Sunday, January 27, 2008
View of Adelaide from Norton Pass
Adelaide can be almost seen in the far distance as a slightly lighter colored area, past that is the Southern Ocean. This was about a 55 minute climb from the city to the top view. (About 420 meters from sea level)
Caught up to a local group ride
This is one of about 4 or five groups of about 20 riders we saw that were touring around Adelaide and Glenelg on Sunday morning before the last stage of the Tour Down Under. I'm sure there were more groups that we didn't see. Great place to ride a bike!
Adelaide week
It's been a very big week in Adelaide. To start, Adelaide is a great, cosmopolitan style country town.
We are staying in some extended stay apartments close to the center of town and the Tour Village, which is across from the Hilton Hotel HQ for the Tour Down Under., the first Pro Tour cycling race of 2008.
This race has grown in distinction because it is the first Pro Tour race held outside of Europe. This means there are 8-9 world class Pro Cycling teams on hand to contest the stages. The race has a criterium race to start that is not part of the overall stage race and then 6 stages held around and in Adelaide.
The city is easy to navigate and find places. Bikes are very welcome, with bike routes marked on almost all the streets. It is not uncommon to see groups of 10 to 30 riders racing around town.
The bike gear is high end and everyone seems serious about biking.
There are flat areas to ride, like to the beach town of Glenelg, about 12 kilometers south of Adelaide center. There are hills to ride that will challenge most riders. There are no mountains but climbs of about 650 meters are about a half an hour ride from our apartment.
We have tried three climbs so far this week and all offer a great view of Adelaide and then the Southern Ocean.
The bike races have been great, close racing all week. Today we watched the last stage, a criterion, in central Adelaide. A Team High Road rider, Andre Greiple, (May not be the right spelling) won the final stage and race overall and beat Alan Davis of Team Uni/SA, a local Aussie national team that was let into the race. Mid way through the race Davis was within a second of Greiple, so it's been close all week.
We only missed watching one stage that was a few hours drive into the country on Friday.
We decided to go to a Coopers beer brewery tour instead, one of Chris' demands for the week.
Friday, we drove to Wilunga to watch that stage, which circled through town about 4 times before the finish in town.
Vera scored another big day, collecting Miguel Indurain's autograph on THREE Tour Down Under caps plus collected a AG2R musette bag in the feed zone.
Chris also got Miguel's autograph and a handshake. If you don't know, Miguel is one of a handful of 5 time Tour de France overall winners and is here helping the local organizers of the Tour Down Under.
The weather has been perfect. The temps have been from 20 to 33 C all week, mostly sunny and beautiful or as the Aussies say "fine" weather.
Chris and I have ridden every day while here, beach rides, climbs, bike trails along the Torrence River to the ocean, city rides, lots of variety.
It's Sunday afternoon here now, we are about to head to dinner at a local pub and schnitzel house, supposed to be the best schnitzel in town.
Tomorrow at about 4 A.M. we say good bye to one of my all time favorite towns in the world and drive back to Goulburn, a 13-14 hour drive through the flat sections of the continent.
It will be a sad day.
We still have lots of plans for the next week, recover on Tuesday, go to a local Cricket match on Wed. in Canberra, Thursday, who knows, Friday, back on the Ducati for a motorbike ride to south Sydney and then back along the coast to Goulburn. Saturday is the Clarence St Cup track races in the Sydney velodrome. Looking at the registration list, some of the Tour Down Under riders will also be racing at Clarence St. I'm hoping all the road miles will help not hurt my track riding.
After that we lay around Sydney for a few days pack the bikes up again and then board the plane to return to the cold country.
We are staying in some extended stay apartments close to the center of town and the Tour Village, which is across from the Hilton Hotel HQ for the Tour Down Under., the first Pro Tour cycling race of 2008.
This race has grown in distinction because it is the first Pro Tour race held outside of Europe. This means there are 8-9 world class Pro Cycling teams on hand to contest the stages. The race has a criterium race to start that is not part of the overall stage race and then 6 stages held around and in Adelaide.
The city is easy to navigate and find places. Bikes are very welcome, with bike routes marked on almost all the streets. It is not uncommon to see groups of 10 to 30 riders racing around town.
The bike gear is high end and everyone seems serious about biking.
There are flat areas to ride, like to the beach town of Glenelg, about 12 kilometers south of Adelaide center. There are hills to ride that will challenge most riders. There are no mountains but climbs of about 650 meters are about a half an hour ride from our apartment.
