The Thread about Nothing....



Jock said:
thanks

I was further up the bunch but I was so embarrassed by the gaps I was opening up in the corners I went back to the back. And, once again, this was at Sandown!! Not exactly a tight street circuit :)

Maybe I should just wait for the road season :(
 
Wilchemy said:
I think he sort of lost the vibe for bit & went and got a "real" job as a school teacher and then a few years ago decided to get back on the bike & see how good he could go......and it's pretty farken good!!! Big, strong unit!! :eek:
so he definitely had extended time off?

I'm still fascinated by that Gary Clively story
 
jock.c said:
That was more than likely Phil Thauax who won the 4000m ITT at the Nationals the day before. Many a Central Coast rider has tried to keep up with Phil when he's doing efforts, but usually not for very long. :)
Would Phil be jetsetting down to Melbourne just to ride on Beach Road?? :confused:
 
EVCC RR at Steels Creek on Satdee... first race since November... kinda forgot how hard some attacks can be and went off the back on lap 2 (4x19km laps)
Clawed my way back on and managed to stay with all the other attacks... funny but I only really started to get comfortable after the first 40km - we probably lost a third of our bunch by the last lap.
Weird finish... we were told at the start that we'd only get a single lane for the sprint as they couldn't get permission for full road closure... combine that with the uphill sprint, with a fair headwind, wet roads and people going all over the place with 1km to go, I and a few others decided that there'd be carnage with 20 people going for it so we just sat on the back to watch.
Everyone started to wind up for the sprint, hit the hill and they started going backwards. I saw a small gap down the left on the edge of the road and managed to get past most of them, then had to sit up cos they were going so slow and had the road blocked. Darted off to the right, went around a few more and got elbowed over the centre-line at the finish - 5th.
Never been in a sprint that died as quickly... couldn't believe how slow they were going.
Lesson learned.

Went out at 7am yesterday for a 3hr ride... legs are farked. :D
Where were you yesterday morning Wil?
 
531Aussie said:
... the gaps I was opening up in the corners...
You might need to spend less time training on Beach Road and more time threading your way through the back streets getting cornering practice in. :p

But really, how come your no good at cornering? Fear of clipping your pedal? Uncomfortable turning in close company? Not changing to the correct gear BEFORE you get to the corner? You don't use your brakes do you? Get disoriented and lose your line (don't laugh, this actually happens to people when they're surrounded!)?

If you answered yes to any of the above then there's an easy solution: get a job as a bicycle courier! :)
 
Wilchemy said:
Would Phil be jetsetting down to Melbourne just to ride on Beach Road?? :confused:

Doh!! Masters Nationals are on in Melbourne, not the elites which were on at DGV last week. Brainfade

OzMan, it wasn't Phil.
 
jock.c said:
You might need to spend less time training on Beach Road and more time threading your way through the back streets getting cornering practice in. :p:)
too right


jock.c said:
But really, how come your no good at cornering?
it's mostly lack of confidence on the faster corners and the fear of my front wheel going out from underneath me. Two particular corners through the chicane at Sandown are slightly down hill, and with a tail sou'easter, some guys go through at well over 40kph (not exactly sure of the speed coz it's NOT the time I'm looking at my speedo). Then, coming out of the corner I'm 10m off the back, and had to sprint into a strong headwind at 46 to 49kph, pretty much every lap!! :p It was also a reasonably hot pace: ave around 41.8kph, which ain't too bad for vets. Sandown is very open and wind-affected
 
climbo said:
Australian cyclist Matthew Rex is in a serious but stable condition after being hit by a car driven by friend and training partner Chris Jongewaard in Normanville, South Australia on Saturday night. Rex, a former member of the Australian Institute of Sport's under 23 program who now rides for Stuart O'Grady's development squad, Team O'Grady, sustained severe head injuries in the accident and is currently in an induced coma.

According to a police spokesman, Jongewaard, a recent winner of the Australian Mountain Bike Championship, had undergone a breath test after the accident.
This is bad. Very bad.
 
flipper said:
EVCC RR at Steels Creek.....(snip).....Where were you yesterday morning Wil?
Funnily enough...Steels Creek :D (or close to it, at least!)

Did a loop thru Warrandyte, Kangaroo Ground then across via Christmas Hills to Yarra Glen & back via Maroondah Hwy.
 
531Aussie said:
Sandown is very open and wind-affected
Bloody quick down the front straight with a tailwind too.:)

I know former Aussie sprint and road champ (in the same year!:eek: ) Laurie Venn basically used to train laps around the block when he was training for crits.
 
531Aussie said:
it's mostly lack of confidence on the faster corners and the fear of my front wheel going out from underneath me.
front wheel going out? WTF?

Next time you're over at Sandown warming up why don't you stop at the chicane and do this one lame little thing. Get off your bike and hold the stem and seat. Now lean the bike over and push hard against the wheels. Keep leaning the bike further and further until the wheels start to give way. Now look at the angle the bike is on and try to convince yourself that you could ever lean it over that far.

