Good news first.  Monique Hanley, former Warragul club member, defected to Blackburn, partner of Simon Quick and state level trackie, has just completed the RAAM (Race Across America).  The RAAM is a bike race that crosses the USA.  It's some 3000 miles or so (around 5000km).  An interesting type of race for a track rider to even contemplate.  Finishing  this on its own would be a lifetime achievement, but it's made even more inspirational by the fact that Monnas is a type 1 diabetic, rode in a team made up of type 1 diabetics, and they won their division.  You can read all about it here.  On behalf of us all, Monnas, awesome ride.  Well done.

A few weeks ago at Cycle Science we got a new spin trainer in from Cyclops - nothing exciting, just a Fluid 2 (IMO one of the best spin trainers, that's why I bought one), but on the box there was a picture of an 'electro pro' which seemed to be some sort of power meter combination - similar to the Tacx trainers.  I googled, found nothing, I called Trek (Aust distributor for Cyclops/Saris), they said they'd find out about it, I got sick of waiting, and I emailed Saris/Cyclops myself. It turns out it's vapour :

Hello Carl,

I'm sorry, but unfortunately, we have discontinued our Electronic
trainer line.  We are no longer manufacturing this product.

Thanks,

Maggie Walz
Customer Service Representative
Saris Cycling Group
800-783-7257 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Brewer [mailto:carl@aboc.com.au] 
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 12:08 AM
To: Saris Products Email
Subject: cyclops "electro pro"?


Hello,
We have a Cyclops Fluid 2 trainer here at an LBS I work at, and on the
box is a picture of an "electro pro", which appears to be a trainer with
a builtin power meter.  This has some interest to me as a coach for a
training tool.  We haven't been able to find any further information on
this anywhere though.

Does the product exist anywhere other than on this box?  Google has no
record of it, there's nothing on the Saris website and the local Saris
distributor (Trek Australia) knows nothing about it either.

Thankyou

Carl

 

 

Poo.  It looked interesting on the box, and the Tacx power meter trainers top out at 999 watts, which is great for enduros, but for doing sprint strength work isn't enough.  I'm still waiting on the Powertap SL 2.4 to come back, and I miss my watts, especially now I have a copy of CyclingPeaks WKO+, and I want to use it.  Saris do make a power meter trainer, but it's a whole excercise bike thingo and very expensive, not something I can cart to track races and spin classes without needing a station wagon and a trolley.

Finally, bad news ... of a sort.  I get around, and I keep my ears open (and, my mouth, too often!), it's very upsetting to hear and read so many people bagging the De Bortoli Tour, but they are.  I overheard a conversation at DISC last Thursday about how bad the DB Tour was (the results, of course ...) and the same theme runs through emails on Hawthorn's Bicigaga mailing list, chat sites on the web etc.  It's a great shame.  I had a conversation with Tabatha Cole about it, and expressed that the club needs to make some steps to address the issue.  I did speak to the people at DISC who were bagging the DB Tour, and expressed my dismay at their negative attitude, but they were right, and when they said 'yeah, but we get it right every year with our tour (3 day tour, northern combine)', there was nothing I could say except that everyone did their best at the time.

We can't fix what went wrong at the time, but we can fix some things (there's still no breakdown of the prizemoney available, etc), and IMO we as a club need to very honestly, completely and openly explain what went wrong, why, and how we will prevent it happening again. This needs to be made public on both the club website and the De Bortoli tour site, and the longer it's left undone, the less benefit it will have in terms of fixing some of the damage that the clubs reputation has taken.  Nicko's paragraph wasn't sufficient, I think.  When club members who volunteer to help run these events overhear this sort of thing it's demoralising and serves to demotivate them to help out in future.  We want to be part of a team that delivers and has a reputation for excellence, not "the club that stuffs things up".  If the DB Tour is just too big for us as a club to run successfully, then we need to look very hard at if we want to run it at all.

 

Other tours do not have the same problems we've had - the Colleraine Tour, the 3 day tour etc, they have results up quickly enough to be useful to competitors.    I'm sick of hearing people bagging BBN as the club that stuffs things up, but that won't stop until we look them in the eye, accept that we got it wrong, and explain what went wrong and how we will fix it in future.  We as a club run many things very well, but the De Bortoli Tour (and the 1:20 ITT from two years ago when we also got the timing wrong) - these big things get noticed.  There was a club meeting that (I asume) addressed a lot of the Tour issues, last week.  What's happened since? Nicko, as president, the buck stops at you.  Communicate with the club members, please.

I'm a Trek fanboy, I make no apologies for this.  I have 5 of them, and many of my friends ride them, and when I give bikes to people, they're generally Treks ... Why is this?  My first roady was a Trek 1400 and it's still going (after some 65,000km or so) and I love the ride and handling, and when I went up to a carbon bike, the Madone 5.2 with Project 1 graphics just seemed 'right', and I wasn't disapointed by it, to say the least. It rides like a real bike should ride, it handles high speed decents with confidence and predictability, even with my lardy backside on it, and it looks like a proper road bike should look , even with the tail on the seat tube and the bulgy down tube on the '05 Madone.

They're not perfect (nothing is ...), and the T1 track bike in particular has some missing things that a track bike at its price point really should have - the most glaring missing feature is replaceable rear dropout surfaces. It really should have them, but it doesn't.  At least, unlike the Specialized 'Langster' it does have stainless dropouts, but at a RRP of around $2,600 in Australia, it has less real track features than the Raceline 'Record' at a thousand dollars less. It also comes with some pretty ordinary road cranks, not track cranks, and the wheels are servicable but the bearings are low end Bontrager and mine haven't survived a summer's racing all that well.  A service will probably fix them up, but now I have high end wheels (Bonty Carbon track, yum!) it's not urgent.

Their roadies in particular, I do love, the traditionally shaped top tube, the feel and poise on the road, the handling works for me.

Until now.

Trek have just released their '08 (it's June '07 ... this US marketing stuff is crap!) Madones, and there's a -lot- of new stuff in them.  New to Trek anyway, long time Cannondale fans will see a few borrowed features, and, shock/horror the new shape looks very similar to a Giant TCR! Sloping top tube, seat masts.  I don't like, mkay? They've also obfuscated their OCLV carbon, instead of knowing what the frame is made of, now you get a rather insulting 'red, white or black' to signify the three 'levels' of frame material used.  Huh?  I'd actually like to know what's in there, please.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, and until I actually get one under my backside for a ride, all the above is based purely on not liking the look of the sloping top tube and the obfuscation of the carbon grades used.  If Mark G from Trek wants to lend me a 56cm '08 Madone to test and review, then I'll be able to make up my mind about if it's a better bike, despite the Giant TCR looks and the rubbery seat mast.  Does the huge BB shell (90mm, with integrated bearing seats) keep the bottom bracket more solidly in place?  Does it weigh significantly less than the '07 models?  Enough to justify the sloping top tube?  Enough to justify the 1.5" lower headset bearing. The UCI limit for weight starts to make weight loss a waste of time anyway, we can't race a 6kg bike, it's illegal. Does Chris King make something to suit the new headset or do we have no choice with bearings? LBS's will have to carry (or order in) different seat 'post/mast' bits for different saddle heights, which is a PITA. We already have a pile of seatposts and stems, now we might have to carry these bits, and for how long until the trend swings back?  Will Trek Aust have stock of these in 5 years time?

