My 2009 Cycling Year in Review

January
Two rides, both with serious climbs, started off the year. Murchison Gap (100k) and the Mt Wallace 150 were both ridden in mild conditions. Late in the month I rode my first true Audax 2.2.5 200k event which was held under extremely hot and trying conditions

Relaxing during a training ride @ Lismore, Vic.

February
The month started with a good ride in the ABBA 300 and also included a fast 100k at Maryborough.
 March
This month provided two of the years highlights,  a succesful Southern 600k at Heywood and the Fleche Opperman. This year teaming with Peter Donnan, Hans Dusink, Leigh Paterson and Frank Preyer.

Not One Moore - Oppy Team 2009
From Left: Leigh, Peter, Hans, George, Frank

 The Merrimu Meander 120k also  ensured I got my share of hill training.

Car Park finish for Mal's Merrimu Meander

April
My third Great Ocean Road 200k and a 100k at Malmsbury lead on to a 400k titled "You would have to be Crazy" at Lancefield. I really struggled on this ride which included rain, severe winds and cold. Peter Donnan pulled me through on this one which gave me my first Super Series for the Audax year.

Great Ocean Road finish

May
Two 200k rides for the month. Wheels on Fire at Drouin and Blackgate Saunter at Grovedale were both a bit of a struggle in cool to cold conditions.
June
Back to back 200k rides at the Queen Royal Tour at Creswick started the month. Day one was very wet and very cold, day two was very windy. A foggy start for the Wandong Winter Wander 200k rounded out the month.
July
Only one 200k ride in July, Gales East of the Prom at Foster provided a  wet ride down to Tidal River and a very scenic ride through the hills at the back of Fish Creek.
August
Three 200k rides in this month. The most memorable was Ballarat Bertie for the extremely high winds throughout the day. The King Parrot Creek ride took me through the Kinglake area devasted by bushfires 6 months earlier.
September
Spring into Seymour 200k lead on to a strong solo 300k ride in the Wild Wild West from Werribee. Mallee Routes 200k was a tale of two halves brought about by very high winds.
October
A tough hilly 200k to Noojee and a challenging Greendale Jaunt 200 Permanent laid the foundation for my highlight of the year for me. The Gran Tourissimo Series provided me with a second Super Series for the year, earnt in the space of 9 days. A bit of illness on the 400, a beautiful ride over Mt Hotham on the 200, a tailwind 300 and a hot and sleepless 600 made this series something to remember.

Setting off from Winchelsea 400k down 200k to go - Gran Tourissimo Quarto

November
A humid, wet and windy Indigo Classic 200 and a wet and windy Bellarine 100 startd the new Audax season.
December
The longer distance bug started biting so a 400k at Maryborough and a 300k Eildon Endurance finished off the year.

Total distance ridden in 2009 = 16, 444km

Weekend Ride

I have been enjoying  having a regular ride with Carol over the past few weeks. She has really been enjoying getting out on the road in our local area. On todays ride she clocked up 40 kilometres with me. We rode from home to Shelford, along the Leigh Valley and on to Inverleigh. A caffeine stop at the local shop before heading back through the Inverleigh Flora and Fauna Reserve to Teesdale. The photograph below is of Carol descending the hill into Shelford. I use this hill regularly for training on, its around 8% for a bit under a km.

Eildon Endurance

A change of mind saw me ride the Eildon Enduance 300k out of Shepparton on Saturday in lieu of doing the 100k Bah Humbug out of Wandong. I thought I would take advantage of the mild temperatures (mid 20's) that were forecast and get in another longer ride before the summer heat sets in. I find the really hot days take a toll on my riding performance and much perefer it cooler.  The 6am start from the Victoria Lake Caravan Park saw a dozen or so riders who were doing either the 300 or 400k option for this ride.

