Journal of a Enduro MTB Wannabe

Puzzles

2011-02-10T07:26:00.004+11:00

So I finally got my hands on a set of the new XTR cranks, and things didn't go smoothly fitting everything up. Normally changing cranks is a 1/2 hour job...this it turned into a full on 80 minutes!

Removing the old gear went smoothly, fitting the new chains was OK, adjusting the front derailleur I hit problems. Because the outer ring is 39t I had to drop the derailleur down and there wasn't enough clearance on the chainstay for the bottom of the derailleur. Moving it back up resulted in a gap of about 9mm or way to much above the big ring, even though it shifted perfectly.

Cursing and swearing ensued until I decided to pillage the SRAM XX derailleur off the Salty. Cue having to break two chains removing and swapping the derailleurs and readjusting the stops. And I was finally done.

Shifting is OK with the SRAM derailleur but definitely not as smooth. I'll get it on the dirt tomorrow and test it out. Again though I have full range of gears with no rubbing on the cranks or derailleur, it's great!!!

Still in the box

The old

The New...yay 30gms!

Alpine Challenge 2011

2011-02-03T13:11:00.003+11:00

Well behind the eight ball again with the ride report for the 250km Alpine Challenge. But here it is finally.....

Unlike last year I wasn’t as nervous this year with the route having ridden it previously. Also the volume of training leading up to this year’s event meant I had almost 3x the kilometres in my legs including some big days in the mountains from the Kosciusko 360 ride. Even the drive down this year was more relaxed with 2x stops at McD’s to allow Wee Man out to have a run around the in playground and stretch the legs. The start/ finish area was the same as last year situated beside the Oven River, and I swore to the wife that once I finished this year I was going straight into the water as a cool down.
This time around I actually got a full night’s undisturbed sleep and woke up refreshed before chugging down 2x cans of chocolate creamed rice. The drive was again in the dark to the start with a pull over at the top of Towanga Gap as Wee Man.....well needed to wee!
Getting to the start I loaded up the pockets with food for the day and rolled to the start.
After hearing a couple of snippets of conversation I realised the 250k wasn’t starting for the same place as last time up around the corner for some reason so I hopped up onto the side walk and pushed my way clear of about 200 people before heading around the corner and getting to the start proper.
I caught up with Thomo who I met on the Kosciusko 360k ride and he picked my brain for 5 minutes about the course and what lay ahead.

The Start to Mt Hotham

At 6.30am we were set off and rolled out at what felt like a very leisurely pace for the climb up Mt Hotham....but in fact it was probably about 30kph. My legs weren’t feeling fantastic, but at the same time I was feeling antsy to get the pace a bit higher. So when we hit the first slopes on Hotham I hit it hard, firstly to try and warm the legs up but also to get some pace into the bunch.
People soon settled into their rhythm and a largish group of about 12 formed at the front which stayed together through and across the top and false flat before the exploding after the descent and the final climb up to the peak of Mt Hotham. Like last year my legs just refused to work up this second portion of the climb and I soon found myself riding with 3 others while a group of 6 disappeared up the road. The road through this section this year was battered by freezing crosswinds which made the going even harder and I was hoping it was not a omen of things to come.
On the decent from the top we had a ripping tailwind as the direction changed and screamed into the first checkpoint at Dinner Plains.
Getting in I quickly refilled my bottles got my wrist band scanned and managed to roll out with the front group again!

Falls Creek

For the next 10-15ks we had a tailwind at our backs and made excellent time before dropping into the valley and loosing the wind completely. About now my legs were starting to protest a bit at the pace and on a couple of the rollers I started to lose contact before the final big climb into Omeo the elastic snapped completely on the climb. I kept the group in sight but I didn’t rejoin them before the next checkpoint. This one proved to more chaotic and we lost a couple of riders and ended up rolling out with only two others.
The other two weren’t too sure if the others were ahead or behind and so after catching a couple of riders from the group that started at 4.30am we worked out they were behind and slowed the tempo down up the climb out of Omeo. This allowed a bit more of a recovery, and we avoided running over the wiggly stick that was making it’s way across the road halfway up the climb.
Talking to the others, I found out that one of them was the one that had crashed on the decent off Towanga Gap last year and ended up going to hospital.
The other 4 riders caught back up across the top of the climb before the decent down into Anglers rest and the climb up to falls creek. Due to the wind this year the descent wasn’t as fun and you had to work quite hard to keep the momentum up. The group stopped at Anglers rest to refill bottles before we took the left hander and began the climb up Back of Falls. I filled up my bottle and rolled out by myself and set a slower pace until the others caught back up.
Next was the left hander and given the way I was feeling I thought this would be the last I would see of the others but I was in for a surprise. The road kicked and I got out of the saddle and suddenly the legs came to life....I was suddenly feeling strong the initial 20% grade and a couple of the others who I expected to ride off dropped off the pace.
As the graded settled a group of four formed in front on me while I settled into a high tempo pace knowing what lay ahead. The group only got a lead of about 200m before two riders lost contact. This gave me something to chase over the next 3k, slowly reeling in one then the second. The other two had disappeared from sight, but I was enjoying the climb this year rather than suffering. The road had bedded in over the previous 12 months and while there was a surface of loose stones every so often it was miles ahead of the year before. What also helped this year was the temps were definitely down by about 5 or 6 degrees.
At the top of the climb into the alpine area, the wind picked becoming into a wicked crosswind and after a couple of kilometres I spotted the two lightweights that had disappeared up the climb. Picking up slower riders as I went I soon had a 5 rider echelon sitting behind me as I drove it to close the gap by the time we reached the Falls Creek check point. Coming into falls Creek I had shut down all but 100 metres of the gap and when we stopped the look on the other two riders face was priceless, one of how did the guy that had been struggling for the previous 50ks close a 2 minute gap inside of 15kms????
A bottle refill and we were off with the standard warning about the lefthander 1.7kms on the way down. I decided I would have some fun on the way down, and started chasing a Ford Falcon through the top section of corners sitting about 2m off the rear bumper. The only problem with this was that because the straights were so short, accelerating to 60kph then braking down to 25kph for the corners I heated up my rear rim and caused the tire to blow off the rim after about 6kms of the descent. Luckily I managed to stop from 60kph to 0 in only about 20m. I’m actually pretty lucky it wasn’t the front as I’m not sure I could have kept it upright.
The other two stopped, surprised that I had kept it upright after the tire exploding before disappearing off down the decent when I assured them I was alright. With the tire already half off the rim it made the tire change easier. However as I found out the disadvantage of a mini pump is you really can’t get enough air into the tire to be confident on a decent.
Once back up and running with a softish tire I continued making my way down the descent with more caution this time.
The decent has a nasty kick in the middle of it, and after the time on the side of the road my legs didn’t appreciate it much. Down into Mt Beauty and the drag along the main road before the left hander and the road up Towanga Gap.

Towanga Gap

At this point I decided to shut it down up the climb so as not to go too far into the box for the day. I set an easy tempo up the climb using the 26 and 29 tooth cogs on the back before pulling into the way stop after 3kms up the climb. I refilled my bottle and started on my merry way for the remaining 5kms of the climb before cresting the climb.
On the descent I exercised caution again, and sure enough on the same corner as last year there was a rider in the ditch being attended to by medical officers. His bike was poking out of the ditch with the front end snapped of front the impact of going into the ditch. Another timely reminder that there is no need to push it when you don’t need to.
The valley floor was drag again with a headwind before the turn back onto the main road and into town. I linked up with another rider at this point and we traded of turns until crossing the line.

Numbers for the Day

So the numbers from the day were,
Time: 9:11hrs
Distance:248Kms
Climbing:4370mtrs
NP:237w
IF:0.818
TSS:517
Calories:5809

Kosciusko 360 Day 2

2011-01-21T20:10:00.004+11:00

Khancoban to Cabramurra
The day dawned and I woke up not at all refreshed due to a fitful sleep. Due to Khancoban being small there wasn’t alot of choice for breakfast options, but the boys managed to convince the local takeaway shop to open at 8.00am. So it was another game of load the car up then off to breakfast. 45 minutes later everyone had eaten their fill, but there hadn’t been much in the way to talk with everyone in deep contemplation of the day ahead.
I came out of the takeaway shop to find my front tire had decided to go flat, so I did a quick change and we hit the road out of town at about 9.00am. The inital roads were course chipseal and heavy going before we took the right hander on the secondary road which would see us all the way to the snowy mountains highway. The first section of this really in bad repair with the top coat missing which just served to bash our already sore and tired bodies around more.
I was mentally hoping it was going to be like this the whole way otherwise what was shaping up to be a hard day was just going to get alot worse. Luckily after about 4k we dropped through a lefthander and began the never ending climb...or this is what I called it. First Andy then Gaz disappeared up the road leaving me to solo along at my pace. I decided to keep things pegged at a solid seated tempo and get out of the saddle to stretch and ease the legs through the numerous corners. The seal through here was good but it still felt like slow going.
I was watching the time and kms slowly tick away but it was alot slower than I had anticipated and by the time I finally reached the false flat along the top through the open alpine area I guessed I was about an hour behind schedule. The climb I had just come up was a solid two hour effort and the most climbing I had done in one stint ever.
Guestimating that I was still about an hour from Cabramurra, the next 10kms was pure torture with dead roads, driving crosswind and rolling to false flat climbs I mentally cracked at least three times through here.
The next false hope of the day was the descent into Tumut pond and realising I had to climb back out of the valley with 7kms to town. Being down at the dam and looking up while spectacular in view was a real mental kick in the teeth as the road just went up then disappear into the hill.
Up to this stage I had been playing tag with a bunch of motorcyclists with them roaring past and then stopping to look at the views allowing me to catch up before passing me again and off to the next scenic lookout. Ripping past me on the first steep portion I used the engine noise to work ou that in fact the road was a series of switch backs and wasn’t as bad as what I had been imagining.
Near the top I cracked again as I was out of water and stopped at one of the many culverts which had water coursing through it to top my bottles up. I knew how stupid I looked trying to clamber down these rocks to get at the flowing water but didn’t care. Immediately drinking half a bottle of some of the sweetest tasting water I almost over balanced and ended up face first in the culvert. It was here I had my first encounter with Australia’s marsh fly…..in fact I ended up with three bites including a huge one on my stomach which I didn’t discover till the next day when I was wondering what the pain down there was.
Out of the culvert and I hit up the last 1.5k to the top of the climb and the 2k roll down into Cabramurra. As I was coming into town Andy and Gaz were heading out. With the temps having dropped off about 7-10 degrees through the alpine area, I knew that the stop wasn’t going to be long. I grabbed a couple of cans of soft drink and sat down outside in a shaded are from the wind. I was trying to saviour the drink and clif bar I was throwing down my neck…but I’m sure that I drank both cans and ate the bar in under 5 minutes before saddling up for the next leg.

Cabramurra to Adaminaby
The next stage of the ride started with a climb for 500 metres before hooking left and back into the tree line and onto a downhill for a kilometre or two before more rollers and climbing. The road through here was as dead as previously and I was feeling better after the drink and food. Eventfully I broke out into another alpine area but it was completely different to the last one. The roads were fast the landscape was more of a grassy pasture type then the scrub that had been higher up.
Looking ahead I could see the huge black clouds and knew I was going to be in for rain inside of the next half an hour. Plugging along with a slight tail crosswind I soon reached the intersection with the Snowy Mtns highway. Turning right onto this brought a huge smile to my face, I was back on good hotmix and the wind was now a tailwind and even though I had begun to drizzle I didn’t care as I knew the next 30kms was going to be quick and a lot easier than the past 5 hours.
The rain stayed at a drizzle for most of the next hour as I hauled a$$ over the downhill rollers enjoying every minute of it. It was about 5kms from Adaminaby that the heavens opened up properly on me and I was drenched to the bone inside of a minute. The rain was intense but it wasn’t cold which was a relief.
My head became a bit foggy at this point and I passed a sign pointing off to the right to Old Adaminaby. I almost made the mistake of taking the turn down here but decided no it wasn’t the right way, and rolled into Adaminaby about 5 minutes later. I found Andy and Gaz sheltering inside the local tearooms and quickly bought another 2 cans of drink and repeated the procedure at the previous stop. They had been there for about 20 minutes previously and by the look of the table had eaten half the shop. Apparently they had been riding in solid rain for about the previous 30 kilometres and had only just started to dry out. As I was freshly soaked I wasn’t keen on sitting around so we ended up rolling out for the final 50 kilometres together.

Adaminaby to Cooma
Starting out Gaz soon let me know that he was blown and only able to roll through occasionally so Andy and I took turns at taking measured turns on the front making sure Gaz didn’t get gapped on any of the rollers we were soon going over. The rain remained steady or torrential depending on where we were but we were making good time and kilometre kept ticking over.
I started to do some mental calculations to work out when we would be back in Cooma as I had told wifey it should be about 5pm and it was looking close. In one torrential down pour on a downhill section I ended up gapping Andy & Gaz as I was having to much stomping on the pedals with the crosswinds. When I ended up turning around I found I was suddenly on my own with Andy and Gaz about 300 metres back…..opps. After this I eased up and made sure I didn’t push too hard into any of the cross winds.
Eventually we were back on the main road into Cooma and with only a couple of small risers it was soon into town and dodging the cars and a right turn into the Macca’s carpark.
I think all three of us were please with completing the ride, and more so given the conditions over the final 2.5hrs.

Numbers for the Second day
Ride Time 7.33hrs
Total Time: 8.02hrs
Distance 175kms
Climbing 2978m
Normalised Power 230w
TSS 415
IF 79%
I have to say that this was great way to start the year with a huge kick to the training and I will definitely be up for it next year.

Kosciusko 360 Day 1

2011-01-17T12:57:00.002+11:00

So this last weekend was the first (of hopefully many) running of the Kosciusko 360 ride around you guessed it Mt Kosciusko. The route was plotted by Big Jase just prior to Xmas and setup on Facebook for all comers with the date set down for the 8th & 9th of January.
Now whether this was a good choice in timing is still under debate given the mountainous route of the two days....

Day One: Cooma to Jindabyne.

The start was set down for a 10am rollout and as seems to be the norm recently I was running late. A combination of under estimating the drive time from Canberra and dumba$$ drivers meant we how into the Macca’s carpark at 10.05am. So after quickly sorting all my gear and bike out, I started to re-pack the car with everyone else’s overnight bag. Wifey had graciously agreed to pull sag wagon duties for the two days and also do some sightseeing as well.
So eventually we got rolling at 10.20am only 20 minutes behind schedule, and it was quick start with tail/ cross wind I eventually found myself up front with Andy, Gaz, & Thomo sitting on a good solid 40kph without much effort. From having previously ridden most of the roads for the first day so I knew what we were in for. But was surprised at the speed we were covering the ground. Having ridden from Cooma to Jindabyne before I remember dead alpine roads that just sucked all the life out of your legs...but not today.
With the high speed first Gaz then Andy were spat out the back leaving me at the front with Thomo for company till we got to Berridale and into the rolling hills. At the top of the long drag there was a regrouping and we were back to a group of four with no sign of the others. We set a moderate tempo for the remaining 10kms into Jindibyne.
We stopped at the servo there and didn’t really get the best of service...the woman behind the counter who reminded me of the crazy cat lady from the Simpsons, pissed off and made a 5 minute phone call when we walked in. So after we eventually got served it was a case of topping up the water bottles and hitting the road again.
We made the call not to wait for the others but to re-group for lunch at Thredbo.

