Le encanta montar en bici

Ardmore Quarry, Ponga, Gavie

2012-02-12T10:14:00.000+13:00

Yesterday DB and I went riding. We went out into the Hunua's. Up Ardmore quarry road it rained like thick white noise, making the Hunua gorge slick as a fish. Up Ponga; narrow, twisting, rising, plummeting, rolling. Up Gravie, constant re-balancing, wheels slipping, back ever so slightly, gaining, forward, back, forward, forward, back. Onward, upward, skyward. 3 1/2 hours, +1300m climbing. Back to DB's for coffee and thick chunks of his mothers rich fruitcake. Then home for lunch. Then early dinner. Then another dinner later...

Becoming something other

2012-02-08T13:48:00.000+13:00

I saw something that got me thinking,
and I took that thought and made it into something,
and it as I made it, it became something else completely
and ended up being this

I guess what I'm trying to say is
whatever you think you're getting
whatever you have your heart set on
it will probably end up becoming something other
but don't worry
because if you let it
it may just become more beautiful than you could possibly imagine

Tostada con tomate

2012-02-07T22:11:00.000+13:00

Once upon a time I lived in Spain and on Saturdays we would ride out of town and up L'Orenet.

It was awesome and on the way down we would all stop at a little town and have possibly the worst coffee known to man. But there was no way we would even think of stopping anywhere else. Saturday was for traditions.

Paulie and I enriched the day by adding our own post ride tradition. We would stop at the cafe across the road from our apartment and have coffee (dos cortados para el e solo un para me) and tostada con tomate. Some places they simply rub the toast with a cut tomato but at our cafe they'd squeezed out the seeds and then grated the flesh over the toast. Sweet and sharp and running with olive oil. It was heavenly.

Even without Paulie (or a decent cortado) it is hard to resist having tostada con tomate post ride on a Saturday, and now that tomatoes are finally in season I think it's time to start the tradition again.

Morrinsville Wheelers

2012-01-25T13:48:00.000+13:00

Sunday I went to Morrinsville with Emma. We are both riding the Bev May tour and the plan was to recon the circuits, pace out the sprints, koms and finishes and generally have some fun. Having raced the tour a couple of years back and glanced fleetingly at the current maps I sensed they were basically the same. On this basis I discussed them with trainer, mentor, sprint guru and Waikato natural Amy Taylor.

With a plan in mind and maps in hand we set off. Unfortunately the courses had changed enough to be quite confusing; the hilly circuit was non existent and the finish of the flat circuit was about 15%. Where was the slight uphill sprint Amy had briefed me for? Where was my beloved (though slightly terrifying) roller coaster hill circuit? Where were we? Why was it raining? What the hell was up with that head wind? I need to PEE (and by the state of it all eat...)

Luckily at this point we'd found the finish of the second circuit (up there in the stratosphere) and were headed back to the car. A full bladder effectively cancelled out the headwind and soon we were sitting in dirty old Ronnies cafe with coffee and a massive lamington - which joy of joys was not only chocolate coated but chocolate sponge cake inside as well.

Even though we ended up wet, confused and vaguely discouraged it was possibly the best recon trip ever. It showed up all the false knowledge I had and uncovered some excellent points we can both take advantage of...

What every girl needs (and boy too)

2012-01-16T09:08:00.000+13:00

I recently moved house (no not to Melbourne, yet) and my old flatmate gave me leaving present. Which in itself is fantastic; who gives leaving presents these days? What a sweetheart. Anyway even better is that it's not soap or a bar of chocolate or a some embroidered handkerchiefs (though all of these are pleasant) but something really really cool.

A wine bottle holder for my bike. Handmade at the cobblers up the road (Gemmels on Symonds st), it's adjustable and will even fit a bottle of the Glenlivet 12 yr old - what a joy.

Thanks Matt!

A two coffee ride

2012-01-14T14:35:00.000+13:00

Riding with Harry is always entertaining. He is fast and fit and full of great stories. Riding with Harry is a sure way to climb better, pick up racing/training tips and laugh till you almost fall off your steed.
Today we rode the short way out to Kumeu and met Winger at the bakehouse.

Then we rode the curly way through Huapai back to Taupaki, up Armeins rd and down Kay rd. Where we decided we would escourt Winger back to Massey via Birdwood rd, so we stopped for a quick cortardo at the Swanson cafe.

Riding with Harry time flies. You get lost in the climbs of the Tour de Beauce or off the front somewhere between Quebec and Montreal. You feel the wrath of the Italian team manager at breakfast because in the newspaper there's a photo of you getting in a town fountain mid stage. There's double punctures with 5km to go and a dead body in the ditch out training. We don't need to stop twice for coffee, but for another 15 minutes of stories who wouldn't?

Harry having just won the Quebec - Montreal after soloing for 190km

Night Ride

2012-01-02T22:09:00.000+13:00

Good night

Roll around

2012-01-01T16:25:00.000+13:00

Today Amy and I

rolled all around town.

To a blue labyrinth

and a green labyrinth

And down into Fort lane where the scrolling of its old concrete architraves flowed as a corollary.

Up past another city's Brooklyn, through the melting mission figs of Albert park, over the arching bridge of the viaduct to where a street cleaner had hidden to play piano.

And I for a moment

Then up to Dizengoff for coffee

and a plate of mushrooms.

Because it is good to start the year with something really delicious.

Amy took all of the framed pictures - she's super

Turron (Spanish nougat)

2011-12-28T21:02:00.000+13:00

I discovered this kind of nougat in Valencia and love it. Its also called Turron de Alicante or Turron Duro. Its hard and almondy and delicious. The Italians make it too and call it Torrone, the French get it wrong and make it soft. If you want to make a half recipe whisk the whole egg white, then discard half of it - whisking half an egg white just doesn't work.

You need:
750g almonds skin on or blanched your choice.
500g honey - not creamed!
250g castor sugar
Zest of half a lemon
1 egg white
Candy thermometer
Rice paper or
rice flour + baking paper
A good mixer with a whisk attachment

Get the best quality Almonds you can. If you can get the flatish Spanish Marcona or Largureta ones do, they're expensive as all hell but fantastic. This is all about the almonds. Toast them at 150c till the inside is just turning caramel coloured when you cut one in half. Keep the oven on so you can heat them up before adding to the nougat. If you add them cold they'll cool the mixture down too quickly and it will set in the bowl - you won't be able to do anything with it.

Get the best honey you can. Rosemary honey is traditional, I like to use Rewa rewa here in NZ. Do not use 100% Manuka honey, its too strong. Up to about 25% is nice though.

Lightly (very lightly) oil a baking dish and line with rice paper. Or oil the baking paper (as well as the dish) line the dish with it and then coat heavily with rice flour. Tip excess rice flour out.

149C - almost ready

Put honey in a heavy based pot and heat gently till it just boils. Add castor sugar, take off heat or it will boil over, stir to combine. Put back on heat. Heat slowly till the mixture reaches 152C (315f). It looks like caramel in the picture but its not - don't go that far. Take off the heat. Put Almonds back in oven to warm up. At this point a whole bunch of bees came to visit my kitchen.

Put egg white into mixer and whisk to firm peaks. DONT over whisk or you'll ruin it. If you do over whisk it start again with a new egg white.

If you have a plastic bowl I take no responsibility for you melting it

Put the mixer on medium speed and slowly pour in the honey/sugar mixture. Pour it down the side of the bowl or you'll just make candy floss (which is nice but not what we're after).

Keep the mixer whisking until the bowl is hot but no longer hot enough to burn your hand. About 3 - 5 minutes. Remove whisk. You will have to bang the whisk against the bowl hard really hard to get the mixture out of it. You can use your hands but it is HOT and sticky and if you haven't beaten it long enough burns may ensue.

Tip in warm almonds and zest. With a strong spoon mix quickly together and tip/spoon/scrape into baking dish - it will be stubborn. Rub a little oil on your hands and then dust them rice flour and press the mix down into the dish. Cover with another layer of rice paper or sprinkle lightly with rice flour and add a sheet of baking paper.

Cool for an hour or two then cut. If you leave it too long it will get really hard and be almost impossible to cut. Pack into an airtight container with baking paper between layers. Leave overnight to set up. Traditionally its pressed into round molds but I don't have any.

If your nougat is soft you:
Didn't cook the sugar long enough
Over whisked the eggs whites
Didn't whisk the mixture till it was cool enough
Used cheap crappy honey
Didn't use an airtight container over night to rest it in
The weather was too humid
Just need to try it again, maybe with orange zest next time (lime is not so good).

It doesn't matter though because it will still taste awesome.

Its really good if you coat it in Valrhona dark chocolate...

Books

2011-12-24T13:10:00.001+13:00

I make books.
Normalemente I make books for friends. But in the spirit of -
I made this one for myself
Lots of people have asked me how you (I) do it, so here you go.

Tight back binding with swallow tail corners

Sapele boards and Kid skin leather

What you will need

Impose and fold signatures

Punch

Sew signatures onto tapes

Glue mull onto signatures

Glue mull and tapes to boards

Trim and pare leather

Glue leather (swallow tails)

Glue down end papers

Done

Reappropriated

2011-12-23T09:55:00.000+13:00

Everyone knows Columbus makes great tubset and components.

But today I recieved one of the coolest things ever. A Columbus 9 - 10 spanner. Made by David Benson

How bloody lucky am I?

Summer Solstice

2011-12-21T14:24:00.000+13:00

Today it is the summer solstice. To celebrate DB, Jay, Emma, Amy and I rode up to the Glorious dead to toast the Sun with some fine Laphroaig 12 year old.

Then we rolled over to Coffee Supreme and filled ourselves with caffeine and brioche.

The only thing missing was CTB, whose legendary whisky drinking solstice rides started the whole tradition. Perhaps he'll be back for winter.

Must be...

2011-12-13T15:33:00.000+13:00

Yesterday my new saddle arrived from Mick at Busyman Bicycles. It is beautiful in black kangaroo leather. I can't wait to ride it. Thank you Mick.

Hope meets Reality

2011-12-07T12:16:00.001+13:00

I really wanted to race the National Criterium Champs in Takapuna on Friday night and the Telstra Clear Challenge on Sunday.

Hope

Reality

Look after your heroes!

2011-11-30T09:29:00.000+13:00

Dear partners and supporters,

After years of friendly cooperation, we find it hard to tell you that we will discontinue our business activities by end of the year.

The reasons for this decision are manifold. Eventually it was not possible to us to increase our production quantities to a critical mass, which would justify our operating expenses and our personal efforts.

Within the course of this year, we put all on one basket and spent all efforts on integrating our company into the overall structure of a bigger network, which in a midterm was unfortunately not possible to implement. The brand and the remaining stock went over to a new owner now.

As our closest circle, this information reaches you first – even before we go to the public with it.

We regret that we cannot do justice to the faith that has been put in us and hope for your understanding for our decision.

FIXIE Inc. | cycles for heroes

That the cycling industry is loosing such an iconic brand is shameful. The trend of making mass produced, cheap souless crap is as disgusting as it is unsustainable. Without people like Holger and Recep, who are unafraid of being different, who work with old values in new ways, who have the ability and passion to create real and beautiful things, what will we become?

So how about this - next time you go to buy something, think about who made it. Maybe it's worth paying a little more or a lot more. Buy things from the people who make them, who build them, the ones who love what they do, the ones that shine, the ones who keep you sane, those with the courage to do their own thing how they want to, who started something new, those people that make you smile. THINK ABOUT IT!

You only get out what you put in.

Less

2011-11-28T07:40:00.001+13:00

No computer
No 23
Nothing to loose

In line with last years result and the ensuing spat of petulance, I had vowed not to ride the elite women's 100km at Taupo this year. Therefore when Gaz suggested I do the 160km I had no excuse. I haven't been training, I've even taken the computer off the bike. But I've been riding with my friends (and tout seule) a lot, remembering what a lovely thing it is to just ride a bike. A road trip with DB to stay with Gaz and ride all day sounded like a bloody good idea.

