Tuesday 11 July 2011 #11 a continual bike riders dream 'Flash forward'

What a busy few days! Left Pamplona, drove to Toulouse then onto Aix and then onto Mane France. Not a bad way to spend 10+ hours but it got us (Joe, Michele and I) get closer to Vaujany, Alps.

Food - I just had a kings meal at our hotel, if I don’t mind saying so, well deserved after a rather large ride today, in the blaring heat. It is truly amazing the the TdF riders punish themselves up these col’s but not just one or two like us ordinary Joes! Back to the food, I wish that I took a photo of tonites dinner but I was so hungry that I couldn’t a photo of the salad with cheese pastry (entree), potato scallop and beef with gravy then creme brulee before they went right down the hatch.  Or is it cigarettes - how well they go with a meal?

Weather - The last few days have been HOT. Especially in Grenoble while we were there yesterday. Grenoble really is a lovely city but it is sandwiched between mountains and there is little to no wind, hence the baking heat! Tonite there was a huge storm that came through Vaujany and it certainly cooled things down ... unfortunately it looks like this weather may be here for tomorrow ... it may be a day off the bike tomorrow with double the efforts on the follow day!

Car - Ambulances, again with the Ambo - well for good reason. Today on the way back up to the mountain-esque Vaujany there were 20+ skateboarders coming flying down the hill. Next thing you know, a guy goes DOWN hard, unfortunately not even the helmet and elbow pads could soften the blow! He lay right in the middle of the road, actually convulsing! It was truly awful. After about 5 mins of this convulsion, still had pulse, was breathing and was not swallowing his tongue he came too. The ambulance eventually came, we are remote and took him away. Poor Simon the Englishman, holiday over.

Once over the boarder into France there were plenty of ‘hot’ cars, Ferraris, Maserati’s and even a Morgan (today). They seem to appreciate the finer cars, most likely because they allow for larger parking spaces than Spain!?  

Conversation - Anything in French sounds nice.

Animal - No Marmuts as of yet, plenty of cows and even plenty of fake ones! See pictures.

What else of note: Great to be back on the bike. The climb up Col de la Croix de Fer was truly magical! Going past waterfalls where the temp drops a good 10C and the views were just amazing. So many cyclist out on the road it was just amazing. 

Parting thought of the day/blog: I’m tired, maybe after 5 hour sleeps for 7 days it has finally caught up to me! Time for bed, hopefully I’ll bounce back tomorrow and be back in good form and be able to stay up past 10:30! GOOD NITE!

Friday + Saturday 8/9 July 2011 #9/10 a continual bike riders dream with a bull or two

Day two and three of running with the bulls - time to watch it from above the crowds then watch it from up in the stands in the bull ring!? 

Food - Friday - pastries while waiting for the bulls (and people) to run by, a lovely way to start a day + our dinner at the Convention Centre last nite while watching the fireworks! Saturday - home cooked dinner tonite, potato salad with spanish sausage, mushrooms and onion and some cider, with ‘the team’ before Vic and I split.

Weather - Cold - long pants and t-shirt were not the dress of the day ... that was what I was in till changing into cycling gear and getting a few k’s in. Saturday, HOT and plenty more people in town due to it being a weekend, again this ‘celebration’ goes on and on and on! 

Car - Ambulances, there were heaps of them today, carting those poor buggers off to hospital. Sad enough, as I was driving past the hospital today there was someone being ‘released’ with a bandage wrapped around his head, he’ll have a memory for life. More ambulances on Saturday, a guy was in our street getting his heart pumped when we left early this morning ... a guy about midday was also being kept alive by the ambo’s. 

Conversation - Friday - Tourist to me in regards to last nights firework display “Those fireworks are the best I’ve ever seen” - I hate to be a fireworks SNOB but they were not as good as the Sydney’s New Years Eve celebrations, kmon! Saturdays conversation, it was with Seb who I was sitting next to in the bull ring this morning, anything he said was a drunken slur ... not bad for a 17 year old, his parents would be so proud ... I just wish that I had a breath mint for him!