You can read a less biased review at Cyclingnews.com here, or see Trek's own marketing spin here. Make up your own mind, but have a testride first, I'll be riding one as soon as I can to see if I'm full of it and the bike's a real winner, or if it's a pile of gimicks and slick spin. I'd like to see it tested and some hard data, weight, flex at the BB etc.

In jumbled order, DISC on Thursday last week.  Richard makes his DISC debut and rode very well, he managed to finish strongly in all his races except the motorpace, but the motorpace was disturbed by a crash that not only saw Rich get spooked, saw John Lewis (masters session coach) crash heavily through no fault of his own, get a pretty impressive concussion (It's Thursday night John, you're at DISC, you were in a crash, remember?) and almost certainly break a collarbone.  We wish you all the best for a speedy recovery John.

Dino rode well, he took a punt in the points race in a very strong C grade field and overdid it, but in the motorpace took a good 4th and was unlucky to not have placed in the money.  Wayne Evans handled the move up to B grade (about time you sandbagger!) well and never looked like he was struggling.  I sat the night out taking photos due to a feeble excuse (headcold!).  Justin Wornes rode A grade and was strong, but no-one could beat big Stu Vaughan, who won everything in A grade. The photos are here. The team was cheered on by Bev, the Llama and Von, Emily and Anne Apolito.  Thankyou everyone for your support.

And on Sunday, Byron, Dino, Steve Bourke and I did a lazy cruise down Beach Rd, the lads all clocked up around 100k each and I put 100 miles in my legs for the day including a grovel home up Whitehorse Rd after one too many sprints against Dino and rather a lot of time in E2  Lucozade and red eye got me home up the hill!  Bourky's thrilled with his new steed (Trek 1400) and we'll work on getting him racing next summer .. Glenvale maybe ..

Finally, gleaned from aus.bicycles, for your and my amusement :

QUOTE
Minneapolis, MN -- Greg Lemond today released a statement that said he
has, reluctantly and with great sadness, been forced to add the 2006
Tour de France to the long list of tours that he should have won. Lemond
initially believed, and was even quoted in an earlier interview as
saying, that this was the first clean Tour de France in many years.
However, in light of the recent positive doping test of tour winner
Floyd Landis, Lemond has concluded that, in all likelihood, he himself
should have won the tour this year.

This brings the total number of Tours de France That Lemond Should Have
Won (TDFTLSHW) to 167. Lemond first won the tour in 1986. However, as he
has explained many times over the years since, he should have won the
Tour in 1985, but was lied to by Bernard Hinault and cheated out of the
race victory. Lemond next should have won the Tour in 1987 and 1988, but
was incapacitated by a shotgun blast from his brother-in-law. While the
incident was ruled an accident by the police, Lemond believes that his
brother-in-law was working with Hinault and a young Texan by the name of
Lance Armstrong to remove him from the sport.

Lemond came back to win the Tour in 1989 and 1990, but lost in 1991 due
to the fact that, as incredible as it may sound, every other rider in
the Tour de France besides Lemond was taking performance enhancing
drugs. Lemond believes these drugs were supplied by Bernard Hinault, who
realized that if nothing were done, Lemond would continue to win the
Tour for the next 50 years. The drug-tainted Tour would continue through
2005, including the reign of Lance Armstrong. In the absence of doping,
Lemond clearly would have won the Tour from 1991 to 2005, bringing the
total number of TDFTLSHW to 21.

Going back before 1985, Lemond believes that in all likelihood, he would
have won the Tour de France each year since his birth in 1961 if a) he
had known about it and he had not had the small stature and limited leg
length common to children between the ages of 0 and 10. As Lemond
explains, clearly it would be unfair to him to discount the Tour wins he
should have achieved were he only able to reach the pedals of his
bicycle. This brings the TDFTLSHW to 45.

While Lemond concedes that some may believe him to be "stretching it" by
including in his TDFTLSHW years from Tours before his birth, he claims
that if one is to think about it logically, the only possible conclusion
is that the greatest bike rider in the history of the Tour would
absolutely have won the Tour since its inception in 1903, if only he had
been alive at that time. It was not Greg Lemond's fault that his parents
were not alive and able to conceive him in time to ride the initial Tour
in 1903; thus, it would be unfair to strip him of the Tour wins that he
rightly should have been awarded.

Note that there have been 11 years since its creation in 1903 that the
Tour de France was not held due to the two World Wars. Clearly, stopping
the Tour due to worldwide war would have been unfair to Greg Lemond, had
he been alive, and would have in all likelihood, been a move
orchestrated by Bernard Hinault, had he himself been alive, to keep
Lemond from winning the tour. Thus, Lemond believes that these years
should also be included in the TDFTLSHW, giving him a total of 103 wins.

Finally, Lemond explains that he has included the years between the
invention of the bicycle to the first Tour de France (1839 to 1903) in
the TDFTLSHW. Had the French had the foresight to create the Tour de
France in a more timely manner, Lemond would have definitely won it each
and every year, again assuming he had been alive (see above). Obviously
Lemond cannot be blaimed for the shortsightedness and general ineptitude
of the French, and therefore the victory from the Tours de France that
should have been held in these years must be credited to Lemond,
bringing the final tally of TDFTLSHW to 167.

Note that while Lemond has not yet been able to rationalize including
years before the invention of the bicycle in the TDFTLSHW, he has
created a company to pursue such an effort. The company is hard at work
on a rationalization and hopes to produce one for him within the year.

7am, 6 degrees, ride the tandem to the boule, meet up with Vaughan Bowman en route, and a few others.  The tandem on my own, is a barge.  It'll be fun doing the BBN ITT on it.

Arrive at the ITT, meet up with Rob Monteith, we set up the tandem stoker seat for him and enter ($10 for the team! that's half price!).  We do a practice run, it's a barge, it's a truck ...

