The Thursday Roll

A great turnout for the Roll with 20 riders enjoying the pleasant temperatures at the waterfront.  A couple of familiar faces returned after running out of excuses.  The bunch was well paced, and tidy, for the first lap and a half.  The hills heading out of Canoe Point broke the group up with the LPGJ’s (Ladies, Pensioners, Gents, Juniors) falling off the back.  From there it just got messier.  Riders looking for a less social ride might consider doing a lap to one of the estates on Old Tannum Road in lieu of a lap or two of the regular circuit.

At the boat ramp turn for the final lap The Eggman (formerly known as Ned Kelly), Bloody Wayne and Chris bolted like dogs shot is the ass with a BB gun.  Yoda, with Junior Mac wheelsucking him at >35km/hr, were trying to bridge the gap.  May be a star in the making there, especially if Junior Mac can learn a few tricks from the Grand Master.

A word of warning to those with good eye sight and a suspect ticker - there was an unfortunate sighting of a half naked "triathlete" in the surf club car park.  If you happen to see Adonis again, please be very careful passing the turtles – your eyesight and judgement may be impaired.  I have my suspicions as to who it was as there was a Superman / Clark Kent, never been seen together, moment when we were joined by a late starter.

Saturday and Sunday rides are both from the Coffee Club at 7am.  The bridge at NRG will be closed from Friday night until Monday morning, so the highway will be very busy – take care and be patient if using it.

The Weekend Wrap

It was a busy weekend on two wheels with several events on throughout the CQ region.  The Saturday dam ride was quiet affair with 5 riders braving the early chill.  Once the sun took the edge off the cool air it was a beautiful day for riding.  Birdy might have a few items on his list for Santa after test riding a couple of other bikes.  The G fell back early on the return trip, citing a case of the man flu.  It seemed to be going around as Mark pulled up early on the Rocky Cycling Clubs KOM up Mt Archer.  I know how it feels, unfortunately I didn’t have the flu as an excuse.  Gladstone was well represented at the top of the podium.

Sunday saw the final race of the XC Series for Dane and Siena Linforth.  The birthday girl scared off all of her rivals, taking out 3^rd spot in the series – well done.  Dane finished on the podium in the race, just one good race result short of 3^rd place in the series - I don't think the new "look" would have helped, but I won't judge you.  Again the Northerner’s represented the Gladstone region well in the final standings.

The Port Curtis BUG Community Ride on Sunday was well attended by Grinders.  About 15 Grinders made the journey into Gladstone for a fantastic ride and sausage sizzle.  Congratulations to the organisers for putting on a very enjoyable morning.  There was a good mix of riders of all ages and abilities.  Hopefully for the next one it won’t be such a busy weekend with other events and a lot more riders can come along. 

The 40km group

 

 The 10km group

At the sausage sizzle

Community Ride and Sausage Sizzle

This Sunday sees the first Community Ride and Sausage Sizzle organised by the PC BUG. The ride will cater for all groups so if you have nothing on get along for a ride and sausage sizzle afterwards.

Also pen into your 'have to do' list (if you haven't already) the Community meeting on Tuesday the 27th to receive an update on committee happenings, plans to assist safe cycling in the Gladstone region and an open forum to issues and future plans. We need a big turn out for this meeting so please make the time. CQU Gladstone Campus at 6pm to 7pm.

Boyne Valley

Over the weekend a few of us headed out to Futter Creek camping area to clock up a few k's in prep for the Gran Fondo in a few weeks time. Kaye, Craig and Schaulk left from Tannum and stopped in at Camp Futter for a brew before heading off to the Many Peaks Pub with the addition of Graeme who joined in. Sam, Mac, Callum and Jody had left about 15 minutes before them but were rounded up about 30k's later after they had stopped for a drink.
Along the way we did see the lone wolf Mysterio out and about preparing for the Gran Fondo ;-) Of course he gave nothing away.
The support vehicles had a great time sight seeing and did it tough in the air conditioning! I must say that first beer out the front of the pub while waiting for the riders to appear was pretty good :-) I could be a full time support person I'm thinking!
They soon appeared and not long after them the boy's with Jody, actually that should be the Boy's then Jody lol. How good are the young fellas riding and how good is it to see some younger riders joining the group.
We had lunch and a good laugh before Craig, Kaye and myself headed off into the wind. We didn't realise Graeme had left a little after us until about an hour later when we were told at Nagoorin! He turned up in a support vehicle not long afterwards; with great age comes great wisdom. The headwind back was pretty horrible so being fresh compared to Craig and Kaye I pushed the wind to try and give them some relief. The 31 degrees temperature didn't help either. In the end they did 154 klms for the day I think. That was Kaye's biggest ride ever!considering the heat and pace that was a great effort and she can sleep well knowing the Gran Fondo will be a walk in the park compared to that. Craig deserves a medal too for pushing on from Nagoorin as he was feeling the heat, big ticker Colosimo.
Once back at camp it was relax mode. Of course the food quickly appeared along with some cold refreshing drinks to finish off a great days riding! A special thanks to our support people, can't do these rides and have this much fun without you guys.

Thursday Roll

Thursday's roll was the arguably the tidiest the group has ever looked. Craig and I stayed on the front the whole ride (not by choice but after the first lap it was suggested we should) and managed the pace to give the people who would normally lose contact with the bunch on the small inclines a chance.
The truck in the middle of the ride did a great job of busting the bunch up though!
With the days starting to stretch out once again it will only be a few weeks until the start time goes back to the 5pm start so stay tuned.
A drink on the deck of the surf club overlooking the ocean is a great way to finish of a late afternoon ride in my books.

