Bicycle racing for almost anyone

The 20 year old Look KG76 wore out so I got another Felt. (Warning: bicycle pics attached.)

2010-03-31T05:55:00.001Z

The 20 year old Look KG76 wore out so I got another Felt. (Warning: bicycle pics attached.)
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Just ticked over 1,000km on the new Felt F-75 but I'm riding the F-50 most days now. Difference? The F-75 feels faster but there's nowt much b'tween 'em. I put any advantage down to the F-75's radially-spoked (and stiffer) front wheel.

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2010-03-29T03:50:00.001Z

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Coogee Crit 1987 - Arden Street

2009-10-23T03:15:00.001Z

Coogee Crit 1987_042
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

This is a wet Coogee crit during the Bank Race. Judging by the mix of toe clips and Look pedals plus the 'leather hairnets' it's probably 1987 or so.

Dean Woods was in the crowd but strangely enough he didn't recognise me (not that he should've!)

The Commonwealth Bank Cycle Classic was Australia's biggest road tour, running for 19 years until (I think) 2000.

Addicted2wheels.. of course!

2009-05-21T11:05:00.000Z

Elite travel - indoor trainer

2008-12-19T05:47:00.001Z

Elite travel_0653
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Not a bad indoor trainer, this is my 2nd (or is it 3rd?) Elite. The roller always wears like that - amazing what hot rubber will do if you try hard enough. This is probably 8 years old, but it has shared the load with an even older - 13 years or so - Elite. The tyres of course wear even faster.

It's a magnetic resisitance unit. Not the best road feel but useful, especially when you run an iBike or similar power meter.

Some rims to enjoy

2008-09-12T05:00:00.002Z

Rims_0138b
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

And identify. Velocity Razor road clincher on the left, a well and truly shellacked Mavic track single in the middle and a road-glue-glued Campag road single on the right.

Track hubs

2008-09-12T04:57:00.001Z

Track hubs_0143
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Keep your wheels clean! Well, when you haven't ridden singles (sew-ups) for over 10 years, you are excused.

These are obviously high flange hubs. Coupled with singles rims they were very light - and fast.

Cinelli leather hairnet

2008-09-12T03:57:00.001Z

Cinelli leather hairnet_0144
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

Once, long ago, this is what racing cyclists wore on their heads to ward off evil spirits (if they didn't wear a cap and a cabbage leaf as well, anyway). Now they wear plastic and foam. Which is weirder?

Viscount Sebring 1978

2008-08-21T03:01:00.001Z

Viscount-Sebring-RR-CT-1978
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

My 3rd bicycle, after the Alcon and an Apollo: it's a Viscount Sebring with a 'leather hairnet' hanging on the brake extension lever. It must be 1978!

The Alcon taught me about fixed vs freewheeling and basic stuff like puncture repairs and falling off. The Apollo introduced me to multiple (read 5x2) gears and brakes that didn't work in the wet; and the Viscount brought me into 'semi-lightweight' territory, just on the cusp of being a 'real' race bike. Indeed if I got rid of that bell and those silly 'hands-on-bars' brake extensions... and lowered the bars a tad!

Saddle adjustment technique

2008-05-15T23:32:00.001Z

Saddle adjustment technique_0430
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

This pic just brings back so many memories for me... apart from snapping this seat post (it creaked before it broke but I couldn't work out where the creak was coming from...) I have snapped seat rails (no particular warning) and a seat bolt (which left me with a 30+km ride home and nothing to sit on), and lunched a rear derailleur in the spokes of my rear wheel. Which of course broke a few spokes, too.

Ahh, spokes, Broken lots of those. Best effort was a lightweight wheel that survived a 100km road race only to unravel completely the next day. I've broken a few wheel rims, mostly by suddenly and unintentionally twisting them at right angles to my intended direction. And I've snapped the bolt that old-style stems used to secure the handlebars to the steerer tube, if you know what I mean. That results in a rather fabulous yet spooky loss of steering, BTW.

Most recently I couldn't work out what was rattling and occasionally squeaking in a strange metallic way - until it got worse. I found that I could make the sound go away if I stopped pedaling for a while, or (even better) pedaled backwards. So I deduced it was the rear hub... but what could go wrong with a hub? Ahhh, the ratchet, course.... and when it finally broke (I like to test these things to destruction) I had no effective connection between the pedals and the gears... in effect I had a permanent freewheel. Great for going downhill, not so good anywhere else...

I haven't mentioned the ibike lately

2008-05-15T01:15:00.002Z

The ibike is one of several ways to quantify power output on a bicycle. I chose ibike over SRM, Polar and PowerTap for reasons of ease-of-fitment and price - it's the cheapest option and the easiest to swap from bike to bike - although PowerTap has some advantage here as well.

The ibike measures power indirectly - it's not using actual load on a hub, BB or crankset - by crunching various fixed and variable values as you move through the air and over terrain.

I've found the ibike is almost certainly accurate on steep hills where air and rolling resistance are not such big factors. Going slowly up a hill means it's just a simple calculation using steepness of the climb, the altitude gain, overall weight and rate of movement forward. How Armstrong ever got up that Alpe d'Huez TT at something like a 450W average I'll never know. I can barely average 300W for about 200m before collapsing. (Slight exaggeration but it's something like that.)

I calibrate using online power calulators and the ibike is spot on with what you'd expect. Where it's not so good is getting an absolute value for air and rolling resistance - unfortunately these values change all the time depending upon your changing position on the bike and changing road surfaces (rough, smooth, potholed). So it's a 'one-size-fits-all' approach. OTOH it's super easy to fit and swap over to another bike.. so all my bikes (track bike as well) have the mounting and I just take it off one and pop it onto the other... and reset weight and tilt angle of course. That was the main selling feature for me.

More tips on racing for newbies

2008-04-29T22:31:00.002Z

I just have a few random ideas that may help you get started... nothing scientific, nothing guaranteed, but you may like to consider these thoughts:

Ride a bit more than usual before your first race, and push yourself a bit harder to gain some confidence
Then have a rest day before the race, or just a short, easy ride
Get into bunches and practice riding with a group
Eat well, keep fats to a minimum and eat plenty of carbs with fruit, rice and bread in the mix
Don't ride hard if you are sick or injured, or overweight (see your doctor for help there before starting any exercise program)
Remember the rule of thumb: train in a week 3 times the distance of your race - so a 30km criterium means you should do at least 90km in a week, and you need to do that at least for a month prior to build your base
Remember the other rule of thumb: you lose whatever you gained after 3 days, so don't leave it 3 days between rides
Get to the race early and warm up gently but firmly - end the warm up with a cool down and build up to a race gear, but don't over-do it
Don't cool off completely before the race
Register for the race and get your number ASAP, don't leave it to the last minute
Ride around if necessary to keep warm
Don't miss the start
Follow the experienced riders, listen to them and watch what they do
Within the limits of what you can do be prepared to dig deep and grit your teeth to "hang on"
Don't cross wheels with other riders, one swerve and you'll be down
Don't show off in your first race, just absorb and learn
Sit on "in the draft", conserve energy, don't fidget, don't surge, be smooth - momentum is everything
Stay close to and follow experienced wheels carefully, certainly not in a jerky, sudden or unpredictable way
Do a turn when your turn comes, then pull off into the wind, allowing the next rider to shelter in your draft and easily come up to replace you
As you pull off do so gradually and slowly ease up, drifting to the back
If you feel comfortable ease back into the first 3rd of the bunch, otherwise go to the back again
Do what the others do, unless they are totally out of their minds!
Be there at the end
Have a go at the sprint but be realistic - don't get in the way.

From the garage - the rear derailleur

2008-04-14T03:33:00.001Z

rear derailleur_0611
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

It came from a Gitane, I think, circa 1988. It looks like Campag Veloce but I could be wrong...

trends 1983-85_089

2008-03-05T22:15:00.001Z

trends 1983-85_089
Originally uploaded by gtveloce

the way I used to track my miles... in a note book. As in on paper. OK, I still do it even now... but I also log miles and wattage (and everything else) on the computer.

Sydney World Cup Pursuit Final Phil Thuaux Silver

2008-02-20T04:30:00.001Z

Phil Thuaux is a local up this way, so here's a nice vid of his silver at the Sydney World Cup. I think 4.23 is his best, but anyone who rides 4km under 5 minutes is practically super-human. I think Phil started out on his sister's mountain bike - he was certainly pretty quick with little training...

Anna Meares vs Liz Reap-Carlson 200m Semi final at T-Town

2007-11-01T05:12:00.000Z

It's always useful to see how other people do it - the tactics, the responses, the timing... although it also helps to have the strength and speed.

Feed me some cycling news please!

2007-10-04T01:41:00.001Z

Just when you think you've seen it all - the Edworthy spring frame

2007-08-14T10:16:00.002Z

Well I hadn't seen this before.. it's a 'spring frame', where the top and down tubes are bent into large springs to provide comfort on rough roads. Or so went the theory.

You can find the story (and the bike) at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

Veloflex Div 1 Wheel-Race

2007-08-01T23:27:00.001Z

Collusion is a great thing... sorry, **teamwork** is a great thing!

Good tech article on TT position for aerodynamics

2007-07-30T01:24:00.000Z

From Leonard Zinn, author of numerous books on biking, including the obvious bible. A useful overview of aero positions from the first long TT of Le Tour 2007.

Tour de France 2003 - Armstrong attacks Ullrich after Fall

2007-07-13T03:54:00.001Z

Unforgettable, silly, dangerous... but here it is again, as Armstrong's bike snags a spectator's bag and down he goes...

A recap on how - and why - to get racing!

2007-05-22T06:09:00.000Z

Enhance your cycling - set some achievable goals and go racing!

Think of this blog as my attempt to inspire you to race. I am targeting the non-racer, the recreational rider who is quite fit and interested in the sport of cycling but for whom racing is 'something I can do later' or 'something that's just a bit out of my league'.

Firstly, never put off to tomorrow what you can do today. I first 'enquired' about bike racing when I was 16 and riding perhaps 100km a week, including 60-80km 'fun rides' on the weekend. Having not been involved in competitive sport in any organised way before - I was a total bookworm -I lacked the confidence to give it a go, so I put it off - for about 8 years, in fact! What a waste.

Secondly, you never know until you give it a go. In my case I only gave it a go after much encouragement by other riders. Luckily I lived fairly close (10km away) from the premier cycling resource in Sydney, Australia - Centennial Park. So for about 8 years I frequently rode to and around the Park. Just by riding around with other riders I got fitter and faster. I found that I could chase and catch other riders and that I had an undiscovered urge to improve - and even to race. I still didn't think I could do it, but the thought entered my head that I had a chance. Eventually I found another rider at the same level and we (at the urging of another rider - as it turned out the president of one of Sydney's bike clubs, Randwick-Botany) made a commitment to try a race together at Heffron Park. We were placed in D grade. He won and I came 2nd. Now for him that 'proved' enough and he didn't race again. But for me I was hooked. I came back and won D grade the following week and went from there.

That was more than 20 years ago and I'm still racing. You'll never know unless you give it a go - and there's a grade for everyone. Just get some miles in your legs firstly - say 80-100km a week for a few months - and find somewhere where you can ride with a few others. It will improve your fitness and your bunch riding skills. You'll need a bit of both, even in the lowest grade.

So that's my motivation out of the way - what about yours?

My personal recommendation is to just go riding, enjoy it and find some buddies to encourage you. Then leverage that fitness and skill to start racing. Of course there's lots more to it than that.