Prior to Eildon Endurance start

The course for the 300k ride is basically Shepparton, Violet Town, Euroa, Merton, Yarck, Alexandra, Eildon, Alexandra, Yarck, Terip Terip, Euroa, Shepparton. The 400K adds Euroa and back. The day although not hot was quite windy and combine that with the two crossings of the Strathbogie Ranges with some pretting serious climbs along with a few reasonable passes to negotiate near Alexandra meant it was a   reasonably challenging ride. I rode with Rodney, Ben and Kev  for a fair bit of the first half and a bit of the second half.

A short break at top of the Strathbogie Ranges

I had areasonably strong ride for the first half but found my performance tapering off significantly in the second half. I finshed the ride before 7 pm. Ride time of 11h 40m , total time around 12h 55m

Highs and lows of the week

Well it didn't start out as  a great week at work. Last Tuesday I was taking a minibus load of new starters within the organisation on a tour of our operations at my workplace. Whilst travelling innocently along the Princes Highway our bus was struck by an out of control vehicle.The oncoming car was spinning as it's rear hit the bus front and centre. It was travelling quite quickly whereas the bus had just negotiated a roundabout and was doing no more than 30kph. I was in the aisle seat of the bus behind the driver and upon impact was thrown forward hitting my head on the dash. I sustained only minor glass cuts to the forehead and a decent knock to my lower leg. Other passengers had minor knocks and most of them were quite shaken as was the bus driver. The driver of the car faired far worse and was in a poor condition when taken to hospital.

The week improved considerably on Thursday as my new car was delivered. Its the same vehicle type as the old one, Ford Territory TS, but this one is a different colour. Among other things it has plenty of space to fit my bike inside.

Carol's New Bike

It's Carol's birthday tomorrow and she has a new bike. She has been riding religously over the past month and is regularly exceeding 20 kilometres a day. Her new bike which she received on Sunday is a Diamondback flat bar road bike and she reckons it goes really well. All I can say is that she had it moving very quickliy tonight. I can see an Audax ride for her coming up in the future.

Jump the Gun - 400k

A 6am start with a forecast of temperatures in the low to mid 20's made this an ideal ride to get a reasonably long ride under the belt. I chose a 400k as I'd had a week that was less than relaxing and also lacking in adequate sleep and thought a 600 would be pushing things a little.
Setting off a bunch of about 6 of us moved away from the remainder of riders. The group held together through Carisbrook as we looped back around to Dunolly for the first control. Things broke up after that and I rode with Martin Chambers who was doing the 100k. Another control at  Avoca and then on back to Maryborough. I said farewell to Martin and pulled in to a cafe for some food at 9:45 with 100k covered. Before I could get in the shop a mountain bike enthusiast got talking to me about everything from GPSs to bike frames. My wife happened along and saved me from a losing too much time in conversation. In for a pastie and cappuchino but I made the mistake while waiting for the order of going back out to my bike briefly only to be consumed again in talk with the same guy. Sorry I said but I better get back to the wife. Phew!
After the break I was off on my way to Newstead via Maldon. Peter Horsley rode with me from around Maldon to the outskirts of Maryborough. Just out of Maldon we had an incident where we were abused by a yobbo who did his best to brake suddenly in front of us then try to drive as close to Peter as he could. Later another driver in a 4wd bomb screeched brakes behind us in an effort to slow down to avoid running into us. Fortunately that was to be the last hillbillies we encountered. Newstead was the next control and after that a push into a firm wind on the way to Campbelltown before turning towards Majorca. Peter was doing 300k and I eased back over the last few k's into Maryborough to complete a bit over 200k by 2:20pm.

  Part way through the 400k at Maryborough

The day to this point had been relatively overcast and the temperature mild reaching about 20 C. A half hour or so break for lunch then on towards the Newbridge control. Stopping at the local pub had its humour as about half a dozen locals well and truly lubricated  argued about the performance of various individuals in the local footy competition. Back to Maryborough to have 300k wiped off by 7:10pm  Another break of about three quarters of an hour including an evening meal and a shower to freshen up had me feeling confident of finishing aroud nidnight. Out to Avoca as the sun set and back to Maryborough. A quick change to put on arm warmers and wind vest then a glorious ride under clear night skies to Dunolly and back. I pulled into the caravan park base at a quarter after 12. I was pleased with the total time as I had spent a considerable amount off the bike during the ride. 25kph average whilst riding was also pleasing. Some pleasant conversation with Simon Watt who was running the ride about all things associated with distance riding rounded out a great day.

