A life behind bars

Last post here

2011-06-30T07:22:00.000+10:00

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go......

I'm leaving, on a jetplane,

Don't know when I'll be back again

John Denver

I'm blogging on http://onasaddleineurope.blogspot.com/ from now on

check it out

proud mother moment

2011-06-28T07:29:00.002+10:00

Ben

Surfing the WWW

2011-06-26T07:35:00.000+10:00

Found on Google Earth... these are all from very near where my apartment is. .. maybe I will have to take the really good camera after all

and ooooh dear..my driving and parking skills are going to be tested again....

Countdown!

2011-06-25T08:25:00.001+10:00

6 busy days ahead and now it's time to do all the things I've been putting off, in some instances for a very long time, although there's always someone or something getting in the way/demanding attention!

Saturday:

Training on Steels Creek road in the morning to test out my TT bike with the deep dish rear wheel instead of the disc. It's usable for both RR and TT and (hopefully) less likely to get damaged in transit, so is a smart move if it goes ok.

Sunday:

I'm in for a group session of torture at DISC . Despite winning $40 last time there I've opted not to race the Boulie TT..health and proximity to departure date decided that for me.

Monday:

drag Alex to Medicare to reclaim medical bills..his injury, my money!
then spend 3 hours at Melbourne uni being a research subject.....topic is arthritis and brain function(???!)..more on this when I know more! I'm one of the "without arthritis" subjects and have to answer such questions as are you right or left footed, which leg would you normally step up onto a chair with etc etc..

Tuesday:

both Pippi and I get groomed..she gets a sedative before her grooming session...I don't!
last session on road bike..ergo or road, depending on the weather

Wednesday:

motor pacing session at DISC..warm up to race pace then (8 laps on, 2 off x 4)x3, die.
recovery is - lunch with a friend who's just returned from Italy,
then take the bike bag containing my TT bike etc to Jetta to be freighted to Italy with the all up cost for 15 kgs (their minimum) being about $220 it is much cheaper than paying excess luggage and a lot less hassle at airports. The downside is that once it arrives in Florence I have to pick it up within 3 days or I get stung with extra costs. Florence is about a 2.5 hour drive from Urbania.

Thursday:

am - Italian class
pm - fly out..my plane leaves in the evening and with the required 3 hour check in time I'll clash with rush hour on the Tullamarine freeway if I attempt to get there on the dot, so I'll arrive early and either check my stuff in if allowed or put it in the left luggage for a while.

Along side all these major tasks I need to:

put up all the pictures on the walls right through the entire house. I've been ignoring this task for months.
buy enough of the RIGHT kind of cat food to last the 2 months I'm away..fussy cats.
continue downloading audio books from the library onto iTunes and from there to my iPod
pack..of course
monitor a certain ash cloud

Life is complicated....computers, health, training and ash clouds..updates

2011-06-22T07:20:00.000+10:00

SRM in downward spiral mode: see previous post and note in pix above...NO power mentioned at all..just a gap where it should be...?????... it's now in the post on its way to UK to be evaluated and hopefully mended since a new one costs more than I want to even think about.
Sick: see previous post but from yesterday the viral cloud lifted and once again I am remembering how being well and also rested feels.
Ash cloud: see previous post and damn it, it's come back. It took 10 days to circle the earth, so with any luck I should be ok for a 30/6 departure, also I'm flying Emirates and they didn't cancel at all. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad/scarey thing.

Training...I've been doing very little while I've been sick but today I'm back churning up the km's behind the motorbike

the above images courtesy of Lynzart .I plan to buy some of this image in the form of postcards from her via Zazzle so I don't feel too bad at borrowing her image.

The latest issues to be dealt with before I leave: my new digital TV has a "black spot" of non functioning ??cellls and my new laptop has a dodgy interface so when you pull out the cord for either external speakers or a headphone the internal speakers don't function any more. Both came from the same shop...Harvey Norman and I' can't find the receipts. Today's task is to see if they have enough details on their computer to get past that small problem. I don't expect to win.

Sick and other stuff

2011-06-17T06:20:00.003+10:00

Sick
3 days after having a long discussion about getting the 'flu jab with a cycling colleague ( who also happens to be an infection control nurse), I get sick! My side of the discussion was that since I rarely get sick (ha!..now that WAS tempting fate) I never bothered to have the injection ... I left work with 3,000 sick leave hours available to me, so I "rested my case". Now I have a sore throat (right side only) and a runny nose..... not the 'flu by any stretch of the imagination but that discussion has certainly come back to haunt me!

Italy
The school in Urbania has finally come back with accommodation information but I'm not happy. After booking and paying ages and ages ago and requesting an independent (not sharing a kitchen and/or bathroom) apartment, I've been told that while I can have my request for the final 3 weeks, for the first week I'm required to share. The school here has done my booking, so I left instructions..there's no way I'm sharing...I've been there and done that while a student and don't plan on re-visiting that style of accommodation again...not while I'm solo. Luckily I've got a car, so I'm not limited by lack of transport.

A new class member yesterday has just returned from 2 weeks in the same school and while she sang praises of the school, her tale of their apartment's TV and kettle not working did not actually inspire confidence! Such glitches might be bearable for a short trip but not for the 4 weeks I'm going to be "in residence"!

While writing this I'm reminded of the place we stayed in the Pyrenees last year where we were rather too close to the church, which struck the hours 24/7 not once but TWICE every hour...just in case you missed it the first time.

eBay
eBay works just fine when both the buyer and the seller mesh well, but the guy who bought my Corima 4 spoke set and also the Zentis front wheel reneged on the deal totally. Shame that. I'll just have to put them back up for sale when I get back. I wonder what penalty, if any, eBay imposes on buyers who fail to honour their side of the deal. I recall hearing of 2 people who were banned after it was discovered they bidded the price up for their own stuff..not sure if it was true or not. Getting the postage costs correct has been an interesting exercise..initially we underestimated how much it would be but latterly we've been overestimating. ah well... time and effort etc.

Garmin
this is working well except that comparing it to the PCVI readout can't happen since it seems to be reading extremely high..either that or I've suddenly strengthened up beyond belief!

Parking fine
of all the penalties one can fall foul of, the parking fine has to be the most boring waste of money. The grey ghosts around the Italian school on Cardigan Street in Carlton must be collecting a mint...10 minutes over the 2 hr limit yesterday and I got a $60 fine. Ouch.

While looking for an appropriate image to put here I found this which raised a smile

Global Financial Woes
As a new non-earner I'm making sure I get the best out of my $$$$ and so I will be REALLY annoyed if the exchange rate, which has recently and finally been so favourable to Aussies suddenly goes belly up.

Less than 2 weeks to go. Woo hoo!

Back on track...pun intended

2011-06-15T12:47:00.002+10:00

The past few weeks my SRM power control..the cyclo computer part of the whole deal, has been giving me grief. Firstly my computer would occasionally not recognise it and finally over the long weekend, it wouldn't recognise it at all.

Panicked calls ensued, firstly to Kinetic in ACT for a new cable cos that's what seemed to be the culprit but just a bit later I realised there was no sign whatsoever on the display of the word "Power" or a number or even a "- "to say it was there...nothing, nix,, just a blank ie it had gone belly up totally.

So the cable got cancelled and the next call was to the SRM guys in NZ. They were clearly baffled..should I send it over to them ? hmmm..whatever was wrong was not something they'd dealt with before..this was going to take time. So, what with their probably long turn around and my holiday looming, slow realisation came to me that this was not the way to go. What to do?? I've trained using power metrics for so long now I'm not sure I can mange without. Sudden thought....phew! use the Garmin 705 of course. It can read power if set up correctly.

When I get to UK my coach, who's also the SRM guru there, will take a good look and see what gives. Actually I'll probably post it to her from Italy.....that way if it's really dead at least there'll be time to get a new one. Odd though cos it still takes a charge and is still reading the rest of the data, so what gives? I doubt its a battery issue and maybe not a cable issue after all. Having just checked out the price I'm sorta hoping +++ it's not dead!

So today was a motorpacing day indoors at DISC and it was freezing..colder there than in the outer suburbs. I spent yesterday sorting out the track bike..putting it together and adding the Garmin, but I made 2 teeny tiny mistakes..the first being that I totally forgot that the Garmin wouldn't be able to access a satellite at DISC and therefore I would need a speed sensor..DOH! So lots of effort during the hour I was there but apparently I was only going at maybe 6 or perhaps 12 kph.....all behind a bike going over 40kph!

I take 2 rear wheels with me to track training 1 with a 16T cog on, 1 with a 14T cog ..this allows me to change gears very quickly..after warming up on an easy gear, I just change to the second wheel and away we go...and this is where the second teeny tiny mistake came in... this morning I forgot to check the tyre pressure in the second wheel and I guess I needed to, 'cos as I was cruising around on the blue line and when on the bend it slid from beneath me causing me to show my expertise and bike handling skill. Sadly no-one was watching and therefore my incredible manoeuvre went unnoticed and I have no-one but myself to tell the world how skilled I am!.

More at DISC next week, when I will have a speed sensor attached and fully pumped up wheels!

More on the husband with # hip saga..he's not growing bone very well and the surgeon is not very happy. 1 more month on crutches (not that he does) and then a CT scan...sounds to me as though if all is not good by then a joint replacement is on the cards.

Home and resting

2011-06-13T16:42:00.000+10:00

A reluctant starter at best I gave up 10 minutes into today's race...it was absolutely no use whatsoever saying "shut up legs"........they were deaf. I reasoned that if I could barely keep up during the first few km's it was going to be a lonely 52km ride for me. Action..turn, retrace steps, pack car, drive home.

I'm still having trouble downloading data from the SRM but know that I was 2nd in my group in the TT and about midway overall. 2 guys I passed described to me this morning how I shot past them like they were going backwards which always nice to hear! its good for the ego.

I think I was marginally slower than a coupla weeks ago but comparing this effort with the last time I rode the course...this time there was a head wind out, last time not and of course this time I already had raced twice. Once I can download the data I'll be able to analyse it better, but this time, with fatigued legs and the head wind (albeit not a raging one), I think I was spinning a lighter gear and consequently not going quite as fast..

I have 1 more race before I travel..ash cloud permitting. I will be really annoyed if my departure is delayed...more so than if I got stuck at the other end I think.

Training plans for this week..carry on endurance training with the first of 3 motorpacing sessions at DISC coming up on Wednesday.

Racing day 2

2011-06-12T16:56:00.000+10:00

Today’s races were not long or hilly but they were brutal ‘cos there was a head wind on the way out. The morning race was 45km with a KOM after 18km of head wind…..2 got away and that was the last we saw of them despite a valiant effort to pull them back over the following 7 or so km after which I stopped pulling really hard as we weren’t getting any closer and all I was doing was helping to drag 2 sprinters to the finish where they’d leave me in their dust.

Over the final hill I eased off and got dropped from the chasing bunch although I caught up with them later on cos their pace was varying whereas mine was steady.

In between the morning road race and the afternoon TT I had to rest, fuel up, change my SRM cranks from the road to the TT bike and finally warm up.

The TT was, like all TT’s, uncomfortable. Once again we headed out into the wind for ~10km before turning and getting a bit more speed up. 21.6km later after catching my 1minute, 3 minute, 4 minute, 5 minute and 6 minute (but not my 2 minute) man I was home…… coughing and feeling rather sick…that’s TTing for you. How did I go? Not sure as my SRM power control is playing up and I’m struggling to download the data, with my lap top continually telling me it can’t read the device and I don't carry the garmin, so sorry...no map.

Misc…..the sky is blue, the temp is ok and I read on FB that Melbourne has fog…so I feel I’m in the right location….if only the hoardes of kids around the leisure park would stop being soooo noisy late into the night life would be perfect.

Will I race tomorrow?...52 km with a genuinely nasty hill after 18km??? hmm probably although I can envisage being dropped and having to solo TT home for the rest of the race……

..and they're off and racing

2011-06-12T07:06:00.003+10:00

with the first race of 4 out of the way, I'm sitting in a freezing cold Benalla cabin far too early in the morning stoking up for the next race.

Benalla is a small somewhat sleepy rural city which used to be on the Hume highway..the main road between Melbourne and Sydney...well it still is, but now its by-passed 'cos for many years now there is the Hume freeway. So whereas it's one street used to be a busy busy mess of long haulage and tourist traffic it's now just a quiet backwater with shops that on a Saturday shut at 12 o'clock...so yesterday and so bloody inconvenient.

The roads close by are dead flat but ride out a way and there are challenges for the non climber. Yesterday's race was 52km long with a KOM at ~15km.....in any other location the slight rise would barely get a mention..here it was a prize we all raced for and I got droppped and had to TT back onto the group. One of our group got dropped there and was never seen again.

It's been a while since I've raced anything except TT's and so I was pretty quiet..I'm also less strong, not as light as I should be and older and so had no intention of spending ALL my biccies on the first day. I did enough work so as not to be called a wheel sucker, but spent also alot of time avoiding the pointy end. In the group, those like me outnumbered people willing to exhaust themselves at the front and so it was a pretty dyfunctional bunch with only sporadic periods of good rolling turns...once a couple of people don't come through the mood spreads as no-one wants to get stuck at the front for what feels like ever.

So we were a bit slower than we should have been and had 3 A grades pass us with quite a way to go..they started something like 10 minutes behind us and were clearly working!

I finished with the bunch, putting in a sort of sprint at the end..well at least I stood up and powered down..didn't seem to make much of a change in my speed! and now I'm ready for today's sufferfest of 1 x 45km road race at 10 o'clock and 1 x 21.6km time trial at 2 o'clock. Tyres pumped up, brekky eaten........

Its good to know at least 2 people read this!!!

2011-06-07T06:14:00.000+10:00

ok..so the problem with changing an address without giving anyone warning is now evident to me!

I will now keep this address as it has been for the last year or so until just before I leave for Europe...THEN I will start a new blog with the name mentioned in the post before this and which will be also at the end of any email i send.

This way you will be able to access this blog and will get the new address from the final post

sorry for the chaos

New title

2011-06-06T16:25:00.000+10:00

this blog is now called www.onasaddleineurope.blogspot.com

and how many capcha idiotic unreadable "words" did i have to type before I got it right???!!!..about 6.......

Revision on driving in Italy

2011-06-05T18:12:00.005+10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeSzFtqLxQ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkInkNMpI1Q&feature=related

I discovered these vids while re-visiting websites full of tips for driving in Italy..actually it resonates for driving in Aus...especially the part on tail-gating

I remember with some dread getting lost in Agrigento and finding my self driving in the old part of the town where the roads were so narrow I had to pull the wing mirrors in. Very similar to this:

I can also recall inadvertently driving into a Treviso pedestrian precinct ...realising my mistake at the same time as I spotted one of these:

followed by a panicked escape complete with many turns (hopefully so they couldn't follow me!). It was only later that I realised that these guys would not be interested in this sort of crime..the ones I needed to be worried about were these guys:

having read the following I'm going to stay well clear of Florence unless using public transport:

From The Florentine (issue no. 95 February 12, 2009)

Too much of a bad thing

Traffic fines line city coffers

Every 40 seconds, a motorist in Florence receives a traffic violation according to figures recently released by city officials. Traffic police issue approximately 90 tickets every minute, 1,253 tickets a day.

Of the 859,959 traffic violations that issued by traffic police in 2008, 457,613 were issued to motorists who entered the limited traffic zones without the required permit; 250,415 were given to drivers who parked in no-parking zones; 22,904 were issued for speeding; and 7,700 were given for having run a red light.

Racing and an interesting book

2011-06-05T15:59:00.016+10:00

The interesting book first.."Inside WikiLeaks" by Daniel Domscheit-Berg..worth a read or since it's also on CD..a listen.

Racing
~20km..more like 19+km TT at Little River and unlike my recce the other day it was blowing a bit of a gale. Enough to make the flags on the West Gate Bridge horizontal and reported on the weather web site as 35kph with gusts up to the high 50's low 60's.

All of which meant it was a very tough race for the first 2 sides of the oblong ( travelling north and west) and an absolute blast on the third side plus a medium blast on the last bit. For about 6km I was averaging 50kph with a peak of 55kph...I kept thinking...this is the speed the pros cruise at but for me this is totally exceptional. I finished in 36 and some minutes, the best in my grade (C grade) was 31 minutes; I would have won D grade. Here's the file of the last bit...the blast....click to enlarge. As you can see I'm either TTing at a constant HR or I'm dead...there seems to be no in between at all.

I used the deepish dish on the front and the disc, but as of now I'm moving to the deep dish rear to check it out for racing OS. This Friday I travel up to Benalla for the 3day race there, 3 road races of 44, 46 and 52 km and a 21.7 km TT..should be tired the following week!

Update: Training, Italian, planning, packing.

2011-06-03T08:38:00.000+10:00

Training
After 2 less than successful training sessions this week I'm in despair..whatever I had before has gone. Will I ever find it? Hmm..not sure. Will I keep trying? yup..well at least until the end of this year, although I'm not really sure now that going to the Masters Track Worlds in October will be worth the time and money. I think I might have to ditch the pursuit or accept a pathetic time. Too early for 100% decisions of course but the signs are not good. Need to HTFU +++++

I've got the front wheel trued and re-glued and hopefully I'll have the rear wheel back in time for Sunday's race.

Since I was going to race the Footscray club TT champs on Sunday and also had to do a 5km TT effort during the week and 'cos there just isn't a safe 5km uninterrupted stretch of road anywhere close, I decided to ride their circuit out at Little River.

not sure if that's the right circuit, although there aint too many options(!) but that's what i rode.

This hamlet is on the way to the You Yangs and so I was very familiar with the place from my Orienteering, MTB racing and also rock climbing days and bugger me but the almost-built boat in the back yard is STILL there, looking exactly the same as it did 20 years ago! The guy with the small dog in a basket at the back of his treadlie was new - sadly I couldn't get the phone out in time for a pix.

The weather was fantastic..blue skies low temp and no wind- it was so cold my teeth ached, my nose ran and I had numb fingers and toes. The course..flat to mild undulation with a dead road but what a ripper and I wish I'd thought of it before. It took about an hour to get there, so too far for a regular training area.. but great for occasional long TT sessions.

Driving back I was appalled to see a pall of yellow ish haze over Melbourne..when you live in its midst you just don't realise what crap air you're breathing. I had a mega nervy turn on the freeway though when, cruising along at 100kph, I came across a sign which said..end of roadworks......O..M..G. how did I miss that? With the speed limit at roadworks of 40, 60 or 80kph, I might be deep in the proverbial.

Italian
Getting there very slowly. I've rented a coupla vids and had planned to watch first with then without subtitles..only prob is one doesn't have subtitles.

Planning and packing
Bought the sandals, not bothering trying to find any shorts..wrong season+++.

I've downloaded a zillion audiobooks from the library into my iPod but having discovered that having earphones on while driving is illegal in some countries and since I'm going to be doing 4 solo mega trips across Europe I've unearthed my old iTrip.

Next stop is to see if it still works and to research what sort of frequency it will need to work on in Europe...with the huge amount of different broadcast stations over there and with me driving through 4 countries, a scanning one might be the way to go.

I've also bought a mini travel MP3 speaker set...not for travelling of course, but for use when listening while in bed...I'm not keen on sleeping the night away with ear buds stuck in my ears and I do have the tendency to fall asleep while listening...!

Another week of training, Italian classes,ebay and getting things done for my hols

2011-05-31T07:22:00.002+10:00

Training
this has been a bit on and off since I've managed to pick up a sinusey cold and have been feeling somewhat average. My SRM also sabotaged one ride's data and as a result I had to get a new battery...my version of the SRM only has one battery whereas later models have two and so last a bit longer.

I am never keen on riding the roads in the wet, so I've been indoors on the ergo. I have all the Sufferfest training videos and even if I am doing my own training plan rather than theirs they are worth their weight in gold. I particularly like the one with footage from the World Champs at Mendrisio in 2010. Good tempo music too, although not actually a style of music I go for.

Italian
The more you talk. listen and read the more you learn and at Melbourne's Centre of Italian Studies once you've completed 3 weeks of a term you can attend as many classes as you want. Currently I'm doing 2 level 6 classes, 1 x 6/7 level and a conversation only class. The 6/7 class is ++challenging... I can understand what's being said but can't contribute much at that level.

ebay
so good when things go right and yet so bad when things don't go smoothly. I "sold" 3 things last week but the buyer of 2 sorta made a mistake and actually only wants one of them. Pity.

Holiday preparation
1. TT Brakes
Last week my TT bike's brakes started to give me some grief in that they wouldn't open properly once applied. I'd been aware of this issue for a while but it finally went over the threshold of acceptability and so I've got it fixed. The problem was with the Nokon cables

which apparently can't deal with being scrunched up in the way that my TT bike has to be when it's packed into a bike bag. A road bike handlebars have to be pretzeled as it is but with the addition of extension bars, packing a TT bike is waaaay more complicated. Get a kink in the Nokon's inner cable and you're doomed.

2. Wheels.
I'm never really happy taking a disc wheel OS since no matter how you pack it into a soft case, the slightest ding in the wrong spot will ruin it. So this time I'll be running a very deep dish wheel, and since it's got enough spokes to be legal it can double up as a road race wheel too. Same with the front wheel..ok for TT and RR.

Waiting for a tyre. Despite having various valve accessories, I didn't have one long enough for this deep a dish! .

So I sent away for one..well 2 actually.....but I think I got a size too long!

No matter. Now to get it glued on and trialled next Sunday when I race with Footscray CC in their club TT champs as an invitee (i.e. I can race but no chance of glory).

and this baby will do duty as the front wheel for RR and TT. Its already had a coupla runs, but since it's got internal spoke adjustment and has managed to get out of true, I'll get it trued and glued but wont use it again until I race in Europe...such a pain with very little gain for me at my level.

Races still to come...Sunday a TT, then 3 x RR and a TT over the QB long weekend and a final TT on the Boulie the weekend before I leave.

3. International Driving License.
I have no idea why I have to have one of these. I've never been asked for one when leasing or hiring a car but the Renault leasing people say I need one. I could use my UK license (which is totally unblemished unlike my Aus one ;-) but it's an old version without a photo and so probably wouldn't suffice. So again..off to RACV, fork out $$.

30 days to go!!

Farewell the green monster

2011-05-31T06:43:00.000+10:00

finally RIP. Going as a trade in. This version of the Holden Commodore was alot less user friendly for me...it had a weird front profile, unlike it's predecessor, and so I never quite knew when I'd gone too far forward when parking. Ker- runch!, scrrrrrraaaaape! were regular front end noises. A multi scarred beast. And the scar in the pix?....a stupid car park pole moved just as I was reversing out.

So, the car and the van go, Phil gets a new-to-him larger engined Subaru and I get the other, boringly grey Subaru. Parking will be easier although finding it on my return might be an issue. I'll have to learn to travel a bit lighter too.

How can I possibly live without my............and yes I'm planning my packing for OS again

2011-05-24T06:29:00.005+10:00

Yesterday my SRM powermeter thingey turned prima donna. Actually it's been a bit princess-like for a while, but yesterday after shifting it from the TT to road bike it spat the dummy totally.

And suddenly I have to contemplate training the old fashioned way, which led me to thinking about how we now rely so much on things electronic. Certainly ditching all of the following would considerably lighten my lugggage, what with all the different chargers, cables and batteries.

1 cable, one wall charger

I have 3 of these...doh!...1 for audiobooks, 1 for Italian learning stuff and 1 for feral music to listen to while training 1 cable+1 wall charger

how can I travel without one of these? instant communication with the world, blog writing, plus DVD/CD player and also good for charging other stuff. 1 loooong mains cable

as a navigational aid this is of little use to me on the bike since with my contacts in I can barely read it..but it's sorta "nice" to know how the steep is the hill you're grovelling up!!...and later on to show where you went on a groovy map diagram.

Vital when driving solo in Europe but it did try and get me to drive across a ditch somewhere in France and also sent me into a blind panic when it told me to take the 6th exit from a Geneva roundabout when I couldn't find 6 exits. I also got very fed up of hearing "re-calculating". Currently I've got it set up to talk to me in Italian(!) 1 cable serves both these plus a mains charger and an in car charger.

nothing extra for this baby unless I go the rechargeable battery route.

this old point and shoot is for taking on the bike..spare batteries, wall charger with a cable that doesn't suit any other bit of equipment I have.

I would never have looked beyond the iPhone if I wasn't a cyclist and knew all about HTC from their sponsorship of the pro team, so advertising DOES work! This baby will stay turned off except for a brief minute or 2 once a day, once bitten twice shy and I'm not keen on arriving home ever again to a huge bill for data access caused by a roaming phone. 1 cable for mains and computer

Instead this little basic baby below, complete with Italian or Austrian or UK phone number will be on 24/7 an in car and a mains charger

and earphones....actually ear buds. FINALLY I've found some that fit my ears and don't fall out, they're made so there's a slight angle to them, PLUS I have the lime green ones so I can find them. Sold at Big W.

nothing extra for these babies, but I will take a spare pair just in case.

Blueant S4 hands free in car speaker thing...this is a must have here (I've already been caught and fined once and at 9 demerit points am too close to having to take the VicRoads test for comfort) but since I'm not expecting a flood of calls while in Europe, this baby will not get a guernsey for OS travel.

And finally a 2 way socket to allow me to plug into the mains in Europe and one for UK plus a 4 hole power board since I have so many things to charge!!

Ker-azy

Latest quotes to catch my attention

2011-05-24T05:12:00.000+10:00

Posted here to get noticed as well as going further to the right of the page.

1. I heard this while watching the Tour of California on Cyclingfans.com

the latest Paul and Phil ism:

..."at front is Martin Velits...just in front of......the rider behind him"

2. culled from a TV ad about Melbourne; it encapsulates the very heart of Melbourne weather :

"Jacket on, jacket off"

Racing TT's, UCI gran fondo qualifiers and ebay sales

2011-05-23T07:07:00.001+10:00

This week has been a good training week..finally!

I bought a countdown timer from ebay called GymBoss max

for abt $40 which has made intervals much easier to deal with. Instead of watching a line crawling across my computer monitor from the Catalyst program in my TACX iMagic, I can now watch any thing I choose and the count down watch thingy tells me when to change to another effort or rest. With intervals of 4 mins x 1 then 1min x 12 then 4 mins x 1 a count timer with a good memory is sort of very necessary.

Balancing that purchase were 3 wheels I sold last week..a Zentis 4 spoke, a Miche disc and a Corima 4 spoke wheel set. Yay!..the family can eat again! The first 2 were unwise purchases a coupla years ago and have barely been used. The Corima wheelset is about 8 years old and the front wheel has been used more than the rear...the buyers got really good deals and I'm glad to get rid of them making space in my bike room and putting $$ in my pocket.

Next up for sale are the FSA compact cranks (50/34) and well used,

the Fiz;ik Ares K:iumTT saddle of previous post fame (2 rides only)

and a brand new Dura ace 7900 10 speed right hand side crank only ..spider and gears..53/39 ( I've got the SRM crank etc so I didn't need this one).

After last week's issue with comfort, I changed my possie a bit and also reverted back to my previous saddle. I was also incredibly over generous with the chamois cream. The net (or perhaps gross!) effect...no comfort issues at all and with that problem out of the way I now just need to get fit! This week's race was at the Yarra Boulevard, which is not my favourite course since it exposes my weakness...TT'ing up hill. The race is 2 laps and although each quarter was slightly slower than the one before, it wasn't by much.

Actually I did have a mechanical issue with both brake pads refusing to snap back open once applied, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!. I'll be getting them fixed this week. Needless to say there was no PB , but I'm improving.

Next weekend no race and then another TT followed by the 3 day 4 race weekend.

*************

I've just been updating myself on the UCI World Masters"tour" and its resultant finals races for the rainbow jersey which are being held in Belgium. I note with wry amusement that the rules have recently changed to allow for a larger proportion of riders to qualify, quote follows:

"Granting of participation rights for the UWCT Final
Each UWCT event will grant participation rights for the UWCT Final, the Amateur World Championships. By the end of each race, the first 25% athletes of each age group, with a minimum of 3 riders per age group, will be awarded with guaranteed entry to the UWCT Final and be able to race for the World Champion title. The winners of the slots will be announced on the UWCT website. This decision was made in consideration to women who often race in small groups, with less than 10 participants per age class, limiting the "25% Best" to one rider. The new system will also benefit elder age groups and increase the competitiveness for the World Champion title." (my bold and underlined) and I think it should say.."limiting the best 10%"

Confusion reigns in my brain...is it saying there have to be a min number of 3 riders in the age group for there to be an age group or is it that there will be at least 3 qualifiers in each age group?? I suspect the latter but if the former(and the UCI is well known for this sort of hurdle) can anyone tell me what 25% of 3 riders is??

Checking the same website,

There have been 3 qualifying rides so far, the ones in Aus and Portugal seem to be pretty straightforward gran fondos, but the New York one was interesting from a qualifying POV. The ride was 172km long BUT the only time of it that counted towards qualifying was the sum of the times you posted for the 4 climbs....weird.

The finals courses:

Time trial and quoting again from the same source:

"It will be both for time trial specialists and climbers ........After 9,2 kilometers, riders leave the bikepath on the railroad and discover the very steep climb of Floriheid. The altitude at the bottom is 352 meters. On top after exactly 1 kilometer, altitude has gone up to 462 meters which means the average gradient is 11% with maximum pieces of 20%. .....On top riders take a deep dive towards Malmédy to join back the old railroad back towards Stavelot. Here riders will cross each other on a 2,5 meter wide road".

Road race: too long to quote but its a 4 loop,110km course and appears very hilly...there doesn't seem to be any mention of a shorter course for older age groups although the first 68km loop is said to be "not too difficult" so maybe that will be the parcours for the oldest age grouping, which is 65+

I dunno, but what I'm seeing are tough courses for the younger masters age grades. I wait with interest to see how many of the qualifiers will attend and who will be going to St Johann either instead of or as well as Belgium.

The things you do and Sunday's TT race

2011-05-15T19:15:00.001+10:00

Ageist moan and self pitying bleat

This is what tells me my chronological age is>65:

my eyes which have been short sighted since I was 14 years old and which have been very, very slowly getting more long sighted, over the past year (since my 65th birthday in fact) make a sudden dramatic leap into long sight. This might appear to be a plus until you realise I had to shell out $900 for new lenses to my glasses and also new contacts.
my teeth which have served me well for many decades suddenly decide to lose important parts of themselves meaning that expensive replacements (actually only 1 so far) will now have to take up residence in my mouth.
when deciding which travel insurance to buy, I realise that my choices have shrunk..
when studying up for my next Italian class in the train, a young chick in the opposite seat marvels that you are still able to learn "at your age"
I can no longer do early morning training..it's too cold and I'm too stiff
every time I take a break from heaving weights around I have to go back to the beginning as I can no longer squat deep enough due to stiff hips.
and FINALLY and MOST irritating, I know for sure that in any UCI event I will be racing against younger chicks (well ok women in their 50's!!) since there have to be 6 competitors in a class and there aren't that amount of women in the 65-69 age group still competing.

Ebay

With more time to think I'm starting to rationalise the gear in my Aladdin's cave of bike bits and pieces.

About to be put on are:
a Miche disc (Shimano)+tyre, about 3-4 years old
a Xentis front 4 spoke wheel +tyre about 3-4 years old
a Corima 4 spoke wheel set (Shimano)+tyres, about 9 years old.
a complete FSA compact crank set .34/50, Shimano/170 cranks..

these are heroic cranks with a history...they helped me limp up the Passa Pordoi

and the Stelvio..

and there's more to come..ebay stuff that is.

Sunday's TT race

this was at Benalla over a 21.7kim course I've raced quite a bit..best time of ~36mins.

I was so over rain and mud I opted to travel (quite unnecessarily ) to Benalla on Saturday. It was a good choice weather wise 'cos although it was very very cold, it was dry and that was such a great change it made it worth the effort. The cabin was warm , but for some reason there was no hot water.....

Today was not going to be a PB as I've been a bit crook during the week some viral thing upsetting my sinuses. But you do what you can on the day. When I got to registration I discovered there were only 10 entries and (natch) I was first off. Hume vets normally put on a TT followed by a road race, but this time it was a TT only and also this time the winner was not to be the fastest around the course, but the rider who bettered their international age grade standard by the greatest margin.

Stupidly I'd not changed my cranks over to SRM and even more stupidly hadn't done anything about the read out on the Garmin being in MPH. So once again I was racing on perceived effort, a skill in which I lack experience.

Actually I wasn't doing too badly until about 3 /4 way through when all of a sudden I realised I'd been too thrifty with the chamois cream. The course is really flat and with no places where its legit to stand up to relieve the pressure, any issues with position are going to be unforgiving.... Its hard to say how much time I lost by having to sit up out of the aero possie but I'd put it at least 40 seconds, maybe more.

My result was the very worst I'd done on that course and while not actively sulking I was somewhat annoyed with myself until I discovered that I'd won the handicap ie I was the rider who exceeded the age standard by the most.....8 minutes. I'm not sure where these figures came from, but they must have used some fairly sluggish old ladies as their data base..guess I should be grateful for that!

Thanks Hume vets for a well run race and I'll be back during June for the 3 day event.

Next week the Boulie, then a crit and then another TT followed by the 3 days.

Racing and on learning a language

2011-05-08T07:36:00.006+10:00

Racing
Yesterday I raced up a grade, being put into C grade. As a time trialler and so able to stand long periods of a high wattage, but not so good at multiple mega surges, Criteriums are a challenge to my body and in the latter stages, my mind.

I'd been fairly comfortable last week in D grade where the average kph had been ~35kph but C grade? meh...try to hang in for 40 of the 65 minutes was my goal... the graph below shows how I fared...35 minutes with the bunch and then a prolonged surge up hill and into the wind plus a bit more and I was cooked.

Silly me.... the previous lap knowing that I was starting to struggle, I'd got closer to the front during the tail wind downhill hoon to allow my drop off to take me to the back but this time I was hovering near the back to begin with and so the elastic broke.....

The final bit of the graph is me riding solo, initially trying to get back on, then just TT'ing for the sake of it

the average speed was only 1.5kph faster but the surges killed me stone dead. I had a ball though.

Language Learning
Learning a language is always a challenge with many, many pitfalls for the unwary, mostly to do with unwittingly saying something extremely rude. I recall with fondness and a wide grin a German lady whose English was fluent (but who's pronunciation was.... hmmm...Germanic) bringing us all to tears of laughter when she told us that on this holiday (riding a tandem bike with her husband) it was her job to look after the sex. Of course she meant sacks.ie panniers. Poor girl she just could NOT understand why we were all ROTFL.

Italian is a phonetic language and with pronunciation what you see is what you get, unlike English which is definitely not and so I was a bit gob smacked the other day when one of my fellow Italian pupils said that English was an easy language to learn...was the fact that she was of Russian origin a factor in this comment??? Anyhow check out this web link for proof of my contention that English is so full of pronunciation traps that it cannot possibly be "an easy language to learn".

Musings for the week

2011-05-06T07:26:00.002+10:00

France, Italy, UK and Austria

Woo hoo!..my lease car documents have just arrived...and yes, 8 weeks today I fly out yippedy yip yip.

Family Health Check......

Phil still on crutches for at least another 6 weeks...fracture site not yet united sufficiently to jettison them.
Alex has full range movement and is developing strength and endurance. The scar is bound down medially but it's not impeding movement. There is still fluctuating swelling present and we're keeping a close eye on it to ensure there is no return of infection. He's on industrial strength probiotics to counteract the gut damage the industrial strength antibiotics inflicts.
Ben's scapula fracture is now just a bad memory.

During one of my ergo sessions I was debating with myself the following: on a point system for style, bravery and "other" which of the 3 would come out ahead?

Phil certainly scores highly+++ for "style" since he scored a evacuation ride in a helicopter, but loses points for poor healing....August to at least June.
Ben scores high for bravery for driving his truck from Lysterfield to Croydon with a badly fractured scapula but loses points for stupidity in driving with a badly fractured scapula when he could have picked up the phone and asked for help.
Alex scores high for bravery in that he pulled a rather large piece of wood out of his leg but loses points for not taking a phone out with him on his ride, having to rely on luck in that someone just happened to be in the area and would help him.

And the verdict.... the helicopter ride trumps everything..a lay down misere.

Training
Slowly getting there. Progress is being made. I'm due to race tomorrow but if the forecast is for rain, I'll do a 3 hours suffferfest at the velodrome instead.

I moved (well..Ben did) my track bike SRM cranks onto my TT bike the other day , but totally neglected to think about whether or not the holes on the road chain rings would line up. They didn't. Bugger!

It can be done, but I'd need to buy new chain rings and a BMX/track chain which wouldn't have a ramp on it and so I might have to go with only one chain ring in order to prevent clunky gear changes. Result..no change. I'll just go with what I've always done..move the cranks from the road bike to the TT bike before a race.

So ergo today, big effort tomorrow. Next weekend...19.5km TT at Benalla.

Back racing

2011-05-01T10:57:00.002+10:00

Saturday: cloudy no rain little wind

Reading the flyer for Hume Vets 3 day event in June, I realised I'd better get some racing in if only to allow my club handicapper to give me a grade. But the need for handicap grade was not the only reason for my trip up to Casey Fields yesterday ...it really was about time to HTFU and get out to do what I enjoy most...racing.

I'd not raced at Casey Fields before, it always sounded as though it was miles away and so I was a bit surprised that the drive out only took about 40 minutes. I was greeted with alot of hullo stranger comments but when I eventually fronted up to pay and discuss which grade I should ride I discovered that I'd been black listed for missing a work day last year..hmmm....I was in Italy at the time. The matter was soon sorted and after initially being put in C grade and after some checking on who rode what grade, I ended up in D grade......very flattering and all, but really on a background of almost no training, C would have been a nightmare for me.

Goal for the race: finish with the bunch.

