Herald Sun Tour 2011

Wed 12 Oct Whittlesea to Ballarat Road Race

Thu 13 Oct Ballarat to Geelong Road Race

Fri 14 Oct Geelong to Drysdale Road Race

Sat 15 Oct Sorrento to Arthurs Seat Road Race

Sun 16 Oct Lygon St, Carlton Circuit Race

Wednesday is the opening stage and a rolling course from Whittlesea to Ballarat will not only travel through the stunning central highlands and goldfields area but sap the legs with long rolling roads and likely strong winds at times. A fast finish into Ballarat will see the sprinters teams work hard to bring any breaks back for the dead flat sprinters finish at Lake Wendouree.

Thursday does not get any easier. The road from Ballarat to Geelong is full of surprises and the Brisbane ranges will test the riders before a long descent towards Geelong and the sea. The sprinters teams will again work hard but a technical run towards Geelong might favour the opportunist.

Friday sees the riders take on the stunning terrain of the Great Ocean Rd. An early climb and scorching descent to Lorne precedes a rolling and often windy ride back to Anglesea before heading into the Bellarine Peninsula and a gradual uphill run to the finish. We may see the strong man come to the fore today.

Saturday is the queen stage of the tour and the general classification will turn on its head today. A ferry ride from Queenscliff takes the riders to the start at Sorrento. A long flat ride along the beach to Dromana will warm up the riders before a first tough ascent of Arthurs Seat. 3k at 10% makes a tough climb and with a yellow jersey to claim, the stakes are high. The riders will explore the stunning terrain of the Mornington Peninsula before 2 more times up the mountain with the 3rd time finishing on top. It is winner take all today and the climbers will come out to play.

Sunday brings the Tour home to Melbourne and Little Italy in Lygon St. A fast and furious circuit race may well decide the Tour as it did in 2006 when Simon Gerrans took the Tour on the final sprint of the final stage. A full day of support events and the bike expo are designed to make Lygon St a great cycling destination for the day.

Cav's Big Day Out

An interesting background piece about Britain's plan to regain road cycling credibility 46 years after their last after World Championship win by Tom Simpson:

http://inrng.com/2011/09/cavendish-worlds-britain-win/#more-5078

The Man with the Hammer

From velominati.com:

One of the most magnificent things about Cycling is that not only does it represent different things to different people, it represents different things on different days. Some days, it’s training – a means to an end. Other days, it’s the culmination of a body of work; rather than a means to an end, it represents that end itself, whether that end is exhilarating or devastating. But these two facets represent Cycling only as Sport, the complex simplicity of the balance between dedication and results.

Cycling stands apart, however, in its many dimensions beyond Sport. For me, Cycling is meditation, a time to clear my mind of ancillary concerns and contemplate on those that require my focus. It is thoughtlessness, a time to eliminate everything through the simple means of pain. It is simultaneously medication and therapy; even a short ride can shake a heavy lethargy from my bones and rejuvenate aching muscles and joints. It is simultaneously tension and release; Cycling can fill my being with effort, an effort that overflows my legs and lungs and spills over to fill every fiber of my being, flushing from me all those things I wish not to keep.

Cycling is penance for my mistakes; a few hours at the mercy of the Man with the Hammer can help me understand the error of my ways. It is cleansing of other’s mistakes – here the Man with the Hammer helps pound out the ripples in the surface of Life they cause me.

I am by no means a great man and never will be. But I am a better man for my bike, and for that I am eternally grateful to it

Attributed quotes

An interesting piece from The Inner Ring today:

Mark Cavendish has signed a deal for sports agents the Wasserman Group to represent him and to mark the moment there’s been a press release to announce the deal. Here’s an excerpt:

“I’m really excited to be joining Wasserman,” said the sprint cyclist who currently rides for HTC-Highroad. “Their client list is the best in the world and being part of a company who has a history of successfully managing top athletes can only be beneficial in what is a big few years for me. It’s extremely important to have the right management behind me now to allow me to focus all of my energies into riding my bike as fast as I can.“

Only he probably never said these words. Welcome to the phenomenon known as the “attributed quote”. It’s widespread. The use of the attributed quote is systemic, a worldwide phenomenon that goes well beyond sport and into news, politics and more.

In cycling it’s common, for example the announcement of a sponsorship deal or when a rider changes team there’s normally a press release to announce news of the signing. It will set out the facts and then a series of quotes from those involved in the team, usually the team manager and the rider in question. We’ll see quotes like: “Rider so-and-so is great fit for the team and we’re looking forward to working with him” and then come some words from the rider, usually “I’m delighted to have signed for Team XYZ and can’t wait to start planning for 2012 with them“.