ITT time, and we go pretty hard, not a great time, but we only get caught by one rider, on a hilly course on a great big heavy bargebike.  It's a handfull, on the descents it drops like a missile, on the flats .. we don't know, the boule has no flats, and up hills ... urgh!  We managed to get around the turnaround at the roundabout without having to get off it.  19:40-something.  Tom Leaper wins it, Jono Lovelock wins the juniors(!). Not a big turnout, but I think it'll grow.

Then, off to the velodrome.  3 hours of some decent training.  A big aboc turnout - Dino, Rich, Rob, Nath and me.  We train pretty hard, and to finish off, Dino wants to do a match sprint. Ok, I'm game.  We roll around, and at the second turn, Dino's about 2m ahead of me up on the red line, I'm down on the duckboards - we're going pretty slow, and Dino slips and falls right in front of me.  Nowhere to go except straight into him!  He's ok, a bit of skin off, but otherwise ok, my bike .. bent chainring, bent crank spider.  Bugger!  I was only doing 2-3km/h when it happened.  No bones broken.  I need a new crankarm.  A Bontrager/Truvativ 165mm crank.  I hope Trek have some in stock, or no racing for me this Thursday!

The Rowbust skinsuit Dino was trialing was torn!  But, it did fit well before then, and generally everyone liked the aboc jacket. You want one?  Send me an email.

Thursday night, and it's time to debut the new wheels.  My new Bontrager Race-X-Lite carbon singles, with Tufo S3 Pro tyres, all glued up and ready to race.

The wheels are the hr0n!  First impressions - these things are responsive.  I don't feel any faster (how can you tell anyway outside of a wind tunnel with a power meter?) but they have thought-control steering.  I'm glad I have a solid 10 months of track racing in my legs, they'd have been way too responsive for me as a beginner.  But now, I like .. yes.

It's only Dino and I tonight, and Bev, the Llama and Von in the crowd. No other aboc'ers present (slack ... but Nathan has an excuse, he starts racing there again in his next block)

Anyway .. did ok in the scratch race, maybe 6^th or so?  Lain Hammond won it, which was pretty impressive, she's maybe 17 or something?  I don't know how old she is, but for a female, and a female junior, to win (ok, only C grade .. but still, some strong boys ride it) is pretty impressive.  Well done Lain.

The points race and for the first time since I've been racing at DISC I don't get dropped.  Positioning and knowing who's who, and not working as a leadout. Thankyou to Dino for my leadout for the first sprint, I should have talked to you more, my fault! I contested every sprint, got 3^rd in the final sprint but 4^ths or worse for the rest, so no points to speak of.  Still felt good though, good to not have to chase for 10 laps. A bit crampy in a leg, but that soon settles down after an easy roll around.

Along the way we're cheering on big Stu Vaughn and Mal Sawford, Mal had come over because he's afraid of the dark and wet, and wanted a ride.  His track bike looked pretty clean for something that had been (he claims) not ridden for years.  Uhuh ...

On to the motorpace, and I'm feeling pretty good.  It does the usual thing, I manage to be in almost the perfect place, on the bike for the last paced lap, the bike pulls off, I surge for 50m or so, then sit up, no-one comes over the top, I surge again for aother 50m or so, sit up .. still no-one, 1 lap to go, put down the hammer and go ... and ... 250m later, still no-one comes over the top!  That'l be a win, thanks Eddie. w00t!  Wave to the aboc cheersquad, do the 'touch the tyres, burn the hands' thing, roll around and think 'that was pretty good!'.

I felt strong all night and never felt like I was struggling or in any danger of not being able to contest the finish of any of the races, which was a first at DISC - I'm getting close to how I felt at Blackburn over summer racing C grade, where I knew that I could win anything if I did the right things tactically.

So what did the win pay?  $10!  That's $16 total DISC prizemoney.  $10 to enter, so for last night, I broke even (if you don't count the new wheels .. the tyres, dinner ... etc etc one does not race for the money ... )

This morning I picked up the prototype of the new aboc polarfleece jerseys.  Very nice.  Perfect for cold nights at DISC. Royal blue with yellow trim, and the aboc logo on the front and back, 300 weight fleece, good quality, low pill and made in Australia (no Nike sweatshops here!).  It looks pretty snazzy.  Once I have a firm price from Rowbust we'll be putting in an order for a bunch of them.  Got a prototype skinsuit (size L) for evaluation too .. I think Dino will fit into it so we'll try that on Sunday afternoon at DISC. If he likes it, we'll get the pattern done up in Illustrator and then I'll do a design with aboc colours.  I'm reviewing Steve Hogg's (of Bicycling Australia and cyclingnews.com fame, as well as being regarded as one of the bike fit gurus in Australia, with John kennedy as the other) DVD at the moment, 'Sitting pretty'.  Interesting to watch, I like the layout of his fit studio, will have to negociate with Pete from Cycle Science about my fitting 'space' at the shop.

I'm also trying to convince Dino to ride the BBN/HCC ITT on Sunday morning with me, on the aboc tandem.  Place your bets .. but if he's crook I'll have to look elsewhere.  Maybe Rob Monteith? Rob? You want to do it?

Now it's time to go and get some extra hot chilli noodles and work at the shop for the evening.  I have bikes to fix, people to fit and stories to tell.  Thanks for reading.

 

 

Those of you that know me, know that I'm big on being graceful in victory and defeat, and that I do my best to get riders I work with to also be graceful in both. Even if someone does something very wrong, dangerous or stupid (and that does happen in bike races!), we have to always respect each others' safety and fight fire with water.

The following video from a US Keiren race is a great example of the worst kind of sportsmanship. 

Jame Carney gets knocked off at the finish line.

 

I'm sure most would agree that there is never justification for that action.

Good news first.  I got my first lot of prizemoney at DISC last Thursday.  After a messy scratch race where I surged a couple of times to break things up a bit, and getting boxed in, then leading it out and Dino missing my wheel, the points race was going to be worth a go.  Unlike the last few weeks, this week I wasn't riding as Wayne's leadout/chase monkey/shock trooper.  I got dropped at the first sprint, but chased for 10 or so laps, and got back on to the bunch about a lap before the second last sprint.  I took 3rd in the sprint, but I had momentum, and rolled through and before I knew it, I had at least 80 metres on the bunch.  Oh well, let's see if I can hold them off ... 4 laps and a new HRMax later, and I did, winning the final sprint by about 50 metres or so.  Gets me 2nd in the race. That hurt .... that really, really hurt.  I've often told my riders that the race that hurts the most is the one you win, and that was a reminder - I didn't win it, but I did win the final sprint, which feels almost as good, and hurts just as much!