There were a few breakaways but none stuck and somewhat uncharacteristically all I did was stay with the bunch either in the middle or near the back, keeping upright, keeping out of the way, holding my line... all but a couple of times (one where I visited the grass verge for a while) and so was just happy to be alive to tell the tale at the end. Finished with the bunch.

Could I have done more...in retrospect yes, but that wasn't the plan for the day. Next week maybe I might consider putting in a bit of a speedy effort.....or 2.

Sunday:..forecast cloudy showers later in the day=get out early

So what you all missed for today's ride was 2-3 hours 130-180 watts...ok well you can forget the 3 hour bit but Croydon to Yarra Glen and return via the back roads gives me ~2hours of undulations and all with minimal traffic. Nasty little pulls uphill with all too short downhill hoons.

And it was cold I had no feet or hands when I got home..well ok they were there when I looked, but since all feeling had gone, I had to check.

Road kill...what's with ringtail possums?? were they all playing chicken last night?

and who is doing a Hansel and Gretel with orange peel around North Croydon / Croydon Hills???

Woo hoo...it's finally May 1st and so I can now say......I'm off OS next month.

In between riding and learning Italian there are the house and garden renovations

2011-04-27T15:50:00.001+10:00

this fence has irritated me for the 30+ years we've lived in this house and finally someone (!) has been persuaded to accept a change

this flight of steps has been dangerous for an equivalent amount of time..they too will change for the better

Alex in workman mode complete with sparks and demonstrating he has regained left knee flexion

aaah! that's better

the step killing field!

after day 1's paving

it really is the cat's paw!

and finally here is Alex's knee as it is today..post ice session. Alex had been wearing knee pads which had made him very hot and sweaty. As a result some dry skin was removed and lo and behold we discovered some very small sutures still in situ just under the scar (you can't really see them in the first pix). They'll be the internal disposable sort, but after all the problems we've encountered, we rang the doctor's surgery and will get advice tomorrow.

Road ID

2011-04-24T08:23:00.001+10:00

When I'm in Italy during July, I'll be solo in that I'm staying in an apartment and will not have family or close friends looking out for me if I don't return from an evening training ride, and may only be missed when I don't front up for the next day's class.

Sooooo I've bought one of these engraved with appropriate personal info..NOK phone numbers, blood group, allergies, med hx etc

with the Aussie dollar flying high, the price was very modest, maybe $30 all up, and compared to the insurance it will provide if I'm unable to speak for myself...is nothing.

The service the company gives is speedy to say the least and it arrived at my house in less than a week after putting the order through. For a change this is one American company which does NOT rob you blind over postage costs...I have had postage quotes from the good ole' US of A that more than doubled the cost of the article I wanted to buy.

It came delivered in a groovy container which will now become a tool box for small,easily lost, bike bits...so a double thank you to RoadID

Maybe it's something more of my cycling friends need to consider buying, especially those with medical issues a first responder team might need to be aware of.......

First race - back in the saddle and other things

2011-04-24T07:08:00.002+10:00

Easter weekend used to find me in various parts of the country for the Easter 3 days Orienteering Carnival, then when I moved away from that sport I could be found at Maryborough, Vic for the VVCC "South Pacific Championships". This year with various crocks and cripples around the house, I didn't feel I could afford to enter for the entire weekend's worth of racing and so opted for just the TT on Saturday arvo.

Alex was back to being able to get on the trainer

and also work: doing the paving around the house..AKA re-paying his Mum, so I left him doing this while I drove off to my first race for...well for ever.....

he can't quite trust his his knee to hold for long periods at all parts of the range of movement hence the poor posture...but his work is really top class (Mum speak!)

The TT was only ~15km and the drive was long, but you have to start somewhere and I needed a base line to see where I was in terms of fitness.

The bike had to have a new set of bars since the previous set were not UCI legal

and late last year I bought the updated Fizik chrono saddle, which at 24cm long is the shortest the UCI allows.

This length will allow me to be less illegal wrt another of the UCI's ruling about position on the bike...something shorties like me cannot attain and so have to jump through hoops prior to each race getting measured and so getting position approval.

All these changes meant that the race was not only a test of my fitness but also a test to see if the new set up was ok....comfort, strength, aerodynamics etc etc etc

The course is downhill out and not downhill back! If windy it can be a brute. I sorted a few minor problems during the warm up..odd rattles, poor gear changing..the usual and at 14:02 I was away...last cab off the rank. I hadn't a chance of catching my minute man but hoped to pass my 2 minute man. I immediately found a problem I'd not expected....blasting out of the gate and on a downhill stretch I noticed I was only going at 28kph and since I was a threshold if not a bit above I began to despair...just how far down the fitness scale had I plummeted??...then I twigged...my Garmin 705 had for some unknown reason defaulted to mph. For the next few km's I tried to work out what speed 23-28mph was in kph, then gave up and went by perceived exertion.

so there we have it...11 mins out..downhill is soooo much fun and 14 back. A good race, coughed my lungs out after, position fine, fitness down, fatness up but....with 16 weeks to go I'm on track for great racing in Austria during August

and 73 days forwards

2011-04-18T17:13:00.003+10:00

So plans for the rest of the year:

I've been off the bike for about 6 weeks as work and then invalids took up my time and I became exhausted.

April First race back is a TT this Saturday, and being too fat and very unfit I expect to set a VERY low base line. Low base lines are goooood!

May/June After that I'll be racing most weekends in May and some in June right up to leaving the country on June 30th for an 8 week stay in Europe.

July I pick up my lease car at the Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris and drive south to Italy via Austria (to pick up trainer, pump and tools from St Johann i Tirol).

The first 4 weeks I'm going to be at Urbania where I'll be at an Italian language school in the morning and some afternoons and putting in some solid training in the evenings. I could stay with a family, which might enhance my language skills, but I have decided to forgo that dubious pleasure as I'm not sure they could cope with someone who gets up at 5am, has food allergies, has 2 bikes in her room and will ride the trainer indoors if the weather is bad;-), besides which i hear that they dont always allow their boarders to use their washing machine??!!
So.... I'm going to rent an apartment instead.

August I'll be over in UK for about 10 days experiencing the Eurotunnel +car to get there and back and visiting family and my coach plus getting in a race or two.

I return to Europe to race in Austria, first in Deutschlandsberg near Graz and then St Johann i Tirol before flying home on about 27th

October Back to UK for the World Masters Track Champs which are in Manchester and once again I'm staying ay the Stables in Ashton Under Lyne..a totally superior place with a great host.

October/November followed by another language school session...maybe 2 weeks this time and perhaps in Florence.

Watch this space.......

73 days backwards ..warning gross pix of wound included

2011-04-18T16:36:00.002+10:00

ok so the last post was ages and ages ago and if there's anyone left out there still reading this...you clearly have faith and perseverance!

Work
So where are we...well the project that I was doing is over. A mix of great fun and teeth grinding awfulness - I seemed to have to deal with more irritating people than I really wanted to. Stirring the pot more than somewhat was a 2 week period of dramas at home that caused me to fumble and almost drop the ball somewhat. So when I was not working retirement sucked, and when i was working...yes you guessed it...work sucked.

Family dramas
1.Ben's' fractured scapula prior to Xmas started the chain reaction. I swear I've now had ENOUGH of injured family members.
2. Phil's fractured hip from August last year ended up with non-union and so he had to go back and have it re fixed with added bone grafting during early March. The acute hospital was difficult to get to and had appalling parking and so I was grateful when he moved to the rehab hospital which was much closer to home. He'd only just settled in there when I got a phone call from someone telling me Alex had had an accident and needed to go to hospital.

Now let me think..when has that happened before!!!

3. So not to be left behind in the bragging stakes it was Alex's turn .Alex had had a slow speed off from his MTB and managed to fall onto a long spike of wood which went into his knee. He pulled it out with some difficulty and managed to find someone at a picnic ground who called the ambos. They did their bit and told him to take himself to hospital(!).

Long story but we got him to a private hospital since it was the March labour day public holiday and I knew all the public ED's would be bursting at the seams. A quick wash out,tetanus shot, standard grade ABS and 4-5 stitches later and we were on our way.

End of story???

NO..just the beginning! 5 days later it was clear there was something very wrong so back we went only to discover there was still a big bit of wood in his knee and he had a very bad infection. One op later and instead of a 2 cm long wound it was right across the whole width of his knee and he was on IV nuclear strength ABS's.

He came home with an open (but natch well covered) wound which was stitched up about a week later and 31 days after his fall he was finally allowed to bend his knee. Earlier today, 4 days later, he got on the bike for the first time...full range of motion albeit rather "rusty" but lacking in strength and endurance. His knee now looks much better...well it'd need to (!) and when it swells as it does when he does some exercises, the scar looks exactly like an old person with no teeth in...must try for a pix..its a classic.

Alex doesn't have private health insurance so what was initially going to be a quick trip to the private hospital for the wash out etc for $250 ended up costing us $7400. He's going to do some paving at no cost for us by way of paying us back and also as a "work hardening" exercise.

So that's Alex and in fact me really since I've been nurse, mother, taxi driver, Physio, social secretary and cheer squad. Not much fun with 2 people in different hospitals when your work is at a really critical phase, but I survived.

Long time no blog

2011-02-14T05:55:00.000+11:00

Been too busy with "out of comfort zone" job.
6 more weeks.
In the meantime..this little man is the newest member of our family..I'd been eying him since waaay before Christmas and he was even on my Christmas list. I finally gave in on Saturday.

Meet Aloysius the first of the 3 blind mice:

when this pix was taken he was guarding our front door but in keeping with the "Ernie" tradition he keeps moving around and currently he's sitting on the balcony

Cat pix

2011-01-09T08:42:00.000+11:00

caption options:

ok so THIS one's mine
no..this just doesn't smell right
boo hoo nothing for me...I've been forgotten

oh well I love Ernie and Ernie loves me

End of another phase

2011-01-07T18:14:00.003+11:00

Well one thing's for sure...I cannot now work an 8 hour day AND train if I'm on my feet literally all the time except for lunch and a bit of computer time. I'm just too stuffed by the time I get home.

Thankfully I've come to the end of my 6 week clinical locum. Since New Year I've had to put in 8 hour days 'cos the ward, which was s'posed to have only 20 beds open, ended up with 25, 26 or 28 patients depending on the day and I was the only lonely Physio.

For the next 13 weeks I get a bit of a physical rest but more mental stress as I go through a vertical learning "curve" as a project officer. Wish me luck.

Training was going well til this week, but hopefully I'll quickly get back on track :-) this weekend and next week as I start to prepare for the State Masters Track Champs in Feb. I've given the women's Omnium the flick as I'm fairly sure I'll need a rest period afer my first week on the new job rather than a full day's racing...could it be that I'm developing a modicum of sense? I rather hope not.

My European plans are still fuzzy due to not yet knowing if there'll be a European Masters Track Champs. I hope they decide soon...I need to plan for 2 weeks in an Italian Language school in Italy to mesh in with them.

And yet another slip of the tongue this time from a social worker to a male nurse: Hey Scott...you're really good with the ladies in the shower! WE knew what she meant but a good belly laugh is always great medicine.

I've just eaten my first home grown tomato and strawberry (not together of course)..yum!

2010 reprise..a year of trials and mixed success

2011-01-01T09:37:00.001+11:00

2010...the year I decided to stop permanent employment (retire in fact) and the year I decided to try cycle touring. It was also the year I discovered neither was right for me!

I was well and truly over being a slave to having to front up for work regularly and only having 4 weeks/year to do what I really wanted to do, but when push came to shove I realised that retirement sucks and actually I enjoy the work environment as long as I can engage with it when I want to ...so locum work is the go. Currently I am coming to the end of a 6 week clinical locum and after that have a 13 week project officer job. Then.....well who knows, but I'm going OS on June 30th and that's a ticket already bought and paid for.

Cycle touring...I adored Italy, just loved the hilltop towns and villages, the olive groves and the Italian people but discovered that touring for touring's sake didn't grab me at all which meant that riding through bad weather or boring terrain was not for me...I enjoy a physical challenge but I rapidly lost my sense of humour when things got boring, went on too long or got really wet and/or cold, 'sides which too much touring wrecks my race legs.

So...2011 brings occasional work, no touring, racing on road and track both OS and in Aus.

goals are:

Track

Masters Nats in March

Masters European if it eventuates in Italy in July

Masters Worlds in manchester in October

Road

racing in Austria for 2 weeks during August

and to make these goals happen positively:

train consistently

manage fatigue levels

return to race weight

and finally just to demonstrate I'm not one dimensional(!) attend an Italian language school in Italy to supplement the classes I'm taking here.

Hold the front page!

