Erik Zabel is Still In Good Nick.

Posted on March 13, 2012 by norbs

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This Mornings Commute

Posted on March 13, 2012 by norbs

Cool and foggy. Not leg warmer cool yet, but arm warmer cool.

Foggy

Foggy

Cow Spectator

Cow Spectator

Damn Red Light

Damn Red Light

Arrive

End of the trip.

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A New Goal for 2012.

Posted on March 12, 2012 by norbs

Earlier in the year I posted a list of my goals for 2012. It included a list of local climbs to help me get me to a yearly total of 50,000m. Well, due to the fact that I have a new challenge in September, I am going to drop the local climbs goal, but still aim at 50,000m. For the up coming challenge I don’t need to do a lot of climbing, but I do need to spend a fair bit of time in the saddle. More on this tomorrow.

So the local mountains are safe. That is not to say I wont have a crack at a few this year, but certainly not the one per month I was considering.

The other goal that I am going to give a real shake is the 90kg barrier. I am hovering on 95kgs, but am slowly making some lifestyle changes to help me drop the other 5kgs.

No more looking like this…

4/52

At my heaviest, 103kgs.

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The Inaugural CBCC HITT.

Posted on March 10, 2012 by norbs

The very first Culburra Beach Cycling Club Handicapped Individual Time Trial (Also known as the Race of Shoalhavens Hard Men) was held this morning under cloud free skies and barely a puff of wind. Perfect conditions to go out and try and blitz the course. here is a look at the course. 15kms, mostly as flat as a crap carters hat.

CBCC ITT Course

CBCC ITT Course

And introducing the five hard men that took it on this morning, in starting order.

Bling Bling

Sam aka Bling Bling

 

Lewy

Greg aka Lewy

Fat Bar

Russ aka Fat Bar

norbs

Me aka norbs

Drops

Dave aka Drops

Now, as the self appointed CBCC handicapper, I had the job of trying to get it so we all finished close together. All I had to work on was my best time around the Strava segment which was 30:45 for the 15kms, a shade under 30kph for the average speed. So, using some pretty sophisticated computer modeling, I came up with the following start times, based on predicted average speeds.

Ave Speed (kph) Time (minutes)

25 36.00 Sam
28 32.00 Lewy
29 31.00 Russ
31 29.00 norbs
33 27.00 Dave

Sam set off after spending most of the time pre ride making excuses about his handicap, age, shoe size, wind direction, cleats (that would come back to haunt him later) and anything else he could grasp. He disappeared around the corner, and 4 minutes later Lewy set off. A quick chat with Russ and then he set of on a 29er with the widest handle bars I have seen, thus the nick name Fat Bar. I had 2 minutes to wait before I headed off. Dave was supposed to wait 2 more minutes, but felt charitable and gave me 2:30. There isn’t a lot to report when you have got a challenge like that in front of you. I was hoping to see one of the 3 in front by the half way mark at least. Nothing. When I turned onto Greenwell Point Road, roughly half way, I stole a glance behind me. Can’t see Dave. Good. Head down, bum up, a bit of a down hill. Onto the drops. I am like a snorkeler when I get down onto the drops. Every few minutes I have to sit up to get some air in. Damn this gut of mine. Swinging North on Greenwellpoint Road, I finally see a rider in the distance. About 500m away. I had about 4kms to catch him. Things weren’t looking good. Another over the shoulder peek and still no Dave. I turn left again onto Jindy Andy lane for the final 3.5kms. I can now tell that it is Russ in front of me, and he has his head down. Try as I might, I just can’t haul him in. I finished about 1 minute behind him. My heart is racing as I roll to where Sam, Lewy and Russ are waiting. Big news, Sam beat Lewy to the finish, so no one actually overtook anyone else on the road. Sam had won the CBCC Handicapped Individual Time Trial. Well done Bling Bling, great effort. Dave rolls in about 2:20 behind me, so he has beaten my time to get KOM for the Strava segment. Well done Dave, great riding.

The final times for the segment. Note, everyone bar Dave beat there estimated average speeds. Dave’s was pretty steep.

Segment times, click for Strava view.

We catch our breath and I take the photos above. Sort of Kristof Ramon or Veeral Patel style.

We then head towards Nowra and Bomaderry before heading back to town for a coffee. On the lovely smooth tarmac that is Terarra Road, Dave had a moment with his video camera.

The Contour camera survived with hardly a scratch and kept recoding the rest of the day. We rode out to the back of Bomaderry before we came across a body of water, that was were a road normally is. The Kid with a beard had to have a look. Apologies for the fruity language.

Just before that video was taken. Sam pulled up to watch Lewy, and had a moment where his foot refused to come away from the cleat. Dave, Russ and I were like proud parents. His first clip stack. I should say that he had lost a bolt out of the bottom of the cleat so it wasn’t releasing properly, but we all clip stack at least once. We decided to give the lake a miss and headed back into town for coffee, a bacon and egg roll for me, and lots of freckles being consumed.

Fueled on coffee, it was a lazy pedal back to Lewy’s place for a chat and some bike part trading with Sam and Lewy.

So it ended up being a shorter ride than first talked about, but enjoyable none the less. Thanks to the 4 other members of the CBCC for having a crack at an idea born out of a late night watching the pro cycling on Cycling Central. I look forward to doing it again some time soon.

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Racing : Paris Nice and Tirreno Adriatico

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

Well Paris Nice is getting down to the business end. Wiggins still holds on to a 6 second lead. Can he hang on?

Tirreno Adriatico and they are right between the two seas that separate start and finish. Gossy hangs onto the lead for now. 252kms tonight.

Get on all the action at cyclingfans.com or steephill.tv.

Cav and the chicks

©steephill.tv/sirotti

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Road Works Slow You Down

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

I may have mentioned on the blog that my commute to work has been disrupted by the local councils decision to upgrade the road. Last time they did the 1st half of this road it took the best part of 6 months. If it takes 6 months again, this is what I have to look forward to.

The joy of cars doing 60+kph on a road marked 40kph is a thing to behold. They don’t seem to realise they are spitting chunks of rock at me or kicking up plumes of dust. Fun fun fun.

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Friday Video

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

An inspiring video for this Friday. I was waiting for Oprah to appear near the end. 🙂

Thanks to Tim for the heads up.

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Theft, it is Hard Work for Idiots

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

I feel for the poor bugger who came back to his bike in bits.

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Photos : From This Mornings Commute

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

These all screen grabs from a video, so excuse the poor quality.

Predawn

Predawn light

It is getting darker in the mornings, so I am having to leave in the pre dawn light.

 

 

Cows n cars

Cows 'n' cars

Some of the country roads aren’t all that wide.

 

 

White line

White line

Showing good form on the white line.

 

 

Wet Weather

Wet Weather

Proof that we have had some weather the last few days.

 

 

Sun on the back

Sun on the back.


Riding early in the morning with the sun on my back. Excellent.

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Results : Paris Nice and Tirreno Adriatico

Posted on March 9, 2012 by norbs

Paris Nice.

A bit of a surprise last night with Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) winning the Queen stage of the Paris Nice. Wiggins attacked 1km from home but couldn’t break away. Westra then had a crack and got 6 seconds on the 4 following him, Wiggins, Valverde, Leipheimer and Spilak.

Stage results.
1 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM 4:52:46
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:06
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-Quick Step
5 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha Team
6 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre – ISD 0:00:16
7 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat
8 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:00:24
9 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling
10 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:30