In Taupo the wind was wailing like a jilted lover. With a combined weight of about 63kg the bike and I struggle on windy days and normalemente I wouldn't even go out in wind like that. But I figured it's a circular route, so there would be one hell of tail wind somewhere along the way.
Because there are around 10,000 riders they start you in bunches. Gaz entered us in group1 - under 4 1/2 hours, which was made up of 4 waves of 50 riders set free at 2 minute intervals. My bunch was pretty good, there were about 10 of us who worked quite nicely on the front most of the time. None of them seemed to want to climb too hard or could descend worth anything (what the hell is with that?) so I didn't need to chase on much at all. We battled our way through 60km of rolling and medium hills in evil head and crosswinds. At one point I was coming fast down a long straight descent leaning sternly into a crosswind and an angry gust lifted me and both wheels off the ground and shoved us a couple of feet sideways - holy shit! I nearly lost it. Somewhere along here I did loose Gaz which was a bummer cause he's bloody super to ride with.
About half way around my old pal Adam Smith (Adams muscly butt wouldn't look out of place harnessed to brewery cart) rode up with a couple of other strong men (including Louis Crosby from PBR) and a woman who was firmly attached to his rear wheel. I waited till she had a lapse of concentration and tucked into the shelter of his mighty hindquarters for a while. I did the right thing and apologised for taking her spot to which she replied, a little too quickly, that she'd brought him a long specially - nice. Then she made a move as if she expected me to give it up. I laughed and stayed firmly put, she squeaked out some protest and Adam noted that if she was silly enough to let me get in there she didn't deserve it. Sometimes life is good. I let her have it back after making her sit in the wind for little while.
Down Kuratau Louis stepped up and showed everyone how to descend. Unfortunately those that needed to learn the most wouldn't have seen much. I was underbreaking as much as I dared and sprinting hard between corners. To her credit Vicky, the girl trailer, showed me up and remained firmly attached to her plummeting shire horse.
We turned round the bottom of the lake and now on a flat section with a massive tailwind Adam and Louis and another big man got on the front, strung us out, and hauled it for the next 30km. I'm not much chop doing +40 even with a tailwind but I managed it, just. Quite a few didn't.
20km out from the finish Hatipi rears its over rated head straight up (well 6% or so is up-ish) for 2km. I only had use of a 21 on the back which meant I had to spin at a fair clip up the hills or stand, and at this point it that would blow my legs out very quickly. So I figured I just better go, I rode around the troika and spun tempo off the front. Somehow I had a massive gap on them by the top; no one in the bunch came with me. Excellent!
All I had to do was hold Adam and Louis and 20 or so fellas off by myself in a filthy crosstail for 15km. I figured I'd better just pretend I was Harry and get the fuck on with it. I caught up a few guys and then dropped them which surprised me, and them too probably. It was bloody awesome!
Then came the last km, directly into the wind. I was all Mosered down flat as possible on the drops busting out what would have been about 25km/h tops. The turn out of the wind into the finishing straight was only about 200m ahead and some guy on the pavement yelled out "The bunch is coming!". I looked under my arm and I could see the big black outline of Adam (small pink Vicky attached) drilling it on the front. ARGH!
I made the turn into the finishing straight too scared to look back, there's 200m to go and I stood up to sprint and couldn't. I just had to sit down and make do with winding it up as best I could. I could hear them coming; roaring and stomping. I could hear them sweating.

But I bloody made it!

By all of about 20 metres

It ended up that Vicky having started in a later group did beat me and claimed 1st old woman in, but I sure as hell have a lot better story to tell.

Literary cyclist

2011-11-15T21:00:00.001+13:00

A while back I was a literary type (and still a cyclist - I had a dirty little BMX). My friends and I published an English (Italian/Spanish/Lithuanian) literary magazine in Paris. We were like Jack and Gregory and Borroughs and Ginsberg but not quite so cool. Though we all smoked and drank a lot and had no money and I was basically the only one with indoor plumbing and everyone would come over for parties and drink 6 franc wine and alamentation store whiskey and have baths (surprisingly good mix that). The early issues of Kilometer Zero magazine came out quarterly and for 6 weeks prior we'd have Tuesday night parties in the cave of Le bistrot des artists on the Left bank. There'd be music and poetry and writers and playwrites and actors and singers and artists and liquor.

10 points if you correctly guess which ones me

My contribution to these evenings was generally food based, but every now and then I'd rock out a photo story slide show. I found one of these on a CD yesterday. Unfortunately I can't find the recording that goes with it. Which was a highly engineered piece of work in itself, recorded one snowy Christmas in a friends music studio (yup, that Christmas). But it's a bit of a bonus for you as now you get to make up the story, be the voices and play your own sound track as you go along.

Featured are: Johnny Diamond, his missing girlfriend, a Lithuanian gangster, Young Tom Pancake, Picasso, my scooter, Luke Bashems clothes, chalk, acrylic and rain.

Funny where you find Salvation (and what else is there)

2011-11-12T17:19:00.001+13:00

There are changes happening, there's stuff going on, but don't worry kid, just roll with the punches, you'll be alright...

This morning I went out for a quick 80km with Harry (and Wallpaper) to Murawai, with a nice section of gravel we rode at a full gallop. It was great. I am very lucky to have been lent a bike to ride while I get a new bike sorted out. Its a LOOK 595, it's just the same as Harry's and today we paraded around like a married couple in matching leisure suits. Hilarious.

I've been moonlighting. Getting my hand back in, making pastry a couple of mornings a week at Salvation kitchen. Its good to be back. This afternoon at Salvation Kitchen was the Retrovixen party, with live bands, Hot Rods, cool clothes and lots of cool people.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

Bye bye, my baby bye bye

2011-11-03T21:39:00.000+13:00

I am a sucker for beautiful things - be it a bike, a book or a friend. Shining with the passion and vision that made them, they are what they are: beautiful, because they can't be any other way.

A beautiful thing
fits into you
(the shape of your body
the contour of your mind
the rhythm of your heart)
And for a moment you forget
that you are not flying

Thank you Holger and Recep

for making Pony (Chiprace 325)

Betty (Betty Leeds)

und mein eigener Liebling (Peacemaker)

These are beautiful things - as are you both.

Pony will be home with you soon.

Summers here

2011-11-02T16:51:00.000+13:00

Look mum no knee warmers!!!

followed by excellent coffee and stationary fetish satisfaction at

K1

2011-10-31T18:28:00.000+13:00

Dry lines through Kuatuna’s slick corners gave a handful of seconds
To chase back on
Myunderman took them back
Whangapoa left me alone in a Greek tragedy of deficit
Manaia’s beautiful vistas and Kareta’s magical gradient regained me some semblance of dignity

and with the wind at my back the dead roads of the firth fled beneath me

I stepped through the door

2011-10-18T22:12:00.000+13:00

Into Melbourne

the parks are pretty
and the air is warm
the rain stops often and
the sun shines

like it means it

The friends I have there
were as fabulous
as they have always been

The new ones I made
made me smile so much

I went on great bike rides
ate fantastic food
drank good wine
and loved
every minute

Thank you all so much

Wee Black

2011-10-09T17:39:00.000+13:00

I know, I know, this is a blog about my awesome FIXIE Inc. Chiprace 325 - but just as some people have another lover; I now have another bike (well actually I already have another, other bike, so this one makes three, but moving on...). The Wee Black is a track bike - so I think she's different enough to not get in the way of my love affair with Pony (the Chiprace325). She's a steel '60s frame and has won many a national title. Feels like it too - what a little rocket!
Sunday afternoon is track training, so after a short ride on Pony this morning (see Pony, I do love you). It was off to the Velodrome. I invited Emma out to play, she has a new track bike as well and this will be her first season - not that you could tell, she was awesome. Jay came too and smashed out some super lap times. All in all it was an fantastic afternoon, in the sun, at the track, with some excellent pals.

Just because I am also sleeping with your sister, doesn't mean I love you any less - not one iota.

Suzanne

2011-10-07T18:40:00.000+13:00

Today I rode to Karekare

Wish

you

were

here

a photo by Emma

2011-10-03T21:22:00.000+13:00

Celebrates the end of the Race of 6 friends

DB, Mullarkey, Adam, me, Jay and Gary

beautiful things

2011-10-01T21:27:00.000+13:00

Sometimes beauty is shrouded in age. But it will always be there, and becomes even more beautiful for having been rediscovered.

Thank you to the original fabricator of this beauty, Eric Hendren. And as always to DB, without whom this beautiful old thing would continue to languish unloved.

How many friends have you got?

2011-09-26T21:54:00.000+13:00

I have come to accept that my personality is not one that is favorable to the amassing of friends. But on Sunday 5 people who have so far managed to ignore this fact, and I, went riding. We didn't know exactly where we were headed because we'd decided to just go wherever Stu and Wayne told us to.
The Race of 6 Friends 2 started at the Tuakau tavern and not seeing the full directions, just a slip of paper with turns and distances, I didn't realise the extent (or pain or awesominity) of what was to come.
I should have known (I come from Pukekohe, which is not far from Tuakau). Nothing good has ever come from Tuakau.
5km in, riding over the Tuakau bridge is quite beautiful. 25km in, riding out towards Port Waikato reminds me of teenage motorcycling follies. Then the matching up the sign for Klondyke road with the 26ish km left turn on the call sheet made me wonder whether Stu had been taking acid. Zero to +300m in less than 5km on a one way gravel road? Did I mention it had been raining, hard?
I invented a new word in Stu's honor - epicosity, and the road ahead was thick with it.
The climb was steep and wet and slippery and beautiful and the descent was thick and heavy and sharp and breathtaking (punctuated as it was by Mullarky's virginal gravel squeaking and 4 punctures). As we regained the seal it felt like we'd ridden a good 80km - it was closer to 40...
It would seem that there is no flat land west of the Waikato river and it is hardly available in more than 1km stretches to the east. But we had whiskey, and at the 57km turn around we made the most of it, at the 70km mark we sucked up the remains; with 2 kinds of fruitcake (and chocolate fish and milk bottles and jelly snakes). After that it was dirty old powerbars and a few mouthfuls of Coke (god I hate that shit, but 115km its so good!) then for a bit it there was just me and my handle bar tape.
Then suddenly we were 5km out and everything was going to be ok and we were truly formidable! Then it was over and I was a bit sad. Luckily someone made aligned me with a pile of hot chips (now cold and all the easier to eat for it) and I was happy again.
Thank you, DB and Gaz and Kate (Mullarky) and Jay and Adam - you guys are super.
Wayne, your planning and foresight are remarkable and Stu you are really quite... special.

Tuakau bridge, isn't it grand

The lovely Amy Taylor took this photo and a lot more - and put this video together (she's another friend!)

The Axis of Mischief are: DB - he made both Kate and Gaz's bikes. Kate - sprints and advocates and likes shoes. Gaz - defies all adjectives. Jay - a spectacularly gifted mechanic and boyfriend of Emma (who would have otherwise been where Kate was except she was barely over being broken and who looked after all of us including handing out her lovely Rapha kit to both Kate and I and making sure we didn't die by feeding us and looking after us and generally being awesome). And Adam who has a very nice cowboy shirt, which he didn't wear on Sunday but I've seen it before and its got pearl buttons.

and a wee honey badger

Nostalgia

2011-09-18T15:55:00.000+12:00

Today I wore my all time favourite kit. My España kit from the Vuelta a la Comunidad Valencia 2007. Paulie and I went down the finish of the final stage, just about 200m from our apartment and I got to meet (and a hug from) David de la Fuente; he was my hero, he won the KOM jersey and he was awesome. Contador had taken the 4th stage and Frank Schleck came 3rd on GC but I didn't even know who they were.

In Valencia we never rode in the rain, we never had too. In Valencia we wore sunshine. It would regularly be 30 degrees before 10am. We did fantastic rides like the Pico de las aguillas and L'Orenet. Or we'd spin out through the rice paddies to the top of the Costa blanca. What a life.

Today it rained on me in my Valencia kit, it rained and hailed and froze. Damn you Auckland.

E E Cummings wrote "Unless you love someone, nothing else makes sense" in Valencia it may not have been easy, but everything made sense. I miss you Paulie, thank you for taking me riding.

Roller coaster!

2011-09-12T21:22:00.000+12:00

I live near the top of Bullock track. It's awesome and about 12% at one (or two) points, its short and steep and straight. You can hit 60km down it no problem. Then you have to brake like hell to stop from flying out onto the main road. I like to see how long I can keep my eyes shut riding down it. But on Saturday morning it was really foggy and that would have been just plain dangerous.

Take off your hat

2011-09-02T19:42:00.000+12:00

beautiful sun rises, great friends, fine bicycles, fabulous coffee, perfect morning.

Glorious Dead

2011-08-31T07:00:00.000+12:00

This is the Auckland Museum, just off to the right is a lower level of consecrated ground with a large war memorial. I like to come up here really early in the morning, and look out over the harbour.

No matter who we might be. We are all glorious in death.

Millers

2011-08-26T09:13:00.000+12:00

they have great spoons

DB and I have restarted our bi-weekly morning rides and this is where we usually end up. Happiness in a cup.

