Oh Snap!

After the Torquay Motorpacing Experience of Bay Crits I was informed last night that we were snapped doing 64kph in a 50kph zone, this takes my total of Traffic Infringement Assists for the month of January to brand new total of 5.

Here's a recap:
Bay Crits - Speeding
Nationals TT - Failure to Pass, Illegal Stopping in a Intersection, Failure to Produce Licence and Failure to Display P's.

Still 2 Days left so keep up the good work team.....

We might as well win.....

Johan Bruyneel recently released a book with the title above, I never fully understood it, well i thought i did, maybe I did in how it relates to him, but now I have a way that it relates to me.

Wednesday nights in Ballarat see the Small Dog Criterium series, and last wednesday was the return and year opener. I'm not going to lie, I wanted to win it pretty bad, obviously this slipped my mind in the 5 hours I did on the bike that morning. I won the race solo, which is how I usually try to win, it's easier, less complicated. But something was different, when I was tapping around I wasnt really thinking about the race, usually I'm over thinking, analyzing every centimetre covered, every line taken, setting goals and taking splits, pacing myself off the front of the bunch and trying to win a nobel prize in the process.

It may of been the heat, but I was just pedalling, not really thinking or doing much else, wondering where the bunch was may of occured, but never did the thought of pushing to "survive". It all sort of hit me with 2 laps to go, im thinking wow i'm still here, i might as well win. It was surprising in my own riding. When I saw everyone else turn up, I was thinking this is going to suck, even considered asking if they wanted a ride marshell for a lower grade.

Maybe I have finally lost my heat demon, traditionally I hate the heat, give me a race in snow and I'm there! All over it like a bad rash. But give me a race in 22+ degrees and the walls start caving in.
Anyway, enough of that crap, here's whats been happening lately, for those who don't know i'm currently in a hotel room in Glenelg SA, for the Tour down under, but other things have been happening. Lets face it my blog hasn't had enough photos recently.

Here is the last week in pictures, but maybe not in the right order.....



Police in SA have bike racks on their cars, unfortunately they have always had average bikes on board, but I can live in hope for brands like Coppi to realise the full 25k weave carbon Coppa, with super record.... and lasers

Media 5! We were going to rebadge one of our cars as Media 5 to sneak in to the race, unfortunately somebody beat us to it....

Yes it really is a Giant Rocking Horse, For Giant overfed kids

You go a bit crazy on the side of the road waiting for a Protour Race to pass you by. While we were waiting here, the Driver of the Euskatel car was in between the break and the peloton, doing what the cop next to us first estimated as ridiculously fast.

Cop Bikes everywhere, and how do they love there sirens, unfortunately for them only some people came to see them.

South Australia has weird town names,unfortunately I didn't actually manage to take a picture of the sign properly.

Thursday morning in Ballarat, riding with Phil, Nice morning, Lake on Fire, bit of a northerly, feeling good, wait hold on lake on fire?!

Wednesday morning, Melbourne, Cafe Racer, some guy in Bike now gear manages to rip the spouting of the side of the cafe while trying to negoitate his bicycle.

Tuesday morning, Bikesportz, PROTOTYPE HELMET, for those who want the aerodynamics and speed of a road helmet with the added protection of a Downhill helmet. As modelled here by none other than one Cameron Hudson, More commonly known as Halfway Hudson after the wandiligong time trial incident in 2007.

Finally, I went for a walk on that super hot day, ended up covering about 20km, got home and realised it was over 40 degrees and that If i wasnt lacking brain cells in the first place I would be now. This is the temple of the winds in the botanical gardens.

Anyway, I'll do a proper blog of my fun once I'm back and not forced to rush, I thought when you got to SA they gave you an extra half an hour, apparently not.

DT

Time to get my Crit on......

I've been lucky since a return to racing in August to have the opportunity to race and do well in some big races, on the flip side to this there is still one hole i'm yet to fill. I haven't won a club road event in Ballarat, I've been living here for a year and have been the girl who's always the bridemaid but never actually gets married herself. It's starting to annoy me, the bridemaid metaphor doesnt fully describe it, say I'm the groom I'm standing at the end of the isle, the bride to be comes walking down, stops half way, turns around, and goes home to watch desperate housewives. Its that oh so close feeling, that can be more despairing than a brutal defeat.

Maybe it's just a form of Ballaratitis, a rare and complicated disease that produces heeby-jeebys that make you loose touch. Maybe it's simpilar, when racing in ballarat, between the start of the race and the finishline I don't go faster than everyone else.

As part of this lead up and as part of my lead up to heading over to TDU, not to mention the heat, I've started engaging in morning rides again. As part of doing early morning rides again, I've started doing late afternoon naps too.

You know your getting leano when.......

You get given a set of arm warmers to use as knee warmers.....

time to eat a pie.....

Need for Speed - Hot Pursuit

It was finally time to consider a return to something longer than a mad skid down sturt street, and a return to track racing was on the cards. I know that I could argue that I could do a skid down sturt street that would be longer than a track race, but it was a metaphor and it's time to move on.

By returning to the track I didn't do it by halves, not one night, but two nights and they were in a row. Thursday night was at the good old Ballarat velodrome, it even saw the return of the the Madison! For those not cycling inclined, the Madison (apart from being an Irish Girls name) is like a tag team point score on hallucinogenics. The basic idea is to try and get a lap on the field, one because it makes you feel good about your self and two because its so much safer away from everyone else. With a bit of luck Beth and I skipped away with the win, which was rewarding because my lungs were absent by the end. I was a bit embaressed when I was called the number one male track endurance rider, for someone who doesn't ride track and a year ago thought endurance was how long you stayed out on a friday night. Good to see young guys like Harry Bade coming in to some form, I know its a bit late for what they were aiming for, but they'll be riders to watch come crits and road season.

Friday night saw Ararat, now I know its a bit fresh driving all that way to race a track race, but I'm a well adjusted young gentleman who's open to new age philosophys....... In other words, I don't have a life or friends to spend my friday night with, so instead I choose to pay $5 to hangout with some trackies and eat KFC. But it was a good night, not having raced there in about 5 or 6 years, the first handicap they had me off 10m, it's fair to say they learn from that mistake and the next one I was the scratch rider chasing 55m, it sucked. Apart from Matt Smith continually trying to take me out with hooks and boxing me in, i was happy.

As for the title of this blog I always leave it until last, Saturday mornings bunch ride. It was a group I'd never ridden with before and as you'll find out, still really haven't ridden with. Saturday marked the last day, of the 3 days I considered myself a track rider. With the late finish at Ararat the night before, a 7:30 start was on for the bunch ride with the "turet group". Ballarat seems to have lots of wacky names for their bunch rides, unlike melbourne who are very descriptive, eg. the Beach Road Ride, North Road Ride, Fitzroy Cycles Bunch, Ballarat takes a more creative approach to bunch cycling. Groups like the Saxons, Yabbies, Turet, and other interesting specials give the rider a deeper sense of belonging.

Anyway it's fair to say that, my bicycle and I weren't well prepared, and may or may not of been late to the mornings ride. Being the pinnicle of calmness that I am at 7am I chose to put my bicycle together properly and chase them down. 30 seconds later I realised this was stupid, I couldn't be bothered and just did it finger tight. Unlike us, shannon had made the ride and was acting as my team mate in the bunch to sort out where I could catch them, these are shortened versions of the conversations.

Call 1 0745:
Shannon - We're heading along the railway line out in the White Swan Direction
Rob - Ok I'll come meet you

Call 2 0758:
Shannon - Ok we've actually turned towards dunnstown, we're now heading to gordon
Rob - Sweet I'm not to far Behind you

Call 3 0805:
Shannon - We're now heading towards Yendon to do the Nationals Time Trial Course
Rob - Ok we'll head through Navigators and cut you off

Call 4 0815
Shannon - We're in Gordon should be back dunnstown way later......
Rob - Shit

After this last development we decided to roll back in to town as someone had to go to work, then I'd chase solo.

Call 5 0855:
Rob - I'm at Dunnstown
Shannon - We're in Glen Park heading to White Swan
Rob - Shit

So I decided to bite the bullet and put the head down, time trial styles, including some cyclocross on some farm roads. And I finally met them at White Swan to endure the last 4kms of their bunch ride. Worth it!