Bellarine 100

It was a wet start for the 100k option of the Bellarine rides. It was good to see Martin Chambers back doing Audax rides as I hadn't seen him since about this time last year. We rode together  out of Geelong on the way to Portarlington. Cards signed and rain gear removed we were off on our way to the Point Lonsdale control. Ron McInnes greeted us there with some pancakes, rolls and a lovely hot coffee. There was a lot of traffic on the roads today and there also seemed to be an excessive amount of broken glass along the road edges but fortunately we didn't have any flats. At Marcus Hill just before Ocean Grove we seperated and I had a solo ride to the finish. The wind had strengthened during the ride and ocean was rough as I fought the gusting cross wind along Thirteenth Beach. After turning at the wind generator at Black Rock Road the wind was at my back to propell me at 40kph to Breakwater.  Traffic lights slowed the final few K's back to the start/finish near the Botanic Gardens in Eastern Park, Geelong.

Indigo Classic

I travelled up to Beechworth in North East Victoria to undertake my 3rd Indigo Classic on 22 November. This ride provides a particular challenge for me as my first attempt in 2007 resulted in a DNF within 5 km of the finish. On that occasion the heat and poor management of my hydration saw me grind to a halt halway up Buckland Gap totally and utterly depleted. It turned into a motivation for me last season to improve my cycling, endurance and on-bike management.
The ride organised by Fraser Rowe this year had only 2 entries for the 200k option. Rodney Kruz joined me on the ride. Ironically we are both riding Malvern Star Oppy Le Mauco's. I spent most of the first 130 odd K clinging to Rodney on the flat sections, losing ground when it tilted up and slowly making ground when it went down. I  lost several minutes to him over Kancoona Gap and so briefly saw him at Ovens pub before the last 30 K to Beechworth which includes Buckland Gap. A climb that has an average 10% grade for about 2 kms. The weather during the ride was challenging, quite humid, very wet at times including a massive storm as a front came through during the last leg of the ride. My riding time  was much the same as last year, just inside 8 hours but less time at controls had me finishing considerably earlier than last year.  You just  have to love a ride that goes through towns with names like Yackandandah and Tamgambalanga.