Bike shop love

2011-08-23T11:01:00.000+12:00

Who are you over there?

the Winter of our Discontent

2011-08-19T20:16:00.000+12:00

Well actually substitute mal for dis and my for our and you'd be bang on.

My total riding over winter was summed up by getting on the rollers while watching the TDF in the morning before work. Cause damn you it's been wet and cold and nasty out there and after breaking that rib and over training and never quite getting it together for the race season and riding smack into the fact that I'm not ever going to race the Giro Donne*, throwing my toys out of the cot and taking a trapeze and acrobatics class instead of club racing seemed like a fine idea (and it was - you should try it sometime it's awesome!!!!).

Then I did the race the race of 6 friends with DB and CTB and Gaz and Jay and Emma and fell in love with cycling all over again.

Then I went to Melbourne where it was even colder than at home, but I rode round lots. Which is I guess is just a lovely by product of being there to feed a race team.

Alex

Taylor

James (there were 2 other James and Dion but you get the idea)

I found a patissier who has gods own almond croissant recipe and also that you can take your bike on the train and the ferry and still have 3 hours of riding up the coast in the freezing rain in between.

Mick in Parisian in Essendon

Train to Frankston

On the Ferry from Serrento

to Queens Cliff

And found two great bike shops Northside Wheelers and Shifter Bikes

Which I guess means I'm back from running away to the circus. I don't know if I'll do any racing this season except of course, for the next race of 6 friends.

*Paris, sports car, warm wind etc... Which is lies cause I've been through Paris in sports car, well a BMX is a bicycle sports car isn't it?

Bully for you

2011-02-27T19:28:00.000+13:00

So I take it you have all read the previous post about the sprint train/block maneuver. I have figured that my role in the team is basically team bully. I position things. Get our rider were she needs to be, keep other riders out of way. It takes a bit of tactical thinking but mostly I just be assertive. Ok pushy. Well ok sometimes I'm down right offensive. But I never take my hands off the bars, I haven't made anyone cry or caused anyone to hit the deck. I also narrowly managed to avoid hitting the deck myself by sliding between 4 riders and nose wheeling to a sharp halt amongst a literal pile of the fallen. I'd like to put it all down to my fine bike handling skills, but mostly I think Pony is the answer. Chiprace325 is the by far the snappiest handling bike I have been on. I hardly need to think about where I want to be and he's there. Steady as well. Stage 3 - holding off the HTC sprint line through a corner shouldn't be as easy as that. Sorry Ina you may be my hero, but this little German managed to get the better of you that time.

There is an awesome photo of Pony (Chiperace325) and the rest of team MINI racing and Ina too, here at Pete Bruggemans pbase site - he's the best cycling photographer!

Stage 3 - Sprint train

2011-02-25T19:51:00.000+13:00

Today my job was to sit on the front and control the bunch for the 1st 12km of the tour. Paula sat on right keeping that side shut and a couple of cooperative NZTC team girls took the left. We sat quietly on 40 - 45km. Then wound it up single file through 2 soft left hands. On the 3rd Paula and I were to roll off and soft peddle through the tight left that was 700m shy of the sprint line. Unfortunately the Chinese team rolled the outside of the islands on the 2nd turn and man can those girls go. They got up beside me and I just couldn't power up anymore. But Serena jumped through with Jeannie on her wheel (stage 2 of the plan) and off they went. My soft peddle round the corner held HTC off (sorry Ina-Yoko you are my hero but well...). Serena and Jeannie got up there and managed third over the line but the Chinese freight train delivered their girl in front. Li on 5 point and Jeannie on 4 meant we didn't keep Green. but we had a hell of good time tryin!

Team MINI racing - Womens Tour

2011-02-25T19:44:00.000+13:00

Team MINI racing

Team MINI racing - Womens Tour

2011-02-24T18:23:00.000+13:00

Yesterday's stage 1 took us from Martinborough to Masterton in about 100km, which was good. All good until the bottom of 'the wall' which is a steep as all hell 1 and a half km monster. Jeannie dropped her chain right at the bottom and I rolled with my hand on her back so she could get it sorted. But it didn't work and it didn't work and she had to stop and hop off...
Anyway we got going again >50m off the back of now strung out bunch. I just couldn't make it back through the stragglers to grab the sharp end of the bunch over the hill. Jeannie did - which awesome since this was the whole idea. I managed to pass quite a few girls going up though which felt pretty good. Chased like a madman down the back with one other but dropped her (oops). I almost got back on - was just about 100m off the convoy but just couldn't make it stick. So waited for a few other girls to come through. Meanwhile the bunch was chasing the break hard - team MINI was awesome on the front drilling it. They brought the break back from 1.20 to 0.35 secs. Nice work girls.

Today was Stage 2 - 114km from Masterton over the Pihiatua track to Palmerston North. My little legs are empty, and aren't refilling, but hell them's the breaks. Jeannie attacked at 20km and stayed away to take the sprint (31km). She is awesome. I did manage to get the everyone a bottle before the Pihiatua track (at 97km) left me standing. Got over in the end without too much ado and nailed the descent. Came in with Mel Burke, one of the young Chinese girls and a stray Prime Estate girl we picked up. With Jeannie in the Sprint jersey and Serena holding well on GC Team MINI racing are looking OK.

Pony gets new shoes!

2011-02-20T13:03:00.000+13:00

Having been shod from the start with American classic Mag 300 wheels Pony has been super lightweight and completely elemental. But the old Mags are now very old and have developed rather concave breaking surfaces. Never a good thing. Enter the Profile design Altair 52 carbon wheelset. They're big, shiney and and have dragged me kicking and screaming into the previously derided 'I have carbon wheels' set.

It is no optical illusion that Pony looks like a midget, DB is rather tall - even sitting down

First ride this morning renders the following terms: Big, soft, snappy.
But just as I have learnt to say Romanian and not Gypsy, I have learnt that there is a whole other lexicon required for wheel descriptions. They are not big, they're just a bit heavier than the AC's and well they should be. AC Mags are 1280g a set. The Altair 52 carbon wheelset is 1680g. Which is an increase in weight that is about the equivalent of a 7 week old kitten*. They are not soft, even though they make the road feel like it is covered in a thin layer of shock absorbent rubber. They are smooth or perhaps complaint. Snappy though, I think stands in it's own merits. They are snappy. When climbing - you jump out of the saddle and snap, they're right there. No lag or no heaviness at all - Yay.
So a little heavy but super smooth and snappy. MMMMMMmmmmm new wheels.

In the time it took me change Pony's bar tape and eat a bowl of rice with roast almonds, dates and pomegranate seeds DB had:
Adjusted the headset. Taken apart and lubed the bottom bracket. Swapped the shimano freehub body out of the Altairs and slotted in the Campagnolo one. Fitted rim tape, put valve extenders on the tubes and spanky new tyres on the wheels. Put on a new chain, checked the gear adjustment and tightened the derallieur hanger. I did get done in time to help put in new brake pads in though.

I put this slothfulness down to having just that morning raced 120km. I came 2nd and it was great. I feel better than I have for ages - I have been super tired for the past month. I found out in Friday that my iron levels are about 35% of what they should be. This is quite a suprise as I have previously had such high levels of iron that the doc was a bit worried. But it does make me feel better because otherwise I had to put it down to just being crap. Bring on the steak!

*This massive beastie was once a tiny wee 7 week old kitten and is also named Pony. He is now 11 and weighs slightly over 7.5kg - which coincidentally is around the same weight as Chiprace Pony with his new Altairs.

mind the jig...

As an aside

2011-02-14T22:05:00.000+13:00

I ride pursuit

Last year I raced track for the first time and it was awesome. I would go to Friday night racing and do the chariot and points races and keirin (which I really, really liked) and scratch and things like that. On Sundays I would go to pursuit training with Super coach (aka Steve Parker). I didn't like pursuit much. For one there were never any pursuit races at Friday night racing. But I figured it would make me good and strong for road racing. It did. I also won the 3000m pursuit at the Auckland champs last year. Yay. It was not well contested but I did have to beat someone so I'll take that gold medal thank you very much.

This year I didn't race track, but I did continue with pursuit training on Sunday's. There is something about it that has me hooked. Also one day Super coach organised Jono Hailstone to come out and motorpace us. I reckon I'll pretty much do anything if you put a motorbike in front of me. Oh little red motorbike with your shiney silver roller and your effortless 19 second laps I love you. All of this said, because I had lain around for the month of the broken rib I hadn't managed to get a full 10 and a half lap ride in (our track is 286m which makes for 10 and half laps in 3000m). Saturday morning rolled round, it was Auckland champs time again and I was feeling a bit tentative.

Also there was an unknown element to the entries she looked very young and very fast. She had one of those very fast looking bikes and she was warming up with the we're very serious about going very fast kids. So my plan was to get a damn fine qualifying time in. Qualifying went superbly, end of the second lap I'm sure I got a glimpse of very fast girl just at the edge of my vision there on the other side. She came back strongly but I seeded first with 4'10ish which is 4 seconds up on my title ride last year. I'd like to think very fast girl was now slightly less sure of herself girl.

7 hours later finals saw me start in the back straight again. I was a bit knackered but feeling ok. It was windier than qualifying but not that bad. I started well but too fast; 2nd lap - 21 seconds. This is not abnormal for me, but did not bode well having already smashed myself to pieces earlier in the day. Super coach had warned me about this, I had warned me about this, but sometimes when you are scared of going slow, it is hard to go slow. Quite quickly it all turned 24's and I couldn't bring it back. Very fast girl continued on schedule and again finished strongly, very strongly 4'07 - she smashed me.

But it was awesome THANKS SUPER COACH

Meet Alex Neems (Silver medal 3000m teams pursuit 2010 Junior world champs Montichiari, Italy) as she moves up a step to take the Gold medal in the 3000m individual pursuit 2011 Auckland track champs, Manukau, New Zealand.

MINI + Me and Pony + 5 other awesome women = Team MINI Racing

2011-02-08T20:59:00.000+13:00

Come the afternoon of the 23rd of February Team MINI racing will be lining up for the start of the NZCT 2011 Women's tour of New Zealand.

I am lucky enough to be part of Team MINI racing. Other members of the team are Serena Sheridan, Jeannie Kuhajek, Rachel Larner, Naila Hassan and Paula McCoy. Leading the way and organising the whole shabang is Karl Murray. It's awesome, we are going to be awesome and mostly MINI is awesome!

Thanks MINI!!!

A cure for the spastic

2011-02-05T15:18:00.000+13:00

I can be a bit of a spastic especially when doing things like taking off pedals. Regular old style pedals that require a 15mm spanner are fine, but these new fangled get your 8mm allen key and stick it in there between the crank and frame and it's never long enough and you almost strip your knuckles on the chain ring types, can get me quite befuddled. Especially when someone else has put them on and done them up really tight (or only just tight enough according to DB). So yes I can be a real spaz.

UNTIL NOW!

Possibly the only filet brazed pedal tool in existence. DB you are amazing!

(also handy for dispatching knee caps)

Nelson

2011-01-31T11:38:00.000+13:00

At the beginning of January I was planning to ride the Tour de Vineyards in Nelson. I was barely back on the bike but decided I would go anyway and hang out with my great friend Jeannie Kuhajek. By the time I got off the plane I convinced myself that racing would be a good idea. Which was very exciting. But not a good idea at all. Managed the first stage which was a flat circuit race, the next day was 100+km with a 15km hill finale. I got in the wheel van after about 30km. It was very demoralising, but meant I was free to ride around the Nelson area, hand out bottles in the feed zone and generally have a really great time.

There are lots of bee's in Nelson and until you've had one get stuck in your chin strap and sting you on the neck, in the middle of nowhere, where there is no mobile phone reception, you haven't lived. There are also lots of big hills in Nelson which are fantastic to ride up regardless of how fit you are - as long as you don't have to chase a wheel. There are lots of nice people in Nelson who will give you directions when you are not quite sure you're on the right road, fill your water bottles and sometimes even put ice in them. There are great orchards and farms that grow apples and pears and hops and berries; raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, boysenberries. This means there are plenty of real fruit ice cream stands dotted around in between bee stings, big hills and water stops. Yay Nelson.

Did I mention Jeannie and her partner Brian? They not only put me up but took in another racer called Matt, who was planning of sleeping in his car for the 4 day tour. Jeannie bakes the best cookies and Brain is a firm believer in ice cream as recovery food. Both her and Brian are also awesome cyclists. Jeannie was 4th in the Women's grade, and Brian took the Yellow jersey in the Masters and Matt the Green jersey.