We have tried three climbs so far this week and all offer a great view of Adelaide and then the Southern Ocean.
The bike races have been great, close racing all week. Today we watched the last stage, a criterion, in central Adelaide. A Team High Road rider, Andre Greiple, (May not be the right spelling) won the final stage and race overall and beat Alan Davis of Team Uni/SA, a local Aussie national team that was let into the race. Mid way through the race Davis was within a second of Greiple, so it's been close all week.
We only missed watching one stage that was a few hours drive into the country on Friday.
We decided to go to a Coopers beer brewery tour instead, one of Chris' demands for the week.
Friday, we drove to Wilunga to watch that stage, which circled through town about 4 times before the finish in town.
Vera scored another big day, collecting Miguel Indurain's autograph on THREE Tour Down Under caps plus collected a AG2R musette bag in the feed zone.
Chris also got Miguel's autograph and a handshake. If you don't know, Miguel is one of a handful of 5 time Tour de France overall winners and is here helping the local organizers of the Tour Down Under.
The weather has been perfect. The temps have been from 20 to 33 C all week, mostly sunny and beautiful or as the Aussies say "fine" weather.
Chris and I have ridden every day while here, beach rides, climbs, bike trails along the Torrence River to the ocean, city rides, lots of variety.
It's Sunday afternoon here now, we are about to head to dinner at a local pub and schnitzel house, supposed to be the best schnitzel in town.
Tomorrow at about 4 A.M. we say good bye to one of my all time favorite towns in the world and drive back to Goulburn, a 13-14 hour drive through the flat sections of the continent.
It will be a sad day.
We still have lots of plans for the next week, recover on Tuesday, go to a local Cricket match on Wed. in Canberra, Thursday, who knows, Friday, back on the Ducati for a motorbike ride to south Sydney and then back along the coast to Goulburn. Saturday is the Clarence St Cup track races in the Sydney velodrome. Looking at the registration list, some of the Tour Down Under riders will also be racing at Clarence St. I'm hoping all the road miles will help not hurt my track riding.
After that we lay around Sydney for a few days pack the bikes up again and then board the plane to return to the cold country.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Vera scores Paul Schwins autograph
Another great race day ending in Victor Harbor.
We were watching the racers pack up and there was Paul, autographs and pictures.
Vera is a happy girl!
For those of you not current with the world of Pro Cycling, Paul Scherwin is a world known and respected cycling TV and radio commentator.
Lyn, Chris, Pat, Vera
The dinner table while watching the first stage in Glenelg, beach town in South AustraliaMonday, January 21, 2008
Traveling and Adelaide
It's past due time for updates. We have been traveling for the last few days, seeing the Australian countryside.
We left Goulburn and took a few days to reach Adelaide, traveling though the countryside through the highest part of Australia, then to the small resort/ski town of Bright, then further south to Ballarat, home of a recreated village around an old gold mine.
Next stop was beautiful Adelaide, home for the next week and location of the first European Pro Tour bike race of 2008.
We saw plenty of wonderful countryside as well as small towns along the way.
We got to Adelaide late Saturday afternoon, time to unpack the bikes and do a recovery ride to the beach town of Glenelg, which is on the coast and is the location of the first crit. course for the Tour Down Under.
The weather is perfect, 25 C or about 75 degrees F, sunny and light wind. Great ride to start the stay.
Next day, on the bikes for a ride to the top of Mount Lofty, highest peak around Adelaide and an hour long climb to the top. We started in warm sun and arrived at the top shrouded in fog and heavy mist. 40 minutes later and we were back down the switch backs and into Adelaide.
After lunch and a bit of rest we headed to Glenelg to watch the first race. As luck would have it, we found an open air restaurant with seats up and above the course so we had a perfect view of the first turn after the start/finish line. We had dinner, watching the race as it came by, finished dinner just in time to get to the finish line and watch team High Road, the old T Mobile team, win the first race of 2008.
Monday could only get better. Chris called the Adelaide Super Drome looking for training time. 11:00 mate, sounds good, $11.00 per hour! We unpacked and set up the Teschners for a few rounds of the Super Drome. We expected lots of action but found the place empty. Amazing!!!
We spent about an hour riding the indoor track by ourselves. It is a wonderful facility, probably better than Dunc Gray in Sydney. I am really getting spoiled by all this great riding.