For instance, what are your goals? Ask yourself 'why am I doing this?'. Is it that you want to stay fit and healthy in the long term, and to get out there riding regularly you need extra motivation? Or is it to simply try out racing, just because you'd like to? Try to understand why you want to do it and feed off that motivation. Remind yourself why on those hard days when you question the whole idea. And review your goals regularly. You may want to find out how good you could be, given whatever constraints you may have. (I always had to work (or thought I did), for example, so doing more miles on the bike was always a balancing act.)

Goal setting helps you achieve something definite. Just ambling along seeing what happens may lead you somewhere interesting but it probably won't be exactly what you wanted to do, or be the best that you want to be. It may be great and exactly what you wanted. Or it may be so disappointing that you drift off and do something else.

By aiming at achievable goals you do a few things. You are taking aim, and aiming at something improves your chances of hitting it. You are also building a set of stairs, small steps that will make it easier to climb to a higher place. If you aim at the top rung straightaway you may actually get there - we all have our 'top rung' dreams - but by setting out intermediate goals you will get there more reliably.

Let's make a list.

1. Your first goal may be to start your first race.
2. The next to finish the race.
3. The next to finish with the lead pack.
4. The next to place.
5. The next to win.

You may find that you achieve several of these quite quickly, and that's very important. It's reinforcing to actually achieve your goals, it helps you to stay motivated and to want to do it again. Feed off that feeling by keeping achievable goals!

The beauty of bike racing is that these steps fit perfectly with the system. Whether you call them grades or categories, there are always rungs of the ladder. Plenty of people find their niche on one rung and just enjoy their racing in that grade forever more. They may go higher and then settle back. They may just find a balance that suits them. Some people enjoy the tactics, some like to win. Some like to help others win. It's diversity that makes the whole cycle racing scenario work. We all do what we enjoy and that keeps us all riding - and racing.

And the racing is varied, too

Road races can be 50km, 100km or 260km, or 2,000km in a 3 week tour for that matter. Criteriums can be 30km or 100km. Track races may be short 200m sprints or 4km endurance pursuits. It doesn't really matter what your personal strengths are because there's a niche for everyone. A big strong male or female rider may power along in a time trial and then get dropped on a climb. A wiry, thin rider may struggle on the flats and in the sprints but cream the big guys on the climbs. And in between there's an infinite range of possibilities. Now that's variety - and that's bike racing.

Heffron Sprint Finish 13 March

2007-04-24T05:40:00.001Z

For old time's sake...

Can't help but giggle

2007-04-21T02:13:00.000Z

It's just this drawing... in the Polar power sensor install manual... it's of a pedal... but not the sort we would expect to see so well equipped!

OK, let's browse the Web again. Cycling and power.

2007-04-20T03:59:00.000Z

A great place to start... Machinehead Software. Power calculator is here but there's lots of great stuff.

This looks interesting... a running-based anaerobic sprint test... not exactly cycling but interesting, and a useful way to calculate power over a 35m run... annoying yellow advert takes the eye, too. Uuuugh. Aaahh but it links to this Wingate test... all is not lost. Not a bad site, actually, full of info. Like this chart on "Percentile norms for Relative Peak Power for active young adults" - especially interesting, if you happen to have a power meter handy! An average sort of club racer, IMHO, would fall into the 90th percentile, surely? Having said that I'm neither young nor average (who is?) and I go right off the scale... remembering this is PEAK power, not sustained... and I'm not particularly overweight (nor skinny).

	Male	Female
%Rank	Watts.Kg	Watts.Kg
90	10.89	9.02
80	10.39	8.83
70	10.20	8.53
60	9.80	8.14
50	9.22	7.65
40	8.92	6.96
30	8.53	6.86
20	8.24	6.57
10	7.06	5.98

Maud, P.J., and Schultz B.B: 1989

And this..."Percentile norms for Peak Power for active young adults" is :

	Male	Female
%Rank	Watts	Watts
90	822	560
80	777	527
70	757	505
60	721	480
50	689	449
40	671	432
30	656	399
20	618	376
10	570	353

Maud, P.J., and Schultz B.B: 1989

Looks like they surveyed some pretty average active people... perhaps non cyclists?

How about the Human Powered Vehicle association? Or look at this technical exercise in analysing the forces at work on a bike. Or this interesting exercise by FLAcyclist in comparing the power required to overcome a hilly bike course vs a less hilly but longer one... and Analytic Cycling is a treasure trove that will have you staring at the computer for hours... STOP IT! Go outside and ride!

Still here? Ok, how about Aerodynamics for cycling? If you are getting into the maths, try this Human Power eJournal for size. And last but not least the informative guys at CyclingPeaks software discuss reading and comparing power outputs at different durations.

Training Tip 2 - Plan to ride

2007-04-17T22:55:00.000Z

It's good to just amble along, ride when you feel like it and maybe race occasionally. But guess what? If you get away with it you are very lucky. Just "ambling along" will not boost your fitness, and riding when you feel like it will not build endurance or power. You have to have a dig - test yourself against your maximums - to make improvements. And you have to do it regularly enough that what you gained one day is still there to build on today. Even if all you want to do is a recreational ride, you are better off getting regular sessions in place than 'starting all over again' every time you ride.

I'm not a coach, a nutritionalist or a physiologist - but I do ride, and I'll tell you what I believe.

You must ride 3 times a week - minimum - to maintain your condition
If you want to safely and comfortably race 30km then you must train for 3 times that distance every week for a month (so 90km a week for 4 weeks is the bare minimum for a 30km crit)
Whatever you do in excess of that rule of thumb will give you the endurance and power to compete more comfortably (to counter attacks, even make attacks) - it's up to you how much more you can do!
Intervals on top of base miles will build speed and power
Train your weaknesses, not just your strengths
Whatever strength you gain in one session will be 90% gone within a week, so do regular sessions to maintain that power (ie the torque you can apply through those cranks)
Your endurance probably declines more slowly, but after 2 weeks you'll get that "starting all over again" feeling, so avoid long gaps between rides
Regular miles not only help you build endurance but also ward off injury.

To get more technical about it, a focused training program can - indeed will, if you stick at it and don't get sick or injured - increase your VO2max by 15 to 30% over a 3-4 month period . If you stick at it consistently for 2 years or more you'll see up to a 50% improvement. Consistency is the key. Think about it - you learned to crawl, then to walk and it took years to really get the hang of it. And once you did learn to walk yyou kept at it, day in, day out. So why would you expect to jump on a bike once in a while and just go fast? In fact you need to train your mind as well as your muscles, and to build firstly the endurance and pedalling skills before getting the most out of your cycling. You do that with a plan - a plan to do ride regularly!

Training Tip 1 - find your balance and train without injury

2007-04-17T02:17:00.000Z

Is more always better than less? Up to a point, sure. Ride LOTS! But yes, there is a limit. It's hard to say what's too much but listen to your body. If you feel bad, especially if you are putting in the miles and not improving, or if your heart rate is staying up when it should go down (at rest, say), take a break, lower the intensity and see if that helps. Another clue is when you can't get the heart rate up - like you used to hit 192bpm but now a maximum effort still feels like a max effort but you only hit 182. It would be nice to correlate that with workload - maybe you aren't actually working as hard as you thought- but if true then you may indeed have overtrained.

But don't kid yourself. If you have built up a base level of miles over a few months - say at least 100-200km a week - and then do some hard interval sessions on top, it is unlikely you have overtrained. Maybe. But not likely. Sudden intensity without base miles may injure you, but not overtrain you. However if you were doing 500-700km a week and laid on more on top of that then yes, overtraining is a possibility. Take a break, just in case. A week of slow riding won't hurt you!

To be a bit more scientific about it - and I'm not a coach, this is just my somewhat informed opinion - optimum training intensity varies by just a few percent between individuals, so there are some rules of thumb we can all follow to keep us improving. Such as:

It is generally believed for example, and we have ample evidence to justify this belief, that maximum aerobic improvement occurs at around 85% VO2 max, give or take a few percent
That's about 90% of your max. heart rate. So regular training above this level will increase the potential for injury without a corresponding lift in your cardiovascular adaptation - which is to say you are trying too hard, could become overtrained or injured - so back off a bit
Now lower levels of exercise - say 55% max HR for 60 minutes or even 65% max HR for 45 minutes - may modestly improve, and at least maintain, your overall conditioning... but...
Whilst that may be enough for you to stay in C grade, what if you want to get better, faster? Long steady distance training, say 50 to 70% of max HR for hours on end, will do little more than maintain status quo. Yes, it could burn off fat - a good thing. Yes, it will build endurance...
But if you are looking to increase your top end (maybe to avoid being dropped in your frenzied local crit, or to attack and break away, win and go up a grade) you need to hit the high notes. That's the 85-90% max HR mark.
It's finding a balance between too much high-intensity training and not enough that's hard. And why you pay big bucks to the experienced coaches to get that sort of result.

Of course we don't want to spend big bucks, so it's down to YOU. Hopefully in the above are some clues to improving your condition without injury.

Even the NYT has written about power meters

2007-04-16T22:32:00.000Z

Cycling and data. Well I was hooked on bike data long ago - firstly by writing down how far I rode, then how long it took... which gave me an average speed. Then I collected more detailed data on max speed, then heart rate and finally power output. It just gets better and better (the data collection, not the output). Here's a reassuring story I found in the NYT about similar obsessive behaviour.

More on ibike - buying, mounting, setup

2007-04-13T03:43:00.000Z

Here's the rest...

ibike - part 2 - mounting it on the bike and setup

No real problems here. The ibike is just like many other bike computers and comes with a bayonet-style mount that sits on your handlebars. I chose the standard size but there is also the larger vesrion if needed. Follow the instructions though, as you need to keep the ibike absolutely 'rock-solid' on the bars. I tried using old tyre as padding at first, just to make removal easier, but settled on the double sided tape provided instead. It's easy to fit, just plan where the wire goes first. It has to get down to the forks, where the magnetic pickup gets strapped on. I kept my old speedo in place and mounted the new gear on the opposite side of the bars and forks.

Mounted it looks like this...

And the mounting itself looks like this....

All in all - dead easy. Lots of twist ties to play with but no harder than a regular 'wired' bike computer. The screws that affix the ibike mount to the bars are a bit fiddly, but it's easier on a stand, or turn the bike upside down.

Once connected I powered it up and went into setup mode. All the expected stuff: time, date, total bike and rider weight, plus the 'turn 180' exercise which levels the unit. Again, good clear instructions and I used them (for once in my life). I also zeroed out the wind (I was in a garage) and took a guess as to altitude (later riding down to sea level to make that accurate - hey I was only out by 10m!).

All up - simple and quick.

ibike - part 1 - the purchase experience

OK, so I chose the ibike.

The first hassle was the ibike shop on the web. They revamped it a bit since but you can't login to the shop without first clicking on a product and pretending to buy it (then the 'log-in' option finally appears). And when you try to log-in the login ID box is unclickable without 14 'tabs' to get you there. I tried 3 different browsers and 2 PCs... they all had the same trouble. Not everytime, just 9 times out of 10. Anyway, the tab-tab-tab until you get to the correct input box works. (Must admit I just logged in fine, so who knows?)

Enough whinging. I bought it online and found that the 'tracking' option didn't work for International US Post. Not to worry, I guess. 10 working days later it turned up fine, but opened by Australian Quarantine Services. Must have looked suss with 'Velocomp' written on the box... hmmm. Go figure.

The box looks like this:

Which is fine, although for around $A600 it's a trifle underwhelming. Still, it's the technology we are buying, isn't it?

