Fosters Flying Tours - What really happens at Le Tour de France, Adelaide and various locations!!!!

Manly Coast and Toast ride on video

2012-01-29T14:09:00.002+11:00

Here are a couple of you tube links to the well know Coast and Toast ride from Manly to Palm Beach, held early every Saturday. It starts friendly enough, but as the riders get closer to the sprint at Palmy, the action starts

Part 1 is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ASZKIhFFo&list=UU24xI_rUeaZiEFpmp9d_qmw&index=2&feature=plcp

Part 2 is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYygblFLajY&list=UU24xI_rUeaZiEFpmp9d_qmw&index=1&feature=plcp

Enjoy the view!

Day 5....The Final

2012-01-22T08:15:00.001+11:00

Well the final day of riding for most of us arrived. Another big day was in store with 130k and 1700m of vertical climbing involved. Temperatures were predicted to be in the low 30’s again, with a strong 30-40 knot southerly wind. We would have headwind/crosswinds for the ride down to Willunga, but a nice little tailwind to get us home at the end of the day.

Team KMD on the road to Willunga

The Ride Captain, one Buzz Crosby had come up with a nice course for us today, as all the courses have been each day. A touch of climbing here, a smidtz of downhill there, power on/spinning on, paceline required/gentle 2X2 abreast riding…..it was all there. Today, we headed once again up Norton Summit, however the Ride Captain had selected the older of the two Norton Summit ascents. This was a more gentle introduction to the traditional Norton Summit ride we do, however it kicked up rapidly over the last one and a half K’s with an average of around 9% gradient. It would test the tired legs of the group.

8.3am rollout from the Medina, as per usual, however there was one DNS from KMD. The famous French sprinter, Kay-belle Mitchell, had been put to bed by Dr Bourbon as his bung shoulders had been playing up and he needed to have a day off. This left KMD somewhat depleted for the sprints that would be on later in the day. However, Team Hampton weren’t without their issues with their roster too. Koala Foster had dialled “1800Qantasgetmeoutof here” and also started the day with a “DNS” against his name.

Both teams’s big units also failed to appear. Team Manly’s Justin Roscoe, who had been riding strongly all week and Ritchie Stewart also didn’t sign the whiteboard. Rumour had it that a dodgy prawn from the evening before’s dinner caused the no shows.

Gus on the lookout for a Manly Attack

A group of about 30 took off, and it wasn’t long before we hit the start of the Norton Summit climb. Damo was looking strong and set a brisk pace at the front. I slotted in behind his wheel, waiting for the inevitable attack from behind. Damo was trying to set up Gus McDonald, and about half way up the climb the pace picked up and there were more riders being shelled than a plate of prawns at a barbie! I managed to come around Gus and put about 50 metres into him which I held to the summit. It was a reversal of Greenhill road/Mt Lofty from a few days before. I later found when we loaded the day up on Strava it also got me the KOM for the Old Norton Summit climb, so we must have been going up there pretty quickly. As it was the last summit climb of FFT TDU 2012, it has double points, so good early blood to the light blue boys.

We regrouped at the top waiting for , and the pace was solid around the back of the Adelaide Hills as we headed south, over Mt Lofty and through Crafters. From here it was basically downhill to the McClarenvale Valley some 30k away. There were a couple of solid climbs, but much of it was 1% downhill with a headwind/crosswind. The group was swapping off nicely and we made good time. At a little town called Clarendon located in a little ravine/valley, we stopped to get some fresh drink/food on. These local shopkeepers must love it when 50 thirsty, hungry cyclists turn up and go through their shop like a horde of locusts! There is nothing left after we have descended on a café or milkbar! Feeling human again, we headed

Yet another coffee stop!

over to Willunga, a nice little town at the base of Willunga hill, where we ate more food, drank more coffee and watched the race come through a couple of times. We then went up Willunga Hill, along with 10,000 of our closest friends to watch the riders fight out as to who would win the other race going on, namely the Tour Down Under. All the riders were well supported and Valverde and Gerrans were neck and neck fighting for the stage win as well as the overall. Exciting stuff.

At least this guy had a body stocking on...not like
another who was riding up and down Willunga
in a mankini!

Racing over, we took off down the Willunga Hill bypass, made famous for the over 100kph descents of a few days ago. We took it a little easier today, due to it being much busier and blustery, however I still managed to nudged 95kph! At the bottom big Leigh Schilling punctured so the group split and some of the guys who may have found it hard to hang on for the upcoming smashfest home kept going, and the rest waited for Leigh to fix his flat. Once he had done that, we lifted the pace over the rolling hills, with a big southerly almost directly behind us. It is the sort of riding that suits a few of us and we had a good roll going, with 4-5 of us swapping off at around50k per hour. It wasn’t long before Damo and I got a little break on the rest of the group. As I took off, I told Buzz to rest, knowing he would have to take it up as we came into Adelaide suburbs. Strong riding was on by all, particularly Damon, Gus and Jay along with Buzz. We stopped for our final drink stop with 25k to go. Buzz and I had a little team meeting around the vacumn cleaner at the BP servo. We knew Hampton had a couple more riders than us, however if we were smart, we could give them a bit of stick! Damo, Gus and Jay were attacking at every hill, me chasing them down and then finally, I lost a wheel along with Jay and we were 50m behind Damo, Gus and Buzz, all riding strongly. In bike riding there can be temporary alliances as Jay and I started to work together to get back on. Gus and Damo were looking back to see if we were making any inroads into the gap. Over about 2k, we chased with the gap not coming down. Finally, I threw it into the big gear and gave it all to close the break. I knew there was a 3k descent coming and if we weren’t back on by then, we wouldn’t see them again. Lungs bursting, heart beating on the handlebars, quads screaming, we got back on, Buzz saw me coming and dropped back 10 to help me make the connection again. I used the downhill to regain my breath and set up for the last 10k down a slight decline from Flinders University to Anzac Highway.

This is what we all felt like after today

Turning towards the city, tailwind behind us, slight decline, the pace well over 50, and the Buzzolini attacked. Great timing, only Jacko from HC, who caught us at a set of lights could go with him. Buzz was 50m in front of us for 4k as we tore along the arterial roads of Adeliade. This was solid riding, no one giving an inch. Jay and Mike Cole, blew gaskets getting over the last railway bridge, as Gus put in a huge effort to close the gap on Buzz and Jacko. It was down to me and Damo to then come of the back of the group with 200 to go to contest the sprint. Disappointingly, the little bike mechanic did me in the sprint, but it was great fun. Truce called, we all spun the last 4k back into Town along the Anzac highway, recounting to each other all the moments of the battle of the last 90 minutes.

FFT 2012 was officially over, with most of us flying home that evening or early Sunday. Another great week of riding.

Here is a summary of the week:

Tuesday, 180k, 1700m of vertical climbing

Wednesday, 145k, 1500m

Thursday, 190k, 2000m

Friday, 110k, 1600m

Saturday, 130k, 1700m

Total 745k and 8500m of vertical climbing. The FFT trophy stays with Manly, through strong consistent riding by all, although it was very tightly contested, however looking at the votes as they came in from the Judges, it was a split card 10-9 Manly, 9-10 Hampton and 10-9 Manly.

Better Luck in 2013, Hampton trundlers……!

Truth be known, it doesn’t really matter what the results are. It’s only bragging rights anyway and the results will be disputed for time immemorial.l Everyone had a great time…….

Remember only 360 days to FFT TDU 2013. Start Training now!

Day 4.....a bit quieter after the last few days!

2012-01-20T23:37:00.000+11:00

Probably 80 riders behind Buzz's helmet

This is the effort it takes to beat a Manly boy

Another large group was awaiting as we left the Medina at 8.30. We decided to roll up over Norton Summit climb and along the Loeberthal road to the best bakery/cafe in the Adeliade hills at Loeberthal. Buzz, Mitch and Johnny kicked off a bit later than the main group, so the Manly Boys were a little low on numbers. I had a call just as the group left the hotel, so I was a couple of minutes behind the main group. Local knowledge came into hand when I took off a a pretty solid clip and managed to hit the climb in front of the main group. I think there was a few suprised Hampton faces when they crested the climb and they saw me already there! An early set of points for the good guys!
We regrouped and took off up the Basking Ranges for the second time this week. My legs were pretty cooked after yesterdays big day, so I took it pretty easy. About 5k from Loebental, Damo attacked, with me isolated again, up against Leigh, the Koala, Gus, and Jay. I knew that if I bridged up to Damo, then one of the other Hampton boys would counter. I decided to wait till the last climb about a k from town. I hit them hard and got a little break. I was closing in on Damo, but couldnt get him, so I had to give one away there.

As we came into town, we passed Mike and Karen O'Brien. The group all stopped for coffee, and Mike decided to come along for the day with us. We now has some more firepower. We headed over to the KOM of the day about 20k away at Kersbrook. We decided to turn up the back way through the famous Checkers Hill. This is a 20 percent plus climb that even the pro's struggle up. Damo hit our with Gus and got a small break on me. I managed to get past Damo, who as it levelled out at the top, rolled me. However, when he stopped, he had a blood nose from the effort. I told him that is what it takes to beat a Manly boy.

The Koala kept the group entertained as we waited for a few stragglers to catch up with his impersonation of a famous climb from a few years ago by Robbo......

Gus after a big effort up Checkers Hill. He later took a very dubious KOM

Efforts over, we trundled up the KOM to wait for the pro's. Mitch, Buzz and Johnny were there as well. After the race, a bit of confusion came into the group as to where we were going next. Most headed up to Williamtown and back to Adeliade, a 120k trip, and Gus, David, Mike O'B, Luke and Antoni Mikac headed to Kersbrook and then back to town.

Buzz told me later that Manly continued to take the points in the afternoon ride, while Mike O'B, the Koala and I led the other group back. At the end of the 15k Gorge ride, Gus (who had done nothing all the way back), under threat from me that if he attacked after sitting in our draft for 30k, would be sledged in the blog if he took the last KOM/Sprint.

He will be a target for us tomorrow!

Last day tomorrow. 140k over Greenhill Road again and down to Algate/Willunga Hill

Kom today

Luke joining the Manly Boys today

Mike O' Brien adding to the depth of Manly riders

The Longest Day.....Victor Harbour

2012-01-20T08:42:00.000+11:00

When the TDU goes to Victor Harbour, it is always close to a 200k day for us. Meeting outside the hotel at 8.30 was a large contingent of riders looking to "hook on" to the the now well known ride. Rolling down the Anzac Highway on the way for the coffee at Glenelg, there were a few with sore legs from the spirited riding of the last few days. Buzz took off first, taking the Melbourne Boys by suprise, clobbering them along the Highway for early points. As Buzz took off, you could sense a few people thinking.....it's a long day...!

Busy at Glenelg

Coffee was very crowded with bikes and riders all around the Glenelg quadrangle. Caffeined up, we took off down the Southern Beach of Adelaide, past Seaford towards Noarlunga. The group had grown considerably since we left the CBD. There must have been over 80 riders heading along the Esplanade! Early into a big day and there was plenty of enthusiasim at the front of the group. Riders were punching along, swapping off turns into a strong headwind. The Melbourne boys had bought in some young blokes from Albert Park, Aritisan Cycles. They did a lot of breaking the wind for the rest of us as we headed for the first stop of the day, the KOM at Sellecks Hill.

Leigh and Deggers claim a false win at Sellecks

As the group hit the bottom of Sellecks Hill, Leigh took off at the front. Buzz went to chase, only to be told "dont worry he is only going for a leak", however it really was Leigh on the attack.

The question is....how low do these Hampton Guys have to go to snare a win??

Plenty of Carbs here

Question is..has Damo had too much pasta?

Sellecks was nullified due to the dirty pool rules being played. The peleton came through and we got ready to go over to Victor Harbour for the second stage of our ride, when Gus, David, Tim, and a few others decided to call it a half day and head back. We sent Kay-belle back with them to make sure they were legit, and the rest of us headed off towards Victor. The fresh legs of the Artisan Cycles boys were putting a few (like me!) into the hurt box. I put the head down, gritted the teeth and like a few others hung on.We reached Victor Harbour for a well earned lunch and to watch what was to become another Greipel sprint. Lunch was at the usual Italian...spag bol's all round.. Fuleled we went to the 200m to go mark and watch the big boys wind up for the sprint.

It was time to head back to Adelaide. another 100k in front on the Buzz designed course. Pace was pretty solid as we headed out behind the (young) Aritisan Cycles boys. A few got shelled, and we made the turn at Mt Compass

Proof!

where we took a wrong turn and turned up on unmade roads. Correction made we took off towards Adelaide down the huge Willunga Hill descent. We let it go down the hill with Buzz again taking the honors hitting 101kph, Damo 99.8, me 99k. Damo tried to protest that his wheel wasnt calibrated correctly but the race committee overrulled the protest!

As we were flying into town, doing 65k per hour down the A13, I had a rear wheel blowout at 65kper hour. A bit scary stopping, I managed to get the bike under control and was thankful of the rest!

I trundled the last 6k into town. A big day of 190k.

More tomorrow...Norton Summit Awaits

Le Foz

Vic's start strong, but fade....NSW takes Day 2

2012-01-18T23:04:00.000+11:00

Captain Kay-belle giving the thumbs up on another good day for Manly!

After yesterdays tough day in the saddle, there were plenty looking for an easier day today. All were glad to see the weather cooled down significantly and there was a big group of 50 or so that took off from outside the Medina at 8.30. First stop is the obligatory coffee, however the majority elected to miss the coffee to get a start on the 8k climb up Greenhill Road to Mt Lofty Observatory. Only 15-20 riders remained. It was always going to be on going up Greenhill Rd, a tough no nonsense climb. As we hit the bottom, the group was all together with Buzz setting a solid pace. Gus was the first to go, which as the boys were saying would be no suprise as a climb like this suited him. I went to follow him and a little break was established of Gus, De Luca, Leigh, Damo and myself......not good, 1 Sydney and 4 Melbourne riders.

The Melb Boys need to get up earlier in the morning to pull the wool over our bikes!

The attacks were happening regularly and I knew I had to let one go and Gus got a 75m lead on me after 2k into the 8k climb. The rest of the Melb boys just sat on my tail. Knowing I would get no help from any of them, I put the head down and went after Gus. It was tough, and I just couldnt get the yardage back. First KOM to Melbourne! I did manage to drop DeLuca and Leigh, however Damo had an armchair ride in my slipstream all the way and came around me in the last 50m to take second.

The Boys at the KOM

We regrouped in the fog laden Mt Lofty observatory, meeting up with the earlier group. After everyone freshened up, we took off for the start at Loberthal. The Adelaide Hills is some of the best riding in Australia. The boys were hooking it down the Basking Range, Mitch leading the way down the hills. At the Basking Range climb, a 3k hill, I managed to take the honors from Gus, evening up the KOM points. We all regrouped at the top and then had a great 10k bash along the hills to Loebenthal to watch the start. We got there just in time, then after the TDU riders rolled out, we went over to the KOM, around 5 k across the course. Watching the riders come up, you can see how hard the pro's come up the hills. We then smashed across to Stirling to watch the last couple of laps of the race as well as the finish

Buzz delivers the killer blow to the Hampton Boys

Damo was isolated late in the day

The Silent Assassin!

The main ride of the day was always going to be the descent from Stirling down to Glenelg. Legs warmed up, it was on as we took off down the Adelaide Hills. David went off the front, along with Jay, but the Sydney boys pegged them back with Mitch and Buzz riding strongly. Hampton lost control to Manly, which was a reversal of coming up Mt Lofty from the morning. It was Damo, me, Buzz and Mitch. Buzz was up the road and Mitch and I had Damo covered. I said to Damo as I came past "how do you like being isolated now?" Buzz took the points and the group came together again. It wasnt long before the attacks started again as we belted along from the top of Greenhill road down to Glenelg. Leigh was hitting it hard, but Mitch was onto him. The pace was frenetic and the lead switched numerous times, when Leigh, Gus, Buzz and "the silent assasin" Michael Cole got clear along Anzac Highway and battled it out for the points. Buzz went from a fair way out and showed all a clean pair of heels for more Manly points.

A late afternoon coffee was had by all, before an easy wind down back to the city via the beaches and Grange Road. 130k day...good riding and great roads. Doesnt get much better than today

New South Welshman Dominate Day 1 at FFT TDU 2012

2012-01-17T22:34:00.000+11:00

Getting ready

We all rolled into Adelaide last night, Mark Hardy and I arriving around 7pm. Bikes arrived all ok, so we were set to go. We went down to Gouger street behind the Hilton hotel where the TDU riders stay and had a plate of Spag Bol...carbo loading for a big day on the Tuesday (with a couple of golden ales to wash it down). Mitch, Buzz and Johnny Miller had arrived earlier and were down the road at "Bluncky's Chinese". The boys wandered down after their meal, where Buzz continued his dinner with Tiramisu, ice cream and a latte to keep the carbs up!!

I woke early and decided to get an early ride in. The temprature was forecast to be around 40c, with 40knot hot northerly's so it was going to be a hard day in the saddle. At 6am when I left for my warm up ride, it was already 27c! I did a easy 35k, heading out the towards the home of the 1 flag wonders who lucked into a flag a few years ago, Port Adelaide. Turned towards Semaphore and over towards the beach, for a little loop, then headed back to town, taking advatage of a blustery tailwind.

out front of the hotel

discussion at Prospect

I got back to the room around 7.30 and the boys were hooking into breakfast. Cereal, Toast, fruit, porridge, etc. You need to load up. Today for me would be over 180k of riding in the heat. Suncreme on, bikes checked, we left the room to meet outside our hotel at 8.30 sharp.

There must have been 30 riders waiting on a very hot pavement,outside the Medina apartments. Riders from NSW, Queensland and Victoria. We decided to head down to Glenelg for an early morning coffee and then roll back up along the beaches and over to the start of the race at Propect in Adelaides Northern Suburbs.

As the rather large group was heading down the Anzac highway with a howling tailwind, the first test of FFT was looming, Any truck or bus that was doing around 60k per hour would be pounced on with vigour, as you get a major "tow" in the draft of the bus, and no one can catch you as you burn down the road towards Glenelg. About 3k down the highway, you could see anxious past FFT's looking behind the group for a draft. All of a sudden, a truck comes out from behind. Mitch attacks down the left, Buzz down the right, with me right on Buzz's wheel. We picked up the truck, and we were away.....no Hampton boys to be seen. First Blood to the KMD racing teams, the result looking like Mapei going 1,2,3

Mitch winning from Buzz (left) and Le Foz

Coffee done, the group cruised up to watch the real pro's at the start. Lots of very(young) riders hiding in cars, clearly not relishing 150k in 40c and a roaring headwind.

We took off after the pro's raced off and headed up towards Gawler for some lunch and a 116k loop. Hot weather started whittling down the peleton very rapidly. Damo and I got on the front and David got caught behind a couple of sets of lights and we didnt see him again for 50k. We were now on country road, and hit the first real climbs of the day. The group shattered. Ritchie was gone, turned back for an early shower. De Luca put some pressure on, but the heat was flattening his battery and he wasn't as dominate as past years. Dave Evans had him covered, victory in the KOM going to Sydney, followed by De Luca, Gus and me.

Have these Hampton boys been away from too long?

Damo all of a sudden started to come to the front, all eyes watching him, attacked went up the road and it was on again, a few of us got away, and when the sprint coming into Gawler came into sight, Mike Cole (another Manly rider) took the points from Gus. It was becoming a route!!! We fueled up at Gawler for lunch, a little bakery doing very well out of 30 hot, tired, thirsty riders.

We took off after being refreshed and the group was a lot more subdued. We met up with David again after his "wander" around the lower Barossa at Williamstown. 52k back to Adelaide down the famed Gorge Road. All of a sudden, Damo (with his what I call his Italy plan) attacked. This resembled Italy in the 1930's when knowing they could not win a major war against the superpowers, attacked early on the hope of suprise and a quick victory. Damo suffered the same fate as Italy in 1943, meekly surrendering.

French KMD Sprinter Kay-belle Mitchell

Bec...Best on Ground today

Many of the Melbourne riders went missing in this last blast of the day. Gus....gone, Jay....gone, David....gone, Leigh....never seen today, De Luca isolated and looked like he could be easy meat. Buzz was strong, Mitch getting stronger, even Justin was there at the top of the Gorge. Bec Snell has BOG today with a great ride, mixing it with the boys, Sydney was strong with me, Mitch, Dave Evans, Mike C and Buzz in the last break. We even had the luxury of resting Johhny and Mark today, saving them for later in the week. After the gorge didnt allow anyone to break clear of a break group, it would get down to the last uphill spring at the end of the Gorge Road. De Luca went in a big attack and got 75m on Dave Evans. However Dave got over him 20m from the top to take more Sydney points.

We hit the last servo to regroup and re hydrate, then back into town.

The missing Hampton Boys!

One of the hottest days on a bike, but great fun.....and we get to do it all again tomorrow!

2012 FFT TDU Rosters Announced!!!

2012-01-12T10:25:00.000+11:00

Well one of the major events of the cycling year is on us again, and like the Olympic, Football World Cup, Melbourne Cup or the Superbowl, its time to preview some of the players who will be at FFT 2012.

First of all let's look at the good guys..... The Sydney Boys - well drilled, well trained, poetry in motion on a bike .The 2012 squad is:

The Sydney Squad

Jarrod "Buzzolini" Crosby. 2012 Sydney co captain.

Strengths: A good rouleur who is strong, has a good kick sprint and a never say die attitude.

Weaknesses: none

Kable "Kay-belle Michelle" Mitchell. 2012 Sydney co-captain

Strengths: Sprinting, getting over some of the hills and nailing the sprint afterwards

Weaknesses: none

John "Johnny" Miller

Strengths: Knows how to hold premier spot in peleton, usually between wheels 5-8. Will be there all day

Weaknesses: none

Mark "Weatherman" Hardy (new to squad in 2012)

Strengths: bike handling, smooth style, unknown quantity to the Vic's

Weaknesses: none

Mike "Le Foz" Foster

Strengths: likes to sneak off the front and put a bit of hurt on - Also controls the FFT Blog!!

