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?    

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

Cheers Jason

Croydoncycleworks mtb

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 2^nd or 3^rd, 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 11^th 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

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