Croydon Cycleworks “Tour des Alpes 2011″ also known as ” The quest for the golden hammer”.

August 13th, 2011

Another Tour de France is over, and what a tour. Cadels win is being descibed in the mainstream media as the greatest sporting achievment by an Australian, ever!    

We were there to see it. Our annual tour this year took 16 Aussies to the french Alps, cyclings hotspot whernit comes to the TDF. Huge numbers of cyclists head to the Alps during the summer to ride the famous climbs like Col du Galibier, Col du d’izoard, and Alpe d’huez, amongst others. We ticked off the big climbs, saw Cadel battle the Scleck brothers on Alpe d’huez, and searched the countryside for the cheapest beer in france. Heres the real story of the Croydon Cycleworks Tour des Alpes (minus the facts).    

From left, Rambo, Wingnut, the Pirate, Mr T, Mrs Tourettes, Candyman, Hulk, Doc, Robocop, Ink, Crash, Hoges, Virgil, Scarface, Aadstick, and Iceman.

Day 1. Picked up tourists from Grenoble station. Like most train stations in france, it’s a good place to meet friends and lose a wallet.  First public toilet we get to is out of action. All arrived in one piece and all bikes accounted for. Beer price at station 1.80 euros (about $2.30 AUD). Headed to accomto unpack and head out for a late ride to loosen up. 1st crash of the tour as Mike  thinks he spotted a Polly Waffle in a roadside ditch and dives headfirst for it without bothering to dismount or even slow down.    

The coveted Golden Hammer trophy

Day 2.  Over a hearty breakfast we discuss planned itinery and rules for getting by in France, for example the french insist on speaking their own language, so in order to be understood while speaking english, it helps to simply speak louder.  Details of the prestigious “golden Hammer” award are announced. This is a daily prize awarded to outstanding performance or behaviour be a tour participant. The person who holds the Golden Hammer on the final day keeps it.  Todays ride in perfect conditions over the Col du Ornon was so lovely, it spoils everyone for the rest of the tour into thinking everyday will be that easy. Not a chance! Robocop (Frank) stormed away to easily take the Golden Hammer overnight. Home cooked meal in the evening, just for fun some of the boys slip some meat into Leighs vegetarian dish. Beer price hits incredible low. Aldi selling slabs of 24 stubbies for 4.50 euros. This works out to abour 20 cents AUD!    

  

Day 3. Due to the unfeasably low price of beers i cant remember what happened today. Might have rained. Something about Frank and his big chainring.  Hulk wanting late night pizzas…all a blur really. I know some of the guys have videoed, blogged, garmined and photographed the entire 10 days so might have to get some help here. Golden hammer award goes to Doc (Kathleen) for buying me a block of chocolate.    

  

Day 4.  We split the group up to search for the Aldi that has the cheap beer but we can’t find it! Incredibly it seems to have disapeared leaving us questioning if it had all been a dream. We are forced to pay the extortionist price of 6 euros for a slab of 24, nearly 33cents AUD per bottle. Rather unseasonably wet day today. A few hardy souls venture out on the bike and return quickly. Hans (the Pirate) takes the Golden Hammer after riding to the summit of the Col du Glandon and back in freezing conditions.    

  

Day 5. Warm weather returns.  Alpe d’huezbeckons. Dare frank to ride it in the big chainring. Driving up was hard enough, my clutch leg was cramping the last few kms. Being support crew is tough! Darren Smith earns the Golden Hammer by preparing a meal fit for a king.    

  

 Day 6.  Our rest day. Naturally everyone goes riding. Golden Hammer goes to Mrs Tourettes (Alison) for doing my washing.    

  

Day 7.  Start day with Chocolat au pain at breakfast, with extra pain to come on todays ride to the summit of Galibier. We pack the bikes into the van and car over to St Michel de Maurienne, a somewhat scary drive over mountain passes on narrow roads. A cold day ensures we rug up but we soon warm up on the slopes of the Col du Telegraphe. Thats enough for some of the group but most push on determinedly towards Galibier. Police have closed the last 10km to cars but we cycle on up into the clouds. The climb is an absolute brute with long stretches of 10%.  Frank puts 20 minutes into us, I think he wants to get home early so he can watch that Italian TV game show with the topless hostess. Rain holds off but as we reach the 2km to go marker the temperature drops rapidly, as I reach the summit there are squalls of cold white stuff blowing everywhere. Snow! Lucky its cold enough to stay powder not turn wet and slushy. Leigh slaves over a hot stove and produces a magnificent vegetarian lentil meal tonight. No need for the new russian natural gas pipeline, there  was an excess of natural gas in the house tonight.    

