Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Is it a bird? is it a plane?
Got a lift home today and we drive over the Boyne Tannum bridge and what's on the side of the road - the Port Curtis street sweeper! A rare sight in these parts to say the least. Maybe it was out cleaning up the shattered glass the recycling truck drops every 3rd bin all over town. I wonder if it got the broken tail light plastic and the bottle of urine that have been on the side of the road on the bridge for the last 3 months, guess I'll find out when I ride to work tomorrow. Bravo GRC.
Well Done Dane
Congratulations to Dane Linforth on 1st place, in a field of 21, in the Open Men section at the Mountain Biking Bundaberg 3hr Club Race. It seems that Dane's time, 15 minutes better than the 2nd place getter, would have given him 3rd place in the Expert Men class. Nice jersey too!!
Results: http://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=14432
Photos: Mark Burns
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
A Sign for a Change
Big excitement recently with Gladstone Regional Council installing 5 "Share the Road" signs in Gladstone. I was excited, well at least until I spent a week in FNQ. Whilst I know we have to start somewhere, and appreciate the effort of a couple of the Councilors, the GRC effort could be vastly improved (understatement I know, but we need to remain polite). Perhaps the GRC civil works department could learn from doing some work experience in Cairns?
Going from left to right, top to bottom, in the picture below:
1. Strips on the road to assist motorists to stay out of the bicycle lane. These are installed on curves in the road that veer to the left - not corners at intersections, just bends to the left and on some roundabouts that are not protected with concrete barriers.
2. At roundabouts the bicycle lane is segregated by concrete barriers. Yes they have bike lanes on roundabouts!!!
3. Not exactly sure what this means, perhaps that a bicycle path crosses the road ahead, but hey it's in the motorists face.
4. At a very small township called Mystic Sands there are a couple of the CAUTION signs - not too small either. Not sure if you've seen a golf buggy, but it is pretty darn hard to miss - especially in comparison to a cyclist.
In a particular 100m section of road in Cairns, approaching an intersection, I counted 4 cycling related signs, for both the motorist and the cyclist. Leaving Cairns to the south, just to rub it in a little more, there is a "1 Metre Matters" billboard - not a sign on pole, a bloody huge billboard.
Below are few more of the different signs. The "WATCH FOR" signs are located on dual-lane roundabouts, at each entry point, and on the left and right side of the entry road. So a single 3-entry roundabout has 6 of them - how many cycling related signs do we have in the entire Boyne/Tannum area?? Yep, even horses and cassowaries get a guernsey.
Mission Beach, with a cycling population of about 5, has a share the road sign and more Cassowary signs than the Mayors' had free lunches. Now to be fair, I have noticed at least two cycling related signs in the Tannum area. At each end of the John Oxley bridge there is a sign that says "Cyclists must dismount" to traverse the bridge. This may be good for pedestrians, but not very useful to educate motorists about the presence of cyclists.
Let's hope we start seeing some improvements very soon. Don't get me started on Noosa!! Stay vertical, stay safe.
Going from left to right, top to bottom, in the picture below:
1. Strips on the road to assist motorists to stay out of the bicycle lane. These are installed on curves in the road that veer to the left - not corners at intersections, just bends to the left and on some roundabouts that are not protected with concrete barriers.
2. At roundabouts the bicycle lane is segregated by concrete barriers. Yes they have bike lanes on roundabouts!!!
3. Not exactly sure what this means, perhaps that a bicycle path crosses the road ahead, but hey it's in the motorists face.
4. At a very small township called Mystic Sands there are a couple of the CAUTION signs - not too small either. Not sure if you've seen a golf buggy, but it is pretty darn hard to miss - especially in comparison to a cyclist.
In a particular 100m section of road in Cairns, approaching an intersection, I counted 4 cycling related signs, for both the motorist and the cyclist. Leaving Cairns to the south, just to rub it in a little more, there is a "1 Metre Matters" billboard - not a sign on pole, a bloody huge billboard.
Below are few more of the different signs. The "WATCH FOR" signs are located on dual-lane roundabouts, at each entry point, and on the left and right side of the entry road. So a single 3-entry roundabout has 6 of them - how many cycling related signs do we have in the entire Boyne/Tannum area?? Yep, even horses and cassowaries get a guernsey.
Mission Beach, with a cycling population of about 5, has a share the road sign and more Cassowary signs than the Mayors' had free lunches. Now to be fair, I have noticed at least two cycling related signs in the Tannum area. At each end of the John Oxley bridge there is a sign that says "Cyclists must dismount" to traverse the bridge. This may be good for pedestrians, but not very useful to educate motorists about the presence of cyclists.