The rest of the day has been spent around downtown Adelaide, tonight, curry house for dinner. The rest of the week is filled with rides, races and longing around the great town of Adelaide. (We are staying in some apartments blocks away from the center of town and the Tour village so everything is within walking distance)
We left Goulburn and took a few days to reach Adelaide, traveling though the countryside through the highest part of Australia, then to the small resort/ski town of Bright, then further south to Ballarat, home of a recreated village around an old gold mine.
Next stop was beautiful Adelaide, home for the next week and location of the first European Pro Tour bike race of 2008.
We saw plenty of wonderful countryside as well as small towns along the way.
We got to Adelaide late Saturday afternoon, time to unpack the bikes and do a recovery ride to the beach town of Glenelg, which is on the coast and is the location of the first crit. course for the Tour Down Under.
The weather is perfect, 25 C or about 75 degrees F, sunny and light wind. Great ride to start the stay.
Next day, on the bikes for a ride to the top of Mount Lofty, highest peak around Adelaide and an hour long climb to the top. We started in warm sun and arrived at the top shrouded in fog and heavy mist. 40 minutes later and we were back down the switch backs and into Adelaide.
After lunch and a bit of rest we headed to Glenelg to watch the first race. As luck would have it, we found an open air restaurant with seats up and above the course so we had a perfect view of the first turn after the start/finish line. We had dinner, watching the race as it came by, finished dinner just in time to get to the finish line and watch team High Road, the old T Mobile team, win the first race of 2008.
Monday could only get better. Chris called the Adelaide Super Drome looking for training time. 11:00 mate, sounds good, $11.00 per hour! We unpacked and set up the Teschners for a few rounds of the Super Drome. We expected lots of action but found the place empty. Amazing!!!
We spent about an hour riding the indoor track by ourselves. It is a wonderful facility, probably better than Dunc Gray in Sydney. I am really getting spoiled by all this great riding.
The rest of the day has been spent around downtown Adelaide, tonight, curry house for dinner. The rest of the week is filled with rides, races and longing around the great town of Adelaide. (We are staying in some apartments blocks away from the center of town and the Tour village so everything is within walking distance)
Monday, January 14, 2008
Dunc Gray training
How lucky can you get! Monday morning and we are at the Sydney Velodrome for open training. There is one other rider on the track plus Chris and me. $10 entrance fee.
A good day to pick gears for the upcoming Clarence St Carnival which will be inside so no rain outs allowed!!
We do about 15 minutes of warm up when a derney fires up and Ben Kersten, Aussie Olympian, comes out to do some motor pacing.
A little different than back home, the slow riders ride below the blue line and Kersten and the derney ride at the blue line.
He is out for a few sessions but bascially, we have the track to ourselves for about 2 hours when we finally tire and decide to leave.
Goulburn Track Power Carnival
First Competitive outing for the Team Speedfix jersey in Australia.
The carnival started under hot and sunny skies at 2 in the afternoon with junior races until about 5 P.M.
Warm ups for the seniors at 5 and then the first race of the night, Masters category, C grade. There was about 20 riders in the 5 lap "heart starter" scratch race. I started close to the front, rolled off and got back into about midpack on the first lap. Around lap 4, I was in a good position drafting some bigger riders, not working hard at all. Lap 5, riding along the measurement line behind one rider as we neared turn four the pace picked up but the rider in front was not up to the pace and kind of blocked me as some others came over the top. I finished about 5th or 6th overall. Not too bad for the first race. Seemed easy and I feel I could have gone a lot faster.
2nd race, another 5 lap scratch but with handicapped starts. I started at 300 meters out. I was doing well, 5th overall until about the end of lap 4. I had been in no mans land riding alone and was running out of energy when the rest of the pack came over the top and dropped me. Finished about 12th out of 16. The top 4 would return for the final.
By the time our next Elimination/scratch race or Miss and Out was about to happen, the clouds came over and then the rain, a massive rain shower that put an end to the nights racing!! 2nd year in a row for this race to get rained out after the junior events.
Back to the Dog Pound for a BBQ and a beer or two. Remember, riding, racing and drinking a few beers in OZ is the name of the trip.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Local coffee house
Avid cyclists run this place.
Ye Old Bicycle Cafe bike shop, in Bundanoon, New South Wales (Pat, Vera, Chris right to left)
Goulburn's Siefert Field
This is the 400 meter Goulburn track.
400 meters is a LOT longer than 250!!
Not much banking, use a bigger gear.
(looking into turn 1)
Mcgee Track
No we won't be racing on this track!