Animal - Friday, seeing the bulls run was quite amazing, more on that later, they take the cake but up there with them were ‘the bugs’. On the ride on Friday evening I was riding along with a million of my newest friends, flying nats! Thank goodness for sunglasses!! It was only for a small section but there were enough of them to have a few still swarming around inside my jersey when I got home. Saturday - the five bulls which are let out to play with regular Joe/Joannes in the bull ring. These ones get to live for a few more years that those which ran in the morning. They entertain us in the stands and punish many of the drunkeds that try to be a matador! 

What else of note: The running of the bulls, in one word ‘crazy’. I decided not to see the ‘riff-raff’ on Friday, instead I decided to be above them. To do this you need access to a private apartment which overlooks the alley. These people hire out their apartments for the mornings of the festival. People use their lounge rooms to watch the bulls run. I guess you’d get a little passé about it all after a few years. I must also admit that living above these streets during San Fermin would be a little tiresome due to all the ‘partying’ during the night. The city is absolutely mobbed ALL night, people are everywhere, the streets are full and they stay there for the whole night/festival. The days wouldn’t be so bad. Most revelers head to the parks to sleep before waking in the afternoon to start all over again. 

Parting thought of the day/blog: to the guy who stripped down to his birthday suit and  then proceeded to get recked by the bull. He was pulled away from the danger by good hearted strangers and was visibly bleeding from the head. Once he caught his breath he went straight back in! He got collected again and people saved him ... humanity really is special. Only once that bull was out of the ring did the police come in and take him away! For MORE PICTURES - CLICK HERE

Wednesday 6 July 2011 #7 a continual bike riders dream

Happy San Fermin 2011 6th of July --- with special thanks to all the people who contribute to Wikipedia, below is a brief review of the festival:

‘The festival of San Fermín (or Sanfermines, Basque: Sanferminak) in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain), is a deeply rooted celebration held annually from 12:00, 6 July, when the opening of the fiesta is marked by setting off the pyrotechnic chupinazo,[1] to midnight 14 July, with the singing of the Pobre de Mí. While its most famous event is the encierro, or the running of the bulls, the week-long celebration involves many other traditional and folkloric events. It is known locally as Sanfermines and is held in honor of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre. Its events were central to the plot of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, which brought it to the general attention of English-speaking people. It has become probably the most internationally renowned fiesta in Spain. Over 1,000,000 people come to watch this festival.’ From willapedia - let the mayhem begin!

Food - bodega for lunch - fried calamari on a fresh roll with mayonnaise ... yummmmm! 

   

Weather - The rain never falls on these plains in this part of Spain! Hot, HOT, HOT! The wind came up in the afternoon, which wouldn’t have been too much of an issue but when you ride for 2.5 hours you’re going to get some head wind at some point, more on that below ... I guess there is a reason why there are wind farms on all the mountain ranges around here, please excuse my stupidness. 

Car - Pamplona needs more scooters, bikes and less gypsies, all their vans are taking up valuable spaces around town. It took me 20 mins to find a spot y’day around our apartment, no kidding! 

Conversation - Tourist “look they have Mercedes as cabs here” - nuf said! 

Animal - forget animals, lets talk HUMANS! Those crazies that were atop the ‘jumping fountain’ in Pamplona today! I cannot believe they climb to the top then jump into peoples arms - L-O-C-O (spanish for crazy!!) I must admit, I’m so glad that I saw it happen. Did you know that on their maps of ‘old town’ Pamplona they’ve got that jumping fountain labelled with a small icon of a man falling off the fountain! If you’re a facebook member you can see the footage by clicking here. If not some of these photos will help you understand the craziness! 