Weaknesses: none

Roger " Burgo" Burgess

Strengths: ability to back up day after day

Weaknesses: none

Colin "Col" Carrigan

Strengths: an absolute bull of a rider and exquisite bike handling skills

Weaknesses: none

Robert "Rob" Malaki

Strengths: unknown entity to the Melb blokes

Weaknesses: none

Luke "hasn't got a nickname yet" O'Brien

Strengths: unknown to for Melbourne Blokes

Weakness: none

Reserves..... May make an appearance at some stage

Danny " the Fixed Wheel" Wright

Strengths: attacking rider who attacks consistently day after day. Strong climber

Weaknesse

Not coming this year:

Nick " Hollywood" Blunck Strengths: best taste in bikes and kit

Weaknesses: none

Alan" Sheepy" Kelly

Strengths: quiver of bikes available for use

Weaknesses: none (except being originally from New Zealand

And now the Melbourne Roster:

Damian "Damo" Jones

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: will come under pressure in the hills

Leigh" velvet rubberhammer" Schilling

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: ability to sprint with a Nikon D90 on his back

David "Koala " Foster

Strengths: none Weaknesses: talking in the peloton rather than saving his breath to chase Sydney breakaways

Jay" Titanium Man" Heather

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: has more metal in his body than his bike does

Angus " Gus" McDonald

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: can he go the distance over the 5 days???

Leigh "De Luca" De Luca

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: will he be able to keep up without all those A grade Sandown racers to follow??

Richard "Ritchie"Stewart

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: as soon as the road goes vertical!!

Not making an appearance in 2012:

Russell "Pud" Forbes

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: beer and latte's

Dave "Pomie" Hill

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: likes renovating more than riding his bike

Russ" Rusty" Edgar

Strengths: none

Weakness: Is a kiwi who lives in Queensland ( do I need to say anymore??)

Jason "Robbo" Roberts

Strengths: none

Weakness: pulling up when he has a front wheel flat

Nick "Muz" Murray

Strengths: none

Weaknesses: weak upper body strength lets him down in sprints

Other significant players:

Tim "Ten Degrees" De Vries (defacto New South Welshman!!)

Strengths: strong man on the flats

Weaknesses: coming into 2012 FFT well underdone!

It should be an exciting 5 days as the traditional rivalry is reignited.

FFT is the only blog that will report on each days riding in an accurate unbiased manner. Don't believe copycat sites like www.hamptoncycles.posterous.com

Racing on a Tandem

2012-01-11T13:05:00.001+11:00

Last week during our usual Thursday morning blast up to Mona Vale and back, we had a new addition to the usual group riding with us.....a Tandem. We have had a couple of Tandems riding with the group over the years, however Ex MWCC Club president, Peter McNamara was piloting this and in the stoker seat was Australian Para-Cycling representative Matt Formston. Matt is a very good cyclist who happens to be blind, but that doesnt stop him getting out and mixing it up.

As we finished our ride, I said to Matt, that if he was looking for others to help his training, I would be interested. Matt called me later that day and said did I want to do a setup ride the next day and then race with him on the following Sunday as he was 2 weeks away from going to LA to participate at the Para Cycling Worlds and he needed a big hit out. We got together the next morning and did 60k on the Tandem. It is a very different type of riding to a conventional bike, with huge power available on the flats and downhill and very syncronised riding required for the uphills. First ride underway, we managed to stay upright and decided to race the following Sunday at West Head in the Manly Warringah Club race.

Race day came and I rode up, met up with Matt and we entered B grade. We knew we would struggle on the undulating course. B Grade was full with 29 starters who looked at us strangely as we lined up. I was cautious for the first 5k as riding in a pack, on a Tandem in a race is a bit daunting to day the least. Finally with a little confidence and a bit of a down hill, I yelled at Matt "power one" and we cranked up the tandem to over 60kph! The power coming through the back of the bike with Matt stoking was amazing! It is a feeling of flying.....with all B grade strung out behind us!!! Unfortunately they could catch us on the hills, and with a 180 degree turn and a 200m uphill 700m from the finish, we were never going to be able to win the day, but we caused all sorts of reaction everytime we attacked.

A good hitout for both of us and we talked about teaming up again, possibly at Nationals. I wish Matt all the best in LA at the Worlds and hopefully the Olympics!

Here we are at the finish

The Travel Bike

2011-12-29T12:31:00.013+11:00

A few people ask me what the travel bike looks like. It is a great piece of steel, built by Ewen Gellie from Gellie Custom Cycles out of Melbourne. Custom built, hand welded, I had the pleasure of picking the gauge of the steel myself, as well as the build specs.

It is Columbus steel, with fillet brazing (no lugs)73 degree seat tube and head tube angle, 56cm top tube, 6 degree slope on top tube (slight compact)410mm of chainstay length and a steel 1 1/8th fork and the secret ingredient....Ritchey Breakaway couplings.

Here it is built up

and here it is packed up.

The frame comes apart just under the seat and at the bottom of the downtube. When it is all put together it is a sub 8kg steel beauty!

Day 8 over the top and Pali Tunnel

2011-12-27T18:45:00.013+11:00

I woke a little earlier than I had the last week. After 7 rides on basically the same route, I was keen to do the “over the top ride” which entailed leaving the hotel, riding through downtown Honolulu and up the Pali Highway over the spine of mountains that dominate Central Oahu and down to the windy eastern shoreline of Oahu. From there I could head south and come back around the coast road past Hanauma Bay and Diamond Head which would be a large circular route.
The Pali Tunnel – narrow and windy!I had been keen to do this ride all week. In fact, I planned to do it each morning. However every morning except this morning, the mountains had been covered in a thick cloud of localised tropical rain. That , plus the fact that it was a main highway, with 3 lanes, missing any bike lane for a large part of the 6k climb to Pali lookout, and I would be riding it before dawn, not to mention that there were 2 tunnels with no cycle lane made it too dangerous to attempt up till now.

I woke earlier than the alarm, got up and dressed in the dark (as all good cyclists can do!) and headed downstairs into the Hotel lobby . Do I do the “normal ride” into a headwind out and tailwind home with 3 good climbs, or do I “go for it” and risk the ride over Pali Lookout. As the weather looked fine, I clipped in and pointed the travel bike towards Pali Highway. I thought that I would go and have a look and if it was too dangerous, I would turn and head back to familiar territory.

I knew it wasnt a popular route for cyclists as there was only 1 rider on Strava for the KOM!!

As it was a public holiday, the traffic was light. There was also street lighting the whole way, which alleviated my fears about riding on a dark busy highway. The climb was a bit windy, but steady and not too steep at a constant 6% gradient. I must admit, adrenaline got me up the climb. I was nervous about some driver looking at his phone not expecting a rider in this part of the island and cleaning me up. However, only about 15 cars and a bus passed me the whole way up, so I pretty much had the road to myself. As I go close to the summit, the wind picked up. Yet another headwind. I reached the top a little quicker than expected and the road turned downwards. I could see the first of two 500m tunnels that I had to ride through. These made me very nervous as they had only 2 lanes and were similar to riding through the Sydney Harbour tunnel. As I got close, I could see they were well lit. As it was slightly downhill, I put it into the big ring and rode as hard as I could to get through the tunnels before any traffic. I was just about to enter the tunnel, when a severe gust of wind hit me and almost took me off the bike. The wind was coming from the other side and as it hit the mountain, it funnelled directly into the tunnel as it faced me. I had never experienced a blast of wind like that before and struggled with the handlebars to keep the bike upright. Drama averted, I got through the most dangerous part of the ride and started the descent.

Part of the Kalanianaole Highway that runs around the coast of the island. Coming out the other side of the Pali tunnels, the wind was ferocious. The road is a very exposed to the weather and you are at 500m above sea level on an open windy mountain road with a bumpy surface. As it was still dark, I took it easy through a couple of hairpin corners. After 4 or 5k I reached the coast road and turned south. The road here is well made with a cycle lane almost all the way. The wind was a crosstail and I could easily sit on 35-37kph.

I was pretty pleased that I had made it over the climb and navigated the tunnels and settled into a nice rhythm. The bike had performed well all week and it liked this type of road/ride conditions (as did it’s rider!). As I traversed around the bottom part of Oahu, the sun came up. For the first time in a week I finally saw some other cyclists out enjoying the morning. Most were going the other way, so I gave them a friendly wave and moved on.
Sunrise - not good for the cars following you when the sun is this low!
As I reached the most Southern part of Oahu, I had turned more towards the East side of the island so that the gusty wind became a full-on tailwind. Nearly 30k to go and all of a sudden I am cruising along at 43-48kph. As I was moving along with this big tailwind behind me, an old surfer guy riding his cruiser on the footpath coming towards me gave me the famous Hawaii “hang loose” sign, which is holding the forefinger and little pinkie up with his wrist facing towards me. I had seen this “dude every morning at almost the same time/spot and as well as give me the hang loose sign, yells out “your moving this morning man!” as I go flying past!!!

As I come around Diamond Head, the last intersection before I hit Waikiki I have to go through is a busy one. Just as I am going through the intersection, a white ute with 3 “dudes” in it start to turn left in front of me. I am doing 50kph down a hill with the wind behind me. I don’t have anywhere to go and swerve quickly to avoid going over/under their car. As I go past, instinct reaction kicks in……F#*kwit, I yell without really thinking. All of a sudden, the ute does a U turn right in the middle of the intersection and they are yelling out of the car. They are after me! I think to myself that in hindsight it wasn’t a good idea to yell at 3 guys in a ute in the USA.

A couple of quick turns loses into a few sidestreets loses them and I roll into the Starbucks for a double shot Tall Latte.

So I did just on 500k for the week or so I was in Hawaii. Some good riding, but not enough diversity and the roads are a bit too busy. Back to Sydney, hopefully for a couple of good weeks of training/racing before FFT TDU 2011.

Hawaii....FFT TDU and Cape Epic Training

2011-12-24T08:23:00.006+11:00

With a family holiday planned for 10 days in Hawaii, I packed the travel bike for some training around Oahu. The weather was warm, around 21c at 6am and up to 28c during the day, however with it being winter, it was very windy and showery.

The bike travels well and takes me about 20 mins to put together. Nothing like Columbus steel, Dura Ace 7800 and a set of Bontrager Alloy wheels to make up a classic solid road bike weighing in at under 8kgs. With the bike all ready to go, all I had to do was struggle out of bed on the morning of day 1 and beat off the jetlag.

6am day 1, feeling like I have been hit over the head with a mallet, I struggle to get up. As it is the first day, and all the family want to get up and look around, I thought it wise to only go for a short ride to work my way into the island. There weren't too many routes on map my ride and the local bike shop said there weren't any organised rides so I did some local recco and decided to head south on an out and back run along the coast.

As I walked out of the hotel, the rain was pelting down and the wind howling. It wasn't cold, but it took me all my willpower to throw the leg over the crossbar and clip in rather than push the lift button back to room 2320! I was drenched in 10 seconds, however with it not being cold, thought I would press on. I got my bearings, ensured all the bolts were tight on the bike after assembling it and did a nice 40k ride. Day 2 with more time to look around, I thought I would do a ride over the mountains of central Oahu to Kailua via the Pila Highway and then swing home and come around the south western shoreline back to Waikaki. Distance 70k. However it was raining again, and not light till 7am. I wasnt game enough to ride a 13k climb on a highway without street lights in pouring rain on a road that doesnt see too many cyclists, so I headed South East around the coastline past the famous snorkelling spot of Hanauama Bay, on to the turnaround at Waimanalo Beach and back. I thought Maui was the windy island of Hawaii however Oahu is putting our a pretty good challenge! The headwind on the way out was brutal. Probably squalling to 50k an hour, averaging around 30k, I was head down with gritted teeth punching into the wind. Three climbs on the way out. I knew the going was tough when going up a gentle 5% incline just before the turnaround, I was doing 14k per hour and almost falling off the bike! However after the turnaround, I had the tailwind. All of a sudden I am doing 45-47k per hour an on the down slopes, over 60k. What took 1hr 10 mins out, took 50 mins coming back. I was flying, rolling the legs over in the 11 gear. It is a great feeling. Total ride 63k, in just under 2 hours.

Day 3,4,5 rides were the same route, and I was getting tired with the constant riding into the wind each morning. I want to go over the mountain pass, but wont risk it until it stops being wet in the morning. I can be dry on the beach and 5k up the road, a tropical downpour can be underway.

On Friday, I did the now "usual" ride however on the way home, about 8k from the finish back in Waikiki, I turned right to put a climb in as a challenge. I chose a tough little climb up Halekoa Drive. Have a look on Strava its profile. 3.4k with an average of 10%. Max gradient 21%. It is one of the toughest climbs I have done (the toughest was Mt Ventoux on FFT2008 in a howling wind). My legs were tired after a week of riding into the wind (and by myself....no-one to draft!). A quarter of the way up I thought "I'm not going to get up this". I was struggling with the 11/23 cluster on. Then I thought "HTFU....in 12 weeks you will have 9 days of struggle at the Cape Epic". That drove me for another 500m when doubt crept in again. Struggling in my mind for justification to get to the top, I thought "I'll just turn here, no one will know", then I thought, "hang on Strava doesnt lie!!" I couldnt hide! This gave me the motivation to struggle to the top. After 20 mins of climbing I got to the top. Over 500m over the top of Diamond Head and Waikiki. A spectacular view. After collecting my breath I turned back to the bottom, (as it is a dead end road). Without trying, I am hitting 70k per hour. The brakes arent too effective at that speed, and the first corner is at least 35%. Shit, I am going to miss this corner....mild panic sets in. Squeezing hard, the bike finally responded and I got around a very tight corner, narrowly missing winding up on some Yank's Christmas decorations on his front lawn!!

Very gingerly, I descended the rest and found my (now) local Starbucks for my morning Grande Latte and Blueberry scone (pronounced Skone over here!)

Have put nearly 400k under the belt this week so are building up nicely for TDU (or FFT Adelaide) and are on plan for my training for the Cape Epic.

Tommorrow I may try to get over the mountains if the weather is dry. I need to do it at least once before I go home.

Some big hill riding and taking a risk on a blowout!

2011-08-27T07:21:00.013+10:00

Sunday was the big ride. I had the whole day to myself, no other plans other than to put in a big ride. I thought I would head towards the California coast the opposite direction to Saturdays ride. It was 60k away over some significant mountains, then the plan was to turn north and ride along the coast for some 50k and then back over the same mountains to home. According to map my ride, it would be 170k and over 2000m of vertical climbing. A big day especially after Saturday afternoon’s hilly climbs and Saturday mornings pack ride in Auckland.

The plan was to get up around 7am, get a big hotel breakfast into me and onto the road by 8. This got delayed, when the tiles in my shower decided to fall off the wall while I was in the shower and I had to change hotel rooms! It also took me a little while to get the garmin working with the route I had mapped and downloaded. I finally got away just before 9, in the fine mist of a Silicon Valley fog. The forecast was good, 30c once the fog burned off. The first 20k were easy and I cruised along, trying to get the legs warmed up, as the climbing started after 25k. I reached the picturesque little town of Los Gado’s well known for it’s mountain biking and big homes of those who have made a fortune in Silicon Valley shares.

Stopped for a coffee and to get ready for the next hour and a half of climbing. Back on the bike, I hit a hitch as the only way through to the start of the climb was a 3k unmade walking track with a few steep climbs. I spent a bit of time on the garmin and asking locals if there was a road that got me there. The garmin was telling me it was a 23k alternative, which was confirmed by the locals. No choice, I took the trail, praying that I wouldn’t puncture. All good, I was now on a great road, winding around the shore of a lake and starting to climb into the Santa Cruz ranges. The roads are good, no traffic and unlike yesterday, plenty of shade. The sun was out and it was starting to get hot. I found my rhythm with the climbs averaging around 6%. At the top, the garmin pointed me to turn down this little road. I turned without thinking and was on this old potholed road with about an 11% descent. If I hit one of the potholes, I was toast. My instinct told me to turn back, as the road was getting worse, however, by now I was 3k down a steep descent and I didn’t want to climb back out. I felt like Buzz on Mt Ventoux, looking for the way out, however I was getting more and more into a forest of huge redwood trees. These trees are magnificent. I stopped to take a couple of shots and then ride on. What comes down must come up and I had a steep 5k climb out of the other side of this little “Jurassic Park” valley. When I rejoined the main road it was the same one I was on before the garmin suggested I turn. If I had of stayed on the main road, I would have stayed on the ridgeline and missed a great little side trip. Funny sometimes the mind of the garmin!

Now at the top of the climb, I started the descent, 20k of non technical downhill, on great, traffic free roads. I wound the Gellie up, enjoying the feel of a Columbus steel frame and peaked out at 92k an hour. The only traffic was a group of around 80 harley riding middle aged bikies, who seemed to enjoy watching me slip stream amongst them as I descended between them. I was in the tuck position, pushing as hard as the bike would go, with 2 of 3 bikies at a time around me, all yelling at me, encouraging me to go faster! It was exhilarating and as we hit the bottom, they waved, gunned their bikes, and accelerated away. A great buzz!!!

Reaching the coast, the traffic got busier as it was lunchtime and there were plenty of people around the beachesstruggled on. One of the hard things climbing on roads you don’t know is the uncertainty of where the climb ends. I felt it would never end. I was just hanging in there, when I finally hit the top where I started a 11k technical descent, with a lot of cyclists on the road, and as I was entering Silicon Valley again, a significant amount of traffic.

At the bottom was the little village of Saratoga. I stopped and belted down a Coke. There is nothing like a cold coke when you are hot , dusty and tired after 150k. Can’t stand it at any other time. 20k to home and I had a little downhill, downbreeze, so I was making good time. Went through the suburb of Cupertino, famous for where the head office’s of HP and Apple. Punctured with 8k to go, which was annoying,but no hassle. Got back to the hotel around 5.30 with over 7 hours in the saddle, a great ride and a great day.

Monday, was a rest day. The legs were toast. Tuesday and Wednesday morning, I was up at 5am and did a flat 40k each morning. I had one more opportunity to ride and that would be on Thursday afternoon before I headed back to Sydney.
The one climb I wanted to do was up to the Mt Hamilton Observatory. Like Sierra Rd, which I did on Saturday, this climb was also used in the Tour of California. This is the highest point around the San Jose Valley at around 1200m above sea level. My hotel was at sea level and according to Map my ride it was 51k each way and nearly 1600m of vertical climbing. This is as the climb was actually broken into 3 sections with a downhill in 2 places as you descend into valleys and then you have to climb back out again. The climb is over 27k and averages (if you take the 2 downhill sections out) around 6%. It was long rather than steep, not like the super steep Sierra Rd climb.

I finished work around 1.30pm and figured it would take me 4 hours to do the ride. I had to be at the airport and checked in at 7pm. I was on the bike just after 2, so I knew it was going to be tight, however as it was climbing on the way there, and downhill on the way back, I figured that I would turn once I hit 2hr 20min into the ride whether I reached the observatory or not. Another hot (32c) mid afternoon sun, but good news, a tailwind would be behind me all the way up the mountain. After 23k, I started the climb proper, and settled into a pace of around 17kph with the gradient around 5-6%. I felt pretty good, and after about 6k of climbing, all was going well when I felt a significant bumping on my front tyre. A quick stop confirmed my suspicion. I had a Schwalbe on the front which was appeared to be one of the tyres that were from the bad batch.These were prone to swelling up and bursting at any point. Not a good situation. The combination of the hot sun and the tyre getting a bit old had caused it to swell significantly. Cursing to myself, I had a decision to make. Keep going to a very remote mountain, risking a blowout that would cause me to crash if it happened on a descent, not to mention me missing my flight due to there wouldn’t be any easy way back as it would be 30k from the closest town, or turn around and miss my one chance to do this climb. Time to take a big bet, I elected to keep going.

The observatory was actually 54k from the hotel. At the 51k mark, I reached the 2hr 20m mark. With 3k to the top, on the steepest part of the whole climb, my earlier 17k speed had dropped to 12k, I had run out of water and the legs were gone. I would be making the time to get to the flight extremely tight, not to mention the tyre. It would take me 15 more minutes to get to the top. I could see it, so decided to go to the top. I made it, but was absolutely spent. There was no way I could just turn and ride back down. I stopped, found a coke machine, poured the cold sweet liquid sugar down the throat, also had my snacks of a banana and a scone I had bought so I wouldn’t bonk. Found some water, took some photos of the magnificent view, looking back to where I started from and was ready to head back. Ten more precious minutes had passed, while I took on food and drink. I had 1 hour 20min to do 47k (as I reset the garmin and it found me a shorter return trip) and besides the 2 climbs of 2k each it was mainly downhill all the way back. I was very concerned about the time, and took off with some gusto. However, the top part of the descent was very technical and the road very bumpy. I was doing over 50k and hour, pushing it through the corners, when after about 3k of descending, the front tyre started drumming significantly. The tyre wouldn’t take the pressure. If I kept this up, I would be off the side on a desolate mountain side. If I slowed, I risked missing my flight. I had no choice, but to slow. I nursed the tyre, pushing it on the straights, as if it popped then, I figured I wouldn’t come off. I was watching the time, and counting down the k’s -40….35…..30….25….20k to go.

div>Now I was back in suburbia, relieved and thought if that if I fractured the tyre now, I could find a bike shop. It was now a race against time. I threw caution to the wind and had 15k to go. My legs were shot, but I could still make my flight if I didn’t have any more issues. 10k, 5k, I was almost there, when with 3k to go….bang!, the speed, heat and the bulging of the tyre had finally caused the tyre to burst with an almighty bang and blow a 3cm gash in the tyre. I didn’t even stop, pushing on with a flat, flapping tyre to the hotel. Relieved to had made it back, it had taken me 3hrs, 56m of riding with 15 mins of stops. It was now 6.15pm and I had 45mins to pack the bike, shower, check out, drive to the airport 4k away, return the hire car, check 2 bikes (I had Tic Tac’s warranty Scott Addict I was bringing home) and a third bag without getting charged excess baggage. (managed to do that as well…. I had over 50kgs of bags)

Without going through the detail, besides setting a new record of 13 mins to disassemble and pack my bike, I made the flight!!!

So I did 6 rides while away, nearly 500k, over 5000m of vertical climbing, one puncture and one blowout!

Southern California, is fantastic for riding. We should seriously think of a FFT Tour of California. The roads are great, even bike lanes on all city road, good climbs, and great weather

Two Countries in the 1 Day!!!

