Another Epic Sunday

Today started earlier than usual, normally I'm up at 4.45am on Sunday to head out at 5.30am to meet the Sunday Bunchy.

On this Sunday though I was up at 4.00am so I could watch the last hour of the Tour de France.

Feeling full of motivation after watching Cancellara crush everyone and despite the severe storm warning issued by the MET service I headed out in my trusty rain cape to meet Biggse and Matt Hinton for the 32km to the top of Albany hill and my normal Sunday date with the 7.00am Bunch.

To my suprize bith Biggse and Matt were at Pt Chev corner, they must have watched the TDF aswell and were raring to go.

Off up the bike path we headed into the gale force head wind and driving rain with not a complaint..'Game On'!

As started the climb of Albany hill and hour or so later I noticed Biggse had dropped back...ah...saving his legs...at least thats what I thought.

We arrived on time and waited untill Biggse and the bunch showed....ummmmmm only 9-10 people.

Thats when Biggse cracked... 'Bugger you guys...this sucks! I'm going home'... not taking much convincing I agreed so long as we could stop at Eurobake cafe on the way, and as I coach Matt I instantly changed his program so he could join us (which was just aswell...read on), I text Pammie aswell as I knew she was heading out at 7am and suggested she meet us at the cafe.

So we head back the way we have just ridden and just before Eurobake we hear 'So bacon and Eggs for Brekky'... big (or not so big nowadays) Stu Imrie (Stunami) had turned around aswell...now we were 4.. so 4 soggy cyclists trudged into Eurobake and had a cooked Brekky.

Pammie joined us 1 hour later and we headed off...back towards Kumeu Stu turned off and we carried on (feeling a bit guilty by now)...so into the hills we went....Pssssssssssssssssssssssst

Pammie flatted...no probs, I'll change it for her... tyre off,check for glass, new tube in, CO2 attached psssssssssssssssssssssssssst ...F#@&K her doofer for firing the CO2 malfuctions...no probs I'll get mine out of my seat bag... Tube,levers, spare $5 ...CO2...shit! no CO2 Doofer!

'Matt..can you inflate this?'.

So Matt inflats the tyre and off we go....2km later Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssst...Biggse flats!

'Matt...here just cahnge his tyre it's raining and we are all pissed off...and apart from that your the new guy and the only bike mechanic here'...

And so I've just thawed out in the bath whilst eating Chicken potatoe chips.(where else would you eat them?)

Now I've gotta do my TDF race report for http://www.cyclingnz.com/ make sure you check it out!

Gordy

All aboard the pain Train

It hurts to ride a 51min 40km TT on NZ's (not so) super fast roads! Here's proof.

Things that smell in the night

So last night Pamela and I had our normal post race pasta meal and Pamela being the awesome cook she is mixed in some tinned fish (smoked fish actually).
Tinned fish is preserved in water and so for a wee treat for our Toy Poodle (buttons) and Brussels Griffon (Teddy)... "very manly names I know".. had some of the fishy water poured on their doggy dinners.
All was well in Chez McCauley for the next hour or so..we were all on the sofa watching telly (no...not the bloody rugby)..untill Pammie accused me of farting!
Now if I fart, I fart load and proud and try to clear the room..I'm proud of the farts I can produce (especially with a large intake of protein to stimulate production)..but this was not me!
I in turn accused Pammie of being a smelly cow and stop trying to put the blame on me..she swore black and blue it wasn't her either.
So after another couple of fart incidents we decided to send Teddy out of the room..and low and behold the stench stopped...so The smallest living creature in our house has the abilty to clear a room..hmmmmm no more Fish Juice for Teddy me thinks!
In other breaking news I managed to win the CMC club 40km TT champs with a 51.24..I'm pretty stoked with that as its a 2 lap course with Hair pin turns at each end.
In 5 weeks we have centre TT champs on the same course...so with some good TT training and a nice day I reckon a sub 51 is on the cards.
Pic is of the offending dog!
Posted by The People's Champion at 17:49

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A few Random Shots

So...a few photo's from the weekend for your veiw pleasure...each has a story.