2010-12-20T06:33:00.002+11:00

What a year..first Alex thinks he's #'d his left wrist while in Portugal, then Phil #'s his left hip and had to be helicoptered out of the bush, and now (hopefully finally) in a truly dramatic effort to up-stage all, Ben has #'d his left scapula. Me?..... I'm staying wrapped in cottonwool for the next 2 weeks...especially my left side!

I was diligently working away on the indoor trainer late Saturday afternoon when a pathetic pain wracked voice said in my ear...I think you need to take me to hospital...and there was an ill looking Ben holding onto his arm in a way that all cyclists recognise there is a fracture somewhere, although usually its the clavicle not the scapula.

Despite Ben not having private health insurance l opted to go to that route rather than wait for hours and hours in a public hosp emergency dept and so 2 hours later, after an xray which was a bit unclear and a CT which was not, we got the whole story in graphic detail.

Usually scapula #'s are just left to heal themselves as they are stable due to location and the underlying rib cage and despite my initial fears on seeing the scan, that's the case for Ben too..if you take a good look at middle pix on the right of the bottom scan..the one that is 100% side on, you'll see that nothing is sticking out either into his ribs or out into his skin.

He's up for 4 weeks total immobility in a sling with no exercises at all to allow it a good chance to heal itself as best it can, followed by Physio.

I'd never seen anything remotely as bad as this before, but the surgeon said he'd seen similar on motor bike accident victims.

Poor Ben..appalling timing as he wont be able to work and he was on the verge of getting an adult apprenticeship in the building trade.....

I'm now going to have what might be a rather robust discussion with the Private Hospital..they wanted to keep Ben in overnight to see the surgeon when he came in the next day . I was told that since he was uninsured their protocol is to ask for 5 nights accommodation and if he didn't stay the 5 there would be a refund. On discharge I was told a different story which was that if the Health fund allocated 5 days funding for the particular problem then that is what I would have to pay, or the hospital would lose money on that admission!!!

I'm not very good arguing my case on the spot but forewarned is forearmed and I've been busy marshalling my arguments just in case...I might even suggest that I would consider contacting "Today Tonight" or some other equally appalling "exposure" TV program..

helmet standard change - yet again and again and again

2010-12-10T07:48:00.001+11:00

How to govern by feel, hope and a prayer(click the title for the link).

This time the standard was updated and brought in so quickly wholesalers and retailers were caught on the hop but after protest the change is to be delayed by 6 months.

Our helmet standards are already so stringent they surpass any other standard on the globe and now they are being tightened even further. In my mind they reflect the "nanny state" persona of our laws, after all we ARE the most governed people in the world with federal, state and local governments alive and well and living off our taxes.

I'm just hoping that the aero helmet I bought for road TT's will not have to be replaced too soon ..first i want to make it earn what I paid for it!

Bizarre

2010-12-08T19:17:00.000+11:00

This, like the scene on my weekend ride into the country of green grass and full dams, is sooo bizarre for this part of the world, it needs to be recorded for posterity:

from the bureau of meteorology site

Biblical Victoria

2010-12-06T19:25:00.004+11:00

Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh, Joseph

where are you?

We had the drought,

we had the terrible bush fires,

we've had/are having the floods

and now we're getting the locusts.

This map (from www.dpi.vic.gov.au) indicates where the swarms are currently..and they'd bloody better keep away from my veggie garden .

Noooo..not again!

2010-12-06T16:30:00.000+11:00

Just when I thought it was safe to enter the cats sleeping area first thing in the morning without first checking for rats dead, half dead or (shudder) alive:

"A Present from a loving admirer"

it's been a while but here we go again, only this time Flea has been very, very politically incorrect.....juvenile possums are "barley" and what's more are hardly fair game for our rat catcher extraordinaire.

Phoenix veggies

2010-12-06T07:22:00.000+11:00

well bugger me!..planted one day, swamped and buried the next and 3 days later when I get round to looking properly at the damage..what do I find? yay!

Maybe now I can stop sulking and get on with looking after my babies again.

2 torrential rain days in a week is 2 too many

2010-12-01T19:55:00.001+11:00

Guess it's just as well I have a veggie garden for lifestyle rather than economic reasons!

this time it was alot worse and this time I'm not bothering to replant..well at least not til the current weather pattern has passed by. I've lost all my potatoes, newly planted winter veggies capsicums and lettuce...also my patience!

There must have been a huge amount of rain as it pushed this fence over a bit

and this large potted plant parked itself half way down our garden. It can only have come under the fence from that neighbour.

We also had floods into the garage and into the front verandah, but thankfully not actually into the house. One of Alex's mates is coming in with a digger to gouge out trenches for additional drainage pipes, although this might well be a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I love a sunburnt country

2010-11-27T06:51:00.001+11:00

the lines from the poem My Country by Dorothy Mackellar "of droughts and flooding rains." ring somewhat true this weekend

We've had the drought and this winter have happily seen our water storage dams rise from being only 30% full to now being over 50% full, so weather can be kind and it can be nasty. Yesterday I was not happy to find that it had been just downright mean. It probably only took about 30 minutes of torrential rain to undo a fair amount of the work Alex, the cat and I had done in the veggie patch.

the top left wooden border has been under cut and the gravel and river stones swept across the veggie bed beyond.

The edging helped save the veggies although in doing so all the water was channeled down the 2 pathways we'd created around the separate veggie beds and which have now been stripped down to subsoil. Some of the river stones from this path have actually been swept into next doors garden about 30 metres downhill!

I've only lost some lettuce and 2 potato plants, so it could have been alot worse.

Got a bit of work to do ....again! but this weekend is s'posed to be a wet one, so I'll just see if anything is still alive under there...the potato on the edge at least might be ok..

Back at work, worm farms, pets with loooong fur and track racing

2010-11-25T07:35:00.002+11:00

In no special order:

Pippi's "passport" says she's a domestic short hair variety, but she begs to differ over the word "short"..and so do we. She's the only cat I've had to take regularly to the vet to be groomed as her fur gets really matted and she's none too keen on me dealing with the problem. Each visit costs about $75 and she has to be sedated to accomplish the task. Not happy..either of us.

Then..tra daaaah! Enter this grooming tool which I bought yesterday....

http://www.gofetchinternational.com/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=821&=SID

Fantastic. Pippi is now half her previous size, I have enough fur in the bin to stuff a pillow and there were absolutely no complaints from a cat who is really VERY happy to complain.

Worm farms.
There are about 1000 worms who will be very sad they belong to me...well actually there are probably only about 500 now. I dunno what it is, but they don't seem to be getting through their original food lot although I was told they should have by the end of a week or so.

Then there were the ants that decided to use the base of the farm as their new home...little buggers! I think I'd allowed it to get a bit dry, which I've now sorted. Anyway I've got a temporary solution of using putting the farm's legs in 4 bowls filled with water! Eat up little wormies!

WORK
no biggie really except by the end of the first day I was shattered..my legs and feet were sooooo tired and I pretty well slept the clock around. It's nice seeing friends and colleagues again, although in this campus there are also many people I dont know. And as expected, being a different campus to where I used to work, it's sort of the same but different.

Track racing
Saturdays TT was soooo slow, although a good enough time to qualify for gold . I lost it all in the start which must have been like watching grass grow during winter. Plenty of work to be done there.

Darryl had asked me to us a 92 (52/15) and drop bars.....I was ok with the gearing but hated starting on the current set up using drop bars...too low and too stretched out and I just couldn't get up to speed enough for the first bend and I thought I was going to fall off!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the guys at Brescia's Montichiari velodrome will be able to get enough sponsorship $$ to get the European Masters Track Champs up and running some time in July. I'm planning on being in Italy that month attending an Italian Language school to beef up my slowing improving Italian language skills and having the champs at Brescia would help me decide which school to go to.

Track and Road Championships for Masters

2010-11-16T19:41:00.000+11:00

World Masters Track Championships 2011..Manchester October 9th -15th
European Masters Track Championships Brescia, Italy ???dates (you can enter if you hold a European passport or were born in a European Country.

The roads are a little more complicated and up in the air...more on this topic when its a bit clearer.

The future of Masters World Road Champs

2010-11-13T13:38:00.001+11:00

check this out...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-introduces-new-racing-series-for-amateurs

Fitness Testing graphs for the past 28 days

2010-11-13T07:53:00.002+11:00

These are the latest results from a 20 min test I do up the 1 in 20..currently they are quite a bit behind what I did last year, but are slowly improving. The ride in October was full gas and I had to stop to recover after the 20 minutes, the November ride was more tempo, so although the distance and consequently speed are less, there is a definite improvement.

Some stats below are, of course, averages and some not

                        October                                                                        November
Time                   19.59                                                                             19.55 min
Power                160.9                                                                             161.4 watt
Heart Rate          154.6                                                                             149.4 bpm
Speed 16.2 16.14 kph
Cadence               64.5                                                                              68.3 rpm (sigh)
Altitude               220                                                                                 208 m
Temperature         25.1                                                                                30.4 C
Distance                 5.4                                                                                  5.36 km
Energy                192.9                                                                               192.9 kJ

This is the distribution of power I've been exerting over the past 28 days ....usually it doesn't have such a big top end shoulder...but twice weekly track training sessions with Darryl will do that to a graph!

and this is an indication of how my fitness is improving. Put simply, the red line is the acute stress, the blue line my general fitness and the yellow my recovery or lack thereof

Worm farms, work and training

2010-11-12T17:41:00.000+11:00

WORM FARMS

Early this week after a long weeding session, I decided to restart using the compost bin with garden waste only and have a worm farm for kitchen scraps (no citrus, onions, dairy or meat though).

We've not been recycling ever since the rat episode earlier this year. For those not up with the tale, one of the cats kept giving me presents of rats either dead, almost dead or in 1 case very much alive. The presents were mainly left in the kitchen but also were found under the computer desk, in the bathroom and behind a bookcase(the live one). The Pied Piper of Hamlin told me to get rid of the compost heap which we used for both garden and kitchen waste as it was attracting the rats from...who knew where.

Emptying the bin plus all the rat bait he put all along their run seemed to have worked so, with just over a week before I get back to the salt mine, I spent most of yesterday researching and finally buying a worm farm for the kitchen waste

fibrous stuff soaking in a bucket..a bit like trying to quickly defrost the mince beef for Spag Blog

then it was put onto of the cardboard in the top layer for the worms to munch through as their first meal

add 1000 worms

cover with a wet blanket or newspapers or hessian bag and put on the lid. Apparently for the amount of kitchen waste 3 people generate, eventually I'll need an extra 2000 worms. First I have to see if I can manage not to kill 1000 of them!

WORK

Yesterday I went into work to farewell a colleague who was retiring and took the time to tell anyone who asked just how boring retirement was! Over and over I said..there's only so much gardening, learning Italian and training I can do before I go stir crazy! and strangely enough no-one seemed too surprised....

There are many reasons for this of course..the transition from the excitement of travelling OS to ...nothing, the transition from being around and dealing with people to not and the transition from being crazily busy busy busy to ...well...not very busy...

Soooo..a clinical locum from 22/11 to 7/1 and then a 13 week Project Officer job will keep me out of mischief (and boredom) until April and then it'll almost be time to go OS again (June 30th).

TRAINING

With the weather getting better, I'm back on the road. Today's ride had to be early in the day to escape the windy and >30 C forecast. A small branch falling onto the road about 10metres ahead of me gave me a hurry up and a clear incentive to get out of the forested area of the Dandenongs ASAP. No track training this weekend or next with the Country and Metro champs taking up both weekends. I'm racing in the Metros next week, but only the 500m TT and hopefully during the Tuesday training session with help I will go part way to solving the vexed question of which gear to use.. My all time PB about 2 years ago was in the high 42s, lately its been high 43s...I'd love it to be low 43s, but ........

oh TG...cool change coming through as I type!

My recent training..sprinter or enduro?!

2010-11-06T19:29:00.001+11:00

Looking at this graph it is evident that rather a large proportion (3/4 actually) of my recent training has been at recovery level (grey) so now my coach tells me its is time to get some more wattage happening.

However to analyse the days in this graph:

I had been on holiday in the US for the first few days then travelled back and spent time recovering from jet lag and commenced being a nurse(har! har!) to Phil post hip fracture
so when I finally did get back onto my bike it was in genuine recovery mode.
but the weather here was very, very wet and so I started doing 2 track sessions a week and of course with track training there's a fair amount of lapping with not much wattage happening (recovery, light and moderate type) followed by vomit-worthy max short efforts..

So while there's a lot of grey on the graph I can proudly point to other colours higher up the pix such as >23 mins at max, >27 minutes at supra and >52 minutes at threshold levels. I don't think I've *ever* had that much top end stuff before!

The training I'm doing on the track is totally different from anything I've done previously and has given my ageing body a huge jolt. Under the banner "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" I can positively report I'm alive ..am I stronger???well, in 14 days time I'll be doing a 500m TT in the metro champs and I guess we'll find out.

How this type of training will help my no1 interest...road TT's will also be of interest.

After many rumours, we've now been told that the World Masters Track Championships 2011 ,12 and 13 are to be held in Manchester and already I am poised to book accommodation...just waiting for the dates.

foil the rhubarb leaf eating ferals remedy no 2 and work plans

2010-11-04T17:17:00.000+11:00

lets see how this goes: stakes and bird net and secured at ground level by bricks

and with regard to work prospects it looks like I'd better enjoy the next 2 weeks or so...I'm now signed up for work until about the end of April

we are STILL not amused

2010-11-04T09:38:00.000+11:00

organic spray remedy no.1 clearly failed! the little @#$%^& ate 1 leaf and stalk clear off last night..given the poisonous aspect of the leaves I hope it's feeling VERY unwell.

Gunna hafta go with creating a barrier of some sort. If this works its a possum, if it fails its a rat since after the rat sagas of earlier this year I know rats can get in through the minutest of cracks.

So off to Bunnings I go to see what there is to create a frame for netting

We are not amused

2010-11-03T09:09:00.000+11:00

Grrrh!

possums, mice or rats??? I think there's far too much danmage done too quickly to be caterpillers, as there'd have to be an army of them and they'd have to be VERY VERY good at hiding too.

this plant (dill) was thriving and bushy yesterday

me thinks somebody's been sleeping on the job!

Yup....retirement sucks! plus 2011 plans

2010-10-31T11:37:00.007+11:00

there's only so much gardening and learning Italian I can do every day before I become stir crazy and recovery from a day's hard training is only marginally better for not being at work.

So the answer is...I've accepted a long locum job from Nov 22nd to the end of January..6 hours a day max and hours flexible and negotiable. Same place of work although at a sister campus and same type of job..but just the clinical work..nothing extra....yay!

The veggie garden, which is flourishing despite hail, single figure temps and my black fingers (the tendency to weed the seedlings and leave the weeds is a skill I'm trying to lose)....anyhow these first 2 pix are what the site used to look like

then with the help of cat and son it started to take shape

and more recently

first edible crop..Cos lettuce aka by some... rabbit food:

Italian...progressing but frustratingly slow..the brain just isn't the sponge it used to be.

Training..actually going well although mostly track based at the moment with 2 sufferfest sessions on a Tuesday and Saturday..puke-worthy fast stuff that is giving my aged body a real jolt. Haven't thrown up yet but am getting closer.

2011....
June 30th...fly out
July...........Italy and UK..European road and track champs if they are on in July..
August......Masters week in Deutschlandsberg and Road worlds in St Johann then the Dolomites
Sept 12....fly home

and for those of you who have read right to the end yet another word for the day/blogpost....

Polynesia (n) Loss of memory in parrots

It's official!

2010-10-20T14:42:00.002+11:00

Yup! it's official that:

I have black fingers...nothing seems to be growing in my veggie patch except for weeds. For example what I had thought was a potato seedling and which was lavished with special attention is looking more and more like a dandelion and of the bits of green that have emerged where I planted ~100 carrot seeds 3 weeks ago, only 1 looks like a carrot..I think the others are all grass or oxalis .
Retirement is not for me...well not yet anyway..so I'm going back to work for 6 weeks starting on November 22nd.
I'm not osteoporotic..a fall on the track yesterday proved that, although I'm just a bit stiff and sore today.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a refund from the Taxation Office, which lasts until you realise it was your money to start with

Wow! a blogless month!

2010-10-15T07:56:00.002+11:00

Seen and giggled over from the Alternative dictionary, Washington Post style:

Abdicate: To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach!

So what have I been doing this past month? in no special order

riding my bike-back training
creating a vegetable garden
trying to learn to use my smart phone and once I learn how to get pix from there to here you'll be bombarded with proof of the veggie patch
planting and weeding...all that squatting has to be good for my hip flexibility
killing slugs and snails
learning Italian..gotta keep the brain healthy
Master road nats..2 gold, 1 abandon (road race)
watching the World Road champs in Geelong
watching the Commonwealth games
weight training
catching up with friends
getting bored
buying a new computer, a dishwasher and a digital TV - retail therapy for the above
sort of looking after Phil following his fractured hip ..."sort of" 'cos despite being retired I retain the characteristics of a Physio...what pain?? I feel no pain, and he for his part totally ignores all my professional advice.

Recent signs of rapidly approaching dementia:

I got new SRM speed sensors for track and road bikes and took ages to work out why they wouldn't work...I'd put them on wrong way round.
I changed the cranks on my training bike from compact crank 50/34 set up I'd used in Italy back to the SRM 53/39 set up and hopped on the bike to ride to Fed Square to watch the start of the men's world road race. It wasn't until I tried to move into big chain ring that I realised that to complete the task, I also had to shift the front derailleur up......
I've lost my keys so many times in the past week I'm thinking of getting a homing device on them

Plans are afoot for next year...I'm looking at a few weeks in Italy..Cinque Terra, Tuscany and Veneto interspersed with competitions on road and track as and when I can find them. I have to make some plans fairly soon as early bird offers are finalising.

Pix to follow..not only am I still learning the phone, this new computer lacks my photo library....

Finally..and I hope this link will work....here's a utube type 15 second laugh out loud vid.

What this recently retired "lady" has been doing these past few days

2010-09-20T17:32:00.000+10:00

Gardening

this is an example of "before" and was over a fairly large area of our 1 acre garden. It was here that I found and killed the tallest dandelion and the largest thistle ...EVER!

and a few days later..a work in progress..and yes, I'm stiff and sore.....

yup, you're right a veggie garden in the making and there's enough room for 3 more like this one..but...start I'm not biting off too much quite yet.

Learning a language

As well as being Farmer Jane, I'm also learning Italian. One to one and was told that what I got through in my first 2 hour lesson was the equivalent of what a group would do in half a term. It helps that I know a bit of French, German and Swedish and that I spent 7 weeks in the country unknowingly absorbing words, emphasis and pronunciation. My next class is later this week, then there'll be a bit of a gap which will allow me to consolidate my learnings.....

Hospital visiting

This I could quite do without, but at least Phil is coming home in 2 days time and I can finish this particular chore.

Road national this coming up weekend...something I'm totally unprepared for and will have to hope for long standing fitness to come to the fore.....

Yet more road signs

2010-09-08T07:28:00.003+10:00

Working out EXACTLY what these 2 were advertising occupied me for quite a few kms

(shot through the windscreen and a great speed and no I wasn't driving!)

which?....a sex shop or a sexy souvenir shop

I was sad to discover a bimbo is a baby boy

and finally we've all seen them...directional signs that clearly give you wrong/contrary distances, but these 2 push the boundaries more than somewhat. Found at a T junction they are about 10m apart.

Aaaah! Italy, I just gotta return next year.

The trip home

2010-09-06T00:26:00.004+10:00

Cheers!

the "last AND final" (this quoting a PA announcement in San Fransisco) part of my holiday has been and gone, all I have left are jet lag, great memories and a tiny bank balance.

After Austria I drove to Geneva, parted company with my car and flew to Manchester as part of the requirement of my Round the World ticket..I loathe Heathrow and so opted for Manchester since it was was the next best option. In the 60's I trained and worked in close neighbour and equally grimey Liverpool and so wanted to get back to that "dirty old town" to see how it had changed. It had and it hadn't...the general lay out was the same although some streets were pedestrianized but sadly the place was filthy..the pavement was so disgusting that nothing would persuade me to use the 5/6/10 second rule for dropped food. The museums at Albert Dock on Slavery and the work of customs were fantastic.

The Liver birds (pronounced to rhyme with "I've") are still sitting very,very statically where they always have..on top of the Liver building...legend has it they flap their wings when a virgin passes by.

Here's a closer pix of this fabled and smart bird just to see what it looks like...

I had hoped that the 88 euros the Swiss charged me for my bike, cos it was an oversized article of luggage was a one off...but no...UK charged me 135 pounds to get across the pond to the US and then THEY charged me $US 200 to get it home. The weight was not an issue..just the size..and the need to make money. Am freighting them next year...it's bad enough travelling with them, but having to pay extra for the privilege....forget it.

My stay in San Diego had to be shortened from 7 days to 36 hour to allow me to get home to ensure Phil's recovery from his # neck of femur was managed in the best possible way. He arrived in the rehab hospital the day before I got home and was about to be assessed by his Physio when I went and saw him on my way home from the airport.

So for 36 hours I met up with track

and road buddies

and had a great time..the weather was very kind although here is proof that California isn't always sunny

one of the trips was to the Wild Life park section of the famous San Diego Zoo where one of the many great sights was this deer taking it's courage in both hooves challenging a rhino for first go at the feeding trough ...brave or just stupid?

I'm not sure what the highlight of the 36 hours was: meeting with friends, the hike, the zoo but honourable mention just has to given to the following....

an "extreme" rated ride in a Kawasaki buggy to see a horse..beautiful horse as you can see from the pix... but the ride...well that was something else!
actually getting to see a road runner. (heard the coyotes..just HAD to see a road runner).

The flight home was fine and I even scored an upgrade between Auckland and Melbourne.

So that's it folks...I now have to settle into the life of a retiree:
? book club?
? gardening?
? flower arranging?
LOL!

One thing's certain, I'll be spending many hours planning for next year's adventures.

Random signs

2010-09-05T23:56:00.002+10:00

USA.....San Diego to be precise where bunnies are literate and avocados do not sprint

Switzerland..where apparently poverty has resulted in a campaign to encourage people to eat twigs and logs

UK..where this sign outside Liverpool Lime Street Railway station tells it as it is

and finally Italy..La Bella Italia where street traders of all types of luxury goods such as "Gucci" are allowed to carry on their trade unmolested by officialdom and yet.......

guess it's lucky my skill level in detecting fake goods is so high

just checking, 'cos my eyesight's not very good.... can you see any??..maybe they're just around the corner, over the brow of the hill perhaps??

"Luck" gone AWOL

2010-08-30T17:16:00.000+10:00

Today I scored the check in supervisor from hell who charged me 88 euros for my bike..just 'cos it was a bike. Actually she said she should have charged me for 2 bikes but wouldn't cos I was a Star Alliance frequent flier. That cracked me up 'cos I only have 1 bike is which in a bag with wheels only in the box!...she still insisted she should be charging for 2...sheesh..give me a break!

So, I'm giving Geneva airport the flick..not only for 88 euros but also from having to change money into Swiss francs..or paying in Euros and getting Swiss Francs as change. So that's Geneva, Heathrow and Munich airports I refuse to grace with my presence ever again!

Geneva..a clash of coin. Swiss Francs one side the fence, Euros the other

2010-08-30T00:17:00.002+10:00

Since driving over into Switzerland..nearly all autobahn and nearly all in the rain, I've been busy packing up my bike and wheels, retrieving things from where I stayed on arrival and generally getting things sorted. I finished packing my bike bags by 5pm yesterday and drove to the airport to put them into the left luggage so they wouldn't have to be squashed into a shuttle bus. And this is when I started to get lucky

Lucky moment No 1
At Geneva airport the Left Luggage office is in the railway station (Swiss side therefore payable in Swiss francs) so when I drove in to park at the airport, I was supremely lucky to get a parking sport only 50m away from where I wanted to be. I also managed to do the deed and drive out all within the minimum parking time...so only 2 Swiss francs for parking.

Lucky moment No. 2
The deal with the car was that I should give it back at 12 o'clock today and then I would be driven to the French side of the airport. After which I would summon a shuttle bus from the Swiss side of the airport to get to tonight's hotel, which happens to be in France. The truly lucky bit was because there was NO way I could have got my bike boxes from where I was dropped off to anywhere..the left luggage office or to where my shuttle bus stopped. There were no trolleys and even if you found one, you couldn't take it through to the Swiss side.....

I guess I'll be giving Geneva the flick for leasing a car in future...just too complicated with bike boxes.Lyons look a likely candidate.

Lucky moment No 3
Since I was at the airport with time to spare, I decided to see if I could check in early, and yes I could but since I didn't have my frequent flyer card to use a machine, I had to do it face to face and that is where I got lucky again. Why?...'cos the number on my electronic ticket was completely wrong. I was in the system ok, but somehow the number got screwed, which explains why I had trouble checking in on line in Melbourne......The lucky bit is 'cos it took AGES to sort out..but I remained totally unstressed since I had 19 hours before my flight! phew!!

and finally Lucky Moment No 4
Eventually it all got sorted and I got my boarding cards. I was just about to grab a bite to eat when the most beautiful music started emanating from the arrivals hall, so I had a look see and this is what I found:

Swiss alpine Horns..just magic..soothing and special. I hung around for ages, happily listening. Manchester tomorrow for the obligatory time in UK to meet the conditions of my ticket and then over to San Diego.

