Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

Start times are up http://nsw.cycling.org.au/Portals/12/20 ... %20TTT.pdf

Interesting that silver members need to purchase 1 day licences for $33

Hi James,

I'd be interested in riding for your team if you haven't found a fourth rider yet. I'm riding in the morning at 10:20 so there is plenty of time before your due to start.

I can check with CNSW if can do two team trials on the same day if your happy to have me. I may be a little off the 40km pace.

Liam

Thanks Liam, might be an option if we can get confirmation from CNSW? (Although presumably, because it is a state champs, you only get one chance to win).

I suspect we'll be well below 40kph average as well!

That sounded promising, but rereading the rules a rider can only ride for one team only. They can be registered for more than one but only race for the one team. Any teams with 5 riders out there that has a spare???

Any teams with 5 riders out there that has a spare???

wink wink nudge nudge Elite Men squad, haha

I checked with Dean from CNSW and I can only ride once even if you ride for a non championship team.

Detailed map of the 90km Sassafras course. Take note of the elevation percentages and the number of 'climbs' there are to the summit.


Source: http://eliteenergy.com.au/images/maps/c ... llenge.pdf

The Saturday 19th July TTT start times list (thanks to John C).
http://nsw.cycling.org.au/Portals/12/20 ... %20TTT.pdf

Start times are up http://nsw.cycling.org.au/Portals/12/20 ... %20TTT.pdf

Interesting that silver members need to purchase 1 day licences for $33

So thats a new one they have added in, thought that it was confirmed that silver license riders could ride without the extra license, would have just upgraded my silver if i had know that

Weather forecast really sucks. Cold windy and showers. Fun times.

Good luck everyone.
DHBC will do well.
In case you are worried, the guys riding the crapping old steel bikes will be trying hard not to come in last

Hi All, we have a late scratching from our team and are down to three. Not sure if we have multiple scratchings from other teams?Perhaps merge some teams or stick to our smaller teams?

Also if there are any guys still looking for accommodation, please let me know as I have a bed available.

Contact me on 0422 434 868

Cheers,
Noel

So thats a new one they have added in, thought that it was confirmed that silver license riders could ride without the extra license, would have just upgraded my silver if i had know that

Do it today via the phone with CA and get a receipt mailed out. then print and take it with you.

So thats a new one they have added in, thought that it was confirmed that silver license riders could ride without the extra license, would have just upgraded my silver if i had know that

Note that it only applies to riders that have a number next to their name....

I only have a silver licence and don't have the little "1" next to my name, so I dont reckon I'll need to buy the day licence.

Steve

Oops, I could have possibly ridden on some ones team if I had looked in here earlier.

RACE REPORT WOMAN
I wasn’t going to post up a race report, but I thought the time the Woman’s team posted this year didn’t really tell the full story. We placed about 13th from about 18 teams, but there were so many wins for us – apart from beating the Carbon Cranks by 2 minutes, but I won’t rub that in! Great work Amy, Michele, Me and Eleri (that was order of age, and height – although Eleri would disagree).

We had a wide variation of ages, fitness levels, and ability in different terrain – so in an event where consistent speed is the key, this was always going to prove difficult for us. There was never any doubt Amy was in a class of her own, and in some cases this can work against you as extremely good riders get impatient and surge ahead. Hats off to Amy for showing great discipline and control, taking long turns up hills and in the wind, for longer rather than faster efforts, to rest the weaker riders (like me), and reacting quickly to calls to back off.

I guess there should have been no surprise at how good Michele was at climbing hills, but she more than held her own, and to my appreciation, also did a fair bit of pulling on the way up. Outstanding effort for her first ever race. How can those 2 skinny legs be so powerful? Can the club please tell her she is too strong to be riding compacts, as she noticed when she ran out of gears trying to sustain our speeds coming home.

Eleri was as solid as she is every year - especially on the home run. Although this year, due my constant gasping of air behind her on the way up, she quickly realized I probably couldn’t scream out any orders, calls, or sense, so quickly took over the role of fearlessly bossing us around. “Hold up” “Too fast” “speed up last 5km”. Eleri bossing people around and taking control? Who would have thought?

As far as I go – the 18km turn off couldn’t have come quick enough, there was little left in the suitcase of courage. Stuck on the big front chain ring the whole ride, I couldn’t wait for the downhill to come good.

In the end – we all stayed together, rode close to wheels, shuffled the order to suit the change in ability on the terrain, and listened to the calls. We lost a few minutes with me having to put my chain back on, so in comparison to other times in the club – I’m pretty wrapped in how we rode as a unit. Well done girlz! It really was great team work and we achieved our goals. 1)Have fun, 2)Ride well together 3)participate 4) Beat the boys - woohoo.....and a nice weekend away.

And what a great photo Phil Le Masurier took of us. Love it.

The women's Masters TTT team post race. Photo by Philip Le Masurier

Great report Jo! and fantastic picture Philip.

Fantastic report Jo, gives a great account of our ride - More than the official time.

And Phillip that is a great photo - I'm actually smiling and not trying to hide

Good work all round team

Nice report! Well done to Michelle. Keep the compacts, though, despite what people might advise. I rode compacts both days too, and happily kept up...

The Men of Steel had been in secret team time trial training for months and even sent one member to Europe for accelerated development but still they were worried. "the girls have got Amy Vesty... and she's very fast". Also worrying issues when Peter Bownes and myself arrived after driving down from RAW to join the other 10 steel bike teams at the pre-race hideaway were that someone had forgotten the mustaches, Alistair had forgotten his cycling shoes, and would the Commissaires let us compete in our retro woolen jerseys? Luckily there was a surplus of both red and amber energy drinks and the TDF was in full swing on the telly and by the time we retired to various corners of the beach holiday house out of earshot of each other's snoring, our fears were mostly forgotten. Our strategies the next day - drink lots of coffee, all wear a registered jersey under the woolen one , stick together on the ride and talk to each other. We pulled up to the starting gate ready for anything (but where's Alister?) - and the commissaire's reaction "love the retro jerseys!" what an anti-climax. Off down the road we chugged - warmed by the friendly comments and multiple jerseys at what seemed like a pretty slow pace, but one we could all hold, or could for a while until the calls of ease-up started. And that adjusting of the pace continued all the way out to the turn-around, dropping down to just 17km/hr on the steepest rise. (curse those heart rate monitors!). But it paid off on the roller coaster ride back with us all sharing the lead at speeds of around 45- 60km/hr (although some sharing more time on the front than others). At one stage I hit a bump at about 60 and my back wheel skipped side-ways but luckily I held it together. That was probably the point at which Peter Bownes felt safer dropping back off the paceline. It was hard to hear the calls at speed and we wasted a bit of energy with the lead rider getting away then slowing up, but overall, we all felt pleased with a real team effort. Finally we swung around the last corner into the home straight together, through the gate and hen for our phones, bike computers to check the time - 1 hour and 6 minute something. What had the women done?..1 hours 6 minutes and 28 seconds according to Eleri. frantic questions, calculations, comparisons of Strava results - (their Strava time was 2 seconds slower but then that could just be GPS sampling error). There was still no official result posted on the board when we packed up and driven back to steel camp central. Finally, mid-way through dinner, the CNSW website was decrypted by Peter B and the results was announced -1 hour 6 minutes and 23 seconds. We'd finished 41st out of 44 masters teams but, massive relief, we hadn't been chicked! In fact, we had beaten the womens time by a massive 5 seconds! However, there were the stories that someone in the women's team had stopped for a dropped chain. More checking of strava files - nothing showing there of a dropped chain - how to deal with chaingate? How to gleefully communicate the news to Eleri? Maybe send a text "have you checked the results - please reply in 5 seconds"? The obsessing over whether we got chicked was quite amazing to witness. Ahh well, you gotta have a goal. So it was a great day for the Men of Steel - all the training had been worthwhile, we rode together as a team, and we beat the ....(no you can't write that bit). next year...

LOLOLOLOL

Love the report - 'Chaingate'

Great ride Men of Steel

Awesome! 5 seconds ahead of the team with the two oldest women in the club! Well done. Next year ...

The quick chicks of Dulwich Hill.
Well done all.

I just got my bike serviced, so I will be investigating "Chaingate" incase there was any chance of tampering by the Men of Steel or Carbon Cranks. The lengths these desperate men will go to for Glory.

Hilarious race report though.