Last race, the motorpace, pans out beautifully, I'm 4th wheel when the bike pulls off, with big Pooley on the front hammering, but in front of me is a girl, and when Pooley kicks, a gap opens, and it's too late.  4th ... that'll have to do.  Payday for the night, $6.  Entry fee is $10.  So I lose $4.  Heh ... There'll be more, I'm getting a feel for DISC now and who to watch for and the timing of sprints etc.  Dino's a real threat too! He's got a sprint on him ... that's for sure.

So to the De Bortoli Tour.  A lot of aboc'ers helped out with this, which was great.  Nick, Nathan, Rob, Mick and Will, Bev ... all the troops.  Byron and Wayne Evans and Simon Alder racing.  My role, web site and photography.  I took some 1,200 photos, and published about 1,100 on the website.  The aim was to get at least one photo of every rider in the event, and most of the officials and volunteers.  I think I managed.  A hell of a long weekend, especially as I had to drop Vanders off at the airport on Sunday morning at 6am.

Everyone did a great job, except we had one glaring, disasterous problem.  Race results.  I don't know what went wrong, but even now, 2 days later, we still don't have the final results.  Why is this a problem?  In a stage race, times count and gaps count.  The riders couldn't make smart decisions about breaks etc, because they didn't know any times or places.  Feedback from some (and I agree with them) is that the Tour was, because of the results failure, a collection of social rides, not races.

One feedback email contained this :

First and foremost, Results? WTF? How can a tour be run without results?
Can you imagine if The winner of the 'Bathurst 1000' was announced the next day?
Or if by the time the TDF winner was determined Lance Armstrong was back at
home on the ranch. This is a major issue for everybody from Riders,
Teams and Sponsors (Both of teams and of the event i.e. De Bortoli)
WITHOUT RESULTS ANY BIKE RACE JUST BECOMES A SOCIAL RIDE!

This is from a friend, and it's completely fair critisism.  I can't agree more.

So what can we do?  I don't know ... I know Nicko and Alan spent ages (up 'til midnight on Saturday etc) trying to sort out the mess, but the key thing is why, and how can we make sure it never happens again?  Blackburn has an unfortunate reputation now for stuffing up results - a 1:20 ITT not long ago had a similar problem, and we've become rather famous for being the club that can't run races properly.  That's not fair, because for everything that went wrong, heaps more went very well, but the lasting impression that most riders who rode the race will have is of not getting any results. 

As a club, we have to look very hard at what went wrong and how it can be fixed in future.  I've held the belief for a long time that the Tour is simply too big for a single, small club to organise.  I think it's a club killer, as it's too hard and uses up too many people.  I hope I'm wrong, but the washup from this tour is going to be messy. Then again, the Colleraine Tour seems to work pretty well, maybe we as a club need to have a talk to them, and see how they do it.  That's outside my area of interest within the club, my line in the sand is clearly drawn.

Enough said on that ... Spin is tomorrow night and I've a bolla to cook to feed hungry cyclists!

Just in case anyone's been wondering, we've been busy at aboc HQ working on ideas for how to run the Summer Sprint Series at Blackburn.  Here's my latest correspondance with the Blackburn CC :

G'day Rowan, Brian and John,

I'd like to get the summer sprint series stuff started so I can start to promote it and people can start to train for it.

Here's how I think I'd like it to work (details to be finalised) This is a proposal, I'd like your feedback on it.

Once a fortnight (say 1st and 3rd week of the month?) on Sunday, starting at 12 for Flying 200's, match sprints start at 1.  Graded based on F200 times, at least 3 grades, ideally 4. Round robin match sprints to accumulate points, then a ride off for first & second, and third and fourth for each grade.  I expect each match sprint would take 3 minutes at the most? 

Nicko?  If we ban anything slower than walking pace they can't take longer than that! That would be about 20 races an hour as long as we can keep them flowing.

Round robin points as follows :
2 points for a win, 1 for a loss, 0 for a forfeit, -1 for a disqualification.

All grades pay $10 to enter, we divvy up the prizemoney in the usual way.

Have an aggregate points system leading to some prizes at the end of the season (I'm working on some sponsorship for this).

Points for attending, points for places, points for going up a grade, lose points for relegation to a lower grade.
Something like 2 points for entering, 6 for a win, 4 for a second and 2 for a third, 6 points for a promotion, -4 points for a relegation. The winner of a grade when there's more than 6 riders gets promoted, last place gets relegated. If there's less than 6 riders on a day, no relegation or promotions occur.

What do we need to run it?  I'm thinking 3 people?  Entries, a commissaire and a line judge/score recorder.  Do we also need to register it with CSV? Could we promote it through the CSV summer calender?  What are the requirements for a commissaire?

Would it be an 'open' as such?  The summer track season seems to run as an open, or at least, it has no restrictions on
members of other clubs attending?  Would this be the same sort of thing? Would we need a 1st aider present?

I think I can recruit a few aboc'ers to help run it, in return for free entry, but am not sure of the club's requirements?

 

Any thoughts?  I'd appreciate feedback and thoughts from you all, either here or by email to me.

Some readers of this online diary of mine may know of our efforts to revamp the Blackburn Cycling Club's website.

Have a look at this for a superb Plone site : Team Priority Net (Richard England from Blackburn is in this team fort 2007). I think that's an excellent example of what can be done with Plone.  The aboc site is a pretty basic implementation, but that one's very well sorted.

In other news ... The Blackburn AGM is tonight (Wednesday the 9^th of May) at the Blackburn clubrooms at 7:30 pm and I urge any Blackburn members to attend.  I'm sponsoring it with food - if you show up you'll get free grub!  Hopefully this AGM will see a few changes in the club that I think it needs, and it's an opportunity for you all to voice your opinions and thoughts re the direction the club is taking and to suggest improvements (and maybe even make some contributions!). 

I hope to see as many of you all there as can make it.

 

 

Saturday I rode down to Casey to do the first Casey Field crit of the season. Not long after I left aboc HQ the rain started, but assisted by a decent northerly tailwind I averaged 29km/h to Casey and did the trip in a bit over 90 mins.  The race, we won't mention, combined A & B grade due to low nubers of A graders, and I got blown to bits after a hard turn at the front chasing down an early attack when we thought the bunch was under control.  I was the only aboc rider present. Where was everyone?!  It's just a bit of rain! Rather than waste the day, I did a couple of 20 min E3 efforts and then rode home.  Being in no mood for traffic or hills, I thought I'd try the Dandeong Ck trail rather than Stud Rd. Nice enough, partially sealed, partially gravel, ok on a roady, except in places very poorly signed (where's the trail go, again?!). The usual collection of loose dogs etc ...

