The Olympics, and thus the world as we know it, is coming to an end and I for one will be happy, although the Vuelta starts a week afterwards. As an Aussie, the final day of track was good to watch today, especially after ye olde smear campaign that our Gallant Aussie Lads were subjected to by one French, M. and Coates, Lord J. in the months leading up to the Games. Take that you buggers!
Up until the 2004 Olympics, Australia had won a grand total of six (6) gold medals in Olympic cycling, i.e. in the last 108 years. Or 104, depending on whether you use discrete methods to count Olympiads. In Athens, the Aussies won six (6) gold medals in one bloody Olympics, with the MTB still to come!
For the benefit of Australian cycling in future, it's clear that Lord Sir John Coates, AM, OBE, TM and bar, must stay!! The negative publicity worked a treat and really got the boys and girls fired up. I say there should be more of it.
Good to see Bayley demolish the opposition in the keirin too. Coming from 300m behind with two laps to go, he wound it up to Maximum Velocity and no-one got close. For a very unassuming, KFC eating 22 year old boy from Perth, it was great.
The upcoming fixture
This weekend is the Journo World's in Verona, which will be my last race for a while I reckon. I haven't had the ideal build up for it as one month of racing in August with not much base training in July has left me a bit short of condition. However, I will do my best. At least the opposition should be a bit less than a kermis race. There are 43 starters (or more), including last year's winner Andrea Agostini, 2002 winner Menno Grootjans, and quite a few others. The race is on Sunday and is 7 laps of a fairly flat (but not dead flat) 10 km circuit.
It looks to be a really well organised and fun weekend too. We get to see Rigoletto (a sort of folk ballet written by Joe Green) on Saturday, and that should be a lark. Haven't been to the Opree for a while. Then there's a bit of a partay on Sunday night. At 1:00pm, before the race, there's something called "fastening of leaden seals" which I reckon must be part of a bizarre Verona/Antarctic hunting ritual. The poor seals will fall through the ice, methinks.
Wippelgem
I did my final kermis yesterday in Wippelgem and it was hard, because there were only 17 starters, including Andre Tcherviakov (from now on known as "Andre"), Litouwers Mindaugas Goncaras and Saulius Sarkauskas, John Saey's Patrick and Nicky Cocquyt and Christophe Bracke. Ouch. It was the strangest race I've ever done too.
a) Because there were so few of us, one of our number, Jurgen Diependaele, made a Pact with everyone on the first lap that we ride together for 6 laps (the race was 14 x 8.2 km laps). That way we would all get a prime, because they were paying three deep, supposedly.
b) We rolled along at 35 km/h for the first four laps, observing the Pact, and I took the second lap prime with a well timed throw of my bike in a crude attempt to make it look like we were actually racing. However, the rest of the bunch riding on the tops of the handlebars probably destroyed the illusion.
c) It started raining. Not a surprise, as it's rained for 15 out of the last 16 days in August. I have been counting. But then it got harder and harder and harder, and with the strong wind made for a really Fun race. I have ridden in a lot of rain during my time, and this was equivalent to the hardest without it actually hailing. It didn't deter anyone from attacking either.
d) Bracke didn't like the Pact and attacked after 4 laps and it was on for young and old. We chased him down and caught him before the end of lap 5. Then on lap 6, Andre the Giant attacked in the Vicious Crosswind Section. I could see it coming from a mile off and stupidly tried to go with it, but amazingly I didn't have the legs. Sarkauskas, Goncaras and Patrick Cocquyt did, and the four of them rode off into the rain and were never seen again.
e) That left 13 of us, and as the Pact was now broken, it became an attack-fest for the rest of the race. Much pain. Much hurt. Bracke pulled out about halfway after sprinting across the line and turning left into the kleedkamers, which was pretty funny I thought.
f) I felt OK early on and got in most of the breaks, but then I started to feel it a bit and got dropped a few times with some Others. Much chasing. Much more pain. There were 10 of us left with about 3 laps to go, and two guys skipped off the front and they were gone. I was mentally a bit beaten by then, even though the rest were now just as knackered. In the last two km, pretty much everyone attacked and I should have gone with one of them but didn't, and was left to sprint it out for 11th place with three Others. 13th was the result. But I got a 10 euro prime :-)
g) I now have two elderly supporters (actually a couple more than that now), who recognised me at the start and yelled out "Hello Sjefke". Pretty funny, so I had a chat to them. Pity it was me last race for the year here, but maybe I'll renew the acquaintance next year.
h) How did I get this far?
I'll update with more news on Tuesday.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Nearly Time
One week to go until Journo World's! The trick is actually getting there. I've got most of the journey planned via Europe's extensive rail network, but I end up in Verona at 5:37am on Saturday morning after an overnight train on Friday. The race is on Sunday then I come back Monday with another 15 hour train trip. What fun that will be.
I think the hardest part could be getting from Verona to my hotel in Bussolengo (about 15km), but I'll try to get a taxi. Of course it would have been easier to catch a cheapo flight, but none of them were really suitable. Some wouldn't carry bikes, others went from Charleroi international airport early in the morning, and there's no way I want to go there. Charleroi is a town for laying down and avoiding.
Anyway I've been gripped by Olympic fever this week and gold, gold, gold etc. Very thrilling. I have five or six channels covering different or the same bits of the Olympics, so there's never a dull moment. Actually the track has been OK with 345 world records being set in the opening four sessions. Go Ulmer, Meares, Aussie pursuit etc. They should have a trivial pursuit at the Olympics. It doesn't have to be long - maybe only 2-3 metres. But to win you have to answer a stupid question like how many of Bill Shakespeare's Pies or Monkeys does it take to bash out a meaningless blog once or twice a week? I know the answer to that one.
The racing fixture of choice last week was in Evergem, and I won't go into too many details but I probably will anyway. There were 71 starters, up from the 21 last year (where I finished 20th due to the stem coming loose and another guy puncturing), and this was surprising. Apart from the usual suspects, viz. Willems and Cocquyt, there was also a German team from Germany: TEAG Team Kostritzer, and a Luxembourg team from Luxembourg: CCI Differdange. Why? I dunno. Don't they have homes to go to?
It was also incredibly windy with the odd rain shower. 19 laps of a 5.8 km course, with the finish straight all light pavers and the back section a bit rough. I stayed out of trouble for about the first half, and 16 had got away by then. In the second half myself and a few others went about launching an offensive against the Germans, who were blocking things as they had two guys in the break. They would jump on every attack then slow the pace down to 30km/h. Sorry, you don't do that in a kermis!
Four guys managed to get clear through sheer bloody mindedness, then three more, and with about 3-4 laps to go I got away with an Irish guy named Rory who basically dragged me up to the next group of three. He kept signalling for me to come through but if he wasn't going to slow down to a respectable pace there was no way I was gunna fall for the three card trick.
Anyway, the five of us got working and put a bit of a gap into the German-led peloton. We got the bell with 2 laps to go and on the last lap we could see the Germans coming back. Bugger that for a joke. Rory and I worked pretty hard to keep our noses in front and Rory did this ridiculous turn for the last 2 km. I was on his wheel, and again I had no gas to come past despite frantic elbow flicks. I could see the bunch wasn't going to catch us so I signalled for the other three guys to come round and I rolled in for 25th behind them. Rory got beaten by two of them and was annoyed. I dunno why. If he's going to do a stupidly hard turn for the last 2 km then he's got no excuse!
I went to get my money but number 37 had already claimed 25th (I was no. 57). I explained to the judges that I came in ahead of the peloton and they admitted they could have buggered it and believed my trusting, honest face and gave me a bit of dough for 25th, but I didn't make it into the official results.
I was still a bit knackered on Sunday (today) for the Berchem ride, but did it anyway and just tried to take it steady as I still want to race on Tuesday (last one). It was good training, and Eddy, Guido, Guy Callens and I were doing most of the work. We had eight(?) left at the end this time, and one guy who had not done a single turn the whole day had the nerve to sprint. I ask you. But Eddy was onto him like a flash and as I was on Eddy's wheel, it was the perfect leadout for the dash to the café. Actually Eddy waved me through once he caught the other guy, so justice was done!
If I can do that in Verona next Sunday I'll be happy. But the main thing is to do the race and not have any mishaps. I'll try to remember to pump the tyres up and stuff.
Video clip of choice: Another Day, by Ruff and Jam featuring Nina Babet. Tres amusing. "Your driving's a little on the edge, but I like a woman with character" says the driving instructor to Nina after she trashes the car by pursuing her ex-boyfriend, who she spots with another girl early on in the piece. And it's filmed in Antwerp (or is it Amsterdam?)
I think the hardest part could be getting from Verona to my hotel in Bussolengo (about 15km), but I'll try to get a taxi. Of course it would have been easier to catch a cheapo flight, but none of them were really suitable. Some wouldn't carry bikes, others went from Charleroi international airport early in the morning, and there's no way I want to go there. Charleroi is a town for laying down and avoiding.
Anyway I've been gripped by Olympic fever this week and gold, gold, gold etc. Very thrilling. I have five or six channels covering different or the same bits of the Olympics, so there's never a dull moment. Actually the track has been OK with 345 world records being set in the opening four sessions. Go Ulmer, Meares, Aussie pursuit etc. They should have a trivial pursuit at the Olympics. It doesn't have to be long - maybe only 2-3 metres. But to win you have to answer a stupid question like how many of Bill Shakespeare's Pies or Monkeys does it take to bash out a meaningless blog once or twice a week? I know the answer to that one.
The racing fixture of choice last week was in Evergem, and I won't go into too many details but I probably will anyway. There were 71 starters, up from the 21 last year (where I finished 20th due to the stem coming loose and another guy puncturing), and this was surprising. Apart from the usual suspects, viz. Willems and Cocquyt, there was also a German team from Germany: TEAG Team Kostritzer, and a Luxembourg team from Luxembourg: CCI Differdange. Why? I dunno. Don't they have homes to go to?
It was also incredibly windy with the odd rain shower. 19 laps of a 5.8 km course, with the finish straight all light pavers and the back section a bit rough. I stayed out of trouble for about the first half, and 16 had got away by then. In the second half myself and a few others went about launching an offensive against the Germans, who were blocking things as they had two guys in the break. They would jump on every attack then slow the pace down to 30km/h. Sorry, you don't do that in a kermis!
Four guys managed to get clear through sheer bloody mindedness, then three more, and with about 3-4 laps to go I got away with an Irish guy named Rory who basically dragged me up to the next group of three. He kept signalling for me to come through but if he wasn't going to slow down to a respectable pace there was no way I was gunna fall for the three card trick.
Anyway, the five of us got working and put a bit of a gap into the German-led peloton. We got the bell with 2 laps to go and on the last lap we could see the Germans coming back. Bugger that for a joke. Rory and I worked pretty hard to keep our noses in front and Rory did this ridiculous turn for the last 2 km. I was on his wheel, and again I had no gas to come past despite frantic elbow flicks. I could see the bunch wasn't going to catch us so I signalled for the other three guys to come round and I rolled in for 25th behind them. Rory got beaten by two of them and was annoyed. I dunno why. If he's going to do a stupidly hard turn for the last 2 km then he's got no excuse!
I went to get my money but number 37 had already claimed 25th (I was no. 57). I explained to the judges that I came in ahead of the peloton and they admitted they could have buggered it and believed my trusting, honest face and gave me a bit of dough for 25th, but I didn't make it into the official results.
I was still a bit knackered on Sunday (today) for the Berchem ride, but did it anyway and just tried to take it steady as I still want to race on Tuesday (last one). It was good training, and Eddy, Guido, Guy Callens and I were doing most of the work. We had eight(?) left at the end this time, and one guy who had not done a single turn the whole day had the nerve to sprint. I ask you. But Eddy was onto him like a flash and as I was on Eddy's wheel, it was the perfect leadout for the dash to the café. Actually Eddy waved me through once he caught the other guy, so justice was done!
If I can do that in Verona next Sunday I'll be happy. But the main thing is to do the race and not have any mishaps. I'll try to remember to pump the tyres up and stuff.
Video clip of choice: Another Day, by Ruff and Jam featuring Nina Babet. Tres amusing. "Your driving's a little on the edge, but I like a woman with character" says the driving instructor to Nina after she trashes the car by pursuing her ex-boyfriend, who she spots with another girl early on in the piece. And it's filmed in Antwerp (or is it Amsterdam?)
Monday, August 16, 2004
Gold gold gold
I'm really getting into the Olympic spirit, completely and utterly inspired by the bravery of our athletic corpse in Athens, Greece. What inspired me the most was the gallant and gracious gesture of women's road race silver medalist Judith Arndt, who I believe truly embodies the Olympic Spirit®. Onya Judith! You beaut!
The cool thing about the Olympics for us was that both road race gold medalists (Bettini and Carrigan) are Cyclingnews DiaristsTM. You see, it's all a demonstration of the fact that Cyclingnews actually dictates the outcomes of races before they happen. Woe betide those who refuse to be interviewed or write diaries for us before big events. They invariably suffer eternal damnation i.e. they crash.
But onto the serious results. Guido Huysman smashed his own record in the Schelde TT (Tweebruggen Prijs) and won it for the third year in a row. Onya Guido! You're getting quicker as you get older. Just wait until you're 71, then you'll have the record under 11 minutes I reckon. Chapeau!
For myself personally like, I did manage to get down to Aalst last week for a race, after the Lovendegem non-event. Unfortunately I wasn't really switched on mentally at all (too much work), so I just sat in the bunch for about half of it and was too far back when it split to buggery. The legs weren't too bad, but we were pulled out after two hours @ 42km/h on a very bumpy, very up and down course. I was just out of the money in 44th/74 starters, but that was my own silly fault. You simply can't ride down the back for the whole damn race and expect to finish in a good place. Still, it was OK training and the pootjes were good enough.
I got a little more motivated for Langerbrugge yesterday, because I know the course well, having raced it four times in the past, and I also had these very trick deep rimmed carbon wheels on. They're called Lightweights, and they're made in Germany. Many of the top pro's use them e.g. Bettini, Ullrich, Garzelli, so I reckon they'll do me. They're over €2000 a pair though...
In fact, the wheels had a very motivational effect on me. I wanted to use the race as training, so I made sure I was in the top 20 for pretty much all of it. Missed the first break of course, but I went in many attacks in the first hour and also contributed to the chain gang which got working at one stage to bring the break back. We averaged 44.5 km/h for the first hour, and brought all but three of the break back. They stayed away and Dariusz Strole won again, just like he did in Wondelgem earlier this year.
Once I got into the habit of getting in all the moves, it was actually very hard to get out of it, even though I could feel myself slowing down at halfway. I just kept going forward and sprinting after anything I could, in the hope that I could get in the next break. I guess that's the way to race these anyway, although it's better to pick your moment a bit more. I reckon I attacked about 20-30 times.
The bunch was pretty ragged with about three laps to go, and that's when the next break went (going for fourth place). With two to go, I saw an opportunity to get in the next group (going for 9th or 10th) but I didn't have the conviction. It probably would have saved me some pain later.
With just over one 8 km lap to go, the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down on us. I found Hilton McMurdo's wheel and stuck to it as he hammered off the remnants of the bunch with one other guy, picking up various stragglers in the first part of the last lap. It was all I could do to hang on, but I felt bad about it and did a turn when we were very close to catching the next group (that had escaped on the previous lap). That was one turn too many, and I found myself running the engine dry. I sat up and sucked down the rest of my squeezy and waited for the next group of four, which contained AKIRA. I did a total of one turn in that group, just for show, and then rolled in behind them for 28th. There were 59 starters, so that's not too bad. Hilton got 13th - I knew the wheel to be on :-)
All up, I did 120 km in 2:46:30, while the winner Strole finished in 2:45:00. Afterwards I just sat in the kleedkamers for a while without moving, waiting for the rain to ease up and for my energy to come back. I felt utterly drained, which was a good feeling because I knew that I had gone all out. Unlike Aalst where I still had plenty of energy left, just not the will to get involved. In theory, with a few days of taking it easy, I should be stronger for the next race in Evergem.
Interesting fact: It's rained every day for the last week.
The cool thing about the Olympics for us was that both road race gold medalists (Bettini and Carrigan) are Cyclingnews DiaristsTM. You see, it's all a demonstration of the fact that Cyclingnews actually dictates the outcomes of races before they happen. Woe betide those who refuse to be interviewed or write diaries for us before big events. They invariably suffer eternal damnation i.e. they crash.
But onto the serious results. Guido Huysman smashed his own record in the Schelde TT (Tweebruggen Prijs) and won it for the third year in a row. Onya Guido! You're getting quicker as you get older. Just wait until you're 71, then you'll have the record under 11 minutes I reckon. Chapeau!
For myself personally like, I did manage to get down to Aalst last week for a race, after the Lovendegem non-event. Unfortunately I wasn't really switched on mentally at all (too much work), so I just sat in the bunch for about half of it and was too far back when it split to buggery. The legs weren't too bad, but we were pulled out after two hours @ 42km/h on a very bumpy, very up and down course. I was just out of the money in 44th/74 starters, but that was my own silly fault. You simply can't ride down the back for the whole damn race and expect to finish in a good place. Still, it was OK training and the pootjes were good enough.
I got a little more motivated for Langerbrugge yesterday, because I know the course well, having raced it four times in the past, and I also had these very trick deep rimmed carbon wheels on. They're called Lightweights, and they're made in Germany. Many of the top pro's use them e.g. Bettini, Ullrich, Garzelli, so I reckon they'll do me. They're over €2000 a pair though...
In fact, the wheels had a very motivational effect on me. I wanted to use the race as training, so I made sure I was in the top 20 for pretty much all of it. Missed the first break of course, but I went in many attacks in the first hour and also contributed to the chain gang which got working at one stage to bring the break back. We averaged 44.5 km/h for the first hour, and brought all but three of the break back. They stayed away and Dariusz Strole won again, just like he did in Wondelgem earlier this year.
Once I got into the habit of getting in all the moves, it was actually very hard to get out of it, even though I could feel myself slowing down at halfway. I just kept going forward and sprinting after anything I could, in the hope that I could get in the next break. I guess that's the way to race these anyway, although it's better to pick your moment a bit more. I reckon I attacked about 20-30 times.
The bunch was pretty ragged with about three laps to go, and that's when the next break went (going for fourth place). With two to go, I saw an opportunity to get in the next group (going for 9th or 10th) but I didn't have the conviction. It probably would have saved me some pain later.
With just over one 8 km lap to go, the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down on us. I found Hilton McMurdo's wheel and stuck to it as he hammered off the remnants of the bunch with one other guy, picking up various stragglers in the first part of the last lap. It was all I could do to hang on, but I felt bad about it and did a turn when we were very close to catching the next group (that had escaped on the previous lap). That was one turn too many, and I found myself running the engine dry. I sat up and sucked down the rest of my squeezy and waited for the next group of four, which contained AKIRA. I did a total of one turn in that group, just for show, and then rolled in behind them for 28th. There were 59 starters, so that's not too bad. Hilton got 13th - I knew the wheel to be on :-)
All up, I did 120 km in 2:46:30, while the winner Strole finished in 2:45:00. Afterwards I just sat in the kleedkamers for a while without moving, waiting for the rain to ease up and for my energy to come back. I felt utterly drained, which was a good feeling because I knew that I had gone all out. Unlike Aalst where I still had plenty of energy left, just not the will to get involved. In theory, with a few days of taking it easy, I should be stronger for the next race in Evergem.
Interesting fact: It's rained every day for the last week.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Lek
The plan was to race in Lovendegem today. Despite threatening clouds and rain all morning (much needed, I might add), it dried up in the afternoon and was actually a perfect day for racing. The circuit was similar to the one I rode in 1999, but because some of the cobbled finishing straight has been dug up, somehow the course looped back and did both remaining thirds of the finishing straight in opposite directions. I got to experience only a bit of this, as after 3 km I punctured! Nothing wrong with the tyre, I just must have hit some glass or gravel on the back section. Quelle bunch of arse, I say.
I was offered a wheel by the guy in the broom wagon, but I would have had to have ridden back to the start/finish to get it. An utter waste of time. I handed my number in and went for a ride, throwing in a few intervals for good measure. Grumble.
At least I got my licence back.
Arthur, the movie
Saw Arthur (as in King, Excalibur, but not Morgan le Fay), and it was OK. Plot was different than the standard and was supposed to be based on the "real" story. Set in about 450 AD, Artorius of Rome, or possibly Wome, leads his faithful knights, inc. Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, Tristan de Cuhna, Bors (coolest), and Dagonet (also very cool) against the enemies of Wome in Gweat Bwitain. He wescues Guinevere, who is an enemy of Wome, and then changes his mind a bit about his alleigances and massacres the Saxons with the help of the Woads. 'Cos all Woads lead to Wome, as we know. Boom boom.
Olympics
The phrase "couldn't be arsed" is ringing around my sole surviving brain cell at the moment when it comes to getting motivated for the 'lympic Games. The road races are supposed to be this weekend. Maybe they'll cancel them or something. It's just a bit over the top after the July Tour madness. Make it stop.
Stuey, Valverde, Bettini, Ullrich will probably be up there with a shout. There are other events too, such as the synchronised souvlaki eating competition on the fifth day, and that should be a hoot. Set your VCRs and DVDs to record for that one.
Berchem
I have been solicited to write a report from last Sunday's Berchem ride, which I did, so I can. 'Twas a warm day, but I've finally gotten used to the terrible heat so that wasn't a problem. We did the old parcours, which is 82.5 km on my cyclo-computer, which can do Hartree Fock Theory and quantum tunneling calculations if you press the "set" button together with the "mode" button. Nifty, eh? Amazing what you can do with Japanese miniaturisation.
Not sure how many of us started but on each climb there were fewer. The Kid was there again, as was Guido, who is in his final preparation phase for the Tweebruggenprijs along the Schelde this week, and Snelle Eddy, who is looking fit. The Kid seemed stronger than last week and kept doing these rather painful turns, so I thought we were all for it in the second half. Well, the eight or nine of us who were left at that point.
The Kid had been doing a bit of work, so when we got to Frasnes-lez-Anvaing (approx km 55 or km 95 from Gent) I went to the front so I could just mosey on up the climb at my own pace and damn the consequences. We went a bit slower on the climb than last week, which was like a Spanish attack-fest, but at the top there were just four of us left: mij, Snelle Eddy, Guido and another guy with a funky black/gold skinsuit type situation. That meant...
...The Kid was dropped!!!
Although only by 100m or so, and even though Eddy drilled it over the top of the climb, I thought The Kid would get back on behind a car that was waiting to pass us. Somehow he didn't, even though the gap was probably only 30m on the descent. And after what he did to us last week, we weren't going to hang around. You see, cycling is all about revenge and one-upmanship. Forget this teamwork crapola. You gotta beat your mates when you get the chance! Naturally, this doesn't apply to me :-)
So the four of us kept working while The Kid was gradually falling further back. I seriously thought he was just toying with us, ready to pounce on the steep climb up to the chapel with about 15 km to go. But no. I can only surmise that he'd done something silly like race the previous day, or didn't have his weetbix for brekky.
On the aforementioned climb to the chapel, it was my turn again so I went a bit harder, and we were three at the top with Eddy and Guido. Eddy had already told us that he wasn't going to finish today, which I thought was a bit odd, but I didn't question his motives. He actually wasn't doing any work by that stage.
I still thought Eddy would finish with us, because he was there just before the final climb (Hotonde) with about 3 km to go. But then he waved ta ta and headed off down the hill towards Ronse. So then there were two, and having done a goodly session of training I wasn't going to attack Guido for the finishing cafe sprint. I think Guido would have held on anyway, as he is in good condition now, just at the right time. I'm tipping him to win the TT for the third year in a row!
Final time: 82.5 km in 2:15:00, which was 3 min quicker than last week, which was only 80 km. For me it was the quickest Berchem ride of the year, so that's a plus.
Now it's just a matter of not having mechanical problems during a race. Still waiting on my cranks from the slowest bike shop in the world. The big chainring is not what it used to be...
I was offered a wheel by the guy in the broom wagon, but I would have had to have ridden back to the start/finish to get it. An utter waste of time. I handed my number in and went for a ride, throwing in a few intervals for good measure. Grumble.
At least I got my licence back.
Arthur, the movie
Saw Arthur (as in King, Excalibur, but not Morgan le Fay), and it was OK. Plot was different than the standard and was supposed to be based on the "real" story. Set in about 450 AD, Artorius of Rome, or possibly Wome, leads his faithful knights, inc. Lancelot, Gawain, Galahad, Tristan de Cuhna, Bors (coolest), and Dagonet (also very cool) against the enemies of Wome in Gweat Bwitain. He wescues Guinevere, who is an enemy of Wome, and then changes his mind a bit about his alleigances and massacres the Saxons with the help of the Woads. 'Cos all Woads lead to Wome, as we know. Boom boom.
Olympics
The phrase "couldn't be arsed" is ringing around my sole surviving brain cell at the moment when it comes to getting motivated for the 'lympic Games. The road races are supposed to be this weekend. Maybe they'll cancel them or something. It's just a bit over the top after the July Tour madness. Make it stop.
Stuey, Valverde, Bettini, Ullrich will probably be up there with a shout. There are other events too, such as the synchronised souvlaki eating competition on the fifth day, and that should be a hoot. Set your VCRs and DVDs to record for that one.
Berchem
I have been solicited to write a report from last Sunday's Berchem ride, which I did, so I can. 'Twas a warm day, but I've finally gotten used to the terrible heat so that wasn't a problem. We did the old parcours, which is 82.5 km on my cyclo-computer, which can do Hartree Fock Theory and quantum tunneling calculations if you press the "set" button together with the "mode" button. Nifty, eh? Amazing what you can do with Japanese miniaturisation.
Not sure how many of us started but on each climb there were fewer. The Kid was there again, as was Guido, who is in his final preparation phase for the Tweebruggenprijs along the Schelde this week, and Snelle Eddy, who is looking fit. The Kid seemed stronger than last week and kept doing these rather painful turns, so I thought we were all for it in the second half. Well, the eight or nine of us who were left at that point.
The Kid had been doing a bit of work, so when we got to Frasnes-lez-Anvaing (approx km 55 or km 95 from Gent) I went to the front so I could just mosey on up the climb at my own pace and damn the consequences. We went a bit slower on the climb than last week, which was like a Spanish attack-fest, but at the top there were just four of us left: mij, Snelle Eddy, Guido and another guy with a funky black/gold skinsuit type situation. That meant...
...The Kid was dropped!!!
Although only by 100m or so, and even though Eddy drilled it over the top of the climb, I thought The Kid would get back on behind a car that was waiting to pass us. Somehow he didn't, even though the gap was probably only 30m on the descent. And after what he did to us last week, we weren't going to hang around. You see, cycling is all about revenge and one-upmanship. Forget this teamwork crapola. You gotta beat your mates when you get the chance! Naturally, this doesn't apply to me :-)
So the four of us kept working while The Kid was gradually falling further back. I seriously thought he was just toying with us, ready to pounce on the steep climb up to the chapel with about 15 km to go. But no. I can only surmise that he'd done something silly like race the previous day, or didn't have his weetbix for brekky.
On the aforementioned climb to the chapel, it was my turn again so I went a bit harder, and we were three at the top with Eddy and Guido. Eddy had already told us that he wasn't going to finish today, which I thought was a bit odd, but I didn't question his motives. He actually wasn't doing any work by that stage.
I still thought Eddy would finish with us, because he was there just before the final climb (Hotonde) with about 3 km to go. But then he waved ta ta and headed off down the hill towards Ronse. So then there were two, and having done a goodly session of training I wasn't going to attack Guido for the finishing cafe sprint. I think Guido would have held on anyway, as he is in good condition now, just at the right time. I'm tipping him to win the TT for the third year in a row!
Final time: 82.5 km in 2:15:00, which was 3 min quicker than last week, which was only 80 km. For me it was the quickest Berchem ride of the year, so that's a plus.
Now it's just a matter of not having mechanical problems during a race. Still waiting on my cranks from the slowest bike shop in the world. The big chainring is not what it used to be...
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Blog of Ages
This will be long, as I have All the Time in the World (cue James Bond theme). I make no apologies. The beer hasn't kicked in yet, but it will. Why am I drinking beer? Because it's 30 degrees, thus Damn Hot. Also I just demolished everything in the fridge/cupboard/secret food hiding places so beer is the last resort. Yes, I done a race today and with the riding there and back it was over 160 km all up. That makes one thirsty in this heat.
But first, this week's moofie. I been waiting all July to see Spiderman II so I took the opportunity to do so. I seen all the ads and music videos on my non-blown up telly, so I was definitely keen. I liked the first one. The second one is much the same, although the villain is different because the Green Goblin, aka Willem Dafoe aka Jørgen Bo Petersen was killed in the last ep.
Instead the new villain is Dr Otto Octavius, who ends up with a whole lotta mechanical arms and a chip controlling his thoughts after he tried the old cold-fusion-in-a-bathtub experiment. But the cool thing is that the Green Goblin's son, aka James Franco looks like Filippo Pozzato. Cool, hey? And I reckon Dolph Lundgren is Raimondas Rumsas, just a bit bigger.
Back to the plot, such as it is. Or isn't. I think Dr Octavius wants to go further with cold fusion, and more power to him I say. But he keeps getting foiled by Spiderman. The other thing that happens is a much overdone love triangle between Spidey, MJ Watson (the love interest) and her husband to be, let's call him Bruce to save confusion. It's very overdone but this is a comic strip so that can be expected. All parties are more or less satisfied in the end. But I suspect there will be a Spiderman III.
Lokeren
The midweek racing fixture of choice was out at Lokeren today. There's a music festival on there at the moment, which means they were playing Madonna's Holiday over the loudspeakers at the start. I done the inaugural edition of this race last year and I remember it was pretty ordinary: 35 degrees, lost one of my bottles on the first cobbled section and had to call it quits after 60 km. This year it wasn't quite 35 degrees but it was over 30, so I set out from Gent with a total of 5.25 litres of water in various bottles. It was a 25 km ride but I had the sun at my back and there was a light breeze blowing from somewhere, which gladdened the heart.
<Rachmaninov interlude>
En route, I was caught up by various and sundry members of Staf Boone's Kingsnorth International Wheelers. AKIRA Wong was there, as was the Welsh Mari Lwyd, whose name is Ian. Funny name for a skeletal grey mare, but I guess you gotta call them something. Also two Pommie guys and Matt Chessum, so it was truly an International mix of Wheelers.