What else of note: Great ride through the rolling hills of Pamplona this afternoon. I was lucky enough to have a little free time to explore, it took me a while to track down the right road but once on it - WOW! Amazing rolling road, FAST surface and wheat/sunflower fields a plenty! It was a massive tail wind out and a humongous head wind of the way home. I’m certainly not complaining, just stating a fact ... it slowed me but the ride/surface/serenity of the ride was just bliss.  

Parting thought of the day/blog: Pamplona Citadel - my suggestion, ride around it on a single speed/fold away bike at 12am on a week night, before San Fermin or any time not associated with the festival. It was amazing, NOT a sole around, the only noise was from the frogs in the drains and the lights on the walls are just spectacular - here are some pix but they just don’t do it justice! 

There are too many pix, more photos can be found here.

Sat 2 July 2011 #4 a bike riders dream continues

Food - The two pastries out at Orio ... just a little sugar rush to get me home. Tonite off to Pamplona so who knows what we’ll have on the dinner table ... just hope it is not freeway food! 

Weather - Almost Cut and Paste from y’day ... this is what everyday should be like, cool breeze, sun and more sun, glorious.  

Car - it is going to be a Renault Traffic - I’ve not seen it yet but that is my trusty steed for the next oh - 3 weeks - on the road. This automobile will end up with a nickname and will most likely appear is a few of these blogs

Conversation - it would have to be with the rider E’kite, who I rode up the second last mountain with today, 18 years old, just done 100k and not even out of breath. We chatted on the monster (many more monsters to come and they’ll be ‘worse/better’ than this pee-on) of a hill between Orio and San Sebastian.

Animal - the cows on the road between Orio and San Seb - they have one amazing view, I bet they don’t even appreciate it.

What else of note: I’m pretty excited that my 2 months of gear has fitted into my army duffel and I can ‘comfortably’ carry it around for the summer ... hmm will I ever bring a bag with wheels to EU!? 

Parting thought of the day/blog: San Sebastian is one amazing place, many many thanks to Gorka and his crew for taking me in. I see a trip to SS with a group of riders sometime in the very near future. One more thing, there was another picture in the restaurant that we had lunch in yesterday, it was of Neil Stevens, he too lives in the area but I forgot to mention him in y’days notes. It is also the first day of 'le tour' it is one of those things that I think being back in Sydney you get to see more of le tour but it is still great to be here, see the newspapers (try and interpret what they say) and watch it without it being at 2 in the morning, sorry Australians. 

PS Congratulations to Philippe Gilbert on winning stage one of le tour

Thur 30 June 2011 #2 ride 'it's the dream'

Food - home made breakfast with Gorka and his crew in the garden at his place on the hills of San Sebastian. Love it!  Then again we have not had dinner yet. We went shopping at Spain’s version of Costco and it was a hoot! Where else can you buy a scooter, meat slicer and endless amounts of ‘rape...’ in the same place. You even get a fluro jacket for the cool room, note to self when you go to this place again, NO THONGS! 

Weather - a tad overcast but shorts and t-shirt weather, also perfect riding weather. See above for fluro jacket.

Car - “not today my good man” - we’re on the scooter! Forget the speed limits, we’re going to top this thing out! I’ve got tears streaming down my face and they’re not from crying it’s the wind I promise. 

Conversation - it’s all in Spanish and I love it ... if only I knew what they were saying! They all look like they’re having a great time, it is truly great to see talking with such passion. It may just be talk of the weather or when to get their next hair cut but they do it with such gusto. 

Animal - the woman living up stairs definitely takes the cake, thank goodness she didn’t throw her nail clippings into our breakfast this morning (if you could breakfast at 11am). Plus I did see some cows ... pix below, yes that is Gorka riding with the bulls.  

What else of note: Kids outside playing at 7:30pm, all having a blast and not watching tv and eating $hit! Well that is my impression after 10 mins of sitting outside waiting for poor Gorka to get some energy back in his body before the last killer hill to home base. Then again he most likely used up all his energy popping wheelies here, there and everywhere! This boys has no fear. The ride today out to Irun through the back mountains of San Sebastian were just amazing, does riding over someones name make you ride better ... maybe not if the name is ‘Gastro’ but it makes you smile nonetheless. 

