What you missed this morning...

Mt Dandenong late Autumn

The alternative One in Twenty

Bob showing the way again this morning up the dirt version of the 1:20 from The Basin to Olinda.

Then adding in Mt Dandenong and Inverness Road to keep us honest.   Jeezus 

The sign does not lie..

Thanks to Bob for an excellent morning on the MTB ripping along the goat tracks on the Yarra Trail yesterday.

The extra dip in the river was most refreshing.

Rear view camera

 

Just the thing for people with stiff necks.

(via Hammacher Schlemmer’s Rearview Camera – Minivan Tech Now Available For Bikes - Bike Rumor)

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best

After gearing up for a couple of cold and wet ascents of Mt Donna Buang during the week this was the view from the car park when we arrived. A glorious late Autumn day.

You can check the radar as much as you like beforehand but never really know what's in store...

Slipping into Euro mode

Lew sets the pace once again this morning with the world's biggest post ride French toast.

He set a PB. It lasted about 30 seconds.

More Apps

For those of us addicted to the iPhone...another must have App.

Passo dello Stelvio 2005

 Just to whet the appetite for this Saturday nights last 'real' stage of the Giro

                                     Photo: Dan Moore

Would you buy a used bike from this man?

The irrepressible Alan, resplendent in the French National Champions kit...

Four from four..

No wonder Heinrich Haussler has a resigned look on his face. Four stages of the Tour of California completed.

Four second places...and all to Peter Sagan.   How would you feel?

Tour of California

For those of us that have been enjoying SBS's live coverage by Phil and Paul of the Tour of California each morning at 7am the picture is very familiar.

Peter Sagen now has the perfect three wins from the first three stages.

One very cool 22 year old dude indeed.

Scenes from the Giro

Sometimes the real heroics are behind the bunch:

“At a certain point we were on the plane back home. I mean, I will never give up, if I’m out of time, I’m out of time. But it was tough. I told Cav twice just to keep thinking about Delilah. 

“Yesterday he was on his hands and knees, and then he crashed as well, he was tired.  “And I was like ‘that’s it, we’re not going to make it’. There were these long, long roads into a headwind and I was just giving it everything and I was like ‘just keep going.’ Then Jez came back and I was thinking ‘if he’s come back, that’s three of us going to go home.’ 

“But Cav was recovering really well, he was on the wheel for 20k and then he started dropping me because I was empty. And I just killed myself trying to get through on the last part.”  “It was one of those Giro stages you just hate. All those small ramps [climbs], they were real bastards.

“As soon as you lost contact with the bunch, it became a day that was never-ending. 
We were drilling it. For the last 20k I couldn’t see any more. I don’t know what I had, a heat-stroke. Then I had an asthma attack afterwards and I was lying on the bus for 30 minutes. Even the team doctor asked me if I wanted to go home. It was just one of those miserable days.”

BERNIE EISEL ON BATTLING TO FINISH WITH CAV, PHINNEY AND OTHERS, BEFORE THE TIME CUT AT YESTERDAY’S GIRO. THEY GOT IN WITH A MINUTE TO SPARE.

From cyclingnews.com

A word from the street...

Please find attached the bike fashion shot from Paris. I spent a wonderful weekend there and the number of people in historical costumes on vintage and pseudo-vintage bikes is just flabbergasting. It seems to be the latest craze...

Thanks to Joerg

Guru Bob morphs into Grandpa Bob

Congratulations on the arrival of Alexandra into the world. Both grandparents are recovering well.

What a splendid sight!!

Thanks to Sandro.

Piston powered

I managed to sneak a photo of Jim's latest tatt's

Nice.

TdL Francais

Just in time for the build up to the Tour de France 2012...a bit more kit!

Giro Stage 3: Cav hits the deck at 70kph

"Cavendish, who had some very bad road rash was able to train today on the course, said it hurt to shower"

Fausto e Giulia

Like Anthony, Fausto always went for the big ring. 

Nice control..

Your pedal stroke? Nah, it’s not THAT smooth.

Thanks again to velogogo.com

Tour de Frankston

Gabriel at his best..

MT Baw Baw 2012

A great ride on Saturday from Noojee to the summit of Mt Baw Baw ..Australia's only HC climb. 

As you can see from the profile the last 6 km kicks up over 700m....giving an average gradient of around 12%, peaking at  21% at times.

Also a beautiful ride from Noojee to Baw Baw and back, in surprisingly good weather, despite the expected chilly conditions on the summit.

Many thanks to Lew for organising the day.

Guide to the Giro d'Italia 2012

InnerRing have put a fantastic link to his year's Giro. All the stages, teams profile at one site:

http://inrng.com/giro/

A great resource for world's toughest bike race in the world's most beautiful country.

Look Ma..no hands!

Thanks to Ross for sending this clip along...

After watching it a couple of times I can't believe you can roll all the way down Stelvio without touching the brakes and not end up travelling at least at Mach 2.

Either there is some sort of coaster brake (despite the appearance of a dérailleur) or there is some clever editing afoot.

Show me the Money

It's always amazed me how Pro cycling teams continue to exist financially...and of course many successful teams have ceased to exist (Columbia HTC, Discovery...). It seems to me that the only real thing that teams can offer potential sponsors at the moment is the possible exposure to an international market. This limits the sorts of organisations willing to stump up the sort of money required. Also there's the not inconsiderable chance of being linked into some sort of drug related negative publicity (Festina?)

With most major international sports (World Football, Formula One..) backers of the teams have some potential return from gate revenue, a share of the broadcast rights etc so there is  some basis for on going funding of the team. They are not completely at the mercy of the advertising budget of some multi national corporation. When the corporate money dries up then cycling is looking for generous benefactors. At the moment it seems unless there's a wealthy philanthropist willing to sign big cheques (Gerry Ryan et al) many teams would not be a the start line. 

Pro cycling is a free spectator sport and always will be, so outside of sponsorship any revenue back to the teams must come from either merchandising (minor money) or a share of the broadcast rights (major money).

If we want to provide a stable environment for teams to grow, build the careers of it's cyclists and develop younger talent then a share of revenues earned from the sport must somehow be fed back to the teams themselves. They are what makes the sport.

Cyclingnews ran this piece yesterday:

Giro d’Italia race organisers look set to sign historic deal

Sharing television rights between race organisers and cycling’s elite teams could be within touching distance. Cyclingnews understands that a deal between Italy’s RCS and the sport’s major teams is close to agreement.
RCS Sport organises a portfolio of Italy’s grandest races, including the Giro d’Italia, Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and the Giro di Lombardia. A deal would be a historic moment in cycling, as traditionally race organisers pocket all television rights, selling their broadcast rights on potentially global scales.


Last year a number of team managers openly discussed revenue sharing opportunities with organisers in a bid to stabilise their sponsor’s investments and the teams in general. The possible deal would see teams earn a percentage of RCS Sport’s television revenue, a move that contrasts to ASO, the organisers of the Tour de France, who retain all rights.


Such a move from RCS Sport would enable them attract teams’ most high profile riders in the knowledge that teams would be only too happy to supply their stars in order to gain financial rewards. The higher the profile of the riders, the higher the potential would be for advertising rates and television revenues.


For a more detailed look at some of the implications see:


http://inrng.com/2012/05/race-revenue-sharing/#more-8473

Bay to Bay 2012

I think Don's body language says it all about these three B2B poseurs..