2011-08-23T05:20:00.016+10:00

I left Australia last week to spend a couple of days in New Zealand and then onto California. As I would have a bit of spare time, I decided to take the trusty travel bike. Arriving in NZ during the coldest week they had had in 50 years looked like the bike wasnt going to be unpacked. However Saturday morning was a cool crisp sunny morning with minimal wind. I was invited by an old Telstra work collegue, Jim Stabback, to join the ibike ride on an 80k loop from Auckland around the Internationa Airport and back to the city. As I had a 1pm flight, I thought that would be perfect

One of the good things about riding in strange places is that there is always a bunch somewhere, and people are very welcoming. These Kiwi's have some money tied up in their bikes. Plenty of Colnago's, Williers, and Cervelos. The exchange rate makes these bikes extremely expensive!

At 7am a group of about 30 rolled out. As the "guest" I sat about midgroup with Jim, seeing the lie of the land. The pace out to the Airport was pretty mild. Bit too slow for my liking. However as the group turned for home, the pace lifted considerably. A little group of 5-6 rode off the front. I saw it go and was boxed in mid pack. By the time I got out and moving, they were 500m up the road. A couple of others were trying to bridge across, but I could tell they werent going to make it. I used whatever wheels I could for a draft then bridged across myself. Just as I got to them, and thought we were going to settle in for some rollthroughs, they sat up. Another issue as a guest rider.....you dont know where the sprints are!

We had 3 sprints on the way back, with regrouping after. We got back to town around 10am which gave me plenty of time to pack and get to the airport. The Kiwi's were a good bunch of guys and the ride shows all aspects of Auckland. I think we rode through every suburb!

Took the flight to LA and onto San Jose. Actually got to San Jose earlier on Saturday than when I left NZ. On my own, so I unpacked the bike and picked a 100k ride off map my ride, loaded it into the garmin and off I went. There are plenty of great roads around here, many used in the Tour Of California. The ride I was doing today had 2 climbs used in recent tours. Both 5 k long and averaging over 9%. Riding by myself, I had to be careful about where I was going. This ride had plenty of rural roads with no phone support. I told the hotel where I was heading and took off in 25c perfect weather.

I stopped and got some extra water and some bananas. You know you arent in OZ when you buy 2 bottles of water and 2 bananas for $1.80. Bananas alone in Oz would be $5! Stocked up I warmed up over the first 15k of flat roads till I hit the first climb up Calaveras road. With me only having an 11-23 cluster on, I knew I was in for some tough riding. I had done this climb before so was ready for it. However the last 500m averages 12% and sections are 17%. In the mid afternoon sun, It was tough, especially with only a 23 on the back, however I managed to hit the top. From there it was 20k of winding and undulating roads with nice little hills and descents across streams and gullys.

Lucky I took plenty of water as there was nothing out here! The hills are dry and desolate. Little traffic besides the odd cyclist or motorbike. The road I was planning to take was gated off(that wasnt on Map my Ride!) so rather than rik getting lost, I turned back for home the way I came. I hit speeds of over 85k on the main descent and was back in civilisation before I knew it. Stopped at the cafe for a coffee and sandwich, then headed back to the hotel. So 80k in the morning in Auckland and 80k in the afternoon in San Jose.

Stage 6, final stage and 50km of pain

2011-04-06T07:48:00.000+10:00

Stage 6 saw Rudy and Paris get to the line a good 3-4 mins late for thier roll out time with the B group. They managed to fight their way to the front and let the starter know. They were allowed to roll off 4 mins in arrears but with nice clean tracks in front of them and a massive group of chasers waiting back at the gate. Rudy had put up the white flag in terms of racing and wanted to try to enjoy the day and not be in the preverbial box from the outset. There late start gave them a great kick off to the day as it happens so all was well in team BOS ice tea. Ben was showing some cracks finally and was looking tired at the start and took off from the car to fetch his bike from the compound only to realise he had left his water pack in the car. Rare oversight, but an easy occurrence when you have been smashing it over mountain after mountain for 6 days straight. Stage 6 was to be 119km with 2800m of climbing. OUCH. The pro's as usual were smashing through the day and had 65km to go with only 2.5hrs ticked over on the clock. Man these guys can go hard and never seem to take strain. Christelle and I decided to take a drive to a great little fishing village called Hermanus. The weather was clear and sunny but fresh once again and we took the opportunity to have a good old fashioned cooked brecky. I tucked into my favourite bacon, eggs, tomato and toast. C felt the urge to hook into a big dirty brecky as well but err'd on the side of caution an health and a good figure and went for the titled "health breakfast" Stuff that, tuck in i say. Mind you its probably a good result for a continued tight butt :-) My main course down and a fresh (massive) scone with jam and fresh cream was screaming "order me Buzz" from the menu pages. So i obliged. Oh how good....... Time was an issue and we wanted to be there for the finish as we always have been and we needed to pick the now calm wife up Johanette and make haste to the finish line. We made it in plenty of time with the opportunity to remove the shirt get some sun and set up camp for some super zoom shots with Foz's great camera lense. I must say it will be hard for him to get that back when I return as it's a cracker an fits very snugly into my camera bag. Ben arrived in usual time or maybe a little behind some of the usual suspects you regularly see coming in around the same time each day. He was as suspected a bit flat today and struggled to get the legs to operate properly. Fair effort to only really have one flat day i say. Or maybe it was that he was able to ease himself into the race with thermus and blanket in hand while riding with Hoogy (Christelle) as the boys back home say on the regular Saturday ride, "be sure to pack the thermos, Christelle is coming for a walk today.......... Rudy rolled over the line a little ways back from usual but in better spirits and has found a new diet for riding on the bike, real food, can you imagine? he had all sorts in there, Baked potato, sandwich, fruit. Tad better than 6 days of gels in your body's moments of need. All was now set for the final day of 70km still with loads of climbing, but the finish was in sight and what a massive effort for all riders involved. I suspect it must be a pretty emotional rollercoaster and a massive triumph at the end of it all with what you would think to be a pretty solid bond between 2 riders if they gel on the way. Tomorrow was also a day for the first ever mountain bike race for Buzz. What would be the outcome. Is the off road for him or should he just stay on the road and grovel for others in team??? A nice early rise of 5.15am for Buzz and C, with nerves a plenty kicking in my pre race cough had joined me with the odd dry retch. Funny what a race will do to you. I wasn't racing for my life by any stretch but none the less it was a race. C had to drop me off at the finish line of the epic where my race the Vigne to Vigne started. There are about 40 seeded riders in the race who were to start right at the front and I managed to slot in right behind to stick to their heels for as long as I could (was tipping it wouldn't be long but a draft is a draft!). With 600 riders in the race it was a solid field. I had no idea what lay ahead but knew it was going to be different. The pace was pretty hefty rolling along a tar road for the first 2 km then bang straight up through the vineyard dirt track and a steep hit straight away. Lucky for me I had no clock, heart monitor or anything, it was just ride and finish. I think my hr monitor may have exploded if it was on though. I could see the leaders just pulling away with great ease and decided to lock into a cruise mode up the climbs and work the flats and down hills. I felt in pretty good shape was always unaware of how far into the race I was. With some cool single track a few good downhills, I was enjoying the race so far. As the race ticked on I was getting sore through the core and the climbing was taking its toll. With every uphill I saw Ii was starting to curse the heavy bike I was on and the fricken gears not changing and jumping. I had to make a seat adjustment as it was a tad too high and let some air out of the tyres as it was pretty hairy on the corners. That all made a big difference and it was back to the grind. More climbs and the altitude was starting to hurt me as well and then there it was the big wall, the wall of pain and the wall of you WILL slow down now little bald man. Fark, I was hurting and my core had given way, the pain was quite weird but solid and my weight on the seat was heavy. I would have to put up with this for roughly another 15km and let me tell you most of that was uphill. I was looking for a feed station and got one. If anyone can feed more marshmellows into their mouth in one go I will give you a $100. I filled the bottle with sweet fluids and rolled off praying for a solid downhill. It felt like I was on top of the mountain anyway so it must go down soon. It did but I was trying to get some comfort by standing or sitting on a cheek bone. I could hear the announcers and the hoo har going on back at the finish so I knew I was close. I finally pumped it over the line happy to have that out of the way and was thinking how am I going to get through another 50km in the Dirtworks??? My bike will help for sure and a smarter race plan. All good in the end and cracking scenery and loads of fun had. I think I would be happy to ride single track all day, fire trails do my head in I must say. I did hear the announcer say" my god someone is racing in this from Australia"..... Funny stuff, "dont you know who I am!! (just a line taken from Ryno's handbook of quotes) All of Christelle's family were waiting eagerly for the little bald man to come over the line so it was good to get a cheer even though they were waiting a little longer than expected..... The main race was close to a result with the top guys not too far away. It was a pretty quick day for them and there was a massive party atmosphere in wait for them. They estimate about 13,000 people come to the finale. It is a great show and good fun. The Vineyard was a great setting and a the race was won by a dual South African team. Ben finished well, Rudy was home and smiling, but C was pretty upset with not being able to get home for the whole race. Tough break she took and maybe something that will bite at the back of the mind for a while to come. All respect to her though for doing what she did for the first few days. They were certainly the toughest and hopefully she can be proud of that. I think you should all still pack your flasks though on Saturday......... Off to Saldanah a little bay on the West coast for some chill time OR maybe NOT with 5 screaming totts running around and a bunch of adults wanting to show Buzz around. The sun is shining and it’s good to be alive. I will update of events of the trip to Vic Falls and Pilansburg game park as they happen. Cheers for now BUZZ

Stage 3,4,5 Broken rib fallout, shadow of a man, and ball baking OR is it breaking!!!!

2011-04-02T18:10:00.004+11:00

Well the rib did finally finish C's campaign for the Cape Epic 2011. She is not sure if the pain of the rib or watching the riders roll out each morning since has been more painful. I suspect the latter would be closer to the truth. With a very competitive brother that doesn't have much patience, Christelle felt it better to put the off-roader away and spare herself the grief of a brother carrying on like a bear with a sore tooth having to go at a little slower pace. This Cape Epic is a real team game and sometimes you have to yield to the rider that is suffering. There is always going to be moments or days in this race where one is going better than the other. If there is not a solid cohesion or understanding of your race partner there can be issues. I have seen riders pull out due to big issues with teammates and people just spit it and ride off on each other, funny stuff to the on-lookers but ugly while in the game I'm sure. The rules say if you aren't within 2 minutes at all times you cop an hour penalty, if it happens again...... gooooone from the race. There are race transponder check points all over the courses so its policed fairly

So stage 3 saw Ben hit the roads for a mass roll out of over 1000 riders with a field diminishing rapidly with broken bones or dehydration or just being too busted to continue. The word around is the race this year has been the hardest so far and most technical. Ben now being on his own was in his element and found himself latch onto the front group after a 5 min gap from the start line. He crossed that gap with other riders keen to tick over a good time over the 125km stage. It was a pretty tough course from Tulbagh to Worcester with narly descents, water crossings and tough climbs with the final 9km on the tar roads. Even after the 100+km the pro's were absolutely driving it at the front. It's dead set like a sprint for them and super impressive to watch, The top Masters riders arent too far behind as well I must say which is pretty impressive stuff. With whispers of 2012 including Team Fixed wheel with (fatso Wright and Wazza Burgess going head to head with team Buzz/Fozz, and team Lard/Barge? the Epic could take on a whole new look. The infiltation of the Epic by the Aussies could begin in ernest. They do love to hate us, so bring it on. Ben finished Stage 3 in great spirits and called it a lakker ride. He rolled in a fair bit further up the field this day and was in good spirits. Rudy and Paris had mechanical issues today which saw 2 x broken pedals for `paris within 20km. With tough pebbles and sand to contend with it was a very hard section to navigate to the next water zone and new pedals. You have to carry the credit card with you on this race in case you need new stuff at the feed zones. Can work out to be an expensive race.......

Rudy is now beginning to look like a SHADOW of his former self. He has been living on gels for many days and I think it may be starting to take its toll. His hip is coming good though after gracing the table of "Arnold - the smiling (not) asassin from Austria. This man is at each Epic and has the latest in recovery technology and the ever trusty Accupuncture needles, thrown in with the elbow from his massive arms manages to get the riders up and running.

Stage 4 -- THE TIME TRIAL - All individual riders who have lost the teammate roll out first for the TT. So Ben had an early start and the chance to tap out a nice 36km with a solid 800m of climbing. The plan was for a recover ride today with no benefit in smashing himself. The following day would see a 143km smash fest with some good fast sections that road cyclists would revel in. He tapped out a nice 1.55 to be happy with another lakker ride and plenty of day left to recover before tomorrow. Rudy and Paris set off with a big push in mind, but with Rudy starting to run on fumes it was going to be a tough 36km. He grovelled for the whole ride and they only managed a 1.33, a respectable time but well off the pace of the guns who rolled in at 1.10.... freaks. After the riders had completed the course it was time for the Buzz to hit the trails for the first time in a while. I have managed to secure the services of an Ellsworth dual suspension from Ben's local bike boys, so it was time to make some use of it. The tracks took me over some great scenic viewing points, rolling past some massive Ostrich's and over some serious shale rock on the tracks. It was good to blow the lungs out and hit some fast downhills. The bike goes well, so I'm looking forward to my race day on the final stage of the Epic. I have a 50km MTB race over some of the main course on Sunday. We are looking for the first overseas podium for team KMD so stay tuned. (not likely though given over 1000 riders and a punter on the MTB)

Stage 5 - And some magic scenery. Another early mass start for a long road roll out for all the riders. It was a fast start to the 143 km stage 5. Rudy is certainly feeling second hand now and struggling to find his legs, stomach and butt hole functioning well. The front riders smashed through the early stages of the race very fast with big groups working well to gap people and turn the screws. The pro's almost an hour ahead of the riders coming through was an awesome effort. It was interesting to see some different riders roll through in front of their usual places. I think the roadies managed pretty well today if they had some good tech skills with a final climb and descent of 80 odd meters over about 8km. Ben had a blow out of the rear tyre today and a broken spoke. I think the amount of pizza he consumed the night before tipped the scales in the wrong direction putting too much pressure on that poor spoke. So he dropped away a little but still managed a solid time and felt ok at the end. He certainly rides well for a solid unit and is well and truely a diesel engine. Rudy and Paris were obviously struggling lagging well behind Ben at the finish, some 20+ mins in arrears. Rudy was now looking like a SAFA skeleton of note. He grovelled from the start and must've been in all sorts of pain for the full 143km. He wasn't able to get much tucker in and has starting dropping some blood in the outback loo. Not a good sign. We dragged him to the Medical tent for a good talking too by the Doc as the message to eat proper food wasn't going in. His fluid level was up but the gels were taking a toll on his gut. Seeing him at the start of stage 6 he certainly looked a little fresher, so here's hoping he gets through the day in good shape for a big push on the final day. The evening saw Ben's lovely wife Johanette lob into town for the final stages of the race. We were booked into a quaint little villa at an apple farm just out of town for the next 2 nights. The villa had been under construction for some time but we were assured it would be ready for us on time. I don't think so....

We arrived to see all hands on deck trying to finish the place. But with external cladding missing and looking seriously like a few days away from completion we were not going to stay in that. The owner feeling pretty sheepish ushered us into her place for the afternoon so we could shower up and was offering a free stay. Ben was taking it all in his stride and didn't cause too many waves at all. That was until Johanette turned up. Fark me........ did she let loose. Look out for an angry South African mother and wife. Completely unhappy with the situation she took Ben's balls in hand and locked them away in the handbag. While Ben stood quiet she unleashed on the owners demanding a better situation. C and I took the opportunity to disappear back to the race village and go around the storm that was opening up over the normally quiet apple farm. Another man quickly looking like a former shadow of himself. Quite a funny sight to see. We arrived back to inhabit another nice little house on the property and the ability to have free stay at the place for the rest of time. So I will book for next year before we leave........ Christelle's rib is slowly coming good with sleeping at night the toughest task for comfort. My legs are getting itchy for some riding given they have had some good rest now since I've been away. The weather has turned a little cold but with great weather during the day. We managed to take a little deviation off the main track to see a beautiful valley town called Franschoek. The mountain pass was magnificent with some brilliant roads that would rival some of the great climbs that we have done in Europe over the past couple of years. The descents would be super fast with nice flowing corners and a solid gradient. Hopefully the race goes through here next year. Off for some sight seeing and a nice lunch by the ocean side, whale watching town of Hermanus while the riders smash themselves over 119km second last stage....... BUZZ

Stage 1, 2 Magic scenery and broken bones

2011-03-31T10:59:00.004+11:00

Stage one saw the 89km trip tick over in 5hrs and 55min. It saw one of the pro riders in Kevin Evans crash out with a collar bone break on one of the narly descents. There were 3 collar bones in total today and many other walking wounded. It was an extreme stage for the riders but the course also came with big wraps on it as being one of the best stages ever for actual mountain biking and scenery. The race headquarters is in a wine estate called Saronsburg. The field the tents are set up in is massive and purpose prepared for the race as it is situated here for 3 days, there is a chill room where you can watch the world cup cricket, rugby, or any other sport that takes your fancy. There are mobile shower trucks set up a massive eating tent and several stalls mixed in amongst the sponsors tents and bike mechanics that are on call. It is a sight to behold. Team KMD managed to stay in one piece today and out of most major troubles. Christelle did take her second tumble and then a 3rd today making it 3 in 2 days but was still in good shape, but is it a sign of things to come?? It was a tough course having some very steep ascents and descents that would test the skills of even the best riders out there. The descents were covered in a thick but loose film of that red African dust and what lay below wasn't always kind to the riders. With tree roots and rocks below the dust the odd surprise got thrown at them and hence a stack here or there. There were stories of riders going down all over and trying not to ride over them was sometimes impossible so a human speed hump also became an obstacle. Theses riders become almost un-recognisable at the end of the day and if you have white kit on, well no nappy san is going to get that out. C's Bro was helping her out on some of the climbs and flats with a helping hand in the back every now and then and also giving the odd verbal joust to push her to her limits if in fact she wasn't already on it!! With no mechanical's to speak of things were traveling along nicely, Team KMD were sitting in 13th spot still and had improved by a massive 20% on overall GC dropping them into 190th out of 600 teams. The plan was to move into top 10 as soon as possible. I managed to get around to many of the spectator points and cheer the team and get some great photos of the race and scenery. My introduction to some of the locals was interesting. Upon telling them I was Australian i was met with the response that "oh the people that we hate" as you can imagine was quick response was "why because we beat you at everything"?, stick that in your boerewors and eat it. I have been met with this greeting on more than one occasion, but it's better sitting in my seat as a perennial winner that a choker so all is good really and ultimately they are lovely people with a good sense of competition and rivalry with Australia so keep up the jibes we love the banter. The evening saw us off for my first South African Braai. I was on my way to what is called meat dreams. On the Braai menu was a choice of 2 x meats + Boerewors and a token salad. Lamb, beef, chicken and pork to choose from. I tucked into the steak and chicken box… thanks very much. It was a good cook up but well short of the amount of dead carcass I thought I was going to get. I'm looking for a better addition of the Braai down the track. Stage 2 Was to be a 104km stage with an extreme climb out of this wonderful valley inside 20km, something to blow the legs up early and wake you right up. It was roughly 1000m over roughly 6km but loose and rocky. Lots of walking was done by most of the competitors here with only the Pro guys going through in good shape. By half way the Pro's were in a tight group of about 12 and pumping along well. The KMD crew were travelling well just before the 2nd water station. I had managed to let the raines out on the Range rover and get to the furthest point well away from other spectators and with a good vantage point to get some photos and hurl some much needed encouragement. They had moved there way up the mixed field to sit in virtual 6th on the trail when I saw them. By the next stop I made the news wasn't so good. I seemed to be waiting an eternity and sensed something may have gone wrong. Christelle had taken her 4th fall on a downhill at an off camber corner, grabbing a handful of front brake at the wrong time saw her hit the deck hard with Ben saying all he saw was a massive cloud of dust and a big thud. She had come down very hard and knocked the wind out of herself. There were still 50 solid km to go so it was time to drag herself up off the deck and bite the lip to make the trek home and back down the massive descent they had come up earlier. The tears of pain were flowing and every little pebble was felt in her ribs. She had actually fractured her 6th rib which was confirmed after a drive to the hospital after the race. C was gutted and in a fair bit of pain as you can imagine. Pretty tough customer I must say pushing that 50km out with a clean beak in the ribs. It was decision time now to keep riding or sit this one out........ Given she finished the day she is able to miss the next one and start the following day, but only as a blue numbered rider, an un-official rider. Her brother continues on but is out of the mix without a partner. We'll see if she can grit her teeth and punch out the TT on Thursday and push through till the end........ Until then we cheer the rest on and take in the sights of this magical little valley and wine region around Tulbagh. BUZZ

Some shots from the Cape Epic

2011-03-29T19:22:00.008+11:00

The Great Journey, The in Laws, The Epic, The Black Man, and Uncharted Lands for the BUZZ

2011-03-29T08:46:00.014+11:00

Christelle winning yet another Triathlon!!

Buzz's blog about Christelle's Cape Epic and other adventures in South Africa

The day started with a long haul flight from Sydney to uncharted territory in Johannesburg in South Africa. I was off to meet the OUTLAWS......... Me being the jammy bugger that I am just happened to roll to the front of the queue and end up in one of water feature clients line. She promptly smiled and ushered my very over weight bag through to baggage and locked out the entire row of seats next to me on the plane and then handed me an express ticket for customs. Bang I was away, happy days and good signs for what lay ahead. After a great feed in the airport at Dank St Depot where I had what must've been the best bacon ever tasted with some poached eggs and a great cap to boot I was off into the express line. For about 15mins I knew what it felt like to be Foz with the red carpet and rolled out and no punters to push through in big lines.

Flight went to plan and we actually hit the tarmac a tad early. With no hassles on the other end it was straight through to what was supposed to be a welcoming party of `Safa's. Instead, I found myself abandoned for the next half hour. No drama's really as I was taking lots in at the airport. Christelle arrived with her Ma in tow, happy greetings and we were off to the homestead. After 14 hrs on the plane, 5 movies and 45mins sleep it was about 4 in the afternoon and we made it to the outside security gates at C's parents place. They are in a gated community, for obvious safety reasons in the volatile lands of South Africa and especially dangerous area of Joburg. The place is a great homestead right on top of the hill with 360 degree views, little Jack Russel's running around everywhere and a couple of water features trickling away in the background. The favourite dish of Ox tail stew was on the menu and my first hit of the meat frenzied diet I was about to endure for the next 3 weeks. Great meal I must say and the Oldies very accommodating and friendly. By now, I was busted and needed sleep knowing I had a massive 14hrs on the road from Joburg to Capetown the next morning.