GT Quarto

Melbourne, Bendigo, Ballarat, Queenscliff, Sorrento, Melbourne - 620 km
The final ride of the Victorian Gran Tourissimo Series started from the Melbourne GPO like the Primo a week before. We cycled out through the inner and outer suburbs till we reached the open farmland areas beyond Tullamarine where we began to seriously fight the beastly northerly wind that we would endure for much of the day. The first control at Romsey was a welcome rest but we were terribly disappointed to hear the news that Tim Taylor had been involved in a collision with a car on the way out of town and had to abandon the ride. Tim hurt his shoulder and ankle and several parts of his bike sustained damage as well. The quicker riders in the form of Kathryn Temby, Pepe Ochoa, Mark Hooy and Peter Curtis moved ahead progressively. There was  Dave Harrington then a group consisting of Marcus Thiele, Adrian Whear, Henry De Man, Alan Baker and George Judkins also teaming together to share the workload. Bec Morton and Howard Dove were making up time after an early puncture on the way out of the city and Chris Rogers was rounding out the field as he had been delayed with Tim’s accident. The day was warming up as we made our way through Lancefield and Woodend to the lunch stop at Kyneton. The afternoon was even hotter as we headed across to Heathcote and another control. Now on the road to Bendigo I was riding with Adrian, Marcus, Henry and Alan and we stopped at Axedale to take a 10 minute break from the heat and cool ourselves from a tap at the local fire station. Arriving in Bendigo at 6:30pm with 226 km completed we debated where to eat finally settling on a noodle bar only to find Dave Harrington already there enjoying the cuisine. As we were riding out of town Adrian troubled by stomach cramp decided to call it a day planning to grab a motel room for the night and return to Melbourne the following day. We were soon donning reflective gear and turning on lights as we headed to Maldon in rising humidity. About 15km out of the town following a thunder and lightning show we were drenched by a heavy downpour. Marcus had a front puncture so we advised Henry and Alan to go on while I assisted him to change tubes. Isn’t it always fun fixing a flat in the dark and the wet? Repairs made we were off in pursuit but this was curtailed soon after as we approached the outskirts of Maldon my rear tyre started deflating so we pulled in under a street light to make further repairs. Now being annoyed and cranky didn’t help me getting the rear wheel back in and getting my hands covered in chain oil just seemed to top it all off.
Finally underway again we found Maldon abuzz with a folk festival in full swing with street music and crowds of people out in the street. It didn’t seem to be the place to stop for two tired bike riders so we headed on to an unscheduled stop at the Newstead pub for a cold coke and some conversation with a publican interested in our adventure. Already partaking of a lemon squash at the pub was Chris Rogers who had passed us when we were fixing our flats. We stopped a few more times as we made our way to Ballarat. Both Marcus and I had always planned not to sleep and with a lot of time lost fighting the wind and heat we only took a break to eat at the hostel where others were choosing to sleep. As we were leaving Ballarat fog was descending. Along the road to the next checkpoint of Rokewood I had to stop several times as I was finding it hard to concentrate, reflections back off the fog, tiredness and a body clock that was saying sleep was conspiring against me. It was a bit the same on the leg to Winchelsea but as the morning progressed I began to feel less sleepy. An extra strong coffee and a pie at the Winchelsea café did the trick in getting all systems firing again. While we were in the café my wife arrived to provide some encouragement as we live in the area and shortly after the faster riders pulled in.
Heading off refreshed we arrived at Queenscliff at 1:20 pm giving us plenty of time for lunch before the ferry trip to Sorrento and a pedal up the bay to finish at the GPO in Melbourne before dark.

Many thanks to Chris Rogers for organising this series of rides, to Janice Baker for her assistance to riders throughout and congratulations to all the riders participating and special congratulations to those who completed the full series.

GT Terzo

Bairnsdale to Lilydale - 300 km
The weather for the 300k to Lilydale was a riders dream with a tail breeze, warm but not too hot. A peloton of about 8 riders formed and the pace was solid but manageable as we headed to Stratford. We didn’t leave the checkpoint as a group but it generally came back together soon after and we proceeded through some fine dairying country to the next control at Glengarry. After this we continued on past the power station at Yallourn to Moe and having set our sights on Yarragon at 180 km for the next control and aided by the wind and flatter terrain we got moving quite quickly with Gareth Evans driving the “train”. I left the control with Pepe Ochoa. Dave Harrington, Tom Nankivell and Howard Dove were thereabouts as well. There was plenty of climbing to the control at Neerim South and more hills on the way to find an historic trestle bridge up a dirt track near Noojee. I was just hanging on to Howard and Pepe who were riding the hills far more strongly than me as we headed to Yarra Junction. Before Powelltown I was alone on the fast and long descent to the town as a thunderstorm hit and it began raining quite heavily so I slowed to ensure I remained safe and upright. I found Pepe and Howard sheltering under the veranda of the local store on my arrival.. From this point we donned wet gear and set off together, stopped briefly at Yarra Junction to sign cards, make a few phone calls then on to the rail trail to Lilydale. Fortunately having made good time the trail was negotiated in daylight which was certainly the preferred approach on a road bike. I finished the ride at 7:25 pm and a pleasing riding time of just over 11 hours.