The sign on cafe was on the main road, as were the kleedkamers, so it wasn't too much drama to find. But on getting there, we found that there was an actual queue to sign on! I was surprised, as we ended up with over 80 starters including a delegation from France. It looked a bit like their track team actually. Two guys had rainbow stripes on their sleeves and one of them was Jerome Neuville, who won the world madison and points race champs on the track (I think). It didn't really matter, as these races are always hard no matter who turns up. It was a good quality field and that was fine by me - only way to improve is by racing against those better than you.
Local lad Mario Willems was here too. He is a top rider and is the favourite in any race he enters. He's good enough to turn pro but prefers the amateur lifestyle - he can win lots of races, make a decent amount of money from bonuses, and works for a living. Nice bloke too. We had a chat to him in the kleedkamers.
We rocked up to the start and were all set to go, but there was a problem as the police hadn't cleared the whole parcours and were still out there. This took over half an hour, and was a pain in the arse, not to mention hot. Darren Young and Nathan Clarke (from Tassie) reckoned that they had found a cafe around the back and were checking the quality of its (liquid) wares. The announcer didn't know what had happened. Nor did we.
The race finally started sometime after 15:30 and much to my dismay, there was to be no shortening of the parcours. We had to do 13 laps of 8.6 km, with two cobbled sections a lap. The first was 400m long and was pretty rough, but there was a gutter you could ride in and slowly destroy your wheels by hitting drainage grates and sand. I chose this option, as it was still faster. The second sector was about 800m long and led right up to the start/finish. It wasn't as rough, but there was nowhere to hide. It was also slightly uphill.
After last year's experience, I took an extra 500mL bidon in my back pocket, even though one of the Kingsnorth begeleiders (the kiddie) offered to give me a bottle. But I declined, remembering Andrew Benson's experience a couple of months back. This turned out to be a good option, as both of them stood on the bottom half of the course which was the fastest section. At a minimum we were lined out doing 50 km/h along there; at a maximum I hit 57.5 km/h. It wasn't downhill either. So these two goons were standing there every lap, holding out bottles, while they could see that it was flat stick in the peloton and everyone was glued to the wheel in front at eyeball popping speed. I remarked to Ian, the Welsh Mari Lwyd, and AKIRA, that they could be better served by having the begeleiders stand after the start/finish, where the speed was never much over 40 km/h. They both agreed, but it was Too Late Now.
I'd better get on with this race report.
After 1 km of warmup at 28 km/h, we then started going at a heinous speed for several laps. On the smooth bits of the course, no matter where we were, the speed was always 48-50 km/h. It was a bit slower on the cobbles and the corners, three of which were cobbled out of spite (I thought). We averaged nearly 44 km/h for the first hour, which I guess is standard for this quality field, and there were some breakaways. Don't ask for names.
My aim was merely to stay out of trouble and complete the distance. I felt OK so I thought if there was still a chance in the last four laps, I'd get involved in the action. I was navigating the cobbles and corners pretty well, and felt 10% better than last Saturday. Well, that's a qualitative engineering-type 10% anyway.
We did manage to bring back the early break(s) after about 5-6 laps, probably because they were too big and no-one wanted to work. I snuck up to the front to see what was happening and after a couple of laps managed to get away in a nice group of about 20-25. I rolled through for a couple of turns but people were more interested in looking behind rather than actually working so it collapsed/imploded into the kermis breakaway black hole. So much energy for such a non-result.
We slowed down markedly after 7 laps as people started to get tired of going at heinous speeds in the heat. But even when we slowed down to what felt like a crawl, the bunch was strung out nearly all the time. Of course, with about 5 laps to go a break of what I think was 28 riders did get away and stayed away. Mario Willems won (I think) and good on him. I honestly didn't notice that many riders go off the front, but I did notice that the peloton had suddenly got small, thin and weedy. I hoped it was merely attrition and that we were in with a shout of a top 15, but it was not to be.
I spent the next few laps trying to get in a move but didn't really have the sustainable legs. Getting there though, and a couple more races I should be back to where I was before I wasn't. Had a go on the last lap too, but folks started to speed up for some reason. Dunno why. I got into a decent posi for the "sprint" on the cobbles, but I couldn't really give it the works because my big chainring is worn out and would skip at inopportune times (getting a new crankset tomorrow, I hope). Actually the real reason was that I was basically knackered. I think I ended up about 40th, well out of the money today but pretty happy with the way things went, as the objet d'exercise was to get a goodly number of kilometres in at race speed. I had an average of 42 km/h at the finish too.
Unfortunately, when I got back into the kleedkamers, I couldn't find my licence! I turned my bag out but no dice. I figured I must have left it at the sign on, so when I went back to hand my number in I asked the officials for it. I got the impression that they had found my licence, and they told me to ask down at the bar for it. I did this, but the bar manager said 'nope' and told me to ask the officials upstairs. I did this, but the officials said 'nope' and told me to ask the bar manager downstairs. I did this, but the bar manager said 'nope' and told me to ask the officials upstairs. I did this (are you sure you don't have it?), but the officials said 'nope' and gave me a number to phone to get a replacement.
I was not plussed but I couldn't do anything so I set off home. After a few kms, one of the officials pulled up beside me and said that they've found my licence (upstairs...) and will send it to me post-haste. Fine. I hope I can get it back to race in Bottelare on 't weekend.
It was quite a pleasant ride home in the evening heat and I actually felt quite good. Journo World Championships are at the end of August near Verona, Italy, so I'm hoping I'll have the necessary form to do well. Of course, after the 2002 debacle, even getting to the start line will be a victory for me! Oh god, the scars...I have yet to do a Journo World's, so hopefully this'll be the first!
Wow, this post took more than two complete Rachmaninov Piano Concerti to write. The beer still hasn't kicked in at all, but that's probably a good thing.
But first, this week's moofie. I been waiting all July to see Spiderman II so I took the opportunity to do so. I seen all the ads and music videos on my non-blown up telly, so I was definitely keen. I liked the first one. The second one is much the same, although the villain is different because the Green Goblin, aka Willem Dafoe aka Jørgen Bo Petersen was killed in the last ep.
Instead the new villain is Dr Otto Octavius, who ends up with a whole lotta mechanical arms and a chip controlling his thoughts after he tried the old cold-fusion-in-a-bathtub experiment. But the cool thing is that the Green Goblin's son, aka James Franco looks like Filippo Pozzato. Cool, hey? And I reckon Dolph Lundgren is Raimondas Rumsas, just a bit bigger.
Back to the plot, such as it is. Or isn't. I think Dr Octavius wants to go further with cold fusion, and more power to him I say. But he keeps getting foiled by Spiderman. The other thing that happens is a much overdone love triangle between Spidey, MJ Watson (the love interest) and her husband to be, let's call him Bruce to save confusion. It's very overdone but this is a comic strip so that can be expected. All parties are more or less satisfied in the end. But I suspect there will be a Spiderman III.
Lokeren
The midweek racing fixture of choice was out at Lokeren today. There's a music festival on there at the moment, which means they were playing Madonna's Holiday over the loudspeakers at the start. I done the inaugural edition of this race last year and I remember it was pretty ordinary: 35 degrees, lost one of my bottles on the first cobbled section and had to call it quits after 60 km. This year it wasn't quite 35 degrees but it was over 30, so I set out from Gent with a total of 5.25 litres of water in various bottles. It was a 25 km ride but I had the sun at my back and there was a light breeze blowing from somewhere, which gladdened the heart.
<Rachmaninov interlude>
En route, I was caught up by various and sundry members of Staf Boone's Kingsnorth International Wheelers. AKIRA Wong was there, as was the Welsh Mari Lwyd, whose name is Ian. Funny name for a skeletal grey mare, but I guess you gotta call them something. Also two Pommie guys and Matt Chessum, so it was truly an International mix of Wheelers.
The sign on cafe was on the main road, as were the kleedkamers, so it wasn't too much drama to find. But on getting there, we found that there was an actual queue to sign on! I was surprised, as we ended up with over 80 starters including a delegation from France. It looked a bit like their track team actually. Two guys had rainbow stripes on their sleeves and one of them was Jerome Neuville, who won the world madison and points race champs on the track (I think). It didn't really matter, as these races are always hard no matter who turns up. It was a good quality field and that was fine by me - only way to improve is by racing against those better than you.
Local lad Mario Willems was here too. He is a top rider and is the favourite in any race he enters. He's good enough to turn pro but prefers the amateur lifestyle - he can win lots of races, make a decent amount of money from bonuses, and works for a living. Nice bloke too. We had a chat to him in the kleedkamers.
We rocked up to the start and were all set to go, but there was a problem as the police hadn't cleared the whole parcours and were still out there. This took over half an hour, and was a pain in the arse, not to mention hot. Darren Young and Nathan Clarke (from Tassie) reckoned that they had found a cafe around the back and were checking the quality of its (liquid) wares. The announcer didn't know what had happened. Nor did we.
The race finally started sometime after 15:30 and much to my dismay, there was to be no shortening of the parcours. We had to do 13 laps of 8.6 km, with two cobbled sections a lap. The first was 400m long and was pretty rough, but there was a gutter you could ride in and slowly destroy your wheels by hitting drainage grates and sand. I chose this option, as it was still faster. The second sector was about 800m long and led right up to the start/finish. It wasn't as rough, but there was nowhere to hide. It was also slightly uphill.
After last year's experience, I took an extra 500mL bidon in my back pocket, even though one of the Kingsnorth begeleiders (the kiddie) offered to give me a bottle. But I declined, remembering Andrew Benson's experience a couple of months back. This turned out to be a good option, as both of them stood on the bottom half of the course which was the fastest section. At a minimum we were lined out doing 50 km/h along there; at a maximum I hit 57.5 km/h. It wasn't downhill either. So these two goons were standing there every lap, holding out bottles, while they could see that it was flat stick in the peloton and everyone was glued to the wheel in front at eyeball popping speed. I remarked to Ian, the Welsh Mari Lwyd, and AKIRA, that they could be better served by having the begeleiders stand after the start/finish, where the speed was never much over 40 km/h. They both agreed, but it was Too Late Now.
I'd better get on with this race report.
After 1 km of warmup at 28 km/h, we then started going at a heinous speed for several laps. On the smooth bits of the course, no matter where we were, the speed was always 48-50 km/h. It was a bit slower on the cobbles and the corners, three of which were cobbled out of spite (I thought). We averaged nearly 44 km/h for the first hour, which I guess is standard for this quality field, and there were some breakaways. Don't ask for names.
