Deeds, exploits and dreams - Giro di Lombardia 2009 (videos)

Here, where I collate my experiences and, sometimes, what might form the basis of future deeds, or dreams, I choose to show this great race where men on their machines endure an enormous amount of physical and mental hurt just to be able to put themselves a step closer to their goals which can be as far and as hard to reach as my dreams.

Lucky fella, this one...

It is Saturday afternoon. It has been a while since I found myself sitting at home, not thinking that I should be on the bike or planning my next training ride. It feels strange in a way but it feels relaxing also.

I had an intense week, a week that generated a lot of stress, pain and sadness. Not just to me but to people around me and people many, many kilometers away. Unfortunately, a week that will bring a series of minor and less than desirable issues into our lives.

The injuries from my accidents weren't too bad, they could have been much worst. With time, they should heal and I should have no problems going back to my normal life.

However, the thought of been exposed to those type of situations, which easily could have put me in a more critical state, is somehow scary.

Also scary for the people around me and scary for the people many, many kilometers away. Not because we are cyclists, not because we are good people but because we are people and being people we are forever vulnerable to the sorts of circumstances we have no control over.

Thus, to sit here, quietly, trying to put some words together is delightful. Really.

Thanks for all the Get Well! messages and I will see you out there, soon...

Alberto

A hot ride ends with a bang!!

During one of the many conversations with Sandra this week, I remembered what I often told my Dive Master trainees when discussing risk management, accidents and fatalities in the diving industry.

- It is a number's game. If we keep taking people underwater, three times a day, seven days a week, at some stage something bad is going to happen.

Luckily, and with lots of hard work trying to minimise the risks, I never had a fatality while instructing. But, bluntly, I had to say to Sandra that training on the roads and getting hit by a vehicle was just a matter of time.

Training and the end of it for a while

The week started with an easy flat ride on Tuesday. After what happened on the weekend, I chose the Nundah-Nudge Beach bike path and Boondal Wetlands to stay away from people and cars in general, coming home with 2 h/51km in the legs. Just what it was prescribed... well, with the exception of my three sprints at the Nundah circuit.

I still like to get on the bike in the middle of the day. The wind has been fairly strong and mostly W/NW at those times and it has been warm. Firstly, I am not an early morning person, if I can avoid getting out of bed at 4:30 AM, I will. Secondly, chances are the Tour of Bright will be run in very hot and windy conditions this year and I wanted to be prepared for that.

So, the Wednesday ride was planned as 3 hours of medium intensity, 80 to 90 Km, and I left just after 12 PM. I like to do those sessions on Mt Nebo road, even knowing the intensity would rise too much during the first 6.5 km stretch to Mc Affees.

I take a few back streets on the 30 min ride to the bottom of Mt Nebo road, but it is too often that I observe cars going through red lights (in the middle of the day!)and/or cutting me off just to stop at a red light first. It must be the game to play, if some one drives a Ute or a V8 in this city.

This time, it happened on a section of the route I always take an additional care. Like this: driver stopped at intersection; driver gives way to the cars in front of me; driver looks at me; driver smiles and steps on the accelerator... I am not kidding and I was pissed off...

I went on. It was 36 C when I passed the green road sign, the warm head wind and dry air starting to hurt my lungs already. The combination of the two sending my HR to 86, 87 and 88% (170 bpm). I thought I was going to explode before I topped the first climb.

- Ah, well, Mt Hotham might just be like that... push it on!!!

The temperature dropped by 1 or 2 degrees as I rode up and every time I started one of the descents, I would splash myself with lots of water. I really needed to cool down. I also needed to practice my skills on the down hills, hence my max HR for the climb been on a descent (if the Polar was right).

I made it to the 300 m sign in good time but I was already too wasted and could not stay on the big chainring and sprint to the marker. By the sounds I was also making, my perceived effort numbers must have been 9 or 10... 17'19" with an average HR of 163 bpm. Huge in those conditions.

From there, it was the usual "enjoy the climb" approach, L to M intensity, again putting a bit of an effort on the descents and corners. I reached Jolly's lookout in 44'33" and the coffee shop in 48'35". Not Cat 1 times but pretty good for me.

From Mt Nebo on, the ride gets even better. A beautiful descent with lots of fast corners and another 240 m of climbing before the turn off to Samford Valley. The road then turns very steep and I had no problems keeping up with a car for most of the way.