The rest of the weekend saw very unexciting "ipod k's", those rides that drip by as your listening to the cure, and then you realise what your listening too, and how long you've been listening to it and the rides over. I have been know previously to of had the same song on repeat and not noticed for 2 hours, thought I'd heard it before, or that I was listening to power fm.

Thought I better finish this with a funny story, everyone knows the stereotypical BMX/Dirtjumper Teenager, well I had the pleasure of witnessing ones charm at Navajo Cycles in Ballarat, when one came in and engaged in coversation with Bike Guru Mountain Man Phil Orr. It went something like this

Kid "Hey, I cracked my frame"
PO "Ok"
Kid "You know what a crack is right"
PO "Pretty Sure"
Kid "oh ok"

Now I've typed it, it seems no where near as funny as it did at the time. I should mention that the conversation stopped briefly after that as I almost fell of the couch from laughing.

Obviously still not capable of linear thought patterns after nationals........

the Time after Time

With Nationals over and done with it was time to get out of racing mode, and time to chillax, practice my road bike monos and endos, do some "mad skids" down sturt and wash the mountie.

Monday morning I woke up, sure this is nothing special in itself as I've woken up on mondays previously, But I woke up with nothing really to do at any certain time, so i thought I'd let myself go and had a date with a tray of chips cheese and gravy for breakfast. The feeling one gets from such an item is quite rewarding, until you try to move and you get that sudden rush of gravy and dairy heading skywards. I guess it was about then I was regretting the Big M i may of had with it too.

This highly nutitious eating plan has summed up the time since nationals, its fair to say that if the same diet was forced on a child from a third world country, they would probably die. Lucky I burnt a lazy couple of thousand of calories on the weekend. not to mention the possible gizillion the week prior.

King Damien Keirl has issued the challenge for me to make a return to the velodrome, as a result I thought I'd follow in the big mans training program and inhaled a Large McValue meal before mondays ride, It has never been so obvious that i dont have the build for track sprinting.

It was good to see BSCC with some good coverage in the Courier, although a bit disapointing that Brad Clark didn't get more than a line for riding most of the M23 road race solo and taking the KOM title. I would say go congratulations to him, but he'll still be wearing the jersey next christmas so there's no real rush.

As for actual riding its involved a few laps of the lake, riding anywhere near bunniyong is still a bit to traumatic for me, so i might wait a bit before I attempt it again.

Thursday will see a return to some "real training" and the weekend may even see a return to the Time Trial Bike as Oceania's are only a month away and then I get to weeks off completely to do, well i'm not entirely sure, i'll keep you posted. Then it's new beginings!

Good Night, You know you love me, GG, Gossip Girl......

or not

DT

Pop goes the weasel

Its fair to say saturday night I was feeling a bit run down, so it was time to go to the pub......

Now I know that sounds bad but it was for dinner and a catch up with everyone who raced that day. Lets face it I'm only going to do 6 laps on sunday, if i'm lucky. So why not be relaxed and calm, and spent the night with friends watching them drink each other under the tables.

It wouldn't be the same if the clock wasnt there....

Sunday morning I woke up better than I have in a long time, thinking well I suppose I better go for a trundle. That attitude pretty much summed up my road race, cool, calm, collected, waving to people I knew and blowing kisses. The original plan was for me to work for somebody but unfortunately due to some bad luck, which is two words heavily associated with nationals by everyone at some point, he was out and I was alone. That said I found the first 110km relatively easy, i was never in two much trouble, sitting 5th-7th wheel the whole time to avoid the mess in the feed zone and on the descent. I got off the front solo a couple of times and it was a little eerie, I got out of sight from the peloton but wasn't insight of the break, it really was no mans land, me and a token motorbike. Even though I knew the course, it almost felt like we were lost or going the wrong way.

My solo attack up the hill, for a quick camera snap

Then lap 11 came and something happened, I missed a drink bottle in the feed zone and had to dodge another not to mention all the people, it was like it was the Myer stocktake sale. with all the kaos I found myself in the second bunch of a split, instead of trying to bridge straight away I decided to pace it up slowly to not kill myself, unfortunately I was still feeling alright and at the top of the KOM there was only a handfull of us left, I put the hammer down on the flat and was soon chasing solo, not to mention a bit of mountain biking with an over cooked corner at 60kph on to yankee flat. eventually I got back on, but it would be fair to say that fresh wouldnt be an appropriate term to describe my condition when I regained contact.