The track surface is a lot worse than it looks.
300 meter track owned by a brother of Bradley McGee out in the contry side.
Week 1 summary
Hard to believe we have been here a week already!
As usual, the Aussie hospitality is great.
We got in about 9:30 A.M. on Wed. the 2nd, a few hours delay in LA but not too bad.
Of course it's a long flight but the plane didn't have a lot of passengers so we got three seats each to stretch out in and try to sleep some. Still not real comfortable but ....
Our friends Chris and Lyn met us at the airport with a sign welcoming us in. Great to see them again.
We got all the luggage, including the bike box and after opening the box for customs, off we drove to Goulburn, the first inland city of Australia. It is about 200K south of Sydney.
Once in Goulburn, we upacked some, relaxed a bit and them headed for the shed to put a bike together.
First road race/club race south of town at 6:30. It was scheduled for 22K, out and back, with handicap starts.
There were only a few riders, about 9 total that showed up.
I left the start line with 2 others, second group out.
Tough race with little sleep, I'd been traveling for about 50 hours. I stayed with our group until the turn around, eventually got back into it but still ended up last about 100 meters off the last guy. Still not bad for me and the conditions.
Finally got to bed and slept very well.
The next few days were a blurr, still getting use to the time change. A road ride on Wed and Thursday and then track night at the local asphalt 400 meter track on Friday night. Still not a lot of riders so the races, 5 of them, happened about 10 minutes apart. Best race, last one, 20 lap scratch, ended up 4th out of 6.
In between racing there has been Bar BQ's in Sydney, sailing on a 31 foot sail boat in Sydney harbor and motorcycle trips around the local tourist areas and of course, more push bike rides and races.
The last race was supposed to be a criterium staged on a local car race track. Instead, another out and back road race because they were re paving the race track.
Last nights race was another 20K or so. Similar handicap starts. This time I started in the third pack, 6 minutes back of the first pack. There was 4 of us together. I drifted off a bit but by the turn around I was catching riders. Another hard but fun ride, I finished 9th over all out of about 20 or 21 riders, about 3:30 off the fastest pace of the day.
Todays a recovery ride day, tomorrow off to Canberra for the day and then Saturday is the big Goulburn Track Power track carnival. Over 150 entries so far, maybe more.
Meet you at the dog pound tent at the track about 6
As usual, the Aussie hospitality is great.
We got in about 9:30 A.M. on Wed. the 2nd, a few hours delay in LA but not too bad.
Of course it's a long flight but the plane didn't have a lot of passengers so we got three seats each to stretch out in and try to sleep some. Still not real comfortable but ....
Our friends Chris and Lyn met us at the airport with a sign welcoming us in. Great to see them again.
We got all the luggage, including the bike box and after opening the box for customs, off we drove to Goulburn, the first inland city of Australia. It is about 200K south of Sydney.
Once in Goulburn, we upacked some, relaxed a bit and them headed for the shed to put a bike together.
First road race/club race south of town at 6:30. It was scheduled for 22K, out and back, with handicap starts.
There were only a few riders, about 9 total that showed up.
I left the start line with 2 others, second group out.
Tough race with little sleep, I'd been traveling for about 50 hours. I stayed with our group until the turn around, eventually got back into it but still ended up last about 100 meters off the last guy. Still not bad for me and the conditions.
Finally got to bed and slept very well.
The next few days were a blurr, still getting use to the time change. A road ride on Wed and Thursday and then track night at the local asphalt 400 meter track on Friday night. Still not a lot of riders so the races, 5 of them, happened about 10 minutes apart. Best race, last one, 20 lap scratch, ended up 4th out of 6.
In between racing there has been Bar BQ's in Sydney, sailing on a 31 foot sail boat in Sydney harbor and motorcycle trips around the local tourist areas and of course, more push bike rides and races.
The last race was supposed to be a criterium staged on a local car race track. Instead, another out and back road race because they were re paving the race track.
Last nights race was another 20K or so. Similar handicap starts. This time I started in the third pack, 6 minutes back of the first pack. There was 4 of us together. I drifted off a bit but by the turn around I was catching riders. Another hard but fun ride, I finished 9th over all out of about 20 or 21 riders, about 3:30 off the fastest pace of the day.
Todays a recovery ride day, tomorrow off to Canberra for the day and then Saturday is the big Goulburn Track Power track carnival. Over 150 entries so far, maybe more.
Meet you at the dog pound tent at the track about 6
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