As it was getting dark I tok off my sunnies and next thing, a bug flies into my left eye.  No big deal, except I've always had eyes that react badly to any scratches, and before I knew it I was monocular.  10km from home, 125km in my legs and one eye, into a headwind up a hill (Boronia Rd to Canterbury Rd on my crit cassette!)... not happy, Jan!

When I finally got home Vanders fed me and I went out for eye drops and dinner.  Spent most of the night unable to sleep and finally woke up with one eye glued shut.  Today, I took the masters track session at DISC, but didn't ride as I basically can't see from one eye so have poor depth perception until it's better.  Only two people came, Nath (thanks for the lift!) and Nick, an Australian/Canadian former semi pro MTB racer. With a split between enduro and sprint riders I couldn't do much interesting stuff for them, so we did reaction drills and Nath did flying 100's.  A bit sad to see how poor the resource (DISC) is utilised.  It's cost a fortune to build, but trackies aren't taking advantage of it.

I'm going back to bed, hopefully I'll have stereo vision tomorrow!

Nick Bird and Bev Vennix came along to watch the racing tonight, so we had to put on a show to make their trip worthwhile.  The only aboc'ers who made it this week were myself and Wayne Evans.  I offered to ride for Wayne tonight, as a leadout and potentially a chase monkey (fortunatly, not required tonight!).

The scratch race took off fast, but when I got near the front I attacked and stayed off the front for maybe half a lap or so, but it had the desired effect of shaking up the field a little and making everyone work when they didn't expect to.  With two and a bit laps to go the field had bunched right up, time to do my job.  Wayne, get on my wheel!  Bang, I hit the accelerator and jumped off the front and held my speed for about a lap and a half, before fading with half a lap to go, and Wayne sailed past and took the win.  Chalk one up for the team.

Race two, as always in the rather unimaginative Thursday night program, was a 15 lap points race. I was still recovering from the scratch race and didn't really play much of a part, I lead out one sprint, but that was about it. Wayne took third.

Race three is a motorpace, and that was a perfect opportunity to get the leadout spot-on.  With 6 or 7 laps to go I peeled off from behind the bike and Wayne opened up a gap for me to drop in front of him and we're set to go.  With 4 laps I'm second wheel, which wasn't quite ideal, but the kid on the tail of the derney stayed put for 2 laps - perfect!  The bike pulls off with 2 and a half laps to go, the kid slows, no-one wants to work at this stage .... right ... Wayne's set up camp on my wheel and I ramp it up, over the top of the kid, and hammer down for two laps.  With half a lap to go I'm spent and Wayne and some other rider go past, and then I get jostled by one rider who got a bit close, considering by then he was out of contention anyway.  Wayne had left his run a shade too late and got second.  Almost perfect.

A good night ... kept the fans entertained and we got one of each place for the night.  Thanks Wayne for riding well and taking the races, it made my efforts worthwhile.

I'm tempted to start a section of this site devoted to equipment reviews.  This is a dangerous area, because a lot of reviews are very poorly written and either biased towards (I bought it, therefore it's good!) or against (I bought it, it had a minor problem, so it's terrible!) the product being reviewed and it's difficult to be objective, especially with things as subjective as bikes.

So, if I was going to put up a section with reviews, I'd want some form of editorial control over it and I would want sensible reviews.

 

Here's an example - I got a set of Ay-Up headlights this week, here's a basic review (without photos ... they'll come if and when I do this properly) :

AYUP headlights - available from www.ayup.com.au

I've only just put them on my wet weather roady, haven't actually used them yet.  I was most attracted to the handlebar mount, which is the best of any I've seen in terms of not getting in the way. It's a 'bridge' over the stem faceplate/clamp and that's a great idea.  Very clean and unobtrusive. I have my computer on my stem, which does cause an issue with the velcro-on battery but I suspect that's an unusual case.  If your stem is clean and at least 70mm long it should fit beautifully.

The light heads come in a range of colours, so you're in with a reasonable chance of them matching your bike. I chose electric blue to match aboc colours (of course!).

The design choice to make the light and battery easy to remove is a blessing.  It's great for avoiding stuff getting nicked.  You do have to remember to take the bits though, if you're planning (or it just happens!) to be out after dark.

Not having a switch is a pain because to turn the light off, you have to remove the lamps and battery pack, or have a live wire flapping around and a plug and a socket that can get crap in them. I think it can be tucked into the strap, but that's still messy.  I understand the decision, switches are chronically unreliable, but it's still a PITA.  It is easy to remove both, except if you have a populated stem. I might have to hack into my velcro strap so it doesn't foul on my computer mount (Sigma BC1200). If you were trying to set it up at night in the dark you'd need a torch or a decent moonlit night, no
'grope for the switch' here.

I'm very impressed by the construction of the thing, it seems sturdy and robust, and the 2 3w luxeons seem significantly brighter than my old 10w halogen Vistalite (now residing in the 'lend to friends' bucket :) ).  Compared to the "seeing"[1] lights we sell in the LBS, the ayup is great value and I think, a better solution than most I've seen in terms of mounts. I'm going to see if it's possible to sell them through the shop, as they're really good.  My 'roady' kit cost about $240 delivered to my door in a sturdy box from the supplier.

[1] seeing lights - ie: see where you're going, as opposed to 'be
seen' lights, which are generally LED flashers.

My only other suggestion to the makers is to redesign your website, it's a huge flash animation site and thus not good web manners.

A healthy mob of aboc riders attended DISC last night to race, Nathan and Matty Ditchfield riding D, Dino, Wayne Evans, Mick Thomas and I riding C.  For a few of us it was our first race on the boards.  Matty had done some laps in the past, Dino & I had done time there at masters training last weekend. 

How'd we go? I'm glad you asked ....

Nath is preparing for a big summer of sprinting, so his riding was really just to gather more track time, and he got plenty working hard in D and looked strong in the motorpace, Matty took some points in the points race by winning the second sprint and finishing well in the final sprint for that race.

Dino, as is often the case, despite depleted legs from a hard ride on Wednesday, rode above himself and finished safely in the bunch for each of his races, Wayne Evans (with sand leaking from his pockets!) claims a contested 2nd in the scratch race and finished right at the pointy end in all his races, and I got dropped from the scratch race, dropped in the points race but chased for 10 laps and got back on to then lead out the bunch to the final sprint, and managed to hold on for most of the motorpace.

The standard's a bit higher than at Blackburn, I'd say the C grade bunch was around half way between B and C at BBN depending on who was at BBN for the races, and D grade looked about the same sort of 'a bit higher than D, but not quite C' pace at BBN.

