Quick update

Surgery done
Complications had
4 days in hospital spent
More complications found
More time in hospital

Let's see if I can have a less stressful week this week

112 days

I often wonder to myself what the person who came up with eggs Benedict was thinking, the concept is simple, poached eggs drizzled in a sauce that is made mainly with eggs, so essentially its eggs with eggs sauce. There isn’t too many other ingredients I can think of doing that with, it’s double dosing, steak with a minced beef sauce just doesn’t sound appealing, even if mix with vinegar in a double boiler.

Maybe this was just a product of rationing, “no tomato sauce this week, but we have 100 eggs, let make some sauce”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Eggs Benedict, there are days I lay in bed dreaming of Hollandaise sauce. Without it the last few months would have been more painful.

If you wondering why I’ve chosen to start this post with that spiel, it’s that in the last few months I’ve been lucky enough to have access to some of the Best Benedict around, on the weekends it live at Outpost in South Yarra. Unfortunately, they only serve it on weekends, but it is truly amazing. I also rediscovered Picnic this morning, I used to frequent picnic alot, they had Padre beans and a good friend from high school was the barista there, and I’ll be honest, he is a cracking barista. Around the time I was in Asia Nick finished up there to go work with his Dad on a new Spanish restaurant in Windsor, Last time I checked in they were due to open late August or early September, knowing Nicks skills and standards I cannot wait to go check it out.

So long story short, without Nick, picnic became crap, and Jono introduced me to Outpost. Anyway I’d heard rumours that picnic had new owners, so this morning I thought I’d check them out, seeing it was only about 100 metres from my house, and it was good. Didn’t go anything fancy, just Benedict and a latte, and I was happy. Best Benedict south of the Yarra during the week....

So apart from me cruising the streets of Stonington “Protein Loading”, I’ve started doing a little bit of riding again, it’s not at the point where I can ride more than 2 consecutive days without a shoulder implosion, but it’s getting close. The medical opinion is still looking like surgery, as I have no upper range movement, stability or strength in my right arm. My sports med doctor said, If you feel good enough to ride then ride, but don’t crash or hit potholes, and if you don’t feel good enough then don’t. Pretty simple instructions, at the moment its about 3 to 4 days a week it feels good enough to pedal with, unfortunately living in Ballarat with its “challenging climate” to say the least, that gets to be about 1 or 2 days a week, and that in the rain. Luckily I still have frequent appointments in Melbourne so I can sneak a cheeky ride in there.

As always it would only be a matter of time before I pushed the bounds of medical advice, and this came in the form of a Coburg Cycling Club Criterium. It had been 112 days since I last raced at the Chris Cashin Memorial in Ballarat, and within those 112 days the first 91 had been spent with absolutely no riding, just walking, coffee, eggs Benedict and watching Nitro Circus over and over. So my expectations weren’t very high, I opted to run my zipp wheels instead of my powertap, as I valued finishing higher than data. It soon became clear that I had picked one of the windiest days of the century to make my return to racing, with the wind at Essendon airport around the time the crit started gusting to 74kph. I was lucky enough to have the Company of Cam Hudson, who I think decided to race A out of sympathy for me after him not racing for 2 years, and Harry Bade who’s last road race was also the Cashin, his break was mainly weather induced, amongst other distracting things at “almost 18”. After a good pre-race coffee session with Nic Hamely and his mate Michael, I was wired enough to suffer.

Before the race began it was clear how much hurt I was going to be in, Team Kosdown which is a Northern Combine Based Team (Hawthorn, Coburg etc) had a small army racing, and if there’s one thing they are good at its being aggressive and forging breakaways, and halfway around the first lap it was on, I knew deep down that I wanted it to be a bunch kick at the end and hopefully I’d be able to get into a good spot to do something. But this was going to be hard, with about 8 guys there riding together and then more hawthorn and dudes trying to sort something out. I made the plan of letting single kosdown and no kosdown riders go, hoping that kosdown would chase them back, or the wind would get them if they went solo, and trying to go with everything that had 2 of more kosdown riders in it, and if I missed it I’d try to bring it back. This proved very hard, and I think I was seeing spots at one point. As it just kept happening, and the honourable mention has to go to Kos, he hurt me pretty bad, I seem to be always chasing him, praying he wouldn’t go again.

With about 3 laps to go the bunch was back together, I was on the front snaking with all of kosdown sitting on me as I tried to shut down the road. It was fair to say they had all the cards at this point, and I knew I was screwed, as my body was screaming at me. With a lap and a half to go an attack went and I had nothing, I sort of watched it go. 3 up the front, then 1, then 2, then the bunch as we came through with 1 to go, with kosdown have a rider in every group ahead of me I knew I had to try something, so with about 800 metres to go I emptied the tank and got to the front guys, found a wheel for the sprint, and just sat on it to roll over 4th, happy with how much I had just destroyed myself. Luckily 4th had some prize money to offset the amount of coffee and food I had to consume to feel alive again.

All in all it was a great race, it was aggressive the whole time, and I was really happy to be able to do something apart from just sitting on, trying to survive, the messages I’ve had from some of the guys out there have been really encouraging over the last few months, and I’m really thankful for them. I’m looking forward to getting my body sorted and getting back to some consistent training. All going to plan I’m going to try to race the Ross bush in Geelong in 3 weeks, after suffering with the flu in it last year, I’m hoping I can at least get to the finish, I think Reece Treloar and Cam Hudson will be there to punch me in the ribs if I go soft.

Thanks has to go to my team Plan B racing, sponsors and supporters Plan B Wealth Management, Highbury Homes, Matrix, Cyclemania, Giant Bikes, Scody, YouandI-ride, UB sports and events, Rhys Gillett (for the helmet loan), Oakley, and also to Coburg Cycling Club for another well run race.

To everyone who’s towed me round, and taken me out and about, even when I sometimes I didn’t want to, thanks

It’s good to be back

Rob

Drift Trikes

Late Night Mumbles

well hello once again,

Recovery is still a slow process, it's amazing how a single second can change the next 3 months of your life.

As for the progress, my arm is out of plaster but I'm still waiting for some surgery to correct my shoulder, it's a painfully annoying process in which you get screwed around by Doctors lots.

On the good side, I've been digesting some good food and coffees and here are some examples

 Seven Seeds in Berkey Street Melbourne

 

Good old Outpost in Yarra Street South Yarra

 

Market Lane Coffee

 

Belgium Beer Garden

As for now to get me out of that stupid sling, we've resorted to some interesting sports strapping, it helps, but is annoying as hell to take off

Fantasy TDF

Heres the League so far, last year we had quite a big league and lets see if we can do the same this year

Join up and register @ http://sbs.com.au/tdf/fantasy 
League: Tour de Gaul, password: qwerty

Tour de Gaul :
Pos.	Team	Manager	Mn.	Pts.
Last Updated: 24/06/2010 12:12:00
http://cybs.silentworld.tv/
99999	Team Rye Blood		0	0
0	ephoes		0	0
0	wooohoooo		0	0
0	HTC COLUMBIAN DRUGLORDS		0	0
0	Grover Test Team		0	0
0	OREC		0	0
0	mitchsbitchs		0	0
0	No more crashes		0	0
0	Team vagtasticvoyage.com		0	0
0	Grisen har faaet maesling		0	0

Questions

So I've been puzzled lately, why are you a member of the racing club you are with?

I'd love to know

Now seeing I'm spending most of my time on the couch I thought I'd share my viewing tendencys, with the help of Amazon
















an old classic















Season 6, isnt out on dvd yet, but there's this thing know as the internet........
















Thats it for now. Love to know your thoughts on the club thing, I've also added an RSS subscribe gadget on the right for those who use it. I'll leave you with a tale of two movers I managed to take happy snaps off, one requires someone to jump on and depending on who that is can put out as much power as the second law of thermodynamics will allow, the other puts out 380,000 watts in its sleep.

4 weeks on

Well its almost been four weeks, which means only another 6 left.

I thought I'd share some of the random photos I've taken in that time, with the exception of two of them that were taken in the week before.


Melbourne at night, couple of nights I've found myself bursting with energy. needing to do something, so i embark on walks. This one was 15km long with Peter Donahoe. The city as great at night, provided you dont get stabbed by a 13 year old.

Outpost is my new cafe hang out. It's on Yarra Street, so just down the road and they have some of the best eggs benedict and coffee around. Its has a great atmosphere, this photo is taken in the kitchen where you can sit, or if you dont like the hustle and bustle you can sit in the seating area or outside. Going to these places like outpost, picnic, seven seeds and st ali, it reminds you how crap ballarat coffee really is. That could be the biggest adjustment ill have to make.



This was taken in the week before, its outside the swiss mountain hotel, its been there for about 6 months but this was my first time seeing it.

Also on this ride, rhys got hungry, luckily there were heaps of potatoes on the road

This was a weird coffee experience, one that i recommend everyone tries it at least once. It comes from the apparatus below


Its cold drip coffee, cold water run through a bucket load of coffee into a jug to produce about 600ml per run. Patience is the key with this one.

the ergo, nothing else to ad
Snapped this at Duttons Showroom, it's Bibendum aka the Michelin Man. This get up is from Le Mans in the 1940's or 1950's.
And finally Beths long awaited new bike, its rad.

As for me, i have more sitting around to do, I have an arm in a cast and a shoulder thats still not connected, If it does come back together in the next few weeks I'll require multiple surgeries to pin and plate it all, repair ligaments and then remove all the pins and hardware. Its an outcome ill try to avoid for now. Movement is slowly returning, I've got about 45 degrees so far and hopefully it comes along enough over the next bit. Unfortunately now I have a full cast on my arm so xbox is off the cards.

People I need to thank, Beth for everything, Mum for everything, Cam Hudson for everything included sorting an ergo(thanks dougie too) and parts not to mention the company, Jono Lovelock (who is off to europe next week) for all the advice, coffee's and the harness to help me pedal, Rhys Gillett for the coffee and assorted shanigans, Peter Donahoe for the walks and the Xbox time, Alex for the Xbox time and eating all my food, Cam McKenzie for the words of wisdom, Shane Miller for having weaker bones than me, Dr. Andrew Garnam at Alphington sports medicine for the best advice and reassurance on what was actually going on.

There's probably more I could add and I will over time. But for now I'm going to watch tv

Update from the couch

Well not much has changed, my collar bone is still pointing north. At
the moment we're playing the waiting game, but all going well I hope
to return at the Tour of East Java in a bit over 6 weeks time.

Next appointment is Friday, hopefully more details then

Whats that lump?

What's that lump on the back of my shoulder? it feels kinda hard

oh, its my clavicle


thats unfortunate, also know as acromioclavicular separation, see the wiki here

dont really have much else to add, seeing a specialist in the next few days to work out how to put it back

The Iron Curtain

Its that time of the year again, actually before I continue I must explain something, this post will be apostrophe free, not because I choose to use bad grammar, but because a piece of minced meat has just snuck under the button on my laptop.

I digress

Its that time of the year again, the time when an Iron Curtain decends upon training rides, the fun summer rides are gone for another six month, and enter the cold depressing winter training, where no one talks, everyone just rides their bike.

Although thats the rule, not the exception, and theres always exceptions. One of the funnest training session Ive had has been in winter, it was a couple of years ago with Rossco and Huddo. We were up at Bright riding in the snow and sub zero conditons, but we still had snow fights. I remember one of the rides, they decided to go cyclocross at the top of falls creek in the snow. They couldnt get their feet to clip back in and had to ride the decent at a snails pace.

I really dont know where this post is going, Im bored, watching a tv show I have no interest in.

Had some good training since Ive been back, yesterday we found some potatoes and then we threw them at the dogs that were chasing us...... yes I know that sounds crazy, and we should wrap our heads in al-foil, but it happened. On the weekend I ingested a shitload of caffiene to limp myself home from a ride, I limped pretty quick when it kicked in, it was about 350mg.

Next on the calender, some race at warburton

Someone elses write up

This popped up at the bottom of the Ballarat webpage the other day, its old news but it sums it up well

http://cyclingballarat.com.au/news/vic_omnium_champs

2010 team bike

Here is a pic of my team bike for 2010

I'm looking forward to giving it's first proper hit out in this
weekends Chris Cashin Memorial Handicap.