  

Day 8. What a day, we ride the back road to Ape d’huez, and secure a good roadside position 4 km from the finish to watch the TDF as the riders battle it. The crowd is very entertaining today particularly the drunken belgiums, the drunken dutch and of course the very drunk Aussies. In actual fact the crowd is really well behaved and very entertaining  Concerns that the Schlecks will be able to distance Cadel are unfounded, Cadel is extremely strong today and they can do little. Beer on the mountain is a little expensive at 2 euros. Toilets? What toilets..    

  

Day 9.  Can you feel it? Coming in the air tonight? We could, the yellow jersey is so close for Cadel. Some of our group head into Grenoble to watch while others head to a local bar to get the excellent local coverage. Cadel edges into the virtual lead and every Aussie goes wild. No beer tonight but Champagne all round.    

  

Day 10. All very happy in the knowledge that Cadel has done more that enough to safely carry the yellow jersey to Paris and into the history books. We head to Briancon to tackle the famous Col d’Izoard, where the TDF had traversed only days earlier, and check out the TDF museum at the top ( which naturally is closed when we arrive). Briancon is famous for Napoleon and his army stopping here en-route to Italy in 1796 to steal all the stinky cheese and bring it back to France. The town centre map showed 5 public toilet within a close distance, but being sunday they were all closed except for one, which appeared to have just been vacated by an elephant with diarrhea.  A fine but cool day ensured good conditions for the final chance to grab the Golden Hammer, and with tough guy Frank out of the picture today, it could be anyones. Overnight leader Wingnut (Peter Bridgewater) is put on the backfoot by the Iceman who has been keeping his powder dry till now. Wingnut claws back the powerful attack by using up some local riders on a training run to chase me down, and is also seen furiously pushing a small black button located under his handlebars.  Confounded by such poor sportsmanship and low tactics i succumb and lose the fight to the summit by mere meters. The Golden hammer for 2011 goes to Wingnut, I hope he chokes on it.  The I’zoard is another brute of a climb. On heading back down I stop to inform big guy Ink (Darren Smith) that he still has 4km  to climb. I keep a safe distance as he loses it on hearing this news.    

  

At dinner tonight we reflect on how fortunate we are to experience cycling in the Alps, and how tough these big climbs are. It really makes you apreciate how tough it is for the guys who are racing over these climbs, often two or three of them in one day. We celebrate the Golden Hammer award tonight by lashing out on some expensive beer (50 cents AUD per bottle). Now the old saying goes that what happens on tour stays on tour, so i’m not going to ask what Wingnut did with all those batteries, or why his bike had a secret button wired up to his handlebars. Nor will I ask about Mals (Mr-T) extensive t-shirt wardrobe,  Franks obsession with the “big ring” or what semi-legal TV stations the Aadstick was trying to tune into late that night, what Leigh was doing on his computer all that time, or even what Wingnut and Hulk were doing with those two brazillian transvestites. Leave it alone, move on. Better yet come back next year and do it again, bigger, harder, longer!!    

  

Day 11. An early start to drop everyone back at Grenoble. What a terrific group of people. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as i did.  Big thanks to all of the group, everyone contributed to making our trip so enjoyable.  Particularly Adrian, Mal and Kathleen who is a demon driver. 

  

Regards, the Iceman    

  

PS. Feel free to drop some comments on this story or even email me with some factual accounts that i can add.  Leighman might even send us a link to his get-a-dog blog?    

  

 

       

       

       

 

Croydon/Pick-a-part team dominate local racing

August 13th, 2011

You know you’re going well when your competitors groan and whinge when they see the Croydon Cycleworks/Pick-a-part boys roll up at the race. Is it the pure power and pain to be unleashed by team captain Tom Leaper, the pursuiting speed of Brent Nelson or Liam Dove, or the finishing sprint of Tyler Spurell? It must be hard to answer this winning combination and I’m sure many Carnegie and Blackburn riders are questioning themselves when confronted with the mighty black, red and yellow of the Croydon boys.

Just a brief report on how the boys are going and some results you may not have caught up with. I am now coaching Tyler as I may have told you and he seems enthusiastic. Time will tell.  On 17th  Brent won the Sunday Roast points,  scratch and elimination races beating VIS rider Jack Cummings. On 31st  Sunday Roast, Tyler got 2nd in the scratch, won the elimination and equal first in the points. On 30th Brent won at Modella ending Toms winning streak with Tom coming second. Daniel got 4th in B grade after being ahead in the sprint but fading on the line. Ross rode really strongly in C grade doing a lot of chasing. On 6th at Casey fields Tyler won A grade after getting away on the last lap following some teaming between the Croydon guys. Brent won the bunch spring for 2nd and Daniel got 2nd in B grade. Tom Leaper continues to terrorise the Veterans and has won all 4 teams events this season by a clear margin, ably assisted by Roy Clark, Michael Hay and David Depedro. I will keep you informed in coming events. Hopefully the boys will race well and fly the flag. regards, Russell Nelson.

CCW MTB ‘meeting’

July 8th, 2011

When Mick tells you he’s in a ‘meeting’ this is probably what he’s up to!

Cheers Jason

Croydoncycleworks mtb

Click HERE to watch

CROYDON TEAM IN WINNING FORM AT PHILLIP ISLAND GP

May 25th, 2011
Tom Leaper following Lance Armstrongs wheel in the 2002 US pro championship.

                           
Tom Leaper (Croydon Cycleworks/Pick-a-Part), a former two time Giro d’Italia rider fittingly claimed line honours on the day of the 2011 Giro start. His Croydon Cycleworks team mates included Brent Nelson, Liam Dove, Stephen Cousins, Tyler Spurrell, Michael Hay, Roy Clark, Daniel Nelson and Ross Honicke. Team Captain Matt Davis had to sit this one out as wife Anna went into labour the morning of the race! Baby Samuel was born at midday, congratulations!

 Race report by Tom Leaper

Last weekend at Phillip Island the Croydon Cycles Team took on 45 other teams in a 25 lap race around the GP circuit. With 245 riders this was the largest bunch I ever raced in, even considering my time racing in Europe and America. The Carnegie Club put on a terrific event which is obviously growing in popularity each year. Personally I’ve had good success at this race with a 2nd place 2 years ago. This time around, I slipped into a break of 10 riders at the half way mark and we kept the main field at about 30 seconds until the end. With some very good riders in the break, I knew I wasn’t the quickest and had to try my luck with a late attack. Jumping away on the final climb I managed to hold off the chasers on the down hill finish to take the win. With a 1 second advantage at the finish and a few seconds bonus from sprints/ hill climbs on the course the Croydon boys were able to pull off 2nd overall in the Team Class as well. As a new rider to the team this year, it’s great to be part of team with so much talent, we’re no doubt looking forward to a terrific season ahead.

 
Tom Leaper

April 27th, 2011

I travelled up to Avoca on Saturday afternoon to register and have a quick spin around the start and finish of the course, wasn’t feeling great on Saturday and just hoped I would come good by the morning. I awoke on Sunday morning to beautiful blue skies and sunshine and most importantly headache free.

I arrived at the course at 7.15am and had a chat to a few of the riders then decided I needed to go to the ladies before the start, I lined up at 7.45 and next thing I knew it was nearly 8am and I was still waiting to go when the announcer was calling for all riders to head to the start line, luckily I made it on time and before I knew it we were off and racing. My tactic early on was to get a good a lead on the girls I knew were in my race on the flat section of road before we hit the hill, that really really big hill I was dreading. I stayed in front of one of the girls in my race and then got passed by a female, as it was a mass start of all categories I had no idea if she was in my race or a longer distance, in any case there was no hope of me catching her on the hill so I had to let her go and just carry on at my pace.