Overall, for myself and Dino and Matty and Nath, it was a good evening's racing - we were there to gain experience with the track and racing on it, and we all got that, safely and with no problems.  In a few weeks once we've all found our legs there (and don't arrive flattened from a big effort the day before!) I think aboc jerseys will be quite prominant at the pointy end of the races when it matters.

 

 

Saturday morning, a good 95km ride from aboc HQ, via Doncaster Rd to the city, Beach Rd to Edithvale and back home via Spingvale Rd.  Along Beach Rd, this muppet in an old red Phonak kit keeps going through red lights.  I'd catch him in E1 (~200 watts was the target power for the ride) and he'd suck wheel, then I'd stop for a red light and he'd just keep on going.  After the third time I had a bit of a 'chat' with this clown.  Expressing to him that red lights are for everyone (he wasn't just ignoring ped crossings, it was intersections too ...) and that he should stop for them.  He told me not to care about him, I told him that what he does affects us all, and then a few insults got thrown around.  The old saying goes "There's an infinite number of idiots and a finite number of bullets". The funniest part was that he told me I should save my energy for riding.  Heh ... funny from someone I was consistanly towing along and catching every time he shot a red, eh?  He pulled off at the Brighton Yacht Club, but later caught me up some rise, but by then I'd had enough and I turned it up for the rest of the ride and dropped him pretty easily.  Idiot ...

After that incident, the rest of the ride was fine.  I saw the hellride coming back through Beaumaris, it was only using 1.5 lanes at that time, unusually 'good' for them.

Got home just in time to head out to take photos of the Baw Baw.  Mistake was to not take the motorbike, the traffic once we got past Noojee meant that I got no photos of A or B grade, but did get some of C, the masters and what was left of the women (maybe 5 of them?) at Winch Corner - 20% pinch on the climb.  I've ridden Baw Baw once (not racing, just Byron & I went out and did it a couple of years ago for 'fun'.  It's the only Hors Category climb in Oz, 6km at an average of 13%.  Gloomy light and my poor skills with a camera meant I didn't get many good shots - certainly not many suitable for cyclingnews.com, but I did get a good one of Cam Woolcock, but my shot of Les was out of focus.  Drove on up to the top to congratulate Les and Cam on finishing the beast just as it started to rain (rain?  what is this water falling from the sky?).  No snow this year ...

Dino told me later about Emily at the Siemens junior training she went to on Sat arvo.  It started out a bit stressful for her, but at the end she was all smiles and had a great time.  Well done Emily, and thankyou to Nathan for setting her bike up for 'road' use.

Sunday, we (Nathan, Dino & I) were going to head out to DISC to do the masters track training session, while Neil was going to Glenvale to shake up B grade (and by all reports he did - Mal Sawford's report mentions him).  Nath was cooked from a long ride on Saturday so didn't bring his bike(!) but did come along and provide mechanical support.  Thanks for fitting the 90" Nath!  It turned out that Stu Vaughn was away and the session was being run by Liz Randall.  Liz is a masters female world champion and knows DISC pretty well.  Dino and I had the velodrone to ourselves as no-one else showed up, and Liz taught us more about the banking, taking us -way- up the bank and we did some sprint efforts etc.  Thankyou Liz, for me, that was just what I needed to get comfortable with the bank on those corners.  I'm not 100% on them, but at least I know what the bike will do.  My Bontrager Race-Lites hung on just fine, and Dino was using Nath's Vittoria Rubino Pros which also were fine, after his bad experience with Michellin Pro-Race 2's, which are -not- good on steep boards!  We have Veloflex Records on order, will be interesting to see how they go.  It was pretty good having the whole velodrone to ourselves for three hours. I think Nath was regretting not bringing his bike, he could have rolled around and just got more track time, which at DISC I think is very worth having. Next week, Nath!

Dino's got my track kit, this Thursday is my first foray into DISC for racing.  I'm not sure about it, but will give it a go and see how I handle it. Wish me luck!

 

8:30pm, Vanders & I are going for a night fang through Westerfolds Park on MTB's.  I've got my HID, he's got an array of halogens.  Clearly I have the advantage ....

We spoke of wombats and how one would not like to hit one at any kind of speed.  There's often one or two near the bridge over the Yarra.  Not tonight .. we clean the first few sections of singletrack without incident.

After the bridge we turn left through the sweepers, often a wombat here too .. nope .. through the little dipper, through some tighter stuff, then BANG something low to the ground and black thuds into my bike somewhere around the middle, THUMP it charges into me again (I'm still upright!), and WHACK it hits my front wheel (I think) and I'm lying on the ground, wondering exactly what made a wombat charge into me from the side not once, or even twice, but three times.

Bastard!  Vanders was just behind me, laughing!  Brush off the dust and check for damage between laughs.  I'm ok, a little bruised and dirty around the right shoulder and side, but my front wheel is taco'd.  4km we'd ridden, so it's a 4km walk back to Vander's car.  He scoots off for some more fun while I roll & carry my bike back to the car.  *doh*

They're a protected species, right?  Hrmmm ...

 

 

Seen any hype about alkaline water?  Ionized water?  Carnegie-Caulfield even have one of these as a sponsor (I'm somewhat saddened that CCCC would accept their money, but that's their call) .. but it's a fraud.  Read here for why.  And also here. Recently, a certain XXXXX XXXXX has been sending me some junk about it, and how it's a miracle cure for just about everything.  In an early reply I asked him if it also cures baldness, impotence and cancer, and he replied that it probably did too ... alarm bells ringing?  They should be.

 

This was his first unsolicited mail to me :

shonky_fraudster@xx.xx.xx wrote: 
You are receiving this mail because S Fraudster is 
sending feedback about the site administered by you at 
http://www.aboc.com.au  The message sent was: 
 
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my legs don't ache the next day, and my sweat causes less neck rashes 
etc. I am very impressed with this product. I would recommend all 
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Cyclists will love this once they get their hands on it! How you can 
improve your performance while drinking water Check it out! 
www.xoomaworldwide.com/XXXXXX Kind Regards Cheers Shonky Fraudster

 

Today, I get this gem (again, unsolicited, and after I'd told this huckster I was in no way interested in his snake oil) :

 

Carl, This may be of interest to you. As we both know, timing is critical when it comes to getting in first on something brand new.

Check out the message update below I received from our team and click on the link. Or GO HERE -- Would love to know what you think about this new Movie (it's only 5 minutes long) that really brings to light the truth about the water, health drinks, and energy drinks the world is consuming in mass quantity... it's indeed a real eye-opener!