Let's hope we start seeing some improvements very soon. Don't get me started on Noosa!! Stay vertical, stay safe.
Monday, October 7, 2013
The Southern Connection
Brad and Dylan out keeping the southerners honest! Love your work men. Dylan's been busy riding with some Drapac cycling pro's to keep his eye in and Brad's been showing up some local A graders on the track. Talk about living the life!
Just a little update
Over the long weekend we saw the Agnes Tri come and go with great conditions greeting those that braved the first race of the season. I won't go into great detail on results but there were some very good showings from local athletes with a lot just happy to finish with a good time. The water conditions were worthy of a special mention with the water crystal clear and flat as. Well done to all that had a go, it looked like everyone was having a great time :-) well as they passed us cheering them on anyway lol.
Over the weekend some Grinders invaded Agnes and and took to the road early Saturday morning for an easy ride to 'The Tree' at 1770 for coffee and breakfast. Mind you it wasn't easy all the time.... every time someone spotted another rider in the distance the pace picked up considerably......What a spot 1770 is, time just stands still there and you can almost forget you have to go back to work even if it's only for a little while.
Last Thursday saw 10 riders brave the stormy conditions and almost make the end of the ride before the rain came down. I imagine they may have made it back if they hadn't of waited a little longer for some other riders to appear......:-)
This weekend we'll be having our first ride from Calliope leaving at 6am from the IGA car park. This is early for some but you better get used to it because they'll get earlier to escape the heat :-) Distances will be 25, 40 and 60 to kick off with so most should be catered for. If there's enough interest for a longer distance on the day that will be sorted out on the morning.
I'm sure a few of you remember the Boyne Tuesday afternoon runs from the Lions park. Well for anyone interested there might just be a midweek run from the Esplanade in Tannum starting up midweek very shortly. Distances will be 2k's through to 8k's just like the old Tuesday run's. No timing will be provided as most people have fandangled watches these days. Stay tuned for further details.
It's now official order number 4 for Grinder apparel is open. So the pink and 'man salmon' jersey's will be on offer, short sleeved white and pink jersey's will be up as well.
This order we expand into Tri kit's as well! Shock horror lol. At this stage we'll have Tri suits on offer in men's and women's cuts. We only need a minimum of 5 suits in each style to proceed and the cost will be around the $120 I'm thinking unless the total order goes beyond 50 items (it gets cheaper then).
I would like this order to go in on the 18th so please have a good think about what you want and get back to me asap. I'll add the Tri suit pics in the next 24 hours.
Over the weekend some Grinders invaded Agnes and and took to the road early Saturday morning for an easy ride to 'The Tree' at 1770 for coffee and breakfast. Mind you it wasn't easy all the time.... every time someone spotted another rider in the distance the pace picked up considerably......What a spot 1770 is, time just stands still there and you can almost forget you have to go back to work even if it's only for a little while.
Last Thursday saw 10 riders brave the stormy conditions and almost make the end of the ride before the rain came down. I imagine they may have made it back if they hadn't of waited a little longer for some other riders to appear......:-)
This weekend we'll be having our first ride from Calliope leaving at 6am from the IGA car park. This is early for some but you better get used to it because they'll get earlier to escape the heat :-) Distances will be 25, 40 and 60 to kick off with so most should be catered for. If there's enough interest for a longer distance on the day that will be sorted out on the morning.
I'm sure a few of you remember the Boyne Tuesday afternoon runs from the Lions park. Well for anyone interested there might just be a midweek run from the Esplanade in Tannum starting up midweek very shortly. Distances will be 2k's through to 8k's just like the old Tuesday run's. No timing will be provided as most people have fandangled watches these days. Stay tuned for further details.
It's now official order number 4 for Grinder apparel is open. So the pink and 'man salmon' jersey's will be on offer, short sleeved white and pink jersey's will be up as well.
This order we expand into Tri kit's as well! Shock horror lol. At this stage we'll have Tri suits on offer in men's and women's cuts. We only need a minimum of 5 suits in each style to proceed and the cost will be around the $120 I'm thinking unless the total order goes beyond 50 items (it gets cheaper then).
I would like this order to go in on the 18th so please have a good think about what you want and get back to me asap. I'll add the Tri suit pics in the next 24 hours.
London World Champs
As mentioned in the last post Scotty has not long returned from London where he races in the World Sprint distant Champs. Here are some happy snaps.
Yes that's Big Ben in the background, anyone top that in Grinder kit?
Yes that's Big Ben in the background, anyone top that in Grinder kit?
OMG is that sunshine!
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