Lap 12 saw the Weasel explode, and saw me riding of the back of the peloton desperately trying to get back in or get that far behind so they could just pull me out. This went on for another 2 laps until a caught to other guys and we started oozing time together in large quantities. And just at the end we were pulled and it was game over. So close to the end was disapointing, but secretly at the time I was relieved that I could stop.

Now finally I get some time off racing as Oceania Championships draw closer, hopefully the last few weeks of racing will of done some good.

Thanks to everyone who came out an cheered me and everyone else on, thanks to all the idiots who ran next to me up the hill when i was alone and thinking about pulling the pin.

The Best sign of the week, go bethany. Better than my we love you to Rod Doyle.

Thanks

DT

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Cycling is a small world, small enough for anything to go around quite quickly. For instance, saturday I received a present from YouandIride.com, a Bianchi Clock

How awesome, am i sensing a photo shoot?

As for the rest of the day it was relitively low key, watched the M23 and Womens road races, caught up with people, played with my new clock, got sunburnt, all vital parts of preparation. It's good to see so many people from ballarat and melbourne out on the course cheering people on, bit unlucky for the Ballarat girls with there tangles in crashes and chainrings.

Brad Clark was probably the stand out of the day, even though he's got a new girlfriend and real training will probably come to a stop shortly, it was good to see someone out there having a crack instead of just riding the defensive survival race.

It was about this time I was wishing sunday could just be another 40km time trial.

The top of the sport

I made the courier, this could quite well be the pinnacle of my sporting career!

I don't really know where to go from here.

maybe just back to bed

It's like a mechanical that happens outside the race...

Well what can I say, bay crits TICK, finally over. A return to normal life, DENIED.



Wednesday was an outstanding day, I woke up in my own bed, sure it was a 6am for no absolute reason, but hey it was home. I started off my "rest day" with a light ride around the time trial course, or a Ballarat Reacustomisation as it was raining and windy, my 2 personal favourites. I ran into alot of people doing the same, unfortunately they were obviously smarter than me as they were in cars.



The afternoon was spent in the follow car for Beth Cannys Time Trial. That probably sounds more complicated than it is but there is a simple secret to the art of the follow car, annoy the rider as much as possible so they try to get away from you quicker. Matt Smith went for the horn and the yelling, unfortunately the combination did get mixed up and minor incidences like yelling while on the horn and yelling with the window closed did occur. Not helped be our craziness in the car, beth flew into 23rd which was about 8th in under 23's. Awesome.

But on the back of her success is where the gods turned against me again. I must of ignored some one in desperate need of help over the christmas period, or about eight people in desperate need over the christmas period to get this much bad karma.

So the story goes in cronological order, starting at 2:38pm;

Crisis one - The wheels....
Cam McKenzie had organised some "mad dog" wheels for my TT off Mitch Anderson, the fastest bike ironman in the world, 180km in 4 hours 16 minutes, FREAK! Unfortunately due to Mitchs wife Bridie O'Donnell becoming violently ill during the night, these "mad dog" wheels were stuck in melboure. Luckily I have a mother who fancied a drive. It's fair to say I sold my soul for it.

Crisis 2 - The Helmet
Even though this is mean't to be chronological, it's not. At Beths time trial I learnt that they'd changed from previous policy and now all helmets had to meet Aus Standards. This was a problem, as even though I tried to lie to the chief judge for beths, lets face it my helmet had no chance at all at passing australian standards, it probably has a sticker inside it saying something like "To be only worn in an enclosed vechicle" or more simply "you crash, you die". So after some running around I scored a Lazer off Ciaran which would do the job.

Crisis 3 - Illegal position
Ever have that moment of dreamy thought about something serious but you never get around to it? Well I sure did and to be more precise Annex 6 Chapter III of the UCI technical regulations. It's pretty much that big red book that doesn't let you ride bikes that look like a metorite and only way 2.3kg. More specifically my little hiccup was to do with the length from my bottom bracket to the end of my aerobars. The big red book says it could be no more than 75cm, needless to say I was a little over, maybe a little more than a little. So until about 11pm last night we played how to make a TT bike legal, then ride the new spaceage position for the first time in a National Championships.