And opening it up we find the device itself, which is tiny and very light (which is good, right?):

It's showing average Watts here in this pic but it will also show maximum values.

And then I mounted it on the bike... well 2 bikes, actually. I had bought an extra mount, so I could swap from bike to bike with ease, something I saw as a killer feature of the ibike over almost all its competition.

More soon!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Power to the people - power meters for serious cycling

When I started this riding gig I was 16 and it was 1973. The bike was an Aussie-made Alcon, circa late 1930s and well looked after, if hand-painted. 28inch tyres, 40spoke wheels, diamond outrigger with sliding adjustment for handlebar reach and just 2 cogs on the back. On one side of the wheel was a freewheel and the other a fixie. Cool way to get started, eh? Even cooler was the mechanical odometer that clicked over incrementally with every turn of the front wheel. Ahhh, data! I started writing it down. Curiously it made me ride a bit more, just to get a scrap more data.

In the 1980s I found myself with electronic assistance in my data habit: a cycle 'computer', although all it really did was count wheel revs using a magnet and show elapsed time. It did allow me to see my current and average velocity, rather than doing the usual sums at home after the ride. And it was more accurate than some of the guesstimates I had to make. Now that sort of technology got a bit better over the last 25 years or so, but essentially remains as it was: a bunch of data based on wheel rotation over time, displayed on an LCD. (Although some of these new options are very sophisticated: check out BikeBrain for example)

Now this did make me ride for longer distances, and do more miles each week, as I could actually and accurately see when I had slacked off. And being data-obsessed I just wanted to push teh totals ever higher. Funnily enough I still had to chase down attacks, stick with the peleton over varying terrain and avoid being dropped, irrespective of what the displayed velocity was. But now I could also go 'ah, look at that average' after a hard crit.

The next leap forward in this history lesson was to the heart rate monitor. In my case it was the mid 90s and a Polar HRM. So now I could match perceived exertion against both time and distance, as well as estimate my caloric budget. It again made me ride, just to get data. Bizarre, I know. I wanted to exceed 200bpm on my local tough climb and set ever higher averages, so again I could go 'wow, that was a tough ride'.

Which brings me to my newest desire: power measurement. Up to now I've calculated it after the ride, inexactly, and longed to know how many Watts it really took to ride that hard crit. SRMs, offering measurement at the crank seemed a great option. But SRMs were (and remain) waaay too expensive, especially now I had kids to feed. The hub-based CycleOps option was still a bit rich (and what if I swapped wheels?) and Ergomo Pro was again a tad exxy and suffered (like the SRM) from being integrated into the bike. The Polar option was both expensive and tricky to set up. So I looked at the next-best options - the German HAC4 and other options from Germany and Italy, which calculated power from time, speed and altitude gain using accelerometers or barometric changes. Of course this only works on hills, but it was an option. Some of these options don't offer download, so it would be a 'write down later' sort of thing - like back to the 80s.

The HAC4 looks great options-wise but is a bit expensive compared with low-end 'real' power meters. I also looked at GPS units like Garmin's and wondered why no-one had integrated the coolest features into one unit. Maybe one day, I guess.

Anyway, I flipped a coin and went with the simplest, cheapest real-time data logging power meter I could find. The ibike. It back-calculates power by measuring the opposing forces - wind, friction and inclination - and comparing it to real speed (using a magnetic pickup). Easy to fit, easy to use. It looks the goods but does rely upon (a) your calibration accuracy and (b) unimpeded airflow. Which is to say that it misreads power if you aren't good at entering data (weight, aerodynamic and friction data, basically, although the latter is derived by the "coasting" test) or have impeded airflow (in a bunch, maybe, and certainly in a sharp corner).

I ummed and ahhed about this for weeks (whilst watching the Aussie to $US exchange rate fluctuate, too) and wondered if I really needed to spend $A580 on a gadget. I decided it was now or never and pressed the "buy" button in the ibike website. I'll tell you more later...

ibike - the story so far

2007-04-13T03:39:00.000Z

The full story is here at addicted2wheels...

ibike - part 5 - the fun begins

OK, so now I'm getting into it. It's addictive. I'm a data junkie and it's making me get out on the bike and ride, just to see what it looks like when I sprint, chase a car or climb a hill. Then I want to compare sprints, compare hills... goddamn it, I wish I had one 20 years ago! (But they didn't exist at this price, of course.)

That's the good side of the ibike - real data that makes sense. You've got to set it up right and do the coast-down test properly, as per spec, and make sure the battery is delivering the goods. But once done it's great. Of course today I punctured and swapped front wheels, but because it's just a magnetic pickup there was no sweat. I could even swap bikes as I've got a spare mount and pickup already on bike number 2. So I think ibike is still looking like a pretty good thing.

Bad news? It goes a bit screwy if you watch the Wattage display too much (it seems to jump around constantly, especially on the flat, only settling down when efforts are made, in a sprint or in a climb) - but when you download to the PC the odd figures seem to have disappeared and clarity returns. And the peak figures on the LCD don't always match the data logged. The battery seems to play a part in this, as does road surface - bumps and corners definitely throw it off.

So on to the fun.. the screenshot on the left shows power in blue and bike speed in green. You can see steady state on the left, then I accelerate to catch a slow-moving Toyota 'Landbruiser' that pulled out in front of me. You see both power and speed rise as I chase, peaking at around 865W and 45kmh or so; then as I get into the draft speed stays up (for a while, I didn't stay on as there's a nasty climb around the corner and I'm not that fit!) whilst power falls off sharply. The ibike seems to handle 'sucking wheels' pretty well. You can see that power falls away rapidly to zero until I hit the climb and have to get pedalling again. Speed falls away too and you can see me approach 300W on the lower part of the 10% climb (the bump on the right).

The next sreenshot shows a zoom-in on that power peak. You can see the effort to accelerate, the speed rising and then the power clearly falls off as I get into the draft, despite speed continuing to rise. In fact the car eventually accelerated, having suddenly realised that the rider they pulled out in front off at that T-junction was still there... and I let him go, as you see the speed dropping again. Wow.

Even better, the power breakdown (the colored box centre-screen) shows what was happening at the point where the cursor sits... all of that green in the pie chart is acceleration. The cursor itself is the black vertical line right on the power peak. So it all makes sense. When I move the cursor into the 'draft zone' the proportions all change... as you'd hope.

Bottom line? It works!

ibike - part 4 - the software install

Well the software looked good enough sitting on the CD-ROM, and it seemed to install on my PC OK - and I followed the instructions - but it failed to find the USB driver first up. I followed the instructions again, went through the whole install and once again it failed to find the driver. So I went manual in control panel and found the driver had indeed installed correctly on my hard drive, it's just that the "automatic, preferred" search doesn't look there... of course. Wonder if this happens to everyone? Anyway, it really does extract and copy it to your ibike program folder, so a bit of searching will find it. It's just a manual approach is needed when 'auto' fails. Once loaded it all worked.

The software is simple. Connect, download all or some files... ooops, it crashed. And the ibike itself froze. OK, this has only happened once, but again I followed instructions, restarted the software and took the battery out of the ibike. I popped the battery back in and it fired up again and has worked flawlessly since. In fact it works better now than before. The battery started life reading 2.80V and fell to 2.70V during the 2nd ride, before recovering to 2.78V. However after refitting (and perhaps putting the cover back on a bit tighter?) it reads 2.82V pre-ride and hasn't fallen below 2.77V. The instructions say to get a new battery if it falls below 2.75V before a ride. Perhaps my first-day glitches were battery related?

Anyway, back to the software. It's good enough. It loads up the whole ride as a .CSV file and you can 'play' with power, wind speed, elevation, slope and bike speed for starters. You basically can graph it as you like it, including looking at neat breakdowns of acceleration, hill and friction readings at any point in the ride. And you can probably read and modify it in any spreadsheet, too, given that it's saved as a .CSV (but I haven't tried - yet). It's simple, but does the job for a data junkie like me. It's strange though that the ibike itself displays slightly different maximum values than that logged in the data file. That aside, overall it's what I expected.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

ibike - part 3 - the 'coast' setup

Right, so it's mounted and ready to go. We have total weight, it's leveled (so it can tell if it's climbing or descending) and it seems to be sensing wind speed OK. Now we need to calculate the aerodynamic drag and the friction between road and tyre. Now we can estimate this pretty well, but the "coast" test will actually time your deceleration run - ie measure the drag induced by you and your bike on the road. So out we went, ibike and I, on our Look KG76 for test number 1.

It's harder to find a flat, smooth quarter-mile of road than you'd think. Slightly uphill is good, downhill is bad, bad, bad as it distorts the results. So naturally I chose a road that looked flat-to-uphill but actually wasn't, so I got some fantastic results. Fantastic as in no way could it be real.

Look at this: 1459W, man! Beat that!

Oh well, back to the "coast" test. In fact I kept finding roads with dips, declines, potholes, corners and really smooth fast bits. Which raised a question or 2 in my mind. Like how accurate is it when road conditions vary? And how is it calculating wind speed, let alone direction? I guess it's a straight subtraction of total airflow "in" minus forward velocity, and angle isn't relevant, but the final figures look odd... anyway, wind aside, if I calibrate on a smooth fast road presumably I'll get errors unless I only ride on that exact same smooth fast road... so are the errors small enough that it won't matter? Or when I get to new territory should I re-calibrate?

So I chose to retest a few times (OK, about 5 times) and compare. Firstly the ibike captured the whole thing, despite my many, many retests - which is good - and secondly I never again got the sort of fantastic result I got with the first coast test. Instead of 1459W I was now in the region of 600-1000W tops (I was getting tired, too, after countless sprints!!). So which 'coastdown' is correct? Hmmm.

Now if you look at the screenshot on the left (of the ibike software) you will see a few strange things. Firstly it shows maximum Watts on this same ride as 1495, yet the LCD display showed a maximum of 1459! Oddly similar but dyslexically different. On the right of the pic you will see the figures for a precise moment in my ride. Using those figures (28kmh wind speed, 8.9% slope etc) you could indeed calculate that a 72 kg rider at 47.5kmh on that slope is indeed putting out about 2100W, not the 'fantastic' figure of 1459/95. But to me, fallible old me, I could have sworn the road was (a) almost flat and (b) that there was little if any wind.

If you take me at my word, that it was a flat road with nil wind then Kreuzotter calculates it as 715W. I'm happy with that. So - assuming a multiply-by-2 glitch occurred - there's an error of more than a percent or 2, isn't there? Hence my scepticism and need to rerun this "coastdown" test until it checks out against 'expectations'. Or am I too harsh? Did the mostly flat road dip and climb suddenly for an instant, or did I pull up on the bars, lifting the front wheel a tad (I was sprinting, after all)... and maybe the wind suddenly gusted? No, I reckon it was a glitch.

So, I think I've got the "coast" test figured out and I'll keep it "as is" for now until I see questionable figures. Certainly my max power figures have come back to earth. Some doubt remains over what happens if you ride very different terrain, but it's easy enough to re-do the coast setup if on super-smooth or super-rough road. Perhaps do the coast test just before a race on a new circuit? Certainly do it if you swap bikes, but that's a test I'm going to do later, just to see what the diffence may be... I suspect it'll be neglible, though, unless my race wheels really are that much better!

Quite a turnaround for the UK

2007-04-02T03:27:00.000Z

Interesting article on track cycing in the UK... quite a turnaround for the UK, which was long mired in road TTs and inadequate outdoor tracks. The BBC reports that as well as a development program for trackies, "facilities are obviously also crucial. Britain has three indoor velodromes - in Manchester, Newport and Calshot near Southampton - with a fourth planned in London for the 2012 Olympics. The Manchester velodrome is the busiest in the world, with cyclists using it from 8am to 10pm most days, and the track is now practically worn out." It seems to be paying off in medals.

