Monday, February 29, 2016

NO EXCUSES BG Club Ride

IS THE NO EXCUSES  BG Club Ride 

It’s been a month. So now it’s time to get the BG kit ready for another roll. Numbers were fantastic for the kickoff, let’s carry it on this month.

Meeting Time is 7:30 at the City.

For those who live in the eastern suburbs please remember to allow extra time to ride around the Clipsal blockages.

The only change from the last run is that the Service Station stop to regroup after the West Lakes sprint will now be reinstated.


The ride is City-Port Road-Outer Harbor-Henley-Glenelg-Esca for Coffee

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Sunday Ride - Hahndorf - Pain is Temporary version

This weeks ride is Hahndorf via the Freeway

Meeting Times 

7:30 am in the City
8:00 am at the Tollgate (bottom of the freeway bike track)
8:30 am at the Bollards 

Coffee has been changed from Otto's to 

Cafe Assiette
 72 Main St, Hahndorf SA



I am digging into digging into the archives again. The Return options are  

Pain is Temporary - 75km
  • Old Freeway - Sterling - Mylor - Algate Valley Rd- River Rd - Hahndorf (coffee at Cafe Assiette) 35km
Return 
  • Verdun - Beaumont Rd - Gum Flat Rd - Carey Gully - Summertown - (Greenhill, Nortons or Lofty home). 30km

Short Cut - 73km
  • Back thru Mylor - Sterling - Old Freeway (-2km with an easier climb)

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Sunday Ride is Beach #2 Outer Harbor via Anzac Hwy




All Sundays Ride is Outer Harbor via Anzac Hwy
  • Meet in the City at 7:30am
Coffee at Glenelg

Pain Lives Here - Ride Report

Sunday was a beautiful day for a ride. We had a very low turn out at the city for the start a count of one "Brian". However about 10 gathered at the Tower to ride the Pain Series. Numbers grew during the ride. Mike T did a heroic chase to catch the group at Forrest range. 

One notable event was on the climb up Forrest range a huge silver Lamborghini, a Huracán I think but I might be wrong. The beast of a car took up 2/3 of the road and I was looking to exit into the gully on the left..


The fast group separated from us at Stoney Rise road and the rest of us went over Lofty and down the hill for coffee at Norwood.  For those who missed it it was a great ride, short but satisfying, where bloody hell were you. 


Thursday, February 11, 2016

Sunday Ride and Ride Guide

This Sundays ride is one that hasn't come up in while but will now be a regular again due to it being relatively quick for the time poor and having multiple option for different fitness levels. The fact we have all the Norwood Coffee options doesn't have anything to do with it.

So mining the blog for the original post (yes I am in fact that lazy) here is the original description of the Ride courtesy of Frank.

------------
Meeting times

  • Hindmarsh Sq @ 7.30am or;
  • Tower Hotel @ 8.00am.


For something a bit different the ride is going to finish with coffee on the Parade. The intent is to get the ride finished earlier, with short cut options and the option to skip coffee.

This one’s going to hurt! Not a long ride, but a hard ride! Lots of short cut options, but both the 'pain lives here' and 'harden up' routes will have you doing some hard climbing, and the intent is that, you will be cursing my name by the time you reach Lofty! Some real climbs in the mix here; Norton’s, Ashton, Forest Range, Greenhill Rd and Summit Rd to Lofty just to check you have nothing left to give! We’ll have a group leader for each route and the intent is that the groups should be fairly close to one another by the time we get back to Norwood.
_

I
Pain lives Here - 72km : 
Norton’s – Ashton – Basket Range – Forest Range – Lenswood - Swamp Rd – Greenhill Rd – Carey Gully – Uraidla – Greenhill Rd – Lofty - Norwood.

Harden up - 58km : 
Norton’s – Ashton – Basket Range – Forest Range (climb) – Deviation Rd (shortcut) – Carey Gully – Uraidla – Greenhill Rd – Lofty - Norwood.

Soft option - 49km : 
Norton’s – Ashton – Basket Range – Range Rd (shortcut) – Uraidla – Greenhill Rd – Lofty - Norwood.