GT Secondo

Bright to Bairnsdale - 232 km
The second leg of the series promised to be a challenge. I had done a reconnaissance by car of the Mt Hotham climb the day before.  In the exposed areas of the climb near the summit the wind was howling and icicles were hanging from the roadside signage. The car said it was 1 degree outside, there was a high wind chill and the hanging cloud shrouded the top of the mountain in fog. Witnessing this caused me a change of plans on how I would approach equipping myself for the ride the following day. I had been thinking of “going light” to aid climbing but I decided to attach my rack and bag as I would be wearing additional “keep warm” clothing knowing I would be wanting to stow it away as the day warmed.

Another chilly start greeted the riders on the Tuesday morning. A peloton formed and stayed together until the first serious hill. Reaching Harrietville with the 30 km Hotham climb about to begin and the temperature now beginning to rise a little I shed the undershirt, skull cap and legwarmers. The climb was awesome and the views were just so spectacular. A chat or two with Stephen Rowlands and Barry Moore helped pass the time and keep my enthusiasm in check. There are a couple of very challenging sections on the Hotham climb where the grade turns ugly. The Meg comes early in the ride, CRB Hill and then last push towards the summit all very much focus you on the job at hand. I had 39 x 27 as my low gear and would suggest this as the minimum requirement to undertake the challenging sections of this climb. The weather at the top contrasted the day before as it was quite mild at about 16 degrees. There was a real sense of accomplishment among all riders when they reached the top of the climb and much admiration from a busload of elderly tourists who were having their morning tea.

A short stop at the summit for a chat before the descent down through Dinner Plain, some long downhills then on towards Omeo. On a brief stop to remove leg warmers and windbreaker I managed to find an ants nest to stand on so I spent the next 5 minutes brushing them off. Frequent undulations followed with a solid climb before Omeo then a well earned lunch at the bakery. A steak and onion pie, a salad roll and flavoured milk never tasted better. After lunch the weather had warmed to the mid 20’s. Stephen Rowlands passed me as I was loafing along between Swifts Creek and Ensay. We both stopped together at the general store at Ensay, we both had a very welcome ice cold coke and some food. I rolled out just in front of Stephen and feeling invigorated I pushed on with a stronger effort than earlier with the picturesque Tambo River on my left hand side. Before Bruthen there was another solid climb and some great sweeping descents through some lovely forested areas. Turning towards Bairnsdale my legs were starting to tell me that they had done a solid days work and the final hills were a real grind but being almost home the confidence was high. I pulled into Bairnsdale at about 5:50 pm. Nearly 12 hours to earn a 200k brevet was probably one of my slowest but I would have to say I think this is probably one of my most enjoyable rides ever. The ride showcased some of the best landscape Australia has to offer.