Electronic gear changing

2007-03-18T23:14:00.000Z

First it was Mavic's Zap in the late 80's, later renamed Mektronic (or something similar - anyone actually use one??). Looked good but faded away... now Campag and Shimano are having a go. Batteries are smaller and lighter, for starters, and that's a big plus. Potentially smoother and maybe even lighter, the main object of course is to do away with those nasty wires that do a great job but aren't cool in the 21st Century... we gotta go wireless, haven't we? Yes?

Pez has a story and Pics here.

Goalsetting

2007-02-12T05:40:00.000Z

SMART. Let me think... without looking it up... Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Repeatable and Timely (or something like that!!). Goals should be something valuable to you - an achievement, but not so easy as to be almost worthless, and not so hard that you never get there! Goals should also be measurable, although how you do that is up to you (quantifiable. My goal here is to write about goal setting, and I measure that by successfully posting... but that doesn't mean that my post is relevant or useful.

Anyway, in cycling terms it's a bit easier - or more explicable. I'm in the (sob!) Masters 5 category now so I can look up the world masters records and see how close I get. Hmmm. 50-54 year age group, 500m in ... yikes! I've a bit of work ahead of me!

Here's a useful track resource, by the way: Fixed Gear Fever.

Sizing things up, or getting framed

2007-01-22T04:56:00.000Z

You will get the hang of what you need, bike-wise, by looking around and comparing. Feel some bikes, pick them up, sit on as many as you can, do some test rides, and, if you are lucky, buy one that fits you. Then ride it and get that immediate urge to change a few things. For which my advice is, don’t be rash. If you haven’t had a lot of experience on a lightweight high performance bike before it will feel odd. Flighty. Maybe uncomfortable. Too quick in the steering. Too…uncompromising? Just strange. You may not think so after a few hundred kilometres in the saddle, however.

I won’t attempt to give you bike set-up advice beyond my own experience, so here are some measurements that have worked for me - and probably won't work so well for you.

I’m about 169cm tall, and for riders around that height I’d suggest frame sizes between 53 and 55cm (ie pretty small but not the smallest!). Remember, smaller frames are lighter and stiffer, but if too small will compromise balance and comfort. And you will risk damage to components as well as yourself!

Handlebars, for frames between 51 and 55cm should be about 38 or 39cm wide, but shouldn’t cramp you or spread your arms too widely. Shoulders vary in width, but generally speaking arms should comfortably fall onto the drops without any serious effort. You shouldn’t feel ‘splayed’ when you tuck down into the drops of the handlebars.

Your own dimensions are vital, but I lean towards stem extensions of about 9 or 10cm. You used to be able to buy goosenecks that allowed variation, and some modern examples exist, but are less common. Stem length alters your weight distribution more than you'd imagine - a long stem puts you further forward and you'll get a decided feeling of flopping around when out of the saddle. Be warned, it can feel off-putting!

Cranks are usually about 170cm, however you may prefer the leverage of a longer crank, especially for road racing or timetrialling. Riders taller than myself tend towards longer cranks, and lengths from 172.5 up to 180cm are options; but you will find that you lose the suppleness of your spin and may tend towards grovelling in a big gear. Nothing worse, really.

Shorter cranks are suited to track bikes and criteriums, where touching a pedal on the banking or in a corner is not a good idea. I was once racing on a street circuit where we were sharing the road with the local Sunday morning traffic. I broke away from the bunch up a short, short rise and put a bit of distance into them. So when I arrived at the next left-turn I was alone, without the benefit of a big, highly visible bunch. Ahead of me was a car about to turn right across my path.

Many times have I been in this situation – will that car give way, or won’t it? Well, it did, but not before I was distracted enough to turn into the corner a bit late, sharpening the bend. I was riding my road bike, a Colnago, rather than my regular criterium bike and I completely forgot about the longer cranks and lower bottom bracket.

In an instant, at bottom dead centre of the left-hand crank rotation, my pedal struck the road and levered my rear wheel into the air. The bike went up and sideways in one motion, before settling. I didn’t come off but I lost time getting my balance back and found myself heading for the median strip. Rather than turn harder to the left and try to miss it, I went over it, or tried to, anyway.

When I landed I was flat on my back, the bike was up the road and I had (luckily) somersaulted a post and a small bush, to end up facing from whence I had come. The bike was in one piece, just a few scratches and nothing broken. No damage to the rider, just stunned embarrassment

A Loungechair on wheels…or something sporty?

2007-01-22T04:53:00.000Z

If you want to push the point, in a nutshell you will be looking for a comfortable, easy-handling bike for road racing and a quick-handling, higher-clearance machine for criteriums. A blend of the two is a nice compromise, and how you arrive at that compromise will be trial and error – unless you instinctively know that you want an unstable, flighty, jumpy road rocket and will settle for nothing less. (I personally have never had more than 3 road bikes, all different in character, at any one time.)

Bikes, character? In some respects bikes are bikes – 2 wheels, cranks, chain, pedals, saddle et al. However there are the wanky-looking carbon single piece frames, the conventional triangled tube effect and many variations in between. But that’s not really character, as I see it. It may be style, it may be substance… but not character!

Character is the way the bike handles, how it jumps, how it leans into a corner… Some bikes are built short and high in the bottom bracket, with steep frame angles to give you ‘jump’ out of corners, lifting the front wheel like a 500cc racing motorcycle; which is nice, if a little nervous. You don’t want that all of the time. You find yourself leaning forward, pushing that front wheel down (and thereby encouraging that back wheel to lift!). Sounds like a good criterium (‘crit’) bike to me!

Other, less steep frame angles give a more relaxed approach, where things happen slower and you can take your hands off the bars, get that energy bar out of your back pocket, change out of that rainjacket and write a note home to mum without finding yourself falling road-wards. Now that’s a road bike – it won’t embarrass you at a feeding station or when stopping at the cafe.

Even when you have the frame angles the way you want them, you can still tweak the bike by changing seat height, stem length and height, crank length, gearing… you name it. It will all have an effect of some sort, it’s just a matter of what effect you want.

Get some help, and do be careful, won’t you? You won’t get your bike set up right without proper assistance. Even after seeking such help, you may prefer to do your own thing. It’s a free country.(Depending upon which country you are in when you read this, of course.)

Firstly, whatever you do, get plenty of opinions, and be prepared to try different ideas. I know one 70 year old who is still adjusting his position after over 50 years of racing!

Secondly, when making changes, make only small adjustments, and each one in isolation, to give your body some time to adjust to that new position. By making big changes and then doing a long training ride I managed to injure my knees and put myself off the road for a few weeks. It's a painful lesson. Don't be tempted.

Oops, nearly forgot the bike. Or bikes.

2007-01-22T04:48:00.000Z

It's self evident that you need a bicycle. The question is, which one? The red ones are quicker, by the way.

There are 5 main forms of bike racing in Australia, if not most of the world, namely BMX, Mountain Bike, Road, Criterium and Track racing. There’s a sixth that I know of: you can also play football (read soccer) on a specially designed fixed wheel bike, but getting a team together may be difficult in this country! And believe it or not there is also artistic gymnastic cycling, but let's not go there right now!

As you can tell by the title of this essay, we are dealing with road, criterium and track here.

Road racing usually means, ahem, riding on a road, as against riding on a track. These races are out and back or point to point. So you are either going somewhere or nowhere or back to where you started. If you string several consecutive races together and add up overall times you get a stage race.

Distances vary according to grade, but road races are usually longer than a criterium, and sharp corners are the exception. So comfort matters more than outright handling, unless you have some technical high-speed mountain descents to consider. Hills are to be expected, so you need to be trained for some climbing and have the gearing to suit the course. Usually you will have 53 and 39 teeth chainrings, although variations like 50/34 and 52/42 are common as well. At the rear you may have an 11 or 12 tooth sprocket as your "big" gear (ie hard to push but goes furthest with every pedal stroke), and a ‘granny gear’ of 21-23 teeth (ie easy to push but you don't go far with every stroke) to get you home after being dropped on a climb. Plus all the other sizes in between. Expect to race 30 to 60km for most club-level races, 40 to 100km for open competitions. However you may race up to 230km in a big classic one-day race like the Grafton to Inverell.

Road handicaps and timetrial events are also held, with specialized timetrial bikes an option.

Criteriums can be held on roads or closed tracks (not velodromes) and are typically shorter and faster than road races. Hills are unlikely but possible, corners are to be expected and excellent bike handling is needed. The bike will not be as comfortable but will handle with aplomb; the bottom bracket may be higher than for a true road bike and the cranks shorter, so that pedaling through a corner is possible. Gearing will be like a standard road bike, except that you won’t need a granny gear. 18 or 19 teeth are all you need at the back.

Track or Velodrome racing involves a specialized bike: just one fixed gear (ie no freewheeling) and no brakes. Gearing from 46 to 53 teeth on the chainring, 14 to 16 teeth on the rear sprockets. A variety of events take place, from scratch races to handicaps, timetrials to pursuits. The racing is usually in the evening under lights and the tracks are short and banked, with the steepest banking reserved for the shortest tracks. These races are very fast and exceptional bike skills are needed.

Three bikes, then? Although not ideal, you can usually get away with the same bike for both road and criterium racing, but track racing requires a suitable, fixed wheel, ‘look mum, no-brakes’ bike. If you haven't got a clue, stop now and start looking in bike shops, reading magazines and asking around. Join a club, start learning. Get carried away…

No guarantees

2007-01-22T04:47:00.001Z

Of course you can be philosophical about all of this pain and heartache and just focus on the positives: you'll get fitter, build self-esteem and meet like-minded souls. Furthermore, bike racing justifies the purchase of a really good, lightweight road bike replete with all the bells and whistles, plus maybe a track bike, lots of spare wheels and endless copies of great cycling magazines. And it's better for you than watching television.

So why not, as they say, just do it.

In fact, why read about it. Get out there now and start riding!

Anyone still with me? Thought so. Part of the fun of any sport is having a good read, and bike racing is no exception. In fact there are countless books on the great riders, the great races, coaching manuals, magazines, touring guides, novels...you name it. There are videos and Internet Websites galore as well. And if you get two or more cyclists together at any one time then conversation - on cycling - will spontaneously occur. Guaranteed.

So why yet another string of sentences on the subject? Well, I have an angle here that hasn't yet been fully explored. This is a 'Realistic' Guide to Bicycle Racing in Australia, not a coaching manual or even a beginner's book. It doesn't glorify, nor does it diminish the experience or the effort. It's a collection of experiences, tips, anecdotes and suggestions that you may find helpful as you begin to race your bike. It may provide an insight that gets you up a grade, or it may help you plan and manipulate a race to suit your strengths. Maybe it will ring some bells for you, or maybe not.

Reading this will not provide any sort of guaranteed pathway to competitive success at the next Olympics. It's also not suggesting that you will reach B Grade in your local club competition, or even that you will progress any further than E Grade. I can't guarantee that you will finish even one race. However I am hoping that you will enjoy the read, and I'm attempting to share some hard earned knowledge that worked in a basic sense for me. So let's get started.

On the starting line.

2007-01-22T04:46:00.001Z

This is not intended to be a coaching manual for cyclists. However it may be thought of as a guide, a prompt, a pointer in the right direction. It may save you some time, it may send you straight to the nearest accredited coach. It may just be an interesting read. You will be the judge of that, and of what you do next…

Let's get tough right at the starting line. You should set yourself some achievable goals, first-up. To do that you need to know enough about the sport of cycling that you can make a reasonable call on what type and level of racing interests you.

