Primal Odyssey

The Mancation

2009-04-29T09:19:17Z

Well is time to get the trip plans up, Below is a loose look at what I’ll be up to over July, the only dates are that will not change at this stage are any flights (pending airlines having other ideas). Yes it’s Mancation (wikipedia= all-male bonding vacation) time come this July. Well to be totally honest… I’ll be off to Africa to catch up with a few of my family members.

Yes the African family… aka “The African Savages” (niece: aged 9, nephew age 2, Sister: age not to be mentioned!, Brother In-Law (top bloke), and The Phoenix. I will be spending the final Mancation lead up training in the deepest darkest africa. Fear not as I’m sure I’ll survive the first two week as the Alpine Dream will be just around the corner. If anyone else is heading over, drop me a line… a beer and a laugh must be shared.

Wednesday 1 July:
Fly to Durban, South Africa, catch up with family and do some local club rides to keep the legs turning over.

Friday 3 July:
Time to get back on the bike after the long flight over. Hill repeats are on the cards… 1.5 hours

Saturday 4 July:
Heading out with Sharks Cycle Club from Durban North to Ballito… no idea where we are going, just know it’s 85km ride.

Sunday 5 July:
round 60km spin, nothing to fast. Pure recovery ride.

Wednesday 8 July:
Same as the 3rd July (nothing but climbing)

Wednesday 14 July:
Fly to London, bike will be in storage until heading to Geneva.

Saturday 18th July:
fly into Geneva, hop on the tour coach at around 6pm for my transfer to the town of Faverges where we will call home for 6 nights, Best Western Hotel Florimont. It’s time to get the bike built and ready for the first day

Sunday 19th July:
The pros will hit the Alps on a 207km stage (bugger that!). The tour lads will drop us off around Chamonix, we have a 50km day over and down the Col de la Forclaz to the base of the climb to Verbier. From here we will climb back into the coach and watch the Pro’s do there thing as they tear past us, th rest will be watched on the coach’s TV while we head back to base camp.

Monday 20th July:
2nd Rest Day in Verbier for the Pros, from what I can tell we have a number of options open to us kicking off with climbs of the Col du Forclaz, Col des Saisies, Col des Aravis, Col de la Colombiere are all on the table for us to take on, I’m tipping one or maybe two of these big girls will see me having a good sleep this night, a lighter option is a circuit of the crystal blue waters of Lake Annecy

Tuesday 21st July:
Our location in Faverges allows excellent access to today’s stage, and those with bikes will have the choice of riding to the final climb of the stage, Col du Petit St Bernard or the finish in Bourg St Maurice.

Wednesday 22nd July:
Our location in Faverges could not be better for accessing today’s stage, we can roll out from the hotel to the stage (sweet). Today is a self ride tour as we will be able to head off to any of the following mountains: Col des Saisies, Cote d’Araches, Col de Romme or the final climb of the Col de la Colombiere. Or even head over to the stage finish in Le Grand Bornand. Too many options can be a bad thing, I’ll need to research all of the above before making a decision.

Thursday 23rd July:
The hotel is only 8km from Lake Annecy and the time trial circuit. We have numerous options of riding to see the stage, either by the bike path that takes you all the way to Annecy town or via the beautiful Col du Forclaz that takes you to the Col de Bluffy climb that features in the Time Trial. Top day in my book, still doubt we’ll get near the Pro’s as they’ll be locked away in their little safety village.

Friday 24th July:
It’s a quick breakfast and load the coach with nothing more than a cyclist tan, a few photos and some great memories while I head back to London before returning home to Brisbane.

The road to the alps.

2009-04-10T08:08:41Z

In 98 days I will be at the foot of the Swiss Alps. Chasing Lance, if he makes it due to the collarbone thing he’s got going on. With time no longer on my side the training is now underway to get some miles in the legs before flying out to South Africa for two weeks before I head to London and onto Geneva to pick up my tour group.

Road to the Alps

The road to the Alps for me is the paved with plenty of frequent flyer miles. As mention above, the training is underway. After an inspirational chat to a former “Australian Road Championship” the training and attitude to training is about to change. The old rule of not riding in the rain… is out the window, today I actually pedaled off from home into the pouring rain with nothing other than getting k’s into the legs on my mind. My new house of pain is going to be Mt Mee which kicks off early next week.