Turns out Phil is struggling, a very painful knee is preventing him from walking, so it looks like he really DOES need a spell in a Rehab hospital! I suggested he requests an x-ray of his knee too.

The long trip home commences

2010-08-29T04:56:00.001+10:00

I'm not sure there's anything quite so stultifying, so mind numbingly boring as driving solo on an autobahn for 7 hours straight. So when I saw this sign life was good again.

I dived for the camera and a) managed to find it and b) take a pix..2 even.

say no more, nudge nudge wink wink, but what do the inhabitants say when asked where they live?

World Masters Champs

2010-08-28T01:08:00.006+10:00

Well, the TT was so-so for me...I came 6th in a similar time to last time I raced here 2 years ago, but clearly the standard has lifted.

The road race was something quite different.... apart that is from the driving rain, uncertain wind strentgh/direction. Firstly I got well and truly dropped on the Huberhohe..a 1km long hill starting about 1km from the start of the race. The front group got away and I was soloing up the hill and dying ...so from then on it was TT time and boy did I put in big time.

I put in to such a degree that although initially I couldn't see anyone ahead, gradually I began overtaking stragglers from the younger age groups who started earlier, sometimes getting tangled up in the queue of cars unable to overtake riders ahead...???was the group ahead my rivals...I just didn't know.. but I kept on chasing, chasing chasing...

Anyhow...gradually I got closer and closer to the group...bugger only 1 in it was from my class and she latched on to my wheel leech like..on, on, on, motor, motor motor...I was motoring but clearly the bunch was playing silly buggers and so FINALLY at about 800m out from the finish I made contact and so was in the sprint for second place. However the legs were far from fresh and I ended up 5th, 6th or perhaps even 7th. (added later...5th). Later on someone who saw me at the finish said I looked grey...and she wasn't talking about my hair....so yes I WORKED! and in fact i think i did better on  the part of the course which is also the return part of the TT course better than during the TT race!!...weird.

Hopefully nobody thinks I got an advantage from the cars I got tangled up with...its really difficult to know what to do....like all queues sometimes they were fast, sometimes not.. Actually on the narrow roads sometimes I was slowed down by them and also couldn't descend a hill as quick as I wanted since I had to take my life in my hands and go down on the wrong side of the road...just hoping nothing would come up around the corner too quickly!  only 1 car did and   I had to quickly throw out the anchors and escape back into the slow moving queue.

I'm truly stoked with the result and the adrenalin is flowing big time, the beer too..woo hoo!

Different topic

Some of you will have no doubt have heard about the possibilty that the UCI may not be sanctioning Masters Champs anymore...we've had a meeting here at St Johann re this but really are not 100% sure if its just a rumour or is indeed true. There seems to have been no communication/consultation with federations but the organisors here at St J have been told about it.......!!!!!?????   Watch this space and also "World Masters Cycling" on face book and twitter

Coupla pix to lighten the mood

guess when there are alot of cafes and restaurants you just have to have something to separate you from the crowd...and a witch will do it!

some signs I just can't pass without taking a photo!

Austria

2010-08-23T00:29:00.020+10:00

The weather here has, so far, been really good..check out the blue sky in the pix. However..its probably going to change in a coupla days.

this is the road 3km from the end of the road race..dead flat and dead straight.

St Johann has many, many houses just like these ones..so beautiful

the end of a Women's race

and yet another sign!

Sadly I may not be here for the races as I've just heard my husband Phil is in hospital with a broken leg.....obviously I have to shorten my holiday but am not sure by how much since this is prime travel time and there may b a problem getting my ticket changed......more anon.

Austria and World Championships

2010-08-19T19:35:00.000+10:00

We've moved on to Austria now and we are happily at our home from home at St Johann in Tyrol, the site of the World Masters Cycling Championships.

Talking of world championships..check out these for weirdness..Sauna berry picking mobile phone throwing and finally the loudest crying baby world champs .

Weird, weirder and weirdest and in the case of the last one very worrying.

more pix from Bled,Slovenia

2010-08-19T19:25:00.000+10:00

more on Slovenia

2010-08-18T01:39:00.004+10:00

great country..clean, friendly and very outdoorsy ...at least it is here in Bled. And it's 'cos of this last thing that`we're moving on as the weather forecast for the next 2 days is bad and there's not much fun being stuck in a hotel room for a coupla days So we're off to Austria tomorrow.

meanwhile..I remain gob smacked by what some people have as house/garden decorations:

and I am still pathetically amused by Slovenian`words and I've opted NOT to know what they really mean

I love Italy and its bike riders

2010-08-17T05:24:00.000+10:00

it takes a bit of skill to ride a bike AND hold an umbrella!

Slovenia..misc pix

2010-08-17T05:20:00.001+10:00

Slovenian cats are just as lazy as australian ones!

its been along time since I've seen a sycthe in action

just a stones throw from the sythe wielding man.....

and when you have no knowledge whatsoever about the language, you Anglicise or make things up

Slovenia

2010-08-17T05:08:00.000+10:00

Bled church and castle

Korbarid .the Italian "Charnel House". This was the site of an intense battle during the first world war btween Italy and the Austro Hungarian army.

Venice..no words needed

2010-08-11T23:52:00.000+10:00

bolzano in the dolomites, tuscany and elsewhere

2010-08-11T23:39:00.002+10:00

We're here because we want to see the Ice Man ...Utzi and it was well worth the queue...and believe me...i don't DO queues!

so its catch up time and i'd like you to guess what these people are doing.....

answer a bit later

San Gimagno has at least 7 towers built by warring families......(!)

and roman remains and towers that you just have to climb up even if your knees are shot for a coupla days afterwards.

and great views everywhere...

and the answer to the riddle at the start is below

....yup they're posing!

Venice

2010-08-08T19:39:00.000+10:00

still in internet wilderness..or at least only at an internet caff. I'll just have to sort out my pix and put them on a USB stick......

weather perfect, house very nice, location great...no loud church bells next door!!

We're planning to go to Bolzano tomorrow to see the ice man museum (Utzi) and if there's time Alex may scale a Dolomiti pass....Pordoi (spelling VERY uncertain).

well best finish before time runs out...off to ride the grand canal

florence

2010-08-04T20:47:00.000+10:00

A bit of a problem with internet access has slowed input to this blog to a big fat zero..hopefully normal service will soon be resumed....

Alex's pix from Superbagneres and Peyresourde

2010-07-28T02:59:00.001+10:00

Luchon...start and finish location for this year's TdF

cols de Tourmalet and Aspin tomorrow for Alex and a rest day for me with a visit to Lourdes...for a bike shop, not a miraculous cure (!)

Its a warm to hot day with blue skies

2010-07-27T23:49:00.000+10:00

...don't like to gloat ,but.....todays weather has been peachy. I rode the circuit below going over the col de Ares and the col de Buret..both quite gentle by local standards, just about 10km at 4% avarage

some pix from the area:

Next post i'll add some of alex's ride up the Superbagneres and the Peyresourde..after which he was truly stuffed......riding the road on an MTB with knobby tyres is (so he tells me) not easy. He also has a damaged wrist from an accident during the MTBO champs, which causes a few problems too.

So here we are in the Pyrenees

2010-07-26T02:42:00.001+10:00

Today I rode first to St Bertrand castle where there was a medieval festival happening..I was a bit early so not much happening

then back the way I came, passing by where we're staying in Bertren

Bertren is just a very small village and this house is waaaay old. It's also very close to the church which has an interesting quirk in that it chimes the hours twice with a bit of a pause between. Apparently the resaon for this is that the first one was to alert the peasants in the fields that it was something o'clock and the second one was to let them count which o'clock it was!!! It doesn't double up overnight, for which we are truly grateful, but it's still very loud

Then I rode over to Louchon, where the TdF was just a few days ago and where I met up with Alex, who'd just ridden the Port de Bales (site of the famed "mechanical").

Alps to the Pyrenees

2010-07-25T03:38:00.002+10:00

Our last day was a thunderous one so no riding and in fact the electricity went off twice so we nearly missed the Cavendish sprint. since we didn't want to have a rainy ride we went to Briancon to look at its walled citadal and take heaps of pix of old buildings (to follow..if this wifi will let me).

Today we've driven to the Pyrenees...here we're staying at a group house called Pyractif in Bertren..actually we're self catering and currently there's only 4 of us although this will alter in a coupla days.

The journey over to where we are now was a beast..slow as, since everyone but EVERYONE was on the road moving from 1 holiday location to another. This trip has made us decide that when we move next we'll do it over 2 days, so well probably leave here a day early and break the back of the journey on Friday. we cant make up our mind if we should overnight...Cannes Nice Monaco! Truly I dont mind paying for a toll road if it actually allows you to go fast..however this wasn't the case today and we ended up paying about 30 euros tolls for the prviledge of going really slow. And then for no reason speeding up and then again slowing down!!

traiteur actually means caterer!

bike lanes around roundabouts are only any good if the motorists understand what they're supposed to do..and they don't and its really important always to look where you're going!

we were right at the base of alpe d'huez, so there were always crowds of cyclists around...

Shopping in French

2010-07-22T22:55:00.000+10:00

I was within the proverbial of buying goat's milk yesterday....after staring at the word "chevres" for a while I then looked at the picture...phew!

Alex has ridden up the col de croix de fer and is now moribund. I've been doing interval efforts along the valley floor, and before you think how easy is that...the max grade was 10%

It's our last day here tomorrow and then we're off to the Pyrenees, apparently there is free wifi there so I should be able to add some pix.

Off to watch the TdF......

The alpes

2010-07-21T20:49:00.000+10:00

I'm sitting on the floor of the tourist bureau making use of their free wifi, which is only useable within 150m of this room and since I've got the crap laptop with me I need it to be plugged into the mains.

The pix above is my car and apartment..we're on the first and second floor ie the balcony and porthole above.

It's situated right at the base of the alpe d'huez and is about a 10 min walk into bourg d'oisans..Alex has already gone up that climb, but I'm busy doing some hard training for Austria and so am not planning to shatter myself "col bagging".

The weather has been great, so i'm happily working on my tan.

these last 2 pix from my ride to Oz en Oisans

Lyon airport

2010-07-19T19:38:00.001+10:00

I had two good rides yesterday...one going towards a village called Venosc and the second after watching TdF to Oz en Oisans..seems like we get everywhere!

So today I'm here at Lyon airport to meet Alex ..he's coming from Portugal. I managed to get here with no scenic detours and in passing saw a few fields full of sunflowers. The airport is called Saint-Exupéry which is very appropriate since Phil and Paul have been going on and on about Le Petit Prince ( Damien Cunego) during TdF. And for those unsure of the connection it's from a book entitled Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Geneva to Le Bourg d'Oisans

2010-07-18T21:02:00.000+10:00

No WiFi so I'm in an internet cafe ...so no pix..sri

I would never have thought i did ANY touch typing at all, but now I'm using a French keyboard I realise i do;;;q is where a is full stop reuires a shift key as do numbers and m is well to the right in the middle...confusing.

I got out onto the bike this morning..about 80 minutes with a bit of climbing up to 12% at one stage, but I'm not planning on tackling the akp d'huez this early as I'm still coughing and sniffling.

Once I'd got my car I set the Garmin Nuvi and shot off...god knows where it took me, it was very picturesque but took about 2 hours longer than I'd expected and when it had got me totally lost it ran out of battery!..luckily it chose a spot quite close to a freeway, so i was able to locate where I was on the map and the rest of the journey went without a hitch. pfft GPS...pfffft

Better stop as i'm running out of time and the waitress is beginning to hover. Back to the apartment to watch Le Tour on English TV.....

On French soil again

2010-07-17T09:30:00.000+10:00

Thankfully that horror journey is over..all up door to door and with an 8 hour wait at Changi airport (I booked a room at the transit hotel and at 68 Singapore dollars it was well worth it) it was close to 40 hours.

Geneva airport has a bipolar air to it..I had to wait on the Swiss side for the hotel shuttle bus..when I go back tomorrow I will be delivered back to the Swiss side, but have then to move over to the French side to be picked up by my car lease firm so I have to do the following:
Access to the French sector via the Check-in level. Follow the yellow "Destination France" signs.

In case you've not yet discoverd this..if you're in Europe for >21 days its far far better and cheaper to lease rather than rent a car. I'm going Renault this time round but there's also Citroen and Peugeot ..motorbikes and motorhomes too.

Its been a while since I was on French soil..apart from ever so briefly in 2008 while checking out theTrenchee d'Arenberg of Paris Roubaix fame, I think it must be at least 10 years when, like this time round, it was for a week of exploring the alps and in particular alpe d'huez. We stayed in a hotel, which is the reason we are now staying in apartments...French hotels are unique with a sorta character that makes you want to avoid them.