My aim was merely to stay out of trouble and complete the distance. I felt OK so I thought if there was still a chance in the last four laps, I'd get involved in the action. I was navigating the cobbles and corners pretty well, and felt 10% better than last Saturday. Well, that's a qualitative engineering-type 10% anyway.
We did manage to bring back the early break(s) after about 5-6 laps, probably because they were too big and no-one wanted to work. I snuck up to the front to see what was happening and after a couple of laps managed to get away in a nice group of about 20-25. I rolled through for a couple of turns but people were more interested in looking behind rather than actually working so it collapsed/imploded into the kermis breakaway black hole. So much energy for such a non-result.
We slowed down markedly after 7 laps as people started to get tired of going at heinous speeds in the heat. But even when we slowed down to what felt like a crawl, the bunch was strung out nearly all the time. Of course, with about 5 laps to go a break of what I think was 28 riders did get away and stayed away. Mario Willems won (I think) and good on him. I honestly didn't notice that many riders go off the front, but I did notice that the peloton had suddenly got small, thin and weedy. I hoped it was merely attrition and that we were in with a shout of a top 15, but it was not to be.
I spent the next few laps trying to get in a move but didn't really have the sustainable legs. Getting there though, and a couple more races I should be back to where I was before I wasn't. Had a go on the last lap too, but folks started to speed up for some reason. Dunno why. I got into a decent posi for the "sprint" on the cobbles, but I couldn't really give it the works because my big chainring is worn out and would skip at inopportune times (getting a new crankset tomorrow, I hope). Actually the real reason was that I was basically knackered. I think I ended up about 40th, well out of the money today but pretty happy with the way things went, as the objet d'exercise was to get a goodly number of kilometres in at race speed. I had an average of 42 km/h at the finish too.
Unfortunately, when I got back into the kleedkamers, I couldn't find my licence! I turned my bag out but no dice. I figured I must have left it at the sign on, so when I went back to hand my number in I asked the officials for it. I got the impression that they had found my licence, and they told me to ask down at the bar for it. I did this, but the bar manager said 'nope' and told me to ask the officials upstairs. I did this, but the officials said 'nope' and told me to ask the bar manager downstairs. I did this, but the bar manager said 'nope' and told me to ask the officials upstairs. I did this (are you sure you don't have it?), but the officials said 'nope' and gave me a number to phone to get a replacement.
I was not plussed but I couldn't do anything so I set off home. After a few kms, one of the officials pulled up beside me and said that they've found my licence (upstairs...) and will send it to me post-haste. Fine. I hope I can get it back to race in Bottelare on 't weekend.
It was quite a pleasant ride home in the evening heat and I actually felt quite good. Journo World Championships are at the end of August near Verona, Italy, so I'm hoping I'll have the necessary form to do well. Of course, after the 2002 debacle, even getting to the start line will be a victory for me! Oh god, the scars...I have yet to do a Journo World's, so hopefully this'll be the first!
Wow, this post took more than two complete Rachmaninov Piano Concerti to write. The beer still hasn't kicked in at all, but that's probably a good thing.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
It is Happening Again
It's not quite Twin Peaks, and I'm not quite that funny looking dude or Kyle or Stan or Bob for that matter. No, it's something udderly mundane: me first race back in Merelbeke. This won't take long.
'twas brilling, and a warmish sort of a day - 30 degrees, sunny with a light wind. The race was very close by but the course was cod ordinary. 25 laps of 3.5 km, with 800m of cobbles per lap, a little hill over the railway after the cobbles, and 8 corners. It wasn't a course where you could sit in and watch the world go by, gently turning over the pedals behind the wheel in front. Oh no, there was none of that. Even the tailwind wasn't much use because it was across the cobbles. Argh.
It was an Open race, which tend to be slightly easier than kermis races because there are less toppers. But we still had guys like big bad Bart Velghe and Tom Vlerick and more besides among the modestly sized field of 32 (ik denk). First lap on the cobbles was ok, as a few of us got on the bike path which was smooth. But then the commissaire waved us off it, saying we had to ride on the cobbles. Bugger and curses.
It took approx. drie ronden for the field to explode as a group of 11 got off the front and waved ta-ta. Being as it was my first race back and in the heat to boot, my two stroke heart/lung engine was not really up to doing much in the way of chasing or attacking. But I knew that with a course like this and the warm weather, it was going to be a race of elimination and the idea was to stay out of trouble.
Once the 11 rode off into the sunset, the rest of us set about making the group a bit smaller. After about 35 km I think we were left with a very sociable eight man group, although with three riders from the same team in there it wasn't that easy.
The group formed again and yet again as endless eons wheeled and passed. I was one of the eons getting wheeled and passed all the time, but I persisted. We got the Word after 14 laps that we had 3 laps to go, which prompted more attacking. I was not in the mood and couldn't do much about it when three guys sorta sidled off the front on the cobbles. They were the strongmen anyway, so Order was maintained instead of Primal Chaos reigning.
On the last lap I thought 'bugger this, I've got buckleys in a sprint on cobbles so I'll try to give the rest the slip'. I went with about 2 km to go, just as a couple of riders had got on the back of our now three man group. That gave me the breathing space to execute my cunning plan and I took off up the back section in pursuit of a Glorious 15th place. Unfortunately I was foiled when one guy took it upon himself to chase after me. Dang. I held him off until 200m to go but he cheated and went onto the footpath for most of the cobbled section/finish straight and thus, my huge prize was somewhat diminished and I finished 16th.
I complained to the commissaires but they just said "No problems" - even though they believed me and probably saw it - so the results stood. Rafferty's rules. Still, I made me point.
So it was an expected result for the first race back. Need to get the turbo extension for my two-stroke, but a few more races and it should kick in.
On Sunday (that would be today) I did the Berchem ride for the first time in aaaaaaaages (> 2 months). Henk, of fietstocht fame, was there also for the first time. We started off slowly but the pace picked up when the Kid decided to do some training in the second half. Damn he's strong. I followed him on one of the last climbs and just got his wheel, but had problems holding it even on the downhill! On the next climb, which I reckon is the hardest, I kept his wheel right to the top before the mind wasn't willing any more and I let him go. HR < 180 which was good - much better than last time when he dropped me on that same climb. There just wasn't that extra bit of fuel in the tank, due to yesterday's race.
I then rode home via some very cool back roads with Henk, who really knows this area of Flanders. I hear that he's planning another fietstocht to the Carrefour de l'Arbre (part of Paris-Roubaix) soonish...that should be a whole lotta fun.
Finally, allez Stuey O'Grady for being the first Aussie to win a World Cup! Way to go dude!
'twas brilling, and a warmish sort of a day - 30 degrees, sunny with a light wind. The race was very close by but the course was cod ordinary. 25 laps of 3.5 km, with 800m of cobbles per lap, a little hill over the railway after the cobbles, and 8 corners. It wasn't a course where you could sit in and watch the world go by, gently turning over the pedals behind the wheel in front. Oh no, there was none of that. Even the tailwind wasn't much use because it was across the cobbles. Argh.
It was an Open race, which tend to be slightly easier than kermis races because there are less toppers. But we still had guys like big bad Bart Velghe and Tom Vlerick and more besides among the modestly sized field of 32 (ik denk). First lap on the cobbles was ok, as a few of us got on the bike path which was smooth. But then the commissaire waved us off it, saying we had to ride on the cobbles. Bugger and curses.
It took approx. drie ronden for the field to explode as a group of 11 got off the front and waved ta-ta. Being as it was my first race back and in the heat to boot, my two stroke heart/lung engine was not really up to doing much in the way of chasing or attacking. But I knew that with a course like this and the warm weather, it was going to be a race of elimination and the idea was to stay out of trouble.
Once the 11 rode off into the sunset, the rest of us set about making the group a bit smaller. After about 35 km I think we were left with a very sociable eight man group, although with three riders from the same team in there it wasn't that easy.
The group formed again and yet again as endless eons wheeled and passed. I was one of the eons getting wheeled and passed all the time, but I persisted. We got the Word after 14 laps that we had 3 laps to go, which prompted more attacking. I was not in the mood and couldn't do much about it when three guys sorta sidled off the front on the cobbles. They were the strongmen anyway, so Order was maintained instead of Primal Chaos reigning.
On the last lap I thought 'bugger this, I've got buckleys in a sprint on cobbles so I'll try to give the rest the slip'. I went with about 2 km to go, just as a couple of riders had got on the back of our now three man group. That gave me the breathing space to execute my cunning plan and I took off up the back section in pursuit of a Glorious 15th place. Unfortunately I was foiled when one guy took it upon himself to chase after me. Dang. I held him off until 200m to go but he cheated and went onto the footpath for most of the cobbled section/finish straight and thus, my huge prize was somewhat diminished and I finished 16th.
I complained to the commissaires but they just said "No problems" - even though they believed me and probably saw it - so the results stood. Rafferty's rules. Still, I made me point.
So it was an expected result for the first race back. Need to get the turbo extension for my two-stroke, but a few more races and it should kick in.
On Sunday (that would be today) I did the Berchem ride for the first time in aaaaaaaages (> 2 months). Henk, of fietstocht fame, was there also for the first time. We started off slowly but the pace picked up when the Kid decided to do some training in the second half. Damn he's strong. I followed him on one of the last climbs and just got his wheel, but had problems holding it even on the downhill! On the next climb, which I reckon is the hardest, I kept his wheel right to the top before the mind wasn't willing any more and I let him go. HR < 180 which was good - much better than last time when he dropped me on that same climb. There just wasn't that extra bit of fuel in the tank, due to yesterday's race.
I then rode home via some very cool back roads with Henk, who really knows this area of Flanders. I hear that he's planning another fietstocht to the Carrefour de l'Arbre (part of Paris-Roubaix) soonish...that should be a whole lotta fun.
Finally, allez Stuey O'Grady for being the first Aussie to win a World Cup! Way to go dude!
Thursday, July 29, 2004
A Visitation
Last Friday evening, guess who rocked up to my place? It's pretty obvious if you've read the previous post. Yes that's right: My dear mother!
This Visitation was Planned from the beginning of course. Why she chose to arrive on the Friday before the Tour finished I dunno, but anyway it was good to see her again. Even if a little late. The connecting flight got cancelled by the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. I'm...so...worried about etc. So 6pm turned into 10pm.