Joburg to Capetown was a massive undertaking with 2 Jack Russell's in the car and 6 bikes (3 being the Bro's kids bikes) and the car was chocker's. Off we went at 5am sharp. The sights heading out of Joburg were interesting to say the least, with regular utes passing by with 5-10 Black's in the back on their way to work, certainly a sight that you don't see in Oz. Cars travelling around 160km an hour on the freeways was not unusual either. Out of the city, it was similar to the Sydney to Melbourne trip. Scenery wise for a large part it was ongoing hay plains thrown in until you hit 2 hrs from Capetown where the mountains just spring right up at you and the scenery becomes magic. We had left in the dark and arrived in the dark. With 2 x 14 hrs travel hits I was in the box and needed sleep, two pieces of toast with something similar to vegemite but way off the mark for taste and I was in zzzzz land.

Now let me say at this point a bug bear that had presented itself was these black fellas that either walk behind you begging for coin and being pests or then there are guys who think they are parking guides for your car. Everytime you pull up to a parking spot or parking lot they seem to think you need help getting into the spot and then put there hand out for some cash. "Get Stuffed Boy and get out of my way hey" I'm not far out sorted one out with my elbow son Ii must say. They even walk up the middle of the lane at the lights, yes even when the traffic is moving trying to sell you anything from papers to some homemade trash to a bag of dogshit, I'm sure. If your window is not up you'll have black on white in your front window. They may well become a speed hump for an Aussie in 4WD soon........

CAPETOWN

Magic place with awesome scenery and some of the best road cycling I've seen. Brilliant climbs and coast roads that take your breath away. The morning rides here would be something I must say and the weekend ones crackers. Not sure how safe we would all be on the road though with little care for cyclists over here. You would certainly have to pick your roads. C and her Bro Ben and I took off on a tap along the Cape coast road for a body wake up and to open the senses. It was about an hour tap where I nearly threw up. My heart rate hit the roof on the climb out of town. With jetlag well and truly hitting me hard and not having raised the heart rate for a few days I was hurting. I didn't want the Bro to gap me so I stuck solid to his wheel as I do and C was hurting a little as well trying to find her legs after a 14hr stint in the car the previous day as well. All good in the end and a magical little ride with the KMD kit well on show in the CAPE. It was C's birthday so we took off for the cable car trip up Table Mountain. MAGIC is all that needs to be said here. Cracking views and top weather made it lakker lakker (Safa for awesome). So by now I had met the oldies, the Bros, the Sis, The kids, The dogs, The honkies and that would just about do it for now.

Cape Epic - The Prologue

After all the registration and the build to the race at the Water Front in Capetown it was off to Fish Hook for our accom in a quaint little B&B literally on the water. Brilliant drive down along the coast which certainly rivals the Great Ocean Road back home. Dinner was at a waterside and Ii mean waterside restaurant which was brilliant and a good night sleep for the team 'Big fat Bastards" or as I will refer "TEAM KMD" before the nerves really kick in in the morning before the race Prologue. The time had arrived to race. The Cape Epic is a massive production with 1200 riders over 8 days, 14550m of climbing and 707km to travel. The Prologue was a 27km sprint through baboon infested forest, single track and plenty of fire trails. The teams started every 35seconds and it was nerve central for all. Televised live on TV here. Team KMD got some good exposure on the box. They came home in 13th spot in the mixed category and 15mins off the pace of the elite mixed team. C had a fall with about 10m to go on the grass finish oval with no broken bones and a rude awakening to what lies ahead. It was hot dusty and unforgiving for the riders but team KMD stayed out of trouble and in a good position to move into the top 10 in Stage 1. The race had begun.........

STAGE 1

It would see 89 km tick over today with some very tough terrain to manage and worst of all a 500m decent over just 1.5km with boulders the size of watermelons. The race unfolds as I write this so the updates will come later. It's my time to head back out to the roads and start the camera snapping again so till later............

BUZZ

Forget TDU.....This is the U.S.of A!!!!

2011-02-06T07:52:00.001+11:00

Here we are in sunny Long Beach. Just done a lazy 100k, stopped for brekky at the turnaround. We ended up at Laguna Beach, a great little spot where the girls enjoyed playing volleyball!!!!

We took off at 7.30 heading down the famous PCH...or Pacific Coast Highway for you non locals. It is very similar to riding in Adelaide....just a touch better. The hills along PCH are like Adelaide too....just a little bit better! We sat and watched the volleyball for a while in the southern California Sunshine, then headed back to Long Beach. Russ was cutting a fine figure as he pushed along at 40k an hour with Le Foz on his wheel!

When we arrived back at Long Beachm we cruised along the beachfront for the last couple of k's. Have a look at the video at what the girls are running in.....only in LA!

The Foz rules at Checkers!

2011-01-23T04:11:00.003+11:00

Here is one of the Melb boys strutting up Checkers!

Stage 3 – Checkers Hill & The day Sydney turned the screw!

2011-01-22T00:48:00.003+11:00

Adelaide 21st January 2011

Today was always going to be a bash fest or not. There was a nervousness and quiet amongst the group as we rolled out to the coffee shop at 8.30. The coffee was gold as usual and a nice little wake up for some. The chit-chat was jovial with a strange absence of banter. The track was up over Norton Summit the traditional FFT way then out
through the picturesque rolling hills to Lobethal. We would follow most of our trip from Wednesday, through Gumeracha and then up the backside of Checkers Hill. This was to be new territory for many of the riders in the group. Then we would return through one of our favourites “The Gorge” it would be a 95km day of attacks, hills, fast downhills and bragging rights

We headed for Norton from the coffee shop via Magill rd. With some road works in play just before Magill rd (surely a neutral zone) Buzz just happened to sneak through the lights ahead of the group and drift off ahead of the group on the 3-4km approach to Norton. Taking the opportunity he cruised along with a small group waiting for the main players to catch up part way up the climb. They didn’t come though. So rather than steal an easy win, he set up shop and took video of the attacks coming through. It was on from the first left hand turn about 2km up. Deluca was the man to kick the fun off (or pain for most), Dave Evans, the Sydney recruit who joins in the FFT on a regular basis decided he was in. Dave from Melbourne was showing good form and was ready and wiling to jump on that move as well. Radman, Poolboy, Velvet were all in the mood as well. The heart rates went into the red way too early in the day and Rad was casualty number one. Evans kicked it up a gear and the only man to go with him was the other Dave. Dave and Dave were into it in a class of their own on the first climb with the others saving themselves after being spat, for the gruelling riding ahead.

The points were split at the summit with the poor buggers bringing up the rear wondering what they were in for today. Over the next 20 odd km’s to Lobethal it was attack after attack with Sydney starting to turn the screw. Poolboy started putting the hurt on at the top of each climb and with Buzz sucking The Koala’s wheel up one of the nasty climbs only to blow past with 500m to go. The cracks were starting to show for the Vics. After The velvets big push up Norton for a clear 3rd he went missing big time. Mind you he did say he was off keeping Grubby and some of the other back markers company. As soon as the back markers get to the waiting riders it’s straight back into it. If only they could get more rest……It’s a tough crowd and tough riding bunch that seems to take no prisoners. If you do a big turn and hope the next guy through will roll through nicely and let you grab his wheel in thanks for breaking the wind you are sadly mistaken. It’s basically, ”thanks mate, good luck getting on the back of my wheel, ha ha ha ha sucker”

With about 8km to go to Lobethal, the rolling hills can unhitch most riders. Roger the sleeping giant from Sydney came to life and seemed to sneak off the front in the hope of getting to the top of one of the pinches first. The Koala bear, Foster is in fair form and took up the chase. The Sydney boys in the trailing group shouted to Roger to go. He had no excuse and had to grit the teeth. It was a long way from home though. The two Daves got lazy and were deep in a mothers meeting when Buzz seized the opportunity to close Foz down. He was a fair way up the hill ahead so he had to dig in. As Foz peeked the climb he turned to see Buzz glued to his heel sucking in the big ones. It was recovery time for him and time to work with Foz. With Roger about 500m out ahead, and the trailing bunch 800m back there was nowhere to go but dig in and chase. As the gap closed to Roger and another pinch arrived, Buzz jumped the old dog who knew what was coming. It was time for payback from Tuesdays bashing. With about 2 km to Lobethal and lunch it was all out. Roger had done a great job and was fading fast with a closing bunch behind led by the Radman. Buzz took the reins and smoked it into town for an solid clear and decisive victory. The Vic’s had clearly fractured with their one-day classic riding showing its achillies. The NSW crew seem to get better in the stage races and this is where it was at today.

A well earned lunch at the great bakery in Lobethal and it was time to roll onto Checkers Hill for the KOM in the TDU. It’s a nice gradual gradient heading up out of town and then a cracking old country rd downhill into Gumeracha. For those hoping that an after lunch cruise was on the cards…..Not today. The speeds hit mid to high 60’s for the 7+km and at one stage reaching 75km/hr. The Velvet was back in a tussle with Poolboy swapping turns at the front with a group of about 10 in tow. This was one of the most exciting parts of a ride I’ve been on and there was more to come. The group had splintered understandably and would regroup at Checkers Hill. Dave Evans played it beautifully and snatched KOM at Checkers. The only form of retribution for the Vic’s could come from a dominant outing on the Gorge rd when we turn for home.

The TDU made its way up the tough climb of Checkers to all the cheering crowd who always turn out in the droves up there. The police get into the swing of things ride up and down while sweating their boxes off up their to continous cheers and spectators running beside them. The race was all together with no breakaways yet and some of the sprinters were right up the front, most notably Griepel. With the viewing of the race over it was time to dance. After a regroup at the bottom of Checkers, the pace grew steadily. The main players had broken away again with some solid movers in The Koala bear and Johnny the Lard Miller settling in beautifully. 4 blokes from the FRF racing team in Sydney just happened to like what they saw and joined in on the fun. The tempo went ballistic at the rolling hills section of the Gorge. This section can well and truly break the best when the pace is on. Today was as hot as I’ve seen it. It was full race mode. The attacks, swap offs and turns were fever pitched when we hit the main descent. The wind was pumping and so were the quads, they were burning, the heart rate was in the red and the lungs were screaming. The 4 NSW imports were slotting in beautifully but the real race was with Velvet, Deluca (sitting waiting), Poolboy, Kabel Michele’, The Buzz and the Rad man, Dave and Dave. Everyone was chewing bars but somehow finding something. A large truck presented about 3km from the rollers on the way out of the Gorge. De Luca using all his experience and race skills jumped from the group. The only man in position to chase was Poolboy. He managed to tuck in after a big chase only to blow to pieces and hand De Luca a well thought out win. You would’ve thought the pace would slow after that but NO, not until we arrived at the coffee shop in Rundle St. General consensus from most was that it was one of the best rides/races we have done in Radelaide. What a great way to cap off an awesome trip.

Some head home tomorrow while the others will hopefully cruise to Aldinga and up Willunga for the climb in the TDU, always a great highlight.

Cheers to all that have joined in its been another awesome FFT in Adelaide, hopefully all have enjoyed themselves. With no incidents other than Robbo’s self bashing on Wed it’s been all clear. Well done to all. Shame to see Sheep have to go back for work early but he’ll be back next year and for Sandy showing him how it’s done on their last day here. If you haven’t got a mention in the reports, apologies, but get involved so your name hits the pages of the FFT Blog next year.

Until next year CIOA!!

Buzz

Stage 3 – Glenelg, Unley and the Greenhill

2011-01-21T00:20:00.003+11:00

Adelaide 20th January 2011

After some very solid riding and numerous, well in some cases excess consumption of the great amber ale it was a day for recovery and self-assessment. The odour permeating from some was intense to say the least. The rollout destination was straight down to Glenelg. We had a breakaway group head out the traditional way only to be beaten to the pass by the group directors and a close possy that believe in the directions being given. It seems that those that question or waiver from the path ultimately end up in no mans land or fall behind wondering what went wrong!

Knowing the usual attempts to utilise large vehicles on the fast trip down to Glenelg would be on the cards Buzz and Poolboy were very vigilant sitting on the front knowing that at any moment any number of bodies could come flying by in any one of 3 lanes tucked in behind a bus, a truck or larger vehicle hoping to get the lights when it counted. Most of the big players were in the front group but even the best miss the boat sometimes. Poolboy pounced on a passing bus with Buzz close behind. The energy went ballistic with the Koala Bear Foster trying to jump on board as well as Kabel Michele’. The big unit, Leigh seemed to miss the boat and could see clear road ahead. His attempt to smile through gritted teeth was almost inspiring as he rolled past us freeloaders tucked in file behind the bus one lane across. It was a test of nerve to see who could stay on the back of the bus as Leigh in the inside lane blew a gasket only to watch his fellow Vic, Foster fall off the bus and back in line. Buzz snuck onto a passing truck in the outside lane and had a sweet ride to swing past Poolboy and over the line first at the lights into Glenelg Manly 1-2.

The rest of the crew made their way down for a super relaxed start to the day. There were some funny stories to be passed around from the day before and loads of coffee, chocolate filled doughnuts, toasted sanga’s, small and large treats to be had before rolling out to the high energy start line in Unley. With magnificent leadership from Robbo on the front we landed spot on in the same place as last year. After yesterday’s MISFORTUNE on the bike Robbo was keen to stay upright and to lead from the front and break as much wind as he could.

The start line was a buzz with media everywhere and thousands of happy onlookers trying to get glimpses of the Pro cyclists. After yesterday’s bingles on the road there were plenty of riders resembling mummies wrapt from head to toe and the worst being poor little Cav. He was well supported and cheered all day for getting out there and riding after what looked to be a race ending crash. If he does actually make the end I will be surprised. He certainly didn’t look too happy tapping through Stirling today at least a minute back from the main Peloton on his own.

After descending the now famous Greenhill rd it was time to head up it for the first time for many. It was a nice pace set by Robbo till he blew a pooper valve about 200m’s in, time to go to the back champ… Thanks for your efforts J. Poolboy and Buzz set a nice cruisy pace early before stopping to take some happy snaps on the way up. They must’ve known Dave Foster was coming up as we passed a Koala’s ahead sign half way up. By the time we reached the top of Greenhill rd it resembled the slopes of Mt Hotham on a good day. Bodies were scattered everywhere but some still had a smile while others clearly couldn’t speak. Some poor bloke at the top of Greenhill asked after a big night out if someone could PLEASE strap him into his bed when his group got home got home so that he couldn’t possibly go out again and abuse his temple the way he did the previous night. Hangovers and hills mixed in with heat don’t quite mix.

We decided to deviate off track only slightly and make our way to the summit at Mt Lofty. The look out up there is Brilliant and was well worth the deviation. The Koala Bear thought he could carry the Foster name and snatch some KOM points only to hit the reverse switch and have Poolboy and Rad swing by to snatch the points. Poor Foz the Boss would’ve received a photo of all the riders up there looking at a million dollar view, clear skies and warm temps. Sorry mate is was good though. We all miss the Boss being here almost as much as he missing being here. So tomorrow we ride for you mate. Our black arm bands are almost worn out but will make a couple of extra days I’m sure.

The following decent into Stirling was short but super quick and almost ground my carbon pads down to metal on the stop. We had intentions of getting to the KOM at Bridgewater but thought we were too short of time. A few decided to run the gauntlet and head there. There were 8 crusaders who managed to ignore the men in Blue and made the KOM with about 1 minute to go. Radman inhaled his Subway he had been carrying for ten minutes before a quick departure back down into Aldgate and back up the hill towards the finish line to join most of the FFT crew in the shade. The TDU bunch swept by with plenty of cheers for McKewan and the rest of the Aussies. Lance was driving at the front trying to keep the break away close for Robbie. When it all came together with about 5km to go it was game on. Michael Matthews jagged the victory on the long uphill sprint into Stirling. In only his second outing in a Pro team he has secured a stage victory. Not a bad buy by Rabobank.

The trip home was supposed to be via the Greenhill decent again but most of the crew jumped on the back of the Pro groups heading back to town. The crew being shown a new track home with the highlight of having a spin with the likes of legend Stu O’Grady and the new Leopard team.

A solid recovery day was had by all. With The traditional Checkers Hill day with new route and a rear entry (keep it clean people) is on the cards tomorrow. Rest up, I think it may hurt tomorrow.

Buzz

Stage 2 – Radelaide to Charlestown (FOR SOME)

2011-01-20T00:58:00.006+11:00

The natural order of the world has been restored. The Sydney boys taking an easy sprint on the way to Charlestown - Photo courtesy of Cycling tips (who came 5th while taking a photo!!!)

Adelaide 18th January 2011

Today started off with a traditional FFT roll out of 8.30, we rolled off to a great little café not far from the Medina, which was first visited last year. The service is red hot and the Barista goes alright as well….

It was team Sydney’s chance to reel some rope back in from the demolition of the Stage 1. The group had swollen somewhat with fresh legs from Melbourne and Sydney, one notable Sydney inclusion being Kabel Michele’ behind the scenes director. Melbourne had the ever entertaining, Robbo roll in (roll being the word). Robbo was to provide some extra entertainment during the mornings riding, more of that later.

The roll out took us towards the infamous Norton Summit. The usual trip takes us up the New Norton Summit track, which is a tad longer and more gradual than Old Norton Summit rd. It started gradual enough and with a sign topping the Summit at 5km. Surely it couldn’t be too bad. Within a km the group had fractured with the back markers not bothering to try to hang onto the frenetic pace being set up front. Robbo did manage to hit the front early in the ascent only to crawl home well back. Being the big sprinter that was not too unexpected. There were some legs spinning over from the previous days activities at a much slower cadence and being only 15km into the ride the cobwebs were well and truly still stuck to the stumps.

Half way up I was certainly sweating more than I would’ve liked and very little noise other than heavy panting was coming out. To look over and see Leigh the Velvet Sledgehammer on his phone wasn’t a good sign so early in the day. The main group of about 10 included fresh legs, Dave the “Koala Bear” Foster looking in magnificent form, The velvet, Poolboy on no more than 2 hours sleep, The RadMan, Kabel Michele’, with Buzz just about to be unhitched. Newcomer Wade Wallace “Braveheart” just decided to cruise past all the main pacesetters on the steepest part and just casually take some happy snaps up ahead……. As you can imagine it was looking ugly for the day. With Radman leading out, The Velvet casually just went around Rad. Poolboy did his best to get on the wheel just before the summit, to no avail. More points to the peanuts from down south.

The first 30+km is some of the toughest in Adelaide with steep ascents and twisting fast descents until you hit Lobethal. About 5km out from Lobethal the pace was ON. Swapping off and rolling into tough pinches the rusty legs of some were hurting and some fresh legs were causing some grief. After another attack from the Velvet the call went out for the drug testers to make themselves known back at the digs after the race for some samples. Kabel needed a kick-start somewhere and was finding himself in a little hole that was dark and hard to see out of. His fumbling around looking for something bumped him straight into a bee’s arse at about 70km an hour through a fast section of brilliant winding road. The bee happily deposited it’s sting, a55 and intestines in what can only be described as a fortuitous suicide bombing allowing the little blighter to head to bumble bee heaven sooner rather than later. Joining Kabel was the rugged rough bearded looking “Hollywood” Blunck. For some reason Hollywood felt like going the swallow….the bee flew straight into his mouth and deposited a present on the inside of his cheek. Go figure! You would’ve thought there was a bee swarm flying our way. Mitch decided to leave his in for a photo opportunity. Clearly there aren’t too many other reasons why you would take a close up of that head.

Time was tight so a quick stop at Lobethal after Poolboy easily snatched the KOM and Sprint points in town saw us head out on unchartered road. Good old Robbo decided to roll over something sharp and grab the first flat of the tour. All his great Vic mates were happy to sit by while The Sydney crew helped out and got us underway without too much fuss. Up over a pinch and a great gradual descent saw us hitting low 70’s and into a town called Gumeracha. Party boy for the first time in the day decided to take his own course and went straight, he quickly sorted his error out and found his way back to the front and out on his own. Que in ROBBO…… Puncture number 2. With a flat tyre Robbo had what can only be described as a “Clanger” a “Brain Explosion” a “Fu3K Up” a…. alright you get the picture. He decides to see how leaning in and turning goes with metal rims on bitumen. Can I tell you, NOT good. Robbo promptly, but lets say in slow motion for all of us hit the deck, the ground shook a little but the little bald unit didn’t move too swiftly. The Heli evac wasn’t needed so off the road it was and finally the Vic boys helped him repair the flat. There were a pack of Lamas in the adjacent paddock, which I suggested, may be a better for of transport for him but he sucked it up beautifully and clipped back in.

We were now on a tight schedule with 40km’s to go to the feed station viewing and about an hour 15 to get there. Pool boy rallied the troops and attempted to get a solid paceline going. It seems that the Melbourne boys don’t quite get that one and let it be said when the call to arms out and the hard work to be done, a couple of the leading Vics were found wanting,hiding back in the pack. Not mentioning anyone Velvet……… The cracks were starting to show.

The group was flying before a few boys legs failed them, it splintered with a good solid group of numbers holding in there. We made it to the feed station with Buzz getting a great leadout from the Poolboy and with Frodo a close second NSW snapped up sprint points. The pendulum was coming back slowly.

Mitch seemed to be the only one to snap up a goodie from the feed station with a Kashuta feed bag landing beautifully in his grubby mitts, nice work. While eating lunch and taking a well deserved rest, Buzz fielded a call from Hollywood. He was with 2 boys that had been dropped from the group when the pace went up and got a massive bum steer to Williamstown instead of Charlestown. Bang that hurts. 150km day for the stragglers and a 3rd visit to the gorge rd. Nice scenery at least. The trip home was 40km and with the anticipation of a little surprise from the Buzz the pace was solid even with hamburgers, nachos, fries and whatever else was sitting in the full bellies of the boys. A tough hot climb along Greenhill rd almost to the Lofty Summit saw us all re-gather before the doors were blown off by, Leigh, Damo, Poolboy, Braveheart and sneaking into contention for the KOD (King of the descent) points was the grovelling Party boy De Luca. With a VERY questionable passing of a truck on the descent, the Vics got clear of the Sydney crew to snatch all the points. An awesome descent down Greenhill Rd, with possibly one of the best views going round was enjoyed by all. Mind you I did find myself locked up heading for the wall before pulling the Canyon up 2 turns from the bottom. Great to live on the edge isn’t it?? Good to see the fresh legs come in and some of the players from day 1 grovelling a bit.Tomorrow is a short one with some vehicle aids about to come into play on the Anzac Highway on the way to Glenelg.