The ETA is still evident here in Basque country, event through lots of graffiti. This pix was at the top of the first hill today. Coming back into San Sebastian was the National Police stopping cars to look for any wanted ETA’ers, machine guns included! 

Parting thought of the day/blog: Ride Zannox kit is amazing, first ride in new ‘team’ kit was a success! Glad I got 50 pairs of knicks and jerseys to keep me in kit for months to come. 

I could go on with more reports but it is time to hit the shower and then help in the kitchen, we’re having a FEAST tonite, maybe tomorrows write up of food will cover tonites meal, then again we may not eat till midnite. 

 Yes that is a real gun!! Forget complaining about the Americans and NRA - these people in Irun love their guns!! 

AMB weekend to Canberra

What an amazing weekend! A total of ten riders headed down on Saturday 28 May from Sydney to Canberra. Mick Ross was our 'go-to' guy from Australian Mountain Bike Magazine. He has been with the mag for some 27 editions, he has been riding since hanging up his tap shoes (truth), been a 'pro' racer and is one funny guy. 


The bikes and riders were loaded in North Sydney and Moore Park and next thing we were in Goulburn at the Greengrocer Cafe. It was a tad cold and the ride from Goulburn to Sparrow/Kowen was rather foggy but everyone was 'amped' to hit up some flowing single track. 

First ride was Sparrow, originally 40+k of trail now only 12 ... I say only because it is still amazing track, hats off to Paul Cole and his crew for keeping it is such great condition. We did a brief skills session on how to 'J-hop' and Mick taught us about how to handle the bike in other situations - all great stuff. The lap was pretty hot in pace and it was a good chance to ride behind Mick to watch how a tap dancer rides.


Needing a little energy and before hitting up Kowen we stopped back at the bus for a bite to eat. A few adjustments by our guest Aaron Dunford - FUSION PEAK - and we were back out on track. The MTB trails over there are great especially after being used for the MONT 24 Hour a few months back it was certainly hard packed.   

After that loop we all looked a little shagged and it was time to refuel with a beer, yogurt and fruit, not necessarily in that order.


Check in at the AIS was short, before I could get the bikes out of the trailer all the riders were back at the bus and ready to ride again. It was coming on to dusk, most of us had lights, some riders had demo lights from RADICAL LIGHTS and before you knew it we were at Bruce Ridge ready to play in the spaghetti system of trails. 


The natural light went quick, a few riders decided to head back to the AIS but a few stayed out to play. One of those being Mick Ross, above I mentioned that MOST of us had lights, well Mick did NOT. We rode till around 6:30, completely dark, and Mick never missed a beat. Riding behind him to give him some light was quite the sight to see. It looked like he had ants in his pants as his legs were opening in all different directions so he could get the light to shine on the track! Oh and I was pushing it just to keep up with him! One word, amazed!


Back to shower and then consume some calories at all you can eat dinner at the AIS. Aaron takes the cake for being the human vacuum this weekend, for a tall lanky fellow the boy can put away a bit. After dinner, since we had all worked very hard, we head off to All Bar Nun down in O'Connor for some well deserved refreshing ales.

Bed and back up at 6:15 to hit up the trails of Bruce Ridge again. An hour out on track to loosen the legs up was just what the DR ordered before breakfast. The temperature was perfect, two weeks before it was ZERO degrees when all of the GEAR UP GIRLS came out for the Sunday morning ride, this time it had to of been 5C - almost balmy! 


Breakfast - all you can eat - well done Aaron - then off to Mt Stromlo. CORC was having a 7k race out there but that doesn't mean that the trails are closed, another reason why the MTB family are such great people. We did a warm up loop and then a climb to the top. No need to rush and you could see it on the riders faces that they had done some pretty hard work already this weekend. 


