tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90744262026-07-24T16:04:56.002+10:00Just a spot for general ramblings (but mostly on Hifi, Home Theatre, DVDs, Games and anything gadgety...)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.comBlogger1197125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-74647311287191820942014-07-02T15:29:00.001+10:002014-07-02T15:29:42.241+10:00

The blog post today is pretty hard to write, simply because the ride today was such an epic conclusion to a fantastic 8 day (or 10 days) of riding with the most iconic of climbs Alpe d'huez. The group was in high spirits despite the threat of cold and a wet morning, possibly because it was the iconic climbs or possible because we knew we didn't have to get back on the bike after today. 

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-44463464316071309352014-07-02T01:03:00.001+10:002014-07-02T14:48:09.454+10:00

Today most people took it easy after the epic day that was Alpe d'Huez and Galibier yesterday. Everyone was late to ride for breakfast without the proposal of an early roll out to attack a few cols. We wandered down to the Alpe d'huez village to check out the shopping and coffee options. There was some discussion of riding but most obtained. Matt keen to grab one more Col headed out to

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-70542918200934989872014-06-30T07:08:00.001+10:002014-06-30T07:14:25.912+10:00

Odds were it was going to happen eventually, but our run of perfect weather ended abruptly at 3am when the heavens opened and the valley was engulfed in cloud. This awaking certainly dampened the spirits of the group,after a weeks worth of climbing most of us were probably just content to stay snuggled under the blankets rather than tackle another 2 cols. But in the Cyc'd spirit we

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-87027549941758807872014-06-29T06:46:00.001+10:002014-06-29T06:48:35.055+10:00

We left our picturesque accommodation in Fummet this morning after a fantastic breakfast spread and awaking to some magnificent views of the alps. Today was the second day of our road trip and was just epic filled with a a bunch of firsts rolling over today. First of all there were a lot of firsts in elevation... Two Hors categorie climbs back to back that were both my 

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-31380535355241293192014-06-28T05:38:00.001+10:002014-06-28T05:42:29.890+10:00

With a little air of sadness we left our Chateau that has been home for the last 4 days, especially after the wonderful hospitality on offer from Embrace.A special thanks to James and Tracey for helping me out with the tools to remove the splinter from my foot before we headed out. Being 5 days into the tour RJB started the shenanigans (especially after the flattering photo of yesterday) and

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-39198865296493774262014-06-27T04:05:00.001+10:002014-06-27T05:59:19.456+10:00

Today was our rest day so after a bit of a late start of course we got back on the bikes for an amble out to a lake for a bit of relaxation. As it wasn't a formal ride day we all broke out our fashion kits. Flynn took out kit for the day with the Deadkooks Attaquer kit. I thought (being a rest day) I wouldn't have to write about today but turns out there was still plenty of riding to be done

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-43047992233422787372014-06-26T05:20:00.001+10:002014-06-26T06:47:42.547+10:00

Now, this post comes with a bit of a caveat. After getting destroyed by Neil (from embrace) I managed to stay with him today and get a 10th overall on strava for the climb. So everything from this point on will be slightly tarnished with the "everything is awesome" brush (yes queue the song from the Lego movie)StravaRevard from MouxyMouxy, Rhône-Alpes, FranceDistance 18.1 km Elevation&

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-46559113317373817452014-06-25T05:07:00.001+10:002014-06-25T05:07:17.600+10:00

Our tour might have officially started yesterday but today was our first big climb and will be one of the biggest days of the tour. After an amazing spread for dinner last night the Embrace sports team again put on a fantastic breakfast array for us. (On a side note I'd have to say they have been amazing in making sure that I had enough gluten free food for me) The day started out quite

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-53922124554289670762014-06-24T02:49:00.001+10:002014-06-24T02:49:17.494+10:00

And the tour has officially began. The Cyc'd members have all converged on Lyon, some from Paris, some from London and the remainder from Geneva. The Geneva and Paris legs we're a little eventful. A last minute dash just got us to the TGV in time (most of us even managed to get a ticket). Getting 5 bike bags on two tram rides and a TGV was quite the logistical exercise but some school kids on an

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-38628772744163195642014-06-23T03:46:00.001+10:002014-06-23T03:51:56.000+10:00

And with that the Swiss prelude is over as we make our way to Lyon tomorrow (sadly by train not bike)Total Number of Kilometres: 204Total Elevation Gain: 3032mInstagram ride photos: 14Number of Cols conquered: 2Total riders who made it to the Swiss extension: 5  Number of outrageously expensive lunch stops: 2Number of times we got lost and RJB had to check google maps: (surprisingly only)

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-57869777967070907112014-06-23T01:08:00.001+10:002014-06-23T01:08:55.165+10:00

Wow.... What an amazing day and the official tour hasn't even started yet.Today we found a couple of other Geneva bound Cyc'd riders, broke out the tour kit and headed for the mountains to tackle out first real climb the Col de la Faucille. The Tour de France has traversed this category 3 climb 41 times, starting in 1911 and most recently in 2007.StravaRide Cyc'd European

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-7657777998769006602014-06-21T23:16:00.001+10:002014-06-21T23:16:50.458+10:00

Today I landed in Geneva, my first stop on my journey to Lyon for the Cyc'd European tour largely thanks to the extremely generous hospitality of an old friend. This hospitality, however, came with some catches... In the form of more riding. RJB had devised an engenous cure for my possible jet lag and that was a scenic tour around Geneva and into neighbouring France a mere 3 hours after I

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-68123674361713167862014-06-20T10:35:00.001+10:002014-06-20T10:35:41.604+10:00