Mt. Cotton Kermesse

2009-03-31T09:51:30Z

The following short video is on the Elite A Grade Men Mt. Cotton Kermesse race held on 29 March 2009. My apologies for the quality but it was a busy day running mad to get some pictures and running my helmet cam, either by hand or at street level. If you want to see some pictures from this race head over to the Gallery.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

PrimalOdyssey kits

2009-03-31T09:44:42Z

PrimalOdyssey kit seen out racing at the “Bike Week Cup”. These kits are currently a limited edition as the initial run of kits of only ten where produced. If you are looking for a PrimalOdyssey kit drop us a line on the contact page. If there are enough numbers an additional run will go ahead in the future.

Puncture Repairs made Easy

2009-03-13T02:59:02Z

Well I’d be the first to say that I hate patching a tube. While up at TWC today I was given a Park Tools “Super Patch Kit” to try. It’s a bloody winner in my book, after a quick sand to prep the area of the puncture and slapped on the patch, squeezed out any air bubbles and put it straight back onto the pump and it was ready to go.

Now I’m not one to blow a manufacturers trumpet but this is the ducks nuts when it comes to patch repairs. Park Tools have worked with 3M that:

to produce a self adhesive tube patch that stretches, flexes, twists, and turns right along with the tube. No messy glue, no bulky packaging. Lightly roughen tube with the included sandpaper, clean, apply patch, and you’re ready to go. Six patches with sandpaper in a neat little carry along box. Available individually carded (GP- 2C) or in a handy 50 kit countertop display.

It’s now in my saddle bag waiting for the next flat.

The Gallery

2009-02-04T22:55:56Z

Just a quick one to give you a look at the PrimalOdyssey Gallery. It could be called a new feature.. it’s more that I blew the gallery feature away some time back and after a few renditions I’ve gone full circle back to the original yet updated version for this gallery. In good time I will work on the theme to bring it onto line with the Primal look and feel.

Current Gallery Features are as follows:

The Tour Down Under 2009

Brisbane Crits 2007

Nundah Crits January 2009

TDU 2009 Road Trip.

2009-01-28T00:11:13Z

The Tour Down Under. The boy’s weekend chasing the peloton was a busy one. Arriving in Adelaide on Friday at 11:30 and into the hire car on the chasing Lance adventure. We finally got our first look at the Peloton as they were heading down Seppeltsfield Road on their way to the finish at Angaston.

First Look - Tour Down Under 2009 Stage 5 on Seppeltsfield Road. If you look closely you can see Jens Voigt

Day two, up early and off to breakfast then on the road to the start at Snapper Point. This was the best opportunity to get those close up photos, and even an autograph if that what you after.

George Hincapi - looking relaxed while getting interviewed before stage 6 of the Tour Down Under 2009.

My mission on this trip was to get photos of Hincapi, Rogers, O’Grady, Evans, and let’s not forget the Armstrong. My mission was complete when I got a picture with Cadel.

After the start gun went we where off to Willunga to watch them tear through town 5 times. I managed to get in close to the Astana team bus where the riders would head after the race. Right on queue after the finish they rolled in. Got a few photos of the king himself but decided that to head off as the crowds for his autograph where a bit too much. I gotta say, Armstrong sure can pull a crowd, it must such to have no privacy and everyone wants a piece of you.

LanceArmstrong - The King

The Legends dinner was huge, Armstrong, Hincapi, Evans, O’Grady, Oscar Pereira, Bruyneel and many others. The interview with Armstrong was great, he had a good chat and seemed relaxed. Cadel and Sean Kelly also had a sort interview, all round it was a top night. Ligget dragged Hincapi up to have a chat with Bruyneel and Armstrong, the crowd loved it. The former Senior Lieutenant (Hencapi) and the General (Armstrong) of the “US Postal/Discovery” era where shoulder to shoulder once again. You could tell these two are close mates.

Lance Armstrong and Johan Bryneel

Day 5, The Crits.

Today was going to be a day for the crowds. I headed over to the course for a quick look, I managed to get some good shots of the lads then headed back to the unit for the best seat in the house. The Crits are best watched on TV. There is no other way to see the whole race but in air-conditioning.