Let it be said “no bragging rights or imaginary points are worth hitting the dirt or a car for gents. Enjoy the Buzz and keep it safe” Lets enjoy the coffee, the sights the racing and a thousand laughs along with some friendly competition.

Oh and in the TDU, we see Robbie Mac on top of the leader board with Goss second and Swift from the UK in 3rd. It seems the Ashes are still alive and well. With CavONDISH stacking 3km from the end and a massive bingle 300m from the finish in the sprint there will be some very sore bodies hoping on bikes tomorrow. The TDU is hotting up with the hope of an Aussie 1,2,3 and the pressure building in the FFT we can’t wait for Stage 3

Also check out more of the day and great photos - courtesy of Wade and his great website, www.cyclingtipsblog.com

Buzz

Melbourne Boys draw first blood!

2011-01-19T01:41:00.011+11:00

Adelaide 18th Jan 2011

Stage 1 – Radelaide to Lyndoch to Tanunda 150km

To cap off the 2nd day in Adelaide the Sydney boys headed out to the much loved Siam Thai restaurant. The food once again didn’t disappoint. There were some dishes in there with some serious kick in them. Sweat was starting to bead of Buzz’s massive forehead followed closely by Michael’s puffing grunting and panting. The chef’s special of Barramundi was to say the least, magnificent. After hearing Johnny Millers brilliant outback fishing story for Barra with a local Aborigine and many hungry crocodiles and many laughs later we left for the gelato bar. Let it be said the great Sheepy has now sported a new nickname. “SMEAGLE” from the great tale of Lord of the rings. His sidekick Sandy “Frodo” Parkes was pi55ing himself. Spitting image I must say. With stomachs full we made our way to bed with the anticipation of the day to come. Melbourne was still quiet and uncited……….

Stage 1

Danny Poolboy Wright arrived in a whirlwind followed by Bluncky. The main crew had left for the coffee shop knowing we would be a few minutes late. With some of the quickest bike building ever seen we had 2 bikes on the road by 9.10 and hit the coffee shop with cheers from the awaiting crew. After some quick hello’s, Poolboy found himself looking around for his long lost love in The “Radman” only to find him standing right beside him. If we could replay it in slow motion the loving embrace would possible go down along with some of the classics from the best love stories in history. Romeo and Juliet springs to mind, Turner and Hooch and quite possibly the embrace in Jerry McGuire when she says “shut up, you had me at hello” After we wiped the tears away it was off to follow the new STAND IN BOSS Buzzolini. With great vigour he tapped it out from the front with Poolboy. At one stage already having “The velvet sledgehammer” and Party boy De Luca in the box chasing after apparently missing a light…….whatever!!

The signs were ominous though for the Sydney crew after hitting the beautiful creek side winding road of the Gorge the road starting going up. The numbers in Blue dwindled quickly to 3, then Johnny was gone it was Poolboy and Buzz flying the flag with the experienced crew of Radman, De Luca and The Hammer. The pace was through the roof over the last Km’s to the milk bar at Cudlee Creek. Buzz attacked with a Km to go only to be swallowed up by the whirlwind of The hammer. Danny tried in vein to get back on his wheel with first blood going to the Vics. For the first time the Vics had some banter in them.

The ride ticked over again with plenty of hanger oners grabbing a free draft on the ever growing legend of the FFT rides. The pace was gentlemanly until Williamstown. Leigh took off with DeLuca in tow thinking that there was a sprint ahead. They looked good though……. Poolboy and Rad decided it was a great opportunity to attack with about 10km to Lyndoch and our pitstop. The chase was on with the two boys out of site we hit 50+km/hr on the chase and stayed there till the catch. Poolboy went again and snatched the win at the first town sign of Lyndoch, followed closely by an ever thinking Deluca, who ditched the main road went cross country to a side footpath to try to sneakily snatch the win. Upon arrival at Lyndoch a few of the newcomers were in a bit of a spin at the pace that was set coming into town. Great stuff

The TDU swung by in a spin and we decided to kick on to Tanunda and watch the race go by twice more before heading home. The Aussie boys were right in the mix with 2 in the main break and Mick Rogers chasing for his Sky crew. Bobridge in his first venture out in the Aussie Champs road kit looked Gold to say the least. We would have to wait till home to see the results which would eventually see Aussie boy Goss get the win from Greipel and our old favourite ROBBIE McKeeewana

So it was, back to the main race, the trip home. The black clouds were moving in for the Manly crew who were beginning to look well out numbered. The pack stayed together till Checkers hill which we happily passed by again. The pace was on with Leigh attacking Buzz and Poolboy with that old dog Lard Miller loving the hitout and holding wheels beautifully. Sheepy was all smiles and Sandy well, is possibly picking his carbon bars from his teeth after sitting on the front with Danny, with Danny not letting him roll off till the top of one of the hills on the way home. Over the final few km’s leading into Cudlee creek it was down to The Sledgehammer and Buzz, with the chasers including the leaders underestimating a few of the sharp corners ahead. With a couple of close calls, the sledge took honours again. It was starting to get ugly.

After a quick refuel it was head for home down the Gorge. There was 4 then 5. Rad, Poolboy, The Sledge, Party Boy and Buzz. The rest happy to leave the stupidity to this lot. The Manly boys were getting bashed with Poolboy on 2 hrs sleep after moving house the night before his legs understandably gave up the ghost. It was Buzz and 3 street fighters from Melbourne. He took hit after hit but fought back stealing the front on the 75km+ decent, only to be hit again. This time the legs weren’t happy with getting out of the saddle, it was all over. Buzz was left on his own in no mans land time trialling in the hope of getting back on. A red light his saviour it all came together with Poolboy, Lard, Jay and Mike rejoining the run home. With Poolboy taking line honours out the front of the hotel it was off to the Spa for some much needed R&R. The lasting effects of tangling with Buzz had taken its toll on the Velvet Sledghammer though with him cramping badly much to everyone’s amusement.

The signs aren’t good for Sydney but with the successful Manly lead out train from Bright back together with the arrival of navy Boy the next few days could be interesting.

34kph avg. Vic smashing Nsw who have yet to trouble the scorers. Buzz burning a box of matches, impressing all

Bring on Day 2.

Buzz [photos by that famous cycling photographer - Leigh Schilling(aka the velvet sledgehammer)]

Adelaide 2011 - Tour Down Under commences!

2011-01-18T01:36:00.001+11:00

Adelaide Sunday January 17th 2011

Day/Nighter

Well here we are again for another Tour Down Under, 2011. This shapes up to be a cracking race in the Pro Tour, with the likes of Cavendish, Griepel, McEwan in new colours, a multitude of in form Aussies, Brown, Sutton, Bobridge and the old dog in his final International Tour, Lance. The stage is also set for a cracking Tour for Foster’s flying Tours. With “The Boss” Mike Foster missing in action, lost somewhere deep deep deep under cover in the snow drenched cities of the US for this years tour the scene is set for some new blood to rear its hand and take charge or for the ship to fall to pieces with the possibility of no direction and mutiny in the ranks if no one steps up to the plate to rule with the iron fist that we have all come to expect from the great Foz. Let the days ahead tell the story……….

Day 1 “The Stag/The Crit/The Hangover” Sunday 17th

Adelaide was still in anticipation of the arrival of the first of the Sydney crew. It seems Sydney as usual was needed to warm the city, coffee shops, bars and streets of Adelaide for the sheepish Melbournians to feel at ease when rolling into town. Shell shocked and beaten to pulp in 2010 the Melbourne crew have been super quiet in their preparation for the unknown and new routes that are on the table in 2011. I would go so far to say that we haven’t heard a peep out of the usually lippy Vics. This could be the calm before the storm and with the late inclusion of the old hairy sleepy dog in David Foster something could be brewing.

Buzz snuck into town well under the radar to be the first into the trusty Medina Grand. This I’m sure will be the first and last time he arrives first this tour. Tour veterans Johnny “Lard Arse” Miller and Sheepy rolled in with relative newcomer Sandy “Frodo” in tow. The only thing missing was their bikes!!! The filthy cursing coming out of Lards mouth re: Qantas was appalling to say the least. With the thought of having to hit the Stag without the bike safely built and tucked up in bed was playing on the boy’s mind. Luck has that all of Lards positive words and thoughts had the bikes arrive before departure to watch the Crit opener warm up for the TDU. Bikes built, the boys were off to invade with the great vigour the local Adelaide scene.

One of the crew (Frodo) was shaking in his medieval boots at the thought of having to go toe to toe with both Lard and Sheep on the sip. The pace was frantic in the sausage sizzle at the Stag with a round each hitting the stomach lining before the crit had even rolled off. Frodo was screaming for food to help with prolonging his night past 8PM. He ventured outside to the only spare table only to be called back inside to pull a turn at the bar. Dinner was set down for after the race. After a solid 5 man break in the crit the main bunch reeled them back with Aussie Matt Goss easily taking the win. With many riders watching his HTC teammate of Cavendish, Renshaw was able to lead Goss away for a great victory. Race over, Dinner was now a necessity for Buzz, Lard, Sheep and Frodo. In between longing sms’s from Danny the “Poolboy” and Mitch the “Navy Boy” both envious of not being in town for the warm up food was consumed at a great rate of knots. Frodo had been unhitched from the beer train and dropped down to the little chain ring and started on the Vodka and squash’s. Lard and Sheep were in cruise mode with Buzz not far from removing his shirt. Given there wasn’t a female in sight he felt he may well be targeted by some unsavoury limp wrist'd types floating around. Having missed the boat to get to the Grand in Glenelg the boys floated around the quiet streets looking for some noise. Sadly the only noise was coming from a sleepy bar with 8 guests in it and Sheepy’s arse. Time for bed.

With a couple of dusty heads team Sydney set off for the trusty café’s in Glenelg for some much needed relaxation and recharge. At a cruisy 39km/hr we made our way to Port Adelaide along the picturesque coast of Adelaide. A lazy 60km round trip saw the group home and the first sighting of a Victorian. The Velvet sledgehammer, Leigh Schilling had arrived with camera in hand a willing guest with team HTC as official photographer for the day. Keep posted for the shots to be posted on his site, I’m sure as usual they will be crackers.

So with the now constant flow of riders flying and driving in for FFT’s being guided by the French race director Kabel Michele’ the vibe in Adelaide is starting to build. With the city beautifully warmed up and lubricated by the first arrivals the scene is about to unravel. Stage 1 of the tour and Stage 1 of NSW V VIC is well and truly upon us. Let the Good Times Roll.

BUZZ

The Boys have a week on the trails around Tathra

2011-01-06T16:58:00.000+11:00

We have gone to Tathra on the south coast of NSW for a weeks family holiday. This is a great spot, good beach and great mountain bike trials. This area has some of the best single trails in Australia with 60k of single track all within an easy distance of town.

The riding is over hilly ground with plenty of technical sections. David and I have been doing 2 to 3 hours on the tracks each morning. David and I were hooting down a technical part of the hill today, with him leading the way, when his back wheel lost traction and he lost control and went over the front. He was okay, but lucky he had a decent helmet on as his head hit the trail pretty heavily and he split his helmet. He got up, brushed himself off and continued barrelling down the hill.

All good fun, but he was lucky
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Video of Maryland Cyclocross Races

2010-11-23T12:42:00.005+11:00

Hitting the sand pit.....you can just see me coming into the shot (a fair way) behind the leader here

I have loaded up the Masters 35/45+ "B" grade race that was held over the weekend. You get a idea of the size of the fields and how important it is to get a good start .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee4IT5Rf1Ps

In full flight! Schooley Mills Cyclocross

2010-11-22T12:30:00.005+11:00

This was taken just after I had the face first into the mud. If you look closely enough, you can see the mud on my legs and jersey, not to mention my race number hanging by 1 pin! If you look behind me you can see the lake I just missed crashing into at the last corner.

Another race in the mud!

2010-11-21T06:02:00.000+11:00

Woke up to another beautiful autumn morning. The weather the last 3 weeks has been stunning whether I have been in Manhattan or in Washington DC.
I had spent the week in New York, catching the train back to Washington yesterday afternoon. 2 races this weekend, both about 80k away from where I was staying in Reston, about 40k out of DC.

Packed the bike, Bacino kit (it is now getting wrecked in these races) and the ever trusty garmin to navigate my way to yet another horse riding farm where they had the race this weekend. The area reminded me around Dural with huge magnificent homes and gardens all on 2 acre lots. I don't know what people do out her in rural Maryland but someone has made some money!

I was entered into the Masters 35/45 Cat 1/2 race. The course was about 3k long and over rough ground and grass. Big fields for all races with around 80 starters in this race and the Masters 35/45 Cat 3/4 had also about 80 starters. Cyclocross is certainly popular in this part of the world. The usual sprint at the start to the narrowing of the course 250m away was hectic. I backed off a bit at the start so I could conserve some energy for later in the race. I was about mid field and comfortable. The plan was to let the race settle down and see if I could pick a few places up. About half way through the first lap was the double boards that you had to dismount and jump over before jumping back on the bike. I came screaming into the boards hanging off on the left hand pedal when my left foot didn't unclip as I tried to dismount (at speed). Over I went, everyone dodging the unskilled Aussie who was on the turf. I jumped up and remounted, but must have lost 20 spots. Keeping calm, I started riding through the field. The second last corner was a at the end of a straight and you hit the brakes to almost a stop and turned (all in mud). Once again inexperience prevailed as I overcooked the brakes and face planted into the mud! At least I didn't crash into the dam that was awaiting anyone who misssed the corner (missed it by 2 metres). I was now last in Masters A grade and had not completed 1 of 6 laps! So I put my head down and started again. Needless to say in a 50 min race, there is only so much you can do.I picked up a few places when the course wasn't too technical and I could use my strength to pass a few. I managed to finish in a unflattering 52nd place out of 80!!!! This is so different to Road racing! I am not used to being so out of the racing.

Note in the photo the mud on the jersey, plus the ripped number....

Still it was great fun. Learning every race. Another one tomorrow. Hopefully I can improve.

Le Foz
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Vint Hill Cyclocross

2010-11-14T14:04:00.001+11:00

This was the slippery technical bit at Vint Hill

Foz gets smacked at then Cyclocross Race at Vint Hill, Virginia

2010-11-14T13:21:00.004+11:00

Woke up to a beautiful November day and headed out into the Virginia countryside. Today's race was at a winery called Vint Hill. Once again, a different type of cyclocross course to the two races I did last weekend. Todays course was around undulating open farm land with only one area that you needed to get off the bike due to technical areas, as well as the obligitorary twin planks. Total distance was around 2.5k per lap and there were plenty of twists and turns. Bike handling was very important if you wanted to be competitive.

They combined the Mens 35+ A grade with 45+ so it was pretty quick at the start. The course was basically dry and due to the type of grass, very slippery. The start had a long 400m drag to the first corner, a left hander, which then had another sharp turn to the right. I got a pretty good start and hit the first corner around 8th. The ground was very uneven and bumpy, and riding a cyclocross bike with a non suspension front fork at 40k an hour is like riding a bucking bronco. I got through the first technical section ok, electing to jump off the bike and run. I managed to work my way up to 5th and seemed to be clear of 6th by about 150m. It was taking about 8 mins to do a lap so I was looking at holding that position. With 2 laps to go, I was about 150m behind 4th and not making any indent into his lead. The top 3 were gone into the distance.

With 2 laps to go, I thought I would ride through the technical part (for the first time), instead of taking it easy and running through it. The front wheel slipped out from under me on the shiny grass and over I went. I quickly regained my footing, and jumped back on the bike, however my chain had come off and the front wheel was rubbing on the front brake shoe. It took me precious seconds to get the bike back moving and lost 3 places while I was standing over the bike fixing it. I jumped back on to chase however my legs had gone and it took everything to hold off the rest of the field coming up behind me. I managed to finish 8th, about 3 mins (after 60 mins) behind the leader, but really got smacked as was nowhere in the race. Good fun, but hard work as there are plenty of dead patches along the course and riding the cyclocross bike for an hour over bumpy uneven ground really leaves you sore and exhausted.

Oh well, there is always next week

le foz#end

First cyclocross race - San Francisco Nov 2010

2010-11-14T08:57:00.007+11:00

See the look of terror in my eyes as I am barely in control here!

Here I am in the background struggling up the hill. These guys were quick.

Sliding into take the barriers at speed!

RE: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-09T13:49:00.004+11:00

Lucky, we had a man down at the last C&T and his kit pulled apart at the seams!!! Will have to report that to Champ-Sys never seen that b4Nope the Navy Bacino….It is wrecked

Subject: Re: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

loving the sound of that, sounds like you're killing it Foz. Tell me you wore the baby blue kit?

On 8 November 2010 09:18, Ryan O'Neill wrote:

Good work mate.

Loving the reports!

RE: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-09T13:44:00.002+11:00

Nope the Navy Bacino….It is wrecked

RE: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-08T10:19:00.002+11:00

Great work pops. Next time can you put it in! I don't wanting them thinking that aussies are soft.........

Regards,
Daniel Wright

Re: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-08T10:12:00.002+11:00

loving the sound of that, sounds like you're killing it Foz. Tell me you wore the baby blue kit?

On 8 November 2010 09:18, Ryan O'Neill wrote:

Good work mate.

Loving the reports!

RE: Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-08T09:18:00.002+11:00

Good work mate.

Loving the reports!

Rain, mud and Slush...a true cyclocross!

2010-11-08T09:00:00.001+11:00

Woke up this morning in San Francisco to pouring rain. The change had come through and it was wet. I momentarily thought about getting an earlier plane to New York, however I talked myself into doing the race.

The race was only 2k from my hotel, which as 5k from San Fran airport. So the plan was get up at 7am, get ready, ride to race at 8.30, do a couple of practice laps, race at 10am then head back to the hotel, pack and catch the 3pm flight to New York.

I kitted up and headed off from the Hilton on the bike. After 100m, I was drenched. It was going to be a tough morning. The race was over a longer course than yesterday- 10min laps, and it was all mud. There were already races happening and the riders were almost unrecognizable with the mud. Lucky the rain washed some of it off.

The masters 45+A grade had over 70 starters. The whole day had over 800 entrants! The yanks are very well organised with computer signin, RFID stickers on your helmet that track your laps and finish, and seeded starts as it is a series. They line the first 32 riders in each grade in 4 rows of 8. As I was a ring-in, I got to go behind the seeds. The start was from a carpark up a big long hill on asphalt, like the hospital hill. I got a good start picking up a lot of places around the "seed"s by putting the power on up the hill. Hit the off road around 10th.

The course was all mud. There was water and mud streaming across the course. Wheels slipping, guys's doing face plants in front of you bringing others down as they put the front brakes on into a off camber muddy corner. I managed to avoid all the carnage(just) and did the first two laps following wheels. This was a very technical course with no straights, little muddy hills, sand pits, boards and quite a bit of jumping off the bike and running. With 1 and a half laps to go I started to ride a bit harder. I got to 6th ( they were counting us through) as we went through the start/finish. Last lap and I was 10m behind 5th (which is in the money) and about 250m behind the leaders. I passed the guy and hit the line 5th about 1min behind the winner.

Better fun than yesterdays race. Much tougher course and more mud than I have ever ridden through. Imagine riding through a wet off season cricket pitch in the middle of Manly oval for 2k laps and you get the idea. One thing cyclocross does is test (and improve) your bike handling. Great fun.

Afterwards I was covered in mud. I found a toilet block with showers (cold) and went and stood under them to get the mud off, then put the bike under it as it had to get packed for the plane.

No riding this week as are travelling, however have entered 2 more cc races in Virginia next sat/Sun. Hopefully can continue to improve

Le Foz

Ps no photos as it was too wet to take the blackberry

Le Foz wins a bronze at first cyclocross race!

2010-11-07T13:49:00.002+11:00

There was a big field for the Pro/1/2, Masters 35+A and Masters 45+A greade race. Le Foz was at the back of the field as it took off. The pace was frantic at the start as everyone wanted to be first onto the dirt. I was last in the field to hit the dirt as I didn't want to bring anyone down due to my ineptitude. The top guys did the first lap in 2.25, I was slowest at 3.13. The hill was a killer and we were looking at 20+ times up it. It was like running up the stairs behind Manly lifesaving club on the way to Johnny Millers place with a bike on your back. The course was through a cattle sales yard (apparently this was the last place the Beatles played in the US 40 years ago). I was feeling strong in the straights and put the power down, but technical bits like jumping off a bike at 40k an hour to run up the hill and jumping back on when you can't breath to do a out of control free fall back down the hill was testing me.
>
> My strategy was to keep out of trouble and I knew my fitness would assist me. I was losing my chain everytime I ran up the hill and lost valuable time. I worked out not to shift down as I approached the hill as it threw the chain. I started to work my way through the field. After about 8 laps the lead Pro/1/2 riders caught me. They were suprised when I could easily stay with them on the flats. However the technical bits killed me. I tried to descend with the lead group and nearly killed myself. How I stayed up, I will never know! Then over the jump boards, (they did it so easy), I put the front brake on to hard and ended in the dirt (in front of about 500 spectators!). Skewed my front brake and punctured. I was about 100m from the start/finish and thought my race was over when the announcer said the "the Ozzie needs a wheel". I was handed one and before I knew it, back in the race. There was still 25 mins to go and I was getting the hang of the course. Started to get a few placed back and decided to not over ride. After 1 hr I was 3rd in Masters 45+ and 21st out of 50 riders.
>
> This cyclocross is very different to Road and Mtb'ing. It is part road and Mtb as well as part endurance, like time trialling as you hit your threshold and try to hold it for an hour.
> However I do have a nice shiny medal in my suitcase now!
>
> Tomorrow morning, I have another race before I head to the airport for New York.
>
> Another race report tomorrow
>
> Le Foz

And here's the descent

2010-11-04T14:03:00.000+11:00

Beautiful fast descent as the sun sets over the valley

FFT USA-tonight I hit the West side of the valley

2010-11-04T13:50:00.000+11:00

Another warm evening. Tonight after work I rode east rather than west and hit the hills at the eastern side of the valley. After riding past Cisco's, Yahoo's and Ebays head office, I headed into some hispanic neighbourhoods before hitting the mountains. More 7-9% gradients before my front derailluer cable stretched and I had to turn for home. You don't want to be in the hills, no houses around, approaching dusk, in a foreign country with no backup and the bike plays up. So I took no chances and headed back.