The guys changing the Tyre is Ric Reid, former NZ Olympic cyclist and one of my biggest fans....(see previous post for explanation).

The other little tacker is my Nephew Oliver, who at 22 months calls me 'Gadoo'...which is a huge improvement on 'Dorgon'...thats what my other Nephew Thomas was calling me at a similar age.

The other is the biggest trophee collection I've ever seen..it's Tony McCall's he's a 4x4 racer (or something like that)..he's the husband of one of my customers from work..

Hard day 4 me...Crap Day 4 Ric

So.. I had organised to meet the infamous Ric Reid at Point Chev cnr at 10.30am so we could ride out to the Mauku Mtn classic.
Its about a 60km ride to Mauku with the start not till 2pm but I made our leaving time early because A: Ric is always running late B: It was a dirty gale force head wind all the way C: there are alot of traffic lights to slow us down D: We could take it easy, maybe grab a coffee along the way and not be too tired to race.

S0... I arrive on time and the phone rings " Gordon...yeah Ric here... I've broken a spoke and gone home to get another wheel..just leaving home now, ride towards me and I'll meet you on the bike path"
Ric lives completly the opposite way from the way we were going, but I dawdled along and meet him 8km later on the bike path...
"No Sweat".. I left early for this very reason (Ric is usually very disorganised).
I turned around with Ric and off we went.... 3km further down the bike path and Pssssssssssssssst, Ric Punctures...Brilliant!
Still no worries he has spares?.... Ok he had spares and a 2inch long Carbon fibre bike pump, now I'm starting to get Ratty...I use my only CO2 and inflate the tyre for him..
Cool..off we go..
200mtrs later Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssst he punctures again " For F%$#k sake!, we start to change the tyre and along comes Ric's flat-mate John Harris..John agrees to go home and get the car so I can carry on riding to the race, now I'm 45 minutes behind schedule.

Off I go riding pretty hard to make up time , Dutiefully stopping at the red lights, and even got motorpaced for 10km behind one of those big cranes that can only go 50kmph.
My moral is further dented with Aaron Strong pulls up beside me in the car because he elected to save his legs and drive out instead of riding as he normally does.

So I make the race ok, and I have a little time to spare as Pammie picked up my race number, stupidly I think I better go and ride the climb (as if 3 times in the race wouldn't be enough)..
Hmmmm perhaps I shouldve put a 25 on?

Ric arrives having driven out aswell and the race starts as usual... being very warmed up I split the feild in the 1st section of cross winds... this is where Ric has another incident.
Ric is on a whell hard in the left gutter when somebody he's following veers off the road into a ditch...naturally Ric follows him into the ditch and punctures again!

So...the race goes on, I go solo feeling great guns and have 40secs 2nd time up the hill on 4 chasers, no probs "its in the bag"...except I'm getting slower and slower and slower (and that was on the flat easy bits)..Yip...blew to bits!

Sam Lindsay and Strongman come up and I'm in the hurt box big time, but I soldier on and try a couple of cheeky attacks untill I really crack... Strongman comes sailing by with 5km to go and I can't do anything...
Sam catchs up and teases me a bit...(I got really ratty and owe you an apologie Sam) I then proceed to have to zig-zag up the climb..."Yip a 25cog would have been good about now"..

So all in all it was an eventfull and frustrating day... At least Pammie kicked some arse and won E grade...the clever cow had asked me to fit a 27 to her bike so she could float up the hills...

"I Hate That"

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm not accustomed to really cold temperatures in Auckland..

So when I headed out this morning with Pammie to hit the Torture Loop, I wasnt that impressed.

Normally Pammie does the 1st 30-40km then heads for home whilst I soldier on and finish the rest of the loop...not today though.

It was warm enough climbing the Waitakes, but bugger me it was freezing on the way down!

By the time we got to Swanson I was over it!... Hands and feet were numb so it was time to stop and warm up at Redwoods Cafe... The official temperature on the dail at Redwoods was 0degress, meaning it would have been -2 or so on the descent.