But very few teams have held press conferences to announce the signings. No rider stood at a lectern and delivered a speech or spoke into a microphone. Indeed there’s not even a telephone conference call. These words are not transcripts, they have been invented. As such they are a lie. They mark an interesting moment of collusion between journalist and the public relations industry. After all, flip things around and any journalist who invents quotes can lose their job; yet publishing fake quotes is seemingly if they are supplied by email because someone else has done the creative bit.

I can understand the convenience of the ready-made quotes. Just because the words are not said out loud in public and recorded doesn’t mean the sentiment isn’t there, the supplied words fill the demand to add a personal touch to the news, they help frame the story behind the press release.

But if I can understand why the fictional quotes exist, my real annoyance is the way the quotes read. Read the quote by Cavendish at the top of the page and ask yourself if he actually talks like that, even if he gave a set-piece speech to open a press conference. Probably not.

All too often they seem to be written by a robot and employ eerily similar quotes. You can spot the fakery from a mile thanks to gushing prose that reads in a way that nobody talks, the text makes out that there cannot be any alternative but at the same time the cheery prose could have been penned to mark any number of circumstances. Obviously nobody’s going to stand up and say “I joined Team XYZ because they offered me a three year deal on a bigger salary than the other lot“, this sentiment is usually translated into something like “the team have offered me full support and share my long term vision“.

Summary

This isn’t about Cavendish as press releases like the one above land in email inboxes every minute of the day. These can be important methods to communicate news but all too often they contain saccharine quotes from the individuals named that simply don’t read like the words you would expect the person to say.

Bring on the Muur

"There's not a day goes by that I don't wish I had been born a Belgian"

Joerg. Not.

Classic Belgian cycling at it's best.

Happy as Larry

Thanks to Jim :

I didn’t realize Heather had some work done!!

Amy's Grand Fondo 2011

Congratulations to all who participated in Sunday's inaugural Amy Gillett Grand Fondo on the Great Ocean Road. A fantastic day out on the bike.

Definitely one to put into the calendar for next year....along with the Bay 2 Bay ride these are standout annual events.

Special thanks also to Lew for the excellent accommodation on Saturday night and chapeau to Rob for scoring a spot at the next 'Worlds'. An awesome effort.

Is there no end?

Soothing shaving cream for the face and legs

For road riders, shaving their legs is a treasured ritual that heralds the start of the racing season. Rapha Shaving Cream is a blend of natural ingredients and essential oils designed to soothe the skin and leave it feeling supple and hydrated. It has been designed for shaving both the face and legs, with a subtle fragrance inspired by the flora surrounding Mont Ventoux.

The copy writers who concoct this stuff must wet themselves laughing sometimes.

Cyclists are winning on Beach Road

GTA Traffic Consultants have submitted the latest count data on Beach Rd. This count has been performed on the same weekend at the same location annually since 2007.

The top chart shows the hourly two way bike and vehicle traffic on Saturday September 17, 2011 and the lower chart the same data for the following day, Sunday September 18, 2011.

The count confirms that , despite a cold and slightly wet weekend compared to previous years' counts, rider numbers remain strong. Sundays particularly see a higher rider presence and conversely a far lower vehicle presence.

Hardman riding

I love this photo. What Pro today would carry a watch but no waterbottle? Hardman indeed.

The Peleton

An excellent piece from CylingTips this morning on peloton etiquette..

By Peter Wilborn

Every so often, I’ll ride a recreational group ride. I love the camaraderie of cyclists, the talk, the last minute pumps of air, the clicking in, and the easy drifting out as a peloton. “I miss riding in a group,” I’ll think to myself.

The magic ends by mile 10. The group will surge, gap, and separate, only to regroup at every stop sign. I’ll hear fifteen repeated screams of “HOLE!” for every minor road imperfection. And then no mention of the actual hole. Some guy in front will set a PB for his 30 second pull. Wheels overlap, brakes are tapped, and some guy in the back will go across the yellow line and speed past the peloton for no apparent reason. A breakaway?!

I curse under my breath, remembering why I always ride with only a few friends. Doesn’t anyone else realize how dangerous this ride is? How bad it is for our reputation on the road? There are clear rules of ride etiquette, safety, and common sense. Does anyone here know the rules? Who is in charge?

First, everyone is an expert these days. The internet and a power meter do not replace 50,000 miles of experience, but try telling that to a fit forty year-old, new to cycling, on a $5000 bike. Or, god forbid, a triathlete. No one wants to be told what to do.

