Spontaneity - Do's and Don'ts

I was half way to the barber shop and thought to my self.  Self, maybe you should just shave your head.  Thailand is only a few days away and a shaved head will avoid any bed head problems and/or any hair parasites I may come across as a bum it across the country.  It's been a few years anywho so it was time for a real trim.

Note 1 - Make sure the length guide is properly attached.

Yup, it slipped off and gave me a good stripe.  I ended up having to take it all the way down, no guide, just the electric razor.  

I now have more hair on my chest and face.  It's not horrible but my head goes through several temperature changes each day.  

I plan on getting some good miles in this weekend so I will probably have a good Giro Ionos tan that I can use for marketing!

Headline News - Canadian Ass Flying Through the Air - Part Deux

Part two to my hugely anticipated Melbourne write up!  I am still waiting on some pictures, but the picture above is just before 12 on New Years Eve.  The Gore Tex was out in full force!

NYE was pretty relaxed as I had not slept in 48 hours.  Just surprised there was still gas in the tank by 12 on the 1st!

The racing started on the 2nd so there wasn't much time to screw around.  Bikes had to be built and equipment ready to be transported to all the races.  The first stage was in this cool little boat village with cafe's everywhere.  I managed to score some TV time, rocking my white shades and stylish black and pink MB gear.  Tough life being good looking.  Anywho, the girls rode a strong race, just like Cronulla.  Some girl from Plan B, which isn't the morning after pill in Australia to my surprise, took the solo win with my girl taking 3rd after a sketchy sprint.

The finish line break down went pretty well and fast but there was always a little work to be done.  Always had awesome dinners with good beer/wine courtesy of my boss being over the moon.  Thankfully Kirsty and the girls always pulled through.  I don't even want to know how much the trip would have cost if the girls weren't finding good legs or form!  I got to know everyone a little better including Gina who is definitely one of the coolest people I've ever met.  Always stowked about anything and everything and down to do what ever.  

While getting changed one day I over heard her taking to a few others.

Gina: Hey my name is Gina

I think it was Jono she was messing around with

Gina: Do you know how to say Go GINA in french?

Just being in the other room, I start thinking to my self, "where is she going with this?!"

Gina: VAS GINA!!!!

The reason I am outlining all this is because the next day at one of the longer courses the girls were riding quite comfortably and Gina was surfing wheels mid pack just having a Jolly Good Time.  Being the awesome team Mechanish that I am, I always tried to shout things of encouragement or info.  Having thought about the previous night's joke, I decided to shout VAS GINA!!!!! as loud as I could as they came cruising by for another lap.  Haha funny right.  Immediately, I looked at Jono and asked him if I had honestly just shouted VAGINA to 55 girls riding by.  I'm not sure if anyone actually paid any attention but I was pretty embarrassed.  I stayed to english after that!  Kirsty ended up winning that stage which also gave her the lead overall and the Yellow Jersey.

The 3rd stage was in the same location, but a smaller, tighter course.  An Island in the middle of a downhill 90 left turn also made things much more difficult.  Unfortunatly, Gina found out the hard way when 2 girls crashed infront of her and closed her door.  Gina flew through the air and ate the road hard.  She somehow came out ok.  A little sore but nothing serious.   That was also the moment she became an Australian Celebrity.  Because that turn had a view on the finish line, there were several photographers.  My girl was on the front page of every news paper in the area and a few of the national publications.  A series of shots that outlined the beginning to the end of the crash.  A super star!  Her back end would now be recognized by anyone who picked up a paper for the big price of a buck!

She still finished the series like the bike racing animal that she is.  Hands down the reason Kirsty walked away with 4 yellow jerseys, 3 wins, 2 3rd.

I worked most of the last night in Ocean's Grove.  Packing bikes and organizing equipment to be shipped or taken to the TDU.  Ended up going for a swim in the Ocean at about 4am before taking my final drive to the melbourne airport. 

Had the afternoon off and was back at work the next day!  

Anywho, thats it for now.  Banged out a tough 100km this morning and it's nap time!

2 Dudes, 1 Day/Night, 1 Kia Minivan, 2000kms and 12 Hard Boiled Eggs- Part 1

Alright alright.   Take it easy throopanator!  I've been super swamped dealing with people at work and riding 450-470kms this week.  Suck on that Mr. I wanna be an ironkid.

Anywho, I just thought I had to drop the weekly milage as my tan lines are getting ridiculously awesome and the legs are getting into some sort of good form.  Anywho, enough about how amazing riding is here, the Melbourne Story!

Basically, the drive sucked!  Jono, my partner in crime, managed to keep the fun levels high throughout most of the drive but there is only so much anyone can do at 4am after 16-18 hours of driving living off of Maccas food and coffee!  Jono was also given 12 hard boiled eggs as 'snacks' for the trip, which were banged out early in the drive to get them over with, but also made a come back mid sleep in the dark of the night.  They weren't cool, but sure beat the weak effects of bad coffee!  

Another highlight of the drive was the 2am piss break.  We stopped at some huge truck parking lot in the middle of nowhere, where towns and places have names like "Not Jimmy Creek".  Emptying our bladders, trying to hit as many bugs and avoiding the poisonous things and admiring the billions of stars I've never seen and then some.  It was a pretty cool moment.  Jono showed me the Southern Cross Constellation and a few others.  And you thought holding your wang taking a huge piss couldn't be romantic!  Anywho long story short, we got driving again but began to hear some noise in the back.  Plastic bags crackling. 

JN - Jono!  Did you hear that?

Jono - Yeah, I think so, what was it?

JN - Holy crap, something is going nuts back there with the chip bag!

Jono - It's probably a possum, we left our doors open at the truck stop.