“Do you know who lives there? Pain lives there. We’ll see who’s still laughing at the top. I think it’s time to shut up now and let the legs do the talking”
The older guy, as told by,The Ghost.
FS

Ride Guide 

The new ride guide has been published incorporating feedback from the AGM. 

You will note there are two club lunches posted. The idea would be to have lunch close to home on the return from a longer ride (12-12:30 for lunch, home 2-2:30ish). If the TDU route permits we will do this during the recon as an added incentive. If not we will attach it to the earlier Meadows run and stop for lunch Stirling, the Scenic or somewhere on that side of town.

I have mapped Murray Bridge but not included in the schedule. I can discuss in detail on Sunday.

BG Grand Fondo Options 2016

Grand Fondo Options 2016
Keen to extend the riding into some new and amazing scenery during 2016? Some great options have been scouted for Grand Fondo rides during 2016 and it would be great to see some more BG kit amongst thousands of other riders.
So, diaries at the ready please; there are three options on the table:

Amy’s Grand Fondo – Lorne – Sunday, 11 September 2016
125km – Approx. 2800 metres vertical

I’ve done this event the last two years and Mo B can also vouch for its incredible scenery, fully closed course and impressive organisation. The course is harder than it looks on paper, with the majority of the course being undulating with ramps of 50 – 100 metres vertical seeming to appear around every corner. Only around 20km at the back of the course is in the open with no change in elevation.

The big climb is Skenes Creek, which has shades of Montacute technically and is slightly longer than Greenhill. The course also finishes with 7-8km of relatively hard stuff before an amazing decent back into Lorne. There aren’t really any ramps in excess of 11-12 percent on either climb through.

Accommodation in Lorne is $$$$ so I have stayed in Geelong the last two years, which is an easy 80-minute drive on the morning of the event.
If you are going to do one Grand Fondo in Australia, this is probably the one. You can take it as seriously as you like by entering in the age categories if you want to race, or, if you are lazy like me and just like a good day out, start with the ladies on hybrids and finish with the wannabes on Dogmas.

Giro Della Donna – Warburton – TBC November 2016
124km – Approx. 2800 metres vertical

I lined up for the first edition of this ride, organised by Wade Wallace of Cycling Tips fame, last November with 800 other riders. I realised quickly that there were no ladies on hybrids or wannabes on Dogmas and my key goal would be to make the time cutoffs.

The course makes the AGF course look decidedly drab and for those of us used to the relatively flat lands of Adelaide is gob-smackingly beautiful. Which is good to take your mind of the fact that it is genuinely tough. Twenty odd kilometres of flats softens you up for 25 kilometres of climbing up Reefton Spur. A quick decent before another 150 vertical and it is time for a 600 metre drop into Marysville.

After ten kilometres or so, you turn onto the Acheron Way which presents an almost religious experience. A 1-2 percent grade endures for the next 30 odd kilometres, and as a bonus treat, after 20 kilometres, the road turns to gravel. A brief decent on the gravel and it is on to the 650 metre ascent of Mount Donna Buang. Starts quite hard, gets really hard and then cramp inducing. Pace is the key. The summit is the timed finish at 1250m AGL but you then have a fast 22 kilometre drop back to Warburton.

I finished about 80 percent of the way through the field, just over two hours behind the various NRS riders at the front. Accommodation is plentiful and fairly cheap in the general vicinity.

L’Etape Australia – Jindabyne – Saturday, 3 December 2016
160km – Approx. 3000 metres vertical
130km – Approx. 1800 metres vertical

ASO, organisers of the Tour De France and general thorn in the side of the UCI are organising this one as yet another cash making venture.
The course isn’t known as yet, but we do know it will be based around Jindabyne and on fully closed roads.

I’m happy to do a bit of coordination work, but, and I know this is hard, people need to commit to rides some time in advance. I’m not going to do all three of these rides, but will get to at least one and maybe two of them depending on who else in the orange and black I can drag along.


Michael

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

No Excuses Club Ride - Ride Report


No Excuses 
I think I am safe in saying that the inaugural BG "No Excuses" ride was a success." So those who "almost got there" on Sunday make sure you mark your calendar in advance for 6 March 16".Thank you to everyone who made the effort. We really hope you enjoyed yourself and it was great to catch up. 

