Non Pro Cycling

Friday Video

Posted on November 16, 2012 by norbs

Thanks to Rob Arnold at RIDE magazine for the heads up on Facebook. This looks fantastic.

The Last Kilometer / L’Ultimo Chilometro / movie trailer from Stuffilm on Vimeo.

The Last Kilometer is a film about a passion, an emotion, a sport: cycling.
The movie follows the story and an entire season of races of “the old” Davide Rebellin, 41 years old and still fighting in the peloton after many victories and scandals, and “the young” Ignazio Moser, promising 20 years old son of Francesco Moser.
Famous italian journalist Gianni Mura, Tour de France Correspondent since 1967, helps us to discover what cycling was and what it has become, between doping scandals, passion, epic, richness and decadence.
Finally, a bit of madness and insane passion is brought into the movie by Ditier “Didi” Senft, better known as El Diablo, a living symbol and metaphor of all cycling fans, their passion, their enthusiasm.
The Last Kilometer is a portrait of cycling.

Posted in General Cycling Info | Tagged Davide Rebellin, Ditier “Didi” Senft, El Diablo, Francesco Moser, Gianni Mura, Ignazio Moser, Rob Arnold | Comments Off

Regular readers will know that I had my GoPro camera destroyed on the second day of my charity bike ride in September. For those that aren’t regulars, here is an extract from the blog post at the time…

A 2km run along a back road until we hit the Princes Highway. Turning right and heading directly south into a reasonable South Easterly breeze. We were going ok, pushing along at about 25kph, knowing it was going to be a long day. The GPS said it was going to be around 160kms. We were taking turns at the front. The road surface wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a disaster either. Just your normal “out in the middle of no where country highway” sort of surface. There was the odd car, and from recollection, at this point we might have seen 2 trucks. Hardly Parramatta Road during peak hour. At one point I noticed the GoPro camera, which was mounted on the handle bars on its shiny new GoPro mount, was vibrating a bit. I remember thinking the video wouldn’t be all that flash. On we pushed. About 50 minutes into the ride, I was second wheel behind Gary. I felt something hard and heavy hit my right forearm. Then it was one of those tiny stretches of time, probably no more than 5 clicks of the second hand, when time slows right down. I looked down to see the GoPro camera making a rather hasty exit from the bike. It could have made a leap to the left and landed in some soft grass. Nope, my little friend was hardcore, he chose to go to the right. As I watched him head towards the road, I was thinking to my self “He’ll be right, I have seen them take far more…” it was at that point that I turned to see if there was any cars coming. Nope, no cars, just a 62 tonne B-Double!!! Having seen a bunch of cyclists ahead, he was doing the right thing and getting off our side of the road. I had just enough time to to a bit of calculus in my head and realise that my beloved GoPro had just committed suicide! The truck got him with every wheel on its left hand side. It made a sickening sound. The sound of a camera crying out in pain, or was it my wallet screaming? I don’t know. Tony reported a cloud of plastic, with green bits, presumably the printed circuit boards, my cameras innards!

We pulled up. After quite a few WTFs, I let the boys know that video footage for the rest of the trip would be limited. It was then pointed out that if we could find the camera, or the memory card, it might make for interesting viewing. Yeah, if it isn’t your $300 camera being destroyed, sure. 🙂

We cruised up and down that part of the highway for 10 minutes, but no memory card could be found. Part of the housing, the lens, the battery and fragments of plastic were gathered up, but no memory card. if you some day find yourself on this part of the Princes Highway, please stop and see if you can find a 32G Sandisk SD card. I’ll pay for postage. 🙂

So there is the back story. The handle bar mount was only on its 3rd outing. Here is a photo of the aftermath, the failed mount.

Click for larger.

And the bits we managed to grab off the highway.

Click for larger.

Trawling around the interwebs, I found that it isn’t an uncommon failure. I was already going to contact GoPro, but knowing it wasn’t an isolated issue, I felt slightly more confident. Slightly. Having had to deal with large companies, I’m looking at you Apple, before, I knew it could potentially be a drama.

I filled in the web contact form and was contacted via email by Adam C at GoPro. He asked me to send him a copy of the receipt as proof of purchase. That received, he sent me an email with these few lines…

Update for Case #365746 – “Faulty mount causes camera to be destroyed.”

Hi Todd,

We can replace everything (camera, battery, housing, and handlebar/seatpost mount) except for the SD card.

I just issued the sales order for your replacement items. It should ship out by the end of the day tomorrow and get to you in about a week or so.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Many Thanks,

Adam C
GoPro Support
www.gopro.com/support

Well, how good is that. And, true to his word, a week later…

Newness!

I would just like to take the opportunity to thank Adam and GoPro for the professional way they dealt with my issue and the pain free replacement of my GoPro. Kudos to them.

Thanks also to Steve McKeirnan on Twitter for prompting this story. 🙂

Posted in General Cycling Info | Tagged camera, GoPro, handlebar mount, mount fail | Comments Off

Lance Photo. It was Photoshopped.

Posted on November 11, 2012 by norbs

Lots of sizzle this morning about a Tweet by former 7 times winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong.

Back in Austin and just layin’ around… mob.li/_r4zAz

— Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong) November 10, 2012

The comments are where the gold is at.

I have done some digging, and apparently that photo has been photoshopped! Twitter saw this.

Click for larger image.

And here is the original.

Click for larger image.

Posted in General Cycling Info, Pro Cycling | Tagged Lance Armstrong, maillot juane, Tellow Jersey, White papaer bags | Comments Off

Mark Renshaw to Contest Clarence St Cup

Posted on November 9, 2012 by norbs

Big news for Sydney-siders. Mark Renshaw will be at the Dunc Gray velodrome on November 24th to race in the Clarence St Cup. This from the media release.

Rabobank sprinter Mark Renshaw is a confirmed starter for the 31st Clarence St Cyclery Cup on Saturday, November 24th at Dunc Gray Velodrome. A winner of the race in 2002, Renshaw will headline a star studded field of local talent as he prepares for the 2013 season.

Now plying his trade on the road, Renshaw was an elite track cyclist earlier in his decorated career with numerous national and world championships before turning his attention to the road bike. Returning to the boards for what is the most prestigious handicap race in NSW, Renshaw is looking forward to competing. “I miss the speed and excitement of track racing. It’s always great atmosphere around the velodrome”.

Racing against the next generation of NSW riders Caleb Ewan, Tirian McManus, Scott Law, Jack Edwards and last year’s winner Nathan Bradshaw; Renshaw admitted he will need luck on his side if he is to regain the Clarence St Cup. “I will probably be riding off scratch; hopefully some other riders will help me chase down the front markers. I’m looking forward to riding against these young guns. I’ll give them a run for their money and hopefully catch them out with a few old tricks”.

Cycling NSW Chief Executive Officer Kevin Young expressed his excitement about Renshaw lining up for the carnival. “Having a rider of the calibre of Mark Renshaw on the track will be a great sight for all. We’d like to encourage cycling fans to come down and watch him in action; it will be a great day of racing”.

2011 winners Rebecca Wiasack (Canberra CC) and Nathan Bradshaw (St George CC) will line up in defence of their title in what will be another special night of track cycling.

Details of the 31st Clarence St Cup & NSW U19/ Elite Keirin Championships:

Date: Saturday November 24th, 2012

Venue: Dunc Gray Velodrome, Bass Hill NSW

Times: Junior carnival from 2pm, Senior carnival from 6pm

Tickets: $15 Adult, $10 Concession, $40 Family (2 Adults + 2 Children)

Media enquiries and requests:

Andrew Newton
Events Coordinator
Cycling NSW
(P) 02 9738 5850 (E) andrew.newton@cycling.org.au

I will be there with media credentials taking photos. Look for a tubby guy with an orange vest on. A couple of photos from last years event.

So, who’s coming?

Posted in General Cycling Info, Pro Cycling | Tagged Bass Hill, Clarence Street Cup, Dunc Gray Velodrome, Mark Renshaw | 1 Comment

Ryder Hesjedal – Haleakala Record

Posted on November 7, 2012 by norbs

I put a Tweet up early tonight about a dream I had last night about climbing the mega beast of a climb, Haleakala, in Hawaii. In the dream I punctured 1km from the top. I was about 4h 30m in to the climb. Oh, how I heaped praise on the gods of cycling in my dream.

I have mentioned the climb before on this blog. 55.5kms at 5%. Ouch. Well, out of the dark abyss that is my memory, came a recollection that I had seen a video at some point of Ryder Hesjedal trying to break Jonathon Vaughters record for the climb.

Here it is.