Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Sunday Ride - Outer Harbor via Port Rd - CLUB RIDE

The Weather Forecast for Sunday is 
  
 Partly Cloudy, Light Winds



In other words Perfect for a NO Excuse club ride.

Meet in the City at 8:00 am 

The route is our standard Port Road, Outer Harbor and Coffee at Glenelg.

Some Clarifications on BG Etiquette arising from the Giro d'Italia 

BG Etiquette Rule #14

If a rider needs to stop for a Natural Break, the BG group will sit up and wait no matter who is up the road on GC or a sprint point being called. That rider will then be ribbed mercilessly for the remainder of the ride with Jibes such :..didn't you have one of those little black bags" etc .

BG Etiquette Rule #15
Under no circumstances will we photograph or otherwise record a natural break. Its just wrong. 

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

RIDING TO THE SUN

So following on from Aldo's suggestion that I ride the queen stage of the Giro on behalf of BG, I say no, but I did go for a little ride recently. Aldo also asked if I could share the story, so here goes...

Many of you know I have been raising money for, and riding, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation One Ride for the last few years. This year, for some reason, the ride got moved from January to May and conflicted with taking my daughter to the Disney World. Having already raised money, I needed a substitute ride. So, after some research, I stopped off in Maui on the way home to ride the Haleakala, a dormant volcano that takes you from sea level to an elevation of 10,023 feet (or 3.055 metres for those of us that like metric).

The route is 57 kilometres, at around 5.5% gradient, so it is really just like doing Norton Summit ten times. Or so I thought....

Decked out with a almost brand new Specialized Roubaix with a compact and 32 teeth on the cassette, and having polished off a McMuffin and hash brown, I set out from the town of Paia just after 6 am, when it was 27 degrees and 65 percent humidity. Here's my cocky selfie at the start thinking, well, how hard can it be???


Climbing through fields of sugarcane, past WWII military cemeteries all seemed pretty easy. Shortly, after a stop for food in the town of Makawao about 15km in, I was treated to the entire 28 vertical metres of decent (seriously, that is all the decent for the whole ride) where I managed to crack 40 km/h... Woot!

By 20 km in and at about 900 vm, the view opened up, and was starting to look nice.


Looking down was the best idea, because the summit didn't seem to be getting any closer. At 22 km, a series of somewhere between 20 and 30 switchbacks (I lost count) over 12km, taking you from around 950 metres to around 1800 metres started. The gradient kicked up too, and for some reason unknown to man, the corners were ridiculously over cambered. As I had been warned, it is during this period, it gets hard, and your brain starts to mess with you. Those 'it wouldn't be that bad if I didn't make it to the top' thoughts start... At around 1500 metres, and 30km in, you emerge from the trees, and the summit is right there, only 1500 metres above you.

She is still looking really nice, here at around 1900 metres and 37km in.


It's struggle street by this stage, but at around 40km and 2000 metres two riders catch me. A very talkative Maui local, named Brian, explains to me that today he was only riding to the national park entrance, because he is tight with his money and only rides to the summit once a week (it costs $10 to get in). The other rider, from California, having seen my bulging pockets asks if I have any spare food. I give him a couple of gels and a couple of bars and he offers to sherpa me to at least 2700 metres. He keeps his end of the bargain and I hope he wasn't shooting for a time up the hill, because I clearly slowed him down, a lot.

Riding with someone else helped, and the road flattened out, so getting up to 2700 metres went fairly well. The bad news was that, by then, Hypoxia had well and truly kicked in. From 2700 metres to the summit, a distance of 3.5km, I took 30 minutes at a grand average of 7 km an hour. I had to stop around every 400-500 metres for about 60 seconds to gulp down some air and try and find some oxygen within it.

Just to finish of, with around 1.5 km to go, I'm in fog, and the rain starts. Then, as if that wasn't enough, just to tell you you're almost at the top, there is 300 metres at a cramp inducing 12-15%.

Five hours and fifty-four minutes later, I was there. Mike Woods needn't have worried about his KOM...


No speccy photos from 3055 metres, as visibility was down to around 50 metres, so here's me in lycra again. It's a bit like the moon up there anyway.



I didn't ride back down, as (a) you all know how shite I am at descending, (b) it was raining, and (c) the brake levers were the wrong way around (a bit like the side of the road you drive on, the direction you flick light switches and the direction keys rotate in locks).

It was the most amazing ride I have done, and if you like hills, must be on your bicycle bucket list.

MR





Monday, May 22, 2017

GIRO!! SOOOO F*#%ING GOOOD!

via via steephill.tv

WATCH THE GIRO! F@#%*ING AWESOME RACING, OFF THE F$%*king charts!

IF YOU NOT BEEEN ALL OVER IT GET TO STEEPHILL.TV! STAT!
AM Updates every morning with non spoiler mode google steephill tv. flollow right hand link to giro.
OR
JUST WATCH STAGE 13! steephill.tv- Stage 13
THEN STAGE 14!! steephill.tv-stage14
THEN STAGE 15!!!...WTF!
steephill.tv-stage 15

BEST SPRINT BEST HILL FINISHGC CONTENDER SPRINTWTF-EPIC!!<3 b="" giro="">

#RACEFORPINK!

Sunday Ride is Hallett Cove

We are now officially into our Winter Ride pattern. Rides will be scheduled as either Beach or Foothills. All Rides will meet in the city and a weather call will be made. If the weather is really good we will either extend or change the ride to do some hills work 

This weeks ride is Hallett Cove which we haven't visited in quite a while. Given the extent of road works we will take a alternative route down to the Cove way.

Meet in the City at 8:00 am

If the weather is good we will look at one of the small extensions to the normal ride that a few people have discussed

The Queen Stage of the Giro Tuesday night, twice up the Stelvio. 






We should send Michael R who rode this climb while on Holidays 

Haleakala "World's Longest Paved Climb

https://www.strava.com/segments/638944 






Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Sunday Ride - Outer Harbor via Anzac Hwy

This Sunday's ride is Outer Harbor via Anzac Hwy. 

Meet in the City at 8:00 am 

Got to love the Giro. Unashamedly Politically incorrect. 



Monday, May 8, 2017

Sunday is Mothers Day - No Ride this weekend

All

When planning this years Ride Calendar we have bowed to the inevitable and accepted that on Mothers day everyone has somewhere to be and something to do. Hence we have taken the opportunity for a end of season break and scheduled NO RIDE for this Sunday Mothers day. 

We have learned that no matter how short you make the ride anyone who braves the wrath and shows up usually needs to cut it short.

Enjoy Mothers Day

Where's Lunch again dad.........

Thursday, May 4, 2017

This Sunday the No-Excuses ride

BG NO EXCUSES Club Ride


This Sunday the No-Excuses ride. The weather will be kind this weekend, the distance a doodle, the coffee hot and the hills non-existent so there are No Excuses

WHEN: 8:00 am Sunday Morning

WHERE: Hindmarsh Square in the City
ROUTE: Port Rd – Outer Harbor – Glenelg – Anzac Hwy – Home
COFFEE: At the Glenelg Marina