Self Righteous Cyclist

There's something about a handicap race which draws out the optimist in all of us.  Perhaps today will be our day, when the handicapper gets it right.  By that I mean, let's us in with a chance to win, perhaps even a place would be nice.  My confidence was high, with the 11min group of 10, the largest of the bunches, accounting for almost a quarter of the field of 45.  But first I would need to survive 75kms or three gruelling laps of Balliang's infamous Granite Road circuit. The day began with a carpool out to Balliang with fellow travellers Steve (Brunswick CC), who swapped his race number for a marshal's flag and Seb (Hawthorn CC), my 11min group accomplice.  If you haven't done a carpool to a race before, I thoroughly recommend it.  Between the banter, the tactics and the laughs, you won't be left alone with your own thoughts, stressing about the race. Meanwhile my Brunswick teammate and fellow 11min bunch member Che Dungey, left home a 5:45am and r...

 It’s a Steel! A small, but illustrious field gathered at the Brunswick Velodrome for Steel Bike day last Sunday 23 rd March. In true Brunswick style, there was no plan or schedule, just a desire to have a great time on two wheels.  Chief Commissaire Mr. Pink’s first decree of the day was to make himself redundant and hand over the reigns to the juniors of the club who were there to “watch dad go round” and cheer on the riders.  With microphone in one hand and notebook in another, our four tireless junior commissaires, Ralph, Indra, Jonathon and April, kept order, counted down laps, waved flags, added scores, interviewed riders and did party tricks. And there were some pretty slick looking bikes in action The event was held to raise funds for Tour de Cure.   Anna Nicolas, lost her partner and former member Peter “Trigger” Traeger.   Peter tragically, lost his battle with cancer in November 2022, just 11 days after his son’s first birthday.   Anna said "I...

2024 the year of not focusing on results.  Wait, didn't I nominate a bunch of time and result driven goals for 2024?  Yes I did, but I don't care about them anymore. Shortly after I broke my Kinglake PR in February, it got me thinking, when is enough, enough?  Why is it that once we reach a certain goal, we then hunger for more?  Who am I competing with here?  Yes it would be great to post a better time than my mates, but ultimately the only person I am competing against is myself.  During the year I listened to a TrainerRoad podcast on goal setting and the emphasis was on process goals, rather than outcome goals, which many of mine are.  I have always prided myself on being about the process, but there's no doubt that I have become caught up in the outcomes, because they are a tangible measure of personal success.   Listening to the Anecdotally Speaking podcast last year, they introduced a story about Joseph Heller (author of Catch 22) bei...

After months of early morning structured training, weekends with double hard days, bike prep, nutrition prep and targeted tapering, I was ready for my version of a grand final, the Tour of Bright.  The Tour of Bright is the biggest multi-stage bike race in Australia, with over 400 riders contesting, 10 categories, across three stages over two days.  Throw in the criterium on the night before and you have yourself an unofficial four stage event.  This is as big as it gets for club cyclists in Australia.   By 10:30am on Friday morning, the car was packed. My wife, Paula and I were ready to hit the road.  Across the road, we observe our neighbours, Michael and Jude rescuing ducklings from the storm water drain in front of their house.  We do the neighbourly thing and offer to help.  We corralled the rescued ducklings toward the mother duck and her brood of ducklings in the hope they can be reunited and make their way safely back to Merri Creek....