As for the actual race I dont really no what to say, anyone who's done a time trial before should know the basic story, it hurt, alot. I must say looking back I did have some personal highlights, like choking on a Gel just before Yendon and spending the next few kilometres washing it out of my mouth (not to mention the rest of the day washing it off me), also the first catch of the ride, it's something that you search for that first rider luckily on this course I knew if I got to the round about quick enough I'd see him going up the hill and it was on like donkey kong!

But every highlight has a lowlight, and there were those too, my follow car was pulled over 3 times by the police, if only it was for speeding and I might of won and I got caught by Cameron Wurf, I've never been caught in a time trial before but I knew today was the day and he was the one to do it. He did it alright.

Overall I was happy with my ride, the lack of prep, the new position, the lack of a proper breakfast, the lack of training due to injuries, pretty much kids if you want to win don't use this as an example! But at the end of the ride the tank was empty, and that's all you want from a tt, the ability or should i say inability to move or have a proper conversation.

The afternoon was spent on the couch watching tv before a couple of laps around the lake where a some old guy on a mountain bike kicked my arse. How humbling.

Until sunday, I may go for a ride, check out the reach for the stars, and hang out on bunny hill on saturday to witness the pain first hand! Hope everyone who's around in ballarat this weekend can get down and check out the racing either on the road or the track, should be some good hurt as always.

DT

My parting words of wisdom today once again come from Vaughan McVilly from You and I ride. To put the following in to context he was talking about ways to market me.

I'll get you a Bianchi clock for the weekend, we got them in from Italy just before xmas and they're Bianchi so it will be cool, we will do a photo shoot of you in the Kit with the Clock maybe we should just do a whole heap of random clock infested shots, town clocks, flower clocks, microwave clocks. Or I'll make a little video where Ill dress up in a cheffs outfit and get a big mixing bowl chucking a whole heap of random sideways ingredients and then wack it in the microwave for ten seconds and then it blows up and smokes everywhere ... when the smoke clears theres just u in your kit with the Bianchi Clock. Say 1 can of beer, 2 tbl spoons of sugar and a polar heart rate monitor - mix until throffing add a pinch of that girl that got away in high school, three drops of alpine goats blood and one bulls testicle and blend - put in the microwave for ten seconds and .....
booooom
Its Doyle Time!

It's not over...

Today saw the end of the Jayco Bay Classic after five days of bad luck and a bit of fun. The final leg of this criterium series was a twilight race on the eastern beach foreshore. Although my race was cut short (thank god not due to my bike) it was really good to see everyone who came down, whether it was from Melbourne or Ballarat, thanks heaps.

Unfortunately today being our last day it involved hotel checkout, which are entertaining. Personally I was a bit confused by the 11:00am check out for a 7:15pm race, but luckily I found something to keep me out of trouble. Yes, it was sleeping under the BBB team tent on a Minoura Ergo Mat on the side of the course by the beach.

Between all this busy sleeping and eating it did give me a chance to have a good look at the course, which wasn’t too hard because I could see all of it while laying on the Ergo mat. When motivation was found and a more serious approach set in I realised why this was the most hated course of the series. A 600 metre hot dog circuit with pot holes, bumps, slippery metal grates in the corners and nice little bottlenecks. I was in heaven, maybe a sucker for punishment is a better description.

Being there so early gave me the chance to fully watch the Support race for the first time, and soak up the atmosphere before hitting the windtrainer. Once again both the support and the Elite Women’s race where full of crashes and that dodgy red flag that continually gets in my way. Maybe I should start taking a page out of Beth Cannys book with her inadvertent running of the red flag on Sundays Geelong short course. Something tells me I wouldn’t get away with it.
As always we had our race plan, attack and attack often, Lachie and I had also been sold to Virgin Blue to work as domestics for Bernie Sulzberger. I was also given the go for another short day if it all goes bad with national TT so close. Unfortunately the team draw for the start couldn’t of gone much worse for us, 2nd last on a hotdog circuit. Finding myself on the back row from the start the immediate thought was move up which I did with some hard cornering, getting up to about 25-30 places from the front out of 80. It was looking good to move up and start the offensive when the guy ahead of me decided he preferred the barrier on corner one, I was unaffected by the crash, mainly because I was trying to shoot underneath him, so really he was in my way anyway. Unfortunately the 40 or so riders behind me were caught up in it and took a free lap. I don’t think I’ve ever gone from 25th wheel to 80th wheel so quickly before, and as soon as Vaughn saw what had happened he pulled me in, live to race another day, thursday and sunday to be more precise. Lach once again stole the show, with a 3 man break surviving 15 minutes and also collecting sprint points, an epic performance with the heat and the course.
As for me a quiet roll around Geelong was in order then a catch up with some of the people who had come down to watch. Not to mention a drive back to Ballarat, made even more interesting by the mysterious disappearance of my radiator cap. Luckily an old Caulfield grammar t-shirt was in the boot, and soon became the caps temporary replacement.

I’d like to say it’s over, but really I’m only halfway and as I write this I’m in my room with Time Trial stuff everywhere (not to mention just everything everywhere). Hopefully tomorrow will give the knee injury I’ve been carrying for the past few weeks a chance to recover a little, as much as I like playing with the mass of fluid sitting next to my patella.

Once again a big thanks to BBB, You and I ride, PB nutrition, Selle San Marco, Bikesportz, Hayden Nosatti, Vaughn McVily and all the BBB team for the weeks racing. Also a like to give a big mention for my 2009 sponsors YouandIride.com, Lazer, BBB, Bianchi, Reynolds and Barloworld Motor Australia, really looking forward to the next year of racing. I’ve put their links on the left so please check them out and there’s a photo of the first sets of race kit I received today below, exciting times. Think I’m halfway, thanks to Ballarat Sebas Cycling Club for their support in 2008 and their continual support in 2009, Alpine Cycling Club for everything they’ve done over the last few years, Everyone who came to watch me race whether over the last week or the last few years, and the last few, Cam McKenzie, Ryan Worne and all my friends and family. Not to forget Mum, who knows why she kept letting me go riding.

Tomorrow will see a recovery ride over the TT course, some cheering, and some chasing in time trial tail cars. I’ll let you know how Thursday goes.
It’s not over until it’s over......

DT

In case you’re wondering Doyle Time comes from when I wore a clock around my neck at the University Games Closing Party, It wasn’t dress up, I just needed to be different.......

Sweet sweet kit...

There's not to much left to break

I'm sensing a trend devolping, lets look back,

Friday - Puncture
Saturday - Puncture and Crash Near Miss
Sunday - Dropped Chain

What would monday bring? The correct answer is Saddle.

From the begining, Today's stage was in Portarlington, about 30kms from Geelong, this gave us the opportunaty to skip the mornings training ride and just ride a longer route there. Last night we planned that today I'd take the rest day and try to be prominant for the first 20-30mins then pull the pin, with the major focus being getting BBB mentioned on the PA system.

This was all going well, I managed to escape the group a few times and drive it up the straight, then about the 28min mark I decided to put the last big attack in. Matt Wilson had a 18 second advantage and a took a borderline dangerous line in the bottom corner (which Wilson overshot later on) to get to the front then kicked off the exit speed. I soon had a good advantage and was joined by Matt Renshaw, I just started to think that I was feeling good and might have a dig, then Crack, saddle snap. As soon as I realised what had happened it was a XC ride off the top of the course back to the tent, with my day over again.

At least I'm not over doing it for nationals which start on thursday for me. Hopefully tomorrow goes better, I'm tending to say that alot.

Must say a BIG thanks to BBB for the week, for replacing all the parts I keep breaking and for all the kit and the highly sort after BBB Impact Sunglasses. Also to Hayden and Vaughn our team managers and entertainment, Adrian for continually repairing my bike, Lachie for putting up with rooming with me again, Chris, Micheal and Adam for getting out there and smashing it up everyday, You and I ride for the team cars and support, PB nutrition for the race food and gels, and Bikesportz for putting it all together.

I thought I'd leave you with our team motivational speech from yesterday

I don't care how your Phelan,
Even if your going to Chuck Norris
Today we're going to Cause some Damage,
Because it's Doyle Time.