Damn Jono

Jono keeps posting links to my blog, which makes me feel guilty that I
haven't updated it. Long train trip this afternoon I may get on to it

Stage 2

Another hot day, with some big casualties, the basic story is

Km 1 dan attacks anmd gets 3:30 with 2 others
Km 30 sam goes down in a massive pile up, rides to almost the finish
with no food or water
Km 100 I got hit by a team car while going back for biddons, big chase
and lost skin banged up elbow
150km Dan blew with heat stroke
167km I blew up
177km finish

Road temp was close to 50 degrees, brutally hot

I went through probably 14 biddons today and that still wasn't enough

4 more stages, hopefully wounds come good and I can do something as
there's only bretty, Elliot and I left racing

Time to go drink my wait in water

Prologue results

Hi guys,

Here are some results from stage 1, which was a 5.8km TT around an
interesting 2 lap circuit including dogs pot holes, people, other
riders and ofcourse scooters!

The top 5 places were taken up by team jelly belly with an impressive
performance

Brett 25th @ 32 secs
Rob 52nd @ 42 secs
Sam 58th @ 45 secs
Dan 65th @ 48 secs
Elliot 95th @ 58 secs

Cheers

Tassie to Thailand

Currently I'm sitting in a hotel lobby in the town of ubon rachatani
which is near thailands border with Laos.

How did I get here?
With 5 flights, launceston- melb-Perth-Singapore-Bangkok-ubon
rachatani "international" airport.
40 hours of the travel bubble only seeing daylight in melbourne
By putting 5 bikes on a plane, for them to become 3, then 2 and a
half, then 3 and a half. Elliots bike was obviously spending to much
time in the duty free and missed the flight, then missed the next
flight that bretts came on, so we're not looking to crash hot, not to
mention dans cracked one! "it's great when you take it out of your
bike bag and the wheels don't go in"

The concept of Thai currency (baht) is amazing, it negates the dewy
decimal system to a point that it reduces expensive things and
increases the cheap things. But most stuff is barterable, eg we all
got those moto taxi things home last night, the others all paid around
70 baht, dan and I gave the guy 5 baht, and went to walk off, we ended
up giving him another 20 but he gave us change.

As for why I'm here, it's for the Tour of thailand a UCI 2.2 tour over
6 days starting tomorrow (thurs). 6 days of heat, humidity and heat.
Racing for plan b over here is Elliot wells, Brett Tivers, sam davies,
daniel furmstrom and myself.

Hopefully we make it to the start of the race in one piece, dan has
negoiated to hire moto bikes for the arvo, about 12 aussie dollars for
a bundle.

Any way, my first bike ride awaits!

Rob

Second Time Lucky

When I started writing this post, or more to the point, the first time I finished this blog post, I was on the train to bendigo, via melbourne and my iPhone decided it didnt like what I had written and deleted it from the face of the earth.

Anyway, 2010, this year, I will be riding for Plan B Racing. They're a team based in WA, and had some great success last year on the asian circuit, Including but not limited to the man jono lovelock's 3rd at tour of thailand. Check out they're 2010 roster here.

I'll be kicking off with them at the Tour of Mersey Valley in Tassie, which doesnt really suit me so sacrificial lamb will most likely be my role.

As for club racing recently, I've had some good results and fun racing with Cam McKenzie, Rhys Gillett and Shane Miller. Rhys has been a consistant 4th at coburg (3 out of 3 times), Miller has been on some long breakaways and has dropped the wheel a few times, and I'll never forget Cams intermediate sprint salute and his victory (on seperate occasions).


Anyway I'm still a little annoyed that my much longer post was deleted so i'll keep it short for now. Check out the hyperlinks above, and the new links I'm about to put down the side.

Ciao!

2009

So it's been a while, it wasnt meant to be, I started writing a few times on my iPhone, but it was never successful, clumsy fingers do that.

Lets look over the happenings of the last few months,

- Tour of Bright went close to plan, I ran second in the Sprint classification after winning it the year before.

- Christmas, well christmas, always abit of a party and this year didnt disapoint.

- Nationals, good result in the crit, crashed on the friday, limped through a couple of laps in the roadie. Still managed to receive a death threat but oh well.

I've updated my links on the side and I'll keep doing it over the next few days, with some big news coming up.

speak soon