Surplus quietly achieved anyway......

I passed my yearly target on today's last ride for 2012 with 10005.62 kms on the clock  and nearly 1100km coming in the last 30 days to meet that bloody target, including 5 rides up the 1:20 in the Dandenongs, Mt Donna Buang, a rare RingwoodRoadRide yesterday morning and a Beach Rd blast today on the old Raceline Peloton for the last 80kms.

In fact I've had to do over 3000 in the last 3 months to get there. No wonder my back gets a bit sore ....

Surplus Pledge Dumped ... !!

Press Release from the Office of SLOBSportCycling - Directeur Sportif:

"SLOBSportCycling Management have proactively determined to revise plans for a km surplus beyond 10,000 for the 2012 calendar year. Opinions from a multitude of cycling and relationship experts, gurus and naysayers, the best in the field, suggest it would be irresponsible to mindlessly pursue a surplus at this time. 

..........

CAADX 105 Gets New Fulcrum Quattro CX Wheels

I guess this counts as an early Xmas present .... new Fulcrum Quattro CX wheels for the CAADX 105 :)

Another 3 Day Tour: Tallarook>Alexandra>Warburton>Home

Spring has sprung and it's time to tour !

This time Justin and I decided to tackle part of the new rail trail from Tallarook east to Alexandra and then head south to Marysville and Warvurton, incorporating our all=time favourite ride, the Acheron Way....

2012 Around the Bay Ride

This year Kevin and I tackled the 100km Sorrento-Melbourne ride and had a great time. We managed to cover the course in just on 4 hours, which we were pretty pleased with. Kevin has improved a lot recently since he purchased a nice new Giant Defy roadbike, and we were actually leading a small peloton for about 10kms between Seaford and Mordialloc.

The weather was good - fine and cool, but a bit windy towards the top of the bay. Overall it was a great day out thanks to BNV and all the sponsors.

I also managed to raise nearly $1000 thanks to generous donations to The Smith Family from friends and relatives.

Vanuatu .... Aaaaaah.....

With Maddy settled in well on exchange in Canada we decided a short, relaxing break was in order - for just the two of us !! Despite Maddy's grumbles we decided to go somewhere new and we picked Vanuatu. It proved a great choice .....

And a delayed flight and a night in Sydney, a missed massage, a minor dose of the 'red-hots', and the attack of the killer fleas could not diminish the simple pleasures of being on holiday in such a laid-backed place full of the friendliest and happiest (apparently..) people on earth.

Yes, we are all apiarists now ...

Our new beehive under the lemon tree

Peter Dyer, the bee guy, came last night and left this hive under our lemon tree. Great deal - for $88 we get 10 kgs of honey per year and Peter does all the work. We get to just sit around and watch the bees do their thing in the garden. We're hoping for better yields from the fruit & vegies as well.

Hopefully he'll bring a second hive over today - oh, yeah ...

Ah, those crazy Orica-GreenEDGE guys .....

These guys are clearly enjoying themselves on the Vuelta this year !!

Life in the old bike yet ....

10 years back I bought a secondhand road bike from a guy at work for $650.. The bike had an interesting history - it had been won as a prize by a women for whom it was too big, sold to a friend who rode it sparingly for about 12 months - he was more of an MTB man - then sold to me through an ad on the staff bulletin board.

That was 2002 or 2003, can't quite recall which, and the bike was less than 2 years old and, to my eyes, the most fabulous piece of machinery I had ever set eyes on.

18C means head for the hills !

A sunny day in early August means a ride to the Dandenongs ! Getting to Sassafras via the Koonung, Mullum, Eastlink and Dandenong Creek Trails means 40kms of ups and downs (mostly ups ...) and a mini cherry cheescake and large hot chokky is ample reward for the effort ... well, in my opinion anyway.....

A Touch of Spring in the Air...?

I originally had something else on the agenda today but .... having missed riding the 2 previous days with other commitments I ditched my plans and went riding instead !!

And what a day ! A real touch of Melbourne spring in the air, and I stiched a couple of regular routes together for a 57 km loop which finished with the run down the Main Yarra Trail which I like so much.

Tikalara Park at the confluence of Mullum Mullum Ck and the Yarra River..... 

Minor Obstruction on the Mullum Trail today...

It's a good thing I was taking it easy today as I rolled around a gentle bend between Reynold's and Warrandyte Rd to find this tree down across the path....

Darwin & Kakadu, July 2012

With Tim now resident in Darwin we took the opportunity to visit, and head off on a 5day/4night trip to Kakadu & Katherine Gorge with Adventure Tours.

We had an awesome time on the tour, a good friendly bunch of 16, and a top driver/guide in Ryan, a young guy from 20kms north of Yarrawonga doing a great job in NT now.

Mt Donna Buang the back way ....!

Justin and I rode backwards (that is, clockwise) up Mt Donna Buang today. Started from Mt Evelyn, up Don Rd, turned right, ignored the Road Closed sign and headed up the dirt road to join the road up from Warby near the summit. A chilly descent via Cement Ck (where we saw a lyrebird casually stroll across the road ahead .... ) was followed by pie and hot chocolate at Warby before the run back along the trail to Mt Evelyn.

Strava Multiple Ride Mapper

A clever web app from Strava Multiple Ride Mapper allows you to display multiple rides on the one map. Here is a map of my rides for the last 6 months, except the Audax Alpine rides which were up around Bright, NE Victoria. - no wonder I'm always tired these days !!

....no riding today !!

Someone must have cleaned their bike in Melbourne yesterday ... or washed the car, I guess !!

Beyond the Dandenong Ranges

There is so much good riding so close to home - and a great day for it as well. A solid 100+km/1500m ride in perfect conditions. 


Taking a breather along Macclesfield Rd ... Mt Donna Buang beyond in the distance.

Big Loop Ride 18/04/2012

Today I wanted a nice long ride with not too many hills, so I left home and turned left ... most of the time. 90 kms and just over 4 hours later ... Mission Accomplished !!

Back Of Mt Donna Buang, Tuesday, 13/03/2012

Two weeks ago I finally did a ride I've wanted to do for awhile - climb Mt Donna Buang from Yarra Junction via Warburton and descend on the gravel road towards Healesville, connect to the Don Valley Rd, and loop back to Yarra Junction on the Warburton rail Trail.

Kinglake Ride 18th March 2012

I'd never ridden to Kinglake before so I set out about 8am and rode to my mate Dave's place in Viewbank. From there we wiggled through Eltham and crossed over to the Diamond Ck Rd for a flatter ride out to St Andrews. It looked like it would be a nice ride back that way, once we'd done the climb up the ridge to Kinglake.

Weight Graph: From 15yo until now...

This is a record of my weight since the age of 15, when I stopped growing up ... and started growing out. Bear in mind that for my height the middle of the healthy BMI range (20-25) would have me at 69kgs. At 77kgs I pop through the top of that range....

Ride to Warrandyte 6th Feb 2012

Idle Bike Lust ....

Spied this beauty at Bright on the weekend...demonstrator from Independent Fabrications on show at the Audax Alpine cycling village in Bright.

Audax Alpine Challenge 2012

On Jan 29th 2012 I rode the 'AAC130' (actually 121 kms)  from Bright over Tawonga Gap to Mt Beauty, up to Falls Creek and return. Once again I blame Justin for dragging me into this, another epic ride. You can see the route and summary data from the ride below. Don't be alarmed by the quoted max speed of 80kph - the GPS data is very dodgy for speed calculations. It was probably a bit less than that ... maybe 75 ... :)

Warburton-Lake Mountain Ride

Yesterday J and I did a second ride to Lake Mountain in preparation for our Audax Alpine Challenge 135km ride on Jan 29th. It's 120 km return with plenty of climbing (over 2000m of total ascent) so should do the job OK.