I've brought home an extra size large DHBC jersey from the TTT on Saturday. It has lost the tab off the zipper.
If it's yours I can bring it along to the cafe before or after a ride, or some other arrangement can be made.
Have a great ride,
Peter

Here are my photos from the weekend.
https://plus.google.com/photos/11221358 ... 1Ku47bucag

Here are my photos from the weekend.
https://plus.google.com/photos/11221358 ... 1Ku47bucag

'Like'

Hey Jonathon... wheres the photos of our team?

Steve

Steve,

This was on my SLR camera, I wasn't holding it the whole time. I believe that it's on Eleri's phone and Paul Lui's phone too.

Jonathan

I'll post a quick report for the elite men!

We had a 10.39am start time which made for a super early start in Marrickville. James F served hand roasted hand made gourmet coffee at 7am and we were on the road. After an exchange of lude hand gestures with our team mates on Princess Highway, we headed to Nowra.

We arrived just before 10 got the bikes ready, discussed the wind, wheel choice, how much fun we are about to have and headed off for a warm up. James went and pee'd publicly on the fence, Alex disappeared to lose some weight, John was on the rollers and I rolled down the road to the turn around. Start time came around quickly and before we new it we were lined up having our bikes audited by a large man in a larger coat.

10.39am: We rolled out of the gate and tried not to go past Alex
10.39/40am: Made the left turn into the headwind and slooooowwweeeddd......
10:45am: Alex and John are machines and dragged my poor ass up the hills
11.05am: "Still going up....dieing.....disc was a good choice...Alex should put some weight on"
11.10amish: Turned around the far turn point, "Disc was a good choice!"
11.20am: 65km/hr!!!
11.35am: Hit the bottom turning point, back to 33-35km/hr
11.45am: James F is gone and Alex decides riding with 3 is a "Great Idea"
11.45am-12.00pm: "Don't cry, keep pedalling, have to be close to the turn around"
12.07pm - Far turn around point "Disc was still a good choice"
12.20pm - 63km/hr! "Don't vomit on John"
12.28pm: "I CAN SEE THE BOTTOM TURNING POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
12.30pm: We made the turn on to the finish straight, and across the line.

Ended up riding a 1:51.38 for the 73k which was good but not great. Next year we might train......

Ok, so Team Carbon Cranks

With the same line up as last year the much vaunted men of the Carbon Cranks committed to a heady mix of training, injury and disease as the ideal lead up to Nowra’s famed NSW Clubs Team Time Trial.

The first Crank was Cameron. He reprised his premier Crank status from last year. The man has some seriously big levers and a seemingly large lung capacity.

Crank Two was Adam F. The Bearded Dragon of the posse. Adam is without a doubt a seriously fit man. One could only imagine how fast the Team could be if he chose to eat meat instead of lentils and tofu.

Crank Three and Team Captain was Stuart. Stuart lead from the bed, lacerated his toe, battled gout and trained his freckle off in the lead up to event by showing the M7 bike path a thing or two.

Cranky the fourth Crank was Dougie. Despite losing a bit of weight and doing a bit of training managed to contract a bout of pneumonia a month before the event. “it’s only a flesh wound” he scrawled on a scrap of paper as he was unable to breathe.

Cameron, Adam and Stuart trained hard. Dougie made excuses and outlandish promises. Cameron, Adam and Stuart practiced skills. Dougie provided Tour de France updates. Cameron, Adam and Stuart refined techniques. Dougie put too much Staminade in his water bottles. At the eleventh hour the race tactics were discussed over dinner. No, the whole team wasn’t present. That would be too easy.

Saturday rolled around. Cameron, Adam and Stuart had stayed local and were well rested, warmed up, race numbered and “in the zone”. Dougie appeared out of the mist 25 mins before roll out with the bike in pieces and his nicks on backwards. The old adage of “Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Pi$$ Poor Performance” was being liberally applied.

The Bride aka Katrina was driving the team car and filled the DS position. She warmed up her voice, ready to shout instructions out of the open window of a moving vehicle, by “encouraging” Dougie to get his “Time Trial On”. The Spawn aka William the Junior was filling the role of Mechanic and Soigneur. With a roof mounted flashing light and a spare wheelset, nothing was being left to chance.

Team Carbon Cranks lined up under the watchful eye of Robyn Spouster the CNSW Commissaire. Cameron was given a holding start and the rest of us had to make do with feet on ground departure. The wind was howling but the rain had held off. The time was counted down and off we rolled. The team got formed up just in time to turn into the wind. The headwind was enough to blow a dog off a chain. The team tried valiantly to hide in Cameron’s lee. The Ford Territory team car consumed about 40 litres of diesel as it gently chugged at 19kph behind a conga line of riders resembling an epileptic caterpillar.

At kilometre five Crank Three blew a gasket. The Team has used him up climbing gradually into the monstrous headwind. With his work done Stuart gently rolled back to the Start / Finish for a well earned cup of tea.

Cranks One, Two and Four pushed on, taking turns until Dougie could take no more and called for an easing of the pace at around kilometre six. The turnaround point certainly couldn’t come soon enough. With the wind on the Team’s back the homeward leg commenced. And leg it they did! Swiftly the team spun up to the high 50’s. Maximum fun was being had. Dougie, the least physically imposing member of the team maximised his low wind resistance by forming what looked to be a “downward dog” crossed with a “stomach cramp” to cut through the air like a lightning bolt. Adam aka the Beared Dragon now wished he shaved as the wind whipped his beard into a frenzy of facial fuzz. Cameron managed only to get one hand and one leg out of the wind by attempting to draught Dougie. Meanwhile the Team car had to break the speed limit on occasion to keep up.

At the final turn for home the three remaining team members negotiated the very technical corner smoothly and without concern. At that very instant a dropped member of another team drew alongside our intrepid squad on the inside of the turn. For whatever reason his chap decided to attempt to the take the corner unencumbered by something so pedestrian as his bicycle and appeared to throw himself from it. Needless to say, his actions were needless. He bike went one way, almost taking out Cameron, he went the other, almost taking out Dougie. Adam was left to dodge the pieces of very expensive broken Time Trial Bike and The Bride managed to avoid running him over, just! What a Bell end.

The team, somewhat disjointed rolled over the line at 1hr 8mins12 secs. A stronger performance that the year prior and a healthy 42nd out of 44 entries in the All Age Masters. Next year we may train together. Thanks to the team, DS, mechanic and the to the girls team who always give us someone to chase.

Go the Cranks!

Dulwich Hill has been placed 8th out of about 22 clubs in the club challenge, but there's an error - my team is missing from the results, which if included makes us 7th in front of LACC

http://www.nsw.cycling.org.au/Portals/1 ... Shield.pdf

As always, Valley Wheeler preparation was meticulous. Lindsay did altitude training in India, whilst Peter T. went to a secret location in Indonesia, searching for moustaches. He discovered a hill tribe who created moustaches from the fur of Civets hand reared on coffee beans and EPO.

Teamwork was impeccable, only one team had ever actually ridden together and several of the teams had never been in the same place at the same time before Friday night. We carbo loaded and settled in to watch the Tour de France. Rod gracefully declined my offer of the loan of a 1931 Speedwell Marc and I had picked up in Goulburn, preferring to ride his Bianchi, for reasons that now escape me.



12 of us stayed at Chateau Culburra, with Peter T. sleeping in his van and several people sleeping in the garden to avoid the World Championship Snore-a-Thon downstairs.




Saturday morning, after devouring the Men of Steel breakfast we headed to Nowra. In another first, we warmed up before riding, Peter T. and I doing laps of the carpark. Peter B. decided that now was the time to learn to ride rollers, the last I saw he was grimly holding on to the bullbar of John's 4WD.

Then it was 12.16, 2 minutes to go. Denis, Peter T., Denis and I lined up, Lindsay had done up his toestraps and was trackstanding. "NO TRACKSTANDING!!" belowed the commissaire. Then we were off, well all except Lindsay who was struggling with his toestraps. We'd only gone 200 metres and already the cry from the back was "EASE UP!!" so that Lindsay could catch us. On we went into the teeth of a headwind grinding up the hills. Lindsay punctured about 3kms from the turnaround, so we left him to it. On the way back we passed him, still stopped, using his teeth to get the tubular onto the rim. We were flying down the hills and all too soon we reached the finish. And waited for Lindsay, and waited.....

More Tour de France on Saturday night, but we all cracked because of Nibali's punishing pace. One by one we fell out of the bunch until there was only a small gruppetto snoring on the lounge. Once again a fantastic effort by the Valley Wheelers. As Peter T. said "I haven't laughed this much since the last time trial".
 