The next day, she took it into her head to clean parts of the place. I am not sure why, as my apartment is always spic and span at all times. There is not a skeric of dust anywhere except perhaps under the couch. <hastily moves couch>
That done, Ma also took it upon herself to cook me dinner. Luxury. I have been living off instant rice for 2 weeks while the Tour has been on - not even any of my famous Kylie Kwong stews! So a real meal with vegetables and stuff was most welcome. Thanks Maw!
What's cookin' maw?
On Sunday, Ma saw Brugghe while I stayed home and did the Tour. That was fun.
But on Monday, being an official Day Off (well, half a one), we partook of the festivities in town. It was the last day of Gentsefeesten and there were still a whole lotta people in Gent Centrum, generally milling around, drinking beer and carousing. So we joined them. Had a ride in a boat for fun and saw bits of Gent that I hadn't seen before. Then we had a fine meal in a very good Chinese(?) vegetarian restauraaaaaaaaant on the water. And wandered around a bit more.
The highlight of the evening was probably the band playing in the Korenmarkt. Appropriately entitled Kinky Afro, the band members were all attired in shiny silver disco suits with afro wigs, except in the case of the lead singer who had a shiny magenta wig thing. We were most entertained with tracks such as Crying at the Discotheque, Disco Inferno, She's a Maniac, We Are Family, I Will Survive etc. You get the idea, non?
It was very fine indeed!
This Visitation was Planned from the beginning of course. Why she chose to arrive on the Friday before the Tour finished I dunno, but anyway it was good to see her again. Even if a little late. The connecting flight got cancelled by the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. I'm...so...worried about etc. So 6pm turned into 10pm.
The next day, she took it into her head to clean parts of the place. I am not sure why, as my apartment is always spic and span at all times. There is not a skeric of dust anywhere except perhaps under the couch. <hastily moves couch>
That done, Ma also took it upon herself to cook me dinner. Luxury. I have been living off instant rice for 2 weeks while the Tour has been on - not even any of my famous Kylie Kwong stews! So a real meal with vegetables and stuff was most welcome. Thanks Maw!
What's cookin' maw?
On Sunday, Ma saw Brugghe while I stayed home and did the Tour. That was fun.
But on Monday, being an official Day Off (well, half a one), we partook of the festivities in town. It was the last day of Gentsefeesten and there were still a whole lotta people in Gent Centrum, generally milling around, drinking beer and carousing. So we joined them. Had a ride in a boat for fun and saw bits of Gent that I hadn't seen before. Then we had a fine meal in a very good Chinese(?) vegetarian restauraaaaaaaaant on the water. And wandered around a bit more.
The highlight of the evening was probably the band playing in the Korenmarkt. Appropriately entitled Kinky Afro, the band members were all attired in shiny silver disco suits with afro wigs, except in the case of the lead singer who had a shiny magenta wig thing. We were most entertained with tracks such as Crying at the Discotheque, Disco Inferno, She's a Maniac, We Are Family, I Will Survive etc. You get the idea, non?
It was very fine indeed!
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
The Minion
Yes, once again I'm watching Dolph Lundgren do his stuff in a fine piece of comedy called The Minion. Dolph plays a templar who looks like a vicar and has to stop the Minion from re-entering the world and causing brian damage. He failed, because I now have brian damage.
Speaking of minions, le Tour is over and we can all rest. The best man won again, but will he be back? It was not a boring race but the race for the GC was pretty much over by the prologue. Lance put 15 seconds into Jan in 6.5 bloody kilometres. For Jan to get that back? Dreamin'. The other two were ok, but Jan was the only one who dared to attack Lance (stage 15).
Speaking of stage 15, I will invoke Jones' Theorem 2 which I made up recently: Whenever Jan Ullrich does anything interesting, my TV doesn't work. Yes that's right, just a few hours before the stage started, my faithless TV blew a valve and the on/off button stopped working. I tried to get it to work by unscrewing the whole thing and fiddling around with some pliers.
I'd unplugged it but of course you can't tell if you're doing the right thing unless it's plugged in, so I did that and fiddled around with the pliers a bit more and lo! There was a mini-explosion, a puff of smoke and I was now dead sure that the TV wasn't working any more. The pliers, which were rubber handled, are now somewhat shorter.
It's always good to be certain. You see, it's like Schrödinger's cat in a box. You don't know if the cat's dead or not until you open the box. But I reckon you can get around that by not feeding the cat for about 8 or 9 months. Then you're sure that the cat is dead without having to open the box and putting up with the smell. I always thought the poison vial/radioactive isotope thing was a bit too Heath Robinson. I mean, there's gotta be easier ways to do that experiment.
Anyway, having put my electrical know how to the best possible use, I decided to get a new telly, so I trundled down to the Fnac about 4pm (as Jan was doing his mighty attack) and bought the cheapest TV set I could find, which was a damn sight better than my existing blown up one. I then realised that I couldn't ride back home with it, so instead of catching the tram right outside the front door of the Fnac to almost right outside my door, I decided to hoof it along the canal back home, carrying the TV and looking like a right crim. Don't ask me why but I think I shortcircuited my logical thought capacitor with the pliers as well.
Oh well, got to see the replay.
I also had a Visitation from Ma over the final few days of the Tour, but that will have to wait until next time. Have fun in Madrid Ma and don't get stampeded by a bull.
Speaking of minions, le Tour is over and we can all rest. The best man won again, but will he be back? It was not a boring race but the race for the GC was pretty much over by the prologue. Lance put 15 seconds into Jan in 6.5 bloody kilometres. For Jan to get that back? Dreamin'. The other two were ok, but Jan was the only one who dared to attack Lance (stage 15).
Speaking of stage 15, I will invoke Jones' Theorem 2 which I made up recently: Whenever Jan Ullrich does anything interesting, my TV doesn't work. Yes that's right, just a few hours before the stage started, my faithless TV blew a valve and the on/off button stopped working. I tried to get it to work by unscrewing the whole thing and fiddling around with some pliers.
I'd unplugged it but of course you can't tell if you're doing the right thing unless it's plugged in, so I did that and fiddled around with the pliers a bit more and lo! There was a mini-explosion, a puff of smoke and I was now dead sure that the TV wasn't working any more. The pliers, which were rubber handled, are now somewhat shorter.
It's always good to be certain. You see, it's like Schrödinger's cat in a box. You don't know if the cat's dead or not until you open the box. But I reckon you can get around that by not feeding the cat for about 8 or 9 months. Then you're sure that the cat is dead without having to open the box and putting up with the smell. I always thought the poison vial/radioactive isotope thing was a bit too Heath Robinson. I mean, there's gotta be easier ways to do that experiment.
Anyway, having put my electrical know how to the best possible use, I decided to get a new telly, so I trundled down to the Fnac about 4pm (as Jan was doing his mighty attack) and bought the cheapest TV set I could find, which was a damn sight better than my existing blown up one. I then realised that I couldn't ride back home with it, so instead of catching the tram right outside the front door of the Fnac to almost right outside my door, I decided to hoof it along the canal back home, carrying the TV and looking like a right crim. Don't ask me why but I think I shortcircuited my logical thought capacitor with the pliers as well.
Oh well, got to see the replay.
I also had a Visitation from Ma over the final few days of the Tour, but that will have to wait until next time. Have fun in Madrid Ma and don't get stampeded by a bull.
Sunday, July 18, 2004
What day is it?
The Tour has congealed into one long day, and for the past two months it feels like it's been going on for longer than that. Even. I like the new Blogger Interface®, it opens up a realm of possibilities. You can upload pics and stuff without going through the convoluted Picasa/Hellobot processje.
Speaking of Le Tour, looks like LA has got it in the bag again after a couple of days of Pyrenean undulations. Or ungulations if you follow our live cowerage. Der Kaiser didn't have it this year at all despite having slimmed down a bit. Oh well, I thought he was too out of condition in April, even though he was good in the Tour de Suisse. Basso and Klöden look like being the runners up du jour. I think Lance'll have to retire before someone else wins el Tour.
I dig Voeckler though.
Speaking of Le Tour, looks like LA has got it in the bag again after a couple of days of Pyrenean undulations. Or ungulations if you follow our live cowerage. Der Kaiser didn't have it this year at all despite having slimmed down a bit. Oh well, I thought he was too out of condition in April, even though he was good in the Tour de Suisse. Basso and Klöden look like being the runners up du jour. I think Lance'll have to retire before someone else wins el Tour.
I dig Voeckler though.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Vandaag jarig
I made it, and as of today I am a number that is divisible by both 3 and 11 years old. Those of you with half a brain will work out that I am 99, although I don't look a day over 124. I place all the blame on Britney Spears. There's only so much a sane person can take. Maybe I should watch more cartoons? The cartoon network is good and I sometimes see Snagglepuss, Top Cat and Tom & Jerry. They have a cat thing going there I see.
I'll keep this brief as my brain cells are limited. I did get out for a ride this morning in the beautiful summer weather, i.e. 13 degrees and raining. I don't understand. I demand all my weather investment money back now.
Along for the ride we had Mario De Clercq, the "retired" Johan Verhagen and one of his mates, who is built like a tank. It was the usual Sunday parcours, which has a few hills in it but is not as hard as Saturday. We did the 58 km in 1:26 which I reckon is not too shabby. The three aforementioned were the ones mainly responsible, and it didn't surprise me that we only had 10 riders left on the Trap Op. My left crank came loose towards the end which was a tad annoying, but it didn't fall off. I must try and find a socket spanner tomorrow.
Thanks all for the birthday wishes! Allez.
I'll keep this brief as my brain cells are limited. I did get out for a ride this morning in the beautiful summer weather, i.e. 13 degrees and raining. I don't understand. I demand all my weather investment money back now.
Along for the ride we had Mario De Clercq, the "retired" Johan Verhagen and one of his mates, who is built like a tank. It was the usual Sunday parcours, which has a few hills in it but is not as hard as Saturday. We did the 58 km in 1:26 which I reckon is not too shabby. The three aforementioned were the ones mainly responsible, and it didn't surprise me that we only had 10 riders left on the Trap Op. My left crank came loose towards the end which was a tad annoying, but it didn't fall off. I must try and find a socket spanner tomorrow.