This is the photo I took at the start of the climb.

Foz
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

FFT into the USA

2010-11-04T13:35:00.000+11:00

Over in the US for a month or two. Are currently in "Silicon Valley" in San Jose near San Francisco

Daylight saving still hasn't finished here and it is light till after 7pm, so I can get an hour or two on the bike after work. It is unseasonally warm here some 30c, so no need for any warm clothing. I have taken the cyclocross bike as I am doing some races here on the weekend. I swapped the cross tyres with road slicks to make the bike a bit quicker, however at 10kg's it doesn't handle like the Cervelo or Colnago. It is pretty heavy up the hills. This photo was taken on the way from san Jose to the eastern mountains of silicon valley, via Las Gados (thanks to Mike Sumner for the local knowledge). Climbing up the canyon next to a creek, there was a nice lake with plenty of wildlife. The trusty Jamis is in the background. I headed up into beautiful quite mountain roads on a warm evening. Average gradient around 7%-it felt like being back in France. All I needed was Danny and Damo huffing and puffing next to me and I was there! Great descent back to the hotel- I set the garmin to backroads and it took me through some beautiful residential suburbs. (The yanks do it well when they have money!). Got back just on dusk. A great 50k ride!

Foz

Brekky before the worlds

2010-10-03T20:07:00.003+11:00

Col, Stu and I rode down to Queenscliff to meet Damo, Jay and the rest of the Hampton boys before heading into Geelong. Note Damo enjoying the pancakes.......

Look who we saw on the way home from the worlds!

2010-10-03T18:16:00.002+11:00

Mitch and I were getting a lift from the boys to the airport. Stu and Col decided to ride back to the house after watching the race. We walked back to the bus and were driving down the road when we bumped into this sight.
After all the excitement of the worlds, the boys were bought back down to reality with a puncture in the middle of Geelong West!

Troy has a coffee with Cav and the boys!

2010-10-02T13:09:00.001+10:00

Troy didn't ride today as he is getting over the flu. He walked into the cafe to get a coffee and sat down next to Cav and the UK team and had a coffee or not. He didn't get a photo!!

FFT goes to Bell's

2010-10-02T11:14:00.000+10:00

Woke up early this morning, Troy was up and down the supermarket stocking up for breaky for us all. We hit the road at 8.30, started with a coffee in Ocean Grove, then in beautiful weather rode the coast road to Bells beach via Barwon Heads and Torquay. It is one of the best rides in the world. Brilliant sunshine, slight tailwind and unbelievable scenery. Stu and Col set a nice pace. We saw the German team, (they waved at us.....first-they know quality cyclists when they see them!) followed the Dutch team (Jorgy was killoing himself catching them for a photo!)and when we got to Bells Beach we pulled up next to the US team. Most of the teams seem to be staying around Torquay and enjoying the great riding. There are cyclists everywhere enjoying the morning. We will do around 80k (to Bells beach and back). Will head back to the house now and go to the race this afternoon.

Rosco on the Worlds course

2010-10-01T20:13:00.002+10:00

It was after the under 23's and FFT was just about to head back to Ocean Grove for a well earned beer and dinner. Ross is enjoying riding the course (without having to pay $150)!

Stu on the Worlds course

2010-10-01T20:10:00.001+10:00

Look at that grin. Stu is loving this!

FFT at the Worlds

2010-10-01T20:09:00.001+10:00

Here are the boys at the top of the summit at The Ridge where the last 50 metres is over 15% gradient. We arrived and did a slow lap while the under 23's race was on and got a good look at the course. It is tougher than what they say and if the pace is hot early on Sunday there won't be a bunch sprint

This is an email from Fujitsu Australia Limited, ABN 19 001 011 427. It is confidential to the ordinary user of the email address
to which it was addressed and may contain copyright and/or legally privileged information. No one else may read, print, store, copy
or forward all or any of it or its attachments. If you receive this email in error, please return to sender. Thank you.

If you do not wish to receive commercial email messages from Fujitsu Australia Limited, please email unsubscribe@au.fujitsu.com

Get Ready for the Worlds-FFT 2010 World Champs!!

2010-09-27T15:56:00.001+10:00

Getting ready for a few of us to head down to Geelong for a few days to watch the Worlds! Should be exciting.

Garmin After Party - Thanks Matty White

2010-08-17T14:48:00.002+10:00

A little bit of the live performance from N.E.R.D at the Garmin Transitions after party held in the VIP CLUB Paris.

Sorry About That! We really didn't want to go.

Tour Summary 2010

2010-08-17T14:08:00.002+10:00

Crank the volume up as loud as you can and enjoy!

Videos now up on You Tube

2010-08-07T20:56:00.001+10:00

We have had trouble loading some of the videos onto the blog. They are now on You Tube. If you type "fozzyaabb" into the search bar on You Tube they all will come up for viewing

Mike

Not sure whether to get on the bikes?

2010-08-03T11:17:00.001+10:00

The heavy stuff might not come down for a while yet!
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Lourdes Weather Changes

2010-08-03T11:15:00.000+10:00

This is how wet it was on the last day the Tour was in the Pyrenees!
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Summing up the 2010 FFT Tour

2010-07-24T16:23:00.002+10:00

I thought that I should write something before I forgot some of the tings that happened while we were at the FFT 2010 TDF trip.

It was only seven days but as the time goes on the day tend to blur into one another. I don’t think that it’s the company (although a quick tip, Le Foz is a creature of habit and would eat dinner at the same place every night if we let him… 3 is the record for this trip) its probably more like you get a little bit tireder every day. Normally the mornings are my thing – well at least I think that they are. I’m up around 5.12 on the bike by 5.25. In hindsight maybe I wake up as I roll down the hill – hmm not sure.

Anyway as the trip went on I found myself just that step slower than I normally am, sure I was sleeping less, sure I was eating more, sure I was burning on average 5000 calories a day, but at times it was like I was a little bit slow (yes I know some of you think that I am slow the whole time).

Today was my last day in France, Le Foz and I left the boys in the Holy City, packed up the vans and prepared to face the music with the Van company – diesel in the water tank – what the hell were they going to say about that, and a cracked rear light (more obvious response).

Because there were only 2 of us to drop the vans off, a little more planning was required. No problem we were on our way this morning, making pretty good time, then I came to a toll both.

Now for those for you that have seen toll booths in Europe – you know you drive up, put your ticket and and pay you’re money and away you go. Unfortunately for about 90% of drivers this concept is CRAZY, and they spend a lot of time putting their ticket in the card slot, putting their money on the ground, getting out of the car and groveling on hands and knees.. Now this is ok when you are on holiday, but we are on a schedule, so I spy a lane with nobody in it…. GOLD!

Little did I know what awaited me on the other side. I paid the 10 euros, and left the toll booth – Mike in the other van was stuck behind 10 of those “other” people I described so I was going to have to wait anyway.. So I’m fumbling with my money, look up and a Policeman is pointing off to the side of the road. I look at him and say me? I look left, I look right and he nods – you… Dude we are on a schedule to drop these Vans off, go to UPS, go to the Hotel, drop the other van off, ride back to Hotel and catch a plane… ummm can’t you pick on someone else?

Apparently not, I get on the two way and explain to Mike where I am and explain to the Policemand that I don’t speak French (well en pau). That’s good enough for him. He wants to know why 2 blokes have a van each, have about 1 million stamps in their passports, and are in a hurry. Isn’t everyone on the Autobahn (yes I know its German but I don’t know the French name) in a hurry?

After about 15 minutes, looking at every piece of paper in my briefcase, credit cards, looking through about 20 currencies – where is this money from etc we are on our way. I just kept saying to myself patience, don’t annoy this guy… soon enough we were on our way.

Finally we got all our jobs done 600 euros lighter the vans returned, flights made (until I got to Madrid where I am waiting for a plane – another story).

So back to the memories of the Tour:

1) Climbing Mt Ventoux – last time I arrived off the plane and had a huge wakeup call as to what a mountain really was. It nearly broke me. This time I was prepared, the right equiptment, diet and some ok training I really enjoyed this climb, and then the decent… fantastic. Dinner of only a salad wasn’t quite enough, but didn’t spoil the day.

2) Riding up 18% grades (yep that’s steep) to Mende Airport, with the bitumen running down the road and coating you’re tyres

3) Riding under the Mileau Bridge and along the Tarn river. Amazing day

4) Riding 80k of the tour course, part of it through an unbelievable cave, so big that the road climbs through it – and of course thinking that the 500m to go sign was the sprint line – killed it!

5) Sitting with Mitch at the top of the Col de Abisque, in a grass meadow on top of the world, enjoying the sights and sounds of the tour.

6) Finally climbing the Tourmalet – and meeting a guy who has been coming there every time the Tour comes there since 1952.

What a great experience… thanks to Le Foz for all the hard work and organization!

Some more photos of FFT 2010

2010-07-24T05:12:00.013+10:00

Ice cream after dinner at Lourdes

Planning the days ride

Mitch being arrested!

The boys at the top of Tourmalet

Bike Repairs

Hori at the top of entoux

Foz, Buzz and Danny at the top of Ventoux

Another Mountain Conquered

Boys travelling in the van

Buzz over the finish line at Alp Du'Heuz

Dinner at Fiox

Jarrod and some friends at Ax 3 Domaines

Foz and Damo at the top of yet another climb

Unpacking at Lyon on Day 1

Coffee at Millau before a great ride down the river road

Boys at Tom Simpson memorial on Ventoux

Buzz Busted after climbing Ventoux

Bluncky having some lunch at Mende

And you think it is easy returning the vans

2010-07-24T01:47:00.001+10:00

Up early, dropped Damo and Jay at the train station so they could get back to Paris. Joe and Bluncky also went back to the hotel to join the others. We had the vans cleaned up and rubbish dumped and were on the road heading for Toulouse by 8.30am

We had a full day ahead of us. First job was to put some air in the front tyre of one of the vans. It had a puncture. Jordy didn't like the idea of doing 120kph on the freeway with a half flat tyre. We pumped it up and grabbed a coffee and a snack.

On our way again, we got to the toll gate on the freeway and the police were doing spot security checks. Guess what, they pull Jordan over. They ask us a lot of questions like what do we do, why are there so many countries stamps in our passports, why have 2 men got 1 van each?? They go through all of Jordy's papers before they seem satisfied and they let us go on our way. All of this eats up time however, and we get to the van drop off place, 25k south of Toulouse. The plan is to drop 1 van, take the other to the UPS depot so Jordan can drop off his bike which he is shipping back to USA as he is meeting the family in Spain and it is less of a hassle than dragging a bike around. We then need to get to Toulouse Airport, find a hotel nearby so we can drop off Jordan and all the luggage, and I then take the second van back to the drop off point 25k away and then I ride my bike back to the hotel, pack the bike, have a shower and head to the airport!

There' s some logistics in all that. It all goes reasonably to plan except that they charge us €300 for the diesel in the water tank in one van, and €300 for the cracked rear bumper and wrecked step on the other.

By the time we get all of this done and I get back to the Avis drop off point with the second van it is 12.50pm and the place is closed for lunch till 2pm! Nothing to do but sit and wait. I have a snooze on the bed. They guy wakes me to move my van at 2pm as I parked in his driveway so I wouldn't sleep too long. Second van dropped off, I then jump on the bike for a 30k hitout back to the hotel. Once again the Garmin pays for itself, as I want to avoid freeways and major roads. It takes me along some peaceful country lanes and pretty outer suburbs of Toulouse as we basically skirt around the city avoiding traffic hot spots.

My only worry on the way back was what would happen if I had a couple of punctures as there would be a risk then of me missing my flight. Luckily, all worked out fine. I got back at the hotel by 3pm, missing Jordan who left for his (earlier) flight 10 mins before, packed up and made the flight with an hour to spare!

Are about to board the plane for Sydney via London. which is an Airbus taking 200 passengers. There must be 80 bikes going on this flight. I wonder if I am going to see my bike in Sydney sometime soon?

What a huge day. Now today took some planning!

Danny, Mitch and the boys did the Tourmalet today. A great ride. Danny text'd me to tell me that his garmin got pinched at the top of the Tourmalet by some mongrel.

Le Foz
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

FFT day 11- There's nothing like Camping in the rain

2010-07-23T06:14:00.000+10:00

Well, all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for us, that meant the good weather. We had a couple of inches of rain overnight that just drenched everything. We woke up this morning to torrential rain and none of us felt the need to go out riding in it or standing for 4 hours on a freezing mountain in wet bike kit. We checked the weather and the forecast for Lourdes was for rain for most of the day. Some of the boys were staying downtown at a hotel as tents would have been a washout, so we all met up at a local cafe for coffee in the morning.
Buzz did his last video diary entry, asking all of us what our highlights were of the trip. There were many in my mind. Riding up Mt Ventoux was one that came to mind for me, as did the ride along the Tarn River. The Hautacam/Solidor day was one to remember as was Mt ventoux. We watched all the video diaries this morning and had a good laugh at what are quickly becoming great memories.

They will be at www.fostersflyingtours.blogspot.com.

I will get them all onto the blog when I get home, as the wireless access has been pretty average along the way.

After coffee and a walk around town, we found a (yes, another) cafe with a big screen to watch todays stage from. It was a bit disappointing to see them riding on roads 40k away that appeared dry, when we were sitting in torrential rain. That's the trouble with the mountains, one valley can be wet and the next in bright Sunshine. If we had of know the rain wasn't as widespread as we first thought, we would have gone out for sure.

Never the less, it was a great stage to watch with Contador and Schleck duelling it out as two great champions over roads we had spent the last few days riding ourselves.

After the race, we came back to the camp and packed it up. Dinner at the local restaurant, it is off to bed early. Tomorrow, we all start heading our separate ways. Jordan to Madrid to meet his family and have a 2 week holiday, me back to Sydney to go back to work, Bluncky, Mitch, Danny, Joe and Buzz, to Paris to watch the final stage on the Champs Elysee and Rad Man and Jay back to Melbourne with an overnight in Paris on the way.

It has been a great trip with good friends who have been great company over the past 12 days.

Another FFT over.

Another coming.......

Le Foz

Down the Col d'Aubisque up the Col du Tourmalet

2010-07-22T15:42:00.001+10:00

On the way down the mountains yesterday, you wouldn't believe the traffic coming down, all of those campers who park at the top of the climbs sometimes for upto a week in advance - they need to leave as soon as the race is finished. I mean literally right now - lets move.

Mitch and I picked Joe (the Stig) up on the way down. The Stig had a slow leak in his rear tyre, so we decided to stop and fix it before the long decent. nearly fixed and all of a sudden we had a few raindrops, so rather than wait with about 50 other guys and watch Lance try try win a stage on a 14" TV, I wanted to push to get home before it really started raining - 18k down hill in traffic is ok - in the rain its a killer - literally!

So we started down the hill. The next 30 minutes or so were spent dodging in and out of cars, slower bikes and campers.... We passed over a hundred campers on the way down. You can imagine your sitting on a 7-10% grade moving at between 10 and 40km/h and you have about 100 bikes a minute passing you, doding in and out.... it would be rather annoying. I think that if I was driving I would get to the point where if one more cyclist passed me I would be about ready to scream.....

I dont think that many drivers were too worried about the Stig and I, we were crusing, threading the neadle at 60km/h, it was all the riders who when it got steep thought that they should go 20k that were the problem.. A few choice words were said to a few of those sitting in the center of the road holding up the traffic (and us of course).

What a great day, and you have probably read the story here about the experience of the rest of the FFT crew.

Last night after we got back from dinner those few rainspots turned into a deluge. We went to bed with the sounds of thunder and lightening... Tomorrows plan for the Tourmalet would be interesting.

A rare sleepin was allowed for this morning, as the "real" Tour has a rest day, we were allowed to sleep in for an extra 30 or 40 minutes.. It was raining when we got up, it looked pretty bleak. The surrounding mountains that had been visible couldn't be seen through a fog clinging to the side of the mountains.

Five of us decided that we would ride anyway, the roads were drying off, and hey we're in France to ride so lets see what happens. Le Foz had planned a nice 100k loop - with the Col de Tourmalet in the middle, basically you climb for about 20km (16m) and go up about 1500m... who knows the sun could be shining at the top of the Col.

The small group that Jay refereed to as "the Hard Men" stopped for coffee and a pastry at a small town. I spotted a Millefeuille (Match for those of you in Oz) and being a huge fan had to have one... You can see the results Beautiful.

From there the Tourmalet starts, a nice gradual gradient. Back at the campground Le Foz and Damo had called a truce - that lasted for about the first 200m and then they were off. I hung on for a few km, but decided that making it to the top was better than being seen zigging and zagging accross the road closer to the top.

The climb started to get steeper and the mist started to close in. It was hanging to the mountain, and the trees, creating roofs for the trees and creating what looked like cathederals and chapels accross the valleys... Obviously I was delusional, and the climb had just started..

About half way up the climb I passed a Dutch guy, his bike loaded up with panniers. I thought that he was smoking, but I realized that we were in the clouds and that the temp had dropped and he was blowing steam. The temp drop was nice and i kept heading for the top. Every curve Mike and Damo were getting that little further up the road, soon I couldn't see them anymore.

The think about this mountain is that there is never any letup, it gets steeper and you don't get a break and the closer that you get to the top, the more people are weaving all over the road in their own personal Hurt Locker, they won't give up, but they need a break.

Soon -a day before the Tour arrives - the police have the road closed and it's the riders and a few Tour vehicles - when I say riders there were thousands of them.

There are two bad sections of this climb, one coming through all of the snow bridges it hits 14% and with 1km to the top you think that you have nearly made it, then all of a sudden we are through the clouds, its sunny crystal clear, and you see where you still have to go.... You're kidding right there is no way that I can climb all the way up there.

Eventually we make it, we've agreed to wait in the cafe, its warm inside which is good. Le Foz and Damo have been there for about 5 minutes(probably more like 10) and are already through their first Coke. We bundle up, sit down and talk to a guy who has been coming to the Tourmalet since 1952, he's seen all the greats win there, Coppi, Hinult, Indurain. He's seen it from where the roads were gravel... Every year he comes to follow the Tour.

The others have arrived, we take a few photos and get ready for the decent through about 100,000 cars, bikes and vans.

On this side there is a constant line of traffic coming up the mountain that literally goes all the way to the bottom - and they are going nowhere, the mountain is closed at the top. But hey it's the Tour and you want to say that you have been to the Tourmalet.

The rain that had threatened all day held off to a light sprinkle till about 1km from home, what a great day.... Simply Awesome....

FFT Day 10 Tourmalet and Paella!

2010-07-22T07:49:00.001+10:00

Last night we had a big change come through and our run of good weather came to an end with a huge electrical storm. It rained till 8am this morning. Must have been a tough night for Danny and Spencey in little 2 man tents as well as Mitch who has been sleeping in the luggage store under the main bed!

This morning was still damp and the forecast was for rain. Mitch, Danny, Buzz, Spencey and Bluncky took one of the vans and headed off to look at Bairritz and into Spain around San Sebastian. Hori had an opportunity to get a early flight home and see the family, and Rad Man, Jay, Joe, Jordan were going to ride the Tourmalet. Although it was a rest day for the tour, it would still be busy on the mountain with everyone either climbing it on bikes, or else moving their vans onto it to secure a good viewing spot for Fridays big stage.

Everyone first went to the station to make reservations for the train back to Paris on Friday. Jordan and I will take the vans back, which is going to be a challenge as Damo backed into a wall and cracked the rear mudguard, Joe took out the other side, and in our van Bluncky managed to fill the drinking Water tank with Diesel!!! Our excess is gone for all money now!

Our little group of 5 rolled out around 10am, stopping at the train station so Joe could reserve his train. A Sth African bloke on a bike started talking to us and he wanted to know where the Tourmalet was. We told him he could follow us if he could keep up. I asked him what he was up to and he said that he was travelling taking in as many sporting events he could. He had been to the British Open Golf, Wimbledon, an Indy car race in the US and now the Tour. Good luck to him.

We headed on a 110k loop with 2000m of climbing. The first section was a little undulating 30k to Bagneres, d'Borrigne, a small town over in the next valley. We stopped there for Coffee, Croissant, Pain de Raisons and for Jordan (his dad loves them apparently) a vanilla slice the size of a housebrick. All the food we have had on this trip has been excellent. The quality, freshness and cost is first class. No wonder everyone looks so fit and healthy. 2 coffees each and we were on our way. We split up on the climb, as Damo set an early pace up a very long steep climb. A pace that he would be made to suffer for later on up the mountain. There were people everywhere on the mountain. For tomorrow's stage, the papers are estimating there will be 300,000 people, a huge crowd.

Damo and I waited at the top of the Tourmalet for everyone. As we did we started talking to a Dutch fan who has followed the Giro, Veulta and now the Tour all the way, and he hasn't missed a day.

We did the descent off the Tourmalet with care, as there were so many cyclists and tourists around. We got to the bottom and had a nice lunch of quiche and toasted sandwiched. We hammered back to Lourdes 35k away as we could see the rain coming. It is a great road, one of the best section of sweeping downhill you will ever get the chance to ride. We got back to Lourdes and just as we entered the main street, it started raining. It hasn't stopped since, so tomorrow will be a day off the bikes as non of us are keen to sit on a freezing cold for 4 hours sitting on a mtn

We had an early dinner while we waited for the others to bring the others back. In bed now listening to the rain on the van roof. Danny,Mitch and Spencey grabbed a room at a hotel down the road so they don't get swamped in their tent.

So a big day at the tour, but we might watch it locally as non of us are keen to ride in the wet

All the best,

Mike
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

2010-07-22T06:22:00.002+10:00

Here we are after conquering Ventoux a few days ago

Roadside stop

2010-07-22T02:20:00.001+10:00

Danny getting plenty of help from Mitch, Jay and Bluncky!

Roadside stop

2010-07-22T02:19:00.000+10:00

Danny fixing a flat on the way to Ax le thermes
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Going cross country

2010-07-22T02:17:00.001+10:00

The things we do we do to avoid the road blocks from the gendarmes!