Once at the top for the obligatory photo it was time to descend. We reconvened at the bridge before the start of Luge, talk about smiles on faces! The calls of "can we do that again" were heard over and over and they still had luge to go. We all made it down safe and sound and then it was time to check out the Willo Track, Double Dissolution and some others on the back side of the Mt. We had one little spill which required a 'DNF' back to the bus ... it was a pick up but we all live to tell the story, some just have better stories than others from the weekend. 

Lunch out on course, it was great to reminisce about the ride/weekend and general good times in the glorious Autumn day - again Aaron going to WORK. Back to the AIS - shower, off to Dickson for a coffee, or beers and munchies for the ride home. A few sleepers for the ride back but there was also lots of other chit-chat about MTB'ing and general riding.


It was a great weekend, the trails, weather, riders and food were spot on. Thanks to all those who came along, Richard, Laurie, Greg, Aaron, Mick, Garth, Damian, Luke and Mark. Looking forward to having you along for other weekends in the future and another AMB weekend down the track.

Road Trip - Goulb > Canberra + Canberra > Canberra

What a weekend - it was great to head out on a roadie trip. The routes were set, the cyclists were all looking forward to doing some ‘big’ K’s and before you knew it we had departed Sydney and had arrived in Goulburn. After a coffee at the Green Grocer Cafe it was time to head out into the cool autumn day, heading to Canberra. 

The back way to Canberra really is a great ride, rolling hills and some wonderful scenery. The ‘crew‘ arrived into Lake Bathurst an hour after leaving Goulburn, setting a decent pace of 30kph. Lake Bathurst is one of those towns with popular trees aligning the main street, at this time of the year it is a beautiful sight. Next stop, after our one and only flat of the weekend, we were in Targo and up rolling through the undulating hills of the area. Coffee in Bungendore was well deserved and sitting in the sun added to the great morning. 

There is a nice hill out of Bungendore heading up towards Macs Reef Road but it didn’t even register on the cyclists legs. Before they knew it, after some more rolling hills, they were on the down hill stretch to the Nations Capital, Canberra. 

Lunch was at Tilleys in Lyneham a regular haunt for many Canberra-ites and it was such a glorious day to be sitting outside and reminiscing about the time just spent in the saddle.

It was time to check into the Australian Institute of Sport and relax, the pool was open and massages had been booked. We put the heater on, had time to read the paper and also a few cycle related magazines. 

‘All you can eat dinner’ can never come quick enough after cyclists have done 115k. Saturday night at the AIS is ‘fat night’ --- ice-cream and a few other treats to recharge the athletes stores after a week of hard work ... including cyclists!

We usually head to the pub on Saturday night but this time we had no takers, back to a warm room, a little TV, magazines and dark chocolate. It was not long offer before lights were out. 

The weather report for Sunday morning was for a chance of rain, they must have got the wrong day. Breakfast of bircher muesli and anything else you would like was consumed eagerly. Before you know it we were headed down the hill from the AIS and through a sparsely populated Canberra. 

The Cotter loop is a famous one if you are a cyclist from Canberra, not many cars, some rolling hills and some steep ones too. There was an option to head out to Corrin Dam (+50k) but we decided to head out to the Space Station instead (+10k). Out there we had a chance to tell some stories about the universe, the riders were all highly intelligent - aren’t they always? - then they were off to complete what they had started. The ride out of Cotter Dam was a long haul but a few other cyclists were on the road to make it that much more of a ‘race’. There was also an option to climb to the top of Mt Stromlo but we had no takers, “maybe next time” was the answer by one rider. On the last major hill of the day there was an unofficial KOM, congratulations to Caroline of taking the honours.  

Time for a Turkish coffee in the sun in Turner then back to the AIS for a shower before a big lunch. All up that days ride was 105k. 

On the drive home we usually have everyone asleep by Lake George, this time we had a great time of regaling the adventures they had just had. 

It really was a great weekend, thanks to the riders who provided many smiles and laughs. Looking forward to doing it all again sometime in the near future.