Thanks all for the birthday wishes! Allez.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
End of le Tour pour moi
Tuesday was the final day of my rather brief excursion to le grand boucle this year, as I finished off in Wasquehal at 7:30pm and proceeded to miss the 9pm train from Lille Flandres to Gent. There was a wormhole in time in the press room while I waited for my esteemed colleague to file le race reportage. I later learned that Wasquehal was one of the stops en route. Quelle blow. But anyway, I wasn't in that much of a hurry to get home.
Today's third stage wasn't that bad, although we did get stopped 5 km from getting to the start by the Belgian equivalent of a gendarme who did not know her job. Green sticker on l'auto means we can get on le bloody parcours. Nous sommes le droite dammit! But although we tried, there's no point in arguing with a cop and we eventually turned back and went along via the totally stupid deviation and arrived at the start with only an hour to go, a tad ruffled. That meant there was no time to hobnob with VIPs in the village depart, which is mainly what we are paid to do of course.
We did get enough done in limited time and I had a good chat with Patrick Lefevere (Quick.Step) about today's stage which contained two Paris-Roubaix style cobbled sections (3.8 km at 65 km to go and 1.1 km with 25). Lefevere didn't think that they would have much effect by themselves, but the complete panic that they instilled in the Spanish teams caused a big crash just before the first secteur pavé with 70 km to go and guess what? Aupa Iban Mayo fell off and lost four bloody minutes(!), despite the best efforts of his team to drag him back. The yellow jersey dude Thor Hushovd also ended up with hold the Mayo, but that wasn't as important for the final overall results. Mayo's going to lose another 2'00 in the team time trial tomorrow so that'll put him at 6'00 behind Lance and co. and it will take some pretty spiffy riding in les Pyrenees and les Alpes to pull that back.
It was a really hard stage and a very interesting one as the US Posties, Phonak and T-Mobile (mainly) drove the rest of the bunch very fast right to the finish in Wasquehal, which Roger Hughes described as "a not very interesting suburb of Roubaix". Quite. A French dude won (JP Nazon), same guy who won the last stage in Paris last year. And Robbie took the yellow, which was good for the Gallant Aussie Lads, who have been suffering of late.
Press room was in Wasquehal tennis centre, which had the advantage of being big but the disadvantage of being stifling hot. Oh well, no more complaints as I'm on me way home now and have to do production for the next 2.5 weeks. Being actually on the race is a bit of hassle, but it's miles better as you actually get to write all the stories rather than just produce them. And also it's good to say g'day to people every day, make new contacts, and drink gallons of coffee and beer.
Le magnificently appointed press room in Wasquehal.
All in all it has been a productive few days, and we have already gotten plenty of kudos so far. Tim's royal faux pas made it onto Belgian radio today. Hehe :-) Even better, Lance's girlfriend Sheryl Crow (of singing fame) gave us a nice plug on USA's OLN Tour coverage this morning: "Lance and I have gotten into a habit of getting up in the morning, making coffee and getting online to read Cyclingnews.com and others like ProCycling and Velonews etc."
Thanks Sheryl! Quelle notoriety. It's all achieved through smoke and mirrors and a seriously overworked set of servers.
Here's my final GC prediction after today. I reserve the right to change it at any moment:
1 Lance
2 Jan
3 Hamilton
4 Heras
Damn, I'm going to lose all my fluency in French now.
Today's third stage wasn't that bad, although we did get stopped 5 km from getting to the start by the Belgian equivalent of a gendarme who did not know her job. Green sticker on l'auto means we can get on le bloody parcours. Nous sommes le droite dammit! But although we tried, there's no point in arguing with a cop and we eventually turned back and went along via the totally stupid deviation and arrived at the start with only an hour to go, a tad ruffled. That meant there was no time to hobnob with VIPs in the village depart, which is mainly what we are paid to do of course.
We did get enough done in limited time and I had a good chat with Patrick Lefevere (Quick.Step) about today's stage which contained two Paris-Roubaix style cobbled sections (3.8 km at 65 km to go and 1.1 km with 25). Lefevere didn't think that they would have much effect by themselves, but the complete panic that they instilled in the Spanish teams caused a big crash just before the first secteur pavé with 70 km to go and guess what? Aupa Iban Mayo fell off and lost four bloody minutes(!), despite the best efforts of his team to drag him back. The yellow jersey dude Thor Hushovd also ended up with hold the Mayo, but that wasn't as important for the final overall results. Mayo's going to lose another 2'00 in the team time trial tomorrow so that'll put him at 6'00 behind Lance and co. and it will take some pretty spiffy riding in les Pyrenees and les Alpes to pull that back.
It was a really hard stage and a very interesting one as the US Posties, Phonak and T-Mobile (mainly) drove the rest of the bunch very fast right to the finish in Wasquehal, which Roger Hughes described as "a not very interesting suburb of Roubaix". Quite. A French dude won (JP Nazon), same guy who won the last stage in Paris last year. And Robbie took the yellow, which was good for the Gallant Aussie Lads, who have been suffering of late.
Press room was in Wasquehal tennis centre, which had the advantage of being big but the disadvantage of being stifling hot. Oh well, no more complaints as I'm on me way home now and have to do production for the next 2.5 weeks. Being actually on the race is a bit of hassle, but it's miles better as you actually get to write all the stories rather than just produce them. And also it's good to say g'day to people every day, make new contacts, and drink gallons of coffee and beer.
Le magnificently appointed press room in Wasquehal.
All in all it has been a productive few days, and we have already gotten plenty of kudos so far. Tim's royal faux pas made it onto Belgian radio today. Hehe :-) Even better, Lance's girlfriend Sheryl Crow (of singing fame) gave us a nice plug on USA's OLN Tour coverage this morning: "Lance and I have gotten into a habit of getting up in the morning, making coffee and getting online to read Cyclingnews.com and others like ProCycling and Velonews etc."
Thanks Sheryl! Quelle notoriety. It's all achieved through smoke and mirrors and a seriously overworked set of servers.
Here's my final GC prediction after today. I reserve the right to change it at any moment:
1 Lance
2 Jan
3 Hamilton
4 Heras
Damn, I'm going to lose all my fluency in French now.
Monday, July 05, 2004
I, Royalty
Today was my second last day on Le Tour 2004 and it wasn't so bad. Monsieur Tim and I are into our rhythm now and are pumping out le TOUR news like it's going out of style. We get by with a little help from our friends.
Today the start was in beautiful downtown Charleroi, which is a downmarket and more industial version of Liege. It looks as though it hasn't been washed for 30 years, kind of like Tim and I on Day 3 of Le Tour. But there was one good bit in the middle where the stage started - a large square in front of the Beaux Arts Musee or Opera, I can't remember which.
Charleroi, being named after King Charles, set the scene for a rather royal day ite and abite in Belgique. Firstly the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt rocked up at le depart and was wandering around alone, no minders or anything, appreciating the atmos. He was being interviewed by Belgian radio and I thought I'd have next crack at him, but to be honest I couldn't think of a decent question to ask so I talked to Matty Wilson instead. He had to tow Brad McGee to the line yesterday after McGee buggered his back gardening two weeks ago. That's nearly as bad as Jalabert slipping off a ladder changing a lightbulb!!
Thankfully it was only a short hop to the finish in Namur, which is a much more pleasant city than Charleroi, being at the junction of the Sambre and the Meuse. The press room was good and there was a great buffet which was taken advantage of by two members of our staff.
There was more fun to come as during the stage, the one and only King of Belgium rolled up and strolled through the press room!! This time there were many minders and securite, but Tim still managed to commit a big royal faux pas and ask the King a question without being spoken to first :-) He was put up to it by a couple of Gazet van Antwerpen journos, but hey, we were the only ones in the press room to get a quote from the King of Belgium today!
One of our other people, John Trevorrow (Iffy) managed to slip the King an Aussie badge or something, and when he met Robbie McEwen (who won the stage) he had made a great Royal Joke about kangaroos and such like. Guy Verhofstadt and Eddy Merckx were also there so it was a pretty good photo op. I was busy doing other stuff but.
The last bit of royalty for the day was when we visited the US Postal hotel for a very modestly sized press conference with Lance himself. Tim went in but I had to sit outside out of respect for the 5 other journos there, as otherwise we'd outnumber them ;-) That was ok, as I didn't have to transcribe it at dinner so I could enjoy my supersized glass of Hoegaarden followed by a less gigantic Leffe blond in relative peace.
I also got to watch Lance's security staff throw out an overly keen fan who decided to wander in through the open window. That was fun. Lance's personal bodyguard is a big guy.
How did it get to be this late again?
Today the start was in beautiful downtown Charleroi, which is a downmarket and more industial version of Liege. It looks as though it hasn't been washed for 30 years, kind of like Tim and I on Day 3 of Le Tour. But there was one good bit in the middle where the stage started - a large square in front of the Beaux Arts Musee or Opera, I can't remember which.
Charleroi, being named after King Charles, set the scene for a rather royal day ite and abite in Belgique. Firstly the Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt rocked up at le depart and was wandering around alone, no minders or anything, appreciating the atmos. He was being interviewed by Belgian radio and I thought I'd have next crack at him, but to be honest I couldn't think of a decent question to ask so I talked to Matty Wilson instead. He had to tow Brad McGee to the line yesterday after McGee buggered his back gardening two weeks ago. That's nearly as bad as Jalabert slipping off a ladder changing a lightbulb!!
Thankfully it was only a short hop to the finish in Namur, which is a much more pleasant city than Charleroi, being at the junction of the Sambre and the Meuse. The press room was good and there was a great buffet which was taken advantage of by two members of our staff.
There was more fun to come as during the stage, the one and only King of Belgium rolled up and strolled through the press room!! This time there were many minders and securite, but Tim still managed to commit a big royal faux pas and ask the King a question without being spoken to first :-) He was put up to it by a couple of Gazet van Antwerpen journos, but hey, we were the only ones in the press room to get a quote from the King of Belgium today!
One of our other people, John Trevorrow (Iffy) managed to slip the King an Aussie badge or something, and when he met Robbie McEwen (who won the stage) he had made a great Royal Joke about kangaroos and such like. Guy Verhofstadt and Eddy Merckx were also there so it was a pretty good photo op. I was busy doing other stuff but.
The last bit of royalty for the day was when we visited the US Postal hotel for a very modestly sized press conference with Lance himself. Tim went in but I had to sit outside out of respect for the 5 other journos there, as otherwise we'd outnumber them ;-) That was ok, as I didn't have to transcribe it at dinner so I could enjoy my supersized glass of Hoegaarden followed by a less gigantic Leffe blond in relative peace.
