Farewell Guy

Well just one week after we lost Michelle to the big smoke of Brisbane, Guy had his last ride with us on Thursday night. Guy improved a lot since his first few rides here in sunny Tannum and it was none more so evident then at Noosa this year where he did his first hundy; you couldn't stop him smiling. Guy is the sort of character that we will remember just like Earle Chin, another bloke that talked funny and also came from a place you can only ride outside for 5 months of the year. Thanks for the memories Guy and we look forward to seeing the new strip on top of some famous mountains in the not to distant future :)

Mt Archer KOM

The Mt Archer King of the Mountain was held on Saturday and is something that has to be experienced. 5km at an average of 10% is tough in anyone’s books I assure you; I can also assure you that there is zero relief from that 10% from the start to the very top. In any case our own Dylan Nankivell took home the crown of 2012 KOM. Dylan took a mere 18:40 to get to the top. To put that into perspective, the only guys to have bettered that time have been or are currently pro’s.

Other riders from our local area were Vaughn 'MG' Flowers who rode very well to crack the 30 minute barrier, Gary and Brendan Hill and yours truely. There were plenty of Gladstone riders present as well and in the end our numbers made up for almost half the field. My hot tip for Mt Archer is have very low gearing to fall back onto.

KOM 2012

Mountain Goat

Tannum Kit

Well it might appear that I’ve been a bit slack in recent weeks as far as the Blog goes and clearly I have been; but I’ve been busy on other stuff in the background.


The Tannum Kit we’ve been working on is in the final days of ordering now so if you are keen let me know one way or another. Why are we doing this? I guess it came about after Noosa where groups that have their own kit really stand out so we just thought why not have our own Tannum strip. Now when we go away for a big ride or race in local events people will know where we are from.

They keep coming...

What a weekend to be out and about on a bike, sunshine, cool tempreatures and no wind made it what I consider ideal riding weather. I know i've gone on about the numbers on the rise out here before on many occasions but new riders just keep appearing. Thursday seems to have a solid base now of around 14 riders now and is slowly starting to look like an organised group the more we discuss the basics of how to ride in a bunch.
On the Sunday ride today we saw about a dozen riders turn up for the usual loop and the pace was firm from the start, and then off, and then on, and then off.......If you are going to have a turn on the front try to keep the pace constant as much as possible, when you don't the group gets very nervous behind and there was a lot of near misses this morning from the ever changing pace. If you are new and you find yourself on the front a lot of people try to be brave and do there time pushing the wind only to pop and promptly drop off the back of the pack. Rest assured everyone else in the group has been there and will not think twice (most of them) if you just roll to the back straight away or if you don't even have a turn up front. Anyway back to the ride again.....what was very pleasing was the amount of other riders on the road we passed during the ride, what a great feeling to see so many riders out enjoying the day. Slowly but surely the brew shop filled after the ride as the pace took it's toll and people turned up; how good is a brew after a ride on a cold morning.
As some would know there has been some work going on in the background around a kit for our group and this is the latest design kicking around. This is still in draft so it's still a bit rough but you get the idea - yes there will be a girl (pink) version ;)

The Big Time

Dylan has just experienced life in the fast lane like never before; well maybe he has ridden as quick but not for so long. Dylan rode the Tour of Toowoomba on the weekend after scoring a ride for a different team to what he generally rides for in the Queensland road series. This event is on par with anything else on the Australian Calendar and has all the gun teams from across the country racing vying for the overall win.
Day 1 saw Dylan finish comfortably in the bunch and not expending too much energy knowing what lay ahead. Day 2 had a finish that had a big climb to finish off the stage, unfortunately he was caught up behind a crash and lost some time but rode very well to be the first of his team home.
Day 3 at around 50k's and riding in windy conditions fatigue catch up with him and he fell off the pace finishing about 30 minutes of the winners time. Day 4 and the Crit was the last stage of the event and he rode well to finish off the Tour.
When you read this consider that he has never trained to ride more than 2 days at State level so to finish the Tour was a great achievement. Well done Dylan. Watch this space!

Long weekend update

Thursday saw 18 riders hit the road for the Thursday roll. The new riders just keep coming which just goes to show how popular cycling is becoming in our area of the world. I must say I would not have picked our numbers increasing considering the cooler weather but happy to be wrong....

Sunday sees a 7am start for the usual ride from the Surf Club and Monday we'll be doing a roll out the Dam from the coffee club at 7am returning for a brew.

Thursday Roll

The Thursday roll is slowly but surely getting more and more interest from the local riders of the Boyne Tannum area. While the ride pace has slowed to 26-27 it may still be a little bit of a stretch for some newer riders. I will now take anyone that is interested up and down the Esplanade - Boat ramp area at a slower pace to cater for the riders that can't keep up with the bigger group just yet. I'm pretty sure the regular riders would agree that it's a good feeling when new riders join the group no matter what level of experience they have.