Last post here

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

Ben

Surfing the WWW

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!

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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".