Aussie Pete Spence with his spoils

2010-07-22T02:09:00.001+10:00

Spencey with Cadels and Brett Lancasters water bottles from the feed station. Note the Aussie flags

Special Protection

2010-07-22T02:07:00.001+10:00

Special protection from the cold on the upcoming descent off the Tourmalet. Damo and Jay find some paper plates and put them in an interesting place to ward off the cold!

Look who made it to the top of the Tourmalet!

2010-07-22T02:06:00.001+10:00

The Hampton boys looking very pleased with themselves as they reached the top of the Tourmalet.

FFT day 9-"It's the closest I have come to running with the bulls"

2010-07-21T08:07:00.001+10:00

A big day awaited us today. Hautacam, Col de Souliour and Col de Abisque.
The towns around Lourdes are full of cyclists. This part of the Pyrenees is legendary for the tour and one of the most popular places to watch the action.

There are literally thousands of cyclists here. It seems that many of us (your's truly included) crave the challenge of taking on these mighty mountains, matching ourselves against the pro's who do it for a living. It's a bit like playing a proam in golf; on the way to the course, you harbour secret thoughts that today is going to be your day. You are going to walk out there and the pro you are playing with states "gee you hit the ball well, you could do this for a living". In real life you turn up to the course, lucky to scratch out 100 and the pro mumbles something about "good putt" as you tap in a 2 footer.

Riding is no different. You can climb the Cols, shredding the other amateurs who ride the climb in all sorts of gear, on a variety of bikes, however then the pro's race up the climb, you see the difference and it is like at the proam in golf. You go home knowing why they do what they do, and why you don't!

We rolled out at 8, heading down the valley to a town called Argeles Gazost, a pretty alpine town with many ski resorts around it. This is my favourite area of all France. The 4th time, I have been here and it is beautiful. I have always preferred the Pyrenees to the Alps, and this part of the Pyrenees is the best. All the major climbs are no more than 50k away from this area. Hautacam, Cateraurets, Luz Ardiden, Tourmalet, Aspin, Abisuque, Solidor, Marie Blanc to name a few.

After our morning coffee at which we met another couple from Manly, who know Waz and Zoe, and talking to a guy from the UK who did the gran Fondo (amateur ride with 10,000) cyclists) last Sunday, we headed up one of the classic climbs, the Hautacam. It is yet another ski resort, 14k long and tough. We spreadout as we started the climb. Halfway up, there was only me Danny and Damo, when I heard a soft "pop" and Damo went sliding out the back. It is the worst feeling when you know you just cant hang on. If you don't ride, it may be hard to understand, and it may only look like you are 10 metres behind, but if you pop, it may as well be the Grand Canyon between you and the guy in front of you.

Danny and I continued to set a solid pace. We caught another rider, a Spainard who looked like he was an old pro. He could climb, and put both Danny and I into the hurt box. Three or four times, Danny and I clawed back to his wheel, just to loose 20m when he surged. One time I was next to him and my gears started playing up when I tried to change down. I said to him "Andy Schleck" in reference to the mechanical Schleck had yesterday. He just looked at me and said in Spanish " and I'm Alberto Contador" and attacked!!

With 3k to go, I knew I felt good. I sensed Danny was in some trouble next to me. I got just over a bike length on him. We had been climbing for over 40 mins side by side and not a word had been said to each other. This was war! I thought this was my chance to put Poolboy to the sword. I knew my only chance was to wind up the pace and get a few metres on him, as if we got to the last couple of hundred metres from the top he would outsprint me. He was up to the task. I threw everything at him, however he showed what a good rider he is and with 200m to go, came around and secured the polka dot jersey.

We waited for Damo and Jarrod and descended back to Argeles Gazost, had an early bite, regrouped with most of the others and then headed up the other side of the Valley for another 29k of climbing up Col de Solidor/Col de Abisque and wait for the pro's to come through. Lots of Spainards on the mountain today. They all want their man Contador to cement the Yellow jersey on his shoulders. Mitch and Jordan were up ahead of us, as they didn't stop in Argeles Gazost for lunch, and got up to the top of the Abisique before the gendarmes closed the road . We all got to the top of the Solidor and decided to watch here along with the huge crowds. We had a TV to watch and it was warm on the mtn. We spent the time talking to Dutch, American and French Fans, all who had their favourites, particularly as Lance had attacked and was in the break. Like the Armstrong of old.

We took up our position on the roadside to cheer on Lance and the break. I was last to join them, as I stayed longer watching the TV. When I got to the others, I saw a large pile of riding shoes. This looked strange. The boys had decided to run next to Lance and the break for as long as possible like many of the crazy fans you see on TV. Buzz had Spencey's boxing Kangaroo around his neck, Bluncky the video phone.

Around the corner came LA and the break. The boys took off running at full pace next to them. The look on Damo's face as he took off was priceless. Danny nearly ran under a camera motorcycle and was out of it early, but the others got a rails run. The chopper was overhead with the TV camera and we soon had texts coming through from the boys at the Brown Cow cafe in Hampton who were watching it live saying they had seen us.

The boys were pumped afterwards, Adrenaline running, Bluncky said later that he thought it would be like running with the bulls!!! After the peleton came through we took off down a back road and found a small B+B owned by a very nice Dutch family who let us all come into their home for 90 mins and watch the race. Lance couldn't quite pull off the fairytale finish, but the whole place was yelling for him in the final sprint.

Race over, we headed back to Lourdes
45k away. Another lively session on the bike after some exciting scenes on the mountain.

Back to Lourdes reasonably early, 125k of riding and nearly 3000m of climbing today. We have done over 17000m of climbing to date in the last week

Tomorrow is a rest day for the Tour. We will do an easy 100k including te Tourmalet

Rain forecast. Not good for us. Just got into bed and it is raining now

Le Foz

Up Up And Away..

2010-07-21T01:01:00.001+10:00

We are staying in Lourdes, the holy city where pilgrims come from all over the world to drink from the spring and be healed.

I didn't realize the significance, especially to Catholics, but I do now. The Cathedral is beautiful, and there are literally hundreds of people in wheelchairs. In Lourdes they don't have bike lanes they have wheelchair lanes... Last night there wern't any wheelchairs so we go to use them anyway.

This morning we woke a quick breakfast and we were on the road... The plan was to watch the race at the to of Col d'Aubisque - a beast of a climb - *ctually 2 climbs that total 29km.

Because that's too easy for Le Foz, he decided to take us up Le Hutacam first, a 14k climb upto the Ski resort.

I was feeling good up the first climb, but kept telling myself take it easy, this is only the Appetizer!

Mitch and Spency (the smart ones) didn't stop for coffee, and worked their way to the top, conserving a bit of energy, but opening it up about 4k from the top.... We arrived at the top, took a quick photo and it was time to turn around - we had 30 minutes to be back in town 17km away... No problem.

This time we wern't taking any chances with them closing the road, there are no Gondola's up here.

The plan was to meet in the town at the bottom of the climb at 11, somehow Mitch and I missed the turn, but saw a turn for the climb and started our 29km ascent....

The climb starts fairly easily, which is good because its sooo long. there are hundreds, no make that thousands, make that hundreds of thousands of people on the climb moving up. There are people walking, people pushing strollers, kids riding, mums and dads towing kids up. Its a sea of colour and if your moving a bit quicker than the rest you feel like a salmon swimming upstream.

Its a beautiful day, late twenties, early eighties, perfect.

The signs to the summit are a little deceptive because there are two climbs, every 1km its counting down, the climb gets steeper as it goes up... What was easy at the bottom is becoming harder, and more and more people who are not quite as fit are zigging and zagging. At to that the occasional moto and car and you get the picture.

Doing a climb like this is hard enough, throw in this obstacle course and it makes for a fun morning. I let Mitch go about 1km from the top, well when I say let him go, I said see you later, he had seen the 1km to banner, thought it was the top and go an extra burst of energy.
At the top of the Col du Soulor there were literally thousands or people blocking the road. I couldn't see Mitch so assumed he had pushed on to the top of the Col d'Aubisque. The road immediately goes down, for about 4k, I wasn't sure if I had gone the right way, so took it easy looking for Mitch below.

As you make this decent you can see the top of the Col, I'm committed but am I that committed (maybe I should be committed)?

All of a sudden I hear a big - Gidday mate.. Mitch had thought that the top of the climb was back there... Luckily a person told him that he still had 10k to go...

We went through an awesome tunnel cut out of the rock, no lights, just a rough outline of the guy infront to guide you. You're through and its 5k to go... At the 1k to sign the road kick up again, people are walking their bikes, people are so tired they are riding on the wrong side of the road. Not just that there are 3 donkeys close to the top walking along the road... Bizarre.

At the top there's bedhlam. A quick phone call to Le Foz and I discover that Mitch and I are the only ones at the top of the mountain - the others are at the previous Col.. There leaving now for the 1k sign. We will meet there - well maybe!

Ok the party has started at the top, the barbie is fired up. I spot Mitch, we download 2 cokes and a sausage and bacon sambo and head to the 1k sign. Now 2 police are shepherding the donkeys across the KOM!

A few hours to wait and the race will be here. We pull over next to some policemen on a grassy bank in the sun to wait...

We take off our wet tops to dry in the Alpine meadow in the sun.

Then the caravan comes through. We are looking for the vitel truck, water would be nice.

But first the Coffee truck comes, nice, we need a hat, the LCL truck comes through, then a t-shirt would be nice no problem the Casse truck swings by. Some salami, lollies and Madelines - Mitch and I are having a picnic - gotta love the tour.

As the time ticked by the bikes got fewer and fewer, looks like the boys aren't going to make it anywhere near us - even the Donkeys crossed the KOM before Le Foz, Danny and Damo... Too funny.

Just a few more minutes and the race will be through, keep an eye out for Mitch and I on the left side of the road just before the 1km to go sign!

FFT Day 8 Perfect one day-beautiful the next!

2010-07-20T08:03:00.001+10:00

We have had the most unbelievable weather this trip. Each day has been in the low 30's and bright blue sky. Today was no different.

It was also our last big travel day with the vans. Our destination for tonight was Lourdes and this would be home for the next 4 nights.

Up early, made possible by Pool Boy coming into the van early, we had our usual breakfast of cereal and baguttes. Buzz and Joe were going to take the vans to the feedstation just near the foot of a famous climb the col Port d'Aspet. The rest of us got on top of the carbon and headed to the race course. Our plan was to ride approx 115k, most of it along the course. This was undulating land, mostly rolling hills with a couple of shortish 2kilometre 4% climbs. As we left the camp and hit the main roads, there was the French equivilent of Cliffy Young doing his shuffle along the highway. The group got out of it's shuffle and we started to do easy to moderate rollovers that made the k's go by quickly. It is great fun riding along the course in front of the race. The roads are closed, there are a lot of people and they are bored as they have 4+ hours to wait, so they cheer anyone or thing. There are also not many bikes riding as most people go to the mountain parts of the stage.

We were howling along, with Jay on the front not paying attention as to where he was going and he missed the turnoff and almost had us in Toulouse! We turned the corner and I did a big turn up a 5% climb for 2k's when Danny realised it was a KOM and he jumped with Damo around me- Damn. We made up for it a few k later when we hit the intermediate spring. Jordan (team Boston) went early, making Damo (team Melbourne) react to cover. This put team Sydney in prime postion with Mitch and I doing a Renshaw/Cavendish move and Mitch taking rhe sprint easily!!

We continued along the course, taking turns, people cheering and we went through a famous cave/tunnel. It was 400m long and the largest Cave I have ever seen. It was spectacular and had a road traversing it.

We got near the finish of our ride at the feed station where Joe and Jarroyd waited when the gendarmes kicked us off the course. A local helped us find a backway for most of it, but we ended riding the bikes cross country style through a series of paddocks to avoid the cops and keep moving. I am sure back home I would not consider doing this, but when in France......

The riders came through and a couple of water bottles, one Cadels and the other Brett Lancasters, plus another from Radio Shack was all we had to show for our efforts. Jarrod had picked the wrong spot as most teams dumped their feedbags a k up the road. We jumped in the Vans with the race and our riding over. Over the col d' aspet and we got stuck in traffic, however we stopped at the Memorial to one of Lances's old motorola team mates Casartelli, who died during the TDF iin 1995 from hitting his head on a barrier. Pretty powerful stufff and makes you think about how we take iit all for granted.

Once that was all done we headed to Lourdes, our home for the next 4 nights, stopping briefly on the way to watch the race and Contador do what looks like a mongrel act by attacking while his main rival has a mechanical
Most of us didn't like that at all.

We got to Lourdes and set up. Had dinner at the same place Mitch and I went to last year. The waitress remembered us!

Tomorrow is a big day in the mountains for us. Hautacam and Col d' Abisque away!

Le Foz
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

FFT day Getting the words right!

2010-07-19T07:37:00.001+10:00

It was luxury this morning as we didn't need to move the vans so the camp was a little slow coming to life. By 8am, hunger pains had kicked in and the boxes of cereal, fruit and fresh cooked baguettes came out!

We did our morning read of the blog.
It is great to see that a lot of people are getting the emails or reading the blog and we are getting lots of comments and emails which is great. We have a lot of photos and video to load to the blog, however wifi at the caravan parks is average not to mention we just haven't had time to do it all.

We did get some feedback that the blog is very Sydney centric (I think that came from someone in Melbourne). We will try to balance it out.

We rolled out at 10am, a late start, however it was only 70k to the finish of todays stage at the ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines, which is above the town of Ax le Thermes, a beautiful alpine town nestled in a valley in the heart of the Eastern Pyrenees on the road to Andorra.

The ride out to Ax le Thermes was a gentle uphill all the way. We had a nice little 2k 7% climb straight out of the blocks. "Good morning legs" was the disgruntled comment from someone as we hit the hill. The road became more of a gradual climb and with a bit of a tailwind so we started rolling turns at a gentle pace. Jay (from Melbourne) was doing his fair share of pulls at the front as was Damo (also from Melbourne). It wasn't long till we stopped for a coffee at Foix at a little cafe that is just like Odo's (cafe in Melbourne). Caffeined up we hit the road again. It was a beautiful day, high 20's in temp and no real wind. The blueness of the sky was a sharp contrast to the granite cliffs and green mountains surrounding us. We had a little bit extra to look as Danny got a puncture 10k down the road puncture fixed we moved along the road at a pretty brisk pace. Our little peleton split in 2 again this morning with Joe in one group and everyone else in the other!! He had his Garmin, so what could go wrong????

We passed and picked up cyclists along the highway. There were a couple of Belgian cyclists who told me they lived less than a kilkometre from Robbie McEwan who hooked up with us. We stopped at ax le Thermes as we had over 4 hours till the race came through and everyone split up to get some lunch. Jordan, Damo (from Melbourne) Jay (from Melbourne) and me had a nice lunch at a little outdoor bistro. At 2pm we decided to get onto the final climb a 7 k climb to the finish at the snow resort at Ax 3 Domaines. However we and a lot of others when missed the time to close the course was at 2pm. Me Jay, Damo and Jordon caught the chairlift after a bit of sweet talking. An ingenious alternative to the police blocking the road. Danny, Mitch and Jarroyd walked through private houses and peoples backyard to get onto the course away from the coppers. There was lots of banter from everyone as to who was most correct. However my reading is that if contador left the course and went through someones house he would be disqualfied. No. Issues with our group.....Mitch, Jarrod and Danny disqualified for going off the course.

We watched the race at the 1k to go banner with Schleck and Contador fighting it out. After all the riders had come through we descended the mountain with the team cars and got in plenty of fans photo's.

We hit the road home with me, Danny, Rad, mitch, me Jordan and Buzz. Speeds down were up to 60k along the flats. We hooked into the rides and it was pretty special, even getting comments from the Katshuta riders who passed us in a team car. We passed Joe who had left earlier than us and we all regrouped and keep the pace on. We had a big dinner in Foix, before coming back our campsite to cheers from the locals who stay here.

All in all over 158k for us, a great day!

Le Foz.

Standing at 1km to go on AX3... Waiting

2010-07-19T01:27:00.001+10:00

After catching the cable car up we positioned ourselves at the 1km to go banner, which is where it flattens out.

For a while Damo and I are watching the caravan. People go crazy to get a free hat or bag or lollies/sweets. One person infront of us let their pram go and ran into a ditch to grab a hat... The baby ended up ok because it ran into the back of someone.

Being on a hairpin with barriers as the young ladies throw their caps some pop over the crowd - easy pickings - except we have to carry (in a bike pocket) whatever you catch back 70km home.. Only a yellow hat for one of my friends!

After we had scouted our position we went back to the finish and watched the big screen until they hit the bottom of the climb. Then clambered down to our spot.

The first rider Riblon came through by himself he was going to get his victory on a mountain top finish, then Sanchez and Menchov.

Now its time to fight our way down to the bottom with about another 200,000 people walking the road. Should be fun.

Ummmm we're stuck at the bottom of AX3...

2010-07-18T22:43:00.000+10:00

This is not good Mav!

The first glitch on FFT 2010, they closed the road very early and we're stuck at the bottom of AX3 after getting here a bit early and deciding to have lunch at a cafe. This is the decisive climb of Le Tour so you don't want to miss the fireworks.

Then we spotted the Gondola, a bit of sweet talking by Captain Le Foz of the operator and we're on our way to the top... Phew lucky!

Standing in the queue and all of a sudden we have a phone call from the other boys... Mike's puffing like he's cranking up the climb, "what's up boys", "they won't let us up...." They reply. A few seconds later and we let them in on the secret...

On the way I got a call from the Stig, he's gone to the top of the wrong mountain... Still 30k to go, how that happened we're not sure - maybe his GPS is set for mountain biking.

Safely at the top we can now work our way down the course a bit and see if we can find a bar with a TV while we wait.

Tomorrow we will definitely be checking the road book before we leave.

The longest span and the shortest break at Le Tour de France

2010-07-18T17:44:00.000+10:00

Vino soloing in for the win!

Yesterday we kicked off from Milau, its a really nice little town, but is famous now for its huge suspension bridge, which is pretty amazing. Basically it spans the valley allowing the traffic to bypass the town. All of those small twisty streets would have been terrible with a summer traffic jam!

As we rode out of town, we could see the bridge in the distance, even from a few km away it was huge. Mitch and I stopped for a few photos with the bridge in the distance to send back home and then rode back upto the group.

Not long after that we started to get closer - Hollywood had promised yesterday that we would ride right under the bridge and sure enough he was right. The bridge is tall, really tall and as we rode under I made the mistake of looking up over my shoulder at the pylon. Its so high I nearly fell off from vertigo. Now I know what its like for people who can't look down from a cliff!

After 35k it was my turn to drive, so with Danny and I driving we decided to follow behind the group, rather than leapfrog 10k and wait for the group.

The valley following the river was beautiful, small towns built into the side of shear rock faces, the river and this small windy road, great for riding, not so good driving a campervan.

I took our walkie talkies so we could talk between the vans, very helpful if we get separated, or to warn of upcoming cars etc.

Suddenly after a quick 50k we had found the race course, excellent - except that we wanted to get across it. Not as easy as it sounds. The tour has 1,000 police and their own full time department - that's all they do for a job.
Now while you may get a bike across there is no way the friendly gendarme is going to let you get get 2 fully loaded campervans across the course.

Danny (Poolboy) and I rotated out of the vans, and went straight to a 10k climb, not to steep, but it took a few km to get the legs to wake up... Luckily Damian was there, pacing me up with Poolboy.

At the top, it was straight in the vans then head to Revel for the bunch finish.

Now the challenge was to get across the course, we took goat track after goat track, little roads with the trees scraping up the vans sides, left into a goat track, seriously are we turing here it looks like a driveway?

Off to the finish and we managed to jag a seat at the 150m to go sign - we could see the big screen and the finish.

One of the riders had managed to escape on the last climb and road all the way to the finish...

So the spint was for second. Even for second he guys go through so fast, right in front of us Cavendish is looking across seeing if he's in front, all the other guys have their heads down going for the line, but Cav he's seeing like a 100m runner, only needs to win, not win by 10m. He kicks again, and takes second too easy - even without Mark Renshaw the Aussie send home for head butting! We saw Lance Armstrong roll across the line a few minutes down, laughing, joking saving himself for the mountains I'm sure.

After the race its back through the vans, we're heading to the Mountains, the mountains that will decide the tour. You can see them in the distance already, shrouded in mist and cloud, bare tops with no trees, desolate - maybe tomorrow you will see us at the top of one of them - hope so!

Jordan

FFT day 6- a big travel day

2010-07-18T16:05:00.000+10:00

Another early morning and I was first up amongst the group. I wandered over to the camp amenities block(which are all unisex over here and I can't get used to it!) and had an early shower and shave. While I was away, Danny had wandered up to the bakery and come back with fresh baguettes and croissants for breakfast. The boys started appearing one by one. Each day, the tiredness builds in it's intensity as the combination of riding, heat, travel sledging and lack of sleep takes its toll.

Enough said, if you can't keep up the pace....... We rolled out at 8.30am for a 110k ride along the Tarn River. It is a great ride amongst some magnificent scenery and of course under one of the most magnificent bridges in the world, the Viaduct bridge. Before we took that on, we had our obligitory morning coffee at a local cafe and the reading of last nights blog, so everyone knows what lies I am telling back home!. Bluncky was driving the van and he was doing laps of Millau, ordering his coffee as he drove past looking for a car spot!

The riding was magnificent. Rad Man and Bluncky took the vans, the rest of us on the treadlies. It didn't take long for a paceline to kick off. Mitch and Spencey seemed to have recovered well from their suspected altitude induced virus, as today was virtually flat. Mitch was on the front driving the pace and getting us all to an elevated heartrate quickly. It is lucky that Jarrod and I have the higher bunks in the van as we aren't sure if the boys wouldnt have a relapse of they went over a couple of metres in height. We will know tomorrow as we are back in the Pyrenees.

The only climb was a little 3k, 5% incline, which after the last week felt like a pimple. Watch out all when we get home as all this climbing training shouldn't won't to waste (Col de Black Rock and Col de McCarrs Creek!!) As we crested the climb, I moved up to Danny's shoulder positioning for a little sprint over the top, however Jamie (who's side is he on??) yelled at Danny and Danny sprinted off to the top to ensure he kept the Polka dot jersey.