Jindabyne to Thredbo

Knowing that the first climb on the road to Thredbo is long and steepish, I settled into something of a rhythm and watched Andy & Gaz ride off up the hill (which would continue to be a pattern for the weekend). The heat at this point was getting into the low 30’s so I made a point of trying to keep hydrated and just ride at a manageable pace. The road up the valley was a real trudge with the tar on the road melted and reflected heat making it more of baking nightmare.
Because the weekend was about training, I started to relax a bit and take in the scenery a more while slowly the km’s ticked over.
Eventually after about an hour and a half I made it to Thredbo. I kept riding past the first entrance and took the second straight to the bakery. Having spent a good chunk of my $20 I had thrown into the back pocket at the start of the day at Jindabyne of drinks. I was shocked when my H&C croissant and 2x cans of solo came to almost $13!
So I sat outside in the shade took my shoes off and slowly tried to eat the croissant and not skull the two cans of drink! I phoned wifey to find out where she was, and also sent Big Jase a text message to see how far away he was with no success.
After about ½ hour I rolled out to the garage on the main road where I found the others waiting and after 10 minutes Jase’s group rolled in and it was back to the bakery for another ½ an hour for more eating.

Thredbo to Khancoban

Once everyone had finished we hit the road again at about 3.00pm I muttered a prediction to wifey about what time we would be in at the finish for the day knowing I would be pushing it. The climb to the top of Dead Horse Gap reinforced that my legs were about half cooked and as the three other road away in the space of about 5k all I could do was watch.
At the top I settled in for the fun part! The descent down dead Horse is a 1km drop in about 12kms so makes for some very fast descending. Throw in sweeping corners and it’s enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. I managed to catch back up to the others on the way down and drop them by pushing harder into the corners and taking a couple more risks. And in a flash it was all over and we were out at Tom Groggins.
From here it was off into the unknown..well for me at least. The road from here consisted of initially a series of rollers (about 7-8) with a kick of about 20m to each one. At this point I was back riding with Gaz & Andy till we reached the last couple and I took my foot off the gas and dropped the pace back down.
It was a good thing too as there was a really sting in the final climb that went up about 500ms through a series of cuttings before eventually peaking at a dam /power station. This really hurt coning at about 155kms into the ride. Descent wise it was 7kms back down into the valley floor before the final 3kms to town.

Khancoban

Small town in the middle of the back of beyond.....Rolling in I almost decked myself on the ruts in the road along the left hand edge which were hiding in the shadows. The town centre was off to the right, but our accommodation was out the other side so I just kept going. I had been allocated a cabin close to the road so it was easy to spot the car.
Sitting down I started the re-hydration process with coffee milk and powerade happy with completing the first day but knowing there was a lot more to come tomorrow.

Data for the day

So first day over and the stats were,
Ride Time 6:22hrs
Total Time: 7:50hrs
Distance 171kms
Climbing 3075m
Normalised Power 243w
TSS 367
IF 83.9%

Dump from WKO

A whole months worth of blogging in one post

2011-01-06T15:12:00.005+11:00

Yet again I have been slack in updating the old blog over the last month. I could use an excuse like dog ate my keyboard but well it’s been done to death.

Rain, Rain more Rain
So since my lat post I think I have ridden the MTB maybe 2 or 3 times along the bike path with the family due to the absolute hammering Canberra has hand in December from the rain. The rain wiped out Stromlo and Majura from about 2 weeks before Xmas through to about now with some of the Stromlo trails re opening but a lot of them still in need of maintenance.
So the training has been all road riding which while not as much fun is good for base building. I’m had three good Saturdays out with the boys on the Bakery Bunch with a catch up afterwards for coffee and to talk sh!t...something I don’t normally do.

New Zealand Trip
Xmas was spent back over the ditch with family. A good time was had by all, but I think my mother was glad to see the back end of Wee Man....he’s not the sweet little 2 year old she remembers from a year ago more of a dervish of chaos on legs now!! The number of times he was told off for chasing her cat....I lost count after the first day.
I trip to the Caroline Bay Carnival was in order to show the family the rides. My favourite was the bumper cars which left me feeling like I had just been in a bike crash after getting out at the end. We avoided going on the roller coaster which was a good thing as it looked dodgy and sure enough after we got back there was a news story saying it had come off the tracks but luckily no one was injured!!!
There were also a couple of trips to the beach, got to go to the movies for the first time in a couple of years and just some general bumming around catching up on sleep.
I must admit it wasn’t til after four days of getting 9hrs+ sleep I actually realised how tired and burnt out I had been feeling from work and training. Suddenly getting up on the odd day at 6.00am didn’t have me burying my head under the pillow and grinding my teeth when the alarm went off!

Training
I also got some riding in over old training roads I haven’t been on it years. I borrowed by little brother’s bike....and managed to crash it. No real serious injuries but my hands do look like I picked a fight with a cheese grater still.
Now that I’m back home, the training is in full force with the weather cooperating so far. The rides have been either early or late to avoid the heat of the day and I’m starting to feel a bit more normal!
This weekend is Big Jase’s Kosiosko 360 ride (Yes Jase I am putting the blame on you if this goes pear shaped!) A ride from Cooma over 2 days covering...you guessed it 360k. Looking at the altitude there is going to be a fair bit of climbing on tap which is good with the Alpine Challenge in two weekend’s time.
Following on from this is a month’s gap to the Otway Odyssey which I have entered. The goal for that one is try to knock a good chuck out of the 6.5hrs I did it in the first time.
The other two races I am focussing on in the first third of the year are the Real Bike Insurance 100miler and Escape from Cobra Mtn 100miler. I DNF’ed at the first race last year so am out for redemption this time around.
Well that’s a month,s catch up in one post more or less. Next time I will do a summary for 2010 of the good ,the bad, and the ugly .

New XTR Goodness

2010-11-18T08:22:00.005+11:00

Profile of the pedal hasn't changed for 2011

But the surface area has

Well the new XTR is slowly hitting the net at the moment, mainly through ebay with along of the larger internet retailers still not having the stocks in.
So I decided to upgrade a couple of bits. Over the last couple of months I have been becoming more and more dissatisfied with my CB pedals. The lack of a positive engagement and the ability to cant your feet when clipped in lead to a very vague feel.

So I decided to try out the new XTR 980 race pedals. For 2011 shimano have made a couple of tweaks to their existing 970 design but nothing to radical. They have gotten lighter and the platform has increased. I have to admit straight SPD's are one system I have never used having always opted for CB or time in the past. I decided to try these because of the larger platform surface and the adjustable tension.

So have scouring ebay I managed to pick a pair up from someone here in the ACT who won them at the 2010 Scott event as a lucky draw prize. Funnily enough she rides CB and decided to stick with those and ebay these ones.

Once I got my filthy little hands on them first thing I did was the "tail of the scales". All up they are 80gms heavier than my modified CB eggbeaters.

Next it was playing around with the spring engagement/ release tensions. It took me about 5 minutes to get them where I wanted, having cranked them up to the stiffest setting then winding them back off to find the point where I could clip in without having to fully weight my feet to get the clack.

The engagement is very positive with a real audible clack as the cleat engages.

Having been out on a couple of rides with I don't have alot more to say. The platform is solid with no rocking of the cleats, engagement has been faultless so.

New XTR Front Derailleur

The other item I have replaced is the front derailleur on the 29er. When I initally swapped the parts over on this bike, I left the SLX front derailleur on figuring that a front derailleur is a front derailleur. But after struggling to get it set up with my dual-control levers, I cracked and bought a one of the new XTR derailleurs.

Out of the box it's profile has changed to the previous model and in fact it almost looks as though they have beefed it up to improve the shifting, not that the old model had any problems with this.

Setup was straight forward, 34.9mm clamp bolt straight on, set the height, set the rotation, cable tension....done.

First spin around the driveway and it just works. All the gears minimal rubbing. Clicks are positive but not super stiff, so the changes are easier. And this was the issue with the SLX derailleur, it felt like the weight of the spring was to much and you have to fight it to move it up through the gears.

In comparsions I have a SRAM XX front derailleur on the dually and I have to say I prefer the action of the XTR. It feels smoother even though the XX derailleur is lighter.

Fitz's Write Up...Finally

2010-11-16T10:35:00.003+11:00

Intro

Two weekends ago was that time of year again....Fitz’s Epic, where I get to haul my sorry a$$ over a bunch of climbs for the day all in the name of fun.
The lead-up to the event this year has been OK, but I don’t have a lot of longer rides up the belt this time around so I knew I was just going to have to rely on experience to get through the 207kms for the day. Also this year I decided I was going to ride the course differently and not spend over 2/3’s of it off the front solo.

Night Before

My original thinking was to ride to the race, ride, and then ride home afterwards to give about 250ks for the day, but the forecast, and then eventual downpour over nite with continuing showers in the morning put paid to this. It also had me scratching through my gear cupboard at the last minute trying to find lightweight waterproof gear.

I ended up opting for Defeet arm-skins, Assos knee warmers with a layer of Quoleum embrocation smeared on underneath. Top was a standard short sleeve with a Craft medium weight base layer underneath. I threw my Gore jacket in the back pocket as a just in case last resort.

The Start
With the showers coming and going of the proceeding 2 hrs before the start there moments there where I was asking myself if I really wanted to spend the next 8hrs in the pouring rain.... Manning up I threw the bike knowing that it should (fingers crossed) turn into a fine day, and drove to the start.
Lining up for the start, there was the normal 1 minutes silence for the fallen rider who crashed and died during the event a number of years back. Then the shout and we’re off.

Of course the Joule doesn’t want to work with the wheel sensor after I had swapped wheels for the event so I pull over after 300 metres and have a fiddle with it, no joy so I quickly change the mode and start off again and try making my way to the front. Straight away I can see someone up there is turning the screws as the bunch has already shattered we’ve done less than 1k and I’m dodging riders left and right trying to move up. By the first intersection I’m back in the front 10 riders, but the pace is still on.

I sit back and try to relax for the ride down into Pierce’s Creek, but after about 5k the rain starts falling again. It’s at this point a rider on a full TT bike comes ripping past and takes off down the road, everyone looks at each other shrugs and figures we’ll see him later.

Pierces Creek to Namadgi Turn
At the bottom of the Pierces Creek climb I look down at the Joule and the Intensity factor is 0.97, and while I’m comfortable I figure the bunch is going to start reducing very quickly and sure enough even though the tempo is steady we crest the climb with only 5 of us at the front. Over the next couple of k’s there is a re-grouping with riders coming back.

However the descents in the wet split the bunch again due to cautious riding by some, and plain nervousness by others.By the time we reach the space station turn the group has solidified with approximately 15 riders.

In the next 15k’s to Tharwa we are hit by another 2 rain fronts and lose some riders with the bunch coming down to 10. By this point the pace has come down but with the tailwind we are still covering the distance quickly. The drop into the base of the Fitz’s climb enables the riders to sort themselves out in terms of climbing ability before the ascent starts.

Having reacquainted myself with the climb the previous weekend I knew it still sucked, with a near maximum effort required for close to 14minutes to crest the top. With the roads still being damp even though it had not rained in the past ½ hour, I was struggling with wheel spin on the climb every time I got out of the saddle to change muscle groups. The geometry of the bike plus the steep grade meant that there was less weight over the rear so I would get a ¼ turn of wheel spin on the down stroke.

Having packed the trusty 29t cassette for this ride, I was still doing it easier than others. I can normally grind it out up Fitz’s without having to resort to using it but today in the wet it came in handy on the lower slopes to maintain tempo without having to drop my cadence below about 65rpm.

Over the top of the climb there were two riders that had managed to gap the small group I was with, over the next few Km’s to the far turn we kept them pegged at under a minute and within sight distance. It was at this stage that Tri-boy went flying past in the other direction, I estimated he probably had about a 10 minute lead at this stage. One of the front riders dropped back about a kilometre before the turn before we all stopped. We re-grouped at this stage to about 7 riders, got out the tear and go slips to prove we had made the turn and set off for Apollo Rd.

Namadgi Turn to Top of Corin Climb
By this stage fatigue was setting in with some of the riders, and we had a low speed fall on one of the rolling climbs after a touch of wheels. The group waited for the two riders to catch back up with no one seriously injured.

Also caution was exercised on the Fitz’s decent due to the still wet surface, before a couple more rolling hills then the left turn into Apollo Road.
At this stage the sun appeared from behind the clouds, and it warmed up enough to roll my arm-warmers down. Up the first 1/3 of the climb is where the damage is done and myself and two other riders gapped the other 4 and grunted and stomped up the 3 ramp sections before crossing the cattle grate and climb levelling out. From here we kept riding a solid tempo up to the checkpoint at the top. About halfway up I kept expecting to see tri-boy flying down the climb, and we he didn’t appear we assumed he had blown up and gone home.

Another re-grouping at the top and we set of back down the descent. About 1/3 of the way down, I spied tri-boy stamping up the climb and had a good laugh to myself. Even though the left turn is clearly sign-posted he had flown past it and now was having to make up time.

So this left 1 rider still out front with a group of 6 rolling along to the climb up Corin. In the past it’s this section where I have opened up serious time to other riders because of how windy it normally is and how rolling the terrain is.
This year rolling in the group was a lot more pleasant, even though I was doing longer pulls on the front. Passing through Tharwa, we started having to dodge riders who were in the shorter distances and spread across the road. Towards the end of this section I was sitting on the front for 3-4k setting tempo because the other riders were really pushing their limits.

About a kilometre before the left turn into Corin Road I looked across and could see the rider I had nick-name red-jacket making his way across the first rolling/ false flat sections of the Corin climb. The others saw him too and started saying things like you’ll catch him up the climb etc etc, but I wasn’t too sure. He had held a gap of about a minute for the past 20+k’s so he wasn’t crawling.

Again on the climb the same three riders formed at the front, and we set a steady tempo up the climb. Compared to the year previously where the temps had been in the low to mid 30’s by this point the high teen’s was really really pleasant.
Up the climb I kept getting glimpses of red-jacket but as I guessed we didn’t make any time up, up to the check point.
Just as we were filling our bottles up and getting ready for the descent tri-boy came storming in, practically threw the tear and go at the volunteers and took off back down the descent. I quickly finished messing with my bottles and took off in pursuit leaving the other two behind.

Corin to Finish
Mentally I knew I was going to have to do a suicide descent to catch back what I guessed was 45 seconds to tri-boy. On the initial part of the descent I couldn’t even see him until we got about halfway down. So even pushing the limits, slicing the corners and not touching the brakes I had made up only 15 seconds. I knew if I didn’t get him by the left turn back onto the main road he was going to be gone. I was slowly running out of road to the turn and mentally I was preparing myself to have to do a maximum sprint up the last portion of the main road climb to try and close the gap....a do or die effort.

However just before the turn he pulled over and started grabbing free bottles and food from someone in a car so I made the corner first and started the drag through the remaining rolling hills to Mt McDonald. I decided to try and get as much of a gap on him through here to as a cushion into the final pinch climbs through Pierces Creek.

About 5k’s up the road I was joined by a group of riders from behind who I started rolling with before Tri-boy came flying past. No one else tried jumping on his wheel, so I had a go at it and before long we had gapped the group. Now if you haven’t tried drafting someone on a TT bike let me tell you it’s hard, they sit a lot lower down and provide almost no shelter!

