Pre Race it was 2.5 degrees but warmed up nicely!

We rode the last 30km of the Tour of Flanders course the day before the race itself. As soon as I got on the overly crowded roads I knew it would be a race to remember.   More than 25,000 cyclists ride the 220km mens course on the Saturday over hills, down single track roads and over sections of cobbles up to 3km long.  There are bergs (hill climbs) scattered all through the course including the dreaded Murr, which is a steep single track cobbled climb where race fields are known to be obliterated in seconds. Cycling over the finsh section of the course gave us a good idea of what the race would be like the next day and I liked what I saw!

We arrived at the race start at 9:30am in a foggy and chilly morning of 2.5 degrees.  We kitted up for our race and went to the team presentation and sign on to get introduced in front of a big crowd and loads of photographers.  After presentation the 170 starters gathered at the start and waited for the gun to go.

The race was on from the beginning and lots of breaks and loads of huge efforts out of the slow corners were necessary to keep up.  You needed to lock up the brakes at the last minutes approching corners. Then you had to use apply full effort to keep your position or gain a few bikes lengths if girls in front took a moment longer to get up to speed.  It was a crazy start and you needed to be extremely focused and a bit of luck to stay out of crashes. After around 30 k we got to the first section of cobbles which was around 2km long.  It was then that I realised just how hard it is to ride on cobbles over long distances. I wondered about my sanity when I claimed a few weeks before how much I would love to ride over the course of Paris Roubaix where the riders travel over more than 50km of cobbles over the course of the race.  I honestly don't know how they do it.

To ride cobbles you choose a big gear and sit back a little more on your saddle.  You grind over the cobbles while your body is literally being shaken to bits and your butt jumps up and down on the saddle.   I always thought riding cobbles was pretty ordinary but riding two or three k's of them at a time is something else.  No one ever told me of the extreme pain you feel in your hands and how you can barely keep hold onto the handle bars. You expect your hands will just shake right off and you'll be on the ground in no time. While riding you look ahead and hope for smooth road. Once you find it,your legs feel heavy but your bike is floating.  You have claws for hands because you can't even open your fingers for some time. Though I've never had arthritis it seems to be the only thing I could think to compare it to!  It's so painful.

After finishing the cobble sections we came upon the mighty Murr and the field split to pieces as girls dropped wheels up and down the climb. Not long after the Murr we climbed up the long cobbled drag of the Bosberg, which was another painful experience. After that punishment I ended up being in the second pack and waited it out a little for an opportune time to try for a break away to bridge packs.  I got away with an Italian rider and we managed to swap off for 3-4k and bring in the front pack a little before we were caught from behind.  In the last 5 k I sat within the pack and then finished 38th, and around 30 seconds behind the first finishers.  I was a little disappointed in 38th but to place that well in my first Flanders, a classic race in the history of cycling is probably not so bad.

After the women's finish we hung around for the finish of the men's race which was great because it was huge!  I had thought the spectators on the course and at the finish were pretty decent for the women's race but I was knocked out when busloads of people started getting dropped off around 30mins from the finish of the men's.  The place was super crowded and the air electrifying as we saw the nail biting, two man lead keep a 12 man pack at bay for a two man sprint finish between the Italian, Allessandro Ballan and Belgium's own Leif Hoste.  Ballan finished as the top man and it was an exciting and inspiring time. We all watched grinning from ear to ear.

While it was an awesome experience it also brought a lot of truths home for us women.  We would have had under 1/20th of the crowd at our finish and that night on TV we watch for some time as they talked about the men's race and it's winner and the women's race or winner Nicole Cooke did not even get a mention.

Mens Sprint Finish

It’s hard to believe I’m once again back in Italy in the AIS team house. It feels as if I only left yesterday and the only real give away that it wasn’t just yesterday is the vast difference in the seasons. When I was here last June it was sunny and hot and we were complaining of not being able to sleep in our rooms at night as they were like saunas. This time round we have the heaters on, are sleeping under doonas at night and during the day are riding in our cold kit.

Every morning we head out for a ride at around 9am and have to spend about 20 minutes kitting up. Most mornings I wear an undershirt, jersey, arm warmers, fleece long sleeve top, vest, leg warmers, thick socks, shoe covers, long finger gloves and ear warmers. After putting all this gear on we finally roll out and pretty much manage to stay warm for the rest of the days ride depending on whether it’s 7 or 10 degrees. Pretty cold for a brissy girl! If you head up a climb you generally end up sweating and hot, then coming down the climb you once again end up cold as you have a wet shirt on your back and the wind in your face!