Let’s face a few facts: the higher the grade or level of racing, the more commitment you need to give. The training is time-consuming, punctures happen all the time and falls hurt. More likely than not you will be 'dropped' in your first race, and many times thereafter; in fact you won't even get close to winning a race for months, if at all, and as soon as you do start winning you'll get put up to the next grade. So you can then get dropped all over again.

Bike racing is hard

2007-01-22T04:42:00.000Z

OK, maybe some sports are easier on the body, are less risky, or consume less time. But we’ve settled here on something that does involve injuries (guaranteed), risk (a given) and a commitment of some sort. Hey, you can choose not to train and be happy racing in a lower grade, but don’t come to me after you’ve died from a mid-race heart attack and then ask my advice. You get out what you put in.

Bike racing is hard. It's a demanding sport that will suck hours out of your day and draw the sweat from your skin, whilst demanding top aerobic fitness, great lower body strength, quick wits and excellent hand-eye coordination. You need tactical nous, swift reflexes and a will to win. It ain’t easy. And that’s just C-grade.

Don't let it put you off - there's a niche for almost everyone in this sport. You do need a bike, but you don't need to be super-tall, or built like a brick with no eyes to succeed. Bikes can be made to fit you and then you need to find the event that suits. Road racing? Can you climb, or sprint? Track? Are you good at distances or power? or are you an all-rounder?

Bike racing - where to start?

2007-01-22T04:40:00.000Z

Bike racing - the type of wheeled sport where your body represents the engine - is just like running, swimming, golfing, sleeping, fishing or any other activity. In fact it’s just like anything in life. Put the time and effort in and you’ll get better at it. It’s a simple equation, really, limited as much - or perhaps more - by your own motivation or commitment than by any theoretical potential you may or may not possess. If you are looking for easy fitness and a sport that won’t take up a lot of your time, stop now - it doesn’t exist. But don't let that put you off, either. The degree to which you invest your time and effort will pay dividends, no matter how small that investment. It's finding your personal balance that's important.

Multiple Australian and World Point Score medalist Gary Sutton was once reported to have replied to the question, "What’s the secret to success in bike racing?", with the statement: "Ride lots." Of course the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx, reputedly said exactly the same. Perhaps Eddy was quoting Gary.

In any case it's a simplistic statement, sure, but not a bad thought either!

In the modern lingo of sports science "ride lots" equates with training specificity. But we won't get too scientific about it here. Instead let's keep it simple. By riding "lots" we adapt our bodies and our minds to what we want to do: ride. And the more highly adapted to "riding" the better at it we get. Of course someone may adapt even better than you (Lance Armstrong or Eddy Merckx spring to mind, amongst many others) but you can only do your best, so let's not get down about it.

And don’t put it off, thinking that you won’t do well, or that you don’t have the time. This is a multi-level, multi-discipline sport with a niche for everyone. You won’t know if you don’t try. Maybe you are a Lance Armstrong waiting to happen.

Interesting rides

2007-01-22T02:17:00.000Z

How about Sydney to Gosford? It's about 100km, depending on where you start!

It used to be that what is now called Sydney (NSW, Australia) and the Central Coast of NSW were primarily disconnected by what we now call the Hawkesbury River. The local Aboriginal people used canoes, but the colonising English preferred larger boats. As time went by some roads were hacked through the bush, but it remained a difficult land journey until recent times. A vehicle punt or 2 made the crossing easier, followed by a succession of bridges built from about the mid-1800s. One bridge carried the railway, which largely eroded the previously sea-borne passenger and freight trade. Local ports carried fewer and fewer passengers and less cargo. When the roads improved from 2 lanes to 4 or more the end was nigh. It's now easy - if slightly time consuming (a mere 30 minute trip from the northern edge of Sydney to the Gosford end - perhaps too easy, to get from Sydney to the Central Coast.

Having not made the journey by bike (push bike, I mean) for over 10 years, I decided to ride from Brookvale to Gosford one Saturday last year. I keep promising that I'll do it again, but haven't. An alternative is just to get to Brooklyn and return, and I've done that a few times from both Sydney and Gosford (about 40km each way). Half the trip from Sydney is just awful - cars, trucks, more cars - and the rest is tree-lined, majestic, beautiful and annoyingly frequented by death-wish motorcyclists scrambling 'round corners. I really mean death-wish. The scenic, if twisty road is lined by white crosses. Each representing a fallen rider who met their match on this road. Still, each to their own - we all take our risks in different ways. Just don't take me with you!

What fascinated me last time around was the change in the road. When the old road was bypassed by the freeway the traffic declined and local trade slumbered. Now the surviving cafes are booming, with trade literally zooming past their doors every weekend. I imagine it dies down during the week, but what a change over the last 20 years or so. Almost makes me want to open a roadside cafe... but not like the "ghost cafe", real 50's roadside diner built for passing trade on the old road at Brooklyn - but long since bypassed.

Try the main shops at Brooklyn for food, there's plenty to choose from, or closer to Mooney there's a small petrol station and cafe with a pleasant, if small park attached.

Recent bike pics

2007-01-16T04:22:00.000Z

Silly I know but behind every pic there's a story... like how I came to buy a Colnago Mexico and how the stem ended up on a Hopkins frame... or why I bought a Felt F50... and the odd angles saddles can achieve if you go to a bit of trouble... gallery here.

Whoops - a case study on aluminium seat post fatigue

2007-01-09T01:39:00.000Z

My message for the day: if ever you find your saddle pointing slightly off to one side, don't assume that the seatpost is loose and has rotated slightly in the seat tube. It may in fact be about to do something quite a bit more dramatic.

Yes, it was sudden. I had just put my tyre sock on the bike, so I had looked at the offending part. I saw no cracks. I rode just 2kms and went around a big downward curve at 53kmh. After the curve I noticed the saddle was very slightly skewiff. I checked it 3 or 4 times 'on the move' before slowing to round another, sharper curve at about 25kmh. As I rounded it I stood and then accelerated to exit. I was in a mood to keep up the pace today. However when I went to sit on the saddle it simply collapsed. And yes, I managed to fall off and yes, it hurt.

For the record it was a 16 year old 3TTT 25mm post on a Look KG76. I should have kept a closer eye on it, and cleaned it more often, looking for cracks. I knew that aluminium does let go suddenly, and now I can attest that when it splits it does it in a blink, like a knife through butter. High fatigue items with no redundancy (ie single point of failure with no other support) should be on your list of must-checks.

There are more images here, for the curious.

Bike blogging catchup

2006-12-27T01:00:00.000Z

At Christmas I get lazy and start summarising my own writing...

Cronulla capers - racing in the Shire
I've always liked Cronulla - wide streets, endless beaches... and the ferry to Bundeena. The fact that it's almost on a peninsula - surrounded on 3 sides by wat..

The war on drugs in sport
Why does it have to be a war, anyway? Why do we portray these things as 'fights', 'stoushes' or 'wars'? Yes, we need to protect riders from the longer-term effe..

That crash in Surfers
When Astana rider Davis went down 5 metres shy of getting on the back of the breakaway , 2 things happened. 1, an opportunity was lost and hard work was wasted...

Neil Stephens on an Aussie Pro team
Cyclingnews has another good interview with Neil Stephens , Aussie bike legend. I don't know Neil personally although I've ridden with him a couple of times - i..

Where are you?

OK, they are off again
Yes, the crits are off due to a "bungle" with the police paperwork (the local cops have to approve the use of a public road for racing). Meanwhile, why not read..

Osteopenia and cycling
You read about this quite often. Most recently Pam Hinton wrote this is Cyclingnews.com : We recently completed a study comparing bone density of adult male cyc..

John Sunde holds back
Well not much. I haven't been to Heffron Park for 9 years or so - and haven't raced the Tuesday night group handicap for even longer - but John Sunde in today's..

Central Coast Crits are GO!
At last - the Central Coast crits are on again. For the uninitiated we lost our circuit at the university (Ourimbah) so have been prowling around looking for al..

LeMond on doping
Greg LeMond's on-bike career was famously shortened by accidental gunshot wounds sustained whilst hunting. However it wasn't just the shotgun pellets that he s..

The war on drugs in sport

2006-12-14T21:24:00.000Z

Why does it have to be a war, anyway? Why do we portray these things as 'fights', 'stoushes' or 'wars'? Yes, we need to protect riders from the longer-term effects of various 'medications', particularly when they don't understand what may happen later; and we need to ensure that the competition is fair (if we can define 'fair' at all). But is our only option to go to war? In every war there is collateral damage, in this case to the sport itself, the riders and to the crews that staff the support teams.

Good quote from Neil Stephens via Cyclingnews:
"But there are guys involved in all this and all they want to do is keep their kids in school and to be able to feed them. I feel very sorry for them. My situation is different - I am walking away because I want to...but all these other guys just want to put bread and butter on their tables. They should just let them get on with their jobs" - Neil Stephens on the never-ending Operación Puerto

Where are you?

2006-12-12T03:12:00.001Z

OK, they are off again

2006-12-07T06:01:00.000Z

Yes, the crits are off due to a "bungle" with the police paperwork (the local cops have to approve the use of a public road for racing).

Meanwhile, why not read the current lap records at Adcock Park track, Gosford?

Central Coast Crits are GO!

2006-11-22T12:50:00.000Z

At last - the Central Coast crits are on again. For the uninitiated we lost our circuit at the university (Ourimbah) so have been prowling around looking for alternatives. So we are off to Lucca Rd, North Wyong - an industrial estate. Starts December 1, 6pm. We shall see how it goes.

Heffron Park summer time racing is back and running

2006-11-15T22:36:00.000Z

One of the joys of summer time is the 6pm Tuesday racing at Sydney's Heffron Park, Maroubra (run by Eastern Suburbs club). OK, I haven't raced there for almost 10 years now but my heart still lives at that park! Lots of regulars still in attendance.. here's the latest race report from CN.

For the uninitiated it's a blast. Organised as a group handicap, when you get caught by A grade (assuming you are not in A grade!!) on the last lap it's a mad scamble to hang onto wheels and ensure you get a place. Frenetic to say the least.

Don't forget the Saturday RBCC races at Heffron either, from 4pm. Graded scratch, usually.

Pedalling 101

2006-11-08T03:51:00.000Z

It looks simple and it is - and it isn't.

Most of us learn to ride a bike as kids - without toe straps or clipless pedals. (I'm an exception - I didn't regularly ride until I was about 16 years old, with toe clips and straps very soon thereafter.) Years of riding without a mechanically-enforced connection with the drivetrain teaches your legs to push down (and probably to 'grip' the pedal a bit by wrapping your foot slightly around it) but not to pull up. There's no solid connection, so you naturally don't even try to pull up. But as soon as you do get clips and straps or clipless pedals suddenly a whole new world of pedalling efficiency opens up. The big problem is re-learning how to pedal.

Essentially, you should pedal by pushing down hard from as early in the 'power stroke' as you can, then by pulling across the bottom of the stroke (as if wiping mud off your shoe) before smoothly switching to a 'pulling up' phase which ends just before top dead centre (TDC). And so on. Smoothly, all the way around.

In fact your pedalling is likely to be anything but smooth. Indeed many of the top racing cyclists get along quite well by mashing the pedal, so don't feel too bad. Still, theoretically there's power to be gained by getting it right - and biomechanically it's probably a lot easier if you do it smoothly and evenly.