After a couple of k’s he turned around and I think was surprised to find someone on his wheel, then he seemed to get a bit upset when he started motioning me through and I started shaking my head....hmmm I wonder why?
After get a small amount of recovery we started rolling before hitting the rollers leading into Pierces Creek and it was at this stage the legs had enough and I let him go. The final checkpoint this year was located further up Mt McDonald in the bend of the right hander before it steepens for the top. I did a quick stop here as the bunch I distance earlier had worked together to peg time back. So I did the tear and go and started off up the hill.

With not much further to ride I was giving it death up the climb still feeling good until just of the top where it starts to roll before the right hander, and I bonked spectacularly. One minute I was flying the next I was dizzy, fuzzy headed and just couldn’t put any power to the pedals. It took me a good minute to work out what had happened as it has been years since I have bonked this hard. The interesting thing was one part of my brain knew I needed to start shovelling food into my mouth, but the other part just wanted to keep riding and trying to turn the pedals over. After what felt like 5 minutes the eating part won, and I started throwing down gels, a clif bar, and a couple of clif shots.

I started to feel better straight away, but the damage had been done. I had missed eating regularly over the previous hour and a half and was now paying for it. So as I made my way slowly back to Stromlo trying to find my legs again I resigned myself to getting caught by the following bunch at some point and then spat out the back.
I made it as far as the top of the first of the three sisters before a group of 6 came past. I hung in for about 200 metres before my legs folded and I watched them ride off into the distance. With only about 7k’s to the finish I just kept pedalling and eventually rolled across the line for a time just over 7.5 hours.

After handing over my final tear and go for the pay I re-filled my bottle put the bike into the easiest gear I had and started the slow spin home....it took me just on 50 minutes to do 15k.

Summary
This year I took a more relaxed approach to this ride, as the previous two times I have ridden I have ended up in the hurt box for the best part of the next week trying to recover. Fortunately this year I didn’t have to back up for the Highland fling 100miler like last year.

The best part of the ride this year was the weather. The wind was a lot less, and temperatures didn’t go as high. This meant the risk of dehydration wasn’t there. Also riding with others this time around for longer made it a lot more enjoyable.
The worst part was the first hour and a half in the pouring rain and a couple of very nervous riders who couldn’t descend in the wet. There was a couple of point where I had it almost locked up to avoid them due to braking in the wrong places.

Upgrades

2010-11-10T08:57:00.010+11:00

Finally finished, new wheels, tires, seat and post

Easton Haven wheel set with Hope Floating Rotors

So the new wheels for the 29er turned up last week, along with the other bits to get them up and running however the tires I was sent were 26" not 29" so I had to send em back. I had abit of think as to where I could get tires on short notice and ended up heading into Lonsdale St Cyclery during my lunch break.

There on the wall they had a number of the new Specialized 2bliss tires in 29" so after steering at them for about 5 minutes pick them up and putting them down I grabbed a Fasttrak for the front and a Renegade for the rear. I was tossing up whether the Renegade would have enough grip for the front and hence ending up mixing the two.

Specialized 2Bliss Renegade

Specialized 2Bliss Fast Trak

Also the new seatpost and seat arrived so it now matches the saddle on the roadie. I opted for a Prologo Scratch TR again, it's not the lightest but it is comfortable.

Prologo Scratch TR

Also on the weekend I finall got around to applying the frameskins to the bike...well kinda. I started, got air bubbles in the first one before wifey took over and finished the rest for me. I figure its not a boy job...requires to much patience. The end result is fantastic, you can't actually tell its there in most cases.

Installed FrameSkin Protection with no air bubbles thanks to Wifey

Side Project

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a steady follow of packages arriving thanks to my little Brother. A while back I offered to build his bike up for him once he got all the pieces sorted. So on Sunday I finally got it all assembled and boy is it something different.

My brother opted for an all-mountain build based around a GT Force frame. When this turned up I had to throw it on the scales and I couldn't believe it when they read 3.0kg including the shock.

From here it's been XT parts and other suitable items, thomson, easton, dt swiss, White Industries. Alot of it is brand new but about 1/3 was stuff I had laying around.

I set it up to initally to weight and measurements and took it for a quick spin on pavement. And all I can say is different..... 150mm travel, slack angles, and a more up-right position is totally removed from what I'm used to.

He flies into the country tomorrow, and we're supposed to be riding Friday so I should get a chance to have a play with it then off road.

Little Brother's All-Mountain Bike/Tank

Sucked in....

2010-10-27T07:20:00.007+11:00

That's right I have been sucked into two of the "latest" trends.....carbon frames and 29ers. The only thing that caould be more insideous is combining the two together. Though carbon frames really aren't the latest trend, but I have resisted upgrading to one for a while. But about a month ago I crack and ordered a frame from pedalforce.
The frame is what can be termed a "carbon blank", a generic carbon frame with pedalforce's logo on it. The frame however does have two of the latest "upgrades" on it, BB30 and a ISP (Intergrated Seat Post). I upspec the package by purchasing a fork from edge composites to ensure fantastic handling.
When the frame arrived I was surprised to find it weighted in under 950gms and the finish was immaculate with no blemishes in the clearcoat.
Assembly was straight forward, but I did have to purchase a tool for pressing the bearings into the frame.
Having ridden it for over a month now and the rides is as good as the cannondale that it replaced. It doesn't have any quirks in the handling and with the BB30 is definitely more responsive to accelerations.

The other trend I have jumped on is the purchase of a 29er hardtail. After doing alot of research regrading a new hardtail through the early part of this year, I finally committed to a Giant 29er. I won't go into to much detail as the benefits and downsides are easily found on the internet. What really pushed me towards a 29er was the ability to not get bogged down through the smaller rough stuff and added cushioning from the wheels.

I have to say at this point I think I have made the right decision. The bike handles more like a roadbike with the larger wheelsize. For a lot of pure mtbers this is seen as a disadvantage rather than advantage, but for me having spent so much time it is second nature. First rideout I found that I was steering the bike through corners alot quicker than the old hardtail, there seemed to be a larger amount of grip despite the soggy conditions. Also the bike felt more stable at speed. I put this down to the larger wheels and 15mm through axle upfront. I also think the enlarged headtube contributes towards the stability as well.

The interesting thing about the bike as well is the riding position. Because of the larger wheels a rider is place more upright and I found it leads to a sense of being "in the bike" instead on on top of it like a normal mtb.

So for every positive there must be some negatives, and in this case its the weight. Stock from the shop the bike weighted in at 11.9kg....definitely porky. So the day after I got it home the garage looked like a scene from Monster garage as I tore my old hardtail down and swapped bits over. I also converted the stock wheels to tubeless. All up I saved about 1kg in weight.
The biggest contributor to the excess weight are the stock wheels. These come in a something like 2.4kgs. So I have ordered up a new pair which should be here next week. At a guess this will get the bike closer to the 10kg mark.

The other item I bought was a smaller diameter titanium seatpost to added to the cushioning of the ride...also should be here next week.

For a more detailed review of the Giant XTC 29er head over to Kev's Blog as he recently purchase one too and has a full write up there

New Ride

Stone Age

2010-09-07T12:20:00.004+10:00

Yup, sorry for the lack of updates but I have no internet at home at the moment as we change over to a naked dsl line. First it was not broadband only dial up (A 11meg file taking 1/2 hour to load) now no service for at least the next week...Yay the joys of technology.

The training is progressing but nothing on the racing front for the time being. I have been spending alot of time playing with the Joule 2.0 and it providing to a good reliable unit with all the training metrics functioning properly.

So once I log some more hours up I will post a full report.

New Black Box

2010-08-27T08:49:00.003+10:00

Review to follow as part of the final installment on Powermeters.

Seen on the way home....

2010-08-24T20:08:00.004+10:00

Geek on a Segway....I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
On the bike path wearing a helmet...made my ride home.

I give it a week....

2010-08-23T19:58:00.004+10:00

mmmm Shiny Whiteness
These turned up in the post today. I was so impressed with my Fury shoes I bought the matching road version. I opted not to get the slightly obnoxious yellow version, but the more subtle white version. However I'm now thinking that given our recent run of weather it will be about a week before they are white/ grey/ black smudged. Though admittedly the yellow version have cleaned up really well time they have ended up covered in filth.

Low profile sole

Next to it's MTB Cousin

Hit out

2010-08-22T22:07:00.005+10:00

So I decided to rock up for my first Bakery Bunch ride since about March. So the result.......well I made the front group through to the end but boy I was in a world a hurt. 335w NP for 20min. First up is the overall view,and secondly is the plot using fast find. As you can see in the space of 20 minutes there are close to 30 surges of over 315w or my the upper end of my threshold. Even trying to stay out of the wind when the acid is on hurts.

Overall plot

So how many surges in 20mins?

Power Meter Choices Part II: Installation, Set-up, and other things that bring you to tears.

2010-08-19T16:29:00.001+10:00

This the second in my little series about power meters and how I choose the one I did. This second part focuses on that happens after you get the nice shiny new box and starting the installation, setup and calibration process.

SRM
First up again is SRM...because well it’s the brand I have owned the longest and am the most familiar with. I would like to say I have had no experience with the new wireless version, but I imagine it would be similar to setting up a Quarq (See below).

Installation
Setting up a wired SRM involves two main parts. The installation of the crank it’s self and the routing of the cabling for the head unit.
Installing the crank is about a 10 minute process depending on whether you have the correct BB in the frame..... if not double it. At this point you can choose to install the crank sensor. Depending on which wiring kit sits behind the crank on the chain stay or if you have the more modern version is mounted using the bolt for the BB cable guide.
From here the job becomes a bit more time consuming if you want it done correctly the first time. Running the cable up the down tube and around the front brake cable so that you have a nice tidy set of wiring takes another 20-30 minutes and can be quite frustrating. I have used various methods including insulation tape and cable ties to get everything in place. One of the key things to watch is that there is enough length around the head tube area so that if the handlebars are turned 90° you do not snap the speed or sensor cable (been there done that $90 lesson).
The final step is mounting the head unit clamp and putting the unit on. I rate the SRM head unit as having the second best fixing method. I have broken a head unit before when a taxi in Sydney decided to open a door on me and snapped it from the mount. Given their position they can be damaged in an accident if something manages to get between your bars.

Trouble Shooting
I have had to trouble shoot SRM installations before and they are a bit more involved due to the number of potential sources of error. Sensor placement near the crank, faulty wiring kits, and batteries are the biggest causes of failure to get a signal from the cranks. The latter two are the expensive ones to fix as they require a new wiring kit or the crank to go off for a week to Kinetic to have the battery replaced.

Calibration
As I have mentioned previously SRM are the only power meter which a user can change the calibration on. I advise anyone that purchases one to check the calibration as the slope from SRM themselves is known to somewhat suspect. When I had two I would calibrate them once a month as it would only take about ½ hour and therefore I knew my data was always accurate.
The 0 offset for a SRM is set by pressing a combination of buttons back pedalling once, waiting for the numbers to settle then hitting enter. SRM’s seem to be more temperature sensitive than powertaps due to the way that power is measured with strain gauges. This means having to potentially reset this value a couple of times in a 5 hour ride if the weather is changeable.

Powertap
I have owned my powertap now for about 18 months and is the second oldest system I have experience with.

Installation
Depending on where you purchase yours from the system either comes built up in a wheel or as a hub which you have to have built up. The second option gives you more freedom of choice for rims and also it means that the freight costs are less due to smaller size of the box.
I had dramas with mine due to the LBS and my choice of spokes I used to get the wheel built up with. In summary it took over a year for the local distributor to admit that the spokes used on my wheel were a bad batch and replace them.
This issue aside getting the wheel, throwing a tire on and mounting the head unit up are as simple as it gets.
The Little Yellow Computer (LYC) is the most secure of all the head units I have tried due to its placement and the locking mechanism, which is very positive.

TroubleShooting
The powertap system is Ant+ so the headunit is paired with the hub. If the two aren’t talking it is normally a battery issue. Replacing the battery in the LYC is very straight forward with the cover easy to access. However on the MTB powertap you have to remove the disc rotor to be able to replace the hub battery and this is a 15 minute job, which luckily you should only have to do every 6 months or so.
The other issue with the powertap wheels their bearings. Basically, they are sh!t. I had to replace mine after only 3 months of getting a fresh rear wheel earlier this year. While getting the bearings is easy it’s about ¾ process to disassemble the hub punch the bearings out, press the new ones in and reassemble. The new bearings I got down the road are miles better than the originals and still going strong 6 months later.

Calibration
I wrote a piece a couple of months back about how to check the slope for a powertap. This is all that can be done by the user. If there are any issues the hub has to be sent back to Saris for repair.
Setting the 0 offset in the headunit is done so that every time a user coasts the offset is re-set. This is a good function and means that you don’t have to manually perform this as with a SRM.

Quarq
The new arrow in my quiver and so far so good.

Installation
So it’s and integrated crank and the installation is the same for any such similar crank set. I had to remove my existing BB and put in the SRAM specific GPX model that came with the crank set. Here I hit my first snag, the BB tool I had did not fit the non-drive side cup...seems that the axle hole on this cup is smaller than the drive side. So I tightened up by hand and continued with installing the cranks.
With wireless cranks (both SRM & Cinqo) you need to place a magnet close to the spider to activate the electronics when you begin pedalling. To start with I just used insulation tape to fix the magnet as I wasn’t sure whether the position I had chosen was going to activate the cranks.
Next I pushed/tapped the cranks through the BB using a rubber mallet as the machining tolerances are very tight. The fixing for the SRAM S950 is a single 8mm allen bolt on the non-drive crank arm. Basically tighten this up and that’s it. There is no ability to adjust play in the bearings and it relies upon the machining tolerances to ensure no side to side movement.
Next I mounted up the Garmin 705 on my stem and set about pairing the two up. The Garmin fixing is fairly weak. So far I have lost my GPS through user error with the bracket no engaging correctly and in a crash at Wagga earlier in the year. I don’t see the system being a problem on the roadie but time will tell.
Pairing the Garmin 705 & cranks was very easy it took less than 20 seconds...it seemed I had placed the magnet in the correct location.

Trouble Shooting
I got my first taste of this on my second ride! Was riding home from work and the cranks wouldn’t work. The night before I had rolled back the firmware as the latest stuff from Garmin is buggy with speed drop outs so it was back to version 2.90. So to start with I tried re-pairing the devices and that didn’t work. So I rode home with no power. Next I thought the magnet had moved so I spent ½ hour playing with that...still no joy. Then I went back to the settings in the Garmin and had another play with that...no luck. Finally I started going through the on-line trouble shooting guide till I got to the battery. I thought what are the chances? So I popped the battery on the cranks... and low and behold the Garmin flashed up a “low battery warning on power meter message”.
Back up stairs and scratching through the spares in the bottom draw and do you think I had the right one...nope. So I dashed off to the mall on the off chance that Coles/ Woolies/ K-Mart might have the right on in stock. But no dice.
Next day it was a trip to Dick Smith at lunch time and $13 later I had 3 new batteries and it was all good again.
So from this I learned that the system is more complicated than my previous SRM with potential sources of problems from both the head unit and the cranks themselves.