I also got to watch Lance's security staff throw out an overly keen fan who decided to wander in through the open window. That was fun. Lance's personal bodyguard is a big guy.
How did it get to be this late again?
Tour blog 3
Bloody hotel phones don't ever work. You'd think it would be easy to get online in a Novotel, but for a still unexplained reason I couldn't. Grumble. At least we left the high class establishment in Liege. I don't think I'll be staying there again, although the cold shower in the morning was really such a welcome variation.
Today was the first road stage from Liege to Charleroi, a real dingy industrial town in south-central Belgium. In typical Belgian style it rained off and on for most of the day but dried up at the finish. The start was OK as I got a brief interview with Eddy Merckx, who is looking rather svelte these days but a bit worn. He was on the France 2/3 show for about 3/4 hour before I managed to get hold of him, as you can sort of see from the pic below. Unfortunately someone must have jogged Mitch Clinton's arm when he was taking the shot, 'cos he got the wrong bloke! Anyway, one for the record.
Eddy Merckx (R) clearly from a bad angle.
Photo © Mitch Clinton
What happened in the stage? Don't ask me as I was writing some news and freezing my fingers off in the press tent, which was scenically placed in a fruit marché somewhere near the finish line. It rained and there were crashes and the French got really excited when Nicolas Jalabert went down in the last 20 km. Oohlala.
I felt sorry for Brad who had a bad back and lost 6 minutes. He was in such good condition too, but his Tour may come to a grinding halt. And Nick Gates lost half an hour after a crash halfway. The race jury decided he was too slow and eliminated him later. So the gallant Aussie lads are down to eight, with Brad teetering. Maybe Robbie or Stuey or Cookie or Alby or Scotty or Dodger or Matty will win one.
Finding the hotel was significantly harder, as they did not know how to give directions. "We're coming from Namur, which exit do we take?" "Exit 9 sir to Wavre".
We took exit 9 sir and ended up tooling around in a parque scientifique which did not look like the Novotel. Rang 'em back. "Which exit do we take? We just took exit 9 and we can't find you." "Oh no, you should have taken exit 6 which is Wavre 9." Or something like that.
Nous had le dinner buffet style next to two thirds of the SBS crew (Mike Tomalaris and Honi Rowley) and chatted for a bit. Well, I mostly exclude myself from this apart from "yes", "no" and "that's terrible" placed at strategic intervals while Honi told us of her near leg amputation after a skiing accident in Aspen earlier this year. Ouch.
Then the phones didn't work again. Only a coupla days and then I'm back home :-)
Today was the first road stage from Liege to Charleroi, a real dingy industrial town in south-central Belgium. In typical Belgian style it rained off and on for most of the day but dried up at the finish. The start was OK as I got a brief interview with Eddy Merckx, who is looking rather svelte these days but a bit worn. He was on the France 2/3 show for about 3/4 hour before I managed to get hold of him, as you can sort of see from the pic below. Unfortunately someone must have jogged Mitch Clinton's arm when he was taking the shot, 'cos he got the wrong bloke! Anyway, one for the record.
Eddy Merckx (R) clearly from a bad angle.
Photo © Mitch Clinton
What happened in the stage? Don't ask me as I was writing some news and freezing my fingers off in the press tent, which was scenically placed in a fruit marché somewhere near the finish line. It rained and there were crashes and the French got really excited when Nicolas Jalabert went down in the last 20 km. Oohlala.
I felt sorry for Brad who had a bad back and lost 6 minutes. He was in such good condition too, but his Tour may come to a grinding halt. And Nick Gates lost half an hour after a crash halfway. The race jury decided he was too slow and eliminated him later. So the gallant Aussie lads are down to eight, with Brad teetering. Maybe Robbie or Stuey or Cookie or Alby or Scotty or Dodger or Matty will win one.
Finding the hotel was significantly harder, as they did not know how to give directions. "We're coming from Namur, which exit do we take?" "Exit 9 sir to Wavre".
We took exit 9 sir and ended up tooling around in a parque scientifique which did not look like the Novotel. Rang 'em back. "Which exit do we take? We just took exit 9 and we can't find you." "Oh no, you should have taken exit 6 which is Wavre 9." Or something like that.
Nous had le dinner buffet style next to two thirds of the SBS crew (Mike Tomalaris and Honi Rowley) and chatted for a bit. Well, I mostly exclude myself from this apart from "yes", "no" and "that's terrible" placed at strategic intervals while Honi told us of her near leg amputation after a skiing accident in Aspen earlier this year. Ouch.
Then the phones didn't work again. Only a coupla days and then I'm back home :-)
Sunday, July 04, 2004
Tour blog 2
Allez le grand depart. Yes, today the Tour de Tour finally kicked off from downtown Liège with a 6.1 km time trial against the prologue. Er, clock. Wind. And stuff.
Anyway, after a truly sumptuous breakfast in our chic Hotel Metropole (right opposite Liège Guillemins station - you can't miss it although you might want to), we headed off to le press room to mingle with les autre journalistes. See I'm quite getting the hang of this French lingo. I reckon I'll have it down fluent like in the next few days.
The first test of my new found French skills was le conference du press on le measures anti-dopage given by five of le big Tour bosses. I conclude that my French needs a little more work, but you can read about le test on Cyclingnews if you so desire. It's cool that the Aussie blood test finally got accepted after four years. This could be interesting.
Matt White crashed before the start! The boy is seemingly not destined to ride Le Tour.
I moseyed on down to the actual race about 4pm to have a bit of a look and do some stuff, and I met Kim from Helmond (literally) and caught up with all the goss after a year and a half. Thanks for the bikkies! Then I just soaked up l'ambience and took a few happy snaps for le reportage live. I'd only worked out how to do that less than an hour previous, so I was quite impressed when it actually worked.
The next six hours passed rather quickly. Dunno why. Did some work and stuff and met a few new people. Lotta Anglos on Tour this year which is rather good.
So FABIAN (nice kid) won the prologue! Nice going dude. He was the only guy we got a quote from yesterday so I feel vindicated. Allez Brad wasn't quite up to it but he reckoned it's because he's thinned down a bit. Good thing too, as he's such a lard arse. And Lance showed them all by finishing second - he's got his racing legs on again and he's going to be bloody hard to beat this year. But it's won in the third week. We shall see.
Finished off with a very late dinner in the same restauraaaaaaaaant as we went to last night. This time we had the photogs with us, Jon Devich and Casey B. Gibson and the Sunshine Band. That was quite fun actually. It's very good, not so expensive and they (meaning le management) are nice and friendly. Even offered us a drinkypoo on the house but it was apres midnight and nous sommes pooped. Then it was back to our low joint opposite le gare. Oohlala. Quelle bon etablissement.
Anyway, after a truly sumptuous breakfast in our chic Hotel Metropole (right opposite Liège Guillemins station - you can't miss it although you might want to), we headed off to le press room to mingle with les autre journalistes. See I'm quite getting the hang of this French lingo. I reckon I'll have it down fluent like in the next few days.
The first test of my new found French skills was le conference du press on le measures anti-dopage given by five of le big Tour bosses. I conclude that my French needs a little more work, but you can read about le test on Cyclingnews if you so desire. It's cool that the Aussie blood test finally got accepted after four years. This could be interesting.
Matt White crashed before the start! The boy is seemingly not destined to ride Le Tour.
I moseyed on down to the actual race about 4pm to have a bit of a look and do some stuff, and I met Kim from Helmond (literally) and caught up with all the goss after a year and a half. Thanks for the bikkies! Then I just soaked up l'ambience and took a few happy snaps for le reportage live. I'd only worked out how to do that less than an hour previous, so I was quite impressed when it actually worked.
The next six hours passed rather quickly. Dunno why. Did some work and stuff and met a few new people. Lotta Anglos on Tour this year which is rather good.
So FABIAN (nice kid) won the prologue! Nice going dude. He was the only guy we got a quote from yesterday so I feel vindicated. Allez Brad wasn't quite up to it but he reckoned it's because he's thinned down a bit. Good thing too, as he's such a lard arse. And Lance showed them all by finishing second - he's got his racing legs on again and he's going to be bloody hard to beat this year. But it's won in the third week. We shall see.
Finished off with a very late dinner in the same restauraaaaaaaaant as we went to last night. This time we had the photogs with us, Jon Devich and Casey B. Gibson and the Sunshine Band. That was quite fun actually. It's very good, not so expensive and they (meaning le management) are nice and friendly. Even offered us a drinkypoo on the house but it was apres midnight and nous sommes pooped. Then it was back to our low joint opposite le gare. Oohlala. Quelle bon etablissement.
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Tour blog 1
Well, I'm officially at Le Tour in Liege - in body at least. I got up at some heinous hour on Friday morning to catch the train and didn't miss it, but the accumulation of non-sleeping hours this week really took its toll. I hooked up with Monsieur Maloney and spent the rest of the day in the press room trying to locate my brain, missing press conferences and generally starving. Un jour sans, as they say.
The lovely smoke-free press room. *cough*
We finally got out of there around 9pm and had a nice meal containing frites and stuff at a local restauraaaaaaaant. Then back to our lovely hotel. We are staying at the "Hotel Metropole" opposite Liege-Guillemins station. It can best be described as a horrendously priced low joint. It reminds me of the inaccurately named "Hotel Adjacent Casino" where I stayed for the 2001 Tour Down Under (before Cyclingnews was persona grata). My room was conveniently located next to the lift shaft, ensuring my beauty sleep was kept to a healthy minimum.
The Hotel Metropole in Liege. Classy.
Today is the prologue. Allez McGee!
The lovely smoke-free press room. *cough*
We finally got out of there around 9pm and had a nice meal containing frites and stuff at a local restauraaaaaaaant. Then back to our lovely hotel. We are staying at the "Hotel Metropole" opposite Liege-Guillemins station. It can best be described as a horrendously priced low joint. It reminds me of the inaccurately named "Hotel Adjacent Casino" where I stayed for the 2001 Tour Down Under (before Cyclingnews was persona grata). My room was conveniently located next to the lift shaft, ensuring my beauty sleep was kept to a healthy minimum.
The Hotel Metropole in Liege. Classy.
Today is the prologue. Allez McGee!
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