Falling down

It had to happen sooner or later: I would crash while racing me velocipede. The auspices have generally not been in my favour this week, and I managed to lose a bit of bark at the Joe Sunde Memorial at Heffron on Australia Day. But first, let me backtrack a little...

After the International Journo Junket, we launched into the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under in a big way. Normally a week of Adelaide is all I have to put up with each year, but after the Aussie Nats, this made it into two weeks. I'm actually starting to like bits of Adelaide now. Mainly the bits that aren't in Adelaide itself, e.g. the hills. I managed to find several climbs out of the city, some up to 9 km long which isn't too bad. There was one called Corkscrew Road (which is accessible off Gorge Road, to the north of the city) and it goes up 210m in 2.4 km. The first kilometre is fairly steady, then it gets savagely steep. I would have preferred something smaller than a 40x21, but anyway...

That was all fun, and I could generally get out for an hour or so each day during the TDU. It was all good. The rest of the week was bloody busy but. Live coverage, updating two sites, plus the normal stuff...I'm glad it's only once a year.

The post-race piss-up on the final night ended poorly. After swearing I'd stick to beer (now where have I heard that?), I eventually cracked because they'd obviously watered down the beer and it was crap. So I started on the Jacob's Creek Unlimited Release January 2005 Rosé...It was worse, but it did at least have some alcohol in it. Suffice it to say, after a bottle and a bit, I was the worse for wear. Two hours sleep, then back on the job to do news and get on the plane back to Sydney on Monday. The rest of Monday passed into oblivion.

The Sunde

I was in two minds about racing again, but after doing 50 km on Tuesday I decided to roll up for the Joe Sunde Memorial on Australia Day. It was a good field, but not as hard as a Tuesday race, so I hung around the back and gradually moved up. A break of three went early and won, and Our Gallant Randwick Botany Lads decided to chase after 30 mins. We looked good for about two laps and pulled back about 10 seconds before it all fell apart and Easts got in the way anyway.

I did one more turn and then moseyed down to the back for a bit of a breather with 6 to go. Unfortunately, while I was there Matt from Clarence St. decided to pedal round the tennis court corner, and that's one you never pedal around at Heffron. So he came down in the middle of the corner, then Matt Lucas went over him on the left, and fortunately ended up in the grass. I was right behind with nowhere to go, so I slammed on the brakes and my rear tyre fortuitously exploded, dumping me rather hard on the concrete. Sigh.

Sorry Ma and Pa, who happened to be on the same corner that I crashed on (yes, I was watching the road). And sorry Kate and Kristy, who formed the other half of my cheer squad. I'll probably get a bad luck karma conscience thingo about this now.

I haven't crashed in a race for probably over 10 years, as I can usually avoid them. In fact, my last crash of any note was in 1997, when I fell off at West Head. I guess I was lucky this time as the St. Johns ambo's were there to patch me up and I didn't have to go to hospital - just a fair bit of skin off my hip and elbow, and bits and pieces off other areas and general stiffness in the hips. The bike - thankfully - is OK despite needing a new tyre and handlebar tape. The other two Matts are also OK, which is good.

So I'm hobbling around and taking Neurofen for a few days now, calling this the "off-season" (which it was going to be anyway). The "Sunde" was a guest appearance only. I am looking forward to getting these bandages off.

The International Journo Junket

South Australia definitely got more interesting for me today after I got an invite to the International Journo's Junket, proudly sponsored by Jacob's Creek Fine Australian Table Wines. In true Harry Hardnose style, most of the hard core journo crew bundled into a minibus at 11:30 bound for Tanunda, home of Jacob's Creek.

First we went up to this funny little vineyard perched on the side of a very steep hill with our bus fishtailing it all the way up on the dirt road. Once there, we were treated to a rather spiffing entree of Thai prawns and smoked salmon with marscapone and asparagus. And some nice dry 2002 Riesling from that same vineyard. Forgotten the name. It had "stein" in it and it wasn't Wolfenstein. Must be the wine.

We were also introduced to our hosts and hostesses, called Bruce, and the lovely Carmen and Danielle. And probably Michael or Steve. Must be the wine. They explained a lot about the wine and the vineyard while we were scoffing Thai prawns and smoked salmon.

After this, we were driven down to the Jacob's Creek Visitor Centre, which is located - incredibly - near Jacob's Creek. After meinhost Steve/Michael introduced us to the wines we were to drink with lunch, I realised why we had four glasses - one for each flavour of wine. Cool, huh? Lunch was rather good, especially as I was sitting next to Carmen. She is about to open a spa and massage centre in Rundle Street Adelaide, and I think she has already found a few clients i.e. Wives of Cycling Journos.