Calibration
The Cinqo transmits the 0 offset to the head unit so this viewable by the user. There are two method of re-setting this. Either by manually doing it using the options on the Garmin or alternatively backpedalling 4 times. The Cinqo is setup to detect this movement and resets the offset.
The slope is basically non-changeable....but I did read it is possible using Linux, a Garmin ANT+ USB stick and some programming knowledge. This is way beyond anything an average user/ me perform themselves.

So this concludes the second part of the series. I’ll post the next in a couple of days.

Power Meter Choices Part 1

2010-08-16T13:25:00.005+10:00

Well rather than write screeds in one sitting I have decided to break-up my entry on how I went about choosing my new powermeter, the installation, and headunit.
I am going to break this into three parts with this being the first regarding system choice.

The Options
There were a couple of reasons I decided to update my system. The first was the age and the second was the technology used. My old SRM systems were coming up to about 7-8 years old, and while they were still reliable, the fact that they were wired and used either a square-taper or Octalink BB was becoming a hindrance in looking at new frames.
I already knew the three systems I was going to have a closer look at SRM, PowerTap, & Cinqo.

SRM
This the grand daddy of all the power measurement systems available on the market today and the technology hasn’t changed much since it was originally implemented. The design has been refined and spread across a number of different crank systems from Shimano, FSA, Cannondale, and Rotor.
The biggest developments have been in terms of the head unit. With a progression from the original PCIV which I started off with through to the latest PCVII. Each iteration has been a refinement of the previous, though some would argue that the PCIV’s 0.1sec recording rate was a feature that should have been continued on later models.
My SRM’s were running the PCV head unit which was the last of the wired units supported before SRM changed to wireless with the PC VI. When they made this leap there was no cross compatibility between the systems meaning that a PC VI would not work with a wired system.

The Good
• Proven, reliable, design.
• Easy to setup and use.
• The gold standard in accuracy.
• Service is the best in the industry.
• User calibrated.
• Now USB compatable/ Charging
• 130+hr battery

The Bad
• Price. In market terms SRM’s are overpriced given the technology involved as demonstrated by pricing for Quarq’s.
• Units are sold minus a head unit which is needed to check/ change calibration. Across all power meters, these are the most overpriced component given the technology involved.
• No GPS.
• Head Unit not user customisable.

Powertap
Another power meter I currently own as it is the only viable system available for the MTB. Like most people I have had problems since purchasing it, with it having to go to the USA to be replaced (reason not given) by Saris. And 1x set of dead bearings inside of 4 months on return. Powertaps are cheap in comparison to the other systems available and a lot of people end up purchasing them for this reason. However as mentioned previously the support given by TBA for these is next to none...if you are lucky. I ended up contacting Saris directly when I had problems with mine. Personally if/ when Cinqo get a MTB crank on the market I will be selling my powertap wheel.

The Good
• Cheap, you can purchase two for the price of an SRM.
• Easy to use

The Bad
• Chews bearings
• Cannot be user calibrated
• Next to no support in Australia from the distributor
• Bound to one rear wheel.

Cinqo
The new kid on the block. The system is not common over this side of the world, and after doing some research I found out why. Cinqo produce measurement systems for a number of cranksets, SRAM, Lighting, Rotor, Cannondale basically any crankset which has a removable spider similar to SRM. However the only cranks distributed internationally are the SRAM version. And these are done back through SRAM. So it goes something like this,
Quarq get the cranks from SRAM -> Fit the new spider and send back to SRAM international ->SRAM International then send these out to their distributors in each region -> You get your LBS to contact the countries distributor and purchase them through them.
You cannot buy directly from Quarq if you live outside the USA or Canada....which seems a bit backwards.
So I initially found a cheap on-line seller of the cranks here in Australia, but after a number of emails to Quarq, SRAM USA, the seller, And Monza here in Australia. I worked out that they were not an official distribution channel despite claiming to be. For those interested the only official distributors here in Australia are Monza and Echelon Sports.
In the end I actually found a second hand set from the USA for less than $AU1300....good score.

The Good
• Proven technology- Strain gauges in the crank.
• User replaceable battery- yah no more $AU90 to have the crank battery replaced every 18 months.
• Spider can be swapped to BB30 cranks should buy a new Cannondale Caad 10
• Lighter than current setup
• Integrated BB spindle means it’s compatibles with most modern frames.
• Not bound to a specific headunit, can be used with Garmin, Saris Joule, and SRM (if you get the signal changed.

The Bad
• No local support. If there is a problem it has to go back to the US
• Not easily user calibrated. It is possible but very involved and you probably need to be a computer programmer to do it.

The Unknown
• Reliability- Still a very young system and its long term durability is not known.
• Accuracy- The crank has 20 separate strain gauges to achieve the claimed 2% accuracy vs SRM’s 2, 4, or 8 gauges. Until I started using the crank this was going to be the real unknown as to how it stacks up against the SRM.

Part 2 will follow in a the next couple of days.

New Powermeter

2010-08-11T07:37:00.004+10:00

So last night was the first outing with the Cinqo and it performed perfectly...even in 3 hours of pouring rain. I have teamed the new crank up with my Garmin 705 for the time being and the data coming out agrees within the margin of error between the two powermeters.
I performed a quick and dirty MFA last night to check and the difference is in the order or 2%.
I will provide an fuller post within the next couple of days as to why I choose the Quarq and details regarding setup etc.

Goodbye old Friend

2010-08-09T20:20:00.005+10:00

Goodbye old friend...I'm going to miss you.
Yes today is a sad day, it was my last ride on my beloved SRM. My replacement powermeter arrived today, and after riding home. I tore her down and put the new one on.
My old SRM was super reliable and never missed a beat in the 3 years that I was it's owner, and now like it's predecessor is going on fleabay to a new home.

But enough with all the sentiment, I have a new toy to play with! It's wireless, 100gms lighter then the old system, and full of carbony goodness. So after putting it through it's paces tomorrow night I'll post up a picture....And yes it's something a bit different ;)

Carbon is bad mmmkay

2010-08-05T18:24:00.005+10:00

Someone sent me a link to this site involving well...pictures of broken carbon bike bits....... oh no the horror

40°+

2010-08-04T12:23:00.004+10:00

As I mentioned in my last post the training has been going really well, and the motivation is super high at the moment. So well in fact that over the past 10 days I have probably spent 10hr+ training in the pouring rain.
Well my body has decided it's payback time and as of last night I am running a fever in excess of 39°. It peaked out last night before I went to bed at over 40°+!
So today I'm at home, and supposed to be in bed. However wifey did leave me a medium sized list to chores to do so haven't made it back there after dropping her off at work this morning. I also had to swear on pain of death, that I would not ride my bike today, including on the windtrainer.
But there is a bright side! These arrived last Friday so I might get a chance to watch half of one this afternoon.

Static.....Ebaying my life

2010-07-28T19:48:00.003+10:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, but everything is going well and on track. In fact I've got a 12hr on the cards for next weekend! My first.... so trying new things and all that.
Other then that, things are a bit sad. I'm cleaning out/ ebaying my garage, and have takers for the last two pair so carbon wheelsets I had sitting there. So I guess I'm no longer a roadie. I also have my SRM's up for grabs with alot of interested buyers.
So with the SRM's on sale I have a new powermeter lined up for training on the road (post to come on that)

Up For Sale 2x SRM's

2010-07-19T13:02:00.003+10:00

Ok, so I finally decided I'm going to update/downsize my collection of SRM's. So I'm putting up for sale 1x full system & 1x partial system.

1x SRM Pro System ($900)
-1x Pro Cranks (4x strain gauges & black/white/grey sticker) 170mm with Campagnolo square taper BB (english thread). Accuracy +/-2%
-1x Wired Head Unit V(white)
-1x Front wiring harness
-1x O/S (31.8) alloy Handlebar mount
-1x Australia/ NZ charger
-1x USB download cable

1x SRM Amateur System ($700)
-1x Amateur Cranks (2x strain gauges & green/black/white sticker) 172.5mm with Dura-Ace Octalink BB(english thread). Accuracy +/-5%
-1x Wired Head Unit V(Black)
-1x Front wiring harness
-1x Plastic Handlebar mount(25.4)

Email me at d_w_rae@hotmail.com if interested.

New SRM Importer- Australia

2010-07-16T12:19:00.003+10:00

I just found out yesterday that there is now a new retailer for SRM in Australia. Having a look through the price list and things can come way down over the last couple of years. A new wireless square taper crank can be had for $AU1650+GST and one of the new headunits for $AU900+GST.
So head over to RST Training for the full price list. Order times are 2-3 weeks out of Germany

Base Layers

2010-07-14T15:56:00.005+10:00

So given Canberra is currently in the grips of winter, I thought it time to upgrade some of my baselayers and add a couple of longsleeve items to the wardrobe. So after some research I choose a couple of Craft Pro Zero Extreme tops.

I have always ridden with a technical baselayer to help aid in the insulation/ evapouration process right from my days as a novice.

Craft isn't a name that is well known over this side of the globe infact I couldn't find a local importer at all. So I ended up doing the purchase from one of the normal mail order companies and a week later they turned up in the post.

So first up the Zero Extreme range have a dedicated windstop front on them to keep the chill off your chest. Next up is the channelled fabric used for the back and arms. It's very soft to touch and has flat stitching to ensure no chafing.

Fitwise the body and arms are a good length in all the right places ie the shirt tail region and sleeves when moving your arms don't ride up and expose your wrist area.

The first ride was yesterday in a balmy 3 degrees. Firstly once on I didn't notice the undershirt again it didn't move or chafe so thats a huge tick. Further into the ride once I had warmed up I noticed that the shirt wasn't holding any moisture and breathing to allow the sweat to move out to my thermal jacket.

After the ride I checked the top and it was slightly damp, however once I hung this up at work it had dried out by the time I rode home. The other thing was there was no odour like some undershirt once they get sweat into them.

So all up I'm stoked with these and highly recommend the brand...in fact I will probably buy a couple of short sleeve zero versions (no windstop front) for spring.

Cyclists fight like little girls

2010-07-10T09:33:00.007+10:00

Trying to bash someone with a carbon wheel...I think alloy might have been more effective ;)

Always funny watching roadies try and have a fight after a race....those shoes make it difficult to get balanced footing(they also can't punch for sh!t).

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

2010-07-08T19:34:00.004+10:00

Well not really. They are Swarovski Kristallwelten, still very cool. No price yet but given how expensive sidi shoes normally are...expect to pay a handsome premium!

Looks like a scooter but not...

2010-07-04T18:35:00.006+10:00

Yesterday morning while out doing family stuff I saw one of these on top of a car. Big chunky MTB wheels, covered in mud. I caught my eye and I thought "That's just dumb... go get a MTB if you want to play in the mud, not a kids toy"

A kids scooter....?

It wasn't till I was riding along one of the fire roads on my way to Stromlo later in the day, I worked out what it really was. I heard them before I saw them, then screaming round the corner, came one of these scooters.... being towed my four huskys/ malamutes at full noise, these guys were flying. I pulled over to let them past, something pretty special and made it made my day.

Calibration

2010-07-04T14:44:00.005+10:00

So I have been mentally been telling myself that, "I need to check the calibration of my MTB powertap" for a couple of months now, but just haven't got around to it. I know a number of the guys with them have started having various problems so, I thought now was a good time to check the accuracy.

So today, decided was the day and I created the spreadsheet and set aside 1/2 hour to do the testing. The testing procedure is also the same as for a SRM, except with the powertap you test various gear combinations. The only equipment required is something with a know weight, either youself or a couple of lifting plates of at least 20kg and a spirit level for leveling the cranks.

The spreadsheet is just a series of basic calculations, Torque= weight * crank length * 1/25.4 * (rear sprocket/ front chainring).

The yellow powertap headunit displays the measured torque value if you hold the select button for 2 seconds.

So this is the result,

Firstly, the powertap is reading ~ 3.0% low aross the gear range or about 8.9w at threshold. Secondly you can see that the 12t & 36t produce the highest levels or error. This is a consequence of the chainline and way that torque is applied to the hub. 3.0% is double the quoted accuracy from Saris for their hubs, but at this stage I am not worried enough to send it back to be adjusted.

Something up the sleeve

2010-06-29T13:24:00.005+10:00

Shimano have just launched their site for the new XTR due out in October. And as everyone has been speculating there is a new double XTR....the one crank to rule them all!

Shimano are going to be offering XTR in two options a trail build with dyna-sys and triple crankset and a racer build.

However there are a couple of things I'm not liking. First is a propriety bolt pattern again. 88bcd x 4 bolt (SRAM is 120/80). Secondly this limits the minimum chainring size offered to 40x28. Now this crank is being marketed as a "racers" crank, but we all know that even a 28x36 is very tall gear. SRAM OTOH have their 26x39 and paired with a 36 gives a gearing range that almost equals a standard triple setup.

The crank has been designed with a narrower Q factor and tweakwd chainline to 48.8mm to get rid of the normal MTB stance feel.

The other thing I'm really sad about is that Shimano have abandoned their dual control system on the 2011 range. I am a real fan of this coming from a road background the braking and shifting is just natural and very "road like".

Everything else in the range has been re-jigged as well including calipers, cassette, chain, derailleurs, and wheels.

All up it looks as though this is going to give SRAM a good run for their money in terms of weight and performance. Also Shimano don't release new products until they are spot on so it should be good to go straight out of the box.

Interesting Ad

2010-06-25T07:15:00.001+10:00

Interesting Ad from Merckx Bicycles....

I have been busy!

2010-06-24T12:23:00.003+10:00

Haven't posted a write up in a couple of weeks, in fact just before the 8hr race at yellowmundi. This was a race I was looking forward to as it is part of the NSW enduro series for the year, so to DNF out due to busting my knee up, not once, but twice was really disappointing.
In fact I managed to crash in exactly the same spot both times two laps apart. The falls were slow speed through a rocky technical section. The first time hurt and it took me a couple of minutes to get myself together again and back on the bike, but the second time was a lot harder and my knee started swelling and ceasing up. By the time I nursed it through the remainder of the lap it was getting towards excurating so I didn't have any choice but to pull the pin.
By the time I got home it had swollen to the point where there was golfball size lump on the knee and very stiff getting out of the car (Sorry no pictures).

So this mean't a couple of days off the bike, and with it being a long weekend I decided to get productive around the house. I have been swearing to my wife for a while that I would tidy and organise my bike stuff in the garage into some sort of order so on the Monday that's what I did...and it took me most of the day. And here is the final results.

Official Product Shot- CAAD10

2010-06-24T09:16:00.001+10:00

The Ghost

2010-06-18T21:04:00.004+10:00

First unconfirmed sighting of the new Cannondale Caad 10.
This was rumored to be released this year as an update for the current Caad 9 which I am currently riding. I have been waiting with great antipation for this bike all year...bring it on! (Which means we will see it in October here in Aussie)

2011 XTR Crank

2010-06-15T12:42:00.005+10:00

First pic's on the new crank. I'm not happy if this is all that's on offer for next year! Where is the double crankset???

The Married Life of a Cyclist

2010-06-09T18:28:00.001+10:00

2011 XTR

2010-06-09T08:24:00.004+10:00

Rumor is 300gms lighter than 2010.
There is a information embargo till June 30th so details are sketchy (no details on the crank yet).... to be honest I'm not feeling it, it just doesn't look like the XTR of old.

