why? so i can experience the joy of break down on a more frequent basis? :P

Farken 'ell it's cold. My mouse hand is blue.

400,000 kms+ and still kickin' :)

So, the big ride thing in Vicco, me and my brother-in-law convinced each other to do it. He went last year and said the 210km anti-clockwise route is the better one, I think that is Route B so it looks like I'll be down there for it.

Anyone other takers? I need someone large to draft :)

Unfortunately, the Volvo is a depressingly efficient vehicle.

Go Robbie McEwan! Wins stage 2 in the Giro. 10th place for Brownie too.

1 Robbie Mcewen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 4.51.40 (41.14 km/h)
2 Olaf Pollack (Ger) T-Mobile Team
3 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step-Innergetic
4 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Team Milram
5 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis, le Credit par Telephone
6 Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu) AG2R Prevoyance
7 Alberto Loddo (Ita) Selle Italia-Serramenti Diquigiovanni
8 Koldo Fernandez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
9 Axel Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
10 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank

I was listening out for an incomprehensible scottish brogue. Shame you couldn't make it. Important things come first though.

As for me, well thank gawd but I made it. Reached the half way hut feeling great at about 2:40 in so I was doing a good pace. My first mistake (okay going a bit to hard without enough training probably was) was stopping there to refill my camelbak (I ran out of water at the end of the race so lucky I stopped). Got back on the bike and my left hammy cramped up straight away. Fought the bloody thing for the entire rest of the race. Still felt like I had more to give energy wise, but anytime I tried to push on it'd be cramp city. Riding up hills was an annoying juggling act of actually getting up them, and relaxing enough to keep the cramps away. Flats were okay, and I was as fast as anyone down the hills.

Course was completely farked. First half was a little bit of sand, and a ****load of rocks. I think I broke my arse. Second half was a stupid big hill we had to carry our bikes up, then just sand, sand, sand. I've never ridden on so much sand in my life. On the last big downhill, theyd graded the thing before the race and by the time I got through there it was just 6 inch deep sandy ****. Bloody hair raising hooting down the hill at a gazillion miles and hour thought this rutted stuff, jumping the drainage banks and praying to jaysus that when I landed I wouldn't dig in and smash myself to bits.

If I look at my heart rate graph and compare it to the Alpine Classic where I bombed out, I actually went a lot harder in this. Ride times were almost the same but average heart rate was 150 compared to alpines 137. While I was doing it I was telling myself I'd never ride another bike again. A day later I'm pleased I did it and looking forward to doing it again.

Good work Saccy. Riding through cramp is a mission, but satisfying to finish despite it.

Well done saccy, I heard the course was a bit naff, Sounds like the Fling was way better!
Hows the drivetrain? nice and grindy?

Oh, btw, while thinking about my sore arse. I'd love to know who were the idiots who thought making hardtails out of aluminium was a good idea. They need their heads kicked. It just doesn't make sense. They put flash forks on the things but you can really use them because you're getting kicked like a mule from the rear end. It's unbalanced.

My old cromo rigid Trek had a cromo fork that beat me up, but the rear end was beautifully compliant. You could feel it flexing on the big hits and the little hits never seemed to be an issue. It would make much more sense to have that nice compliant rear end of my trek mated to a good fork.

Combine the rear end of my old trek with the front end of my Giant and it'd be a beautiful bike. So what if it was even a kg heavier? On that ride yesterday, weight wasn't a factor, but getting beaten up certainly was. Can't wait to bust this alu POS so I get move the bit's over onto some cromo goodness.

hee hee, steel MUST be real saccy. God job for getting it done in those conditions !!

Thanks fellas. Yeah, the cramps were just frustrating. I'm prone to them though so if I'm going to keep up with this gig then I'll need to look into the science of them. Took a heap of magnesium tablets and popped them like tic tacs but they didn't do any good. Maybe getting fit might work? ;)

As for my drivetrain, after about 20km it resembled a buzz saw. Damn, it sounded bad. I think it's lifespan might have been dramatically reduced. Is there any point lubing thigns up on occasion during events like that? And actually, during the race, people who I was riding with were saying exactly what you said, that the fling course was way better.

BTW, are Mavic XM117 rims craphouse? At the start of last week they'd loosened off so I got the LBS to fix it. Only rode probably 20km after that. Then during the race they loosened off again. Ended up tightening them twice and they still loosened off again so I just rode with the things and hopped I got to the end. Luckily I made it.

Thanks. Thylo's cult might have something to it after all. ;)

if the Fling course was better, i can imagine this one was ****.

The Fling could also be a lot better if you ask me, or maybe I just hate fire roads and other people don't. :)

For dealing with cramp on the ride magnesium tabs won't act fast enough, you need quinine tablets (maybe a bottle of gin & tonic) or cramp stop which I have found effective.

Yeah, I was riding with people who'd done parts of the course before, but even they were biatchign about the course this year. You wouldn't imagine it would have been any more rocky, although even the full suspension people were saying they were getting beaten up. I think maybe just all the sand and almost jacknifing every 100 meters was the most anoying bit. But it's all there to test us which is what it should be all about. I'd probably prefer riding this course than nicely groomed firetrails. Just give me a FS bike next time. ;)

Isn't quinine what they gave to people suffering scurvey? Looks like that spray is the go though. Wonder what's in it?

BTW, gin & tonic???

berny will be the only TAT participant i think. give him a day or so to get his breath back :)

Brad C pulled out of mmas3 just after halfway after cramping up on lap 4. tough race, hell wind.

nope, for scurvey the solution was limes (any citrus fruit) for vitamin C. that where the phrase "aargh, yer just a bunch of limey bastids!" comes from.

gin and tonic because until recently they put quinine in tonic water.

Jocko knows his grog. ;)

yup, was bar tender/manager when i was little. couldn't mix a cocktail if my life depended on it tho!

Indian tonic contains quinine 'coz it's a treatment for malaria or some other tropical disease. Back in the days of the Raj it really was a medicinal "tonic" and I am sure the fact it went down well with gin was not overlooked as well :p

Was talking to someone else who road the DW100m I reckon we could map out a really nice 100 in ourimbah, including the XC course, other side of XC road, some firetrail, old XC course etc.
Might get the map out!

What was your mate saying about the route Paul? With my moaning you've got to take into account I'm a noob. Maybe what they threw up was good standard long distance xc mtb racing fare?

Where exactly is ourimbah btw?

i do beleive saurkraut ( no not an angry jan ulrich!) was a favoured food of one captain cook to stave off skurvey.

Should be plenty of vitamin C in that pickled cabbage. Be pretty stinky in the bunk room though :eek: