A year in the life of a wannabe racer- Part 2!

[ldrcycles]

Now you have. I use 2 Sakae Modulo Anatomic bars, and an IDM carbon anatomic. Only other type of bar Ive used would be classic round(keep smashind wrists whilst in the drops though). Never used any of the others, so dunno how comfy they'd be.

Well there you go, there's an exception to every rule. I wear briefs under my knicks, so that's another rule with an exception.

[singlespeedscott]

How can you wear jocks under knicks You must of had some very sweaty aggots after that 250km ride the other day. Not to mention the chaff between the legs and sack.

[ldrcycles]

Going by the generally accepted wisdom you would expect so but nope, never had any issue with chafing. Going commando just feels really uncomfortable, not to mention it is quite obvious with most knicks I've used .

I do specifically wear briefs with smooth seams.

[ldrcycles]

Well just when things were starting to really kick along, I have got a cold . I have been attacking it like a Chihuahua attacking an intruder's ankle, but all that has done is keep it at the painful throat stage. I haven't been able to ride since doing a couple of runs up Gyndier with the single speed on Monday night.

I haven't missed a Noosa Century in 4 years but this year is looking very uncertain .

[foo on patrol]

Rum, lemon juice and honey and a clove of garlic.

If that don't help you can at least get smashed with the rum.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

So the day dawned, after I had let my Saturday afternoon nap get out of control and ended up degreasing my chain at 1am .

Up at 6, made my way up to Noosa and lined up, feeling well off my best. After the usual blustering from the officials about how the Century is "not a race" (in spite of the briefing printout quite clearly being labelled 'pre race briefing') we set off. The first few hills were fairly difficult, with the lungs not particularly interested and the legs only a bit better. I gradually felt better as I warmed up though, and by the bottom of Eumundi Range Rd my heart rate was well and truly up! Good thing I had set my tyre pressures a little on the low side to smooth out the rough roads a bit.

From Eumundi to Yandina the pace was somewhat underwhelming, at least in comparison to last year. At one stage I looked down and was appalled to see only 32kmh on the speedo, I mean is this a not race or what?! I think a slight headwind may have been playing a part there, but I was less than impressed with some of the riding on show, little if any regard for road rules, very unpredictable bunch riding and constant surges followed by sharp braking.

I was sticking with the bunch quite nicely on the hills in particular, so when we reached the dreaded Dunethin Rock I swung out and attacked, somehow pulling a big gap very quickly. I attempted to bridge to a big group of 160k riders up ahead, but couldn't make it stick and was back in the bunch before Bli Bli.

The run up the coast was very quick, but I still managed to make another attack on the climb past the Peregian water tower, the place where in years past I have been dropped every time! All of a sudden i'm a climber?! .

After more pushing hard we reached Noosa Parade still in a group, something I was afraid of, as I've never had much of a sprint. The final 2km was terrifying, the narrow road completely filled with riders packed together, flying all over the place at 50+kmh. But I pushed really hard, managed to position myself ok, and ended up with 4th!!!

86k in 2:17, nearly 38kmh average. Strava has got a little confused though and given me the KOM for the course, 3 minutes ahead of a local LBS owner who actually finished 10 metres in front of me .

http://app.strava.com/activities/51080334" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[singlespeedscott]

For someone with a cold you ride very well.

[foo on patrol]

A good result Idry but at what cost to you, considering you're trying to get rid of the dogs disease?

Foo

[ldrcycles]

Maybe I should get sick more often!

Must have been the new carbon fibre bottle cage .




Interesting thing from today, I had a bit of water left in my 1 bottle and had one gel that I didn't really need or notice. My brother on the other hand had 3 bottles of water, a muesli bar, 2 gels, a litre of that godawful Endura stuff and 2 pieces of watermelon. How different 2 people can be!

EDIT: foo, I feel great now! I went for a bit of a spin on the single speed on Friday night and that seemed to clear things up a lot.

[ldrcycles]

After a rest on Monday I saddled up at 4am Tuesday to head for Kilcoy, this time via Yandina and Bli Bli first to get the distance up around 280k.

The first 40k was quite nice riding through the Maroochy River valley, and then I got back on to the coast to head south. Mile after mile of dead flat, dead straight road into a dead flat, dead straight headwind. I was still able to sit on 30-32 but it wasn't too easy. By the time I reached the start of Steve Irwin Way I realised that, while the headwind hadn't helped, I had some sort of stomach ailment, or to use the medical term, a woggy tum tum.

Even stopping to have a muesli bar didn't help so I reluctantly turned around and headed for home. While the engine room was still below par, the legs were ok for short bursts, and there were a few opportunities for (very careful) motor pacing along Nicklin Way. When I reached Marcoola I was feeling pretty reasonable, and given I had the wind in my favour and the aerobars on, decided to have a crack at a dead flat 2.8k segment just before my finish line. I put a hell of a lot into it and was shot by the end, but managed to record an average of 43kmh .

I had intended to join some blokes down in Mooloolaba for a ride on the singlespeed but got held up with a family dinner, bother.

No riding today, but if I get to bed early enough tonight I should be able to fit in a century short course run before work.

[ldrcycles]

Didn't get to bed early enough for a short course run, so settled for 53k on the Tarini, from Coolum to Yandina and back via Bli Bli. Felt reasonable but not spectacular and got 4th on a ludicrously steep climb, despite dropping my chain near the bottom and being crazy overgeared on a 39-25 (admittedly I am only the 4th person to ride that segment but 4th still sounds good ).


And pics are up from the Century! Makes a VERY interesting contrast to a pic from the 2010 ride.


Angry face, looks reasonably fit.





VERY angry face, and HOLY MOLY I've lost a lot of weight!





(I really like the expression on the guy behind me too ).

[ldrcycles]

Just a short ride tonight, 56k from Noosa to the back of Cooroy and back, mainly to have a crack at the segment up the top of Black Mountain. I had forgotten just how steep that horrible vicious mongrel of a thing is, and by god it was hard work. Improved a bit but still only 3rd, I can't have had much more to give though as I could taste blood when I was stopped at the top trying to regain my composure .

Hit up a few other segments (both uphill and flat) and put in some good times, so i'm quite happy with that.

[foo on patrol]

The bloke behind you is probably thinking, look at this young bloke, he's out of the seat and I"m still sitting. Soft I say Idry, soft.

Foo

[ldrcycles]

Duly noted foo, but i'll stick to my 'shock and awe' interpretation .

Another good ride this morning, 112k and picked up a very hard fought KOM along the way. The legs weren't particularly strong after last night's rather severe workout but they were good enough, and I rewarded them with a whole lot of stretching, protein, massage and sleeping when I got back. Hopefully the showers that are around now will clear up for tomorrow, I have another long ride planned .

[ldrcycles]

Well, change of plan, no ride tomorrow . Lost my phone today (and I don't just mean I can't find it, I lost it while bushwalking and that thing is GONE) and can't get a replacement on a sunday night. There's no way i'm going to go out for a 300+km ride with no communication.

Probably for the best though as my legs are pretty weary.

EDIT: the rain is quite solid today, so I feel a little better about sleeping til 10 .

[ldrcycles]

Absolutely no riding all week . The cold I've been carrying is stubbornly refusing to either go away, OR get any worse, so it is still just a minor annoyance, but I want to get rid of it and thought a big chunk of nothing (along with soup, vitamin c BLAH BLAH) would do the trick.

So with that plan failing, tomorrow it's back to my normal tactic, if getting lots of heat into food kills bacteria, going out to smash myself and getting very hot will kill the bacteria inside me.

[duds2u]

Absolutely no riding all week . The cold I've been carrying is stubbornly refusing to either go away, OR get any worse, so it is still just a minor annoyance, but I want to get rid of it and thought a big chunk of nothing (along with soup, vitamin c BLAH BLAH) would do the trick.

So with that plan failing, tomorrow it's back to my normal tactic, if getting lots of heat into food kills bacteria, going out to smash myself and getting very hot will kill the bacteria inside me.

Kill or Cure.
Sometimes it works. At the very least you have the satisfaction of thinking that you are attacking the bug as well as getting in a good ride.
Get well soon. There are still some KOM's out there you haven't smashed yet.

[ldrcycles]

Cheers duds, I actually lost one the other day so I have some extra motivation to get back to form .

For this morning's ride I've thought that instead of the usual barely coherent rambling, I will have a crack at describing my experience in pictures (only one of which is mine, from the top of the Obi Obi, the rest are from google).









































Or something along those lines. While i'm disappointed at having to walk on the Obi Obi, that climb really is about the hardest I've ever seen and 39-28 just wasn't short enough (hey strava claims a max of 42% and I can believe that!)

On the bright side though, I somehow managed a few PRs, a 3rd (!) and to my absolute astonishment, I beat my pb from Marcoola to Seaside, an average now of 44.5kmh!!! And that without the help of aerobars, and after 100+k! Boy did it hurt to get that though, pain central.

Hopefully tomorrow will see some commuting, and then a long ride on Tuesday if the weather plays nice.


EDIT: thought I might add a link to strava http://app.strava.com/activities/53723117" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[duds2u]

Cheers duds, I actually lost one the other day so I have some extra motivation to get back to form .

For this morning's ride I've thought that instead of the usual barely coherent rambling, I will have a crack at describing my experience in pictures (only one of which is mine, from the top of the Obi Obi, the rest are from google).

Or something along those lines. While i'm disappointed at having to walk on the Obi Obi, that climb really is about the hardest I've ever seen and 39-28 just wasn't short enough (hey strava claims a max of 42% and I can believe that!)

On the bright side though, I somehow managed a few PRs, a 3rd (!) and to my absolute astonishment, I beat my pb from Marcoola to Seaside, an average now of 44.5kmh!!! And that without the help of aerobars, and after 100+k! Boy did it hurt to get that though, pain central.

Hopefully tomorrow will see some commuting, and then a long ride on Tuesday if the weather plays nice.


EDIT: thought I might add a link to strava http://app.strava.com/activities/53723117" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I still bear the emotional scars from a couple of rides to Cooloolbin Dam (west of Yandina) and that only peaks at 30%. Obi Obi is the last entry on the last page of my bucket list. I don't know if I'll live long enough to get to it.

[ldrcycles]

Yep the Obi Obi is definitely like that, but i'm such a masochist I've already done it 4 times and i'll be back there again soon. The scenery is well worth it, especially crossing the creeks in the valley below, they're absolutely beautiful.

It seems my ride the other day worked! I woke up this morning sick as a dog . But hopefully that means my body will actually respond to it properly now and get rid of this damn thing. So long as i'm back to form for the Warwick-Stanthorpe train race on the 26th.

[duds2u]

Enjoy the Warwick /Stanthorpe ride. Thats home land to me.
I grew up west of Dalveen and met my bride in the main street of Stanthorpe. Went to boarding school in Warwick, actually we both did.

[ldrcycles]

No riding since sunday, as Tuesday morning saw me so sick I could barely stand, though I've improved significantly since then and now just have residual phlegm to be rid of. The local club was having a time trial just a couple of k down the road this morning though, so after umming and ahhing I thought 'bugger it', i'd never done a TT before and what's the worst that could happen?

So I rolled down the road and pinned on the number and who was in the group of riders huddled around the club trailer but SHARA GILLOW!

SHARA ACTUAL OMGosh SHE'S BEEN TO THE OLYMPICS GILLOW.

Very very cool to rock up to a club TT and see the national champion .

So the time came and riders started setting off, with yours truly last thanks to sleeping through my first alarm and getting there a bit late .

