I guess that's what criteriums are all about, but I don't know why anyone would like tight, slow courses.
Once you go Sandown, you never go back!! :)


By the way, I missed the cycling on SBS yesterday; what was on?

Thanks for commin'! :D How cool is that? Makes me wanna paint my bike with the flag and a 'roo and Alexander Downer in a dress. :rolleyes:

How are our XC lads going? Hope Lowe and Co. make a show, yo. (sorry, couldn't help myself)

I'll have to go check out that thread in the FG forum. Can't imagine why I have a good rep over there (or anywhere for that matter.)....

(World Cup track from Pre ComGames was on SBS on Saturday, Nev. Pretty ho-hum)

No Thylo, you really want to paint your bike up like the HMAS Melbourne carrier - then you can use it to ram other riders off the track/trail/road :D

We had a nice one the week before last near Kinglake. 'Rolling hills' :) Our winter schedule isn't far orf now.

I like either type of race. Tight twisty crits take me back to my road racing and karting days... fun with a capital F (just wish I didn't have a dud motor) :D

We only did 5 or so easy laps at Casey, and some of the Southern guys were already wondering about the track width and the length of the start/finish straight. It's like a longer, more open METEC... and a lot smoother.

have you heard anything about Eastern being a better club than Southern, or vice versa?

WEll i doubt that Lowe will be there unless he can get that discovery chanel trek madone offroad ;) huge loss to aus MTB :(

Yeah, Southern seem much more erm... aggressive? It's like they're playing fer sheep stations. I've raced against some Southern guys and they were definitely more aggressive than us.
A couple of the blokes at East used to do the Sandown Thursday evenings fer practice, but left it at working on attacks etc as they reckon when the sprint came on, there were some pretty desperate moves fer a $20 win.
Eastern seem more safety conscious and the grading is a bit different. D graders in Southern are probably closer to C in Eastern etc, although in the higher grades it evens out a bit more.
I don't want to sound like I'm putting schitt on anyone but from my limited experience, Eastern seem a friendlier bunch. Southern has 400+ members, Eastern has 230ish.

Last interclub was won by Southern, one before that by Eastern.
Which grade do you race?

CCCC winter road calendar has been out for 2 weeks, you guys need to move :)

seems Eastern might be a bit more together with their schedules. Carnegie haven't even got past April on their site!! http://www.carnegiecycling.com.au/index.php?c=Calendar
Nor have Blackburn: http://www.blackburncycling.org.au/c...track_cal.html

The guys a Southern seem pretty friendly, and definitely more so than Carnegie in the late '80s, early '90s -- the only people that spoke to me down there were the guys that took my race fee! :p

I first did a B-grade open age race at Carnegie (Sandown) in November, which was a bit harder than I expected (ave 43kmh), then I heard that the vets license was ~half that of an open age license, so I rocked on down there. My first vets race was A-grade, which was also a little harder than I expected, then I did B-grade, but that was a bit easy (I felt like a big, young bully, but I still couldn't win :p), so I went back to 'A', but I wasn't good enough to do anything; I just sat in the bunch. At the end of that race I hurt my back, so I've been stretching like crazy, trying to lose some weight, and getting used to shorter cranks again (175mm) ever since.

I definitely plan to race again; it gets a bit boring rolling up and down Beach Rd every night, especially if I don't encounter any 'competition' for a few weeks. :D I'm waiting for all the fixtures to come out, then I'll see which courses suit me. I might join Carnegie and race with the young blokes if I like the look of the courses.

Looked at the results. What happened to Sid Taberlay? More importantly, where can I get a set of the sunnies he was wearing at the Com Games? :D

Man, I know SFA about racing, but is Jongewaard mentally deficient or something? In the Com Games he went too hard too quick and cracked, and at Sea Otter looks like he did exactly the same. I mean, 12th is insanely awesome, but with his track record of over-training and going out hard, you have to wonder how he'd go if his was a tad more....err....tactical?

Interesting side-note to Paris-Roubaix: Hincapie crashed out due to his Aluminium steerer snapping (ouch) but in an interview beforehand the head wrench or whoever said they were going with deep section carbon rims and narrower tires than expected, rather than the usual 25c tires and regular x3 36h lacing "To be quicker and more aero".

Curious to see if that decision ultimately meant more stresses were transmitted to the fork than usual causing it to fatigue at an alarming rate.

Curious to see also if we get some dejavu and see some Rock Shox turn up next year! *flashback 1993*

Maybe, but I doubt it. Museeuw broke a full suspension steel Bianchi the year Tchmil won. Those cobbles will wreck anything.:)

Yeah, but seriously, that was 13 years ago, and Bianchi has a long and glorious history of quality suspension bikes :rolleyes:

I would've thought current suspension technology would be even more relevant to the road now, what with 'stable platform' damping and everything being current.

Guess it's always that roadie obsession with 'lightweight' putting a damper (heh heh) on development there. I don't think it would be too difficult to design a bike that you'd be able to ride on the cobbles and you wouldn't even know they were there.

Jonewaard has raced like that for a long time. why hes going so hard hes blowing up early is a mystery tho, he rode with strong tactics with Uni SA in the tour down under, so why it doesnt translate into MTB is a mystery.

that said, i found that when leading the race ont he weekend, its a wierd situation. i tend to go out v hard on lap one then settle down into quick, but sustainable ( i hope) pace. in the 1st race i went too hard and exploded halfway into the 2nd lap. this time i eased off and was much more sustainable, but i got caught regardless. part of me wonders if id upped the pace a little, and assuing that lapped traffic complied could i have held a gap?

im going to race the CCCC road race on the 23rd and having no idea about road tactics, while admittedly it will only be E grade as its my 1st RR hit out, this is going to be an adventure into the wild unknown.......

Haha. Bianchi's don't do it for me either. The last one I saw that I liked was Argentin's with the black chrome in 1987. The Italian Malvern Star (maybe a tad harsh, but you get the picture:p ). I've even learnt not to click on the 'crack a stiffy over my mass produced Bianchi' threads anymore.

I suspect the 'spongy' feel on the tarmac may have had a bit to do with the demise of suspension at Paris Roubaix. Everyone used to worry about locking it out, so your point about 'stable platform' might be the ticket. Maybe transferring mountain bike suspensions into a road application is overkill? To be honest, I know less than fark all about suspension. My mountain bike has drop bars in it. The last race I ever rode was on a veldrome with 160psi in the tyres.:D

I do know Museeuws bike was one of the most horrible monstrosities I've ever seen - it looked like it was made from celeste coloured meccano. Suspension forks looked like taking over in P-R at that time, then your favourite bike maker and good mate Ernesto Colnago said 'I'm not having those fugly things on my bikes', Mapei pwned everyone using (allegedly) EPO and C40's with straight forks, and that was the end of that!

BTW, who's the MTB guy using that 'sliding' suspension, and who is the manufactuerer? I saw it on TV a while back - looked pretty good.

Wow got my first sin bin on another forum site:( At least Im feeling better so Im off cycling again :)
Anyone got some pics of the Hincappe Incident

what about somthing like the cannondale scalpel with its softail flexing carbon chainstays, and somthing nice and short travel like a headshock. i think that would suit if integrated into a road frame.

Pearler. :lol: What did you do?

did you chew out Tomalaris?

I thought that would be worthy of a "post of the month" prize, not a banning.

Tomalaris = tool.

E-grade? you'll be lucky, think more C/D and just watch out for blood hill.

FWIW, if you're a skinny guy with no power like me, look out at the turn cause its like a weird false flat/downhill TT type feeling. I usually look for a fat guys wheel ;)

it was a tech forum http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum.cfm
Some bloke reckoned he lost some software you have to pay for so I told him to go download it off bittorrent. They didnt like me linking/telling him to do this. So I got an one day ban. Yay!

Nice work Thunder! Did you pull someone up for being a fascist, or tell them 6500 bucks for a frame was ludacrous and that you could to an equally as good frame for half that? :rolleyes:

See, Trek for Hincapies bike just put a Klein rear end on a Madone, so it can't be too hard to make the next step and actually work with Fox or someone to come up with an FS roadie with big-time stable platform. Forks are the big hurdle of course, coz a headshock style fork is really the only option that doesn't look too 'mountain bikey'.

me skinny? hmm no! ima lard ass, beer swilling MTB kinda guy :P about 5'8 and 80 kilos so no stick man here.

i just have a few questions regarding the course. i will try and drive up there this weekend, but incase that fails: the website says its 12.5 K out and back. is that the whole distace, or just in one direction?

where is blood hill distance wise on the course? is it comparable to somthing like the 2nd (big)climb at akuna bay? is that the only major climb? is that the best place to attack on the course?

Hmm ok, well E grade is only cause im a road racing virgin :o , hell ive only ever been on one group ride! if i smoke it then ill definatley move to D or C. remember that i have nearly no good pack riding skills so would probably get shelled in C or D for a 1st time out.

D grade is the bottom grade at Calga, E grade is for kids/people over 75 y.o who can only do 25kms, everyone else starts in D. You will not get shelled in D :)

25 km per lap, so yes, 12.5kms out, 12.5 back again. Blood is 3kms from the finish. Best place to attack is for you to decide but yes, Blood is a good place to do it if you are a good climber. There are a few other rises on the course but nothing as steep as Blood Hill, just longer gradual climbs.

Which website are you looking at - I see Glenvale crits on 23rd? (April I am assuming....)