Recovery food of Champions - Chocolate chippie ice cream sandwich!

Start of stage 3, Jeannie and Brian in the KOM jersey

Benny feeding his Pure Black charges

Pony chillin' on the Neudorf Hill

Dovedale Rd (40km pre beesting)

Motueka Valley Highway (15km post beesting)

Matt and Brian ready for dinner

Stage 4 start how you plan to finish. Brain in Yellow, Dean in the KOM and Matt in the Sprint jersey (Yes Matt really is that tall)

Jeannies celebration cake

Jeannie 3rd in stage 4

Absence

2011-01-08T18:37:00.000+13:00

After the rib breaking episode I had a good 4 weeks off the bike. Week 2 I did a couple of quiet trundles around the block but figured (with the help of my ever smarter than me trainer Amy) that the internal clunking possibly meant things weren't healing so I canned it altogether. Which was lovely, I had a very nice Christmas and hung out a lot with non cycling pals.

Moody skies over Anawhata

Our tree and swing and view!

Sheltering in a sea cave during on a stormy morning, after which we threw ourselves into the sea and flailed about - Awesome

Left overs

2010-12-31T15:22:00.000+13:00

More uses than you'd expect from a left over steerer tube.

Even though it is truly a tortilla pin, we made short work of last nights pizza bases.

My rib is well on the way to being good. I have ridden about 5 times in 4 weeks and it's tough. Tough being back to slow and breathless. Tonight I am flying down to Nelson to oversee the racing of the Tour de Vineyards. I haven't completely ruled out racing it, but unless Jeannie does a stella job of talking me round I'll likely be an enthusiastic bag carrier.

I have no words for this.

2010-12-03T22:13:00.000+13:00

Taupo Cycle Challenge

2010-11-28T22:21:00.000+13:00

Every year there is the Taupo cycle challenge. It's a massive event and something in the region of 10,000 cyclists take part. The course is basically a lap of our largest lake - lake Taupo and is 160km. Or you can do it 2 times or 3 times or up to 8 times if you're really nuts. The event has been running since 1977 and is a UCI Golden bike event.

The Elite women's race (Workout zone women's road race) is but 100k and as opposed to circumnavigation we have an out and back route that takes us to Turangi at the bottom of the lake. There is one hill, on the way out is long and easy and on the way back it is short and steep. Well its about 3k, I think and not so steep as to choke you.

It was a fairly uneventful race. Basically a parade out and back that had me wondering whether we were racing at all, but did give me chance to catch up with some neat women I haven't seen in months. Now before you get on that soap box with your "Well then you should've done something" and your "You've only got yourself to blame if nothing is happening" I know. I know and I didn't do jack. Well ok I got off the front there briefly with Mirelle Sitters and one of the Australian girls. I danced (like Harry taught me) up Hatepe (the only hill) and I chased like madman to catch those who got away a bit up it. I rode like Canvendish (conserve conserve conserve). Which meant coming into the last couple of kms I had some gas in the tank and was keen to spend it tearing up the sprint.

Its about a km out and things are hotting up, there's attacking and maneuvering and I'm in a pretty good spot with a gap up to the left and naught but good wheels over there. There's a tight cluster wriggling around to my right. Out of which someone jumps left and clips the wheel of the girl behind her. Who then looks up at me very surprised as I try to get a good bunny hop sorted (if I remember rightly it's all about how you hold your tongue). Unfortunately it went pear shaped and I opted instead for the standard tuck and roll, which I managed with a modicum of flair.

I'm standing up, Rushlee Buchanan has already picked my bike up off the road and Benny* is out of the support car yelling "Get on your bike, get on your bike!". It seems to make sense to repeat this loudly to Rushlee. Benny has my chain on and me on and pushed down the road in seconds. We're off - but they're gone. Rushlee and I roll quietly up to the finish.

To the glamor section and I have no idea how it panned out - Kate Chilcott 1st, Sonia Wadell 2nd, Cath Cheatley 3rd. As I've mentioned before Sonia (former Olympic rower) and Cath are both great cyclists. Cath especially has had an amazing year including winning the USA national series champion title. So congratulations Kate! what a finish.

But for me rider of the day goes to Chubby Hale who quietly rode off the front with about 35km to go. We let her go, thinking nothing would come of it. Chubby is a sprinter, not known for endurance. She got around a corner and must've floored it. No sign of her up the hill (which she won the $1000 KOM on) and we didn't catch her till about 5 km from the finish. She had also contested the sprint at the 50km mark (not sure how she went in that) and was lining up for a bloody good sprint at the end when I checked out. Awesome!!! go Chubby you are a machine.

Now I'm sitting here beginning to wonder just how long that gap between the tuck and roll and Benny arriving was. I have a cracked rib, or I've separated it or popped the cartilage or some such thing. It has been bloody sore today actually. Pony (Chiprace Pony) is sweet, thank god, just a tiny wee scrape on the down tube - even his bar tape is intact. My new GS Gazzetta jersey is a bit shredded but I do get to buy a swanky new helmet and the painkillers have now kicked in very nicely indeed.

* Benny Devcich is the everything of Pure Black Racing. Who I'd like to thank especially for sitting me in their tent in the shade after the race and looking after me.

Dancing with Harry

2010-11-14T16:29:00.000+13:00

Today was to be Pony's first bunch ride. With my newly serviced (ta DB!) AC Mag's we got up at some almost unbearable hour and rode off into the dawn. I met Harry at the Te Atatu over bridge and we headed up to Sunset road to meet the bunch.

Now if you don't know John Harris something's missing in your life. He is a quintessential piece of New Zealand/Nth American cycling and an all round good guy. The hardest thing about riding with Harry is trying not to fall off your bike laughing (well except for staying on his wheel - the man is a machine!). He has the best story's in the world, there is nothing that the Harry Monster cannot relate to a great and hilarious moment in his life

This is not a photo from today because, as you can plainly see,
I am riding Betty Leeds

Today, due to the absence of rest of the 8am Albany bunch (you know who you are - Kaytee Boyd!) Harry gave me dancing lessons. Normalemente we go out to Kaukapakapa but sans pals and with a feisty head wind we turned at Dairy Flat then went up Peak road and across Death Valley. There's a hill at the end of the valley that is pretty steep and quite long. There are a few corners in it and coming around one and seeing the road continuing skyward with no crest in sight I lost the will to live and started to slow down.
God bless Harry. "You gotta dance" he said (visions of Murakami's sheep man immediately swimming through my head) and he proceeded to give me dancing lessons. The pain quickly is forgotten and dear I say it the top of hill came too soon. Like the tango I think Harrys quick step is going to take a bit of practice, but by mid summer I reckon I'll have it nailed. Look out bitches, here comes the Pony express.

Gratuitous Pony shot - cause he's so awesome!!!

I have a new Pony!!!

2010-11-11T21:55:00.000+13:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the beautiful CHIPRACE Pony and make it clear that

"...just because I am also sleeping with your sister, doesn't mean I love you any less. Not one iota."

FIXIE Inc. CHIPRACE 325 (Pony)

2010-11-07T17:31:00.000+13:00

Orca K1 Elite Womens Race

2010-11-01T07:46:00.000+13:00

"The event is named after Kuaotunu, an enchanting community on the wild eastern coastline of the Coromandel Peninsula. In Maori, the name Kuaotunu means “to inspire fear in young animals". The 2 represents the almost 200km that the ride will cover. ”

K2 is probably the toughest one day road race in New Zealand. Nigh on 200k and about 2300 metres of climbing. I've raced the K2 before and it's great, I've also raced the K1 and had a fantastic time. But this was the first time I have raced with the elites. In the elite women's grade we only race the K1 which this year is 84km (about 1100 metre's of climbing), and you know what? I'm happy about it, because after 2 and a half hours yesterday I certainly didn't want to be out there to be any longer. You can veiw a map here.

We start about half way round the full K2 loop and as a result we run into a few of the faster K2 riders It's generally not too much of a problem but can make for a few hiccups.

With 21 women on the start line we almost doubled last years entrants, which is fantastic! From Tairua we roll straight into the first hill. Pumpkin hill, its a great climb smidgin under 3km long, twisty and steep in places but it doesn't try and rip you legs off. Neither did any of the girls, with a long way to go we went up fairly quietly. We descended quite fast, which ruffled a few feathers as it was a bit drizzly and slippery, then it was basically big rollers for 30km into Whitianga. Not much happened everyone behaved and cruised along. There were a couple of surges but no breaks, it was raining and I think everyone was nervous about the last ascent up Whangapoa. It was certainly to be a race of attrition.

The next hill is Kuaotunu (see above) its only just over 1km but it has some good steep pitches and it strung the bunch out well. I was on the right side of the commissars van at the top but only because I planted myself in the middle of the road when he made like he was coming past. The descent is tricky and tight and I would have lost a lot of time stuck behind him. As it was I did a bit of slithering through one corner. Then got it back together and came barreling around the next a corner and almost into a car. It was going nice and slow behind some dithering K2 descenders. Unfortunately given a bit of a fright I locked it it up and got some sideways drift happening, but I managed to get it together just shy of the rear bumper. Betty is amazing in these situations, even in the wet with some operator error you can flick her round and be sprinting off again without getting into real trouble. She behaves like some kind of bionic body extension. I gave the driver an ear full of "Please sir don't you think it would be a good idea to pull over at this point" and wonder of wonders he did. Next corner I see Sonia Wadell climbing out of the scrub and Mel Burke struggling in the road side gravel. I kept on and as I found the flat I could see the 4 or 5 leaders down the road and began chasing hard. The commissar caught up and this time I shifted well clear to let him come past. It was then I realised it wasn't the girls just ahead but a random group of K2 racers. ARgh! I kept on and Mel soon came to the rescue and together we rolled though and onto the front bunch.

Serena Sheridan, Emma Crum and a suprise unknown Sarah Morrison began to show us up with their climbing ability. Mel is an ex rower (like Sonia) and like Sonia she is a power house in the flat, but she's also beginning to climb very very well indeed. Jeannie Kuhajek rides just like she is in real life, quiet and calm, with unassuming confidence and the speed and smarts to back it up.

Miandermans Hill was next, it's long and straight and I was happy to just stare at Sonia's rear hub on the way up. It's a very short, straight ,very very steep descent, Sonia and I dropped like cannonballs, Jeannie and Karen Fulton rolled up and we chased really hard. We swooped up Mel and quickly gained the front bunch of 3.

There are two little ramps before the last climb (Whangapoa) they are deceptively steep and just a bit too long to be real power climbs - for us girls anyway. The last one is called Gentle Annie - it is not and it saw me off the back. Reduced to 8 or 9 riders at this stage the first 5 made it over more or less together. I just couldn't get quite get there and chased alone for the next 3 or so km's. I was very happy to make it back to the leaders as the other girls didn't. Unfortunately that was pretty much the end of me. As soon as the last climb began in earnest it was obvious I was done for.

Still, Whangapoa is a damn good climb of about 3 km, 340m ascent with some pitches of +15%. It's one of my favourite climbs and I climbed fairly steadily and passed a whole stack of K2 rider's (which I should bloody well be able to do since they'd ridden 100km further than me by this stage). From the top there is a smashing view and only 5 or so km to go, 4 of it being descent. There are 4 corners of note on the way down. Unfortunately Mel had an upset with the first one and slid across the road into a barrier narrowly missing an oncoming car. So don't get me wrong it's not an easy descent by any standard it's twisty and fairly steep. But you can (if you know the hill well) take some major liberties with braking. The last two corners are the worst; labeled 25 and 15km respectively. This is no joke, a left, left, right combo in all of 250m with a gradient that passes through 15% at one point.

Then there is only fine flat road, two 90 degree corners and the finishing shoot. The commentator with his megaphone and the crowd yelling and a roll through to the finish tent were they take your timing transponder and give you chunks of pineapple and oranges and water and drinks and smiles. There was a lovely lady with a stack of cards who handed me one and stated that I definitely looked like I could do with a spot prize. Yay! I got fancy socks.

Serena won in 2:34.45. Sarah came second and though she made the summit with Serena she lost 37 secs on the descent - told you it was tricky. Next was Sonia (2:35.56) then Emma (2:36.01) and Jeannie (2:36.16) then me in 6th place with 2:37.12. I really wanted to in the top 5, but to be honest, one place out - I'm pretty darn happy.

These are pictures of the last climb - the mighty Whangapoa. Doesn't look very steep does it? But its 3km like this; there are no straight sections at all. Isn't that view from the top is stunning.