I didn't feel all that great but the legs remembered their job reasonably well and the first 2 laps went along alright. I faded a bit on the 3rd lap and was passed by Shara (on her last lap) towards the end but then picked up pretty well for the last lap and finished in reasonable shape (though well and truly spent).

I'm very happy with getting 7th from 14 (even if 1 of those was 71yrs old ) and only 5 minutes down on Ms Gillow. (Though admittedly she had got there by motorpacing her car at 90 up Nicklin Way, and after the TT she was going to do a little loop and then motorpace back home...)
Officially the course was 24k (though my Bryton said 26 and strava says 23.1) and I did it in 37:39, so about 38.2kmh average. Not brilliant, and I would love to do better but sick, first TT, on a flat course (if i'm anything it would be a rouleur, I do better when I can coast on a downhill every so often), not bad .

[ldrcycles]

I know there's a lot of interest in this one, so i'll try and get it written as quickly as possible.

Today dawned dead still, bright and sunny, but BITTERLY cold.




With the spirit of Rule 5 in mind (and not wanting to cover up my lovely Mercier jersey with a jacket) I limited my additional clothing to armwarmers and full fingered gloves.





(and before you ask, yes my socks are supposed to be like that, it's good luck, and I did change out of my Blundstones ).

At bang on 8am the train blasted its whistle and started to move, and I tore off up the road like a man possessed. The armwarmers and gloves protected those bits very well and my jersey was fine too, but the wind on my face was like a thousand tiny little knives. Luckily my enthusiastic efforts soon warmed me up.

Now I had covered the entire length of Old Stanthorpe Rd on Google Street View and found the terrain to be gently rolling, with 2 steep but short climbs.

Google LIED.

The road was certainly rolling, but it was far from gentle! Though there were plenty of flat stretches, I was also greeted by quite a few stiff climbs, so by the time I reached the first dirt section to see this gorgeous view-





I had started to wonder what the 'steep climb' would be like in reality.

Yes that's right, it was a vertical cliff face. Bottom gear, desperately attempting to keep the pedals turning, and only 8kmh.
The dirt sections both before and after that climb had good and bad points, some sections were beautifully hardpacked allowing easy 40kmh riding, other parts were corrugated with loose gravel, potholes and exposed rocks like cobblestones. The second section went FOREVER and was extremely hard work.

Eventually I reached the end of the dirt at the 'lollipop bridge' at Cherry Gully, and seeing no sign of the train either in front or behind, I pressed on. Immediately after the bridge is an absolutely fantastic twisting downhill, which was then followed by yet more hard climbing.

By the time I was nearing Dalveen, my legs were shot to hell, and I felt sure the train had left me for dead and was probably already in bloody Stanthorpe. Crawling my way up the last climb into Dalveen, I saw a photographer on the track and called out "Has the train been through yet?"

His reply, "Not yet, you must have beaten it, good work!"

My heart leapt out of my chest, the melancholy and despair which had been building immediately evaporated and I stomped on the pedals with everything I had.

After Dalveen the nature of the road changed completely, suddenly high 30s-40kmh was a piece of cake. Things went beautifully until just after The Summit, where I had a choice of 3 roads, and naturally the correct one was the last one I tried!
That didn't slow me too much and a little while later I was haring down the main street of Stanthorpe at north of 50kmh, before pulling into a train station attended by a dozen people.

16 MINUTES LATER, the train finally steamed in! Even the riders who had started at Dalveen were a few minutes back, despite their vastly superior mounts.

I was absolutely astonished at how well I had managed to go, in spite of the extraordinary weight of my steed and it's recalcitrant and potentially dangerous shifting (which saw a few curses directed at it).

A beautiful day, and I can't wait for the next one (perhaps in spring though!).







http://app.strava.com/activities/56314820" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[foo on patrol]

Good effort there Idry and I told ya so about the steep pinches.

Foo

[Pax]

Great work Idrcycles. Thanks for the report, enjoyed reading it FAR more than I'd have enjoyed a 3 degree start to a bike ride !!