Think about it. Smooth, even power throughout the pedalling action (barring TDC). Thought number 2: do it evenly with both legs. Thought number 3: don't grind away in a huge gear (likely to injure and almost certainly not efficient - and definately not the gear for quick, responsive acceleration in a bike race!). Instead spin with suppleness that lets you accelerate easily without losing control by spinning madly out of control.

This is a good article (from Pez) on the relationship between spinning and pushing a bigger gear, more slowly. The arguments are a bit technical - but if I could summarise the whole debate, you may get slightly better energy efficiency from very low revs (say 60 rpm) but potentially it fatigues your muscles more quickly (like pumping iron, it just wears you down). But spinning too fast (say 110+ rpm) will sap your energy, even if it may preserve your muscles from early fatigue in the process. My advice - aim to vary your cadence to suit what you are doing, whilst favouring spin over slog. So aim for 80-100rpm most of the time. As you get fitter and gain more suppleness and control in your pedalling you'll find the 'sweet spot' for yourself.

Rule of thumb: if you can't accelerate then you are probably in the wrong gear and need to go up or down.

The Lost Arts - Backing people off

2006-10-25T03:04:00.000Z

You've gotta know this stuff if you want (a) do it to others or (b) recognise when it's being done to you!

Backing people off It's a useful revenge tactic, and it gets rid of undesirables (likely winners are one example). It works like this: you have the wheelsucker (used in the pejorative sense) on your wheel and have drifted to the back of the bunch. Hopefully the bunch is hammering, ie going hard, so that the 'elastic band' is stretched. What you do is just let the elastic break, and you and the targeted rider fall off the bunch. If the target is alert they will try to get past you and back to the bunch. You may choose to block them, or just plan your move so that the target is almost alongside and pinned against the edge of the road. They must then either 'go bush' to get around you, or back right off and then pass behind you on the other side before chasing back to the bunch.

Trackie Chris Hoy rides L'Alpe D'Huez

2006-10-22T23:18:00.000Z

And says that once is enough. Excellent interview by RCUK for both track newbies and regulars.. Chris Hoy covers his training and race preparation as well as the Etape up L'Alpe.

Back in training, part 2

2006-09-28T06:07:00.000Z

I know we can get fancy about training programs, but my program is clear, simple and unemcumbered with jargon.

Ride as much as I can to get a decent base (adapting the body to cycling again)
then build up to race speed with extra 'intensity' rides
then race some summer crits and track.

What does this involve? I've moved from well under 100km a week over winter to a regular 100+km a week for 3 weeks at about 26kmh, followed by 3 weeks of 130km+ at 28kmh. Now I'll lift to 150 at 30kmh, then 200km/week at 30kmh or higher. Doesn't sound like much - and it isn't - but it's enough to get the heart, lungs and legs back in the swing of things. I've ridden bikes for over 30 years, so I have some adaptations that allow me to get back into it without too much effort, but if you are a newbie to cycling be aware that slow and steady progress is best. I think I saw a 5 week guide to riding the Sydney to Wollongong ride recently, where in those 5 weeks you work up to 2 x 1 and a half hour rides on the bike each week. Now that's certainly enough to get you to Wollongong, but in what state? Euphoria at the achievement coupled with cramping and a general feeling of physical exhaustion, I'd imagine. Far better to at least double that to 10 weeks, more if you can, and work up to steady 2-3 hour rides at around 26-28kmh. It'll still be a stretch - on that course 90km feels like 120 - but you'll do it far more comfortably.

My rule of thumb - do 3 times race (or ride) distance per week for at least a month to adapt to the effort required. Let's call Sydney to Wollongong 100km as it's mostly uphill, except that last sweet bit. So you should be doing 300km/week in order to have adapted sufficiently. Less than that will see you suffer - which is fine, we can all achieve 'stretch goals' at times - but you will have pushed a bit too far and will risk injury or crashing through inattention. Underprepared, you will also be 'crawling' those last kays when you should be enjoying them!

Back in training

2006-09-20T23:38:00.000Z

OK, I got sick, tried to push on but got sicker. So I stopped. I had reasonable form, was doing 200km/week and racing 50km on a weekend. N0t quite the 500km/week I'd like to do but there you go. Anyway, after about 6 months of good solid, regular kilometres I dropped back to less than 100km/week to get over the cold/flu. Of course once I did that I stopped racing. Suddenly I had no real motivation to train, so I really slacked off. 5 months and an additional 4 kg later, I'm back. I've been doing 20min sessions on the indoor trainer and the occasional 30-40km ride. So I'm back to 100-130km/week. It's spring but it feels like summer here (north of Sydney) and the crits - maybe even some track racing - beckon. I'd better get some base miles in, then lay on some intervals. So how is your training going?

Sydney's velodromes

2006-09-13T11:36:00.000Z

I've written about Sydney's velodromes - from Surry Hills to Bass Hill - here. If you can add to the history of these tracks please post a comment.

Track racing for beginners

2006-09-13T11:33:00.000Z

Track or Velodrome racing involves a specialized bike: just one fixed gear (ie no freewheeling) and no brakes. Gearing from 47 to 53 teeth on the chainring, 14 to 16 teeth on the rear sprockets. A variety of events take place, from scratch races to handicaps, timetrials to pursuits. The racing is usually in the evening under lights and the tracks are short and banked, with the steepest banking reserved for the shortest tracks. These races are very fast and exceptional bike skills are needed. Read more here and again here.

Central Coast CC

2006-09-13T11:30:00.000Z

The Central Coast Cycling club conducts track, road and crit races on the Central Coast of NSW, just north of Sydney. I have put some info on the club here.

Bike racing images

2006-09-13T11:27:00.000Z

I have a few bike and racing images here and more here. Take your pick.

Bizarre but true - Miss Ciclismo

2006-09-12T22:08:00.000Z

Well I find it bizarre anyway. I don't think there's an equivalent male cyclist's site, although there are several where you can post your favourite bike photos... anyway, I stumbled over Miss Ciclismo and thought I'd share.

Crashing is something you learn from

2006-09-07T01:32:00.000Z

It happens. You can practise falling, so you get good at it (but is that self-defeating?). You can also be so careful in bunch racing that you get dropped, or never win a sprint. Or you can just keep an eye out for danger and recognise the signs. But sometimes it just happens... Ahead of me was a car about to turn right across my path. Many times have I been in this situation – will that car give way, or won’t it? Well, it did, but not before I was distracted enough to turn into the corner a bit late, sharpening the bend. I was riding my road bike, a Colnago, rather than my regular criterium bike and I completely forgot about the longer cranks and lower bottom bracket. In an instant, at bottom dead centre of the left-hand crank rotation, my pedal struck the road and levered my rear wheel into the air. The bike went up and sideways in one motion, before settling. I didn’t come off but I lost time getting my balance back and found myself heading for the median strip. Rather than turn harder to the left and try to miss it, I went over it, or tried to, anyway.

Randwick Botany CC

2006-09-01T10:01:00.000Z

I was once a member of the Randwick Botany Cycling Club - in fact I raced there from about 1985 until 1996 or so, before moving northwards to the Central Coast Cycling Club. RBCC is a good club with a positive attitude to developing riders. Races are held on Saturdays on their dedicated crit circuit at Heffron Park in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra. It can be bumpy down the main straight and the headwind can hurt but it's a good safe circuit with some technical corners. Recommended. I have written more on my time at the RBCC here.

Bike racing 101 - part 6 - upgrading your bike

2006-08-25T07:13:00.000Z

Bike racing is so confusing. BMX? MTB? Road? TT? Track? And what about the bike itself? Do I have to buy a bike for each discipline?

Well everyone is different, and yes there is more than one style of bike - let alone rider. We can exclude what I don't know - ie BMX and Mountain Bikes - and concentrate on road, crit and track bikes for now.

Firstly, don't worry too much about buying lots of bikes, or even the best bike. Try to grow with the sport, try a few things and get a feel for it before committing too much dosh. Road is the easiest way in and your average road bike will suit many criterium circuits too. So a good quality road bike is your best bet. Remember this rule of thumb: you will get 90% of the lightest, coolest and fastest bike gear for 50% of the price. My point? To get that last 10% will cost you heaps. It's what an economist will call the law of diminishing returns. To an elite althlete it matters, but they will have sponsors, too. But if you really just want 'the ultimate' then sure, go for it. But remember that a $2500 bike will do almost everything just as well as that smick and snazzy $5,000 job. It's your cash, you decide.

As you work your way up the grades you will also realise that a few key bike modifications will may your racing faster, more enjoyable and maybe even safer. Start with the lightest frame you can afford. Then swap components as you grow with your sport. In this way your $2,500 bike can be upgraded easily to match - perhaps even better - that more expensive purchase.

You can swap out just about anything - drivetrain, saddle, bars - and as everything wears out in time anyway, why not upgrade? But your biggest 'bang for the buck' will come from a wheel upgrade. It's the first change I'd recommend. Lighter wheels will often roll better, will have better hubs as well and will accelerate more easily - especially uphill. Beware of deep rims, though, as these often will be uncomfortable in crosswinds an on bumpy surfaces. Of course if you find yourself enjoying time trials - TTs - then the deeper aero rim will help you, so it's a worthwhile investment.

These tips pretty much work for road or track by the way. In either discipline spare wheels are always handy. Train on the old heavy wheels, race on the lighter, smicker ones.

OK, so that's it for now. Always keep things in perspective. It's nice to have a 'Sunday' bike, but a 'training' bike will come in handy, too. When you take your first - sadly inevitable - spill on that 'Sunday' bike you may suddenly wonder why you invested so much money on nice paintwork or fancy components. Perhaps a good, serviceable but still fast bike isn't such a bad choice after all. They all need to be pedalled in any case!

More soon, but if you want to read on now I have also written much more on this subject in my guide to bike racing.

Bike racing 101 - part 5 - The race itself

2006-08-09T01:02:00.000Z

OK, so you made it to the start line with your bike, your licence and your race number. What happens next to our newbie crit racer?

OK, they call your grade. Nervously you line up with a bunch of older experienced riders, some young enthusiastic guys, some kids and a few women who look like they've raced before. They may call your name off the startlist now. You check your tyres again and try to keep your heart from racing. Before you know it...
Get ready, go! This is when getting your foot into the cleats fast first time matters. Something to practice. Just don't panic if someone makes a jackrabbit start - get your foot in and get going
OK, you are underway. Get on a wheel, any wheel, and try to pick who looks safe to sit on (or 'draft'). The regular racers will have good bike skills. Don't get in their way but do watch and learn from them. The older guys are probably crafty, sit really close but safely, dodge potholes, rarely do a turn and never attack until the finish line beckons...
You settle in. They are doing turns up front. The first 6 riders are swapping off, seamlessly, so as one peels off (to the left, taking shelter from the wind coming from the right) another cruises up with little effort. This seems to go on for a while and you sit happily up the back just getting used to the corners and cornering with 20 other riders around you
Try not to brake for corners. The guy on your wheel sounded annoyed when you hit the anchors 'for no *?*$*&*? reason!'. Momentum is important, so let's not lose it by braking when it's not strictly necessary. It just takes some practice to corner so faaast!
OK, another lesson, don't cross wheels. That guy in front just moved across like that and almost took my front wheel out. Leave a gap, and sit to one side or the other of the rider in front
I feel guilty sitting here at the back, so I move forward. I ease into the group of 6 doing the turns and someone leaves a gap, allowing me in... I take the hint and get on a wheel
I now follow the riders as they move forward until only one rider is ahead of me and another is on my left. As the rider in front finishes his turn (it was short, they barely got to the front and they were done!) I feel an urge to surge forward but the guy behind me calls out "steady!" so I ease off. It's harder work out here in the wind and before I know it the guy behind calls again, irritably, "go left!". So I do
As I go left (remembering the wind is coming from the right, btw) the rider on my wheel accelerates gently to take my place and I take the hint to ease off a bit. Before I know it he's coming off the front too and I'm heading backwards!
I try to keep track of where I am and as I get back level with the guy I followed last time I look to see if there's a gap. Magically, there is! I just move across into the gap and get onto that wheel again. So I've done a turn. Apart from a brief period in the wind I was actually on a wheel (or in the draft) pretty much all the time. I do a few more turns for practice and then drop back a bit to recover. That brief period up front is harder than it seemed to be at first, when you've done it a few times in a row
Another lesson. As I go back to the rear of the bunch someone - probably the guy 7th from the front in the Discovery jersey - has attacked hard on the right. He surprised the 6 riders doing turns - I think he attacked just as a small hill started, too, so they were slowing as he was going. He took a flyer up the side. It's shaken the lead riders up and they have reacted individually to the challenge. Gaps are forming between riders.
We were going at an easy 33kmh (still faster than I ride on my own, mind) before this happened, and now we are chasing this guy at 40kmh. I'm not sure I'm fit enough for this! I feel as though my heart may burst, my lungs are burning, I'm panting heavily and my legs are on fire!
Apparently some people feel like me. Some hesitated before chasing ('no, you first. Please, after you...' kind of thing) whilst a couple of others jumped straight up to the breakaway. So now there are 3 of them working together just off the front. 5 riders are chasing them and I'm stuck waaay down the back with the rest. OK, I should have stayed up front.
I'm stuck behind a wall of hesitaters and it takes a while to get to the front. I feel strong so I do a long turn and it takes a while before someone else helps out. Gradually we catch the 5 in front of us but the 3 others are now out of sight. We seem to ease off, which is good as I'm waaay over my regular riding speed and heart rate.
Our speed settles and we grind away, taking turns again and whittling back the lead. We almost have them when the bell rings... last lap!
We don't quite get to them on that last lap. They sprint and take the podium spots and I sprint with the main bunch and end up 7th. Good enough for a first race, anyway. And I have learned a few things about anticipation, teamwork, bike skills and what it takes to race.

OK, whilst that's an entirely fictitious account it weaves elements of my real experiences into the story. If you are a newbie to bike racing I hope that it gives you some insight into what it takes to start racing... next up I'll discuss tactics in more detail. I also have also written much more on this subject in my guide to bike racing.

Bike racing 101 - part 4 - Your first criterium

2006-08-08T23:33:00.000Z

Wow, your first criterium! It took me a while to build up to it, which was good in a way as I had lots of fitness and bike skills to draw upon in my first race. If you want to do well then preparation is important. You will get back what you put in, obviously, and it's not as simple as it may look.

Before you start racing you need some miles (or kilometres, if you prefer) in your legs. You may also need to check with your doctor first, just to be sure you don't have any physical maladies that heavy exercise may exacerbate. Just riding around is enough, no need to get carried away with 'training zones' yet, but focus on improving endurance, hill climbing or speed with each ride. The more miles you do the fitter you will be, and variety is important. By not shirking obstacles (like hills) you will adapt to the strength required as well as build up your endurance.

My rules of thumb are that you should be comfortable doing 3 times the race distance every week in training for at least a month beforehand; and one of those weekly training rides should exceed the race distance by at least 10%. So for a 30km crit you'd target 90kms a week for a month with one individual ride per week of at least 33km. By 'comfortable' I mean to say that riding that distance gives you no cramping, no persistent pains or other worries. Your bike should be set up so that you are comfortable, have control and look like a racer. OK, don't worry too much about the look.

Write your miles down. Write down how you feel. Log heart rate data, either from a HRM watch or just by using your finger on your wrist or carotid artery. Write a diary, or maybe a blog!

If you break your beginning races up into components you will find a few common elements or features. Let's start by analysing short, fast criteriums (in a low grade to begin with) and work from there.

For a criterium you need a road bike. One with curvy 'dropped' handlebars and a pair of brakes will do - yes, you need to use the back brake too!
You need a bike with 2 lightish but stiff wheels, as flexy wheels in tight corners are not good as they feel soft and squishy
The bike itself could be around 8 or 9 kg in weight but extra kilos on the bike are not that much of a problem as crits are usually pretty flat. Light wheels will assist your acceleration more than a light bike. In any case you shouldn't stress about the bike. Your fitness will matter more
Having said that, the bike should be well maintained and unlikely to break under load!
Remove extraneous objects before the race - like streamers, plastic gear guards, bells, toolkits, books, magazines - and keep 'em for later
Pump up the tyres. 100psi sounds good but whatever you see written on the tyre will be a good guide. A harder tyre is a faster tyre, within limits (don't over-inflate!)
Join a bike club and get a racing licence. In Australia it's around $170 a year but varies with each club and your age. You get 3rd party insurance with that and a cool licence to prove you are a racer. Consider health insurance as falling off at speed may be costly
Crits go round and round so you'll pass the pits several times. If you puncture (or have a 'mechanical') you will be allowed 'a lap out' but unless you are fabulously prepared and have a buddy following you with spare wheels it's unlikely you'll be able to take advantage of that in your early races. You can often leave spares at the start line anyway, just let someone know to watch 'em, in case they 'walk'
Assuming you have followed my earlier advice and have trained at least enough to have sufficient endurance for the event in question, arrive at the racing venue with plenty of time in hand (30mins minimum, preferably an hour)
If you haven't already done so, get your licence from the club secretary. If you haven't paid, pay now
If you have your licence, look for the entry desk. It could be under a marquee. It could be in a club house. There may be a queue of fit looking lycra-wearers to guide you. Queue up and pay your entry fee (could be $5-$10, more for open races). You will be graded, probably in a low grade at first. They will give you a race number (cool!) and may hold your licence untill you return said number after the race. Race numbers are often colour coded to show grade
Put your number on (usually pinned low on your jersey and slightly to the side where the judges sit (it pays to check out local custom here).
Pay attention to what's happening as races are often organised in unusual orders. Like A grade (fast guys) first, then B grade, then C and D combined, or totally in reverse. Local customs apply - don't miss your start!
If it's OK to do so, roll around and warm up on the course. Don't start cold in any case!
Don't miss the start!

More in the next post on the race itself...

A cycling lesson

2006-08-07T22:24:00.000Z

Probably a life lesson as much as a cycling lesson. It's don't give up. You may be in pain, you may have been dropped, but (a) everyone is hurting and (b) you never know who will get dropped next or what may happen up the road. So dig deep, and then dig deeper. By gritting your teeth and absorbing the hurt you'll either stay with the fast guys or get dropped and maybe stay in touch.

Jens Voigt is a prime example. You don't necessarily see him as a mountain climber but he will have a go anywhere. Look at this example: Stage 6 - August 7: Seefeld - Sankt Anton (Austria), 196.6 km Voigt overcomes the pain barrier. Dropped on a climb, he let the leaders go ahead on the steeper climb and then hammered back when it flattened out a bit. Result? He not only got back on, he toughed it out for the win!

Bike racing 101 - part 3 - it's not about the bike, is it?

2006-08-06T23:35:00.000Z

Well it could be about the bike, if it matters that much to you. Let's face it, it's hard work racing - sometimes it can be just as important (or easier) to you to just cruise, get fit(ter) and not worry about racing. Maybe just dabble but don't commit.

I have some problems with this myself, which I'll share now. Dabbling is great. I dabble in Art. But I'm always wondering 'whatif'. What if I had committed to art? Or music? Or writing? Or cycling, for that matter? Life is about decisions and compromises and living with the results. By total immersion you may well achieve your potential, but it's unlikely that you will achieve anywhere near your potential by dabbling. Of course you can always rationalise these decisions and worry about it all later, but I wanted to make the point - dabbling is not going to help you to achieve at the highest level.

It's a sliding scale, though. Maybe your life allows you to dabble 20% of the time in cycling, and maybe that's enough time to reach 80% of your fitness potential? Just be aware that this trade off is your choice, so don't come to me in 20 years time saying that you could've been a pro if only you'd committed yourself... phew, glad that's out of the way. I never really wanted to be a pro, I just wanted to win club races!

So - given that we are dabbling here, not immersing - we are going to maximise our efforts and results and minimise our time. That's the thrust of my argument. Let's get the best result for our buck. Which brings me to bikes. You don't need the flashest gear to win a race. (It may be motivating to have flash gear, but it won't be a bigger lever than your fitness and skill level.)

My winningest bike was an $800 Shogun in 1984. I had a great run on that bike. The headset kept unwinding, the wheel bearings were rubbish and the crank bolt kept loosening off at the worst times. But some locktite and a bit of nous fixed the reliability and a set of lighter wheels had that bike flying. What was good about it? It was pretty cheap and drew no attention. It worked - the gears changed, the wheels turned, it steered. It was light enough, certainly for criteriums if not the steepest mountain passes. It proved to me that the bike was not the problem, nor was it the solution. My fitness and attitude were both the problem and the solution. I could improve my fitness by riding everywhere as often as possible and my attitude was 'let's give it a go and give it 100%'.

Let's stop here for now. More later.

Landis stands accused of doping

2006-07-28T03:28:00.000Z

Landis stands accused of doping - steroid abuse - following a failed test after the lone, brave attacking stage - and win - into Morzine. I hasten to add that it's all based on an A-sample at this stage and nothing is proven. Now, given that he has a serious hip condition I don't blame the guy for taking cortisol - an approved substance under the situation - or any reasonable dose of anything that gets him through the day; but at this level of performance and success you can't take any chances. Whether or not he did it deliberately we may never know - and the B-sample may yet prove negative - but even as an accidental side effect of medication, or drinking beer, or whatever - it's unacceptable. To try and clear it up post hoc and 'prove' that the steroid levels are 'natural' seems dubious at best. We will all be left asking 'why didn't this 'natural' level show up in other stages or at other times?'

There's an account (or 2 or 3) here: www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis

Le Tour 2006

2006-07-26T07:43:00.000Z

My 2006 Tour de France Wrap up, all wrapped up

Back to normal

Stage 20 - Le Tour 2006 - the dust settles

Stage 19 - Le Tour 2006 - the TT decides

Stage 18 - Le Tour 2006 - Status Quo

Stage 17 - Le Tour 2006 - Floyd flies!

Stage 16 - le Tour 2006 - Floyd falters

Stage 15 - Le Tour 2006 - Alpe d'Huez

Rest Day 2 - Le Tour 2006

Stage 14 - Le Tour 2006 - France over Italy this time

Stage 13 - Le Tour 2006 - Voigt's day in the sun

Le Tour 2006 - stage by stage

2006-07-15T00:21:00.000Z

Stage 12 - Le Tour 2006 - Discovery bounce back

Stage 11 - Le Tour - Rabobank strongest

Stage 10 - Le Tour - The mountain tactics

Stage 9 - Le Tour - The Spaniard returns

Le Tour - Rest Day 1

Stage 8 - Le tour - Calzati's day

Stage 7 - Le Tour 2006 - T-Mobile win

Stage 6 - Le Tour 2006 - McEwen's 3rd.

Stage 5 - Le Tour 2006 - the Spaniard takes it

Stage 4 - Le Tour 2006 - McEwen's 2nd

Stage 3 - Le Tour 2006 - the Cauberg

Stage 2 - Le Tour 2006 - Chaos and the Viking

Stage 1 - Le Tour 2006 - Blood on the road

Prologue - Le Tour 2006

Le Tour and the Aussie contingent

We get so close and the rug gets pulled

Bike racing 101 - part 2 - goal setting

2006-07-10T01:52:00.000Z

Last time I set the scene.

In brief, I outlined my personal approach. Go riding, enjoy it and find some buddies to encourage you. Then leverage that fitness and skill to start racing. Of course there's lots more to it than that.

For instance, what are your goals? Ask yourself why am I doing this? Is it that you want to stay fit and healthy in the long term, and to get out there riding regularly you need extra motivation? Or is it to simply try out racing, just because you'd like to? Try to understand why you want to do it and feed off that motivation. Remind yourself why on those hard days when you question the whole idea. And review your goals regularly. You may want to find out how good you could be, given whatever constraints you may have. (I always had to work (or thought I did), for example, so doing more miles was always a balancing act.)

Goal setting helps you achieve something definite. Just ambling along seeing what happens may lead you somewhere interesting but it probably won't be exactly what you wanted to do, or be the best that you want to be. It may be great and exactly what you wanted. Or it may be so disappointing that you drift off and do something else.

By aiming at achievable goals you do a few things. You are taking aim, and aiming at something improves your chances of hitting it. You are also building a set of stairs, small steps that will make it easier to climb to a higher place. If you aim at the top rung straightaway you may actually get there - we all have our 'top rung' dreams - but by setting out intermediate goals you will get there more reliably.

Let's make a list.

Your first goal may be to start your first race.
The next to finish the race.
The next to finish with the lead pack.
The next to place.
The next to win.

You may find that you achieve several of these quite quickly, and that's very important. It's reinforcing to actually achieve your goals, it helps you to stay motivated and to want to do it again. Feed off that feeling by keeping achievable goals!

The beauty of bike racing is that these steps fit perfectly with the system. Whether you call them grades or categories, there are always rungs of the ladder. Plenty of people find their niche on one rung and just enjoy their racing in that grade forever more. They may go higher and then settle back. They may just find a balance that suits them. Some people enjoy the tactics, some like to win. Some like to help others win. It's diverse, what we all enjoy and what keeps us riding. And the racing is varied, too

Road races can be 50km, 100km or 260km, or 2,000km in a 3 week tour for that matter. Criteriums can be 30km or 100km. Track races may be short sprints or endurance pursuits. It doesn't really matter what your personal strengths are because there's a niche for everyone. A big strong male or female rider may power along in a time trial and then get dropped on a climb. A wiry, thin rider may struggle on the flats and in the sprints but cream the big guys on the climbs. And in between there's an infinite range of possibilities. Now that's variety and that's bike racing.

Bike racing 101

2006-07-07T01:27:00.000Z

Think of this blog as my attempt to inspire you to race. I am looking at the non-racer, the recreational rider who is quite fit and interested in the sport of cycling but for whom racing is 'something I can do later' or 'something that's just a bit out of my league'.

Firstly, never put off to tomorrow what you can do today. I first 'enquired' about bike racing when I was 16 and riding perhaps 100km a week, including 60-80km 'fun rides' on the weekend. Having not been involved in competitive sport in any organised way before - I was a total bookworm -I lacked the confidence to give it a go, so I put it off - for about 8 years, in fact!

Secondly, you never know until you give it a go. In my case I only gave it a go after much encouragement by other riders. Luckily I lived fairly close (10km away) from Sydney's premier cycling resource - Centennial Park. So for about 8 years I frequently rode to and around the Park. Just by riding around with other riders I got fitter and faster. I found that I could chase and catch other riders and that I had an undisovered urge to improve and even to race. I still didn't think I could do it, but the thought entered my head that I had a chance. Eventually I found another rider at the same level and we (at the urging of another rider - as it turned out the president of one of Sydney's bike clubs, Randwick-Botany) made a commitment to try a race together at Heffron Park. We were placed in D grade. He won and I came 2nd. Now for him that 'proved' enough and he didn't race again. But for me I was hooked. I came back and won D grade the following week and went from there.

That was more than 20 years ago and I'm still racing. You'll never know unless you give it a go - and there's a grade for everyone. Just get some miles in your legs firstly - say 80-100km a week - and find somewhere where you can ride with a few others. It will improve your fitness and your bunch riding skills. You'll need a bit of both, even in the lowest grade.

Links to the bike content

2006-06-11T07:20:00.000Z

Part 1 of 'A Guide to Bike Racing for the non-elite rider!' Written from personal experience - how I went from D grade to A grade. I don't explain how I then went back to D grade, though! In a word - unfit!

Check out the pics in the Bike Racing Image Gallery

For historical interest only - my old, unofficial page for the Randwick Botany Cycling Club (Australia)

And here's the real, official page for the Randwick Botany Cycling Club (Australia)

Again for historical reasons: my old, unofficial page for the Central Coast Cycling Club (Australia)

And the real, official page for the Central Coast Cycling Club (Australia)

Some good (but not too many) Bike Racing Links

Did someone say 'velodrome'?

2006-06-10T05:32:00.000Z

Sydney's Velodromes!

Camperdown, now closed; also known as O'Dea Reserve. I raced on this track from 1985 until about 1992 or so. It no longer exists (it was destined to become unit housing last time I heard). In brief, the history runs like this...up to the 1970s the Dulwich Hill club (incorporating the Petersham and Marrickville clubs) raced at Henson Park, Marrickville. However Henson was also the home of a Sydney first grade rugby league team that needed Henson redeveloped with lighting towers of television grade. Of course the towers were slap-bang in the middle of the track. Ironically the club in question - the Newtown Jets - was subsequently relegated to a lower grade, despite the lighting investment. In any case a deal was struck where Marrickville Council assisted the Dulwich Hill Club by providing land suited to a steep-sided concrete velodrome, in Camperdown.

Read more here.

Bike racing at GTVeloce.com

2006-06-04T01:41:00.000Z

Folks, bike racing is for almost everyone. Got a bike? Ride regularly? No unmanaged or unmanagable health problems? Got health cover and a doctor's clearance? Want to race? Fancy your chances? In the words of the prophet, if you want to do it, just do it. Content starts here.

A summary of my recent posts

2006-05-25T01:58:00.000Z

Hotcakes and hydrogen

By Robert Russell in http://thespiel.com 1 day ago

cost via the small ongoing fuel saving, depending upon how much driving you do. They are also a 'safe' buy in that they still use the fuel you buy at gas stations (as against some alternative home brew, cold fusion or risky hydrogen). Read more...
http://thespiel.com

By Robert Russell in http://thespiel.com 1 day ago

Rob's Guide, part 2 Track race tips Sydney's Velodromes What do those lines mean? Automobile links Mustknow links Philosophy links Music Links Images of the Russell, Matthews, O'Brien and Brown families in Australia Rob's Amateur Art Gallery
addicted2wheels

By Robert Russell in addicted2wheels 2 days ago

Rob's Guide, part 2 Track race tips Sydney's Velodromes What do those lines mean? Automobile links Mustknow links Philosophy links Music Links Images of the Russell, Matthews, O'Brien and Brown families in Australia Rob's Amateur Art Gallery
the gtveloce.com-munity of interests

By Robert Russell in the gtveloce.com-munity of int... 2 days ago

Links GTVeloce.com ...cars, bikes and com-munities The bike racing forum ...for racers only The general purpose gtveloce forums ...for everyone MBA related resources ...with an HR spin The KlausenRussell Com-munity ...please visit! OODB ...out out damned Blog GTVeloce.com blog
Velodrome 101

By Robert Russell in addicted2wheels 2 days ago

too so keep away - it can get a bit hairy if you get stuck in that transition zone, especially if you are on the duckboard at speed and try to get onto the banking before a turn. It's a good way to fall and bring down the pack. Read more...
Image gallery

In Image gallery 8 days ago

Rob's Guide, part 2 Track race tips Sydney's Velodromes What do those lines mean? Automobile links Mustknow links Philosophy links Music Links Images of the Russell, Matthews, O'Brien and Brown families in Australia Rob's Amateur Art Gallery
Aviation images

In Aviation images 8 days ago

Links GTVeloce.com ...cars, bikes and com-munities The bike racing forum ...for racers only The general purpose gtveloce forums ...for everyone MBA related resources ...with an HR spin The KlausenRussell Com-munity ...please visit! OODB ...out out damned Blog GTVeloce.com blog
Airliner art

In Aviation images 8 days ago

[IMG ]
Airliners, automobiles and art

In Image gallery 8 days ago

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Welcome to the image resources at GTVeloce.com

In Image gallery 8 days ago

Folks Copyright is reserved, but feel free to browse. Reuse is often possible by arrangement and some images may be purchased. The content starts here . Image gallery
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Folks Copyright is reserved on all images, be it my own or other attributed work - please ask before using. Otherwise feel free to browse the content here . Aviation images
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What do those lines on the track mean?

2006-05-23T00:17:00.000Z

Obviously we have black and white start/finish lines. We also have markings (usually red lines, perpendicular to the track) for the common pursuit and time trial distances. Distances are also marked out on the side of the track. The flat, often blue-painted zone right at the bottom of the track is the duckboard. It can be absent, or it can be plain concrete (ie not blue at all). Some people refer to it as "the blue" or the "Cote d'Azure", but it's really not a place to take a holiday. It's not for race riding either, although you may use it to come off the track after a slow down lap and you cross it to get on the track. In time trials and pursuits long sponges (not your conniving relatives, I mean foam rubber sponges) are placed across the duckboard to discourage short cuts. You can often get away with a short cut in a scratch race though when diving underneath a slower rider (but it's not encouraged and if attempted during a sprint will almost certainly incur a disqualification). There can be a nasty edge rather than a smooth transition from duckboard to track, too so keep away - it can get a bit hairy if you get stuck in that transition zone, especially if you are on the duckboard at speed and try to get onto the banking before a turn. It's a good way to fall and bring down the pack. Read more...

Training for the non-elite rider

2006-05-17T05:04:00.000Z

Bike racing is like running, swimming, golf or any other sport. In fact it’s just like anything in life. Put the time and effort in and you’ll get better at it. It’s a simple equation, really, limited more by your own motivation or commitment than by any theoretical potential you may or may not possess. If you are looking for easy fitness and a sport that won’t take up much of your time, stop now - it doesn’t exist.

Multiple Australian and World Point Score medalist Gary Sutton was once reported to have replied to the question, What’s the secret to success in bike racing?, with the statement: Ride lots. Eddy Merckx is reported to have said the same. Let's face it, if you want to be good at something you practise it, over and over... Simplistic, but not a bad thought - and don’t put it off, thinking that you won’t do well, or that you don’t have the time. This is a multi-level, multi-discipline sport with a niche for everyone. As the cliche goes, you won’t know if you don’t try.

OK, maybe some sports are easier on the body, are less risky, or consume less time. But we’ve settled here on something that does involve injuries (guaranteed), risk (a given) and a commitment of some sort. Hey, you can choose not to train and be happy racing in a lower grade, but don’t come to me after you’ve died from a mid-race heart attack and then ask my advice. You get out what you put in. Bike racing is hard. It's a demanding sport that will suck hours out of your day and draw the sweat from your skin, whilst demanding top aerobic fitness, great lower body strength, quick wits and excellent hand-eye coordination. You need tactical nous, swift reflexes and a will to win. It ain’t easy. And that’s just C-grade. Read more...

BIke racing at GTVeloce.com

2006-05-16T01:44:00.000Z