Hamilton City - "The Charity Ride"

2010-10-26T22:03:00.000+13:00

This weekend was Labour weekend, so my sister gets a birthday and we all get a day off work. Dynamo events put on a 3 for 3 parade of cycling events with the Hamilton City Criterium on Saturday, the Rabobank National Champs Team Time Trial on Sunday and Monday the 100km Hamilton City Charity ride; raising funds for the Westpac rescue helicopter. It was in (as you may have guessed) Hamilton. Hamilton is flat flat flat. But there are hills all around and I had no idea what they were like...

About 85 of us lined up the 100km and 30 for the 75km. Only 1 person didn't finish their ride - which is awesome. There's a map here if you'd like to check it out.

So we rolled off and the fast boys wound up and strung out and surged and chased and attacked (I love riding with the boys) and spat Mel and I at about k 20. Then through pure spasticity, I dropped my chain. Luckily I had donned my brand new Schlecklett Saxobank kit so at least I was aptly dressed. Mel soft pedalled, because Mel is awesome and smart. Within seconds 4 handy chaps caught us up. They were rolling through tempo and we slipped in with them. Amongst them was Manu Robson better known as the 'The worlds fastest Maori'. Manu is super strong and was a fantastic track racer. He and one of his pals were caning it. Then Mel repeated my folly and put her chain off (bloody girls). I was just feeling that I'd have to have to sit a lap or two out, when Mel said Manu had just told her to sit on... Then we realised why they were happily blasting us into the ground - they were only riding the 75km! So at around the 50km mark they turned off and left (seemingly with most of my strength) 4 of us at the bottom of the real first hill. A lovely guy called John Badger stayed in for the 100 - he is from Hamilton and he provided race notes as we went, which was fantastic. There are some twisty sharp descents with blind corners and a few one lane bridges to contend with. Badger must be at least 50 and gobbled at the roadside turkeys up turkey hill, while I nodded and tried to make out I wasn't gasping.
My trainer Amy had warned me about the pitch on a couple of the hills and brightly stood at the top of the second to last one. Which was a brilliant plan because it was the nastiest climb but seeing her there meant there was no way in hell I was going to drop that wheel, and knowing there was only one more climb to go certainly helped. That's Mel storming up the hill with me sitting quietly in the lee of her awesome power.

So after the fun in hills there was but a 20km flat slog back to the finish. We were all pretty mashed up and we rolled out eating and drinking and wondering what happened to our legs. We picked up a broken young fella who promptly nailed himself to the rearguard. Then 10 or so minutes on we found another slightly less young and rather less broken fella. To wit John happily stated that'd we'd really get going now. Sure enough the less broken boy in the team Subway kit started up with some massive turns and on the front, which inspired the youngster to roll through. Mel showed her strength by not missing beat and powering onward when even Badger sat in. There was one wee pitch left that was all of 50m and just about 10% and Subway superhero felt it the perfect place to give me a quick slap on the back. Normally I hate that shit, but hell even grumpy pants like me like it sometimes.
The finish was a tricky 2 round about combo; straight through the first then round the second to the right, which became a sort of left hand S bend into a short straight. Mel made it a fair bit simpler by just riding away after the 2nd round about, I got up and sprinted but to absolutely no avail, so I sat back down and John rolled on by. Ahh well, Mel was super strong and certainly out rode me. It was a great day, and the first real summer race - it got up to 30 degrees out there, it was stunning!

Hans Peter prescription Muesli bar

2010-10-13T18:22:00.000+13:00

I spent the weekend riding around the Coromandel on the Kenetic Edge training camp in preparation for the forth coming K2 race. It was great and I'll more than likely write about it in the next couple of days.

But firstly, I make my own energy bars and my roomy for the weekend (the lovely Catherine) asked for the recipe. I figured I may as well hand it out to you all. I got this recipe from another Betty Leeds bike rider in Germany Bella Bellissima

Hans Peter prescription Muesli bar

200 gr. Hazelnuts and almonds

100 gr. Cranberries, figs and prunes

200 gr. Rolled oats

100 gr. Chocolate chopped

150 gr. Whole grain flour

50 gr. Brown sugar (you can leave this out if you like I do)

4 eggs

200 gr. Honey (liquid is good otherwise warm it gently so it goes runny)

Cut everything up and put in a bowl with the flour. Lightly beat the eggs and mix into the honey. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well. Press into a metal tray so it is about 2cm deep. A sponge roll tin works well or even a roasting dish, lining it with baking paper first is a good idea. Bake at 160 degrees for about 30 minutes - longer if need be.

It's a great recipe that you can adjust easily to suit your own tastes. I usually use dates and apricots instead of Cranberries, figs and prunes and I use a mix of almonds, Brazil nuts and sunflower seeds. But you can throw anything you like in. I'm not so good with oats either so at different times I have put in cooked amaranth or crushed weetbix and it's still come out fine. I don't usually put the chocolate in but lately have been adding cocoa nibs instead - if you can get them they're great. Without the chocolate you can cut these up into dice sized pieces and they're fine straight in your (clean!) jersey pocket for easy munching in the bike.

Yum

VO2max test

2010-09-30T20:34:00.000+13:00

Today I did my first VO2max test.

It was great, yeah it was hard, but it's cycling, it's always hard.

Results 67.2 ml/kg/min and 5.93 watts/kg

Which I think is pretty good. I'm really happy and there's room for improvement and I'll make it, it's superbly exciting.

How to lose lessons in race etiquette (or Proof that women are a vindictive bunch and their only goal in life is to make you cry)

2010-09-13T16:52:00.000+12:00

For this race I had a new plan - do not attack. My natural instinct is to attack all day long. Its not smart and it doesn't win races so I am being reprogrammed.
So whats this all this about lessons in race etiquette? Well, as you probably know road racing is full of unwritten rules. Little do's and don'ts that will throw the precious peleton into a fit of pique if you break them. For instance, you don't attack when someone crashes or has a mechanical and you don't attack in the feed zone, you may ride the front through your home town etc. The one we explore today is - if you can't roll through and have to sit on, then you don't sprint for the line.
Anywho, there's a girl who always sits on and then sprints us at the finish. This has been happening for years. We are all sick of it because, she is a track sprinter and she can out sprint us.
So we ganged up, we made her roll through, made her ride the front. She hated it and hated us and got angry and there was cussing and swerving and tears. If I'd attacked on the last two hills it would have dropped her, it would have broken her thoroughly. But I didn't attack. I kept my mouth shut and let one of the others set the pace and yell abuse. But because we were mean because we made her roll through, we didn't drop her. Which was the mistake of the century because sure enough...

... she won the sprint!!!

Coming up the finish straight. She's in the gutter, Ruby is in front of her and I'm on her shoulder holding her in. Paula comes up outside me and is poised take victory. But there's a nasty head wind, Paula is not on form and suddenly she's fading fast. Ruby sees this and begins to wind up. The sprinter is on her wheel, elbows out, angry as all hell and completely unshoveable. Paula is right in front of me going backwards. I have to go now and it's much earlier than I want. I jump, pass Paula, pass Ruby and sprint like mad. But I but can't hold it and that bloody sprinter comes round and rolls me on the line.

Whats the moral of this pitiful story? Remember its a bike race not a bloody school yard.

Small Hands

2010-08-30T20:35:00.000+12:00

I love messing about in the workshop. As a kid I lived on a farm and with it came the biggest old workshop, filled with tractors, motorbikes, a welder, saws, a vice and piles and piles and piles of old stuff that had been there since time began. It was a place of adventures that smelt like grease, dogs and diesel and was occasionally life threatening. I vividly remember holding an extension cord as Dad plugged it into the socket. Unfortunately I was holding the only part that had an exposed wire. Dad immediately removed the plug from the supply, but I'm sure there are now two (or three) of me in here.
DB's workshop is the cycling equivalent, although DB refers to his workshop as 'the shed'. DB has such wondrous things as a welder, a fork bender, a frame jig, tubing sets, a drill press, a polishing wheel and more super fantastic things than you can imagine. It smells like grease, dogs and steel. Betty was born here as was Liebling, Lieblings wheels and all sorts of a-bike adventures including tandem racing, CTB's tour of the Waikato and most of my day dreams for the future.
Last week I finally got my hands on the American Classic bearings required to sort out my MAG500's. On Saturday I booked time with DB in the shed and we got to work.
The neatest thing about American Classics (apart from the zippy weightlessness of the MAG500's) the freewheel mechanism. There are 5 little pawls or hands (the newer hubs have 6) that grab onto the freewheel to engage it, check them out.

Little tiny midget hands!

DB flips out the old bearings, coaxes in the new ones and then reassembles the freewheel mechanism.

OPEN - Hands out.

CLOSED - Hands in.

Wahey!

Betty, as usual, just waits quietly.

Auckland 1000

2010-08-23T22:10:00.000+12:00

Try and get a break away fairly early, then hang in and ride hard with a small group at a not too spastic a pace, to the finish. 3 x 25km laps.
Oh well best laid plans.
I started by attacking in the first 5km and tried to get the bunch a bit wound up. It was good we were riding fairly fast and there was much unrest a foot. Paula McCoy attacked beautifully up the hill at the halfway point and she and someone else – Courtney Lowe maybe, got away for 4 or 5km. But Mellisa Holt and Jeanie Kuhajek and Rosey (who did a pretty stellar pull at one point) and I reeled them in. Then I attacked again, but sort of by default. I didn’t slow down for the dog leg intersection and the lead (cop) car did, so I had to go around them at speed and gave them a hell of a fright. The bunch all stayed back. I should’ve nailed it, but I was kind of scared of being run over by the lead car. Also I was pretty broken. Perhaps we weren't riding that fast, but I was feeling awful.
We were back together soon, then I rolled off the front a bit going down the hill into a left hander before the last hill on the course.

One day I'll figure out how to get those armwarmers off

I do this every bloody time on this course, it's a bit dumb because there's generally wind across the hill and the bunch just roll on up behind as it pummels you. But its such a wide open corner and you can rail around it. Its a real pity to put the brakes on and go slow. This is obviously not the general opinion in a womens bunch. As usual the bunch caught me up the hill. Then Courtney put the pedal down and I completely blew to pieces, just before the finish of the first lap - God it was horrible, my resolve dissolved.
But the outcome over all was neat. Melissa and Courtney and Jeanie got well away. Then Jeannie got dropped (damn). At the finish Melissa led Courtney about 200m out and wound it up hard, so Courtney waited and rolled her about 10 meters before the line. It was perfectly timed.

Courtney is jubilant and Mish has a smile there too.

Jeannie was a couple of minutes back happy as a cupcake.

I my opinion Jeannie is one of the most underrated riders in the country.

Then another few minutes back there was Paula McCoy. Then there was a strewn out field of smashed riders. About 15 started. I think 8 finished. I didn’t. I did another lap after blowing and called it a day. I felt alright till I got home, then I started feeling quite ill. Its now Monday night and I’m still smashed.

Pete Bruggeman took these great pictures and he has more here
As a footnote Enervit's new Endurance drink G Sport Competition is not 'just like their normal G Sport drink with a bit of caffeine' its like mainlining 8 nuclear espresso's - handle with caution.

Bruce Kent Memorial - 80km Handicap

2010-08-15T17:42:00.000+12:00

Mauku? Where's Mauku and anyway that sign says Patumahoe? Where the bloody hell is that?

The Bruce Kent is held out at Mauku which is near Patumahoe and Pukekohe and in the middle of rolling countryside. The roads are mostly paved with stones that would be dice if they were quartered and had the edges knocked off, and there are potholes that you could loose a school bus in.

This is the transition from hot press in Patamahoe village to the commonly used 'agricultural grade' volcanic chip

Betty, being steel, is super over this kind of surface and DB's lovingly hand built wheels are perfect rollers. Not that this would matter much...
An 80km handicap is going to be tough at any stage of the year, let alone in the middle of winter. Counties Manukau Cycling club (CMC) had its 3 week mid winter hiatus then came back with Auckland TT Champs (Ha!) and then the BK.
I was in 3rd bunch before Scratch with half a dozen guys and the rest senior women, all 4 of us. There was a bunch between us and Break and Limit was three bunches ahead. The weather had been predicted as violently hostile but miraculously it stopped raining on the start line and the wind dropped from tumultuous to a firm and steady breeze.
From the gun the pace was a bit too high for where I am at and I suffered through 2 laps, rolling through but not doing anymore than was absolutely necessary. Then break hit us at about 45k/m. The effect was something akin to a freight train hitting a flock of pigeons. Some pigeons are tenacious and fit and they were fine, clinging falcon like to the fairing of the roaring beast, some were immediately vaporised and then there were a couple like me who tumbled along in the vortex for bit before being dropped quietly (gasping and hallucinating) off the back at the next hill.
I got myself back together and spun along, past a couple of riders more broken than myself and pedaled on. Scratch came past at some point (while I was still gibbering away to myself) then two lovely young men rolled through and saved the day. I sat on (barely) for a lap then rolled through for the last lap and we were done.

