Gryphon, Monster-cross!

This is Team "Go Vegan" 's new set of wheels. I had a quick tootle on it yesterday and was very impressed with how fast it rolled. It should be real good on those miles of tar-seal and gravel. Its a road-bar specific machine with "non-shock-ready" geometry.

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Wild Supermotard styles!

No stone is left unturned while checking for the ultimate Brevet machine..... It was a bit lacking in speed on the Liverton road TT circuit last night.. I dont think I was able to get the neccesary cadence out of the fat wheels.
A measely 36km/h.

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Before and after

Before Jenny Craig tyre diet.




Ejector seat button....

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Moving into the bigger ring

A good use for my original Tune spider - 24-34-46 !









Some more shots of Aero-bars for the many aero-bar fans out there.

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Monday morning commute

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Wheel sucking roadie dog

The final round of the PNP MTB series was back at Makara Peak MTB park. Some awesome trails, but all looping all over the show and real hard to navigate without local knowledge. Most of the big guns had turned up in the crusties class (40 years +) except for Simon Kennett and Rob Kilvington. I think it was very close in points between Karl Ratahi and Brett Irving for the overall series, so Karl was amped.

The gun went off and the under 19, senior men and 40 plus were all off together. My protoge Tom Bradshaw just took off like it was a short course race with a couple of other 17 year olds in tow. Half expecting them to blow up with youthful exuberance I jumped on their tails to put time and riders between me and my competition on trails I was not overly familiar with.

After about 5 minutes Karl caught me from behind. I shadowed him for the first part until we came out of a trail and confronted with the alphabet soup signage at the first major turn, he went the wrong way. I yelled out and he was back on my tail until I let him through again as he was clearly riding the techie stuff faster than I was.

At some point we came out of the single track onto some wide open 4wd and a look behind saw the omenous vision of Geoff Knotman on his new carbon forked single speed 29er, grinding up the track behind me as he wrestled his crazy gear. He has great starting speed and had put some time on the other crusties. Karl and I worked together a little, but he was not holding back at all and eventually pulled away up the 4wd climb.

Into the first bit of single track I missed the turn and a senior got in front of me, slowing me down a bit on the reverse Aratahi trail. I attacked him once out of the single track and never saw him again. Next up was into the Leaping Lizard descent with its high-speed whoops, and the best part, the rough rutted Lower Leaping Lizard which comes out onto the Possum Bait trail. This was followed by a series of ultra-tight switch-back climbs that can only be ridden with 100% concentration. I only muffed one of them. I had no idea how far ahead Karl was, but we still had a long way to go.

The trails just went on and on. There was a lot of climbing on tight rough rocky trail, but thankfully, very few back-markers in the way. After that and it was into some wind-blown and open descents. I made a 50-50 call on an unmarked corner. It was the right call and eventually I was back onto a very open climb to the park summit.

A big descent came after this, and it was a long time between track markers, so when I came across two, pointing in opposite directions, on opposite sides of the trail I wasnt sure if I was lost or what the story was. I stopped for a while and eventually saw Clive Bennett grinding up the hill from the opposite direction, and asked him which way. Clive put me straight and it was race on again. Jonty Ritchey who was racing elite caught me from behind and we shot out onto the tarseal of Makara road for a bit. We then hung a left for a 6 minute granny gear climb up a piece of 4wd. This was Jontys 2nd ascent and I was only doing the one so I managed to sneak past him at about half way through the climb. Out onto Varleys or Zacks track, not sure which, and the gale-force wind was playing havoc on our fastly diminishing single-track skills.

Jonty passed me back and disappeared down the Ridgeline trail in front of me. I couldnt see any of my fellow crustys around me so just tried to hold my gap on unfamiliar trails. 5 mintues later and I came out of the single track.... there was no signage to tell me which way to go!

I was getting pretty frustrated at this point as I knew my less than stellar skills would have seen my gap on 3rd place close. Sure enough. As I waited 3rd place rider Brett Irving on his Niner 29er rolled up and knew exactly where to go! Left down Live-wires! I sat on Bretts wheel, as much as I could on the descent and we eventually burst out onto the tarseal.

I was feeling a bit gutted at having lost 2nd place so I basically sat on Bretts wheel for the next 1km and pulled out at the last second to sprint him like a roadie dog! We rolled into the finish and the next 2 or 3 guys were all in on the same minute. That was some seriously close racing.

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Choppers, wetas and lots of grass

WOW. Round 4 of the PNP MTB series in
Belmont was pretty intense. I was itching to get my own back on the Wellington crusties who spank me around Makara, as I rarely ride there. Being a Belmont resident, local knowledge was my not too secret weapon! Having the "knowledge" meant that I knew I had to be first into the Danzig track, as there are NO passing lanes and if anyone falls in front of you, you lose valuable time.

I have never been shy on going for the hole-shot so I selected the appropriate gear and tried to imagine I was back on the velodrome doing a 3km pursuit. It worked. Into the first turn and I was already in first place, then we dropped around behind the shearers quarters and heading for the left hand gravelly turn.. Splat!! I lost the front wheel, and went gravel surfing, but before you could say "oh my golly" I was back on, and in the next 20 meters had retaken the lead and crested the rise and into the single track in 1st slot. Plan 1 was a sucess... Now on to plan 2... Hmmm... I didnt have a plan 2...

Rob Kilvington was on my tail and obviously cruising. We slowly put time on the chasing trio of Brett Irving, Karl Ratahi and Matt Farrar. Rob took off just before the top of Danzig and rode off into the sunset never to be seen again.

I just put my head down and just rode it like I stole it. Knowing what was coming up was an advantage, but not the technical kind of advantage like you get at Makara, more of a mental advantage, knowing when the gradient was goingto change etc. The other guys seemed to be making time on me on the descents somewhere through the kilmister block, but were losing it on the climbs. Awesome.

Last time up through the Pony Club I punctured after the last stream crossing and that was that. 2nd place gone. I had tried to go tubeless with my rear the previous night, but gave up when I couldn't air up the tyre. Bugger. I felt as deflated as my tyre. I aired up again with a new tube and co2 and took off just as Matt Farrar caught me, he too had also punctured early on.

The manic pace was taking its toll, I was already starting to cramp each time I jumped over a stile, and there seemed to be heaps of them! I fell into the old trap of over-doing it after my "puncture-rest". I dropped Matt but I think he was spurred on maybe 5 mins later when Michael Thomson came up behind him and woke him up. Both of them shot past me somewhere along the old coach track and the best I could do was keep Michael in sight on the Danzig descents. I grovelled in at about 6th spot I think, feeling a bit gutted, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. We were really going hard for a long time. Too long!
Andy Woodwarks photos here.
Nigel Sanders photos.
I take blurry fotos.

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Wednesday Worlds - BikeHutt - Upper Hutt

Looking for adventurrrrrrrrre.
Get out on the highwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay !


Some mid-week exercise action was deemed to be in order, and due to a recent infatuation with my Santa Cruz Superlight my roadie kharma was waning.

Wednesday night had came around, and the word on the street about the Wednesday worlds had spread to the Lower Valley.

The signs were good. Burst-and-gurlgars Mrs was taking a rare night off in her quest for ass-kicking perfection. Already a black-belt in one flavour of karate, she was also doing Tai Chi and Kung-fu. Thats right! YOU CAN PUT OUT THE WASHING TODAY MATHEW!
Anyway, she said Matt was allowed out to play so I was fine with that.

We rolled out to The BikeHutt in Upper Hutt and started with the pre-ride idle banter and posturing. Given that it was Mike Andersons shop, we kind of expected Mike to be there, but one of his hench-girls said that he had caught an illness off one of his kids and couldn't make it.

To our amazement a steady stream of riders of all shapes and sizes collected out the front of the shop and were all rearing to go at 6pm.

There must have been 30 of us at that point and the rules were laid out. We ride out (as a group) to Te Marua and ride through Whitemas valley and stop at the top of Blue Mtns. At this point it's gloves off, for the return trip. Whoever gets to the green sign opposite the Church near the Gorrie Road intersection is the World Champ, Upper Hutt styles!

Little Mikey Milner made the first move, and would have almost slipped away unnoticed, if it weren't for the wash his mack-truck like aero-dynamics were causing in the surrounding vegetation. A counter move on the Paris Robaix segment saw team "Go-Vegan" bridge back into Mikey's wake and make his puny move.

After a while Dan and the other members of the secret Upper Hutt death-squad started putting on the screws, while keeping an eye out for errant motorists who might be silly enough to flip them the bird. Over time a series of attacks came and went and at some point, probably through sheer boredom we let Dan ride away and get to the finish point first.

It was a fun ride and I look forward to the next one. The only sour point was being attacked minutes from home by a cowardly vegetarian when I mentioned my sore legs....

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350 Ride, in a frock, on a bike!

It was my wifes idea that we should think about doing the 350 ride from Eastborne to Wellington on saturday.

She started riding a bike to work this year during "Bike to work" month, and this culminated in her actually doing the Graperide, a big turn around for someone who has always regarded cycling as a "vice".

Ever since then she has become very vocal in the "water-cooler" discussions at work when her workmates turn on the down-trodden cyclist!

We tootled on to Petone and teamed up with Matt, Mo and Zoe. Matt was riding a single speed, moustached-barred Colnago, towing a bike-trailer with a two-year old on board. These trailers are real head-turners and people's faces just lit up to see a sproggin getting towed around like this. A shame that this kind of thing is not encouraged in this 3rd world city of ours.

The Eastborne riders rolled in about 30 mins late, but large in numbers, about 170 I think? The Frocks on Bikes thing was happening as well, so Kay and Mo frocked up to show people that riding a bike didn't have to mean Lyrca and sweat.

The famous Kennett Brose and whanau were spotted in different parts, and a yap with Paul (also towing a trailer with a two-year old on board) revealed their new book about to be launched - ( Cycling Legend Tino Tabak) This one sounds great, and I cant wait to hear the interview with Kim Hill on National radio when it happens.

It was great to see a feminine side to cycling that I had never seen before. Kay got a puncture as we were about to leave Petone and instantly there was an immaculately dressed woman in knee-length boots waving a track pump at me! Awesome.

Unfortunately despite a C02 quick full and a track pump we still missed getting into town with the bunch. We caught them just as they cruised into the Wharf. From here it was down to the Macs Brewery where we ran into Alana Jo and Robyn Wong.

There was beer and chips, and gelatos, and when celebrity seismologist Bill Fry arrived with his $15 Healing Mountain Cat, there were more chips! Bills friend in a all-white Gimp-suit got maximum points for unsettling looks but seemed quite normal when he de-cowled. Bill and his friends had started their leg of the ride at Island Bay and went right around the bays to meet with the rest of us.

It was great to join in on such a fun event. One of the many things the riders were trying to bring to attention was the cycling lane situation in the Wellington region. We are so far off the ball is shameful.

Matt was towing a 2-year old in a bike trailer, and given the lack of a north-bound cycle-lane going back to the Hutt Valley, we were forced to ride back on the south-bound cycle-lane, and then ride the last 500 metres into the face of oncoming traffic at 100kmh. It was very very scary. The lane was covered in glass and debris for 80% of its length. Its not hard to see why. The lane is lower than the road and the debris travels down to the lower level. Where there is a gutter, the rubbish doesn't make it onto the lane.

Its hard to believe that we live in a country where cyclists have such a low status that this scenario is deemed acceptable. Check out the links below to read more about what the ride was about.

http://frocksonbikes.wordpress.com/
http://www.350.org/
http://www.350.org.nz/wellington/international-day-of-climate-action#harbourride

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Belmont pre-ride - Not what youd expect...

Saturday morning I got a text from Team "Go Vegan's" Matt Burst-and-gurgler whose triathlete scum friends had deserted him for his ride.

Was I riding?
Yes I was. Get here asap and we would check out the course for the Belmont round of the PNP MTB Series.