Wines alluded to earlier: 2002 limited release Chardonnay, which tasted exactly like the Riesling; 1997 Shiraz, which was bloody good; and 2004 Shiraz Rose, which was also good with the raspberry and marscapone dessert. Mains: rare beef, lamb, fish, spatchcock and vege bits, all with their own bottled factory sauces.

After that we were pretty well sloshed, but we were each given a momento of (or perhaps for) our trip: a limited release 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon. That certainly eased our dry throats in the thirsty minibus trip back home. Next time I'll bring a corkscrew. Nah, just kidding - I'll cellar it in the fridge for two weeks before cracking it open.

Beat the record!

I had an hour spare between finishing off news this morning and the Junket, so, despite feeling very ordinary, I headed up to the hills to try and beat my Norton Summit record. This time, helped by a bit of a tailwind, I did it and managed 13'35, which is the fourth best time up there on the cycle2max website (I'm not going to beat Brett Aitken's 12'39...).

It must have been all those hard training rides with Phil Liggett. We rode back from Echunga (about 40 km) each day after the Aussie road titles. We also got lost each day - well, we didn't end up going the way we intended. Phil was constantly complaining that his Colnago was too short and that's why he was so slow. But the rides were good and quite peaceful.

As for the road races themselves, the women's race was a bit negative at the start, and when it got going no-one could really establish a break for long. I felt sorry for Oenone, who had to chase everything, but full marks to the Queenslanders who used their strength to clean up in the end.

The men's race was excellent. I was afraid that they'd pootle around for a few laps before getting going, but no, it was on from lap 1. They averaged 45 km/h for the first few laps and that was savage for that course. I walked around it (and got sunburned) and there was very little flat. Full marks also to McEwen, who was climbing as well as anyone there and was the strongest guy on the day. The last 50 km was interesting with four being chased by six at about 15-20 seconds. Amazing that the gap couldn't be closed. But McLachlan, Evans and Crake are all pretty strong and I think they wanted to stay away and at least have a shot at the title. McLachlan is a horse.

Nick (editor of Bicycling Australia) and I hard at work at the top of the
hill in the Aussie road championships.
©Mark Gunter

Adelaide, glorious Adelaide

Jeez I'm bored. I'm in sunny Adelaide for the Aussie titles and it's boring. Yesterday were the time trials, and all the defending champions won so it was boring. Today was a rest day, so it was even more boring. There are bits of Adelaide that are nice but there are even more bits that are boring. Like here. At least the bushfires have gone - they were not good for all concerned. They have superceded the tsunami on the news so they must be interesting.

In other interesting news, I saw that Mark Thatcher is likely to plead guilty to organising a coup in Equatorial Guinea (which failed, by the way). But he probably won't be put away for it. Quelle shame. Was it 1982 when he got lost in the Sahara Desert during the Paris-Dakar rally? "I say slow down chappie, I spy a bedouin." [Mark is actually in Scotland]..."We're havin' a coupla bevies jimmy en ye're payin'!" (readers of Steve Bell's IF will get this joke).

While I'm on the subject of England, what about [Prince] Harry The Nazi?!? Fancy dress? Oh dear. Who brung him up?

I did do something interesting on the rest day, and that was to try to beat my record up Norton Summit. It's a 5.6 km climb at 5 percent, and flatter at the bottom and the top. I managed 13'50, which was four seconds slower than I did last year (on a lighter bike, dammit!) so I was annoyed. I'll try again on Sunday or something. Grr.

If all goes according to plan tomorrow, I should be able to cruise back from Echunga to Adelaide with none other than Phil Liggett, who has managed to organise a bike from the local bike shop. Dunno who's coming with us - maybe Graham Watson, who has allegedly started riding again. Phil's actually pretty fit, and does a regular morning group ride starting 6:15am during the TDU (next week). Oh well, that cuts me out :-)

Phil also showed us all some pics of his recent trip in South Africa, where he stayed on a bit of land with a lot of wild beasts. He got a good shot of an elephant charging his car - a la the policeman who tried to photograph Laurent Jalabert a few years back in Le Tour...with somewhat disastrous consequences. I think Phil managed to get away from the elephant in time.

You see, everything is boring compared to that! Being in Adelaide doesn't help.

I'll do a book review of A Clockwork Orange sometime, as I just finished reading it.

Racing liftout golden guide

Me last two races were satisfactory: 5th last Tuesday at Heffron and 5th again on Friday at Sutho, which at 43.5 km/h was by far the quickest race I've done down there. There were a whole lot of good riders so I just sat on the back and had a couple of go's late in the race, to no avail. Matt White took five others with him off the front with three laps to go and I thought that was it. But Troy Glennan did a few big turns and we caught them 3/4 of the way up the last hill. I forgot my own tactic of sitting on Jeff Hopkins' wheel and paid for it, as he won the sprint and I started too far back to be of any use.