GT Primo

Melbourne to Bright - 412 km
It was 5:30am on a cool and crisp Saturday late October morning when riders started to gather at the Melbourne GPO for the first ride in the Victorian Gran Tourissimo Series run by Chris Rogers. Inebriated night clubbers passed by making smart alec comments
The first announcement made by Chris during his briefing to riders prior to the  6am start was that we had to depart via Elizabeth street and not Bourke St Mall as  if we chose to ride down the mall there would be a $250 fine issued by the authorities. I think some of the ride participants were fortunate because that was they way they had come!
The route out of the city was straight forward but as one might expect it was marred by a plethora of traffic lights that punctuated the first 15 kilometres. The faster riders gradually moved away into the distance as I settled down into a conservative pace and it wasn’t long before I settled down into a rhythm that matched that of Henry De Man. Together we made the gradual climb into the dividing range and our first checkpoint for a brief stop at a Wandong Service Station at 8:30 am. We then proceeded through some very scenic country side, greened by September rains, before we pulled into another servo that served as our stop at Seymour for a little food and a sunscreen application. Around 11 am I climbed the last hill before Avenel with Henry on my wheel and began the descent into the town. At the bottom of the hill I glanced behind only to glimpse Henry pulled up on the side of the road some 500 metres back just as he passed out of my sight. I pulled up and took the opportunity to phone my wife to update her on my progress as we would be rendezvousing in Bright at the end of the ride. I then rode back and found Henry almost ready to roll again. Henry was also having some trouble with his speedo as it had reverted to miles per hour and refused to indicate kilometres per hour. The result was that Henry seemed to feel we weren’t travelling quick enough so he started to set quite a challenging pace that carried on through Nagambie. A walk across Kirwan’s Bridge over the Goulburn River required considerable concentration to avoid losing your bike or worse still yourself through the gaps in the longitudinal timbers. At the end of the bridge a check of the pressure in the tyre that Henry earlier replaced resulted in the tube failing at the valve stem. While repairs proceeded Steven “Whatto” Watson stopped for a bit and chatted a while before moving off again. Henry and I then rode on to the checkpoint at the Murchison bakery at the 169km mark. Several of the quicker riders were still there but by the time we sat down to eat lunch they had set off. After lunch we set off for a few hundred metres down the wrong road but quickly corrected ourselves and were soon grinding our way to Rushworth. Here we turned towards Tatura and picked up a good tail wind. The temperature was also rising so a 5 minute stop in the shade at a Waranga Basin picnic area was welcome before the next checkpoint at Tatura. A third puncture for Henry occurred just as we made it in to Tatura. As we were moving out of town we hooked up with Alan Baker who was down from Queensland to do the series.  Together the three of us rode on to Shepparton and a noodle shop that had been an important refuel stop on my last two Oppermans. The ride from Shep to Wang had us donning reflective gear about mid way before the sun set. A solid climb into the Warby’s before a rapid descent in to town. Alan and Henry had been discussing the merits of various coffee blends and machines so that’s what we sought out at a hotel/restaurant. My stomach had started to cause me some serious difficulty so I passed on the coffee and made the mistake at this point of failing to eat anything.

Out of Wangaratta on the last stretch to Bright I was in poor shape and had to stop frequently and my pace had slowed to a crawl. I was not thinking to clearly, feeling quite cold and tired. Finally with about 20 k to go I managed to eat a muesli bar which as it reached my bloodstream lifted my strength and spirit We rode into Bright a bit after 3 am.  Thank you to Henry and Alan who could have made it to the finish earlier but refused to proceed without me. For this I am very grateful.

Victorian Gran Tourissimo Series

This was a series of rides in Victoria organised by Chris Rogers providing riders the opportunity to test themselves over various distances or for the ambitious a chance to earn a super randonneur series in the space of nine days

Microsoft does it again!

I just let windows do its live update on one of our PC's and low and behold another piece of software stopped working. Fortunately I was able to find a suitable alternative to the original program because even if I unistalled and reinstalled the damn thing would not run. So thanks Mr Gates for your wonderful operating system that requires megabytes of updates almost weekly to keep the bad guys out and thanks for all the times I have had to reformat and reinstall programs . I am sure it has occupied weeks of my time over the years!

My Cycling Goals into 2010

Over the past couple of years I have been gradually building my base capacity to ride longer distance events and ride them more frequently. I have progressed from an annual goal of riding one 200+K event (Around the Bay in a Day) per year to the last few months where I have ridden 7 200k brevets and a 300k. I have also completed  2 600K events - The Great Southern Randonee last October and The Southern 600 at Heywood in March this year. I now intend to step up to the serious distances of 1000k  and 1200k in the upcoming Audax season. My target events are the Western Districts Wanderer 1000 in April and the Perth Albany Perth 1200 in October. I'll also look to get in a few 600's as well in 2010. Before this season ends at the end of this month I am aiming to add to my current 22 200k+ events this season by attempting the Vic Gran Tourissimo Series. This is a Super Series (600,400,300 &200K rides) in a week. It will be my biggest cycling challenge to date and I am not sure how I will fair. Fingers crossed.