Overall.
1 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling 18:23:40
2 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM 0:00:06
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:00:10
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:18
5 Simon Spilak (Slo) Katusha Team 0:00:37
6 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:39
7 Maxime Monfort (Bel) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:46
8 Arnold Jeannesson (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat 0:01:06
9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:01:16
10 Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Astana Pro Team 0:01:21
11 Angel Vicioso Arcos (Spa) Katusha Team 0:02:24
12 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:46
13 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:03:34
14 Maxime Bouet (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale
15 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur-Sojasun 0:03:37
16 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre – ISD 0:03:42
17 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:03:51
18 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Team Europcar 0:04:09
19 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Team Saxo Bank 0:04:20
20 Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat 0:04:24
21 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team
22 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R La Mondiale 0:04:27
23 Evgeny Petrov (Rus) Astana Pro Team 0:04:36
24 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:04:45
25 Daniele Pietropolli (Ita) Lampre – ISD 0:04:47
26 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:04:51
27 Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team 0:04:58
28 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat 0:05:03
29 Fränk Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan 0:05:05
30 Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan 0:05:13
31 Gianni Meersman (Bel) Lotto-Belisol Team 0:05:14
32 Gustav Larsson (Swe) Vacansoleil-DCM 0:05:24
33 Eros Capecchi (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:05:25
34 Jens Voigt (Ger) RadioShack-Nissan 0:05:29
35 Mikaël Cherel (Fra) Ag2R La Mondiale 0:05:34
36 Xavier Florencio Cabre (Spa) Katusha Team 0:06:07
37 Dominik Nerz (Ger) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:06:20
38 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Team Europcar 0:06:22
39 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Team Europcar 0:06:25
40 Michael Albasini (Swi) GreenEdge Cycling Team 0:06:43
41 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Movistar Team 0:07:11
42 David Lelay (Fra) Saur-Sojasun 0:07:17
43 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:07:40
44 Romain Sicard (Fra) Euskaltel – Euskadi 0:07:46
45 Jérémie Galland (Fra) Saur-Sojasun 0:08:05
46 Julien Simon (Fra) Saur-Sojasun 0:08:16
47 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 0:08:29
48 Anthony Geslin (Fra) FDJ-Bigmat 0:08:30
49 Tony Martin (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 0:08:56
50 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:09:12

Report at cyclingnews.com

Tirreno Adriatico

Cav wins a bunch sprint at the end. I need a macro for that sentence. I expect I will be typing it quite a bit this year. There were 162 of them together at the end.

Stage results.
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 6:32:32
2 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team
3 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Barracuda
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
5 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Colnago – CSF Inox
6 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
7 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
8 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team
9 William Bonnet (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat
10 Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi

Overall. (1st 50)
1 Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) GreenEdge Cycling Team 6:51:13
2 Stuart O’Grady (Aus) GreenEdge Cycling Team
3 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) GreenEdge Cycling Team
4 Cameron Meyer (Aus) GreenEdge Cycling Team
5 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:13
6 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin – Barracuda
7 Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:17
8 Christopher Horner (USA) RadioShack-Nissan
9 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan
10 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Garmin – Barracuda
11 Alex Rasmussen (Den) Garmin – Barracuda
12 Johan Vansummeren (Bel) Garmin – Barracuda
13 Andrew Talansky (USA) Garmin – Barracuda
14 Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan
15 Hayden Roulston (NZl) RadioShack-Nissan
16 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan 0:00:18
17 Thomas Lovkvist (Swe) Sky Procycling 0:00:22
18 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling 0:00:23
19 Ian Stannard (GBr) Sky Procycling
20 Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana Pro Team 0:00:30
21 Maxim Iglinskiy (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
22 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
23 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Astana Pro Team
24 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Astana Pro Team
25 Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
26 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Astana Pro Team
27 Simone Ponzi (Ita) Astana Pro Team
28 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team 0:00:34
29 Robert Hunter (RSA) Garmin – Barracuda 0:00:35
30 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Sky Procycling 0:00:36
31 Manuele Boaro (Ita) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:38
32 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Team Saxo Bank
33 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo Bank
34 Nicki Sorensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
35 David Tanner (Aus) Team Saxo Bank
36 Mads Christensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
37 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Team Saxo Bank
38 Bruno Pires (Por) Team Saxo Bank
39 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Acqua & Sapone 0:00:39
40 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) Acqua & Sapone
41 Vladimir Miholjevic (Cro) Acqua & Sapone
42 Massimo Codol (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
43 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
44 Fabio Taborre (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
45 Francesco Ginanni (Ita) Acqua & Sapone
46 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha Team 0:00:40
47 Luca Paolini (Ita) Katusha Team
48 Pavel Brutt (Rus) Katusha Team
49 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Katusha Team
50 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team

Good to see Goss still leading for GreenEDGE. Full report at cyclingnews.com

Tirreno Adriatico Stage 2 Winner

Photo: © Steephill.tv/sirotti

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