Like last year, it took a fair while to regain my cycling mojo this summer. In fact, it really didn't kick in until December, when I decided I better get into shape before the Tour Down Under in January. I also decided I'd try and reach the 4000km mark for the year. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it. I got to 3810km by Christmas and thought I'd do a couple of big rides in the last week of the year but I came down with a nasty bout of gastro (along with most of my family) after Christmas, which put paid to those intentions. Still, I'm reasonably happy with that - I only did 2000km in 2012, so it's definately progress.
I was a bit concerned because, after a couple of early rides last October, I was way slower than my best times, but it didn't seem to take too long get my leg strength back. Despite setting up the trainer again for the winter, I still couldn't to bring myself to use it. I'd just rather get out and ride when the weather warms up and eventually it all starts working again.
Most of my rides this season have covered the usual climbs - Crafers/MtLofty, Willy Hill, Corkscrew Road etc. I did 570km in January which was okay, but I'd planned on doing more. However, it's been the forth hottest January ever recorded in Adelaide with numerous days over 40°C and quite windy, so it hasn't been great riding weather. Thankfully, the temperatures eased off a bit for the TDU week. It was a great field this year with Evans, Porte and Gerrans being the stars of the show. There were some great stages with the highlights (like last year) being Corkscrew Road and Willunga Hill. I managed to get along to both:
Gerrans and Porte at the Corscrew KOM with very silly hats in forground. |
Jensy telling his legs to shut up on Willy Hill. |
Crap photo of the reservoir and the road across the dam (my new phone has a dreadful camera). |
Back on the bike for the final section, I smiled for the camera (see below - well, to be honest, I was smiling at the scantily clad devil woman...) on the last climb of the day near the golf course then rolled down into Victor at around 12.30. My average speed for the day was 24.9km/h which is about what I thought I'd do. After soaking up the adulation of the crowd on the finish line I rolled around to Barrie and Ruth's place where a shower, a beautiful lunch and compression leggings awaited. The ride had only about 900m of climbing so, compared to some of the shorter but hillier rides I've done, my legs still felt okay at the end. I nonetheless pulled on the compression leggings for a few hours. I've been using them for the last three months (just for recovery) and my legs certainly feel better the next day. Overall, it was a nice ride - a more interesting and scenic route than last year, the services and support were good and the weather was relatively mild. All up, a great day.
Me on the final climb into Victor |
After a bit more tweaking I've finally got my bike the way I want it. I've replaced the fork with the Trigon fork I bought a few years ago. Apparently Trigon are a Taiwanese carbon fibre company that does a lot of OEM frames and parts for major brands and also put out a small range under their own name. I picked this fork up on Ebay for $50 from a guy who bought it but never used it. It's extremely light (380g) which is a bit over half the weight of the standard Oppy fork. I had it on the old Scott roadie and it made a huge difference to the ride. Anyway, I wasn't 100% happy with the feel of the front end on the Oppy so I've swapped it and it feels much better.
Other upgrades include some black 105 brake calipers (again $50 new off Ebay) and some Ritchey WCS Logic II handlebars ($20, Gumtree) which are that more compact 'anatomical' bend. I like the feel of them and I seem to be able ride on the drops a bit more successfully. My back won't permit me to spend too much time in the drops but it's nice to be able to do it when I want to push hard. I also picked up some hardly used Giant PR2 wheels taken from a recent model TCR for $40. They're DT Swiss OEM wheels with rather nice sealed bearing hubs and are a bit of an upgrade from the old Shimano R500's.
Lastly, after trying a number of different saddles over the last few years, I've decided that my aging Selle Italia C2 Gel Flow is still the one that suits my bum best on long rides. Fortunately, Wiggle had them on special recently for $60 with free delivery, so I snapped one up. I've only had a couple of relatively short rides on it so far and doesn't feel quite a comfortable as the old one, but I suspect it'll just take a bit of breaking in.
Anyway, as you can see from the above purchases, my bargain basement cycling experience continues. The bike has only cost around $650 all up and it's quite safisfying to have sourced all the components and put together every nut, bolt and bearing on the thing. A man's gotta have a hobby.....