Despite the best of intentions my 6 month tracking with the fitbit and aria hasn't really achieved any results. Despite keeping a pretty high level of activity generally keeping my average daily calorie burn above 3500kCal I have only dropped 200g over the last 6 months. I've tried a whole range of things over the time from low carb to not tracking my food at all and it has just

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-51159611851604250252014-06-19T13:03:00.001+10:002014-06-19T13:03:30.397+10:00

A bit of a preview of the climbs we have lined up for the Cyc'd Cycling Club Tour of Europe 2014StravaAlpe d'Huez "Vieil Alpe"Le Bourg D'Oisans, Rhône-Alpes, FranceDistance 11.9 km Elevation 1,031 m Grade 9%Men's LeaderboardSpeedPower VAM Time1Peter Pouly18.6km/h3641,603.738:342Laurens ten Dam18.2km/h3911,574.439:173thibaut pinot18.1km/h3861,565.839:304Dean

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-41347285740979928532014-06-17T18:52:00.001+10:002014-06-17T18:52:13.180+10:00

With the day fast approaching thought it was a good time to do an update about the bike I'm taking. After much debate it was finally decided that my trusty steelie the Colnago Tecnos Competition would get the nod for the trip to the mountains. It's an early nighties steel frame and one of the only frames Colnago ever realised with a weight limit. Despite that it's my most trusted ride and to

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-4236656013110380852014-06-15T14:29:00.000+10:002014-06-15T14:29:00.884+10:00

Yesterday was a fabulous day of riding. Despite being wet and a little cold (for Brisbane anyway), 4 Cyc'd Members (and two valuable ring ins) made the 2 hour trek south to start in the Rapha Gentlemen's Race 2014 Edition on the Gold Coast. An amazing day, perfect course, a great group and one of the best organised events I've been in.... A great way to spend 6.5hours on a bike..

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-75239660879780092562014-06-12T12:09:00.002+10:002014-06-12T12:09:44.568+10:00

It's been a while since I've been blogging but starting a crazy cycling tour through Europe on a 30 year old steel framed bike seemed like the perfect time.... Today is a the start of a few big things this year with my last day at my current job.... It's going to be a crazy month or two...

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-59133041435195356032014-04-07T11:28:00.000+10:002014-04-07T11:28:01.953+10:00

It's been well over a year since I've posted and it's hard to summarise a year in one post. After a fairly sedate ride around the river this morning it occurred to me that it would be interesting to see how it compared with my rides from when I started. Full Gas Friday Ride (June 2012) 28km Riverloop Segment Speed26.3km/h56.9km/h Cadence89139 Heartrate144 bpm180 bpm Suffer Score59

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-23922130837156530512013-03-15T13:38:00.003+10:002013-03-15T13:38:55.002+10:00

It's been a good few months since the Tannus Musai first ride so I thought I should write up another update. Let's start with the summary... In short, they do everything (well at least the first two) it said on the box. No Flat, No Tube, No Stress. Of course it's a little bit more complicated than though. Initially I did start to get worried about riding on the tyres. There were lots of concern

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-67642919172418564912013-01-05T11:11:00.001+10:002013-01-05T11:11:50.046+10:00

I know I said I'd wait until the 500km mark for a review but I thought I'd write a first impression post. So here goes. The look: apart from the lack of a valve stem (and the fact I'd got crazy colours) you would be hard pressed to tell that the tyres were any different. There is the obvious lack of valve stem but I have enough trouble finding the valve when I need to pump up tyres. The ride:

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com8Brisbane Brisbane-27.456696 153.049648tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-64425164476139615152013-01-04T18:53:00.002+10:002013-01-04T18:53:11.057+10:00

This year I'm moving to a part time work role so I can spend more time with the kids while they were little. While I've taken them for plenty of days (or weekends etc) on my own today was the first official day of Daddy Day Care and I was a little nervous. Being a Friday there were decidedly less coffee shop or pub visits to what I was used to but we still had a great day. More importantly the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-59392632476343090842013-01-03T17:29:00.001+10:002013-01-03T18:16:20.037+10:00

So this is a little backward in coming forward. Last year I had a lot of flats riding. In the latest Ride On Magazine they reviewed some puncture proof tyres by Tannus and gave them a very favourable rating. The big difference in these tyres are they are solid rather than having a tube and being filled with air. For road bikes (the Musai model) they two versions, a hard and soft

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-90450890169345494892013-01-01T18:56:00.001+10:002013-01-02T08:06:04.611+10:00

Almost like cycling through Italy., a photo by CamDS on Flickr. On New Years Eve, I set out with a long time friend +Andrew Herrmann to do a bit of an expedition out to Mount Cotton looking at his new commute (ironically to roads we used to travel a lot as kids)It was a great way to close out a huge year of cycling with a lot of first (thanks to the wonders of Strava.com I know what they

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-5733379776603176592012-12-10T11:18:00.000+10:002012-12-10T11:18:41.014+10:00

As someone pointed out to me the other day the blog has taken a rather heavy cycling turn lately... so to continue the trend here is a quick look at my current bikes... Kestrel Evoke SL with American Classic 58The "Friday Bling" bike Colnago Tecnos Competition with American Classic 420The "Sunday Club" Bike Avanti Monza with Velocity ChukkersFrank(enbike) the "Commuter/Wet Weather" Bike

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9074426.post-8696292113119431912012-11-26T18:21:00.002+10:002012-11-26T18:40:02.216+10:00

Recently I joined a cycling club and the riding has been fantastic. As a way to finish off the year they had the Tour de Noosa. A 211km ride over a couple of bumps from Brisbane through Mt Mee and Maleny to end with a mini family holiday in Noosa. It was a fantastic ride and quite a number of firsts... Biggest ride in one day: 217km Largest Climbing in a Day: 3,389m Largest single climb:

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08573016491020262594noreply@blogger.com0