New Blog Website

Apologies to those who are getting this for the 2nd time, but we had to change blog website.




Minter and I are off to South Africa to do Joberg2C, a 911km mountain bike stage race over 9 days. We are doing it as a team and will be doing a blog which those who are interested can view.

You can take a quick look at these two youtube
promo clips below which will give you a feel for the race.

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3BK9HgER_Q   30 second promo

          video



          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdo3pS7IqTI    3 minute promo

          video



We were on the bikes this morning doing interval hill training and marveling over how quickly the time has gone since the beginning of the year when we started training. We fly out next week on Friday and the race starts in 2 weeks....can't wait!

We need to start tapering and will probably aim to do a 4 or so hour ride on Sunday and then 2 interval sessions next week. 

Minter looks like he has put on a bit of weight and it has been showing on the hill training, as well as the level of stretch of the lycra on his ass...not a pleasant sight at all, but a good motivator to ride in front of him. Apparently choccies and ice-cream are not optimal training fuels. I have also started to find his hairy legs a tad disturbing and have been pushing him to sahve them, but to no avail. 

That said, as those of us who have ridden and raced with him before know, he somehow seems to up his game considerably when need be, so I  still am confident that  I will be able to spend a considerable amount of time in his slipstream over the 911km  :-)  Fortunately he has some new kit, which will solve the ass-crack eyesore issue.

We received our new Magellan Cyclo 105's a few days ago http://www.magellangps.com.au/Products/Fitness/Cyclo_Series/Cyclo_105  

The units look really good and the screen is a fair bit bigger than the Garmin. I need to get it all set up and learn how to use it, but  it appears pretty intuative (even for a late-adopting technophobe like me), and some of the key benefits over my Garmin Edge 500 which attracted me will be the 18 hour battery life  and the breadcrumb trail which can be used to get back to a start point if you get lost. While this hopefully will not be an issue in the race, it is a comforting feature to have when exploring new trails. 

Given that Minter is insisting we use the hardtails for the race, and in my normal conservative manner, I am crapping myself about the comfort factor, I have bought the Syntace P6 Highflex seatpost and installed it on the bike. In all honesty, I had never heard of the brand, but a bit of research on the web led me to it, and all the reviews were excellent. While I have yet to hit the trails (given how wet it has been in Sydney), I am hoping/expecting that the reviews are all correct and that the carbon, together with the intentionally designed flex will help smooooth the trails out. I also got a new Syntace carbon bar and stem and the 12 degree sweep is a lot more comfy on my wrists than my old 3T was. I will report back from the trails on whether the seatpost works or if I have been duped by marketing. 

 http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/seat-post-seat-pin/product/review-syntace-p6-hiflex-seatpost-12-46314

 
 Another item we got sorted out this week was travel insurance. After contacting a multitude of insurers and cycling bodies about cover that included racing, we hit a dead end. There are some that will cover MTB races, but they have to be UCI sanctioned. Anyway, for those of you who may be in the same boat, with an international race at some point, insure4less agreed to cover us (with no extra charge) with the following policy endorsement:

 A $1000 medical excess in
respect of cycling claims only 
There is no cover for
physio / sports massage claims following a cycling         related incident 
No cover for cancellation
or repatriation in the event of a minor injury which prevents continued
participation in the event 
No cover for the bike or
associated equipment 
 No cover under section 9
Accidental death/Permanent disability benefit whilst cycling 
That's  it for now, but we will hopefully be updating the blog on a daily basis while racing as we believe there will be internet access at the race villages.