It was great to catch up with old friends and a few new faces.  It was especially pleasing to see some riders out for the first time in a long time and the emergence of 2nd generation Bastardi's with some bringing out their kids (… well young men really). I have to admit I was a bit worried when I rounded the corner and saw 4 Bastardi but then spotted about a dozen more arriving from all points of the compass. My rough head count before we departed was 29 Bastardi but I think I missed a couple.

We got every single red light heading out of town and down to Port road. Michael R suggested that someone in the traffic control centre was having some end of shift fun. Once on Port road we sat on a comfortable pace chatting and catching up. It was great to hear  that distinctive whirring sound of massed bikes. 

Punctures
I suspect a few bikes hadn't seen the road in a while and we stopped for the first puncture about halfway down port road. Its was a chance to continue to chat and catch up. 

Outer Harbor Sprint
The group was all together as we came down Victoria Road toward the sprint. The pace was around the 43kph in the lead into the sprint. It really wasn't fast enough to break up the group and the result must have looked awesome as we had a lead out train on the left with the majority of the bunch stacked behind. The group really didn't break up until the sprint proper. The points went to 

  • Gatesy
  • Louis
  • Dan
  • Brian
For those who weren't there, it went something like this, just a bit more competitive.



West Lakes and KOM
While the Outer Harbor sprint looked good the other sprint points didn't have the room that Outer Harbor afforded. So as its always "safety first", it was decided we would increase the pace earlier for the next two sprints and make sure we spread out more. Hence I didn't see the sprints at West Lakes or the KOM.  I am informed that West Lakes was the same order as Outer Harbor.

Prang 
Unfortunately the day was marred by Tobias clipping the curb and falling heavily at West beach. Thankfully Man and Bike are unbroken, the same cant be said of skin and jersey. A speedy recovery Tobias.

AGM
Coffee was at Glenelg. The AGM was called to order by Geoff who has a whistle that made the entire Marina jump and a few ears bleed.  The minutes from the AGM are as follows 

  1. The general format of the Ride calendar is okay but there are some suggestions to be included
  2.  Multi-option hills rides  expanded to include the Meadows loop. Both the Southern loop and Hills options
  3. Mutli-option hills ride expanded to include a Hills traverse (Birdwood to Belair). This ride offers both shortcuts (Regroup at Woodside) and escape options 
  4. The Hallett Cove rides will swap to a Hallett Cove via Anzac Hwy route due to road works. This will be reconsidered if it proves too difficult or we really annoyed by the speed humps. Potentially swap for a Medium Hills
  5.  A beach time-trial will be included at the end of October and the start of March
  6. Our two target rides for this year are the TDU Challenge and the NCC Willunga pilgrimage. They fall one day after the other so some back to back rides are in order.
  7. Replace "The Climbs" with an epic that is less masochistic 
  8. I have some suggested rides for the rides for the "Paths" less traveled I will publish for comment
  9. A ride to Murray Bridge was suggested as a "Super Epic". The chair requested clarification on the Coffee stop in Murray Bridge as Nescafe Blend 43 at the roadhouse is unacceptable.  The ride was then referred to the coffee sub committee.
  10.  I will however map the Murray Bridge ride as a two group ride with a Lunch rather than a coffee stop and issue for comment as a super epic with a lunch stop is a great idea
  11. I will revise the ride guide when I get a chance and issue for comment
  12. Recruitment is encouraged. No dicks policy was endorsed.
  13. We will try to get the people targeting Amy's Gran Fondo in Lourne together for planning 



A great turn out





Coffee





AGM 




Punctures




Friday, February 5, 2016

Sunday Inaugural BG Club Ride

"REMINDER : this week is the BG club ride (and AGM). Details below. Everyone has been given notice. It will great to see all the old faces (and hopefully some new ones) out for a Sunday ride.

Meeting Place is Hindmarsh Square in case you have forgotten

Meeting Time is  7:30am

Coffee is at Esca Café on the Marina Pier at Glenelg
(if you weren’t aware Evida’s is no longer open)

New BG Kit Collection


For those that have ordered new BG. Kit can be collected from Billsy or Micheal during business hours at 33 Carrington Street, Adelaide or you can contact them directly if you need to make other arrangements.