Pammie was frozen so warmed here hands up in the oven!...

The other photo is of one of the bridges on the bike path...ice is unusual in Auckland...

I now relinguish my Title of being hard southern man...

2 4 2

I had two races and two wins over the weekend...sweet,
Now whilst I would normally expect to win or be bloody close to it in the Waterfront TT it was my time I'm stoked with.. 19.26 for 16km, thats the fastest I've gone for 2 years...so it appears that the little bit of extra time I'm spending on the TT rig is paying off.
We had our 1/2 distance champs today, and although I didn't have the best legs in the world I managed a solo win there aswell...Both days were wet and windy and quite frankly pretty crappy.
In other breaking news,Biggse and I are planning a monster training weekend riding to and from Corromandel one weekend in July..it's about 200km each way and last time I did this with Scotty Wilder a great weekend was had by all...
Beer was drunk...war stories were told...and our wifes were generally bored and consumed vast amounts of wine.
Next weekend is the dreaded Mauku Mountain Classic...with a vicious little climb to be ridden 3 times, I'm gonna stick with a 23 cog on the back...but I'm sorely tempted to go for a 25...it's honestly that steep (I'm also a rubbish climber)..
Ok...training wheels are in, lights are on charge and my cycling kits out for tomorrows 6am recvery spin...Laters

Motivation

I've not been all that motivated to train the last few weeks... but that all changed yesterday morning..
My new batch of Subway-Avanti Champion Systems race gear arrived...
A speedsuit, NZ champ jerseys,shorts and vest...aswell a a NZ champ Thermal Jacket... Pammie got a whole pile of kit aswell, so we've been training our arses off.
In fact I've done rides before and after work for the last 2 days...

In other news, I'm now proud part owner of Branko Coffee ( http://www.brankoscoffee.com/ ), It's coffee by cyclists for cyclists, and you'll be seeing more and more of it in the near future... ( B4 you ask I still have my day job).

This weekend is the Auckland 1/2 distance champs on a course out West of Auckland that I train on 2-3 times a week, so I'll be looking to get a win there if I can.

So... thats my pathetic update... hopefully I'll have more to write about by the end of the weekend... Remember 'if your not 1st...your last'

Eventfull Day

It started with a 3 hour 45min ride out to the race with Strongman and Stew Imrie... Strongman and I then rode away for 45km in the race and had the sprint to ourselves (fortunatly for me Strongman is a much better climber than sprinter so I won)..
I then watch Pammie just lose her race (but she still goot 2nd) in the sprint and her freind Sharon get 3rd... Onto the presentation... we got our prizes and I proceeded to pull my own number out of the hat to win the cooked Ham raffle.. (Ham cooked by Athol...cheers Athol)
Thats where I am right now...about to eat a cooked Ham!

Whats on the board Miss Ford?

So whats on the board at the moment?
Well I'm over my head cold/chest infection and after 7 days in a row of 40km coffee rides I'm back!
Work has ramped up a bit aswell so it's all go...
This weekend we have a 50km club race at Aka Aka and its a 90km ish ride out there so with the ride out and race it should be a good day on the bike (I travel home with Pammie in the car).
Sunday will be between 150 and 180km then back to normal training for the week.
The next week is the Auckland 1/2 distance champs held on roads I train on 3-4 times a week, I've never raced around that circuit but I know how broken I can be training around it, so it should be a pretty hard race.
Last but not least, I may have upset one or 2 people in the 'things I hate' post... it's very simple really, if you don't like how (or what) I write, then don't read my blog... most people will tell you I'm a freindly guy and I'm always happy to chat with people etc etc and I think I am... I just object to towing people around out training... maybe if the people were polite enough to at least acknowledge me (like some polite people do and in doing so get towed all day) before they jump on my wheel it wouldn't be so bad... but most don't.
So if it's you thats one of those people that jumps on for a free ride, then don't be suprised if you get blown off my wheel at 50kmph plus...