Shonky
XXXXXXXXXX
shonky@wateroflife.net.au

----- Original Message -----

From: 'X2O Movie System Admin'

To:  Shonky
Sent: April 3, 2007
Subject: (Update) New X2O Movie

Hello Shonky Fraudster,

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This stuff is classic snake oil.  Don't be fooled. It's fraud.

 

 

Next summer, I'd like to run a track sprint series.  Rowan Geddes complained to me a few years ago now that if you're a track sprinter, and you're not in the VIS/AIS or otherwise elite level, there's very little in the way of match sprint racing.  It's not unreasonable to expect this to be the case, match sprinting is time consuming and running it in with track carnivals takes too long. 

So, what can we do for Rowan, Nathan Larkin, Richard Grace, and anyone else that wants to do regular match sprinting?  I know there's a lot of Blackburn trackies that would like the chance to do more of it.  Brett Curren and I discussed it and his eyes lit up (as well they should!), and of course Nicko (John Nicholson), as a former world match sprint champion, was interested too. Maybe we can get the old lion out racing again?

Some possibilities :

Once a fortnight over the summer track season, run a 'sprint series' on Sunday afternoons at the BBN velodrome. Round robins rather than eliminations (so everyone gets more chances to race).  Graded, with series aggregate and daily prizes.  Maybe do grading by initial flying 200 times and then promotion/relegation through grades depending on ongoing results.

Once a fortnight run Friday night sprints at Blackburn or one of the other banked velodromes - Packer Park (CCCC) isn't banked enough so it's not a good venue for match sprinting.  I'm not so keen on weeknights, people that work for a living can't often get away from work early enough to make this practical, but it might work?

Any other suggestions?  I want to make this run next summer, and input is much appreciated.

Today was the last day of the Blackburn summer 2006-2007 track season, we finished off with a tortourous 40km pointscore as the last event of the club championship, and then a nice short 12 lap B grade scratch race, a handicap, an olympic (team) sprint and finally the 'all in' race.  A pretty hard day at the office. 

The 40km pointscore was driven at a furious (to me anyway ...) tempo every time Tom Leaper got on the front, and it wasn't long 'til I dropped my first lap, but I recovered and got on after being lapped, did some turns a few times and generally got blasted off the back every sprint, after 66 laps I'd blown to bits (and dropped 100 points/5 laps!), time to admit defeat and try and save some beans for races I had a chance in. For the record, Jamie Goddard won it by one point over Tom, and Alan Barnes took a very well earned third.  A grade, Mr Barnes ... it's time and you know it!

A 12 lap scratch race!  B grade was smaller than usual, and Alan Barnes wasn't racing (still blown from the point score I assume), but there was a dark horse, an older bloke I'd not seen before.  I knew Alan Doran wasn't 100% today, so figured he'd try and shake things up early, and he did, but he didn't manage to get enough of a gap to break the field, and it ended up a last lap sprint, I had speed, but bad position, and ended up second with the dark horse taking the win by a few meters in the end. That was my best result in a B grade scratch race, so I was pretty happy with it.  Dino rode exceptionally well in his first B grade race too.

We watched and cheered on big Nath (who is rapidly becoming less big) as he won the D grade scratch race (and also the 2nd div h'cap), and Rich, who rode gallantly in the C grade scratch, but relentless attacks after his efforts in the points race took their toll on him.

The div 1 h'cap saw Jamie and Tom sweep up everyone with 2 to go, and Jamie predictably won it. Dino again rode out of his skin to finish with the main bunch, with Emily cheering him on.  Next summer, Emily ... your turn.

The olympic sprint was the usual painfest, and then an all-in to finish off, by which time there was stuff-all food left at the free bbq!  No-one remembered to feed the entertainment!

Presentations followed for the individual club championship events and I now have some medals to find a home for, I'm pretty well satisfied with this season of racing.  It's been a lot of fun, great intensity training, and being part of some of the lads really hitting their stride has been very rewarding.  Dino, Rich and Nathan in particular have improved so much in so sort a time it's just been fantastic.

Glenvale tomorrow, if my legs work in the morning.  Road season in a few weeks.  There's flat h'caps at Modella this year. Good.

What a weekend ...
A terse diary would say something like this

Saturday:
rainy morning so slept in because road skills were a washout
rode club champs masters  scratch race, 2nd
rode club champs masters 500 ITT, 3rd
drove to Wonthaggi
rode HPV for 1hr 15 mins
drove back to Melb
slept
Sunday :
club champs masters flying 200, 2nd (qualifier for sprints)
club champs masters match sprint vs Brett Curren - lost
club champs masters match sprint vs Nathan Larkin - won - 3rd overall
club champs 2km pursuit vs Alan Barnes, lost, 2nd overall in pursuit
finished 2nd in masters club championship overall

And that'd be about it.  Even now (midnight on Monday) it seems a blur.  The lads rode like champs - Richard was so unlucky not to beat me in the 500 ITT (0.05s margin, that's just human error), and I was a cunning rat to surprise and hold off Alan Doran and get 2nd in the masters scratch race (Alan Barnes was almost unbeatable, he won everything except the match sprints, the skill and cunning of Brett Curren was all that stopped a Barnes clean sweep). 

The Wonth HPV was a disaster, the chain guard that had been burning a hole in my calf at the test wasn't moved enough, so I had to pedal twisted to one side to try and avoid it, so I bashed my thigh against the steering on both sides and I have a pair of very odd bruises on my quads, after 1 hr and 10 mins the seat popped out of its locating holes and I had to come in early, and when I got out I couldn't walk or sit down due to bruising or some muscle injury in my arse.  My arms are blue from being bashed against the siderails too ....  I let the team down in a big way and was very unhappy, but I was not going to get back in the thing.  Vanders was almost as bashed about by it as I was but he managed to do his 3 hours.  He's a tough nut.  I couldn't do it, I had to lie on my side for the drive back to Melbourne and even now am having to sleep on one side to protect my arse!  I owe Bev a big favour for driving me home that night.

Sunday I was hoping I'd be able to ride, bugger-all sleep and carrying injuries sustained at the HPV, I managed to warm up ok and do an ok time for a flying 200, I think it was a PB, but it was the first one I'd timed on a track bike, so who knows?  Anyway, it was the second fastest of the masters, about 0.2 slower than Alan Barnes, but 0.05s faster than Brett Curren.  So it's a raceoff against Brett to see who gets to race Alan for first.  I know we're (Brett & I) about equal in terms of speed today, so it's going to be a very tactical sprint.  Brett draws the low lane, and so he's got the advantage of control.  I want to get behind him or better, below him so I can start the sprint on my terms, but he keeps me pinned to the fence for two laps, and I don't have the bike handling skill or confidence to get below him without him being able to close down any lane I might have. I throw a couple of dummy dives but he doesn't fall for such amateur moves, and then with a lap to go, we're away and although I manage to get onto his hip, I'm going the long way around the bend and he holds me off and wins safely.  Bugger ... Brett goes on to win 2 out of three against Alan in the final, so that's good. I'm clearly beaten by a smarter and more experienced rider.  It was a good learning experience and gave me lots to think about for next time.