Valley Wheeler Awards

Fashion award: Denis, for sandals with compression socks
Organisation award: Alister, for forgetting his shoes (again) and organising Amy to bring them from Sydney for him
Appearances are everything award: Lindsay, needing to borrow a pump on getting a flat tyre because “the pump on my bike is just for show, it doesn’t work”
Narcissist award: me, for wanting everyone to tell me how beautiful my NOS Duegi Intercooler shoes were (actually they ARE rather spiffing)
Team spirit award: Rod, for leaving his bottle of Drambuie behind for the team to consume on Saturday night
Barista of the Year award: Roger, for lugging his coffee machine from Sydney and making everyone a cup of Kopi Luwak
Purple Colnago award: for Toff, of course
Motor maintenance award: Andrew, for having to cadge a lift after the brakes on his Mercedes 280CE “went spongy”
“It’s not about the bike” award: John C., for riding the most decrepit of the 500 bikes at Nowra
The Alzheimer’s Award: Peter T., for forgetting to give out the moustaches (second year running)
Too Much Sport is Barely Enough Award: Peter B. and John C., for riding RAW on Friday night, time trial on Saturday and road race on Sunday
Facial Hair award: Peter B., whose luxuriant foliage didn't need one of Peter T's moustaches
Rerceretnam Award: Marc, for just being himself

We were delighted to discover that Cycling NSW had created a special prize in our honour. The competition was tough, but I can proudly say that the inaugural Cycling NSW Valley Wheelers Lantern Rouge Perpetual Trophy has been brought home by Dulwich Hill! The complex rules governing this trophy mean that it cannot be won by a Valley Wheeler team next year. It is thus available for any other DHBC team next year who are slower than a Valley Wheelers team. Train hard and this award could be yours!  

More snaps from race day.

Le Breakfast fur le tour de Nowra. Alister de chef le chic.


The 2014 Valley Wheeler winners of the inaugural (exceedingly bad French translation) 'crank up the Commissaire's bum' award
Alister Simington for forgetting his cycling shoes again, 2 years in a row (big thank you to Amy Vesty for saving the day)
Lindsay Munks: Needing to borrow a pump on getting a flat tyre because “the pump on my bike is just for show, it doesn’t work”


Close up of the awards - note the 3D printing made bum with painfully accurate crank


Precautions were taken the night before the big race against saboteurs. We stationed round the clock guards next to our steel steeds.

Shitty morning at work.
Read John and Dougies reports over a schnitzel sandwich, had a great laugh, ready for the afternoon.
Thanks guys.
Great writeups.

Quotable quote by Andrew Mattes to Men of Steel team on hearing we finished the TTT in 1 hour 6 minutes something,
"not bad for a bunch of antiques".
I think he was referring to our bikes ...

Well I was impressed with how well our team went. Mark, Philip, Andrew and myself entered the 150+ category

We did 4 training rides together Kernel, CP and twice at Calga and based on those we worked out a strategy and a target of 1h4m.

Arriving at Nowra airport I discovered 2 things;
1. The course had been shortened
2. It was windy

We too different approaches to the situation. Mark and Andrew elected to ride without their clip-ons, Philip left his on and after a spin along the airfield I decided to ride my full aero TT setup, including my 90mm front and disk rear.

We got off to a clean start and built the pace to where we felt was doable by all 4 riders. The turns on the front we informally split up and it seemed to be working. Then we hit an open space where there was a big increase in wind. Having the best aero setup, I encouraged those in front of me to take short turns so I could get on the front for this section and slice thru it.

Then 14k out there was a hiss hiss hiss sound. I said "who's got the flat" then I realised it was me and not having a spare single, or the ability to change it, I was out. The team had lost its diesel engine for the way back, the strategy had gone out the window.

After a bit I managed to borrow a front wheel and proceeded to ride back, only to find the team was right behind me, so I pulled over then trailed them 50mts behind them. I was impressed with their downhill pace, they pushed it all the way home. At the finish I went up the side, so not to go over the finish recorder to ensure I was recorded as a DNF.

The team and gone under 1 hour recording 59.48 (off memory), they had done really good, I'm impressed !!!!!

Reviewing the results I can see they finished only 2 1/2 minutes behind the BICI sports team, which is stacked with some seriously fast riders, showing how impressive their result was. Well done Mark, Philip, Andrew