Today's hotel is one of the international and therefore bland Holiday Inn chain..an "airport" hotel that is so far from Geneva airport it took 20 minutes in the free shuttle bus to get here. Its definitely NOT French or even European..no bidet! also no fridge but WiFi at 7 euros for 24 hr access. As hotels go its average to ok but they have gained brownie points by agreeing to stow my bike box til i return in 5 weeks time.

One good aspect is that there is a shopping mall just a 15 min walk away so I was able to stock up and get some exercise. Shopping in a foreign language is always fraught with danger..I've already moaned elsewhere about how many different types of shampoos there are in Aus..so faced with exactly the same choices in a language you are not now familiar with is at the least a time consuming challenge if you're not to walk away with something you really didn't want or need......

Behaviours...
Asian: I got offered a seat on the inter-terminal train at Zurich by a group of Asians..was I looking old and tired or were they just being respectful of grey hair?....
French: I got dumped by the male employee helping me at the grog shop when part of my requirements was that the bottle was a screw top since I had no cork screw.

Working girls: a couple of the camp sites during my Italian adventure were located in the industrial area and we grew accustomed to "spotting the working girls" as we approached these sites. The first working girl I saw..not realising what I was looking at until later...was ensconced, complete with chair and sun shade at the edge of a corn field..so you can perhaps imagine my thoughts yesterday on seeing 2 cars parked on the edge of a corn field as I walked to the shopping mall ......

So tomorrow I drive to Le Bourg d'Oisans and re-commence Liz's excellent cycling adventure in europe.

Back to europe for a more relaxed holiday

2010-07-11T17:45:00.000+10:00

..well actually it'll be just as cycle focused as I'll be training for the World Masters Road Champs in Austria at the end of August, however since I've just endured a week of jet lag followed almost immediately by a week of "the 'flu", my training is so far behind where it should be that I'm 100% certain I'll be propping up the bottom of the list this time round.

Curently Alex is competing in Portugal in the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships, please take a look at this web site for details...http://mtbwoc2010.fpo.pt/ or this one for the team's blog http://www.ozmtboteam.socialfx.net/

There are quite a few events..sprint, middle distance qualifying for the long and then the long distance and after that the relays. Alex is better at the longer distances. The sprint event starts later today (Sunday am both there).

I fly out on Thursday and will be riding the Alp d'Huez on Sunday..providing my cough and sinus issues doesn't worsen during the flight.

I'm soooo looking forward to warmer weather and the 21 hairpin bends...better than the 48 of the Stelvio

Pass the parcel

2010-07-01T17:27:00.001+10:00

or how to use an elephant to crack a nut.

Through the post today, my Garmin Europe map for use in the Edge 705 or Nuvi car GPS

the white package measures 320mmx300mm, the actual card 10mmx15mm (I've corrected and edited out extra 0!)

Wow! what a difference a new bike makes

2010-07-01T17:18:00.000+10:00

the only things NOT new are the seat and seat post (too high in this pix) and the SRM cranks. and WHAT a difference..lively, stiff, responsive and GREAT! .....worth every penny.

I now realise the Mavic wheels I'd been faithfully clinging onto were well and truly past their use by date..these new ones spin forever......happy happy happy!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

2010-06-28T14:52:00.000+10:00

Birth notice:
please welcome into the world my new road baby baum, brother to track baby baum - already patiently waiting to be made up and set up....check out the classy work.

It looks double plus super good and now I just have to recover and attempt to justify its existence(!) I went out for a cruisy 45km ride yesterday and had to have a sleep afterwards, so I'll just have to pamper myself a few more days before putting in some real efforts, by which time BB should be ready to roll..

Brief rest until I fly out again

2010-06-25T11:53:00.000+10:00

I'm into a brief "no-blog" phase so there's no need to check up here until I hit Europe again which is on July 15th, when I land in Geneva and pick up our leased Renault car a Megane station wagon.

We need a car that can take 3 bikes and 3 people but having seen the narrowness of the streets in Italy, I think I might have to steer clear of driving in villages! (I'm still suffering from shock from getting lost in Agrigento in Sicily and having to drive along the ancient narrow and very very steep streets..27% downhill hair pin bend to be exact)

The plan for the next stage of 2010 travels is as follows:

Firstly with Alex,

1 week in Bourg D'Oisans (and our apartment is actually at the bottom of Alpe d'Huez), so the French alps..we plan on driving over to Como one of the days to see the cycling museum and Madonna d'Ghisalla church.

then 1 week in the Pyrenees.

then we are joined by my sister for 1 week in Tuscany and

Firenze, Siena, Pisa and Lucca are all on the menu and we're staying at Palaia which is the top one of the two red flags

1 week near Venice.

we're staying somewhere between Venice and Padova and plan on seeing not only Venice but also the ice man in Bolzano, the Pinarello factory in Treviso and if Alex is up for it, he will ride (and I will drive!) the Passo del Stelvio

Alex then flies home
and my sister and I then have1 week in Slovenia ..nothing planned yet and
1 week in Austria (St Johann for the world road champs) after which she returns home

I fly to Manchester for 2 days then to
USA (San Diego) for 1 week and then home again

finally one more thing I learned...and that is if you are 65 yrs or over it pays to have your Seniors card (and photo ID with birth date on) with you in Italy 'cos you get into tourist places free!...grey hair and wrinkles rule... yeah!

Back home in freezing Melbourne..reflections and musings

2010-06-22T03:28:00.003+10:00

Home again and for the first time I ended up in a seat from Singapore to Melb next to someone who overflowed her seat onto mine...not happy Jan. So back home to winter and I'm wearing as much as I did in the Dolomiti when it was snowing! so ..tell me...HOW can I show off MY sun tan in this weather?

..doesn't look like any of these

Lombardia

2010-06-19T22:13:00.001+10:00

Day 34- Latsch to Como ...122km, 1272m climbing
Day 35- recover in Como
Day 36- fly out of Milan

so sad but what a buzz...we've just ridden the length of Italy...too shattered to write..will post later

The Dolomiti and especially the Passo del Stelvio

2010-06-18T02:31:00.001+10:00

Well we’ve finally had everything….sun, sea,hills mountains, villages, towns, great views..you name it…

We’ve also had all weathers..hot, humid, warm, cold with rain, thunderstorms, hail and finally sleet and snow!

A coupla days ago we sat in our tents while outside raged THE most scary storm ever..talk about a son e lumiere show and the wind…..it was just as well we were in our tents..else they might have flown away.

That was our introduction to the Dolomites and we’ve not really been dry since.

So today was Stelvio day..a hard day in anyone’s language but we just chose a day when the word hard just doesn’t go far enough:

and yes that’s snow!

these guys have chipped the snow off their saddles and are about to go on down…some of us opted not to! I managed to get to the top but was distraught with cold when I arrived..I guess I don’t DO cold very well.

Anyhow ..got the T shirt! Only 1 day’s ride left…sooooo sad.

Things I have learned over the past month....

2010-06-16T14:03:00.000+10:00

General:

Baby wipes are great degreasers..bike, chain, hands..the works. Makes you wonder about the poor baby does it not!!!
Some Italian camping grounds (?the cheaper ones) dont provide toilet paper..strictly BYO..a fact one only forgets once.
Totally unexpectedly.... squat toilets abound.
Consideration to cyclists moves closer to an "Australian level" when near a big city..although still far better than what we're used to.
For some unfathomable reason some ski hotels dont have drying rooms

Personal

Extended climbs of up to about 12% are now within my grasp
Short bursts of steeper are doable
however when faced with 19% 5 hours into a ride, I tend to throw in the towel
I still can't resist snaffling ALL the soap and shampoo freebies when staying in a hotel..even when I really dont need them...and I can't now pretend they're for the kids to play shop with!!

Trentino

2010-06-16T04:13:00.001+10:00

Day 32- Canazei to Latsch...107km, 1212m climbing
Day 33- Latsch to Tirano ...110km, 2482m climbing

Disappointing Dolomiti so far with cold, wet weather, white outs and generally not what we'd hoped for.

Me...I got back ache..too much climbing and had to sit out an afternoon's ride and then the next day the wet weather made the downhills too dangerous for those of us struggling with 20 km of downhill braking.

The weather tomorrow is destined to be as bad if not worse, so maybe a trip to see the ice man at Bolzano might well be the better option. Sad but. The EFI award (see previous post) has now been whittled down to just a handful...although protests, rule revisions and bribes are in the air(!)

Today the ride passed over the Portoi pass, the location of the Coppi memorial statue

so here i am wearing my coppi t shirt and my new highly expensive Craft bib nix..comfy as, but I might have to mortgage the house to pay for them. we finally found a bike shop worthy of the name and I bought the place out...starvation for a year at least.....!

Veneto

2010-06-13T02:29:00.000+10:00

Day 27- Chioggia to Venezia...25km, 0m climbing
Day 28- Rest day
Day 29- Venezia to Tramonte di Sotto...140km, 525m climbing
Day 30- Tramonte di Sotto to Cortina d'Ampezzo...121km, 3255m climbing
Day 31- Cortina d'Ampezzo to Canazei...71km, 2134m climbing

weather widget

Venice

2010-06-13T02:25:00.001+10:00

no bikes or vehicles allowed in Venice..so all goods seem to be manhandled in trolleys of a variety of sizes and shapes plenty of rules

cost and times of opening……nothing more guaranteed to make you totally continent

Venice..first we had to get there

2010-06-13T02:22:00.001+10:00

The ride into Venice was to be an easy tootle of a coupla kms and 3 ferry rides. However…a transport strike intervened and the day stretched out for at least half the group as they had to wait and wait and wait for the very irregular ferries. 10 of us were lucky and didn’t have to wait too long

getting a relatively easy run through, but having got to the camp site were reluctant to go into the Venice itself in case we couldn’t get back.

So for the lucky ones a really great lunch was waiting..

Decisions were difficult

but in the end there was little left

NeopoliTAN arm

2010-06-11T01:41:00.000+10:00

two fold reason for this..one to show you my wasp sting redness..the other to show off my tan!

Out of Florence and towards Venice

2010-06-11T00:27:00.000+10:00

What with "rest" days in Rome and Florence and relatively easy riding in between, the heave out of Florence came as a bit of a shock to the system. At a steady 9-10-11% it was actually a bit steeper than what we've been getting used to.

The reward was not only great downhill hoons, but also a night in a hotel.

This morning the announcement was "good morning people..today you have the first of the flat days..virtually no climbing.....its also pretty well the last flat day also......."

So today we had 152km of flat, flat flat land, with the only rises in the road being over canals, rivers (including the Po) railway lines and other roads. it reminded me very much of where I grew up in the UK ...the Lincolnshire fens. We rode it the only way you can..in big groups with strong motoring legs on the front and the rest of us sucking the wheel in front......

No pix..

Emilio-Romagna

2010-06-10T01:40:00.000+10:00

Day 26- Castel San Pietro Terme to Chioggia...153km, 373m climbing..tomorrow and we're not looking forward to it..hot days. We're having brekky at 6 to get an early start....with lashings of factor 30 on.

Seen on the road again..Tuscany

2010-06-09T00:38:00.001+10:00

One of the value added aspects of the ride has been the wild flowers all along the road. Most of them we’ve been able to identify, but these have us all stumped.

I’m not sure this following pix will help, but…any ideas?..def NOT poppies..we’ve got those pegged…

even the veggie shops are special

and although the hills aren’t as soul destroyingly long as in the south (or maybe we’re just alot fitter now)we still have this situation, where the road ahead is NOT the one we want to have to ride up…

Florence

2010-06-09T00:33:00.001+10:00

Well, I guess I’d better post a coupla arty farty pix to please the more civilised amongst us….

ok, that’s enough…. back to normal..

transport and 2 wheeled rules:

hmm!..

and car parking remains much the same as in the south:-

at lights AND on a pedestrian crossing!!!!!

No idea of the date or day, but we're in Florence!

2010-06-08T22:06:00.002+10:00

Great riding here in Tuscany..we've moved out of the 15+km uphill slogs followed by downhills in sketchy road surfaces to shorter, sharper uphills one after the other followed by GREAT dowhhills on smooth, well cambered roads. Yahoo/yeeha! worthy.

With the 2 Kiwis gone the awesome threesome have had to pickup the navigational duties and have managed to stay focussed and on course with a high level of skill (unlike our revered leader and organisor who managed to get lost the other day leading his usual string of cyclists, who once they were with him, stopped bothering to navigate ;-) We''ve also managed to arrive in first into lunch and have beaten the so-called "A team" a number of times..nothing competitive about us of course and no comments please about the fact that we set off straight after brekkywell before the official start time!

Sienna was great,well worth a visit and very steep..walking anywhere is an added challenge after days and days on the bike

and we were lucky enough to catch the Giraffe group doing their flag waving thing.

but in the end ..walking gets to be a bit tiring.