk is somewhat more obtrusive than a mini pump and I copped some seriously odd looks from passing cars and bikes :lol: .

To be continued...(time for bed!)
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Re: A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Version 3.0

Postby kb » Sun Apr 06, 2014 11:37 pm

ldrcycles wrote: To be continued...(time for bed!)
A cliffhanger? Great, how am I going to sleep now?
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ldrcycles
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Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2010 3:19 pm
Location: Kin Kin, Queensland

Re: Ow ow ow, part 2- the suffering goes on

Postby ldrcycles » Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:34 am

Sleep? Sleep is for the weak! :lol:


So, after reaching the surf club at Woorim, having some food and gingerly walking through the sand to get a photo of the beach


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a bunch started to form, and in due course I met Foo and in due due course we set off.

The pace was mercifully slow to begin with, though I was feeling slightly better, and as the pace gradually wound up I kept at it, until the fast guys took off getting up towards 50kmh whereupon I seriously overcooked myself. After about 40kms I was spent and took up Foo on an offer of some oil on my screaming chain (I hadn't remembered to do it after riding in the rain the other day) before going home.

With the bike silenced I saddled up once more, and again felt a lot better for having had a short break. Only a kilometre or so onto the mainland a campervan pulled out of a caravan park in front of me, and seeing the opportunity to hide from the growing headwind I took off after them, but the rotten sod put the pedal to the metal and I couldn't keep up :( .

Still I didn't do too badly, sitting around the 30kmh mark. By the time I reached Caboolture the traffic was starting to get a bit ugly (beats me why that many people are out on a sunday morning) but I didn't have any trouble, at least not until some turd in a commodore decided to shave past me at 100 on a straight section of road with no oncoming traffic and broken lines! Sounds like there are still some people who need to hear about the passing rules.

I stopped for more food at the nice little Elimbah shop, I wasn't hungry but thought it couldn't hurt.


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At Beerburrum I took stock of the distance left to Coolum and my current pace and so activated non-plan B, which was for stef to meet me in Landsborough from whence we would head up to Maleny to the prize home. Naturally there is great stock placed on being first in such situations, so I hit it as hard as I was able to. The fly in the ointment was the dreadful Steve Irwin Way, it is utterly unacceptable how narrow it is for the enormous volumes of traffic it carries, and while riding big reduces the danger it is mentally taxing.

And here Special Cecil makes his return to the thread after a long absence! Crossing the last bridge before the Beerwah intersection, SC in his fancy pants look at me 4WD decided to give me the horn for daring to be on his road. The problem is, if you're going to do that, you really ought to look past the end of your bonnet, to the red light up ahead :) . I did see it, so unleashed a sprint that would put Cavendish to shame and on pulling up to the window which his wife not so cleverly wound down I demanded in my best Christian Bale as Batman voice "Care to explain what that was about?"

Well he folded like a cheap suit, cracked like a Faberge egg etc and after a bit of blubbering and begging for forgiveness I left him with the advice to be more careful in future and rode away laughing my head off :D .

At this point I was going to take the minor road from Beerwah to Landsborough and foolishly turned onto Beerwah Parade. I mean what a ridiculous thing, to think that Beerwah Parade would actually take me to Beerwah! It instead lead to this



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I thought "hurrah a shortcut" but no it was a dead end, leaving me with no choice but to turn back to the Beerwah train station and cyclocross it over the footbridge. In any event it turned out Stef was halfway through breakfast when she got my call to arms, so I handily won the race to Landsborough, even with my little detour.

I had a quick kip on a park bench and then when Stef arrived with towel and clothes I headed into the public toilets to change. After giving myself a bidon shower and changing into some fresh undergarments I came out of the cubicle to find to my great surprise that someone else was there (something I've never seen before) and when he walked out without washing his hands I stopped myself from voicing my indignation, as I realised that my sodden briefs were lying in full view on the floor where I had thrown them :oops: . So we headed up to the prize home to argue about the kind of cladding used for the ceiling (yes that is actually fun for us, I picked one seriously weird girl) and then back to Coolum where I fell into bed exhausted.

So in all, 207kms at a moving average of 29kmh. That sounds a lot better than it actually was, as I spent an excruciating amount of time doing only 25kmh on flat ground, but I covered the distance without any great troubles, and the plan-that-wasn't-a-plan went pretty much according to the script. Unfortunately I woke from my afternoon nap with a sore throat which has this morning become apparent as the potentially deadly cold that my wife has had for the last week. Fingers crossed lots of rest and management will bring a swift conclusion as I just found out about a 12hr ride at Lakeside Raceway next sunday to raise money for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, and as my dad learnt to drive there BITD in his beetle i'm very keen to get out there.

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"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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