If you look at our team list you'll realise the totally corniness of it.

Tomorrow nevers Dies, I now understand what that means.....

DT

Third times the charm...... maybe not

Over halfway into the series and things are starting to settle down, the natural program of sleeping, eating, riding, eating, riding, eating, eating, sleeping is really setting in. Can't say its to different from uni life though. With riding twice a day we seem to be accumilating a lot of washing, some might even say more than alot. So the morning was spent wondering around Geelong looking for a solution to this problem before it magnifies even more.

Crashes were the play of the day, with all 3 races halted with a crash on the corner number one involving Baden Cooke in the mens and Megan Dunne in the womens. This worked out good for some people who were dangling off the back struggling, gave them a chance to reposition at the restart. Unfortunately I was sitting 4th wheel in a break of 8 with a small avdantage over the peloton at the time of the crash, which pull us back to the bunch and had us jostling for the front row on the restart.

Eventually it was not meant to be, bad luck continued with a dropped chain which resulted in a drop off the back and a semi-failed madison handsling to Chris who got caught out by my mishap. Lach was the start performer for us, with only 25 finishing he cross the line in a comfortable 15th.

Today is in Portalington, hopefully some luck will come my way eventually, around nationals would be good.

Even snuck into a photo on cyclingnews check it out here

Another Day, Another Flat, Another Crash to Bunnyhop

Today had a hectic start like most days, our team managers had left us for the night to go get more supplies, and my being one of the older riders it was our job to make some sort of decisions. Now, if Matt Smith from Ballarat is reading this I should clarify the term "older rider", I've just turned 22, so not an old rider, after he asked me when I was going to ride masters. Try 2023.

Anyway after my little flat/tyre anihilation yesterday I was without wheels. This was ok until the 9am bunch left without me. 140 riders, the perfect sit just rode away from me. By 9:30 my team managers had returned from the course with a new tyre, but no track pump, it's fair to say I was getting minorly annoyed by this stage. By 9:40 I was right to go and we decided that the being motorpaced by the team car back on the bunch was the quickest fix.

My bike waiting patiently without a rear tyre.

After speaking to Nocci I knew the bunch was headed to torquay from geelong so away we went, sitting at about 60kph-70kph all the way there. Unfortunately this still wasnt fast enough, and the bunch had done a loop around torquay and was returning to geelong. So off we went back behind the little Barloword-Bianchi Mercades booting along, unfortunately the bunch got lost and I beat them back to geelong by 10 minutes. Geelong-Torquay-Geelong Sub one hour, good way to flush the lactic........or not.

On the way back we decide to pick up our new kit, then deciding to ride back to the hotel with it. The looks we got as 5 guys with, 2 jerseys, 2 sets of bibs, arm warmers, booties, L/s jerseys, box of PB gels, 2 Biddons, Gillet, and more shoved up there jerseys were quite funny.

As for todays racing the course was a lot less technical, which made for faster racing. The plan was to get either Damage (Chris D'amelio) or myself up the road, this worked well with Lachie getting up the road too. After spending the night with the guys it lets you workout what everyones strengths are, so we could play to that alot more. We were very prominant as a team all race, which is better than sitting up the back sucking wheel like yesterday. But a break was never going to stay away on a course like that. Now it wouldn't be bay crits without me getting a puncture, and sure enough it happen with 4 laps to go, luckily I just got in for a free lap, with the lactic pumping from the stop I was back in and with half a lap to go reasonably placed. Then to continue my awesomeness, to go the guy in front of me decided the ground suited him more than the up right position, so with a quick bunny hop to the left, I watched my life flash before my life and the peloton ride away. As Rob Eva from SRAM said to me for the second day "Well Rob, there's always tomorrow".

Ballarat Cycling Club must of had a puncture spell put on it by some track cycling vodoo that is angry about our recent domination of country cycling events, as Beth Canny also got a puncture in her race.

Just can't win, at least there's always tomorrow!

Whatever you do Don't crash....

Well, day one down 4 to go and all you can think when your riding wow there's so many people watching, whatever you do just don't crash! Overall it wasnt as bad as everyone told me until.....