After 35k we swapped drivers. Damo is now banned from driving as he backed the van into something and cost us our insurance! No matter, it could have happened to anyone. Danny and Jordan got into the Vans to take over the driving and following us. The pace got even hotter. Stig (joe), must had a bit of post birthday blues as he found the pace a bit hot and had to really dig in a few times to keep contact with the group. However there was no let up, and our little peleton shattered into two groups on the road. The lead group.........and Stig!

What we all didn't realise is that Danny video'd all of us riding for an hour in a paceline along the river road from the van behind us-with his own commentary.

We now have over 1 hour of video of us all hooking along this magnificent valley swapping off and hitting speeds of over 70kph. It is too big a file to load on the blog, but we will see if we can edit it and get some of it loaded up.

You can see some of the guys coming good due the last week in the mountains. Bluncky was driving it hard, as was Jamie, whose new knickname is "el Toro" due to his increasing strength. Part of the ride included riding through 400m tunnels that required lights and none of us had them. Danny, being behind us put his lights on in the van to give us a some light, but then the bugger turned them off momentarily midway through to leave us riding in pitch darkness, much to Danny's amusement!

We reached the tour course and the plan was to ride along it for a while before jumping back into the vans and heading to watch the finish. However, we had a problem in that both the vans had used a lot of diesel through the Mountains and we had forgot to fill them before we started the day. We were in a pretty remote area and there wasn't much in the way of petrol stations. Luckily the Garmin GPS's came through and the boys had a nervous 14k drive to the closest petrol station. What we didn't realise was that 13 and a half k of the 14 was uphill (again!). The group split on the hill. I stayed back to ensure Stig was ok as be was cooked better than a New England lobster. Could this be repeat of Nick Williams (FFT 2008)putting himself into the hurt locker and suffering the dreaded bonk? Happy to say, he got to tjhe van ok and we headed to the finish some 90k away. The 110k we had just ridden will be a highlight ride of the trip, I'm sure.

Due to the tour closing the roads we had to navigate our way around some really small windy secondary roads. Danny navigating in our van and Mitch taking the wheel. We have walkie talkies for comms between the two vans and there is plently of banter across the airwaves as we motor along.

This was Mitch's first big drive in the van. We soon realised why he was in the Navy, as there are no roads on the high seas's and we were encouraging him to stick to the little black strip of bitumen in front of him, a concept that he took a little while to adjust too!

Quick stop at Maccar's for a local French lunch of le big Mac, le fries, and le Coca Cola ,and we were on le road for the last little commute to Revel. We parked the vans and walked a k to the finish. It is always exciting to be at a stage finish. The atmosphere is electric, sun, speed, podium girls, colour and local characters all make it a mix of excitment and anticipation. We even got into the stands 125m to the finish and could see well down the finishing straight as across the finishing line. There was a big screen in front of us and we could watch the last 25k on the screen before the riders came into view. It was great viewing. Vinokourov, the cheating mongrel from 3 years ago, who is from Kazhagstan (team Astana) showed his strength by blasting off the front of the Peleton with 6k to go and powerfully solo home for the win. What was left of the peleton came in 20 seconds behind, with Cavendish kicking in his sprint over Petacchi and others right in front of us. TV doesn't relate the power and speed of the sprinters. Those guys really move in a sprint.

Spencey lived up to his uncanny ability of getting shots of the riders that no one else can get, including a wave and smile from Cadel ( a rarity) and with his arm around Matty Lloyd.

The final part of the day was for us to drive an hour into the Pyrenees and our campsite at Le Bastide de Serou, a beautiful little spot 30 out of Foix. we stopped to do a bit of shopping and have dinner at an all you can eat diner. For 8 euro's I had half a Chicken, fresh veges fruit salad and yoghurt. The quality and freshness of the food was first class, however with 11 hungry men in their restaurant, their profit might have had a dent last night!

All good, we got to the campsite around 9pm. It took us 20 mins to set up the camp, the precision of the setup now quite efficient and with everyone having a little job to do, our little travelling circus can pack and unpack quite quickly and efficiently.

Tommorrow back into the Mountains where I think Contador will assert himself on this race. It will be exciting to be a part of it.

Le Foz

Crash! There goes the insurance!

2010-07-17T23:16:00.000+10:00

Damo has been banned from driving after this effort!
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Bill and Ben- The Flower pot men

2010-07-17T22:57:00.000+10:00

Guess what we found in the Sunflower field this afternoon??
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Roadside assistance

2010-07-17T19:11:00.000+10:00

Is needed by everyone at some point!

Heading off for the Tour at Revel...

2010-07-17T16:59:00.000+10:00

Sitting here this morning before we take off grabbing a quick coffee.

After a great night in Millau - where they have the largest fan suspension bridge in the world - we're about to take off again for 160k down to the race finish in Revel.

Today its expected to be a sprint finish, and after being so close to Cavendish, Pettaci and McEwen that I could touch them and see how tired they were, literally crawling up the hill.

There we were, cheering them as they went past, only Cav could crack a smile, the others just a grimace.

More from the finish later today!

At Pont Du Gard

2010-07-17T15:15:00.002+10:00

Jarrod wanted us to stop at Pont du Gard, the famous Roman viaduct as he had aspirations to write the trip off on the taxman!!!

This is an email from Fujitsu Australia Limited, ABN 19 001 011 427. It is confidential to the ordinary user of the email address
to which it was addressed and may contain copyright and/or legally privileged information. No one else may read, print, store, copy
or forward all or any of it or its attachments. If you receive this email in error, please return to sender. Thank you.

If you do not wish to receive commercial email messages from Fujitsu Australia Limited, please email unsubscribe@au.fujitsu.com

What a tired head!

2010-07-17T15:15:00.001+10:00

This is an email from Fujitsu Australia Limited, ABN 19 001 011 427. It is confidential to the ordinary user of the email address
to which it was addressed and may contain copyright and/or legally privileged information. No one else may read, print, store, copy
or forward all or any of it or its attachments. If you receive this email in error, please return to sender. Thank you.

If you do not wish to receive commercial email messages from Fujitsu Australia Limited, please email unsubscribe@au.fujitsu.com

Joe the birthday boy at dinner!

2010-07-17T14:59:00.000+10:00

Day 5- some steep climbs ahead!

2010-07-17T08:25:00.001+10:00

Woke up early this morning after a very hot night. We were staying in Carpentras which is a medium sized French provincial farming town. We stayed here in 2008 as well and both times have been incredibly hot at night.
We left the van park at 9.15, which again was a little too late again. Mitch is becoming the "Sgt Major" and using his experience in this area to get us all organised. Our van is definately better organised (and cleaner) than the others! It is good to have someone take charge over this as wirth 6 guys in a very small van, without some organisation it can get messy (and unbelievably smelly!!!!

Our plan was to drive 90k then jump on the bikes and ride the last 100k to where the race would finish at the airport at the top of the hills overlooking Mende in south central france

On the way, we stopped
However the route we planned to take was a little bumpier than we thought. This would have meant that we wouldn't have got to the race finish in time so we stayed in the vans till we got to the top of the climb and the downhill started.

Mitch and Spencey were driving the vans, the rest of us riding a steady 16k descent. Jay nearly got cleaned up by the FDJ team bus as it hustled through to get to the finish in time, so he sat up and took it easy. Spencey and Mitch headed for Mende some 60k away with the vans and we tapped it out, Danny doing a lot of the work, with Damo and I taking a few turns on the front. I knew the ride was a little bumpy, however none of us envisaged a 12k climb on this afternoon's agenda.

We took turns, keeping the pace even, you could feel the last few days with 8000m of climbing starting to come into effect (watch out all when we get home!). Eventually we arrived at the top, Jamie showing his new form by staying with the "big guns" on the climb of Danny, Damo, Jordan, Buzz and yours truly. At the top of a lot of major climbs in France there is often a bar or cafe. This was no different, and after a very hot tiring 12k climb we went inside to get a (another) coke. The little old lady behind the bar was very friendly, but I don't think she trusted Jamie and Danny who were grabbing the drinks. She counted the drinks about 4 times before she felt satisfied that she had provided the right amount for what we paid. I used the garmin GPS(what did we do before these things) to map a new course to the finish at Mende airport. We coasted for the first 10k of the last 13k we had left.

Mende Airport is on a plateau 400m above the city. The race actually finishes on the actual runway. It ois not before an incredibly steep 3k climb, that averages 11% gradient. Even the pro's battle up this hill. With the course closed to the public, Spencey, Mitch and Jay stayed down in town. We went the back way which is the second road to the airport. Little did we realise that this was just as steep, with sections having a 18% gradient with the tar on the surface sticky from the oppressive heat. The whole 2k of the climb was brutal. When we took off from the bottom, all the big guns took off. Jarrod was first to pop and his "big gun" ran out of bullets! I took it a bit easier, knowing how steep the road was. I picked off Jordan, Jarrod, and Damo, eventually catching Danny and managed to get over him and take the KOM for the day! He disputed it at dinner when questioned at dinner by rhe boys, but finally a win for the good guys!

Bluncky and Joe (birthday boy) fought for the "flame rouge" (last) up the hill. Bluncky had a little walk at the steep stage, and Joe soon followed. Not good to walk when you can ride.

At the top we waited about 1k from the finish and right at the top of the climb. Contador was showing his strength on the hills as he put 10 seconds into the yellow jersey holder, Andy Schleck. Contador will be hard to beat looking at today. The riders came through in dribs and drabs, absolutley stuffed!! They are were dribbling, gaunt eyes looking longingly up the road for the finish to come.

We finished our Hambergers that we had cooked for us at the finish, and took off after the race down to the town to meet the others. We swooped down the road the riders had just come up, many spectators thinking we were actual riders, taking photos of us and yelling support for us. Good fun.

After the race a few of us thought we would keep riding, but a brief summer thunderstorm put paid to that, so we put that idea out of our heads.

We headed to where we are staying tonight, Millau. We plan to ride most of the course in front of the race tomorrow and watch what should be a sprint finish after. So for us, another big day of 160k

Early start coming.

Le Foz

When the tar is so hot it is running down the road!

2010-07-17T01:10:00.000+10:00

We're about 1km from the finish of the Tour de France at Mende at the top of the last climb. I have no idea what its like, because our tour guide decided to take us up the back of the climb. Its about 35/92 deg and clear sunny skies.

No problems it saved 8km, we thought. Except as we started to climb I thought it was raining, the tar/road was so hot it wasn't just making a noise it was coating the tyres and that syrupy feeling was slowing me down dragging us back down the hill.

All of that combined with the hill hitting 18% was all you need on a blisteringly hot day... Um are we there yet?

Finally at the top, about 10 minutes before the riders get here, a quick hamburger and a coke and we are ready for the riders.

Here's a photo of Joe (the birthday boy and I at the top.

The Bostonian's Arrive at the Tour de France

2010-07-16T15:52:00.003+10:00

When we started to organize this trip (or more correctly Mike did) I tried to convince a few of my new US friends that it would be “awesome” said with the proper expression to go to France and experience the Tour. Everyone was interested, but only Joe “Stig” Butler took me up on the offer.

We travelled separately to Marseille, everything arrived in one piece – (I nearly lost my bike to a guy who had exactly the same case – and didn’t look at the tag as it was coming off the baggage claim). He was about the same size as me – maybe he would have been the winner or maybe I would have been – who knows!

Originally Joe and I were going to catch the TGV to Orange and have the guys meet us there at about 5pm. Looking at the original FFT plan devised by the Captain – I thought that was pretty aggressive, they were planning to ride about 100km/60m with the vans following climb Ventoux and come and meet us…. We could have been sitting in some smoky French Café for hours.

Based on that and the thought of climbing one of the legendary mountains in France, I scouted the Internet and came up with Alain from http://www.ventoux-decouvertes.com/ who could give us a lift. Great, meet the boys in Bedouin at the base of the mountain and do Ventoux then push onto where we were staying that night. When you’re dealing with the worlds biggest sporting event – you have to be flexible, the roads are closed and they have 1000 police keeping the race moving and the traffic at a standstill. No problem if you are on a bike – but for the 2 campervans they weren’t moving (see the story here). Change of plans meet in Carpentras, we had stayed there in 2008 and we could ride from there…

The question was could I remember where the camping ground was, sure enough I found a road that looked familiar and there it was.

It was hot – as Robin Williams would say – “dam hot” pushing 100, we picked a spot in the shade and built our bikes while we waited for the boys. They arrived and we all got read to go by then it was getting close to 6pm – not to bad as it was starting to cool off… remembering that we were on Boston time it felt like lunchtime for us so we weren’t in a hurry.

As we rolled through Bedouin this beautifule town at the bottom of the mountain Mike and a few of the boys are coming down the hill the other way. They had gone up from the Sisteron side which was comparatively easy and Mike couldn’t let Danny go back to Australia saying how easy that French mountain was – he didn’t know what all the fuss was about…. Remember they have already ridden about 100k, just climbed up a 20k mountain and saying hey lets do it again – hard or crazy – you decide.

Its still warm as we start the climb, I was looking for water at the bottom, but didn’t see any and nobody wanted to stop.

As I started the climb I had memories of last time – similar circumstances, just off a plane a few hrs in a car and it was pretty much the hardest thing that I had ever done – I just wasn’t prepared… This year I was a little more prepared, better gearing on my bike – lost some weight but the memories of last time… the climb proper is 18k. One minute your riding along talking, next minute Mike says at this corner it gets hard – and it does – grades of 10% plus for about the next 11k.

There is only one piece of good news – you are in a forest, that means that you’re in the shade. The bad news is it never flattens out, never gets below 8% (which is steep enough). I had learnt my lesson from last time on these big climbs pick an easy gear and spin up, normally I work my way down through the gears as the climb goes on, fine for the pimples in Westborough, but do that on these mountains and soon your heart rate is at 180, you need to stop…. Um there is nowhere to stop it just keeps going up and up at 10% (that’s steep enough so you feel like you might not get going again).

Lesson learned, rhythm found, kept the heart rate at 170 and proceeded up the mountain. Lucky for me Mike and the boys had done 100+k before they met up with us, so I could keep them just in front as we moved upwards. By this time we were all over the mountain – Joe was back there somewhere, Spency, Hollywood, Mitch somewhere.

We got to Chateau Reynard and stopped to get some water. Now Gerard was just behind me and when I came out from the toilet I thought that I saw him taking off in the wrong direction down the mountain to Sisteron… couldn’t be surely they signs are pretty clear MT VENTOUX and an arrow pointing up, up up. Sure enough it was him, Mike and I thought that after realizing that he was going downhill he would have turned around – but that didn’t happen for about 6k – lucky him!

From there it’s a few km to the top, but the grades apart from one section are much shallower – about 6% so we tapped out a pretty good rhythm and got to the top… in much better shape than last time. Over the next 10 minutes or so everyone arrived at the top, a few photos but it was time to go – somehow it was 8.30 and the light was leaving for the day….. We screamed downhill (One of the boys topped out at about 88km 55mph) and then a slightly run downhill all the way to Carpentras,

We found the café that we had dinner at last time, sat down – water and coke for all then asked for the menu. By this time it was 10pm – kitchens closed damm provincial France! They managed to rustle up some salads, not too bad – by this time everyone was almost too tired to eat so we headed back to the vans in pitch black.

Mike at the Top of Ventoux

Joe at the Tom Simson memorial

Jordan (thats me)

What a first day – now the French adventure begins!

2010-07-16T15:19:00.002+10:00

Dont ask!!!!

With our Frnch mate in the Laundry

2010-07-16T15:14:00.004+10:00

Pardon Me!

our luxurious campsite!

Group shot at Col Du Glandon

Day one about to go up Alp Du Heuz

more photos of the last few days

2010-07-16T15:10:00.004+10:00

ventoux sillouette

Breakky with smoky croissants

Aussie Pete Spence

some recent photos over the last few days

2010-07-16T15:07:00.004+10:00

boys at Tom Simpson Memorial

Getting a snack at the bakery

2010-07-16T15:00:00.000+10:00

Mitch at Col du Glandon

FFT day 4 - which way did he go?

2010-07-16T08:50:00.001+10:00

Up early we headed into town to do our Laundry. The pressure was on to understand the instructions for the washing machines as everything was in French. We were in luck, what looked like a French leprachorn was an old French bloke, who we think worked in Laundrymat and speaking in a french country dialect took great pleasure in showing us the ropes as well as engaging in a bit of banter with the boys.

While we were waiting for the washing, we went to a local cafe for coffee and croissants. France is not known for its coffee, you either get a short black or a Cafe Au Lait, both nowhere near the quality or variety that we are used to in 0z. The croissants are left on the tables for customers to eat, however some patrons just smoke all over them while they have their coffee. The next patron who actually wants a croissant would be oblivious to their smoked breakfast. Yuk!

Next to the cafe was the local morning market, where all the local farmers set up and sell vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese and other assortments. The quality of the local produce is high and we enjoyed local prunes, raspberries, apples etc. We all fanned out and explored the market and their wares.

Chores done, we headed back to pack up the site. By 9.30 it was so hot that most of the guys headed to the local river to have a swim. That put us behind schedule and we missed going to the start of the race at Sisteron. We watched them come past where we were staying. We then had some logistics as Jordan and Joe arrived from the US today and were meeting us in Carpentras. Mitch, Jarrod, Bluncky and Jay drove to Carpentras and the rest of us rode towards Mt Ventoux. The plan was for the guys in the vans along with Jordan and Joe to ride up and meet us on the mountain.

We took off on the bikes. Navigation is not an issue as a few of us have the Garmin GPS bike computer on our handlebars. They are fantastic devices as you key in instructions just like in your car and the GPS tells you where to go. Not that the Ride Captain ever gets lost.....just a bit of unplanned exploring every now and again. Never admit you are lost, Magellan and Columbus certainly didn't as their crews wouldn't have taken kindly to it, and neither do I for the same reason!

The garmin put us along this Gorge road, that had the most amazing light blue river with sandy rockpools in it. The road went for about 15k next to the river and there were plenty of people enjoying the Summer sunshine. We noticed that French women only buy half a bikini, so that kept our spirits up(and eyes open) as we rode alongside. We climbed steadily for 35k, then hit the downhill. We were heading for the town of Sault which is one of the main approaches to Mt Ventoux. The amazing thing is that you come over this ridgeline, and the Alps finish dramatically. All before you are the plains of Provence. It is a great view. We barrelled down the descent, hitting speeds of 75kph, and were soon in Sault. It was too hot to ride up the moutain, so we found a cafe and watched the tour for an hour while demolishing quiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, ice cream and cokes.

Fuelled up, we started the climb. Mt Ventoux is one of the iconic climbs of French bike racing. It was in the tour last year and reportedly 1 million people were on the mountain that day......how do they count them??? There are 3 approaches to the peak. We were coming from the eastern side out of Sault and the others who had put the vans in a caravan park, from the more famous(and tougher) west approach that begins in Bedion. The plan was for us all to reach the summit at a similar time then head down to Carpentras for dinner and bed.

We left Sault and the climb wasn't too tough. We did drop Jay and Jamie who would find their own rythm and make their way to the Summit. Danny was doing all the early pacemaking followed by me and Rad Man. It was a fairly solid pace. However as we climbed, I began to realize that this was a much easier side to climb. It is about the same length as the other approaches, 21km, but Sault is much higher in altitude, so the gradient is less. Infact, we had the bikes in the big ring towards the top before it joined the Western approach, riding at nearly 40k an hour! No wonder the tour stopped using this route to Ventoux. It was too easy.

After telling the boys what a horrific climb it is (we did the bedion approach in FFT 2008), I couldn't bear having Navy Boy brag about how easy Ventoux was, so when we got to Chateau Reynard, which is where the Sault an Bedion approaches meet before the §ummit, I told Danny and Damo, we were going down to Bedion to meet the others who were on their way up. So we descended all the way to the bottom, met the others who were just about to begin the climb, and turned around and did it all again. This time from the tough side. It is another 21k climb, which 10k averages 10% in gradient and the rest a solid 7%.

I was climbing much better than earlier in the week on the Madelaine, and took over 2nd spot from Damo (who looked samashed!) behind Danny. I stopped to get water from Chateau Renyard and Jordan and Rad man arrived so I waited for them to get their water refilled so we could ride the last bit together. Jordan said had I seen Jarrod as he was in front of him. At first I didn't believe him as on every other mountain we had been on he was at the back of the pack. I explained I went inside to get water so the assumption was that he would be second to the summit behind Danny due to me stopping. I could only imagine the bragging if Buzz was second up one of the hardest climbs used in the Tour de France. He has never even crested col de Warriwood in the first 5 riders! I took off to try and reel him in with Jordan (who has lost 5kg's and riding extremely well) in tow. We reached the summit, and there was Danny on his own.....no Buzz. Later as others from our group arrived at the top, it was reported he had taken a wrong turn. I said it was impossible as the ride was so clearly signposted. No Buzz, it was assumed he had given up and we all decided to ride back down the mountain and visit the famous spot where Tom Simpson died after consuming a lethal cocktail of barbituates and alcohol during a race up the mountain. Before he died by rhe roadside, he famously stated"put me back on my bike" and then expired. A few of our boys weren't far behind Tom in passing out with the effort! We then started down the mountain and we were tearing along and who comes around the corner, Buzz, mumbling something about a wrong turn. I would have thought taking a wrong turn on Ventoux was about as likely as Mark Webber taking a wrong turn around Albert Park race course. But Buz did have a little "explore" and eventually went to the top. Danny and I turned around and rode back up to the summit with him ( for the 3rd time back up part of the mountain for us!!). We took a photo for history and then hit the downhill. It was now 7.30pm and there were no cars so you could see all the road and use it to hit the descent hard. As we came back past Chateau Reynard, Joe, Jordan, Damo and Mitch were all waiting. So we bombed the descent together. Later at dinner Buzz said he hit a top speed of 90.6kph, which Mitch (who beat him down disputes). My top was only 85.7k, but as Danny and I had done a lot more riding than the others, we took it a bit easier for safety's sake.

Joe has just joined the group and being the token American on the trip will be wondering what he has got himself in for with all the aggressive riding and banter!

We got back to Carpentras around 9.30pm Over 160km of riding and 3300m of vertical climbing. A huge day. All the boys were smashed at dinner and Spencey has some sort of virus and isn't 100%.

Tomorrow we do it all again

Le Foz

At the top of Mt Ventoux

2010-07-16T04:25:00.001+10:00

24k to the top - we all made it!