Logans Run

Last weekend Dane Linforth headed south to the Logans Run 70km MTB Marathon and managed to ride into an impressive 5th placing form almost 100 starters in the very competitive 40-49 years category. Dane admitted that all the extra riding he's been doing on the roadie may be actually starting to pay dividends.
Anybody that knows Dane may see a change in his appearance in the not too distant future I'm guessing ;-)

2013 Gran Fondo - 4 Weeks to go

With only 4 weeks until the Gran Fondo I would like any interested people to please contact me if you haven't already so I can start to organise the stops. If you have someone coming along as a support vehicle can you please let me know also. If you're concerned about getting back from Rocky we might be able to find a lift for you on the Sunday.

The plan is to leave Calliope IGA at 4am (yes that's early) so we get to Biloela for a good breakfast by 8 with a couple of stops along the way. On the range the stronger riders will wait at the top of the longer climbs so everyone can do their own pace when climbing. 

People that have to vote can do so in Biloela as we pass the school on the way in. The support people will order our food and coffee that will be worked out out in the coming weeks (if you have specific food or drinks we do have a few fridges in the support vehicles) just as we near Biloela so we can hopefully sit down and enjoy without having to wait forever. 

From there it's off to Jambin for a quick check on everyone before proceeding to Dululu for lunch. The support vehicles will meet us along the way on this section for some cool drinks dependent on weather conditions. Once again the support team will order the food for lunch at Dululu so we have it waiting ready for us; by the way the food is great at the pub!   

From there we head to Mt Morgan for a quick cool drink before heading down the range via Razorback Road to Gracemere where the ride will finish this year due to the roadworks entering Rocky. We should be there around 4pm.

If you're not sure about the ride I can tell you while yes it's a long way, it's not a hard pace so you don't so much smash yourself, more you will get tired. So long as you keep up the food and drinks up the others will keep you going ;-) As I've mentioned previously if you can do a hundy now at a good pace and not be flogged you should be right.

Berg

mark.ruthenberg63@gmail.com

Cold Hands

Well it's no surprise to anyone that it gets very cold out Calliope way, well almost.....Tannum coffee club at 5:45am and the G turns up and proceeds to sledge Mike and I for having some cold protection on our boots and for wearing winter gloves. The G had no gloves on at all! It wasn't long before there was a strange noise coming from behind where the G had positioned himself. It sort of sounded like a cat being strangled and got worse the colder it got. It was a little light by the time we were near Wurdong so I turned and saw the G with a red face with matching hands, low and behold I found the source of the strange noise, it was hard not to laugh so I just laughed ;-) If you don't know the G he's a bit of a slow learner :-)
We said goodbye to Mike near the crossroads as he had some prior commitments he had to get back for. By the time cross roads appeared the G had dropped back a little, I don't think he could move his fingers from the bars to change gears, I almost felt sorry for him lol.
At Calliope Daryl, The Fox, Robin, Wentzel, Schalk, Scotty, the G and yours truly had a quick ride brief after I was given a heads up on some potholes the day before from a semi reliable source.....which turned out to be accurate. After the quick chat and a laugh at the G's hands we headed off into the cold; it was 3.5 degrees down on the flats.....The pace was solid at around 30 and went smoothly until Schalk and Wentzel took it easy and did their own thing. Robin hadn't been in a group since her get off but she was sitting right in the middle of the group more often then not and looked very solid.
First railway crossing and you wouldn't hear about it, but the G's rear water bottles ejected and fell in the middle of the road....I don't think the G has ever gone over that crossing and not lost at least 1 bottle.....At the second crossing the G headed for home while the rest of us just settled in and made our way to Nagoorin. We had a good spell at Nagoorin and enjoyed the sun before heading back to Calliope at a firm pace. Robin held on the whole way and didn't look in too much distress at the coffee shop. I feel for any women going up against her at the 70.3 next weekend ;-)
The group rode well together to make sure everyone got back to the coffee shop at the same time for a well earned caffeine injection.

A weekend at Toowoomba

Graeme and I headed south to Toowoomba for the weekend and had a bit of a look around at what the place had to offer. Of course the place that was number 1 on the hit list was the famous Crit track he always raves about. I had high expectations for sure but they were surpassed once I saw it in real life. The first thing that hits you is the size of the complex, it's massive! The second is how well it has been constructed, no dodgy contractors or shortcuts here. The surface is ridiculously smooth, I know we have smooth hotmix up here but this stuff is crazy smooth, almost like concrete (you know it's a south east Queensland thing). The width is amazing, it's as wide as the Highway! Another thing worthy of mention is that in almost 2 years since it's opening there is no graffiti or damage to the place! I've attached a few shots of the place for you to drool over. Oh yeah this track is open to the public 24/7.

Click on the picture and read the rules, it's purely for cycling. When we got there on Friday we saw some crazy confused guy running around the outside of the track while his bike was on the rack, clearly the elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor with him lol! There's a concrete walkway around most of it too so people can access most of the track........

This is the shower and toilet block

This picture is taken from the back corner halfway around.

With the track almost a 1800 meter loop around it's a decent distance to clock a a few tough kilometers, I say tough because it's not exactly flat and has some sneaky inclines that will keep most honest. The best thing about this is you can switch off your brain and just focus on riding while on the track.

The picture below is from a yard about 150 meters from the track at about 7:30am, yes that's frost! Be prepared if you go during the cooler months!

The best thing about Toowoomba apart from the Crit track is the selection of brew shops and quality of coffee!

yes it was good!