Capital Punishment

2010-06-06T19:19:00.005+10:00

Capital Punishment

Well I was going to do my normal write up but given how epic this event turned out I really don't think power numbers are going to cut it.

Basically the day went like this, early start-> coffee & food-> drive to race. try and not get car bogged in farmers paddock nor parked in. Unload then try and find shelter for 15 minutes before the start.

Start race, hit out too hard, hit first single track then into a world of pain for the next 4.5hrs. Explode with not eating enough, about the 50k mark before entering Majura.
Pull the pin at the exit through Majura after struggling with no brakes (see last post for pictures)

And that was my day in a nut shell.

Couple of pictures below that do it more justice.

The Damage Toll

2010-05-31T21:06:00.005+10:00

Well Saturday was Capital Punishment...and well boy did me & the bike get punished here are a couple of photos till I can get my head together to right a full report of the torture session.

Brake Pads. Swiss Stop Formula Oro. As you can see I pushed them way past where a maybe a more sensible person would stop. Note the middle one has half the backing gone!

Pile of dead parts. Rear derailleur, chain, and bottom bracket. Rear derailleur was half dead anyway so not crying over that.

Note the teeth on the bottom pulley...maybe this is why the shifting sucked?

Current damage bill $300....
-rear dearailleur
-bottom bracket
-chain
-new cables
-new brake pads

Thank god I do all my own repairs. Otherwise I think there would be another $80-$100 for labour on top of that!

Not good for your lungs or bike

2010-05-26T12:20:00.006+10:00

One of the parting comments after finishing the Nowra 8hr was how bad the dust was and how it had stuck to everything.

Me somewhere later in the race, notice the grime.
Copyright Kelvin

During the race my rear shock never felt right and while I had a fiddle with the rebound it just wasn't happening. So after the 8hr I sent it back to Dirtworks for them to have a look at and they discovered something like this...

The oil in the shock was black and used as though it hadn't been serviced for a couple of years, not 3 months ago. Also it was in a sealed portion of the shock this crap shouldn't have been able to get to.

So Dirtworks are going to re-service the shock as in there opinion something weird has happened to it and I a bit happier knowing that it wasn't me making things up because I was tired and getting sloppy during the race.

Nowra 8 and a bit hr

2010-05-24T19:53:00.005+10:00

Well better late then never...
Last sunday was the second in the NSW enduro series an 8hr event at Nowra on the Coast(not that I saw any water).

I had another early start to get down there and setup before the 8am kick off. The drive down was uneventful and I got to drive through Kangaroo Valley I place I haven't visited before with some interesting roads.

I got to the course about 6.45am am and after being directed to park as far away from transition as posible hauled my crap all the way back. Going for the simple setup of multiple bottles and gel flasks I was soon good to go. Off to registration, where I realised wifey still had my licence from the race the previous week. But the cool people at rego let me through because I did the rego on-line through MTBA.

The race briefing was at 7.45 before we were directed back down the fire road for the start. Getting all lined up before told that we needed to move then not making it back to the front when the organised suddenly screamed go wasn't really the best way to start the race.

Frmo here it would take be till the fourth lap or 2hrs to clear traffic (this was probably) a good thing and settle in for the long haul. Sometime about the 4hr mark I had an incident passing a slower rider due to hitting something hidden off the side of the track and going over the bars.

Again mid-race I went through a couple of laps where I was just generally hating life and would have been quite happy to pull the pin but again things picked up at the 6hr mark as everything was starting to wind down.

Somewhere in here I worked out there was a big plasma to see my on track placing and I found out I was sitting in about 15th spot, and started to seriously work on moving up.... (well it only took me a few hours!)

So come 7.4hr mark I knew I had at least one more lap to do and maybe a spare as well. I asked Jase's wife Kylie to try and work out whether I needed to do the spare to keep my position of 14th or whether I could wind the clock down as it would be close to the 8hr mark.

I roll in at 7.56hr and Kylie lets me know that on the previous lap the gap to 15th was maybe 3.5 minutes but the gap to guy in front was only a minute...also she wasn;t sure whether he and gone out on another. After about 10seconds thinking I clip back in and am off on the final final lap of the day...and trying to hunt down the rider in front.

After half the lap I realise that he mustn't have gone out on the lap and only need to make sure that the guy behind doesn't get me.

So after 8.5hrs riding I cross for 13th place on the day amongest a field that was more stacked then the previous race.

All up I'm happy with the result given the limited amount of training over the last couple of months...but a top 10 would have been nice.

Data

So looking at the numbers from the day, showns that the course required alot more pedalling than the previous round. Also I put out ~3w(yes standing ovation required!) more than the last race despite riding for an extra 15 minutes.

As well the MMP curve was alot flatter than the previous race showing improvement over the longer time periods.

Also this previous week I learn't this ltttle trick of creating a MFA of laps within a workout for comparsion. So below is the data for the 15 laps completed on the day.

So overall, despite my currently lower training load (through work constraints, and placing driver with wifey) I am actually showing some progress.

Wrong Wrong Wrong

2010-05-24T19:42:00.002+10:00

Another horrible setup spied via the internet

(And yes I do need to do the write up for last week)

Worst Bike Setups Continued

2010-05-17T17:40:00.003+10:00

I was probably a bit harsh on Ben Day in my previous post... its' bad but not the worst.
Yes folks, here it is, the thing that should never be!

Steve Bauer's "funny bike"

And yes this has not been stretched in photoshop. He somehow thought this was a good idea???

The Wost Pro Setup

2010-05-16T21:36:00.003+10:00

And the award goes to....

Ben Day

(For the MTber's who can't work out the problem look at his levers!)

Something a Little Bit Special

2010-05-13T18:26:00.003+10:00

I placed an order last week to stock up some items I was running low on in my spares collection. The store didn't have any of my beloved XTR chains in stock, but they did have these for just a little bit more....I couldn't resist!

Shimano Yumeya Chain

"Yumeya" translates to dream workshop...basically fruity bits for your XTR or Dura-ace groupset. I've not been interested in any other of the bits but thought the chain was "interesting". The chain has Titanium Nitride inner plates the are "supposed" to help with oil retention.

If the hype is just that, then I bought a couple of cool coloured chains, time will tell.

Follow up FSA Cranks

2010-05-10T13:13:00.002+10:00

So I have had 4 rides and clocked over 10hrs on the new cranks including 1x XXC race. It’s time to give a further update on their performance.
Firstly I have not had to touch the front derailleur alignment since set up, it really has been set and forget even though it is mounted too high.
I have had one dropped chain, and that was sprinting against a truck at +50kph from the lights. It was dropped to the outside not inside which is unusual. There have been no drops to the inside which is where you normally have it throw off.
Despite hammering through Pork Barrel multiple times and yesterdays rough XCC race, the chain has not bounced off the rings which I have had happen in the past with the XTR cranks.
At the moment the biggest issue is probably the 12-36 cassette. It could do with more in the way of mid-range cogs and the jumps can be a bit extreme at times but this is unrelated to the cranks themselves.
Given FSA’s poor reputation with cranks and chain rings in the past I am pleasantly surprised with how well everything is working out. I think that at the present moment, this crank set is the best value option for someone looking at heading down the two by option of front chain rings. I am sure this will change later in the year as SRAM release more of their range with double chain ring options.

tale of the Lost GPS

2010-05-09T16:52:00.004+10:00

Last Sunday I was out round Stromlo thrashing the new cranks (yes I know I need to do the follow up...) and somewhere around the back my Garmin 705 flew out of it's mount and either onto the track or into the bushes at the side of the trail.

By the time I realised it was missing I had no idea where over the last 7k or so it would have detached itself. So I had a real problem, I had to be back home by 11AM for a kids birthday party on pain of death and I knew I couldn't ride the trails backwards without causing and accident. So going at Mach 5 around to the last place I had looked at it before slowing to a crawl to try and scan the track for the GPS.

When I had covered about 1/2 of the 7k's I mentally had written the unit off as lost and was thinking whether I wanted to shell out another $500 for a replacement. I got back to the trail without sighting the GPS and it was off home for fun and games with a bunch of kids for the afternoon.

During the week I mentioned to Big Jase I had lost the GPS and I got the normal commiserations and the rest, but two days later I get a text from him saying a mate of his Garry had found my GPS and I could get it back this weekend.

So I met up with Jase before the race and he told me the story, "Apparently a couple of riders had found the GPS and given it to Garry because he had one and might be able to work out who it belongs to. So Garry scrolled through the history on the Garmin and found that all the files had power data attached to them. At that point he phoned Jase because he knew he trained with a power meter and might know if someone had lost one."

So I got it back today, a couple of extra scratches and I checked the ride file and it looks as though the thing died after about 17.5hrs....longer then what Garmin quotes for battery life. So a big thank you to everyone that passed on the lost unit!

Review- FSA Afterburner 386 Crank

2010-04-30T21:15:00.006+10:00

FSA Afterburner Crank 386, 40x 27 Chainrings

So I received my FSA afterburner 386 cranks in the post yesterday and thought I would post up some inital impressions.

Weight
They are 30 grams heavier than the XTR cranks they are replacing, despite being only a dual ring setup. Looking at them you can see straight away that the arms are most substantial than the XTR crankset. Whether this translates into a stiffer set of cranks I can’t say at this stage.

Finish
These are kind of a love it or hate. I like the finish which is similar to the older XTR anodizing (deep grey) but am not so keen on the shape. They just look bulky and industrial, where as the XTR cranks have a more rounded profile.

Ease of Installation

Left hand Crank and mounting bolts

Unlike XTR cranks these don’t require two separate tools to remove. When I first got the XTR cranks I was a WTF? Could they have made these anymore complicated to install? The cranks have a plastic ring which needs to be removed before the exclusive XTR crank only tool can be screwed in and the crank bolt backed out to pull the crank off.
The FSA cranks are similar in design to the XT level cranks and have a dual set of bolts on the left hand crank for fastening the crank to the axle. Bearing pre-load is adjusted through a threaded cap on the left hand side... and yes as I found out it is possible to do it up too tight!

Other set up Issues
I had to adjust the front derailleur because the new big ring is a 40T so it meant having to lower the height and here I “may have” run into a bit of a snag. Because of the shape of the frames tubing and pivot points the XTR dual pull derailleur is sitting a couple of mm’s higher than I would like. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be affecting the shifting but a full field trial will tell whether I need to swap this out for a top mount derailleur.

36-12 Cassette

I also threw on a 12-36 cassette and fresh chain at the same time and what a difference it made to the feel of the drive train. You kinda forget what fresh clean stuff feels like if you don’t replace it regularly ie 3-5 months. There seems to be enough clearance for the 36T with a normal XTR rear derailleur...but it is tight. Unlike a road rear derailleur there is no b screw to adjust the top pulley away from the cassette. Again a couple of test rides to see if this is going to be a problem or not.

Right Hand Crank

End Result
So I now have a drive train where I can use all but one gear (40x36) for about the same weight. The front shifting, I think is on par with the XTR cranks it’s replacing but I wouldn’t say it’s an improvement. From reading some of the descriptions of the SRAM XX stuff there are a lot more ramps and pins for shifting the chain which the FSA cranks are lacking.
I will be taking this out for a thrashing on Sunday to field test drive train and see what adjustments I need to make and will give an update then.

Linky

2010-04-30T06:35:00.001+10:00

http://www.trainingandracingwithapowermeter.com/

Still waiting on my book... but thats another story

Wee Man at Stromlo

2010-04-25T22:29:00.004+10:00

This morning was sent taking Wee Man out to Stromlo and rather then him hit up the kids park he decided he wanted to go on the trails. So we went we for a bit of a loop around fenceline and I snapped a couple of pics.

All the riders were OK that came across us.... except some a$$ on a 29er who thought it was cool doing intervals around the begineers loop... yeah good work hero.

hmmm thought I got away from that cr@p when I stopped racing road.

Someone's been watching too much Tokyo Drift!

2010-04-25T19:03:00.002+10:00

Very Cool!

Lithgow Enduro- Write up

2010-04-22T13:29:00.006+10:00

Well last Sunday was the first of the Chocolate Foot Races, using the Lithgow course.
And up until this weekend had a real dislike for the course due to the rutted, rooted nature of the course and the toll it takes on the body. The previous 2 times I have raced an 8hr here I pulled the pin by the half way mark.

So the day began at stupid O' clock (2.00am) for the 3.5hr drive through the back roads to Lithgow. The scene through central Canberra was interesting with all the creatures of the night still out at 2.30am drinking. Here I am steeling myself for a 19hr day drinking black coffee and their still out drinking..... yup there was a small sense of self satisfaction there.

The rest of the drive was uneventful except for the fog around Goulburn which slowed the driving for about 1/2hr due to the limited visibility. I rolled into Lithgow just before 6ish, topped the car up with gas and then off to Macca's for another coffee and read the newspaper for 1/2 an hours before heading out to the course.

Driving into the start area, I pick a spot and start unloading the bike and setting my little table up. I line up 8 750 bottles for the 8hrs and throw one in the bike.
I set out 3 gel flasks with a mixture of Hammer Gel (vanilla and raspberry which is my new favourite) and Leppin shots.

I then sit in the car chilling before getting changed and heading over to the pre-race briefing. Once this is out of the way everyone heads off in the general direction of the start. I line up about 4 rows back and were off.

From my hit out the day before, I know how sore my ribs still are and just take it easy for the first portion. I'm quite happy swinging over on the fire roads and letting people through where they want.

At this point 3 riders I recognise get in front of me and I have a bit of a marker to chase, Dreggsy Grantly Butterfield and Kevin Wells.

After the first lap the results show I came through in 10th place, thought I had no idea where I was in the field. The time was about 34.30 I was feeling comfortable so just aimed to about that pace for as long as I could. On the next lap I got in front of Kev on one of the fire roads before he came screaming up on the next section of single track. At this point I had alot of pain in the ribs and to hear "Dave, get off the brakes!" as I'm standing trying to cushion all the vibration to them didn't go down well.

I over the next 3 laps I worked my way up into 5th place before stabilising there for the rest of the race. I was losing about 3 minutes a lap to 4th (not that I has any idea) but my lap times were consistent up until about the 1/2 way mark at 4hrs.

Here the times started blowing out to the 40min mark, they remained here right up until the last lap where I threw down a 38.5min lap. At about the 6hr mark I started playing mental math games to keep me amused to work out how many laps I had left, then started counting them down.

By this stage the body was sore, and hands had blisters from gripping and bracing the bars on all the downhills so I was glad at the end of the day to cross the line in about 8.15hr for 13 laps.

Analysis

Overall I was happiest about the pacing I managed for the race with a quickest lap of 34.5min and a slowest of 41.3mins. The race generated a whooping 560TSS with over just on 5000cals burnt. The quadrant analysis shows just how steep and punchy the climbs were in places with alot of time spent in quadrant II.

On another note I decided after the race I'm getting ride of XTR cranks. The entire race I never touched the dog. I spent the entire time in either the 22 or 32. The problem with this was the number of ratios that were unusable due to cross chaining, So I've decided to go to a double up front with a 27/40. I've order a FSA afterburner 386 crank as a trial. This will give me most of the gears I had previously with the triple but I should loose alot of the overlap.

I have a double on the hardtail with a 29/40 and gripshift for the front derailleur. This works really well as I can get all the gears with no rub at all.

