The Man himself and the 160k

Not many people can attain such a cult following. It happened with the Victoria government paying Tiger Woods to come to Melbourne to play a game of golf and the deal paid off handsomely.

Lance Armstrong twittered " who wants to come for a ride in Glenelg with him and Robbie McEwen and close to 7000 cyclist turned up".

The guy has won 7 Tour De France. In an interview, a reported asked "Lance, what are you on?" (trying to instigate that he was on drugs). His reply "I'm on my freaking bike 6-7 hours a day".
The Tour De France is the pinnacle of cycling. Basically, it involves cycling anywhere from 120-200+km per day, everyday, for close to 3 weeks.

SO I asked myself, what could it be like cycling a stage of the Tour Down Under in Adelaide. We started at 6.30am and the professional racers will ride the same course but starting at 10.30 (so we got a 4 hrs head start). 8000+ riders signed up, and we got the SA police closing most roads for us out of the city, you could not ask for more.
160km...with a hill thrown in. It reached 12-13% gradient at some parts.


Australia's version of the devil girl greeting you as you get past the final climb.

This guys obviously did it on a MTB.

8000 riders, so you need plenty of rails for bikes.
I finished in 5.5hrs. Frankly, I dun think I couls do it again the next day. The legs were actually pretty good but the neck was stiff as!
No picture of me after the race. Mate said, I looked like 'shit'. U get cramps in places you never thought possible.

Here's me in the final stage race in the City itself.
Saxo in the lead


Lance, the man himself in the pack.

HTC protecting Griepel
Australia's Cadel Evans
And Mike, the Guy flys in, in his private Jet Stream, he flew out the same night. Its pretty hard to get close to him.

PS: Cat, there was actually study whereby a client with kidney failure decided to eat heaps of bananas and died from the potassium overload! His heart could not take it.

I ate 6 bananas that day!!

The Killer: Ride to Stirling

When you got no car, the bike's the next best transport but defintely not on a 40c day.
For people who remember Glen Osmond and the freeway up to Mount Lofty and then Stirling, basically that was where the race was gonna be ending that day. So we RODE up it and boy, I almost died when I got there. Unlike rolling hills whereby there is up and downs, its just up, up and more up, no chance for you to catch your breath.

The Peloton rolling past.
Skoda, the official Tour cars. Rather than the cars, the point I was trying to make was that those people driving them must all by qualified to drive in car rallies. The corners they take; lets just say I would stay ON the footpath.

What is priceless: On the way back, I had the Astana, BMC, French Team riders flying past me back to the city. I was coasting down from Stirling at 60-70km/hr holding on to dear life (and the brakes) and these guys are just zooming past me!
Now I know why bike riders break collarbones so easily, even a guy on a motorbike has more padding than me!

Eye Candy

Team Sky's Chris Sutton winning the last day of the race in the heart of Adelaide.

The new Pinarello Dogma 60.1 running Shimano's Di2. And the Prototype C50.
Spesh's new Tarmac SL3.

Feels like home...

Its hard to describe but when you've been away from Adelaide for that long, it somehow still feels like you're coming back home. Maybe its cos my good friend and hsemate for 4 years is still there. Or maybe its cos you look down a street or turn your head and you can tell exactly (or most of the time) whats round the corner, where are the good cafes.
Mate, Mihkel and me after touching down in the early hours of the morning having breaky in the city.
Adiemus and wife, Debbie. Stayed a few days at their newly built house in Adelaide.

Occupation Hazard: I pry into people's pantry when they are not looking. I wake up pretty early even without the alarm clock and was roaming through the house. (Cup-a-soups; what I like to refer to as just a bigger packet of salt sachet)
Trust me, Cat. I go through yours as well ;)
Well, if I'm going through your pantry, it also means I consider you a pretty close friend.
Team cars packed in Victoria Square, near the central markets
Nothing has changed too much. KY CHow is still there, but changed location, still on Gouger. Went to some of the cafes on King William street. Had lunch at Hong Fatt.
Glenlg, unfortunately is now lined with high rise apartments.

Want vs Need

Want: Subura Forester or Mitsubishi Outlander

Need: Corolla or Honda City

Price: $30-32k (want) vs $21-23k (Need)

Engine: 2.4L vs 1.5-1.8L

Fuel/100km: 9-9.5L vs 6.5-7.5L

I probably only need the 'want' car 20% of the time, if folks visit or I'm going biking/camping.

The 'need' car would probably suffice for 80% of my time.

I'm a logical person but when I pose the Qs to my hsemate, the reply was:

" you only live once.."

Its a write off

Here's a Christmas Lunch that the whole office is not gonna forget anytime soon.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/14/2770593.htm

Cyclone Lawrance was just passing through the gulf of Darwin but it brought along with it 250+mm of rain in 1 day (which is what we might have gotten in a month). Iwas having Christmas Lunch at the Vibe Hotel at the waterfront but next thing I know, the cars flash flooded.

I'm insured with AAMi but unfortunately, people down South just have no clues.

Me: I'd like to put in a claim for my vehicle that got flooded in a storm

AAMI: Oh, thats no good, was it raining

Me: Yes, it was (We've just got a freaking cyclone pass through)

AAMI: Were you trying to drive through it?

The hardest thing about the episode was that whenever a big 4WD decides to drive past, the wakes it creates from the water was just bobbing and hitting the semi floating cars against the kerb.

A friends Hyundai (parked behind me) and another driving a Mitsubishi Magna was written off straight away as the engine could not even start. But I was able to start and actually drive it off. So if you want a reliable car, I cannot recommend Toyota more than enough.

The Airbags electronics are located near the central console so even if I was able to drive off, the airbag circuit had actually been short-circuited. Most insurance will write it off as its too hard to repair electronics and its a safety issue. If I was to be involved in a accident, there is always the likelyhood that it will not deploy.

So here I am off to look for another car...

Gravity 12hr MTB race (Melbourne)

Went down to Melbourne's Apline regions for the annual Garvity 12hr bike race. Basically, the aim of the race is to complete the most number of laps within the 12hrs. I teamed up with a mate; Mihkel and entered as male pair.
Melbournians called it a heatwave that weekend, while me and Mihkel who flew down from Darwin called it great weather.

The day was fairly hot and dry but the nights were still freezing. Above; the guys discussing the pros/cons of hardtail vs a full suspension bike. I'm crap at the downhill sections but always catch up at the uphills.Pre race startThe fairies were out. He was in that outfit with the time trial helmut for most of the whole day!Mihkel before going out on his nightlap.

I was fine the whole day until my nightlap where I took a dive at one of the ditches. Could not see my bike line or path to take as I was going down. Next thing I know, I'm sprawling on the gravel. Just took some bark off the right knee cap.

Some facts:

600+ participants, 250+ teams; 4 male and female cubicles (equates to long q's at the toilet in the morning)

How I fared:

Team name: Mixed Nuts; 148th out of the 250+ teams and rank 19 within the male pair category.

So Mike, I was doing some free promotion with the Shimano Jersey, any luck for me on sponsorship?