Tour Down Under – Boys weekend

2009-01-22T04:52:19Z

Ok it’s official. I’m now in the final countdown to the Tour Down Under. I.ve been watching the live feed updates on http://live.tourdownunder.com.au and listening to the updates on ABC Radio Adelaide to keep me in the loop on what happening on the ground each day.

Now it’s time to pack up the weekend backpack. Load the camera and a few sets of batteries and head to the airport in the morning. Myself and Princey will be meeting King Ric at the Adelaide airport and then the three of us and Chasing Lance, well to be honest, let’s just hope we get to see some good racing. Viva la TDU… Feel the rush!

So no training this weekend, well the liver will be getting a work out most nights over this weekend.

Cyclist gets Punched.

2009-01-19T09:55:08Z

Yes you’re read that correctly. This morning I met up with Mrs. Nanoman for a recovery ride around the river. The two of us rolled around and had a chat along the way… as you do. We came across a few other cyclists as we rolled around, some we passed and some passed us. Just before we entered the Brisbane Cso, another cyclist on a single speed Cannondale (A man with style and taste based on the frame alone) had caught up to us. I was leading the group of three up a small hill before getting onto the Cso. Here’s where it gets interesting.

And may I add that this is my view on the events that followed. Names, Times and general information will be withheld due to ongoing statement being taken by the Queensland Police Service.

I was leading up this small hill, a jogger was running down the road towards us. I noticed the jobber was running on the white line in the centre of the road. I thought that a bit weird. As I got to the crest nearing the jogger I noticed him start to cross the white line and start yelling something along the lines of “Get over to your side of the road”. Well this had me lost as I was on my side of the road and had in fact moved further across the lane to avoid the jogger.

The gentleman that was riding with us, and may I add I didn’t know him from a bar of soap (this soon changes) was (and I didn’t see this as I was ahead of him) punched on his right side. Still not knowing that this had taken place until I heard Mrs. NanoMan say something along the lines of “Hey” and then heard Cannondale Single Speed Cyclist (CSSC) said… “That’s Assault”. Of course I was looking back by this point to see what was going on.
“Jogger” was still in the middle of the road and had turned to face us, and was now going on about “Get over to your side of the road” …. and “Come on”… “Come on” and gesturing for CSSC to come back so he could take him on. I personally couldn’t believe what I was seeing. As CSSC had stopped to see what “Joggers” problem was I decided to stick by CSSC in case things got out of hand to break things up.

Now I’m not one for violence, in fact I’ll walk away from most incidents, but I have to take my hat off to CSSC. He attempted to charm “Jogger” down while “Jogger” was let’s just say… using an aggressive tone and physically prodding CSSC in the chest and lower stomach with his right hand in an attempt to provoke the situation. We eventually rode off and left Jogger Man to go on ranting at us.

Now after we returned to the car we all pulled up and had a quick transfer of details. I must admit I know for a fact that I was not on the wrong side of the road. How this situation came about still has me perplexed. CSSC raised a good point “Given that the incident could have had more serious outcomes” it has me worried, What if Mrs. NanoMan was the one punched? What if CSSC had fallen as a result of the punch and taken other down with him or incurred a serious injury as a result of Joggers actions?

I’m a firm believer in that a person’s actions have consequences. If those consequences lead to another humans death or long term injury how would this have been explained if there was no-one around to see it. Is this a case of “Jungle Fever in the city”. Where there are too many people living in close proximity and we’ve all had enough of each other.

I must admit that I’m not one to go on about things but this put a negative spin on my day, I have been objective in the writing of this post. These are my views as I saw them. Maybe the advise that I gave Jogger to go home and take whatever pills he had forgotten to take was a little too much. But this was an uncalled for violent act. And is classed as “a random act of rage/violence on a cyclist.” Under the Queensland Police Service.

Ride safely! I know I will.

The King has entered the Island.

2009-01-11T23:31:56Z

Last night saw “His Royal Cyclingness” Lance Armstrong enter the building. Welcome to Oz mate, remember I’ll be the tall bloke at the Legends Dinner on the 24th. Not that you read this site but hey I’ll post this anyway.
The clock is ticking, I hear that LA will be riding a custom sprayed LiveStrong frame and might even buck the trend and not race in the Astana colors.

Lance Armstrong arriving at Sydney airport. Photo: Chris Lane