Nice work Cirrus - hope you didn't pick up any funny accent

Don't forget fellas - Sunday, 10:30pm - Live coverage on SBS. If you sleep through your alarm Monday, tell the boss you got a severe case of Cyclitis.

PHEW! Now I don't have to avoid all the news services 'til late Monday night.

Me too, me too...

Two things that give away the fact that I'm not a 'real' roadie -

1) I use my MTB shoes when riding my road bike.
2) I fell asleep during the last TdF telecast!

G'day,

For shame!......turn in 'slicks', STI's & any frame under 10kgs at your nearest 'roadies R Us'......your photo has been placed on the wall at Cafe Racer......you won't be allowed to purchase anything stronger than 'baby cinos' in future!,

Cheers,

Hitchy (7hrs training yesterday & still stayed awake!....but feeling s'house today!)

Whew, thank christ my frame is way under 10kg

I trained for 7 hours Saturday night. At the pub.

*Makes note - Never ride with Hitchy, he's probably a Crusher*

Do we get a replay tonight of the stage I slept through?

G'day,

a crusher?...I wish!....actually just a normal roadie, who during a particulary bad moment of his mid life crisis, allowed himself to be talked into attempting Melbourne-warrnambool this year....me & my big mouth!. Now I gotta do the training to try & minimize the embarrassment factor when I get dropped!,

cheers,

Hitchy

Perth bloke here. New entrant ino the world of road bikes - good deal at the stocktake sales!

Melbourne here, albeit a bit tired from watching the TDF last night.

Didn't see you on Beach Rd yesterday Thylacine/Hitchy. Sandy to Frankston averaged 38kph...Frankston to Sandy I averaged 22kph...The thighs are a little sore today. Damn that wind!!

G'day wattsy,

couldn't do Beach Rd yest....I knew you was gunna ave 38 & i didn't wanna get shown up!......I had 7 hours to do on this program my coach has given me to try & complete the 'warny'......had to do it non stop (well except for the occasional whizz)....to many traffic lights down that way...my HR flucuates to much. Can you imagine....7 hours & no cappucino break...what the world coming to!...Coach reckons, "when Melb-Warny stops at Colac for Coffee, then you can too"!....bloody sadist!,

cheers,

Hitchy

I didn't see anyone on Beach Road, but I didn't get organized 'til 5pm (got stuck in the rain with my new Scapin), AAAAAAGH.

I'm pretty sure there's highlights on SBS tonight -- looking forward to hearing what McEwan has to say about the last 1000m.

I couldn't sit and watch the whole thing, although I tried. I had it on in the background while I was working on (aka, wrecking) one of my bikes.

G'day,

I cried the 1st time I got caught in the rain with the new beast!......the worst part about ridin' in the rain is it takes 3 hrs to clean the bike afterward.....what is it with bikes?....3 hours to clean when they're new......10 mins when they're 2 yrs old!,

cheers,

Hitchy

Hi Hitchy, Melb - Warny, mate what part of insanity don't you understand? I once considered riding Melb to Maryborough (Vic)...for about 30 seconds.

Hhhhmmmm, I'm supposed to clean my bike when it gets dirty...maybe that's why I'm so slow...carrying all that extra weight.

Welcome to Winter in Melbourne, ay. Apparently my road bike is orange, and not brown. Got pissed on again yesterday, too.

What do we have to look forward to on SBS tonight? Melb-Warny is pretty hardcore, Hitchy. Got a while to go before I can hang with you guys.

Have you heard some "new Australians" call it "ABS"? hee hee

Following a rest day, we usually get a wrap up of the previous stages.

We may also get some snippets of recent interviews.

I would be nice to have our own subforum, but I suppose we could just keep using this thread.

Ah yeah, it's a rest day. Forgot about that. You know, I always wondered why they never do more interviews or exposés on gear, training, the teams, organising etc. The racing is great, but a lot of people would love to see more of what goes into bike racing than just the race. I guess we should be lucky we even get any coverage at all, what, with the TdF being the biggest spectator sporting event in the world and all

Little chance of a dedicated Aussie forum, Nev, so maybe best to stick to this thread. Hey, how have you got your Scapin set up so far? Made a decision on new wheels yet?

I love light steering on a bike, but I've found the Scapin to be a bit twitchy with the Profile-Design forks, so I've just put an old aluminium Kennedy fork in it (longer rake, i think) to see if it will make a difference.

You'd be disgusted with what I've put on the bike. Picture this: a silver Scapin with a mixture of mid nineties Dura-Ace, Ultegra and Chorus -- the "bike shop boys" will never talk to me now.
I've also got a CXP30 on the back and a CXP33 on the front -- what a Frankenstein! I can no longer stand the look of the old Cinelli quill stems, so I've gotta get rid of it. I'm going down to Bicycle Recycle right now to look for something else.

I'll definitely get some DTs, but I've gotta get a couple of other things first; maybe an all-carbon fork, but I've gotta try to figure out what rake I need (or whatever) without blowing big money on the wrong thing.

Don't forget, live coverage of the Tour tonight on SBS.

What a crap ride I just had. Got home at about 7pm, and it was about 8 or 9 degress (~43F), with a freezing Antarctic wind

Tell me about it. I was going to do 3 laps of the Mt (Panorama) today but I could stand the 6 degree temps or the bloody wind. Stuff riding.

It wouldn't be an Aussie thread with out a picture of evening rush hour.

Mad Max is one of the all time great movies. Part of one of my loops is down the road where they shot a lot of the original movie.

That's when Mel Gibson was cool, as opposed to now.

G'day,

tigerboy....U ridin' out Sunbury way?.....the last scene in the original MM was filmed at 'wildwood', just a few clicks away ( where the druggie bikie is handcuffed to the car wreck...MM walks toward the camera...as an explosion happens in the back ground...MM doesn't flinch & walks off into the sunset like clint eastwwod...so cool)

cheers,

Hitchy

Ah the sweet results of rising petrol prices.
Gibson sure has turned into a schmuk since then what the hell happend?

He got fame, wealth and lot's off women...

Sunday was a great day for a ride. Got up early and headed down to Frankston with the Brumbies group at 7.30am...yeah, I know...far too early. Anyhow, the ride down was great with a reasonably healthy pace of 35-40kph. The ride back was nuts with the pack travelling through Chelsea at 53pkh. I gave up outside the Mentone Pub as they climb this hill at 40 kph...These boys/girls were going nuts!

Legs are feeling a little tight today.