Then when you're racing just tell yourself that if they can scuttle through the corner at ridiculous speed then so can you. Follow their line, match their gearing, but most of all relax and enjoy the ride.
 
Holy **** - check this out (sorry that it's so long, but you gotta read it!)


CrosseyedCrickt said:
Yeah, well.....
I was asked to tell about my roadkill story. It's a little disturbing so I kinda just eluded to it in another thread. See http://bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=21
Anyhow.
It was early in the fall last year and I was riding to work on the shoulder of Metro Parkway, a 55MPH road with a decent shoulder. I'm pedaling along my merry way, being the happy fat man that I am, just whistling and dreaming of eating some cheese cake or something to the sort. I was approaching the traffic light at the intersection of Dodge Park when I heard the distinct sound of an engine slowing down, not the car but the engine, you know how a car sounds when you are driving along at 60MPH and let off the gas, anyhow, and all of a sudden a big white van comes passing by me with a guy hanging out the passenger window, and I mean HANGIN OUT! I could see his butt crack almost! And he yelled something at me. Now that was many months ago and I can not really remember what it was but it was making fun of the way my 300+ pound gluteus maximus engulfed my small saddle... moving on. I'm watching this van go buy and this guy hanging out of it when his hat comes flying off. the van slows down even more... I stop. I pick up the hat and place it on top of my helmet.
now, the van is no more than 50 yards ahead of me and stopped at the light. I'm catching up on them, not pedaling hard because I have this guys hat sitting on top of my helmet and I don't want it to fly off. I finally catch up to the guys, roll along side the passenger window, look in, smile, and continue on my way. Nothing more than that, I just smile and go about my commute. But here is the best part. this is no normal van. It belongs to a "company" and I read the name and remember the phone number. The number was sooo easy to remember. It was almost exactly like my cell phone number with the area code different so all I ahd to do was remember the area code... moving on.
I get to work. I call the phone number. A lady answers. She just says "hello". I say, "oh I'm sorry, I thought I was calling COMPANY NAME". She apologizes for answering so candidly and informs me that COMPANY NAME is run by her husband out of their home and that he has a small office there. I socially engineer some more information out of her, including the address. Here is where my criminally activated mind takes over.
I am who heartedly set on going to this guys house and having some fun with his van... flaming rag in the gas spout kind of fun. Anyone who has read my posts know that I am not a nice person and usually don't care about other people. Having said that I start off on my journey. I get off work early in the fall months, early meaning 3:00AM. So I set off to this guys house to have a little fun. About a mile from my "destination" I hit the carcass of a dog in the road. It was dark and I did not use a light back then because my route home is usually lit, a small flasher is all I used to use... moving on. I almost break my neck when I fall down from hitting this bloody mass of hair and meat. I stand up, kick the dog... ouch! It must have weighed 30lbs, even with its innards removed. Then the idea hit me!!! Oh yeah, I had the perfect plan! Here is where my story gets disturbing.
I scoop up all of the dogs innards and put them back into the body cavity. I know I know, this is sickening and blah blah blah. I don't want to repost the story of my life, but to recap, I'm a farm boy who used to slaughter animals for a living. I hunt and mount my own trophies, and blod and guts do nothing to bother me. It's no different than seeing a steak or ground beef in the supermarket to me...moving on. I stuff all of the innards back into the pooch that I so lovingly have named "rover". I put rover on my rack and tie him in and we go for a ride.
What's that I see up ahead? Oh my oh my, it's my favourite van. I sneak onto this guys property. All the lights are out. Ooooh baby, time to have some fun. I take the screwdriver out of my toolbag so that I can pop the window quietly to gain access to the van. Alarms be damned!! But what is this?? The van is unlocked!! Oh joy oh joy. Thank you Odin!!
I open the door to the van.... no alarm... this is better than I had thought! I untied rover, he was just sitting there like such a good boy. I hated to have to part with him. I sat him in the drivers seat. And just to make sure he was safe I buckeled him in. Such a good doggie, sitting there all nicely, with his paws on the stearing wheel. I pulled the sunglasses from the visor and put them on rover so that the morning sun doesn't blind him. I quietly shut the door and get ready to leave. Oh yeah!! I have that guys hat!! And..... you guessed it.
Rover looked so cute with his sunglasses and hat, sitting there all buckeled in like he was ready for Daytona!
I get back on my bike and ride home. Park my bike, go in, take a shower, hit the sack.
I wake up around noon to go clean my bike off. oops! Rover left one of his paws there. I should have returned it but I don't think he'll miss it.
Two days later I read about a "disgusting act of vandilism" in the county paper.

This is my story of revenge. I'm not a nice person, but then again I never claimed to be.

Please, let's hear some of your worst or best!!

Oh, and please don't condem me. My wife did that enough when I started laughing my butt off after reading the paper and told her the story.
 
Gusboh said:
Holy **** - check this out (sorry that it's so long, but you gotta read it!)
By 'Told my Wife when I got back', I'm assuming he's referring to the chick tied and gagged in the basement? :eek: