there is a serious amount of WANT going on here

this guys a nutter. i love him!

This weekend Jason, Jillian, Jess and Tom came down to Sydney. Jas sent me a text on friday saying he was on his way and would have the bike. It was so great to see them all and even better to get out for a ride with him considering he was a big factor in my rebirth of bicycle love.

We had dinner on Saturday night both families along with John, another rider that Jas did do a lot of riding with. Both John and Jas were in B-Grade at Penrith and they convinced me over dinner it was time to HTFU. By the time our stomachs were full it was a foregone conclusion… I was stepping up to B-Grade … for good.

I met up with Jas at John’s house as we had decided to ride the the regatta centre to warm up before the race. Without issues we made our way down even though it was really quite bitterly cold. With a good legs and continued commitment to B-Grade I did just that, signed on for my first B-Grade race. I rolled out and sat at the back of the bunch for a little bit. I had rolled up to the line a little late because I forgot to take off my saddle bag.

After about 2 laps I did make my way out front for a smaller turn, then rolled back to the rear again. There was a rider in front of me who had been chatting for a while to another rider then all of a sudden he kinda sat up and took off. It was the first ever true attack I had seen and by the time we had navigated our way through the bends him and 2 others were off the front by quiet a bit. I can’t remember if it was that lap or the next that I saw the guys up front, including John, Jas wasn’t racing, start to look at each other to see if anyone was going to try and cross the gap.

So me being me, I thought I would give it a go … well HTFU was the theme of the day. It was over the bridge when I sprung and I really thought a few others would come with me but that wasn’t the case. I rounded the top two bends and then the front straight solo for a bit then I realised another rider had come with me. He motioned to “jump on” as he passed me and I was able to do so for about 2 turns before I had completely blown up. I was so so so close to the break away but just didn’t get there.

I sat up and waited for the bunch to swallow me back up again. As we rounded the bridge end the bunch pace increased on the bends and sure enough, I hadn’t recovered anywhere near enough and I was slingshot off the back. Stuck in no mans land was a very disappointing moment. B-Grade had taken me on, shat on my face, and spat me back out with a slight smirk on it’s face. It was a true eye opener.

I ended up being caught by C-Grade and sat on the back of them for a little while. Etiquette dictated it not best for me to lead out on C so I just rolled. C’s then passed the D’s but like always completely slowed up after the pass only to have the D’s get up us with “Come on C’s … Pick it up a bit”. It was at this point I decided to throw in the towel. I didn’t want to roll around with a slower C and B’s were gone for good.

I pulled off the course and sat up very very VERY disappointed.

I realise now how much I have to learn about racing. It really is a very very tactical sport and you need to calculate your movements wisely and all the time you need to be very in tune with your fitness level on the day.

I will stay in B-Grade for good now. The challenge is set and I am ready for the next stage, well more am prepared to attack the next stage, obviously i’m not really ready quite yet.

Today gave me the power to make better decisions whilst racing. I’m off now to buy a turbo trainer. I need to up the anti-again. B-Grade was a very good move – I just needed that prod.

This weekend I rode for the second time ever a “cols ride”. Its an epic day and this time was no exception. With a total of 6:31:00 actual moving time – and 2,700m+ of climbing the objective was easily completed.
There was 7 of us in total at departure but we only returned home with 5. One of the Geoff’s had seen enough by Kurrajong and decided to return home. On the final descent at Bellbird we also lost Churchy. He was very luck to not end up on the ground. We were descending at about 80km/hr when a car in front didn’t really time his braking that well and ended up causing Michael to over heat his front wheel from braking and de-laminating it.

Honestly I was as nervous about this ride as I have been for a big race. My last Cols ride hurt me so much and I knew this was going to be even more demanding. Every time any of us spoke about it more hills were being added. LOL!

I really expected to be in a massive world of hurt when arriving home as well as being [like last time] the slowest of the bunch. I met up with Micheal, Terrance and Dave at Micheal’s house then we rode to Emu plains to the meeting point. With three other riders, 2 x Geoffs and Craig [spoonboy] we set off to climb all morning.

I had thrown the GP4000 on the front and the Re-Fuse on the back of the RS80′s. There was no way i was going to climb on the aksiums when I have such a lightweight set of wheels sitting at home. We headed to Old Bathurst and I was blow away by how well I climbed up. I felt super strong, smashed the climb and was astounded as I didn’t really even hit the red zone. Then up to Sun Valley, Mitchels, followed by Lappo – across to the NP and over the causeway and across the plains to Bowen.

By this stage I was still feeling A-OK and took lead out a few times. We then took on Bowen and moved on to Bellbird/Kurrajong only to return to the plains for the final ascent up Alpé de heights. It was such an amazing day to ride. The weather was perfect and by the time we had started across the plains the first time legs and arms were off. Just magic.

The ride for me was way beyond what I expected. I have grown so strong in the last 4 months its a bit over-whelming. I made every hill with a fair amount of ease and that was without even hitting red zones on the climbs. When I arrived home I wasn’t very sore at all. I felt as though I could keep on going. Even today, the day after, I was with out much pain at all. I’m so stoked about my riding level and now that I am about to complete a week of R & R – the first phase of build is going to be really exciting.

The 7 guys who rode were such good company as well. Everyone was easy to get along with and we all rode really well together. Ludenia is a freak as I watch in awe when he passed me on the climbs or just shoots off the front. His climbing and fitness level is outstanding. Next weeks road race will be interesting. I’m hoping I feel as strong as I did this last ride.

Having just finished the little freelance job it’s going to be interesting to get a trainer and put a few week nights to good use at home doing intervals etc. as well as some nice UST tires for the new MTB rims that I still haven’t even set up on carbo.

I have always had a soft spot for Charge bikes and this justifies why. The titanium is just beautiful.