Along Highvale, with a nice tail wind this time, I did one 12 min effort, averaging 43 km/h. It took me to Samford Village quick so a really cruise return home via Bunya would still get me home around the 3 hours/80 km target .

Distance: 71.5 km

Time: 2h54'30"

Ascent: 1630 m

The Bang

It says everything. I didn't make it home last night. A driver decided to put an end to my ride three or four kilometers from home, and on Rode Road of all roads...

The result is: a couple of small fractures on C5, a fractured rib and a very sore right leg, as it took all the impact that sent me up in the air.

It is all a bit unbelievable at this stage so I won't go into details but I am off the bike for a while, ten to twelve weeks, and will not be doing the Tour of Bright this year (again!) .

"say you will, say you won't
say you'll do what i don't
say your true, say to me
C'est la vie"

The training week that just gone was a...

A good week, in terms of training. I did manage to do the planned hours and almost got the kilometers done, even though, a broken seat collar bolt prevented me from riding on Wednesday.

On Tuesday I did an easy ride to Sandgate, throwing in a few long sprints at the Nundah criterium circuit on the way home. It's a recommendation by Mr Cavendish (great video here). I must say, I always liked throwing a couple of those when returning home via Rode rd, there are a few little hills which are perfect for that but they never made me a good sprinter...

Usual way home: Rode rd

Wednesday: running around fixing bike.

To catch up, I went out Thursday afternoon on a mission to do a hard, long ride with lots of climbing. I even drew the route on bikely.com the day before (just made it public!) and almost followed it the whole way. At the end of the ride, I changed the route and took Youngs Crossing rd, intending to stay away from the afternoon traffic and ended up doing a few more hills.

The highlight was finally getting to ride Ocean View Road, which I only knew by looking at the 18% road sign on Mt Mee road. I have looked at that sign dozens of times in the last four years but never had the audacity to actually go up.

Of course, it is just a road sign and I didn't find anything close to the 18% I was hoping for (the Polar said so!). Nevertheless, it is a hard climb with a few 9 to 10% sections and great views, if one can be bother to stop and look. I just wanted to get to the top.

Distance: 134.5 km
Time: 4h 35min
Ascent: 2250 m

Friday, a day for another recovery ride and socialising. Sandra and I rode to town, had coffee with friends, rode home and went out again for a little loop. She had to do a few efforts so I thought it would be nice to hang around. I got home with 60+ km in the legs.

I had planned for a Saturday with lots of kilometers, including a criterium race in the morning and a time trial in the afternoon, thinking that it's what I will be doing on the first day of racing in Bright. Might as well get used to it...

Sandra was doing her CycleSkill Coach Course . We road together to Murrarie where she took a turn, heading for a day at Chandlers.

The race wasn't what I wanted. The bunch (B grade) was ridiculously big, my number being 65 and the legs weren't quite there. I should've saved my money or entered the B1 race a little later, just to avoid witnessing the chaos that it was. I ended up getting a puncture and getting out anyway, perhaps for the best.

Coffee in town with friends took almost the rest of the morning. From there, I paired up with a mate, and headed home for a refill and an intended ride to Lakeside where HPRW was having the end of the year trophy presentation.

We didn't make it to the presentation due to a grotesquely and absurd encounter with fate. Nevertheless, the two of us managed to get the kilometers, some very fast, my computer showing 93 km, in nine hours...

Sunday is a day for long rides. I would've done the Zupps if working in the afternoon but having the whole day to ride, another excursion to Mt Mee with Sandra and a friend sounded like the right thing to do.

I went up Ocean View road again, this time concentrating on technique on the sections that I have to focus on. For those who are like me and enjoy looking at graphs and values, the climb is like this:

Distance: 4.5 km Ascent: 297 m
Gradient: 5.5% (surprised?)

The sections:

- 1.5 km at 10%
- 0.2 km at 6.5%
- 0.2 km at 10%
- 0.4 km at 10%
- 0.3 km at 9%

Good for a work out, but for week three I am planning to do it twice on the same ride. Just to make it feel like the Mt Hotham ascent.

Week 2: 17h 35min; 467 km (5,000m)

A bit of recovery now, more hard ks from tomorrow.

Magda Szubanski's achievement?

Lots have been said and written about Magda Szubanski's shameful episode a few weeks ago. I decided not to put anything here at the time, thinking that it would just get more attention and promote more negative behaviour in between drivers and cyclists.

For me, the whole thing was just a perfect example of cheap television, lack of taste and a large amount of stupidity, while performing (lets just call it that) on television in what I always considered to be a very silly segment of the GNW show, anyway.

But that's their concern and if the number of viewers are up for that time slot, the TV station won't care if they look like idiots or not. On the other side, it is us, the viewers, who can be blamed for what is shown.

But, as you can see, I changed my mind. Simply, and without going into too many details, because I was the subject of an assault (yes, a physical attack) by a passenger of a vehicle forty-eight hours ago. Having gone through all the post incident procedures, one thing came to my mind later: would that have occurred if Magda & colleagues hadn't done the show?

So, Magda, it was like this:

- riding my bike on the road with a friend;

- behind and slightly on his right, not two abreast;

- at a stop, behind three cars on a red light;

- one foot on the ground and one clipped in;

- person gets out of the car and starts abusing us;

- my explanation of cyclist's rights to be on the road were not processed by the person; and

- distracted for a second I got king hit by the person.

Satisfied?

My guess is that the person who attacked me, might have watched the program that evening, or might have heard and discussed with friends what they should do to cyclists on the roads from that day on. It's just my guess!

Luckily, the driver didn't take me off, as it has been suggested but I have a friend who has suffered terrific injuries because a driver (intentionally or not) did open the door on him. And there are hundreds of cases, even some fatal ones.

So, what's next Magda?

Your low key apology and attempt to ride on Ride to Work Day is not enough. I suggest that you and your colleagues, your employers and the rich TV stations in this country get together and start to air commercials aiming at drivers and cyclists education. Dreaming, yes I am but that's the only way we will see less violence on the roads.

Hey, it is all for a better world!

Ciao, for now.

Do I buy the new Ultegra 6700?

I don't like to see myself as one of those people who go around buying everything they put their eyes on. In fact, I am not. Some of the manufacturers of cycling gear could have a hard time paying their bills if they were to rely on my consumer habits.

Don't take me wrong, I do buy stuff when I need to, not because it is the newest thing in the shop. My friend BSNYC wrote:

"...people love stuff that is exciting and new, so in the absence of revolution we've been selling the concept of revolution. For example, we have now figured out how to charge people more than $2,000 for a pair of wheels".

I agree but I don't allow myself to be like that and I don't buy something because it is going to make me 0.03 km/h faster either.

Last time I walked into a shop, one of the mechanics was quick and helpful, telling me to have a look at the new Ultegra groupset (6700). I had already glanced over the one fitted to a sharp looking middle of the range Colnago and I had, also, made my mind on what I thought of it.


The Ultegra 6700




The new group set looked cheap... I mean 'cheaply made"! To be honest, the new STI shifters made of carbon looked good but the rest failed to look robust and durable, or even high performance as Shimano claims.

Perhaps, I failed to move on with times and to appreciate the duetone silver finish and aerodynamic improvements on the new Ultegra parts. The Ultegra group on my bike is over three years old and has done a few miles now. It does has a few scratches and the shifting isn't as crisp as it used to be but it does work, it looks robust and surely will last another year or two.

OK. The new group is 151 grams lighter. Does 151 g really matter? It might for a few but for 99% of us, that can shed those grams in a couple of days before a hilly race or KOM competition, the answer is no.

As I said before, my STI levers are getting a bit sloppy. The kind of sloppiness that I am now used to but perhaps, an investment on new levers could well be on the cards. The new Ultegra carbon levers with internal cable routing might even be a good option.




- And it is only thirteen hundred bucks! He yelled as I was making my way out.


Good old tyres

I have been riding on Michelin Pro2s for a while now, training or racing. They have been reliable and they roll well. And they have also lasted many, many kilometers.

A few weeks ago, returning home from a very long ride, I noticed something odd on one of them. I have seen tyres with a small worn patch or two before but I had never seen a whole tyre worn like this one...






Obviously, I have replaced that tyre but only with another semi-used Pro2 for training. For racing crits I bought a pair of Continental 4000S. I figured I should try something new now and then...

Just glad I made home that day!

For a professional review on Ultegra 6700, click here.

End of Week 1, nine to go...

I had a good break. Now, it is time to start preparing for the Tour of Bright in December.

In the two weeks I had off, I rode my bike four or five times and didn't even wear my HR monitor once. They were all easy, social/family rides. Just one weak moment when I couldn't resist and entered one short club criterium.

My son Toby, who lives in Gladstone, came down and stayed with us for a few days during that time. To my surprise, he agreed to get on a road bike (he's a cool avid BMX rider) for a couple of rides. I haven't managed to get him into racing any of his bikes but he is a skilled young rider and does have a bit of passion for cycling and that's cool enough for me.

We rode with Sandra one day, manly on bike paths, and did the Nundah/Nudge/Boondal Wetlands course, 55 km of fun.

The second ride was to Sandgate, via the Bundall Wetlands and back (65 km) which had the almost 15 year old BMX rider struggling a little. Still, he managed to show a bit of a talent on the steep, short hills leading to our house. All good fun!!




Training started: week one

Build one started with some easy repeats at the back of Mt Coot-tha, nothing too hard. I used a lower gear on the first one to try to build a bit of strength. After that was easy, spinning up the two-point-something km climb.

Coot-tha Reps: 9'00"; 11'02" and 11'07"

A couple of punctures that morning called for a drastic measure... The next day, I went out with an extra layer of rubber ( a cut off tube) in each wheel. The bike felt a bit heavier on the inclines and an increase on the rolling resistance was also evident. I didn't care, I just didn't want any more punctures.

The ride was a little longer and a little faster. Medium Intensity I call it.

Bunya Rd; Samford Valley; Bunya Rd and a Jinker lap

For Thursday, I had planned repeats on Mt Mee road. I changed my mind after the first one and kept going towards Mt Mee village. The day was too nice to turn around and miss out on all those views (and hills). That resulted on a longer than expected ride for this stage of my training and I felt fairly exhausted when I reached the 4 h mark.

Mt Mee (537 m)

Friday saw me commuting to work as a recovery day. I have decided to ride my bike to work as often as possible. As long as I don't have to start work at 5 am or finish after 10 pm, I will be doing the 26 km round trip as recovery/help the environment/save money rides.

I couldn't race on Saturday because of an early, early shift so the training was to be done in the afternoon. Now, that's hard for me. I get home, I feel tired, Sandra is home... I find it hard to get motivated but I managed to leave at 4 PM for a planned 2.5 hours, High Intensity session on Mt Nebo road.

The ride out was the difficult part. Committed but unmotivated still, I started off against a strong head wind and feeling stupid for having added weight and resistance to my wheels. A couple of Magpie attacks on the way helped. They pissed me off but did make me hit the climb to Mac Affees with a bit of hunger... I did it in 17'04", which is not my best but it gave me the High Intensity work out I needed!!

Mt Nebo Village (563 m)

Another commute to work and the week on the bike ended. Lots more to come!

Week 1: 14h30min/380km (5,200m)

2009 World Championship videos & Cadel Evans for Pope

Another road world championship race. It feels like the end of the year is creeping up on us. Here, it comes with a very positive note because the new world champion is an Australian. Without going into a patriotic mode, simply because I can not, the significant fact here is: Mr Cadel Evans is the 2009 Road World Champion.

Now, that was a surprise. Best known for his second places on the TdF and a series of freak incidents during races, post race interviews and love for his wife and dog, Cadel did what very few expected him to do, last Sunday.

Sure, it was in his training grounds. Sure, he was due for a big win. And sure, he is a bloody good pro cyclist and climber. But, attacking on the bottom of the climb like he did is so un-Cadel... I am glad he did though as it is the kind of win I like to watch.

It was a great race which I will watch again, and again. For now, I will keep replaying these two videos. The first one highlights Fabian Cancellara's determination to get the double in the championship (he won gold in the ITT). To see him driving on the flats and downhills was one thing (that's his specialty) but seeing him breaking up the bunch on the climbs was something else.

At the time, I wasn't sure where Cadel or Simon Gerrans were. So, backing the Swiss became instinctive. He was fighting hard for that second medal. It was heart breaking to see him missing out... I thought he deserved the win!





But predictably, it wasn't to be. As in most races, even at my Nundah Racer level, those forms of strategy rarely pay off. What Cancellara did was drag a bunch of guys closer to the finish. And Cadel was one of them, rested enough to be able to follow wheels, smart enough to bridge across the Kolobnev/Rodriguez duet and extremely strong on the last climb. Brilliant!!!





Cadel Evans salute

A lot of those high profile sportsmen, not so much the women, are fairly religious. It is common to see riders kissing crucifixes when crossing the line, or raising their arms to salute some entity in the skies, or heaven.

Cadel seems to be fairly religious himself and, judging by the photographs of his victory salute in Mendrisio, he has some pontifical aspirations. I am not sure if there are any hills around the Vatican so it might be something for the future...

Congratulations and good luck, Cadel!

BTW, all you need to know about salutes here.