That summer

I obviously haven't posted for a long time (seven months to be precise). It's not that I haven't been riding (I've done 2200km in that time), I just haven't got around to writing about it.

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.

The highlight of the TDU week was, of course, the Bupa Challenge community ride on the Friday stage to Victor Harbour. After deliberating on the distance I decided I stick to the Meadows start with brother-in-law Troy. It was a distance of 117km with the KOM at Myponga reservoir happening at around two-thirds distance. Troy didn't think his legs would be up for the climb so he took the escape route which was probably a good call because he started to cramp up on the last climb of the day into Victor. It was a brilliant effort though - I think he said his longest previous ride was 40 - 50km so it was a big step up. It was my longest ride too, at 121km (including the trip back to Barrie and Ruth's place at Encounter Bay). The route was quite interesting this year, particularly compared to last year which dragged on a bit. The section from Meadows through to the Myponga turn off with Troy was good fun and seemed to go quickly, with some nice chats to people along the way (as you do on these rides). I enjoyed the KOM (really steep but short) and the road around the Myponga Reservoir was magnificent.

Crap photo of the reservoir and the road across the dam (my new phone has a dreadful camera).

The toughest climb of the day for me was the road out of Yankalilla heading to Victor. It wasn't steep but it just seemed to go on forever. Probably because it came so late in the ride, but there seemed to be plenty of people struggling or walking up the hill. After that it was the gentle undulations of the Inman Valley Road. As I got closer to Victor I stopped to pay my respects at the roadside memorial for cyclist, Kathleen Heraghty, who was killed by a hit and run driver in December while on training ride. Amazingly it was a straight section of road with no visibility issues and she was riding safely on the edge of the road - it's just unfathomable and so bloody sad (and, needless to say, a bit sobering).

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

I haven't done a lot of riding since then. The highlight has probably been my ride two weeks ago through to Belair. We were heading for another 40 plus day so I set off bright and early thinking I just do a shortish 40km ride into the shady climbs of Belair National Park. I was overdue another foray up Saddle Hill Road and Cherry Plantatiion Road (both within the park). The Saddle Hill Road climb was harder than I remember but perhaps it was just the opressive conditions, even early in the morning. I then rolled down the hill and by the time I'd reached the bottom, I started hearing CFS sirens in the distance. I rode around to the Cherry Plantation area and started to smell and see smoke coming through the valley. Then, at the start of the climb, I could see the fire on the next ridge over and all hell was breaking loose with planes and helicopters flying everywhere. Clearly this was no place for a cyclist, so I turned around and headed for the exit, pointing a CFS truck towards the fire on the way out. It turns out the fire was started by a freight train, which came through the park while I was riding up Saddle Hill Road. They managed to get it under control later that day but it was a bit of a worry there for a while with residents in area evacuating. Anyway, it was certainly one of my more eventful rides.

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.....