After what seemed like an eternity I made it to the top of the hill, or so I thought, had a quick downhill section followed by more climbing! My legs we already feeling it and I hadn’t even made it to the half way mark yet, I struggled through the walking trail section of the course, as it turns out all of us had to walk it, apparently a bunch or horse riders had come through the day before and made a mess of the course, I was with 2 other riders at this stage and one was determined to keep trying to ride it but was going slower than us walking so we just kept walking until we got to the next section of fire trail and headed in to the feed station, now this race has the best feed station of any race I have competed in, it is all laid it out for you, doughnuts, slices, lollies, coke, water, hydration products and best of all, Oranges, ever since I did this race last year and had the oranges there I have made it part of my race nutrition, just seems to give you a really good boost, I downed a few oranges and had a little chat to the crew manning the station and suddenly remembered I was in fact in a race and I should probably get a move on, at this stage I had no idea where I was coming, only that I was still in front of my arch nemesis Megan, I saw a few riders heading up the hill and took off in front of them, after the feed station it is mainly downhill with some seriously steep climbs thrown in, my legs were just really flat at this stage and I didn’t think I would be able to maintain a good pace to keep my lead. I did what I could and managed to get through the seriously fast and sketchy downhill section unscathed and finally came across a sign telling me I only had 5k to go, I was so excited to see the sign until I saw the next sign, 4k to go, I seriously thought I had just pedalled 4klms and would only have 1 to go, not to be, the next 3klms went very slowly, or so it seemed and then finally the finish line was in sight, as a cruel twist they send you down between the grape vines along the grass and then up a slight incline before you cross the finish line, all the pain stops when you cross the line and all of that hard work is finally worth it, I was told I had come either 2nd or 3rd, I was pretty happy with that as I was hoping for a podium, I hung around for presentations and was pleasantly surprised to get top spot on the podium, I ended up winning my category by 47 minutes and just missed out on top 10 overall with 11th overall, very happy to beat a whole bunch of guys and very happy with what is finally my first legitimate podium, nobody pulled out in order for me to win and I wasn’t the only female so I am happy to say I have finally actually won a race!

So where to from here? Well unfortunately my study is keeping me really busy so I have no big races planned but will be out and about at some of the enduro’s and club races and hopefully getting a good amount of training in for my goal race in November at the State XC Champs, next summer I hope to be competitive in the B Grade womens St Kilda crits and hopefully get in to some track racing at some stage this year.

If you haven’t raced this event before I suggest you give it a crack, it is regarded as one of the toughest marathons in Aus and for good reason, whether you do the short, middle or long distance you are in for a tough day in the saddle, it is run really well and the organisation cant be faulted, well all bar the toilet queue.

Once again I would like to thank my coach, I know he hasn’t been too happy with my training of late, uni seems to be getting in the way at the moment but I am doing as much as I can

Thanks to Croydon Cycleworks for their support, I will be dropping my bike off for some much needed love some time soon

Until next time, happy trails!

Kat

Otway Odyssey

February 21st, 2011

After quite a  long time off the bike I have finally competed in a Mountain Bike Race again, possibly could have picked a shorter race for my comeback race but I love this one and wasn’t going to miss it for anything. I headed to Apollo Bay on Thursday and was greeted with lovely weather, nice blue skies and no wind to speak of, this all changed on Friday, it was blowing a gale and the rain set in at about 7.30pm, I woke up at about 1am to the sound of very heavy rain, I knew it was going to be a tough day in the saddle for me as it was, now that all this rain was thrown in the mix it would make things a bit more interesting. With very little riding over the last 18 months and only having been on my training program for 9 weeks now it was highly unlikely I would be doing it easy out there at any stage.

I had done everything I possibly could to prepare for the race, it was just a matter of getting out there and having a crack now. So that’s exactly what I did, I had spoken to my coach about the race and we were just going in with the attitude of treating it as a test to see where I am at and if I go ok then that’s a bonus. I had no pressure on me to do anything other than just finish the race, well that’s enough pressure in itself for this race, I arrived at Forrest for the 50k race at 6am and was feeling very relaxed about it all, started to get a bit nervous about the second 25k of the race but the big climb at the start wasn’t worrying me at all, and for those who know me, they know how much I hate hills so this was unusual. We set off at 7.15am straight up a 10k dirt road climb, to my surprise mt legs were actually feeling pretty good, I started passing a bunch of riders and before I knew it I was at the top and making my way back down the mountain again. I passed more riders on the descent and felt I had put myself in a good position to be able to make it to the half way mark in about one and half hours, this changed when all of a sudden the sweet singletrack descent turned in to a traffic jam, reminiscent of what you would see on the Monash at 8am, all of a sudden we were at a complete stop and within a few minutes everyone I had worked hard to pass earlier was stopped right behind me. After making it through the Red Carpet descent we made our way to the Footy Ground, this was almost the half way mark and I was still feeling pretty fresh, I knew I would still have to pace myself as the second half of the course, although much less climbing, is still pretty tough.