JN - A POSSUM?!?!  *Puts legs up on seat*  No way dude!

Jono - Probably man, those things are everywhere!

JN - PULL THE PHUCK OVER

We pulled over on the side of the highway, turned all the lights on and tried to figure out what the hell we picked up back at the truck stop.  1 Grasshopper later we were back on the road, embarrassed but happy a hunt wasn't in order!

We arrived at our destination in Ocean's Grove (yes it was as cool as it sounds) around 8 am.  Built the bikes and went for a quick 65k burn with some locals.  

For all those of you putting in those winter miles.  I have to admit, Victoria (the province) was cold as shit!  I will post a picture later but I had to steal some knee/arm warmers and had to use my wind vest!  It was absolutely freezing!  Probably bringing my average riding temperature down a degree to 31 or 32.

Spent most of NY day running errands and making another trip to the airport.  The trip was pretty good.  The girls won loads of stuff, the work was relatively easy albeit was horribly organized.  Everything got done and no one ever showed up late for races so it wasn't too bad I guess!

Riding tomorrow, will post part deux of melbourne post ride.

Kicking Ass and Taking Names

Just a quick "Hello" for those of you who might be thinking I got lost in the outback somewhere.  I'm alive and well.  The drive was awesome up until the 50% mark but it was all worth it in the end.  Great time, the girls are all over cycling news and showed that a small shop can be a force to be reckon'ed with.

Loads of updates to come as I sort my life back in Brisbane.  Getting back to work sucked.  Haven't stopped since the 30th!

Happy New Year Everyone.  Keep reading, I will break down Melbourne and Ocean Grove in a few write ups.

Your Tongue Makes a Nice Snack?

Well the holidays are over, sorta, for me anyways!  Although I'm not too sure when they started either!  The big drive to Melbourne starts tomorrow.  The actual drive starts tuesday, but I'm gonna head down to Goldie a day early to hang and ride with Mr. Butterfield.  Hopefully the weather cleans up so that there is atleast one good thing about trying to hang in with Euro Legs!  Although I have a feeling rain and pain are on the forecast!   I bailed on today's ride.  The afternoon might clear up so I might knock back 80-100.  We'll see.  Thunderstorms and riding my sexy bike dont go well together.  She doesn't like it.  She told me so.  

My Christmas day ride was pretty awesome.  We rode to RedCliffe (place with knarly thunderstorm pictures).  about 100kms.  Very little traffic and sunny skies!  It was pretty awesome.  We were pretty sure people were talking about us as we rode by them.  Either saying: " Wow how lucky they are to have no kids to do what ever they want this morning" or "Look at those ass hole cyclists, ditching their wives and kids to go 10 speeding".  SUCKAS!

We even found a bakery to knock back christmas snacks and coffee!  We had a false positive earlier on the ride, a cafe right on the beach who was setting up for a function.  I screamed in excitement and pulled an immediate u-ey only to find out he wasn't going to be able to satisfy our coffee and confectionary sugar needs.  The bakery that was open wasn't the greatest, but hey.  Beggars can't be choosers and she was probably the only open merchant within a 500km radius!

The week had about 350-400km on plan, but my lazyness and the shiatty weather knocked her back to 170!  Less than half!  Oh well!  We are planning to do the Melbourne drive in a single shot so its an extra day in Melbourne to do nothing but ride mi bicicletta.  Should be able to bang out 5-600kms depending on the NYE hangover.

Keeping my weight down is becoming a struggle.  Last night before bed I opened the cupboards and fridge dozens of times just to make sure some snacks weren't hiding from me.  I had 1 last piece of bread.  You know the part you usually throw away?!  Yeah, lathered in about 2-3 servings of Nutella and a huge class of full cream milk!  I still woke up at 4 for my ride hungry as hell.  My tongue seriously hurts.  I bit it good a few days ago and Im pretty sure I was chewing on it last night.

Anywho, time to head to work again and pack the car just incase Ty hammers my legs into the ground and I'm incapacitated for the drive day.  Imagine that! CRAMP! Sorry Mr. POPO officer.  I had a cramp, I know I doing 180 with 6 bikes on the roof but I couldn't pull the foot off the accelerator!

Happy New Year folks!

My Trans'!

My Honda CBF 250!  Been riding this baby around when I haven't been on the road bike.  Only exception is that we have a modified roller on the back for moto pacing!  The bike has a lot of power for pacing but its fuel injected which makes it much smoother.

Anywho! The Cricket is starting to bore me a little.  I'm gonna go for a cruise.  Might check some sales downtown.

Longest work day ever!

I know last year I was pulling crazy work hours between the catering and the occasional snow plowing but today was brutal!  Christmas eve in maggie land beat that pretty good.  Got to work a little early at about 830 and got working on bikes immediately.  Dozens of full builds later, its now 1045 at night and thankfully I don't have to drive to Quebec city!

Driving the girls and Marcel down to the airport at 330 and then riding at 6 for 150k or so.  Gotta fix some guy's derailleur at 2 in the afternoon as well!  He's not happy with something and we just tuned it.  Gear tune on christmas day?! NOW THATS F'ING SERVICE!

I'm absolutely beat.  I'm feeling my lack of sleep from a few days ago.  Supposed to go to a BBQ tomorrow but I reckon' that tomorrows ride is going to shatter me.  I wish I had spike and the James Bond Marathon right about now!  

Prob lay naked on the couch with my christmas hat on.  I wrapped my self a Super Record 11 rear derailleur at work today to put under the christmas tree but I left it at work!  Maybe Pere Noel will swing by!  Or maybe I'll grab it at 3 so that it's there on my 2nd wake up of the day!

Anywho, over and out!  I need some rest!  Back at it in 4 hours!

These holidays are more stressful than working days!