We watch Rich easily win the raceoff for 5th.  He's a sprinter, that's for sure.  Very strong. With a bit more practice, sprint races will be his playground, and I'm sure he and Nath will have a fierce rivalry.

Barry 'Bazza the Wizard' wins the elite sprint over Jamie Goddard, Tom Leiper won the scratch race by a mile on Saturday, essentially turning it into 'everyone chase Tom if you can', reminiscent of Richie England's attacks a few years ago,  while Jamie and THE Master M1 Stevie Martin played out a game for second, I think The Wizard won the elite kilo but am not sure, and Tom toasted everyone in the 4k pursuit.

Nathan's set the 4^th fastest time in the masters flying 200's, so we have a raceoff for 3rd.  I've got the low lane, and I'm feeling pretty trashed, I know I can go very early and most likely drop Nathan after a lap, but I'm not sure if I'd blow up,  after the previous day's efforts I'm pretty cooked.  So I keep it slow and gamble on a little more than a one lap sprint.  I keep Nath on the fence, and as we come up to the bell, I jump and get clear, but Nath pulls a pedal.  I sit up and roll around, this is not the right way to win a race. The rules say that I win, but it's not a real win, so I request a rerun and we get one.  Good.  This time I'm even more trashed, and I want the shortest sprint I can get.  I'm low again, and keep Nath high, he doesn't want to be there and keeps surging to try and make me move too far forward so he can drop down behind me.  I suck him down once or twice when he tries to sneak around the back to keep him honest, and as we come past the finish line, just as we start to roll up the bank I jump, hoping that he'll have started to ride up the bank and will be pointing up the hill and I'll get a gap.  I'm not looking back, this is for a medal or nothing, and gun it as hard as I can with what I have left in the tank, and Nath can't come over.  *phew*.

We have a break, then it's 2k pursuit time.  I'm lucky, I guess, I'm seeded second (Alan Doran's not here today and Brett only rode the sprint), so get to get chased by Alan Barnes.  It's only 2km, but I've never done a pursuit before.  I've ridden an 88" gear all season, I'm not going to change it now.  It's like doing the last exam in a 9 exam block at Uni ... just get it over with ... so away we go, and as the pursuit riders will tell you, it hurts like crazy for the last bit - I did my best to pace myself, but in the last lap I felt I had a bit left so I sprinted it (pride wouldn't let me get lapped by Alan!).  I've never had a cramp in a VMO before, unique ... I still managed to get the second fastest time, so I'm pretty sure I finished second overall in the club champs for masters. 

I'm pretty happy with that, it's my first season of track racing and I wasn't taking it at all seriously, as it's mainly been cross-training for winter road.  I was very happy with second in the scratch race, early on in the season in C grade Alan Doran and I were pretty evenly matched, he had the endurance but I had top speed, but later on when we were both in B grade I struggled and he rode really well (and he gave me a lesson in sprint tactics! Always watch and be ready for a jump by an endurance rider, always!), but at this race I managed to control the pace for the last few laps and keep it low enough that I could use my sprint at the end, and although Alan Barnes was too strong, I kept Alan Doran at bay. They were too busy watching each other and I took advantage of that to steal second place.  I think I managed to hold onto second for the masters track aggregate too, but am not sure.  The BBN website isn't exactly up to date with the results and points ... so I can't be sure.

Bring on the road season ... I hope there's a flat Modella handicap this year, that's my favorite hunting ground ... For the hilly races, I'm a domestique for any aboc'ers that show up in my grade until the hills, then I solo home for the lantern rouge, but the long flat races are my playground. Bring it on ....

Vanders and I spent an hour or two at the Greenspeed workshop and carpark tonight, getting used to the new HPV that we'll be racing on on the weekend at Wonthaggi.  It's the 24 hour endurance race that gets held there every year.  We last did it (an aboc crew, that is, myself, Neil Robinson and Stu Burnie, photos here) in '05 in the 'Beserk', which was a carbon fiber faired HPV that weighed 32kg and was not very stable.  Very fast and slippery once it got wound up, but around the Wonth course it was a pig. This year Craig van der Valk and I are doing the ride, and we're trying to find one more aboc'er to do it, interested?  Let me know, NOW!

This one, is so much better than the one from '05 it's not even worth comparing.  On the surface it looks low-tech, it's got a corflute fairing which is pretty crude and it's head-out not fully enclosed.  It's under the skin that this beauty rocks.  It's a fully integrated space-frame with the rollcage, intrusion protection etc all part of the chassis, which makes the HPV as light as the rules will allow without serious exotica and very, very stiff.  With a decent amount of track at the front, and around 20 degrees of caster, it's stable in a straight line, and corners like the old cliche', it's on rails.  Having head-out is a big plus, I think, the Wonth course is reasonably slow, so the aero losses are far outweighed by the lack of night problems, fogging, ease of entry and exit at pitstops and so on. The fully enclosed HPVs are bad at night when they fog up, we had to bash the screen out of the '05 one to see where we were going in the end.

Photos from the familiarisation session are here. 

Note that it has SRM cranks (not exactly cheap ...), that I wound up to 1060 watts in one drag down the carpark. It's not perfect, if you've got small calves and shoulders and quads, it's ace, but if you're a big, fat and lazy sprinter, it's a very tight fit and I found that after about 5 minutes my right calf was rubbed raw against the inner chain guard - Paul Simms (aka Simmsey) is going to fix that, but, and I think I was the only one to find this a problem, my quads rub against the steering arms.  Not an issue at first, but after some time it'll rub through my knicks and eat skin.  Hopefully we can do something, or I'll be wearing two cheap old knicks and hoping that they last for my time in the beast. I can't get at a drink bottle, so that'll limit my shifts to about an hour or 90 mins at the absolute most.  Rain and 21 degrees is forecast for Saturday, so that might not be such an issue.  The last time it was run it was low 30's and drinking was pretty important to keep going.

It's going to be a pretty tough weekend, I've got to coach road skills on Saturday morning, race the Blackburn club champs on Saturday afternoon, jump on chilliwing and get to Wonthaggi to do my 3 hours in the HPV (team of 8, 3 hours per rider), grab some sleep, turn around and come back to do the next day of Blackburn club champs on the Sunday.  Sunday night, I'm having a spa ....