I made it to the 30k mark in what seemed like no time at all,  I knew there was a bit of climbing ahead of me and some tight singletrack coming up so I continued to pace myself and make sure I was feeling good for the last 10k, it was slow going for a while there as most of us were struggling with a couple of the steeper climbs, made for some interesting conversations though and helped pass the time, before I knew it I had only 10k to go, the last 10k was fairly tight singletrack and last year was quite sandy and very loose under the wheels, this year due the rain it was much easier to ride through and with exception of a few very muddy sections it was actually very enjoyable this year. I pulled out to a marshal point and was very happy to hear I only had 3k to go, my legs went in to overdrive and it was a sprint for the finish now as it was mostly downhill all the way, I was so excited to be pulling in to the finish and just as the finish was in sight I suffered a serious case of chainsuck, it was well and truly stuck and I had resigned myself to the fact I would be walking across the finish line, as I jumped on my bike to coast down a descent my chain happened to pop out, so with everything back to normal I was able to ride across the finish line with a very big grin on my face and very pleased with my performance, now 4.5 hours to finish a 50klm race is nothing to write home about but I was happy just have been able to finish it, its the first year I have been able to watch the winner of the 100klm race cross the line and the first year I have felt in half decent shape at the end of it, I guess I didn’t go hard enough!

This is by far my favourite race on the calendar, my aim for next year is to be competitive in the 50k race and then have a crack at the 100k the year after for ultimate bragging rights.

Happy trails!

Kat

Croydon boys take the prize and avoid speeding fine

November 15th, 2010
 
The Croydon boys demolished all opposition at the Inaugaral Eastlink Team Time Trial on sunday 14th november. The Hanover ride for home also attracted thousands of participants to a seperate recreational ride with many people raising money to help find housing for those many people who have slipped through the cracks in our society. 

For us it was the the  ”Team challenge” time trial over the full 78km course (Ringwood-Frankston and return then via the Mullem tunnel) where teams of up to ten riders competed to set the fastest time.
With a chance of winning the inaugaral challenge and setting a course record, the Croydon Cycleworks/Pick-a-part team flew down the eerily car free eastlink  with Team Captain Matt Davis winding the pace up to 55kmh and passing all other teams and hiting the front well before the Frankston turnaround. We managed to avoid a speeding ticket as we rocketed under the infamous Wellington road bridge speed camera! On return to Ringwood the team had to go through the Mullem tunnel where again hitting 82kmh a ticket was narrowly avoided. Their finish time of 1hr 45min was 20 minutes qucker than organizers expected. The team also raised $1800 for the cause. I have to say this was a lot of fun to do, not something you’d normally say about a TTT, but blasting down the centre lane on the superb road surface of eastlink without a car in sight was worth the effort.
    “Put it in the big ring” , “It is allready” 

  

 

Now let's play "Whose arse is that?"

“Is that a camera? Everyone outta my way!”

 

 

Transport minister Martin Bakula clearly in awe meeting the Croydon boys

 

A.I.S Junior MTB Development Camp

October 18th, 2010

The past 4 days I have been up at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, where they held the first ever Junior Mountain Bike development camp taken by Chris Clarke. Over the duration of the camp 49 other Downhill, 4x and Cross country riders set out and tested our-selfs on many different disciplines of riding whilst being coached through skills with the top Australian Mountain bike coaches and Riders. We rode at Mt Stromlo for most of our training which was good because Chris Clarke always pushed us towards harder and harder challenges. The toughest being a race down the Downhill Race track (which was recently competed on for world championship in 2009) on hard tail cross country bikes with the seat right up! this was not an easy tast with many riders going down.

Over the Whole weekend we learnt allot about Warming Up and Down, Nutrition and how we should be training too get better in our discipline. We also learnt and bettered our on bike skills and line choices all helpful for getting faster.

Overall it was a fantastic camp and i thoroughly enjoyed it and world recommend for up and coming juniors too go next year. thanks to Chris Clarke, Randal Huntington and everyone else who helped out on the weekend.

thanks,
Andrew Meagher

Croydon Cycleworks on the start line of the Worlds

October 16th, 2010

National Road Series Liam Dove

September 25th, 2010

The past couple of weeks i have raced in two of the biggest tours that Australia puts on, the first race was the tour of The Murray River, a 8 day, 14 stage tour. In the first 10km of stage 1 there was a crash that took down 70 of the 132 starters i went down but was ok, the next stage i went down again and wasnt so lucky, i took some skin off and needed a bike change. I ended up finishing the tour about middle of the field (76th out of 132).
The Tour of Tasmania was 6 days and 10 stages of hard racing. The first two days of the tour we had rain, hail, snow and more rain, it was the worst weather i have ever raced in. The next few days turned out to be awsome, hard racing and great weather. I finished the tour 58th out of 123 starters.