This is the aptly named Mauku Victory Hall (1920), registration and post race realignment with sanity housed within.

In the hall there was a long table covered in food; club sandwiches, sausage rolls, date loaf, ginger kisses all kinds of sugary fatty happiness. God bless the long standing 'any excuse to bring a plate' CMC tradition. A cup of tea and two slabs of date loaf later I was feeling mostly normal, the immoral voices inside my head had stopped and I was happily gossiping away to cycling pals I hadn't seen in months. Next week its the Auckland 1000!

My Dad

2010-08-13T08:18:00.000+12:00

That's my Dad. He's excellent, look at him pasting me up this hill. He's got two fancy new improved hips and I like to think its this affinity with the 6 million dollar man that allows him to get away like this. I don't get to ride with him very often but a couple of weeks ago we went out around Pukekohe and Drury where I grew up.
I've been riding up this hill since I was 6 when I had a reliegh 16. Most of the time I had to walk up it. But one day I triumphed and finally I managed to ride the whole way up it. I couldn't do it the next day which I found a rather confusing - don't you just keep getting better? (To be honest; I still struggle with this.)
As hills go it's quite a nice one, not too steep, though there's a little ramp about 1/3 of the way up that can catch you out if you're not paying attention (see above). When descending there's a sweeping left hander and a narrow bridge at the bottom. I put my motor bike into the bridge when I was 18 (a bored out Honda NSR250rc which my mechanic fitted with gold top plugs because he didn't trust me to ride it 'nicely' and thought I'd blow the engine if left to mine own devices). I spent a week or so hospital thinking about exactly what had gone wrong in taking that corner at +150km. Now whenever there's a club race out here I can't help but attack riding down it, though I've not managed get over 80km. Dad attacks riding down everything, generally proceeded by a quiet "I like to get a bit of momentum up down here" then he's gone, leaving you to chase like mad thing to get on his wheel. I'll catch him yet (though by the looks of it not this time).

Happy Birthday Holger!

2010-07-17T21:44:00.000+12:00

Hey yesterday was Betty's dads birthday. Well one of her dads (there are two - did I mention her mother was race horse?)

Happy birthday Holger!!!

You're the most super fantastique bike designer in the whole world and we (me and Betty and Liebling) love you! XOX

FIXIE Inc. is Hoger Patzelt and Recep Yisil

Thank you Mr Hudson

2010-07-17T21:05:00.000+12:00

Last Saturday I rode with Wayne Hudson. He's a pretty super guy. He's sponsored races and teams and is constantly raising funds and awareness for various charities. He's also been the driving force behind the new Auckland Central Cycling Club.
Waynes been training hard, tomorrow he's riding the Étape du Tour. Last Saturday was his last ride before leaving he the country. 5 hours 2000m of climbing. "Sure," I said "awesome!"
The plan was to start with the 7.30 Mechanics bay bunch, but they didn't show so we had to go with the 8 o'clock... Now the 7.30 bunch they're a bunch of moderately aged racers and riders who are full of testosterone and prone to attacking the hell out of other. They muscle cars around and occasionally run lights. Usually 1 or 2 times a year they'll have nasty accident. I don't generally ride this bunch, it's a bit risky for me. But I race with most of them and they're lovely guys, polite and smart and funny. The 8 o'clock bunch are the same except you can leave out that last sentence. These kids are generally spastic with a bonus death wish. But lucky for us they were on their best behavior and it all went fairly well. A 70km flat drag race may seem like an odd way to start a day in the hills, but one thing I've never been is conformist and it sure made the rest of the ride pretty calm and gentle. We eased quietly off the back about 1km before the final sprint just to be sure we didn't die in the fallout and headed for the hills.
Wayne has a compact crankset and he was soon spinning away from me quite happily. Once I got my knees sorted I followed suit and in the words of the irrepressible Ric Reid we spinny spinny spin spinned our way over the Waitakeres and out to Bethels beach.
Wayne's using the Étape as a vehicle to raise funds for an incredibly worthy cause Positive Women Inc. Supporting women and families living in New Zealand with HIV and Aids. I suggest you get over to his web page now and donate something now!
I was expecting that we would stop for a coffee at some stage, but we didn't (my first ever 5 hour ride sans espresso). Wayne is so selfless that when I admitted to having run out of food (I was counting on that coffee stop) he prompted handed over his emergency supply of gummi snakes. Savior! We added an extra wee hill loop and cruised back in to town. When I arrived home we had ridden 5 hours and 1 minute and climbed just a scrap over 2000m all in 135km. Then I had a coffee.
Go Wayne! Have an amazing time tomorrow, you are awesome!

By the way, after the ride I rubbed down my legs with the Lambs ROSSO massage oil. Yeah they were a bit tired the next day but they sure as hell weren't sore!

This is a the view from when we were waiting for the bunch - beautiful isn't it.

(it was also about 3 degrees!)

Half Distance Champs

2010-06-21T20:53:00.000+12:00

Just to set the scene, here in New Zealand it's winter and Club racing takes place during winter. It rains a lot here. When you go riding you don't wonder if you'll get wet, but how many times you'll get a soaking. If you don't want to ride in the rain you basically can't go out from April to November. Luckily it doesn't get too cold; early in the morning it might get down to 2 or 3 but that's about it.
Sunday it wasn't too bad, fairly warm and after lunch it didn't rain hardly at all. This weekend was Auckland half distance champs, kind of like mid year exams for cyclists. It was windy, 20 knots, blowing right down the only hill, just before the finish – Yay. 3 laps and only 48km so it was shaping up to be quite full on.
7 starters; Toni and Mel are both trained by Kenetic edge and wear team kit, they are both good strong riders. Toni has raced in Europe and USA and represented NZ at the commonwealth games, she's also a really nice person. Mel is the current national club road champ and is off to Edinburgh in September to race in the Duathlon world champs, Mel's super neat too. Then there was Paula McCoy (irrepressible second year senior), Rosie McCall and two unknown youngsters. Toni attacked so often that I figured she was softening us up for Mel to ride off – Mel is as strong as an Ox, and can ride off easy if she can get away. I pulled a couple of attacks. Even young Paula attacked. There was a some toying up the hill into the wind and some more attacking.
With about 12 km to go and Paula attacked hard – it was great. Mel went with her. I don't know quite where the wheel was dropped but it was. We chased then we kind of didn't chase, a couple of the girls were either not able to or not wanting too (to be honest I was pretty smashed, being a bit stubborn and not too keen on dragging anyone around to be out sprinted later)*. Then bang we chased again - yay! Anyway we’re within 20m or 30m of Mels wheel and
DOG ATTACK!!!!!!!
Two dogs as angry and hackled up as lions charge out at Mel and Paula. Of course they sprint off like hell, the dogs see us coming and ARGH!!! There is barking, braking, swerving and generally freaking the hell out. Luckily they just give us a fright and then strut off laughing. Paula and Mel are gone baby gone. We chased pretty hard then - see above, a bit disappointing.
We were only about 3 km out and I suggested to Toni we nail the last 2 right angle corners and the two of us roll through up the hill and drop the others. One thing about girls racing is they don’t corner hard in the wet and it had been raining. Compared to the boys I’m not the best at cornering but rain is my friend and Betty corners like she’s on rails so I find it easy to attack through corners without using too much gas. But because of that 20 knot headwind I needed Toni’s help. I thought she said yeah, but she might've just been bored and wanted to see what I would do. Anyway I rode the corners hard and I’m rolling up the bottom of the hill, look around and... there’s no one there. Bugger. Unfortunately the wind smashes me up quick and Toni quietly reels me in with the others sitting on. Well that was it really. The four of us danced around each other trying to stay out of the wind. Toni stood up and feigned an attack about 400m out then just sat up and literally waved us through. I had no sprint in me so Rosie got third and the youngster 4th. Up at the business end Mel won the sprint from Paula. True to her irrepressible self Paula confessed to sitting on Mels wheel for most of the ride in. But she was still there for the sprint which is no mean feat - Mel is super strong.

*This happens a lot in women's cycling here. Negative racing - winning by riding as slow as you can. Normally I smash myself to pieces attacking, chasing and doing stuff most people think is stupid - but hey sometimes it works and it sure is fun. I am a bit ashamed of myself for being stubborn on Sunday but it just proves the point even more, negative racing is for fat, lazy and unfit riders.

First race of the season

2010-06-12T21:44:00.000+12:00

It may have been my first race of the season but everyone else has been racing for a few months now. It rained on and off all morning and on us as we did a lap to warm up. 75km, 4 laps, B grade field of 30ish - 2 women; me and Paula McCoy. Oh well, it was raining and girls are girls and that was enough to make them stay away. CTB raced in B grade too. My Dad was also racing - he's awesome, he races in the over 40's; today they had a handicap race.
The first lap was fairly uneventful, a couple of breaks and we got completely drenched - it rained so hard I couldn't see. Second lap the breaks tried a little harder and we chased a little harder. Well I didn't - CTB was in every break so I did the minimum amount to keep from being pelted. A bit more rain and joy of joys, someone had shifted some stock across the road and we all got covered in cow shit.
Start of the third lap CTB was in a break of five and the bunch got stuck into some serious chasing. I was at the point where if I eased off it would all go horribly wrong so I kept the hammer down and did some work. Just before we slammed into the back of the break I saw my Dad up the road and thought it would be neat to ride past Dad on the front. I gave a few good kicks and rode up to Dad. We had quick chat; Dad was looking pretty good. Then Will (who owns 239 Bike and looks after my Dad for all his bike shop needs) rode up and gave Dad a pat on the back. At this point I noticed that behind us there was no bunch - they'd sat up when they hit the break.
Will said "Come on, lets smash them", "Yeah" I said "lets go". So we smashed them. Well Will smashed them, I figured I'd take a turn when Will waved me through. Then as we turned into a wind/hill combo my legs remembered I hadn't raced for ages. I confessed this to Will and he took it remarkably well. As I tumbled off his wheel towards the bunch another rider bridged to take my place which made me feel less crap about the whole fiasco. I was sucked into the bunch and we rolled through the cow shit again - fitting.
A few of km's before the start of the last lap the bunch got all motivated and starting hunting Will down. I was on the wrong side of dropped wheel and by the time I got round the offenders I couldn't get back on. I tried, I got down and Mosered with everything I had - but no luck. About half way round Jianni, owner of Ibike (it was bike shop owner kinda day), joined me and we gossiped a bit and felt better. Then the next grade caught and dropped us and we felt stink again.
But CTB, the eagle of Onehunga (who does not own a bike shop) won! Also Adam (of derny modeling fame) had his first win. Hooray!
I'm on the sofa partially collapsed. But quite happy, my legs feel surprisingly good. The amazing Mr Lamb over at La Gazetta Della Bici makes ROSSO a post ride massage oil that is out of this world. My legs are completely in love. It has been a pretty awesome day after all.

Week off Part 1 or Climb climb climb, wine, whisky and rifles.

2010-06-02T18:32:00.000+12:00

I took a week off work - it was awesome.
At our weekly Sunday night dinner I took advantage of the GSM, a very fine Chateauneuf du Pape, a dessert Shiraz (I know - it was quite different) and a good sized dram of Coal Ilay whisky. Monday I went to the rifle range for the first time and shot an 82 and an 89.2. I really want to do biathlon over winter but there's no snow in Auckland, so I'm concentrating on target shooting for now. Then I packed a couple of changes of cycling gear and some civvies into a touring bag and on Tuesday I headed to Coromandel.

View Larger Map
I love riding on the Coromandel Penninsula. Its hilly and beautiful and quiet and there are beaches and native forests and hardly any people. I was planning to ride down, but with thunder storms and hail predicted in Thames (at km 110 of 170km) I decided it would be better to take the Ferry. Being drenched, pelted with ice and then having to ride another 60km didn't sound like too much fun.
The Ferry leaves downtown Auckland and is 12 minutes ride from my front door - awesome. I got into Coromandel just after lunch, dumped my excess kit and took a ride up to Colville. It's a lovely ride up the coast with some really nice smaller hills. Just before the turn around point at Colville is the biggest its long and smooth on the way and a nasty steep wall on the way back - it's painful here no matter what you do.
The next day I rode over to Whitianga and back. This is one of my favourite rides and it forms part of the K2 route. There's about 1200m of climbing in 100km. Its fantastic, there are all kinds of hills on the way and they've fairly different profiles on the way back so it's almost like riding a loop. The views from the top of each of the climbs is fantastic. On the way into Kuaotunu there's an evil wall steep enough that any amount of moisture can result in a loss of traction. You can easy hit 80+km down it on the way back. Coincidentally this is where I came across the striking Adam Yearsley who was riding in the other direction with a bunch of pals. You may remember Adam as our model for derny clothing. They were doing a training ride for K2, it looked painful and I was not at all inclined to join them. I stopped in Whitianga which has a couple of good cafes. Just don't leave your table or the local gulls are likely to descend and eat your lunch, no kidding they got mine. After the ride I spent an easy afternoon lounging around, eating a lot (a big slab of freshly smoked tuna) and relaxing in the spa. It was a perfect day (don't strive for perfection, live it).

Gallipoli Cup

2010-04-30T21:43:00.000+12:00

On Anzac day we have a race called the Gallipoli cup. It's a handicap race that has been going for I know not how long, but it has been won by some pretty fancy riders - Sarah Ulmer and Peter Latham for instance. It's tough and you will suffer, which is fitting. It was the first time I've raced it and it was also my first ever handicap race. 80km - 4 laps of a circuit that is mainly flattish. The only climb of note is up Twilight road. Its just 1km long, its twisty and turny and steep but not scary steep.
That is its not scary steep until you've been up it 3 times already and you're rolling into the bottom for one last go. The bunch behind caught your bunch about 5km prior. You should've sat in for a bit and not rolled through. You shouldn't have taken that long turn out the back on the 2nd lap. But you did and now you're paying. Now there's not much happening downstairs in the leg department.

They're riding away over the top and suddenly you're in no mans land. Chasing. You kick and jump and grind but you just can't get back on and they're not letting up. Gasping, coughing, heaving you sit up and invest everything you have into breathing.
Then, finally, here comes scratch, here comes the Cavalry! Wahoo! Holy hell they must be doing 50km/h. Get up to speed and jump hard. Surprisingly you manage to stay on... for about 5km. Never mind, not far to go so you get down on the drops and Moser homeward. Another dropped rider joins you for the last couple of k, you roll through and off and over the line.
This year the big names didn't do it - limit won, they got themselves together and stayed away. Nice work guys. I was shattered and I hated it and I loved it. It's time to start training again.

bioSport Criterium series final

2010-04-06T19:29:00.000+12:00

"Pack fodder neither train nor rest hard enough." DB

"I want to keep my internal organs in the best possible condition and I think alcohol is the way to do it." CTB

I decided to take the advice of these two fine friends to heart. After the Womens Tour I rested like I was going to win the Tour de France, and developed a fondness for malt (Glenlivet 12yr to be precise). Then all of a sudden it was time for the final of the bioSport Criterium series. I was feeling very fresh (read soft) indeed.
Kate Mullarkey was absent as was Emma Crumb but my arch nemesis Kate Chilcott was there. Rosy McCall was also racing, she'd won the week Emma, Kate C and I were away on Tour. Rounding out our Women's group was Rachel Larner (TT rider extraordinaire) and Paula McCoy. Paula just moved up to senior this season and is a tenacious young rider. If Kate won and I didn't place Kate would win the series.
It was the hardest race yet. The bunch was a bit smaller than in previous races and I'm sure it was going a lot faster. I didn't have it in me to chase much so I had to stay near the front or risk exploding completely if there was a split. It was hard and Rachel sat on my wheel for about 8 laps straight.

Rosy and Kate tucked in and jumped around like they were on fire. When the lap board for 3 to go went up I was pretty much blown. In the last race I wasn't that worried when I was length behind Kate and Rosy at the final turn. I was feeling great and sprinted up the inside and over the top of them. This race was not to be the same.

Into the last corner I wanted to be 1st girl up but wasn't able to maneuver at all. I came around behind Kate who was a length behind Rosy. I managed to keep Kate within 2 lengths but Rosy as gone baby gone, she buried us and Rachel was right there on my wheel. Rosy 1st, Kate 2nd and myself 3rd. So unfortunately no more Cibo restaurant vouchers for me but I did manage to get enough points to win the series.

Greg and the bioSport team ran a fantastic series. The racing was brilliant and the addition of C grade made for sharper and faster B grade riding. Thanks Greg for putting the series together and doing it so well. And the marshals and everyone who came down to watch - you are awesome.

Speaking of Cibo. I took DB, his lovely partner Donna and CTB out to dinner with the Cibo vouchers I won previously. It was fantastic, we had a really great night. Jeremy and the rest of the staff were perfect as was the food (and wine) - thanks guys!

NZCT Women's Tour of NZ

2010-03-06T21:29:00.000+13:00

What a Tour.

What a team. Gordon McCauley (Manager) and Aaron Fowler (Mechanic) coming on board at the last minute. Treated us like we could do anything, beat anyone. Expected us to.

Stage three. Gordy's plan is to attack relentlessly. Attack off the blocks. We go one after the other - we are all caught. Move to plan two. Take a break. I jump across to a one woman break. Joined quickly by team mate Sia and another rider. Still over 50km to race. Bunch lets us sit out at around 1 minute. We work hard. They underestimate our determination. When we take the finish line the bunch has Sia's wheel. But we make it. My first UCI podium - 3rd place. Massive.

Stage five. Attack off the blocks again, stayed away alone for 10km. Engulfed by bunch on the hill. I am completely spent. My team mate Rachel pushes and cajoles me up the hill. Saves my day. Sia climbs like an eagle to stay with the front bunch. Rachel and I join the chase bunch and get on. I eye up a ditch thinking it would hurt less to put the bike there and be picked up broken and unconscious later. I invoke the Madona de Ghisallo, I think of Ric and Harry, DB and CTB, the Albany bunch, anything to get me through. Finally my legs come back. The three of us finish together in the bunch. Meanwhile Naila has been knocked off her bike at about 12km. Her bike is trashed. She is put on the spare bike, a size smaller. Then punctures on the next decent. Rides the remaining 100km with a fractured elbow. My ride was easy.

Stage six. Naila doesn't know that her elbow is fractured so she lines up, sore but ready to go. It is Sia's first ever crit. Rachel has been sick for the whole tour. After stage two she wanted to pull out. Lucky for me Gordon convinced her otherwise. Today she feels ok. She is the only one who can stay with the front bunch. The rest of us get pulled one at a time as our chase bunches are lapped. Only 20 of 100+ who started the Tour finished the crit. Rachel is one of them.

Our team is awesome.

Thank you.

Gordon McCauley, Rachel Mercer, Naila Hassan, Me, Sia Svendsen, Aaron Fowler.

Betty Leeds

Picture by Pete Bruggerman

Here it is - right now. Start thinking about it and you miss it.

2010-03-06T20:19:00.000+13:00

Thats a quote from Huang Po (d 850) he's a Chan Zen master.

I like it, it works.

Pie

2010-02-20T08:37:00.000+13:00

You make me laugh when you say you don't like hills.

I think what you really mean is that you don't like pain.

Do you think it hurts less because I like hills?

I like hills because they hurt and you don't like pain.

Oh and by the way that argument "you're 20kg lighter..." is getting pretty old.

I didn't make you eat that pie.

Tank Farm Crit's

2010-02-13T14:38:00.000+13:00

Betty and have been training and riding and carrying on, with the up coming Tour firmly in mind.

During this time the Tank farm crit's have started up again. Brought to you (us) by bioSport, and they're doing an awesome job too. Betty and I won the first race of the series and last Thursday was race two. But enough of me talking about me, here's someone else talking about me instead. From the NZ Herald on Friday.

Cycling: High speeds at Viaduct

Women's race winner Gayle Brownlee at Auckland's Tank Farm circuit last night. Photo / Mead Norton

Bici Vida rider Patrick Bevan hit a top speed of 66kph as he sprinted for the line in last night's A Grade race in the second of the BioSport City Criterium Series at Auckland's Viaduct. Bevan narrowly beat last week's winner Mike Northey (Orbea Bici Vida). Northey's younger brother James (Kiwi Velo) finished third.

The Elite Women's race was a small but select field of seven, ending up as a three-way tussle between Gayle Brownlee, Emma Crum and Kate Chilcott, all of whom will be in Wellington later this month for the NZ Community Trust Women's Tour. The sprint for the line was declared too close to call, with first equal placings awarded to Brownlee and Chilcott and Crum coming in third.

A total of 125 riders raced across the four grades. Racing continues at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour next Thursday.

RESULTS - BioSport City Criterium Series, Race 2
A Grade
1. Patrick Bevan (Bici Vida)
2. Mike Northey (Bici Vida)
3. James Northey (Kiwi Velo)
B Grade
1. Jeremy Turner
2. Peter Knight
3. Ian Randall
1 = Gayle Brownlee and Kate Chilcott
3. Emma Crum
C Grade
1. Dan Pavis
2. Shaun Sexton
3. Deven Hiley (W)

I won it, but hey what can you do?

Takapuna Grand Prix

2010-01-25T22:32:00.000+13:00

A fantastic night of criterium racing held in central Takapuna. Where the roads are partially cobbled and generally off camber; the corners acute or completely hot doggish; the crowds are loud, aggressive, exuberant and in places 4 or 5 deep. There is a 4 race schedule - Under 17's mixed, Age group (or B grade), Elite women and Elite men. Everyone can race, many don't and wish they did, but very few ever regret they had. In short the Takapuna Grand Prix is an evening of tension, unrest, speed and great beauty.

The circuit is shaped somewhat like a backward P with the start finish 1/3 down the long straight (being Hurstmere Rd). At the far end of the straight an acute left runs downhill through a long fast curve, two cobbled sections and 2 centre islands (complete with palms), another left points you back up a short incline (with a lump) to a right angled right hander that spits you back onto Hurstmere rd. You then race down to a traffic cone sitting in the middle of the road. You brake, slide, dance (soft shoe) around this and fire yourself back down the straight toward the start finish line. Repeat in close quarters for 25 minutes plus 3 laps and you're done, unless you're Elite men and then its 40 minutes (ha suckers!).

I can't comment on the other races, but here is the low down on my own. Kate Mullarkey attacked the from the start finish line the moment we came out from behind the motorbike. Which is slightly better timing than one of the girls who attacked at the first turn off Hurstmere rd and passed the motor bike while we were still on the neutral lap. Kate was caught and rolled by the end of Hurstmere road, she'd arrived late and hadn't had a chance to warm up - brutal. I decided to ride like a had a chance of winning. So the lap before the whistle for the first prime I attacked on the down hill and again when we turned onto the Hurst and past the start finish (whistle!) and again down the hill.

Just a sharp nudge each time and then every time someone caught up so as to string the little buggers out. Kaytee Boyd and Sonia Waddell (or was it Toni Bradshaw) caught me properly before the hairpin and had 10m on me by the time I came out of it (bunch no where in sight – well they may have been right on my hip but I sure as hell wasn’t going to look). Anyway Kaytee and Sonia/Toni looked like they were dithering about who was going to jump first, so I did. Came past on their right like a freight train (well it looked fast from where I was sitting). Only to have Sonia roll me right on the line. Ahhh well what can you do? (Don’t say pedal faster). Sat in just breathing for a while after that. There were a some attacks, we chased.

They came back. There were a few lock ups into the hair pin, of which I was one. But I was expecting it. I was off the back a by couple of metres and planned a late breaking maneuver to regain a spot in the bunch. Probably not the safest tactic, but I knew I was clear with no kids directly behind me and there was a big gap on the inside I was aiming for. Worked a treat came out of the corner up on 5 or 6 who’d been wide and cautious.

Kaytee attacked really hard a couple of girls went after her and then I saw Marina come flying past so I thought I'd better go to. Spriiiiiint, sprinting, still sprinting, sprinting some more, pretending that I was sprinting – exploding. Back in the bunch gasping. Reduced once again to just breathing. At this point Emma Peterson is hanging around the front looking sharp and after a while Marina et al. seemed to be back in bunch. As I mentioned earlier I was reduced to just breathing so it's a bit vague here. From what I gather Kaytee was up there by herself for a fair while picking up primes. Then there was a crash where Mel Burke rode into the back of Sonia in a corner and came off – nasty. It sounded crunchy and as Sonia was right on my wheel it served to wake me up in a hurry. Mel, I hope you're doing ok now.
Then Emma Peterson just catapulted herself off the front and this resulted in Bridie O'Donnell and Emma up with Kaytee right on their heels. Then not quite on their heels then edging back towards Marina. Marina had been chasing E, B and K in NML for ages. We could see her alone, charging towards us (after them) on the straight as we headed for the hairpin.
Bridie is so much bigger than Emma it should be illegal to pit them against each other.