Second, the more experienced riders just want to drop the others and not be bothered. It is all about the workout, the ego boost, or riding with a subset of friends. But a group ride is neither a race nor cycling Darwinism. As riders get better, they seek to distinguish themselves by riding faster on more trendy bikes; but as riders get better they need to realize two things: 1) there is always someone faster, and 2) they have obligations as leaders. Cycling is not a never ending ladder, each step aspiring upwards, casting aspersions down. It is a club, and we should want to expand and improve our membership.

Third, different rides are advertised by average speed, but speed is only one part of the equation. This approach makes speed the sole metric for judging a cyclist, and creates the false impression that a fit rider is a good one. Almost anyone can be somewhat fast on a bike, but few learn to be elegant, graceful cyclists.

Fourth, riding a bike well requires technique training. Good swimmers, for example, constantly work on form and drills; so should cyclists. Anyone remember the C.O.N.I. Manual or Eddie Borysewich’s book? They are out-of-print, but their traditional approach to bike technique should not be lost. More emphasis was given on fluid pedaling and bike handling.

Before the internet, before custom bikes, and before Lance, it was done better. Learning to ride was an apprenticeship. The goal was to become a member of the peloton, not merely a guy who is sort of fast on a bike. Membership was the point, not to be the local Cat. 5 champ. You were invited to go on group ride if you showed a interest and a willingness to learn. You were uninvited if you did not. You learned the skills from directly from the leader, who took an interest in riding next to you on your first rides (and not next to his friends, like better riders do today). Here is some of what you learned:

- To ride for months each year in the small ring.
- To take your cycling shorts off immediately after a ride.
- To start with a humble bike, probably used.
- To pull without surging.
- To run rotating pace line drills and flick others through.
- To form an echelon.
- To ride through the top of a climb.
- To hold your line in a corner.
- To stand up smoothly and not throw your bike back.
- To give the person ahead of you on a climb a little more room to stand up.
- To respect the yellow line rule.
- To point out significant road problems.
- To brake less, especially in a pace line.
- To follow the wheel in front and not overlap.

The ride leader and his lieutenants were serious about their roles, because the safety of the group depended on you, the weakest link. If you did not follow the rules, you were chastised. Harshly. If you did, you became a member of something spectacular. The Peloton.

Rapha rules

It seems I'm not the only one besotted with Rapha:

http://blog.onev.com.au/

Some wise thoughts from Adrian...

Might have wrong end of stick here but if you are doing this as a line the lead rider rolls to the side and backs off, the next rider does *nothing*, they maintain exactly the same speed, the former lead rider just rolls to the back and drops back in as last wheel. there should be no acceleration by the second in line rider once the lead pulls over. If the lead rider gets too slow then second in line just says so and that is the nod for whoever is first wheel to roll to the side.

Also if I was the coach I might let you do a k on the front each on the way down, but on the way back at the business end no way :-) 18 minutes recovery is too much if you want to do this as a time trial and as fast as you can. Shorter more sustained efforts on front are what you need at the business end. Drop the km marker (1 k down hill does not equal 1 km up hill) of effort and only use time, 2 minutes, on way down, perhaps 1 minute on way back.

Would play with this on beach road one day, just get everyone to do 1 minute at a pretty high effort, hard enough to be seriously hurting by the end, but enough left to be able to grab that last wheel and recover....

I'll shut up now.

Spanish update 2...

Stage 20 Bilbao to Vitoria

A balmy 39 degrees in Bilbao yesterday. We rode part of flat coast road to Bilbao missed most of course unfortunately or perhaps not. Balmy and flat relative. I've noticed the pros don't have any respect for hills.

Today we ride flat counter course from Vitoria to their last climb of the race. Cat 1 Urkiola. Hopefully we can do it but limited time. Won't come back overcooked that's for sure.

B.

Spanish update

Bob stocking up on Clenbuterol at dinner last night on the Vuelta.

He's ridden Stages 16, 17 and 18 so far...very, very tough is the verdict. Hardly a surprise.

Lucky he's got good access to plenty of quality Spanish beef.

Unbelievable downhill riding...

Great video and commentary of Danny's Hart downhill ride at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Chambéry, France.

The two commentators make Paul and Phil sound like a couple of somnambulists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCMQPzKcFqs&feature=player_embedded

Japanese are different

Anyone who doubts that cultural differences exist try imagining a bunch of Aussie lads all lining up on rollers with matching white T Shirts and gloves...

Hullo from Segovia

A snap sent this morning of the Bobster acclimatising in Espana for the last week of the Vuelta. Note the gloves are still on...