But time will tell if it's going to work.

Chocolate Foot Race 1

2010-04-20T09:25:00.004+10:00

Full write up to come

Making Mexican

2010-04-16T19:30:00.005+10:00

This

not this,

Well as some of you may know I had an eventful Wagga 6hr completing only 2hrs before crashing out. But I will get to that story later in the piece.

Monday wifey got put into an air boot, so she is more mobile (well for a cripple)

Franken-Foot

And I have spent most of the week nursing my ribs which maybe a bit more damaged than I first thought (I initally thought bruising, now maybe cartilge damage)

On a positive not I taught myself how to tear down a set of Rockshox Reba forks and re-build them, I replaced the bearings in the dually (not as hard as I thought), and I also replaced the bearings in my power-tap, so over-all a productive week.

Bag of not very good bearings
The Race

Sunday, was the first time I had been to Wagga to race a MTB so I managed to navigate my way to the RSL/ Golf Course for the start with plenty of time to spare, and get registered and set-up.
Kick-off was 9.30am (a reasonable hour), and after a quick last minute change to where I had left my gear in transition we had sat through the race briefing and were on our way.

I settled back into about 10th-12th wheel on the way up the hill, and worked into a rythem catching a couple of people and being passed by a couple. By the first section of single track I got caught behind a kite (goes up well, not so good going down) and he fumbled under the pressure a couple of times. I think alot of us have found ourselves in this situation before head of the train, where you know there are faster riders itching to get past. I tried to calm him down to he didn't make a spectatular mistake and I have to stop and get him medi assistance. Eventually he pulled over and the train rolled away from the station.

By this stage the front runners were off and gone, but I was happy and coming to grips with the course and just trying to get through the first lap with no mis-haps.
I got jumped by a guy on a 29er through a flat section and tucked in behind til he fumbled coming back along spinal tap.

Then is was off climbing back up and over the hill before the descent into transition.

A couple of riders got past me across the top but I tucked in and got towed back up the hill for the second lap.

I stayed this these guys fore most of the next lap before they got away up the hill on the way back to transition.

Through transition and and it was short stop, bottle change and off tucked behind another couple.

This lap was uneventful till the end where I tried to close the gap through Brad's Pit and f&*ked it up badly. I was way too enthusiastic, rolled through the first part at 45kph, launched the jump, completely missed the landing and piled in front wheel first.

There was a rider stopped at the top of the course at that point and he's yelling at me if I'm O.K But I can't breath as I have knocked the wind out of me in the crash. I sort of get my arm up and wave at him then try and drag my bike off the track so no one else lands on me.

I'm kind of sitting there getting my breath back looking at how mangled the front wheel is knowing I have a 15min walk back to transition and realise that the day is probably done. However I begin to smile, because I realise that 1) I'm OK (well so I think then, a rider ended up in the spinal unit because of crashin there the year previous)and 2) the course is a sh!t load of fun. I have to say that this is probably the best course I have been on in recent memory, in fact I would be prepared to ride a 24hr on this course as thats how fun and entertaining it is.

The Weekend

I have entered for the first round of the Chocolate Foot Enduro Series at Lithgow (on a track I really don't like) on Sunday. I thought my ribs were just bruised until last night when they started to play up during the night and I am now suspecting maybe cartilge damage. Well worst case scenario I go and do 6hrs of sloe laps and try and ramp t up for the last couple.

All the best for those riding the Australian Marathon champs this weekend, hope you have packed your walking shoes as you will need it by the sounds of the course.

Wagga 6hr

2010-04-09T10:24:00.002+10:00

Off to Wagga on Sunday. Should be good have great things about the club running the event and that it's a good course. Also can't argue with $20 for 6hrs of pain!

Note from the Doctor...

2010-04-06T17:55:00.004+10:00

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past couple of weeks...but I have a valid excuse. So keep reading.

What does this guy and my wife have in common?

Yes that's right they have both ruptured their achilles tendon!
Wifey in her second pre-season game managed to detach her tendon going for the ball.
So for the last two weeks I have been pretty much chief cook and bottle washer with not alot of time of too much else.
Wifey is on crutches at the moment and in a cast for the next week or so till she may get an air boot to support the injury.

Couple of photos below of the injury

Torture Loop Version 2.1

2010-03-24T12:44:00.007+11:00

Saturday saw a new version of the Torture Loop… we decided to try it in reverse with an extra loop around Urriara. Rolling out at 6.30am it was a brisk pace out to Stromlo to start the real fun. The morning still had traces from the fire reduction burn the previous day but nowhere near as bad as anticipated.
Down into Urriara Crossing and out the otherside we went at it, with me glancing down to see number in excess of 300w + all the way along to Mt McDonald.
Some recovery over the top and down into Pierces Creek, by this stage the sun was out in force and I was sweating up and storm, the day was super humid and the sweat wasn't evaporating.
Up Pierces we caught another two rider riders near the top and rolled with them for a while. By roll with I mean recover, admire their bikes (Colnago C50 and a bright red Time VRX) before I got bored at the pace being too slow and we took off on our own again.
Somewhere over the next 10k to the base of Corin I hit the wall hard, and knew the next couple of hours were going to be a big trip into hurt box.
We called a truce riding up Corin, Big Jase was on recovery mode still and I was trying to pace myself so as to make it through the ride without going too cross eyed.
Near the top Jase gassed it and I just kept rolling.
A regrouping at the far cattle grate and we wer off for the next target, Apollo Road.
By this stage we were both doing mental calculations to see how much time we had left and whether we could make the trip to the top of Fitz's and back to town before lunch.
My math said no, so we scrubbed that part and just hit up Apollo Road.
As soon as it got steep Jase was gone and I had the pleasure of the road to myself...well me and the flies that and appeared from nowhere.
Up through the steepest part of the climb the cadence was dropping as low as 45rpm with my breathing sounding close to hyperventilation before greatfully the road levelled out for the final 5k to top.
FIlling the water bottles up and talking sh!t for a couple of minutes before we hit up the descent back into town.

Numbers

I have run a Multi analysis for the past two weekends rides. Bearing in mind that the first lot of data wasn't mine, and I felt like crap this last time, there was a 5% difference in the two rides.
But the interesting thing from a PE perspective is that both Jase and I agreed that the version this past weekend felt alot harder even though the numbers don't actually show it.

Ride Numbers

Multi-File Numbers

Quadrant Analysis Torture Loop 2.0

Quadrant Analysis Torture Loop 2.0 & 2.1

Lucky Lottery Ticket

2010-03-22T18:56:00.005+11:00

Like all the other 4,000 punters I was queued on the inter-webs at 9.00am furiously hitting the refresh button to crash the AROC server.
By 9.30am I had a confirmation email.
By 11.30am I had found out we are now in a lottery system for entry to the Capital Punishment 100k.
While I'm not that upset, it hasn't cost me any time nor money yet, over on Rotorburn there are a number of people who have now taken two mornings off work to try and enter for this race and are out a bit of coin and I have to say I feel for them.

The other point that has started to rip my undies is the way in which race entries are creeping up. Coming from a road background I am used to races cost $30-$50 to enter for a 80-160k race. However over the past year I have noticed that entries into alot of the major marathon races have started to creep up. Basically it was $100 for 100k about a year ago but I think that Capital Punishment is setting the new benchmark at $130. Once one promoter moves the bar the rest will follow.

Weekends almost here!

2010-03-19T12:51:00.006+11:00

Yes it's almost upon us, and it will be another revision of the Torture Loop tomorrow. We are going to do last weeks in reverse with an additional couple of km's by going through Urriara Crossing.

Sunday will be some hardtail action at Stromlo ealy. Wifey is going to be playing geriatric soccer (I'm going to get a slap for that)this winter so my Sundays are going to be somewhat limited. How that imapacts on the racing...well I'm make it up as I go. This part of my "not being such a selfish b@st@rd" with the racing this year. Also wee man is old enough now that wifey can get out and about with sport a bit more...I suggested trying an enduro and got glared at ..go figure.

I have been lusting after a new hardtail frame for the last month or so, and think I have it finalised. It's suprising a) how expensive buy a frame alone is b) how limited the availability is on alot of them c) how stupid Giant's distribution strategy is. All will be revealed in time.

The ride this morning was fantastic, I got motorpaced by one of these in the pitch dark for 7k @ 65kph

Weekend Numbers

2010-03-16T08:45:00.007+11:00

While these aren't my numbers for the weekend they are close enough that I have adopted themself.

Time: 5:40hrs
Cals: 4440
TSS: 388 (Yes the legs are still tired)
Intensity: 0.83
VI: 1.2

Distance: 160kms
Climbing: 2370m

Power Distribution by 10w Bin

Power Distribution by Zone

Torture Loop 2.0

2010-03-15T12:24:00.003+11:00

On Saturday Big Jase & I set off on the new improved torture loop version 2.0.

Unlike last year, this time it was straight into the hills for some serious climbing action. 6.30am is still dark O' clock so it was good one of us bought lights (me!) otherwise it would have been dodgy going for the first half hour.

First on the menu was Fitz hill, and dispite promising myself that I would take it easy I hammered up the climb just to get the torture over with. As Jase came over the top all I got was "40 RPM sucks!"

After 5 minutes admiring the view, getting the breath back it was off to the next target on the list Apollo Road. This climb wan't so bad, but by keeping a steadt tempo I managed to gap Jase through the middle steep section before he caught back up at the top.

Another short stop, refill the water bottles and we were off on the decent, it was here things got a bit hairy thanks to my old friend Mr Kangaroo who decided suicide by cyclist was perferable to watching from the side of the road. A a fist full of anchor the kangaroo was on its way, but it was close.

At the bottom to our delight we discovered it was going to be a tailwind all the way across to the bottom of Corin. Trading off turns at 38-40kph was fun and a great reward for all the climbing. Normally along here it's a headwind, which seriously sucks.

We reached the bottom of Corin well ahead of schedule, and started the meander up the climb. By this stage I switched the turbo off and rode with Jase all the way up the climb, just a steady tempo for 45mins to the gate at the top.

Because we were so far ahead of what was planned it was decided home the long way was on the cards, along Tidbinbilla Rd through Pierces Creek. Coming past the base of Mt McDonald we caught up with another group of riders and latched on the back for a tow to Stromlo.

By this stage we had to start racing the watch as we both had promised to be home by midday.

So all up it worked out to be 5.5hrs of riding and ~4000cals burnt for the day. I can't post anything up as the SRM decided to die just past Tharwa.

I now have to think up a new route for this coming weekend...I don't think I can come up with anymore climb...well maybe ;)

Mini-Fitz Challenege

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Legs...

2010-03-11T10:00:00.003+11:00

Anyone know where I can buy a pair of these?

Time to write something...

2010-03-09T19:21:00.002+11:00

Well it has been a week or so since I posted something up so here goes.
Firstly I last wrote that I was going to ride the CORC 3hr...well I went to the race, arrived and found the front tire had exploded on the way there with a tear in the side wall. The damage was such that I couldn't repair it in time. So I ended up going for 1.5hr for nothing. To say that I wasn't in the best of moods after was an understatement...good thing I don't own a cat.

The training in the lead up to the Real MTB Cruise went well given the weather and lack of racing. But come race day I felt like sh!t, with no warm up (who warms up for a 100miler?) we were off. And straight away I felt like I was riding with the brakes on. So I just tried to chill and get a rhythm going...but things only went downhill from here.
After 2 laps the clamp on by seatpost gave out such that the saddle would end up pointing up about 20 degrees after every lap. So I persevered for another two laps before 2 spokes broke in the rear wheel and it went out of true.
At this stage I just cracked it mentally.
I still ended up with 120k for the day, and a good beating for my troubles.

So I've bought a new seatpost and the LBS is re-building the rear wheel, so I'm a bit happier.

On tap for the weekend is a smashfest with Big Jase on Saturday. We have a mini-Fitz Challenge lined up so it will probably be 3000m of climbing for the day.
Sunday I'm hoping to get out on the hardtail for some fire road action...but this will be dependent on recovery.

Mellow Yellow

2010-02-26T19:17:00.005+11:00

No not the softdrink...these

Mavic Fury

After giving The Rhino sh!t about getting a pair a month ago, I ended up buying a pair.
They are lighter then my Sidi Dragons, and the fitter is definitly better. While I have been happy with my Sidi Ergo II's the Dragon's have just never cut it.
And they are lighter to boot.

First ride tomorrow at the CORC 3hr.

Lust

2010-02-25T14:48:00.006+11:00

While surfing last nite I came across a picture for this and now I have some serious bike lust. It's just plain sexy, the helix tubing reminds me of a gun muzzle.

Lynskey Pro 29er with Lefty and BB30

mmmmm Sexy

Lynskey Performance Designs is founded by the Lynskey family who originaly started Litespeed in 1986 and later sold the business in 1999. The production facility at Lynskey Performance is operated by David Lynskey and his crew of fabricators. Lynskey work with U.S. milled aerospace grade 6al-4v and 3al-2.5v titanium pretty much the same as what they were doing back at Litespeed.

The Black Hole

2010-02-22T09:13:00.003+11:00

One of the latest discussions over on the Wattage group has been focused around the best method for raising FTP. Are there seems to recognized approaches. The first is the old tried and true method SLD or slow long distance, despite the latest trend to shorter harder efforts this approach does work.
However it is very time intensive the recommended dose is 25hrs+ a week in zones 2-3. I understand this is the approach used by both Craig Gordon & Chris Eatough for their 24hr preparations. However for most people this just can’t work through other commitments, work, family, life. I know if I was even inclined to attempt this my wife would probably kill me after 2 weeks.
The other approach is revolves around SST (sweet spot training) and L4/L5 work. With the development of TSS (training stress score) and PMC it was calculated that SST returns the best buck for your time if you are a time limited person. This coupled with FTP intervals (2x20min) and can only train 10-15hrs a week still provides a very effective way to raise FTP. This approach has been nick named “Training for the time crunched cyclist” by Lance’s Coach Chris Carmichael.
Now there was a lot of backwards as to which approach was theoretically better, but what struck me as a comment about people who can stretch their training out to 19-22hrs a week. Where do they sit? What is the best approach for them? The LSD method won’t work as the time is too limited, but the SST approach is too intensive and can cause burnout.
So this time period falls into the black hole region, I know personally I only ever hit this amount of training on peak weeks and it is not somewhere I regularly visit. But for those that sit in this region it could be time to reassess your approach.

Fat a$$

2010-02-19T18:50:00.004+11:00

Now I may not yet be fully back at racing weight as yet but I didn't think my a$$ was fat enough to do this.

The rails on my beloved Fizik Aliante have cracked through I suspect a combination of my saddle position on the rails (slammed right back) using a thomson seatpost, and overtightening of the bolts on the seatpost.

So after discovering the cracks I went on the hunt for a new saddle and managed to snag one of these.

A Prologo Scratch Pro TR. These are produced in limited numbers for sponsered pro riders to their specs. A first glance the saddle isn't overly light but it is under the 250gm mark.

Having fitted it up and ridden it, I can say it is comfortable but the padding is on the firm side.

On tap is a 5hr+ ride tomorrow so that will the real test.

NSW Enduro Series Announced

2010-02-19T14:53:00.004+11:00

The dates are up for the NSW Enduro Mtb series for 2010. The race series is being run by chocolate foot Surf over to their web page and have a look. The dates are,

18 April 2010 Sunday
Singletrack Mind Series Round 1

16 May 2010 Sunday
Singletrack Mind Series Round 2

13 June 2010 Sunday
Singletrack Mind Series Round 3

29 August 2010 Sunday
Singletrack Mind Series Round 4

25 September 2010 Saturday
Singletrack Mind Series Final Round

After this lot my program for the year is choca-bloc with races. At rough count there is ~ 25 races over the 3hr mark on tap!

Smack Down

2010-02-18T09:51:00.005+11:00

For those that might be following the coverage from the Tour of Oman, it seems the smack down was put on everyone's favourite team....Team Sky on the previous stage.

Now as a bit of a re-cap, Team Sky had the yellow jersey on the shoulders of Edvald Boasson Hagen and basically during the stage riding like a bunch of pr!cks using only half width and putting the peleton in the gutter through the feed zone.

Now there are some un-written rules in cycling, the first is you never attack through a feed zone. Now a feed zone is a dangerous enough place in the first instance, but when you have riders attacking or riding the bunch in the gutter at 65+kph it's just lethal.

The second un-written rule is you don't attack when the yellow jersey takes a nature break, well after Team Sky's previous efforts the other teams returned the favour by turning the screw when Boasson Hagen stopped for a bit of relief.

Road racing in the bigger races is about give and take, if you let someone into the echelon in the x-winds you will have the favour returned some day when you need it by them letting you in or maybe a helping hand on the climb when you're struggling.
The flip side is, if "cut" riders up and don't give an inch when you can and that gets remembered as well and will come back and bite you in the a$$ just like Team Sky

In the Post

2010-02-17T18:02:00.004+11:00

Maxxis Medusa's 1.55

In all the pre-Husky race talk about rain, I decided I needed to add some mud tires to the arsenal as I didn't have anything. So 5 days before the event I started ringing around shops trying to find out who had what in stock.

Well from all my ringing around I concluded this was most of the importers idea on the subject, "We don't need mud tires because it doesn't rain enough". No one had anything in stock. BikeCorp don't bring the medusa into the country anymore, the distributor for Michelin don't have any in stock, and pretty much the same from the other importers.

Well given the recent conditions at the the Sydney 24hr, Threadbo national round, and conditions at Nowra on Sunday I think they need to re-think their idea.

So I placed a rush order with CRC and paid extra for UPS express shipping to try to get it here by the Friday. As things would have it.. it all turned to sh!t given time differences and the tires eventually turned up today.

So I am now the owner of a set of mud tires, now I just need a race to try them out in.....

Photo's from the Husky Course Last Sunday

2010-02-15T20:33:00.005+11:00

Some Water

Some Mud

And some more water

These were taken from a couple of parts of the course proposed for yesterday.... after the rain.

To the Weather......

2010-02-13T17:28:00.004+11:00

The race for tomorrow has been cancelled by the promoter to save the tracks from being decimated by 500+ riders.
I called the promoter at about 11 a.m and got "Still on modified track, all good!"
After retreating to the garage for some erg machine action, then packing the car, I checked Rotorburn and the pin had been pulled.
Now I'm not mad at the promoter... in was a good call if the tracks are fragile due to rain. Just more annoyed at the rain.

Performance Upgrade of the Week

2010-02-13T12:51:00.006+11:00

I recently decided to change pedals back to Cranks Bro's eggbeaters due to these guys making a shorter axle to reduce the Q-factor on the pedals.

So I bought a set of SL's off Fleabay and ordered the sortened Ti axles and finally got all the parts yesterday.

So below are some pictures during the upgrade.

Egg Beaters pre-tuning

Ward Industries Ti Axles

The Standard Crank Bro's Axles

Post Upgrade

So total weight savings of 44 grams and a 8mm narrower Q-Factor

On the Menu for Sunday

2010-02-12T06:41:00.004+11:00

From looking at the long range forecast there its going to be a wet/ muddy race on Sunday for the Husky 100k. Have to go sort some tires out...thinking Maxxis Ignitors

The New Definition of Epic

2010-02-09T10:25:00.002+11:00

Quote for the day.

“Epic” is not training 180km in the rain. “Epic” is training 180km in the rain then waking up the next morning and doing it again, then again, then again….

Chasing Legends Trailer

2010-02-08T19:21:00.003+11:00

From the guys that bought us 24Solo is their next masterpiece "Chasing Legends" Out May 2010

Sometimes all's ya can do...is all ya can do!

2010-02-07T19:42:00.014+11:00

Sutton Road Course

Yesterday was CORC's XC race at Sutton Road, a course I had previously placed first in Sport B Men late last year when I had some reasonable form.
The day dawned cool and overcast, the outlook was for a chance of showers but nothing arrived during the morning.
All the pre-race activities went smoothly with no dramas, and I got a pre-ride in of the course to ensure that I there were no surprises lurking anywhere. The lap went OK other then getting lost after following a junior off course (yeah I know look at the markings rather than the rider!)

The start was the usual bottom of the fire road deal and off the line I got swamped, falling back as far as 12th before the single track. Having ridden here a couple of times, I knew that it was really easy to go too hard too early so I slowly set about picking riders off one by one.

After about the first 1/2 lap I knew I wasn't on a good day, there felt like not much in the engine and my bike piloting skills had gone out the window.

So I just kept plugging away picking riders off to move up into 6th place with 2 laps gone.

There were a couple of spectacular crashes through the race due to the combination of wet and dry loose conditions. The loose stuff wasn't the normal bull dust more marble sized rocks for a change. My front tire choice (Maxxis Rendez, good for Stromlo, sh!t for here) almost had me on the ground 4-5 times, with one of them having think that a shammy change might be necessary.

So after making 6th spot I could see 5th place just up the trail but wasn't making any in roads. So it was a case of keeping the pressure on and watching the laps count down.

So the overall result was 6th, but this doesn't really tell the true tail of the race.

Analysis
So on the way home I had the normal cyclist things running through my head when you don't get the result you want, "I need to train harder!", "More intervals!", "I need to train longer!", "Loose weight".etc etc

However after calming down and properly reflecting on things, I thought I would wait until I had a proper look at the numbers before passing judgement.

So first up is the raw number from the race, The normalised power is higher than I expected and most of the durations seem to be OK... so the problems not there.

Raw Numbers from WKO

Next up was to perform a MFA on this race and the previous and see where the differences lie.
So as you can see the numbers are almost identical the normalized power is in fact a touch higher this time around but the overall speed for the race is down. So there is nothing conclusive power wise to draw from here. It maybe that I struggled more with the track conditions this time through with the mixture of wet & dry... but I'm not sure.

Multi File Analysis Graph

The final area I had a look at was the quadrant analysis, an it's here that I spotted that there had been a shift in my high end pedalling. The graph showed that there was an ~ 6% shift from quadrant I to quadrant II. So effectively from high force/high cadence to high force/ low cadence. Now whether this can be attributed to the "sluggish" feeling during the race i.e no snap I'm not sure but it is the only measurable difference between the two files.

Quadrant Analysis

So in summary, while I was slower than the previous race on this course my power output was on par with my previous performance. So what does it mean? Well "sometimes all's ya can do...is all ya can do", we as athletes put alot of pressure on ourselves and sometimes forget that there are things outside our control ie other's performances that we have no influence on.
In this instance there were five people who had a better day than me on the day.

Footnote: Looking at the results from the race and the top-3 from Sports B men all out performed the winner of Sports A men and would have placed mid field in the Open Men's category.

The Secret Herbs + Spices

2010-02-04T18:52:00.008+11:00

No I'm not going to talk about KFC.... though they do have this back on the menu

As I mentioned here, Dr Cogan is back in the lab re-designed the TSS metric from the ground up.

Today he released another teaser,

Blue points are from structured or unstructured workouts at levels 2-5. Red points are from races and from level 6-7 training sessions. TSS was modeled after Banister's TRIMP, and attempts to express power data in terms of the stress that is applied. The new score, OTOH, was designed from the "ground up" based on first principles as a predictor of training-induced improvements in performance.

What this seems to be showing is that some things (crits, circuit races, L6/L7) are in fact NOT as good training as others given the same amount of training stress. That is, 1 extra point of TSS in L6/L7/Crits only gives a 0.46 extra boost in the new performance index, whereas 1 extra point of TSS in L2-L5 training/TTs/ road races gives a 0.76 boost in the new performance index.

I guess the obvious question becomes: is the new performance index intentionally biased toward adaptations that increase FTP (as opposed to, say, strength or Anaerobic Capacity)? Is it trying to measure more directly how much impact your training/races contribute toward improving FTP.....

2007 Flèche Wallonne

2010-02-02T09:26:00.003+11:00

The other night I pulled out one of my older WCP DVD's and threw it on and settled back on the couch. The race was 2007 Flèche Wallonne, a race I had seen a couple of times before so knew the results.
But as the placings list was put up at the finish something grabbed my eye, this is the top ten:

1 Davide Rebellin (Ita) Gerolsteiner 4.48.06 (42.173 km/h)
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0.06
3 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas
4 Matthias Kessler (Ger) Astana 0.08
5 Riccardo Riccò (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
6 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) Ag2r Prévoyance 0.13
7 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team CSC 0.16
8 John Gadret (Fra) Ag2r Prévoyance 0.19
9 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank
10 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital

Can anyone see it??????

Yes thats right the top 5 have all been done for dope in the following two years,

Rebellin for Cera at the 2008 Olympics
Valverde for involvement in OPeration Puerto
Di Luca for the Oil for Drugs scandle, then for Cera during 2009 Giro
Kessler for testosterone
Ricco for Cera...and being a general douchebag

And the thing was watching these five go up the final climb of the Mur de Huy you could see that they were on something just the way they literally rode away from the others up a 20% climb.

Sad really.....

Cool Pic of the Day

2010-02-01T12:00:00.003+11:00

Credit: CXMagazine

Fitz v AAC250

2010-01-29T05:42:00.009+11:00

Now that the AAC250 has been done and dusted, debate has started as to whether this is harder then the shorter 200km version and how it compares to our very own Fitz's Epic.
Firstly I haven't ridden the 200km version of the Audux Alpine Challenge so I will be doing a comparsion with Fitz Epic which I have ridden the last 2 years.

Fitz Epic

The Fitz Epic is an Audux ride here in Canberra around the base of the Brindabella mountain range taking in a number of major climbs. These are Fitz's Hill, Apollo Rd, and Corrin Rd. These climbs range in length from a mere 4km for Fitz's Hill to 12km for Corrin Rd.

The rest of the course os characterised by open rolling roads with shorter steeper climbs in the region of 300-600m.

The temperature at the time of year that is run is normally in the mid to high 20's and this normally accompanied with wind later in the day.

The check points are not of the quality of the AAC, but this due the smaller nature of the event and also that they are situated in the middle of no-where with no buildings, electricity, running water.

ACC250

My report from the ride is located here so I won't reiterate too much of it.

The AAC250 is an Audux ride starting from Bright and traversing through the Victorian mountain range taking in a number of major climbs. These are Mt Hotham, Falls Creek, and Towanga Gap. These climbs range in length from a meer 7km for Towanga Gap to close to 30km for Mt Hotham.

The rest of the course os characterised by a mixture of open roads with some shorter climbs in the region of 1-2km.

There are also three significant descents the First from Omeo, the second from Falls Creek and the final descent from Towanga Gap to the finish.

The temperature was in the high 20's little to no wind to speak of

The check points were some of the best I have seen with good facilities and plenty of food and water.

Multi-File Analysis

When version 3.0 of WKo was released I briefly mentioned the multi-file analysis feature of the software. What this allows is a comparsion between multiple rides on the same or similar courses (Yes, JD this would be perfect for your 100's of testing laps around Majura!).

The results once the files are combined is firstly a graphical plot with key metrics listed underneath for easy reference. The second result is a combined quadrant analysis plot of the files.

Graphical Plot of Fitz's v AAC250

Quadrant Analysis of Fitz's v AAC250

Conclusions

First up are the basic numbers,

AAC250
time: 8:42hr
work; 6048kJ
TSS 560
IF 0.81
VI 1.29
Normalised Power: 249w
Average Power: 193w
Average Speed: 27.9kph

Fitz Epic
time: 7:34hr
work; 5624kJ
TSS 543
IF 0.851
VI 1.29
Normalised Power: 267w
Average Power: 206w
Average Speed: 27.6kph

So we can see straight away that I had both a higher average and normalised power for Fitz than the AAC250. The VI of 1.29 indicates that there was a reasonable amount of coasting for both rides despite Fitz's having significantly less downhill.

On examination of quadrant analysis the % time spent in the 4 quadrants is roughly the same (within 3-5%). What is interesting is when the outliers are examined, the majority for quadrant II (high force/ low cadence) are from the Fitz's ride, and the for quadrant I (high force/ high cadence) from the AAC250 ride.
This shows that the climbing for Fitz's entailed a higher amount of low cadence/ high force climbing than the AAC250.
I would suggest that this is a result of the number of rolling hills and Fitz's Hill it's self.

In summary from this data I would conclude that Fitz's Epic is a "harder" ride to complete physically than the AAC250

More Push Tuning

2010-01-28T08:46:00.003+11:00

The bike shop rang seems they forgot to give me the dyno tuning graphs when I picked up the rear shock.
AS you can see there is a noticable difference in the profile of the shock post tuning.

Pre-Tuning

Post-Tuning

Alpine Assault 2010(250k)

2010-01-25T17:18:00.012+11:00

Sorry for the late report but it's taken a couple of days to get this together.
Well I'm back, tired and sore after my jaunt through the Alpine Region of Victoria.
The ride began yesterday at 6.20am....so that meant a 4.00am back up to get some food in and also to get from Mt Beauty over to Bright for the start.

Breakfast consisted of 2x packages of Uncle Tobie's porridge and Gatorade. After a restless nights sleep through a foreign bed, no aircon, and a number of trips to the toilet (the after affects of hydration). I wasn't feeling the freshest, and with no coffee on tap the feeling didn't go away anytime soon.

The drive over to Bright aloud me to see the final climb of the day up Towonga Gap, and it wasn't looking bad. Driving it in the dark it seemed only about 5k and on the way up I spotted the location of the water stop on the side of the road.

Over in Bright we got a parking spot close by and I see about getting ready, pump the tires, bottles on the bike, shoes, helmet and off for a final trip to the toilet, before coming back and loading the pockets.

So what went in the pockets for a potential 9hr+ ride?
-3x clif bars
-2x gel shots
-4x bags of clif shotz
-2x 750ml bottles of Clif Salty Lemon Mix

The Start to Mt Hotham

The roll out along the road to Mt Hotham was pretty chilled with the bunch sitting on a steady 30kph. The morning was cool and crisp and just right to begin along day in the saddle. A couple of surges went in that put the bunch briefly into single file but no one was foolish enough to try attacking.

At the foot of the climb up Mt Hotham I moved towards the front as the grade picked up. There were no accelerations just a slow stripping away as the steady tempo and grade took it's toll.
After about 2km there was a small group of seven riders left at the front. At this stage I was surprised and actually enjoying the climbing. The road was smooth and the grades shallow, I knew "The Meg" was coming up and sure enough it rared its ugly head. I took the outside line through the corner to reduce the grade and made it through and onto the next pitch without going into oxygen debt. Over the top and there were 4 of us left and over the next few k's the group of 7 reformed.

Next up was the long false flat before the open section up to the top. It was on this section that the legs began to protest and I knew that I was not on a good day. The beginning of the open we were met by another steep pinch of about 600m metres and sure enough I got unhitched here. I decided well that I was better off riding at my own pace along here and try and catch back along the next shallower grade.

As road turned the corner the front 4 riders slowed and the wind across the peak turned into a x-wind. Back on the bunch briefly before unhitching again just before the top at the ski resort.

I crossed over the top with the other 3 riders before making a mad dash down the descent and catching back to the leaders before the first checkpoint at Dinner Plain.

At the checkpoint I refilled my bottle, stretched a bit before we hit the road again for Omeo.

Falls Creek

The road for the next 50k was open and rolling but downhill to it allowed plenty of recovery. By this stage we were out of the high alpine area and the temps went from chilly to warm and pleasant.

Rolling into Omeo and the checkpoint at the school it was time for a toilet stop and another bottle refill before hitting the road again.

At this stage we were joined by the bunch from behind as we hadn't been hammering the open road too hard and our numbers swelled to about 12 riders.

Out of Omeo and after a brief 3k climb it was a twisting winding descent for the next 40k. At this point my legs were really starting to protest to it was back off the bus for me as I tried to pile in the food and drink in the hopes that they would come right before we began the ascent up falls creek. But no dice, with every small acceleration out of the corners they squealed like a small pig.

It was about then that I decided that I would probably end up riding the climb on my own. Unfortunately the hard left came far too soon and I was steering up the face of a 10% for about a kilometre or so.
Start from one end of the cluster to the other and I tried settling into a rhythm, but unfortunately that wasn't happening.
The heart rate was up in the low 170's the power was 300w+ trying to keep forward momentum, and it all came to a grinding halt about 3k up the climb.

I swung to the right of the road under a tree and stopped to try and get the heart rate and breathing under control. To try and describe this climb is hard but unrelenting is probably the best word with no respite. It twists and turns it's way along the ridge leading up to Falls Creek with no let up!

After getting myself under control again I set off again with the power hovering at about 260w and cadence stalling to below 50rpm at times to keep everything under control.

Breaking out onto the plains area at the top of the climb offers some spectacular views but unfortunately I didn't have time to stop and take any pictures before the 10k rolling section to Falls Creek it's self.

At the check point another toilet stop and bottle refill before a sweet 30k descent into Mt Beauty.

Passing cars, 4wd's, and bus on the way down was a blast and allowed heaps of time to recover.
Towanga Gap

In Mt Beauty, the wife was waiting and I stopped off and grabbed a couple of bottles of poweraide and lay on the grass outside chatting for 5 minutes before beginning the assault up Towanga Gap.

The was another climb similar to Mt Hotham with shallow grades and a smooth surface. I just noodled my way up the 7k to the top turning my legs over in their smallest gear.

Crossing the top I had another 15k descent before me and I started to switch off a bit before getting a reminder halfway down not too. Coming out of a corner there were 2x ambulances picking a rider up. I didn't see the rider themselves but it looked like they had over cooked a corner and gone into a bank....

In the valley at the bottom and only 7k to the finish it was time to give it everything left in the tank.

Numbers for the Day

Km: 248
Ride Time: 8:48hr
Calories: 6001Cals (12.5 Big Macs!)
Peak 20min power: 333w
Peak 60min power: 313w

Fluids: 5 litres

All up this was a fantastic training ride, both really well run and with some spectacular scenery. I would highly recommend doing this to anyone look for good base k's early in the year.

Off to do dumb stuff

2010-01-23T05:06:00.003+11:00

Well it's long weekend here in Australia with their (yes I am still a Kiwi!) national holiday on Tuesday. I have taken Monday off work...so 4 day weekend.
Months ago I signed up to participate in the Alpine Challenge for this weekend on Sunday and its finally arrived.

From memory there is about 4000m (10,000ft) of climbing over the 250km route so I'm thinking I am going to be somewhat sore come Monday morning.

This will be a great early season hit out to get some base km's in the legs for next month as it's looking like a solid month of racing.

TARWAPM Edition 2

2010-01-22T13:02:00.005+11:00

For those that don't know Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan will be releasing a second edition of Training and Racing with a Power Meter. This should be available early April this year.
It contains a number of updates plus several new chapters covering new areas and tools in WKO.

The Doctor is back in the Lab

In other exciting (well if you like numbers exciting) news Dr Andrew Coggan is also currently working on a reformulation of the TSS metric and performance manager.

First proposed by Banister et al. in 1975, this model, and/or variations thereof, has been repeatedly shown to accurately predict training-induced changes in performance (both positive and negative) in a wide variety of endurance and non-endurance sports. The impulse-response model has therefore been successfully used to design theoretically-ideal training programs, optimize tapering regimens, evaluate the effects (or lack thereof) of cross-training in triathletes, etc. However, this model also has a number of inherent limitations, which tend to limit its usefulness outside of a laboratory setting.

To read more see here

The details are very scarce other then Dr Coggan posting teasers on the Wattage Group list, but it currently was a working title of TSS 2.0.

The Coolest Sh!t I have seen this year!

2010-01-21T17:53:00.006+11:00

Someone has managed to combine a helmet cam with gps and power data!
Apparently the secret is in the software, but imagine this for short course/ XCC racing!!

Super Sofa

2010-01-21T08:36:00.004+11:00

This is Part II of my review of my Push tuned rear shock.

When I first got my El Salt I described it as being as comfortable as a big sofa to ride. Well I can now say that it's the "Super Sofa".
When I sent the rear shock off to Dirtworks I asked them to tune 2 things,
-The pro pedal settings for my weight (These just weren't working, it was like the three bears with 2 settings too firm and the other too soft)
-The stock rebound speeds (At times the back end felt sluggish even with the rebound dampening switched off)

So testing these two tweaks yesterday through Stromlo and yes it's now riding like I want. The rear is a bit more responsive and "race like" in feel but still having the same level of comfort.

Riding Pork Barrel, I had forgotten how much more fun a dually was through the rough stuff. The shock was using all it's travel yet not bottoming out.

So my recommendation is that it is worth considering having your rear suspension "pushed" if,

1) Your a picky b@stard

2) You are not happy with how your bike is performing and can't adjust it out using rebound/ air pressure

3) Have to service your shock anyway ($350 vs $150-$200)

Push It!

2010-01-19T19:27:00.006+11:00

So I got a call from the LBS today. My rear shock had comeback from Dirtworks, freshly "Pushed"

So what does $350 buy you?

-A fancy sticker

-Blue O-ring

-A bag of spare parts

-And hopefully a custom riding shock

When you send the shock in to be serviced you are also asked to fill in some basic details, and also list exactly what characteristics you are want to have tuned.

Tomorrow will be the maiden ride so I'll report back how it goes

Team Sky's First Win

2010-01-18T09:09:00.003+11:00

Despite the piss poor team kit Team Sky have notched up their first win for the year.
Congratulations to Hendi! This is a guy I used to race against weekly when I was studying at Uni...nothing like getting the cr@p kicked out of you week in week out for 4 years....
It's good to see he is now getting his chance to shine after stepping out of Cavendish's and Gripel's shadow.

The Ultimate present to say "Yes I do Love myself!"

2010-01-15T21:31:00.003+11:00

I think the title says it all really.....

MTB Quadrant Analysis

2010-01-13T18:14:00.004+11:00

So continuing on from yesterday, today I have posted up a quadrant plot from a MTB ride. What we will do is compare it to yesterday's road ride.

- The general shape of the plot (a tight elipse, but there are alot of seemingly random outliers)
- The direction of the shape (low right to top left, but the major axis is steeper than yesterday and closer to the my self selected average cadence)
- Where the outliers are sitting (Again the majority are Quadrant 2- High force, low cadence)
- What the percentages are in each quadrant (This is very important, note the amount of time spent in quadrant 1)

Tomorrow I will post up what I have gleened so far from usin this tool.
Feel free to post up questions if you have any.

All in...

2010-01-13T08:38:00.004+11:00

Just entered for Rocky Trail Entertainment's 100 miler in March.

Should be a bit of fun and see whether I can get closer to the magic 8hr mark this time.

The course consists of 10k and 23k loops. Speaking to Martin @ RTE they haven't decided on the exact composition yet... so worst case is 7 x 23k.

'Cause I am smarter then your average bear

2010-01-12T19:22:00.006+11:00

Just to prove I actually do something with all the power data I have.
This is the quadrant plot from the road ride I did today.
So what is it?
Quadrant Analysis is a way to measure the neuromuscular power demands of cycling. Taken from the book, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Dr. Andrew R. Coggan, "Tools such as Normalized Power, Intensity Factor, and Training Stress Score explicitly recognize the seemingly stochastic nature of cycling power output and help coaches and athletes better understand the actual physiological demands of a given race or workout.

Neuromuscular What? “Neuromuscular function” may sound complicated, but it simply means how fast you can contract a muscle, how strongly you can contract it, and how long you can contract it before relaxing it again.

Each quadrant represents a different combination of force(how hard you push on the pedals) and pedaling velocity(how fast you push on the pedals).
QI: High Force and High Cadence- An example of this would be sprinting.

QII: High Force and Low Cadence- An example would be steep hill repeats, big gear intervals and a lot of Mt. Biking resides in QII as well.

QIII: Low Force and Low Cadence- An example would be a recovery ride or just an easy ride around town.

QIV: Low Force and High Cadence- An example would be a Criterium or fast pedaling drills.

I have highlighted some key areas to look at when reading one of these plots.

These are,
- The general shape of the plot (a tight elipse)
- The direction of the shape (low right to top left)
- Where the outliers are sitting (Quadrant 2- High force, low cadence)
- What the percentages are in each quadrant

So this is what a road training flie looks like. Tomorrow I will post up a MTB ride to highlight a number of points.

And we have a new winner!

2010-01-12T11:49:00.003+11:00

For Worst Team Kit of the Year....what were they thinking??????

At the Pound

2010-01-11T12:58:00.006+11:00

Yesterday turned out to be an easier day training wise spent with the family.

We took wee man to Stromlo so he could ride his little bike around the kids track. Even at 10AM the temperatures with starting to bump up into the 30's. Wee man got bored playing with the other kids so took himself off down to the Crit track and was trying to chase a couple of riders around...but when your wheels are only about 10cm your not going to go very fast.

He would try skooting after them on the straights then use the short cut through the middle of track to catch them on the other side.

Want a Kitten?

I'm not really a cat person but we stopped in at the RSPCA yeterday on the way home and they currently have about 30+ kittens that need homes. So if you are a cat person there is alot to choose from at the RSPCA at the moment.

Square Eyes

2010-01-10T17:02:00.004+11:00

Everyone says get outside enjoy summer, my response is "Piss off it's too f^&ken hot!"

I have to admit I have a bit of a dislike to the Australian summer. The reason being that anything after about 10am and your already into the mid-30's. This makes trying to train after this but really hard physically due to the risk of dehydration but but backing up and recovering hard too. So this generally means that training means being super motivated and a 6am start or rolling out after work at 5pm and still getting cooked.

Yesterday was a Bakery bunch and and extra couple of hours around Uriarra for a bit of sunbaking. Today ftp intervals on the death machine.

After a couple of weeks the FTP is back up over the 300 watt mark...and the garage floor is looking like it's got a permanent sweat stain on it.

So what have it been doing with the rest of the time you ask?

Training the old reflexes on Modern Warfare 2 (Thanks Santa) I'm sure it's useful for MTBing somehow....

Ginga' Roo

2010-01-08T15:07:00.006+11:00

Given the amount of time I have spent lately at Stromlo, I'm getting to know the 'Roos on a first name basis.
However yesterday I almost ran over one of these, hadn't met him before. I didn't even know that they made them this colour. I'm going to call him Stan

A Ginger Kangaroo

Now this has to really demonstrate God has a sense of humor.... I can't really think of a worse colour to make an animal that lives in the bush.

Fail!

2010-01-05T16:09:00.004+11:00

Willing to pay your riders top dollar--> Check

Willing to get into legal battles to recruit riders--> Check

Top Class bikes (Pinarello)--> Check

Skimping on the team kit--> Fail!

2009 by the Numbers

2010-01-01T06:11:00.000+11:00

Training
Total time: 472hrs (Same as 2008)
Total Km's: 12000km (Less than 2008)
Total TSS: 34200(10% increase on 2008)
Total Energy: 330600kj (169 Big Mac's!)
Peak CTL: 116.4 (17th May)
Peak ATL: 153.2 (8th Nov)
Low CTL: 82.4 (24th July)
Highest FTP: 330w

Racing
Best Race: 100 mile Fling. Not sure why but I just really enjoyed the course and the day.

Worst Race: Jetblack 101. Run with a kangaroo on the way to the race, crap course (due to last minute changes), breaking 4 spokes in the rear wheel and having to DNF

Not going to make it moment: Otway. This wasn't a physical moment, more mental at the 1/2 way point.

Luckiest Escape: Coota Road Race. Not piling in on top of everyone else in the mass crash

Longest Road Trip: Otway Odessey. 9.5hrs

Longest Race: Tie. Token 12hr & 100 mile Fing both 8.5hr

Worst Accomodation: Nothing jumps out this year yah!

Best Post Race Food: The dodgy hamburger after the Otway race.

Other Stuff

Best Purchase over $1000

MTB Powertap

Best Purchase over $500

Garmin 705

Best Purchase under $100

Schwalbe Racing Ralph Tires

Floyd...WTF?

2009-12-30T15:03:00.000+11:00

I read somewhat with dismay that Floyd Landis is in the process of tranferring to Rock Racing....
Now I used to be a big fan of his, and ride he put in during that mountain stage a few years back still rates as one of the greatest displays of athletisim I have ever seen! But signing for Rock Racing is scrapping the bottle of the barrel.
So see what a sh!thouse team they are just read this from Mike Creed about the way they treat their riders.

I can just see it ending in tears for someone

Merry Xmas

2009-12-29T12:52:00.000+11:00

Well better late then never I guess.

So I got the family away on xmas eve alright with a 1.30am wake up so they could catch their 7.00am flight from Sydney to Auckland. So before 8.00am I had 6hrs of driving behind me. I then made the mistake I make every year and headed to a mall to pick up a couple of last minute things...I swear every year I'm not going to a go to a shopping centre but somehow always end up in one however briefly. And like normal it was absolutley nuts.

With this over I headed out for a short ride...and this would be the second mistake for the day. By 11am the SRM was reading 40°C(104°F) and I was only halfway through. What was left in the drink bottles was now luke warm and almost undrinkable and I had a headwind for the rest of the ride. By the time I got home and jumped on the scales I had lost 2.5kgs in fluids through dehydration!

So how did I spent Xmas day? Like this?

No 'fraid not, my xmas day was spent with this.... the pain machine

See it decided to rain here xmas eve and didn't stop till sometime on boxing day. So I was left with little choice but to head down to the garage for some 20min threshold intervals...yay for me!

Boxing day was more intervals and I when out for a short 2.5hr MTB ride in the PM.

So now I have a couple more interval sessions planned before Friday and a longish MTB ride set down for tomorrow. At the moment the hardest part is getting out of bed early to beat the heat. You really don't want to be riding past about 10.30am as the temps are really starting to get up at that point.