After a race of fighting my way back up to the front BANG my rear tyre disociates with my rear wheel. I was pretty calm when it happened, but then you start to hear the crowd "Oh, that's Unlucky", "So close to the end, don't think he'll get a free lap" and "I think he's got a puncture", it's fair to say after rolling around to the finish I was ready to kill someone.

Our kit is pretty rude, at least it stands out.

Here's Beth Canny in the Elite Womens Race, it looked so much harder and rougher than ours, halfway through the bunch split, then split again in the dieing laps.

That's all I have time for now, i'm racing in just over an hour.

Should probably do something about that.

Cheers,

Doyle Time

Here's what went on Ballarats Web Page

Promoters of the 2009 Jayco Bay Cycling Classic (formerly known as the Bay Series) bill their races as "The World's Fastest Criterium Series." BSCC has a gaggle of riders on the start list, and some of them will be giving us their views on what the race feels like from the inside. Stay tuned - and keep your eye on Rob Doyle's blog "What's the Time?" (Answer: it's Doyle time ...)
Latest: Rob is staying at the only hotel in the western world without internet access for its guests ... so until he returns to civilization, here's his report on today's proceedings, phoned in, just like in the old days:
The elite men's race started almost 2 hours late, thanks to a delay to Robbie McEwen's flight. The riders weren't too happy, but Robbie is Robbie ... so they waited. The course has fast straights, and a slalom through a tight roundabout, with a short cobbled section thrown in for good measure. Especially hairy down the back of the field. A break including Simon Gerrans went away early, and hung just off the front for the whole race, despite a wicked pace in the bunch. Rob and his team-mates spent much of the race surveying proceedings from the back, but when Rob rubbed his front rim against another rider's shoe, he decided it was time to take the team closer to the front. Clearly our man Rob is on fire - "I'm fitter than I thought I was," he says - because he rode from the back of the field to the front at the business end of the race. He even lost a few of his team-mates in the process. As if by magic, he found himself on the wheel of Matt "Bjarne's darling" Goss, half a dozen from the front of the bunch, with a handful of laps to go. At this point the break was still away, but only just, and the cavalry charge was winding up. Rob was banging elbows with the best of them when there was a very loud BANG - his tyre. Rob held the bike up, and so did everyone else, but that was his race over for today. The break just stayed away and Gerrans got the win. Rob is planning a different finish to tomorrow's race.
Stay tuned - for more from Rob, and more from BSCC riders in the women's race and the men's support race.

Tomorrow never knows......the pain i'll be in

Well tomorrow is the start of bay crits, and I can't find my socks. You would think I'd be worrying about bigger more important things, but no I can't find my BBB socks!

It has been a day of minor crisis's i thought I'd share them with you on my first day as an "elite" rider.

Number One: This morning saw the turn of another year, and as a result 2008 cycling licences are no longer useful. So after driving to melbourne with this point in the furthest point in my mind, i realised, wow where's my 2009 licence. It was simply fixed (after 2 hours pulling the car down to a simple lawn mower) by looking in the most obvious place.

Number Two: My socks, I couldn't find them anywhere, all i knew is they needed to be washed, after some time I checked the washing machine they were there.....

The mind works in weird ways....

In addition, my blog is now going on ballarat cycling clubs web page for Bay Crits. So if your reading of that come down and check us out. The support crit has over 100 entrants, which to me almost guarantees carnage, especially with the shortest course being only 600 metres around!

Anyway I better shave legs and do all those cyclist related things, hopefully i don't bleed to death.

More tomorrow....

Images of the Christmas/New Year Stint

Well another year has rolled over and the best way to give a brief insight of whats been happening is by showing some random photos.


Finally some new bar tape, it makes you feel a deep sense of pride when you see the colour it used to be.

Heading back from a Jayco Bay Classic Recon Ride in Melbourne, shortly after this photo was taken cam was almost hit by a speeding tram.
Maryborough Christmas Carnivals really does bring some interesting characters out for the day.
Post Anna's 21st recovery ride, unfortunately I left my knicks in melbourne so I was the designated driver. This photo sums up the seriousness of the ride, with sherwin handing billy a bag of hungry jacks in our "feed zone" on the great ocean road.

And finally care of grover, my Cyclocrossing from the recovery ride on my birthday

Happy New Years