But Emma is more explosive, younger, hungrier and (dear I say it) angrier. I've heard talk since that Bridie made Emma take turns. I don't believe it, not one iota, you can’t make Emma do anything. Anyway Emma sprinted from way back near the hairpin and Bridie just could not catch her. Go Emma, if Kaytee wasn’t my hero Emma would be. Marina rolled Kaytee for 3rd. Which is a bit disappointing but not surprising given the time Kaytee had done up the road.

The rest of us went for 5th which I did not get. I came out of the hairpin well back in the bunch but managed to sprint over Naila and Toni and a couple of other girls too. Popular opinion (and photographs) say that Emma Crum crossed before me - but I refuse to believe it.

Pete Bruggerman has some more great photo's of the event, but that first one is by Benny Devcich.

Elite Nationals - Christchurch (thanks Rabobank!)

2010-01-18T22:41:00.000+13:00

What a race. Brilliant course - torturous hill climb, merciless windy flats. Fantastic support - Benny if I loved you any more it would require a priest. Inspiring riders - Rushlee, Linda, Kaytee, Marina, Emma...

There are some great highlights in this short video (in which you also get to see the TT and the men's race) and a transcript of what actually happened here.

Benny gave us (Auckland centre riders) the opportunity to make a plan for the race and work together. He also fettled, fed, consoled and reassured us. Thanks Benny you rock. Here is my very condensed version of the race. It may not be accurate but it's how I remember it.

Serena went off the front. Then Marina attacked, Rushlee went with her and they got away. We Auckland girls sat on the bunch (sometimes promising young riders need to be sat upon for their own good) so Marina could do her thing. The hill, the wind and the mighty Rushlee combined to wear Serena and then Marina down. Linda and Kaytee saw Marina on the side line (no race radio's allowed) and attacked hard. Katyee went and came back, Linda went and stayed away. She powered up the climb, down the descent, through the wind and took 3 mins out of Rushlee in the last lap and a bit. Rushlee 1st, Linda 2nd and Kaytee 3rd.

I got all a bit frisky in the 4th (5th?) lap and when Toni suggested I cover an attack I did - 3 times in row. I also decided to ride on the front up the hill (which you can see in the video) seemed like a good idea at the time. I think it was Betty, she just wanted to go up that hill everytime. Anyway I had a fantastic time in which I shredded myself and collapsed on Benny in the feeding zone just after starting the 7th lap. To give you an idea of the wind I maxed out at 25km/h riding the flat in towards the finish. It was massive!

Another really neat moment was when I was grovelling up the hill the last time. I had just been dropped and was completely at a loss as to why my legs wouldn't go around anymore. Then I heard "Go mate, go!" I looked up and it was Sarah Ulmer, just hanging out cheering with her little bub. If anyone knows for sure that Sarah wasn't there, don't tell me I don't want to know.

Sunday Sunday

2009-12-27T18:43:00.000+13:00

It's Sunday late in the afternoon and I am attempting something very dangerous. To write whilst completely exhausted.

It's Sunday (Sunday) and that means Albany bunch ride. Fantastic ride today REALLY (no really). Steve was away and I had promised I would throw in an attack for him (they don't call him Vino for nothing). This went relatively well, a little crest sprint, short, sharp, surprising, effective - nice. I had also decided that enough was enough and I would bloody well have a good ride up Helensville hill if it killed me. This went very well indeed.

The Furminger twins led us into Helensville at 40km/h. They are amazing boys who spend more time on the front than almost anyone else and can climb like, well, they put everyone in the hurt box. Harry is in fine form at the moment and is always in the top 3 up the hill. So when he started to stretch his legs on the first ascent I grabbed his wheel. He kept the pace up in the big ring through the flattish section by the graveyard. He's a fine man our Harry and he knows me very well. So when he saw me still there he knew what was up. He kept lifting the pace enough to put the hurt on the boys but not drop me. Then when they were left behind he just looked over his shoulder and said "Come on Gayle, get on my wheel". It was magic. Mr Sunde joined us 2/3's of the way up, just at the top of the steepest sections. What he didn't know, was that moments before Harry had said "When we get to the top, we're going". So Mr Sunde pulled up to Harry's wheel, Harry put it in the big ring and off we went. See ya later Mr Sunde. I finally managed to make it stick properly and we rightly flew along the top section of the climb. We wound it up, sprinted and I was first in - glorious!

True Harry paced me all the way up and he definitely let me take line honors. True the twins pulled us into the bottom of the climb and were pretty spent. True Kaytee smashed herself the day before doing hill repeats. But you know what? Harry said I rode about 20% better than he's seen me ride before and I'm going to take that as a blessing. Thank you very much Mr Harris.

Track training was very very hard.

Training

2009-12-19T20:46:00.000+13:00

Training training training. Betty Betty Betty. Various things have happened that have put themselves between me and my beautiful Betty.

My fantastic boss (the masterly Mr Paul Mason) at Solo went and made himself a blood clot. Which stuck in his leg and spawned a whole lot of little clots that decided his lungs would be a good place to call home. Quite terrifying - and that's just from my point of view. Thank god he's going to be ok, but it was really scary for a while there. Paul said it was (and continues to be) rather painful as well.

Lincoln, my beautiful dog ate something that resulted in 2 days and $4000 in veterinary hospital. He's also going to be ok. If you ask me he's enjoying his painkillers far too much. He's been lying around looking very pleased with himself. Until he has to move that is, then the poor little fella is rather unsteady and in a world of pain. Something to do with 20cm of stitches in his belly.

I begrudge neither of these boys my time, how could I? They comprise two important parts of my life - work and dog.

On the upside there is the 8am Albany bunch. On Sunday's if I leave home at 6.45am I can meet up with Ric Reid and John Harris (Harry) at 7.10am and we then pedal up to meet the rest of the crew at 8am. Round trip is about 130km. It's a damn fine ride, there are some good hills, there are some amazing cyclists, it's small (10 - 15) and the story's oh the story's... You'll have to come along and hear them. Then I eat and at 1.30pm I go to track. Last week it was all I could do to struggle up the banking to start a lap. This is something very recent, I have been riding track for a total of about 9 weeks. I love it. If track had hills I would be in heaven. For the record - hills have the upper hand. Hills don't care what gear you have. Hills don't sometimes come with a derny (hmmm speaking of derny). Hills don't have standing start or a rail. But most importantly Hills don't favour girls with huge thighs - so we get along just fine.

Racing with the champs

2009-12-03T19:13:00.000+13:00

Racing over the weekend was amazing. Friday night was a short Criterium. 1km course, 20 mins plus 2 laps. Lining up to start and my pal Naila says “It’s great to be racing with Ali Shanks” and I look over and there resplendent in her world champion kit is our latest track racing hero Ali. Tucked in beside her is Cathy Cheatley (raced at the World road champs in Switzerland). Also lining is the lovely Katee Boyd (raced with Cathy at the world road champs and with Ali at the world track champs where they took silver in the teams pursuit). 6 or so of the other riders spent the winter racing in the US or Europe. Those girls kicked my butt. 12 laps and I was toast. Spat out the back and dropped like a kitten in the river. I averaged 37 km/h and I got lapped. They were flying. Cathy won, Nicole Whitburn second and Naila Hassan 3rd.

Saturday morning brought a 60km sprint of a road race with just one decent sized hill and a field of 28. Ali and Katee absconded to ride the 160km Taupo challenge. But so as not to make the stakes any less we were joined by Meshy Holt (current NZ road and TT Champ), Rachel Mercer (the third portion of our world road champs team) and Serena Sheridan (national points series winner). It was good positive racing with solid attacks from the start. Meshy and two other girls got away up the road at about 15km. The hill then split the bunch in two and dropped a fair few completely. The 2 girls who went with Mesh fell back to the first bunch to make 8. My group of 5 cleared the hill next and chased hard along the plateau for about 5km. Serena was mercilessly trying to drop Naila who was having a tough time (probably due to her brilliant effort for 3rd in the Crit). Serena repeatedly jumped off the front making the rest of us scramble to hold the wheel, Quite a few times I was sprinting hard just to roll through. We topped out over 75km/h chasing down the last descent and onto the back of the front bunch. Unfortunately (or not) they’d sat up, more concerned over who was going to win the sprint for second than catching Mesh. I was in no shape to do any different so just settled in (keep calm and carry on) and rolled along for the last few km. 250m out Marina Duvnjak jumped first for the final sprint but 40m out she blew. Only serious evasive manoeuvres saved a pile up. My pal Jeannie took paint off the barrier to the right and I narrowly missed wiping out the wee hill climber Emma Crum to the left. Never the less I got across the line right side up for 10th! Sprinting home with a bunch of world class racers feels damn fine indeed. Meshy came first, Cathy crossed for second and Serena third.

Betty is now leaning up against the wall looking gorgeous and very pleased with herself. The only steel bike racing Elite grade. The stand apart beauty in the bunch.

Someone else wrote this about the road race and this about the crit

Workoutzone women's road race

2009-11-18T21:50:00.000+13:00

I have ridden the Lake Taupo cycle challenge once. I hated it. I had been sick for the week before and was sick whilst riding. It was 160km of riding with 9,000 people who had didn't know how to ride and yes, I was one of them. Also while the men raced a criterium the night before in front of huge crowds, the women's option was a hot dog race at the same time as the main event, in front of no crowd at all. Yay.

Anyway this year the organisers have put on a real elite women's race. True it's only 60km but it has the biggest purse of any women's race in New Zealand. The best riders from around the country are coming and even a few from Australia. There's just one hill, it's barely 2km long and not that steep but there's a prime at the top of it. This may well end up being the fastest 60km I've ever ridden. It is going to be one hell of race.

As a bonus we even get to have our own criterium the night before, just like the men!

If you have a race license (and are a woman) I dare you to come and race Betty and I on the 28th of November in the Workoutzone women's road race and if you like the crit's make sure you're there night before for the Taupo elite street race.

Race 1 - K2

2009-11-08T13:57:00.000+13:00

Betty's first race was set to be K2. A one day classic that is a 200km of epic hills and winding country roads. Having trained meticulously for 12 weeks I made the fatal flaw of over-training a week out and getting sick. Excellent. But all was not lost as the K1 (the final 100km section of the K2 course) runs concurrently.

My friend Mark was riding this so I switched camps and joined him. I wasn’t well enough to race hard but figured I could support Mark and the 100km wouldn’t kill me.

The main climb is about 14km long. We settled in and cruised up. Betty displayed a natural ability to accelerate through steep pitches and corners. Her responsive handling came to the rescue a couple of times avoiding some fairly dubious maneuvers mid bunch.

We had drifted back through the field on the climb and were adamant to make up time on the descent. Betty descends like a dream. Bigger riders may have gravity on their side but they also have fear. We must’ve caught, passed and terrified 20 or 30 riders while whooping and howling gleefully on the descent.

There was a good opportunity to make time by lapping out along the following flat section. After a bit of coercion we managed to get 8 or so guys rolling through on the front but the remaining riders took the opportunity to sit on; too stupid to help and too smart to work.

On the last hill I saw the KOM sign and decided to have bit of fun. I jumped and immediately responsive, Betty became unstoppable. I ended up sprinting over the Col in the 53. I threw a 2 armed salute and drew a resounding cheer from the crowd. No one seemed to care that I was quite possibly the 400th rider over the top.

Mark and I reeled in more riders on the descent, grouped up a nice bunch and rolled onward. We quietly worked our way over 20 or so km of rollers and then the road turned east and we spent the last 8km on the rivet into a fierce headwind.

The finish finally came up and we crossed over into post race euphoria, far more excited than any of the onlookers.

All about Betty

2009-11-01T20:35:00.000+13:00

So who is Betty Leeds? She is made by FIXIE inc. she is steel and she is beautiful.

Betty arrived in my life one afternoon mid September 2009. I was not about to let just anyone dress her and as my revered friend DB was away riding l'eroica Betty was on display quite naked for a couple of weeks.

On his return DB fettled her with a Campagnolo groupset and various other components suited to her racing pedigree.

Betty and I were ready to dance...