We got 200 metres up Swetavacres Drive when Matt broke his chain... so while he lay down sobbing uncontrollably on the side the road, because now he wasn't gonna get to ride down Danzig, I mended it with my chain-breaker, which I always carry when riding with Matt, because he makes so much power, and because he is an american and he never carries tools.

We went down Stratton St (which was less technically demanding than Danzig) and up Danzig. Low and behold we ran into Marco at the top...

At this point I queried him about his course instructions which were indecipherable to anyone who was not a 3rd generation Romney lamb who had spent their entire life living in the Waitangirua Farm Forest Park.

Marco told me that my instructions were obviously wrong as there was a more up to date version available in his head, and also on the internet.

I pointed out that these printed instructions were fresh off the internet that day, so he downloaded the ones from his frontal lobe right there and then, without a usb port in sight!

Anyway, off we went to take the first hard left that went pretty much no-where so we returned back to the old coach road anyway, which was always the plan.

A few minutes later we were back on the trail to find that part of Marcos download was missing the instruction that mentioned that the park was in fact closed for lambing until... some date in the future.. that wasn't actually today...

Anyway. So faced with a choice of where to go next, and Matt's technical prowess ruling out the obvious descent of Danzig, we did the "Bridle track", which was mostly walking, as its very steep, and slippery.

I told Matt to stay away from the stinging nettle near the creek... and like a naughty child he made sure he brushed against some, which stopped him bleating about his goolies which had left a big dent in his top-tube after his chain broke.

By this time Matt and I had swapped rigs, ( I was now riding his pre-war FAT-CHANCE Buck Shaver ) and he proved to me how it WAS definitely all about the bike...

So on and on and we went and after exiting the creek we came once again upon Marco, and Hoz the Power-ranger who made Barry Crump look like a novice try-hard.

We told Marco we had just come down the Bridle Track and he said Nah thats not in the course anymore... neither is Weta or Big Chopper or Uncle Bobs Wheelie...

So with 95% of the course either out of bounds, or changed, or not in use anymore, what else could we do... We rode up to the top of the Trig then back up Danzig and down Swetavacres...

At least we got out....!

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Paula Tesoriero has a new jersey!

In case you missed it Paula Tesoriero is back after her world champs in Italy.
A bronze in the Time Trial and a Gold in the Road Race to go with her other medals! More details below!

Anyway, the racing all went well. The Road Time-Trial was a killer.
Asthma went a bit nuts and there were weird cross-winds on part of the course (now I'm used to full head on winds in Wgtn, but cross-winds are another thing!) - but coming in with bronze met my expectations.

Unfortunately my Time Trial Bike frame snapped in travel, so I've had to have a wee sad farewell to that bike. She got bronze in Beijing and in Italy so has served me well.

The road race was the second event- and most of you will now know I won that event- and got the World Champion jersey. Cycling is all about the "jersey" so to win my first one (you don't get them at the Paralympics or the Olympics because the jerseys are world champ jerseys alone and winning gold at the Paralympics makes you a Paralympic Champion which is higher than a World Champion, but every cyclist wants the jersey so to finally have one is significant!). What was really cool is that just after they played the NZ National Anthem, they said it was also a celebration for Italy since I was an Italian as well.
Then the Italian crowd went NUTS!

It was sad leaving Italy and every time I fly out, I feel homesick for a few weeks after. This time it's no different. I miss the roads, the coffee, the people, the culture and the special bike signs that tell cars to give way to cyclists !!

All in all, it was a great campaign.
Despite telling everyone how lucky I've been to get through this winter without any colds or the Flu, I am sitting here wrapped up with what I hope is only a cold (damn long haul flights).

I had two marriage proposals while away, which is up on my usual one proposal every time I visit Italy!! This only ever happens in Italy.

Depending on this cold - training resumes tomorrow as we build for the Track World Champs in November in Manchester. Then it will be home and a break from competition! My pinnacle event for this year is the Track Worlds - where the jersey in the 500m TT is of course, the prized goal.

Thanks for the emails and texts while I was away,

Paula

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Why I would rather ride outside.....

...6 other sets of handle-bars to lobotomise myself on!

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