Not long now: Dirty Deeds CX Race 2

Only a week to go. How is the form? Has the caffeine loading schedule gone to plan? Have the right amounts of EPO been taken? Have the intense skills sessions with the ex-Romanian national U/7's gymnastics coach paid off?

All these questions and more will be answered in just 1 week....

Bring on Dirty Deeds Urban Cycylocross round 2...

MC SpandX Comes to His Senses, Realizes It’s Time to Get Dirty

Story of my life
MC SpandX Comes to His Senses, Realizes It’s Time to Get Dirty

Back in business

Something which has really stuck in my mind is from speaking to Mitchy and Drew a while back about the importance of 'mental recovery'. It sounds corny but I've come to realise lately that your mind needs recovery from demanding cognitive and emotional things, in exactly the same way that your body does after a strenuous bout of training.


I usually work at uni 4 days a week up to probably 10hrs a day, then work 2 days a week at the bike shop, which leaves only a Saturday for free time. But even that is filled with so much 'stuff' that I often feel like I never stop. Last week I recognised that I really needed a day off asap or else things would go pear shaped. So I scheduled a day off. Today was the day.


I decided to use it to go for a 'proper' training ride, something I haven't had time to do for a while now. It's been almost 2 months since I've done a ride over 80km. No wonder the form had been going backwards.

Although the motivation was there before I set out, I also felt like it was a lost cause because training has been so sporadic lately, and that I should be elsewhere doing something else more productive. But I forced myself out the door and promised myself not to turn around until I got to the top of Kinglake. I knew that today was not only about doing some decent training, but also to clear my head.

And what a pearler of a day it was. The sun was out and hardly a breath of wind. It was also a good chance to get back on the Look after it had been to the doctors for a broken rear dropout after a small stack over a month ago.


The view from near the top of the Kinglake climb was postcard quality today.

Fido and I had a sprint match along his patch. He won convincingly, but he did have the home track advantage.


I thought the ride home would be a struggle due to the minimal km's lately, but I felt surprisingly fresh the whole way back.

Now to keep this motivation up and get the form back for Dirty Deeds Cyclocross round 2 on the 25th July.

Ciao for now, stage 5 is about to start. Hmm, will I make it to the finish? Unlikely..

TdF stage 1

Fabian Cancelara heading off on stage 1 from Rotterdam

Arguably the coolest name in this years' TdF peloton, belongs to a past cyclocross world champion, who now rides for Rabobank. He is currently in the 3-man breakaway off the front of stage 1 of the TdF. Go Lars Boom:

From this:

To this: (in third wheel)

He was probably glad he wasn't in the main field when some muppet in the crowd let their dog stray into the path of the race at the 55km mark which brought down Basso and Millar. Both are ok.
Dog pancake..

Ikea are proudly supplying the 'road furniture' for stage 1 in Holland/Belgium. Their 2010 'road furniture' range won't store much clothing or organise your knives and forks. And the doors may fall off the day after you put it together. Much like with the regular Ikea range, frustrated riders will swear at it.

Learning from mistakes. Many, many mistakes.

Getting a feel for the way the bike squirms around underneath you in the mud is something that takes time to get used to, especially for a typical roadie like me with minimal bike-handling skillz.

This morning after a quick 60 to Mordi and back with Mitchy and co, followed by a coffee, Tim introduced me to his good friend Yarra Trails.

Despite losing count of how many times I binned it this morning on the slippery wet clay-ish singletrack, I think I'm getting better.

At the very least it was wicked-sik fun, as evidenced from the below photos.

I also discovered that road brake pads don't have such a long lifespan in the mud. I found metal filings around the brake area, which was from the pad wearing through to the screw which holds the pad in place, and this was griding into the rim's braking surface after only about 8 rides.

Note to self, just don't use brakes:

Until next dismount..

Dirty Deeds Race # 1

What a cracker of a start to what would be widely regarded as Melbourne's first 'proper' cyclocross race (at least in the last 40 years or so, apparently) hosted last weekend by Brunswick CC.

There's been full coverage and reports on the Dirty Deeds website, so I won't go into detail, but I do want to say that I think it was the best/most-fun/awesome race event I've ever been to. Cannot wait til the next one on the 25th July.

Beginnings

"Idiots doing really hard shit" was was a description of cyclocross I heard a while back. Racing flat-out for an hour on a what is essentially a road bike in the freezing cold, getting caked in mud, through puddles, plus jumping over barriers and carrying the bike while running up stairs getting soaked and a bit hypothermic from wearing only a summer-weight skinsuit - all seems pretty stupid. Infact, the original description is pretty much on the money. It's 'hard shit'.

But to the cross racer, the attitude is: the harder the better. Plucking up the courage to fight those tough conditions and to hurt your legs, lungs and later, your washing machine.

I don't think it's idiotic. It's hardcore. And awesome. And cool. But yeah, ok.. a little bit stupid.