It’s still great riding though and it’s amazing how different things look compared to last summer. The trees are mostly bald with some of the early flowers like tulips, starting to pop out. The days tend to be a little more grey and foggy. If you’re lucky enough to get a really clear day you can see some of the near by mountaintops covered in snow which is really pretty.

After three or four days of being in Italy we had our first day race. Cittiglio was a tough 8 lap course of 15km with 160 starters. Things got off to a good start and the race was fast from the beginning.

There were two short but tough climbs in the race and two solid downhills. The course was made especially tough as you needed to have good positioning to make the front pack as riders were popping and losing wheels all over the shop. Apparently my positioning wasn’t quite good enough when on the final lap, we were strung out and a rider around 8 wheels up lost a wheel and a whole bunch of girls were dropped from the front. I was with this group who lost around 50 meters in the space of 1 second.

It was a good but harsh lesson about just how quickly you can lose touch with a pack, making your race all over. After the race we came home and went out for a pizza and ate a crostada that I made the morning of the race. Crostada is a sort of Italian jam pie and it’s pretty tasty if you get it right. Unfortunately my Italian is pretty non existent so I didn’t know which flour to buy and we didn’t have measuring cups or scales so the crostada was a little slapped together. It seemed to turn out ok though, so we got into the spirit of Italian food and celebrated after the completion of our first race. After another couple of days training and living in Italy we’re heading off to Belgium for three weeks and around 4-5 races. It should be a tough time as we compete in some of the most famous `classic’ cycling races such as Flanders and Fleche Wallone.

Crostada – Yum.

If you call yourself a true cyclist then you’ll probably find you have some sort of obsession with socks.  I’ve had this discussion with a few cycling mates and the obsession differs in many ways but it’s always there lurking just under the surface ready to pop out in some scary form. Cycling sock obsessions range from the need to co-ordinate socks with every piece of clothing or equipment, to the more severe obsession of needing to name and number each sock so they’ll identically match after each wash.! It’s a bad day when a cyclist loses a sock or the pure whiteness of the sock is ruined during washing and comes out grey.  However, cycling is all about image and real white cycling socks around 2 – 5  inches above the shoe (AND NO MORE) seem to be the only way to go.

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After escaping the confines of the Institute I found myself in Geelong, Victoria with the rest of the AIS girls. Here we’d compete in our first tour together amidst much discussion, conversation and bitching all over the subject of the humble sock.

On the morning of the first day of the tour we had an 8km prologue to complete followed by a criterium in the afternoon.  The entire double stage day was at Port Arlington surrounded by gale force winds and the wrath of a few of the women `profies’ (girls- or guys – in the professional cycling teams).  It seems a few of the `profies’ from a particular pink team were pretty put out and offended by the sock length of a few of the Queensland cyclists!!!

These `profies’ didn’t hold back their opinions of the sock length greater than 5 inches from the top of the cycling shoes and asked us to have words with one of the offending Queensland cyclists. Other comments made on the `sock issue’ even prompted one of my team mates, Nikki Egyed, to do an emergency cycling store stop to purchase more suitable socks for the next few stages of the tour.  You can’t upset a cycling `profie’ as you never know when you may need their assistance or friendship in the future, so my team mate really didn’t seem to like my advice to `buy some even longer socks and see what happens!’

We all set off for day two of the tour, including Nikki with her more appropriate socks, to complete the Lara to Lara road race stage.  The 80km stage really only included one climb however this hill was known as `the wall’ and totally lived up to its name.  Today’s ride was the first official road stage and there was excitement from the beginning. Girls crashed everywhere and someone even lost a seat until finally things settled down. Then Queensland Academy of Sports (QAS) rider and friend Louie said `it’s so nice now everything has settled down and some of the bunters* are out the back’.  Soon after that comment a girl lost her chain and another girl attempted to push her along to give her momentum and dropped herself in the process.  The world went in slow motion for me for a few seconds and girls fell until I found myself sailing through the air to land on a couple of bikes and riders.  Amazingly enough I jumped back up with no scratches and only a few bruises, I pulled bent levers out to a more rider friendly position, put my chain back on and kept cycling.  By that stage, on a windy day, I was left to ride the remaining k’s with Louie and my AIS team mate Jen McPherson.   Louie had come out of the crash with a bunch of scratches and was covered in mud but finished the stage feeling pretty superstitious, saying, “we’d never make another `bunter’ comment like that again”.

The tour finished on day three with an 80k stage at Barwon Heads where there was more trouble through crashes.  The field split several times. In the front pack myself and Amanda Spratt and later Nikki Egyed were called back to assist our team mate, and young riders jersey holder, Kate Nichols to help get her back to the lead.  It was an awesome team effort by AIS, to tow, unassisted, a large group of riders within 20 seconds of the first pack but unfortunately we still didn’t make it and lost our jersey.  It was however, great to see the poor form of the sit in riders in the second pack who actually rode, or sprinted past us to gain, maybe 30th position in stage 4….NOT!!!! 

Anyhow, bitterness aside, it seems that after the Geelong women’s tour some of the more `amateur’ riders in the pack who had the audacity to wear inappropriate socks are now put right in their ways of cycling accessorising.  Never again should we see socks greater than 5 inches past the shoe and hopefully these rules will help to reveal more sock obsessions throughout the world of cycling.

*NB: I am happy to report that the Lifecycle socks seem to be loved by many and accepted into the peleton with open arms.  Breath easy knowing you are officially `cool’ in the cycling world for owning these socks, and that I am actually under orders to bring several pairs over to Europe this year for some of the SA.com riders.

*Bunter – a below average cyclist

The last Saturday in March may mean different things to a lot of people but for the 15 Lifecyle riders lining up in the famous blue & white strip it can mean only one thing……a trip to Christchurch, NZ for Le Race!

This is one hard event this year drawing 1400 starters to do battle with two sections of giant hills separated by 35km of flat, with a thrilling 5km downhill run to the finish in the pretty little harbour town of Akaroa as the reward for 3hrs + of hard toil. A look at the profile frightened a few off but our crew had done the training we hoped would beat the locals into submission.

This year our team was spearheaded by Bradley Nightingale and Carla Ryan. Both we thought would be hot contenders for the $2000 each for the KOM and QOM which was up for grabs. 

The balmy morning was a pleasant surprise as we gathered outside the hotel for last minute photos and encouragement from supporters.

We had made sure of a good spot at the front of the grid as the  start was guaranteed to be fast and furious as the first 6km hillclimb is just 3km into the event.

We had good representation in the lead group as Brad and Carla took off on the hill followed closely by Liam and a couple of Kiwi Lifecycle riders Jonny and Mags. Simon and Blair fought valiantly to hold position but soon realised that there was a long way to go and a lot of riders had there ambitions and abilities mixed up! Back a little Schabbo and big Tim were powering away with Jeremy,Jason and Gordon Moore not too far back.

Brad and Carla took the points for the first KOM and then it was the downhill to the flat with a few cattle grids to negotiate which proved to be less trouble than anticipated. A bad fall saw Paul, a cuzzie from NZ, take a bad fall ending his hopes for the day. A few big bunches got together with the smarter ones resting before the big climbs to come. Brad had a bit more of a struggle with the Hilltop KOM but narrowly had enough in hand to secure the points and more importantly the money. Back a few places Carla showed why she is Australian time trial champion showing a clean pair of heels to the best female riders and also to a lot of topline male riders.

The most scenic part of the ride is also the hardest so most riders probably did not notice how nice the view was but the photos give a great idea of the terrain. The temperature was climbing as well and while it wasn't too bad for the Aussies the locals were cooking as the mercury approached 30deg. Finally the last downhill arrived and as usual the highlight for everyone as they savour the fast 5km drop into town…everyone that is apart from Blair who took a wrong turning 1km from the finish and disappeared into a caravan park and lost 5min getting out losing his coveted top 20 position. Oh well, never mind. There is always next year. So one by one our riders rolled. Everone had a smile a mile wide as they acheived the goal. Everyone finished strong and vowed to come back next year to improve their time or just to do it again. It was a day to remember as the riders relaxed in the sun or under the trees with stories that got better and better as the day went on.

For those who want a challenge check it out with any of the guys who went or check www.lerace.co.nz We will be back next year so get in early and we will get an even bigger group to take on the Kiwis. They are out for revenge! 

(From left) Carla Ryan (Lifecycle): Coffee Culture Queen of the Mountain and Fastest Woman; Edwin Crossling (Lower Hutt) Fastest Man; Bradley Nightingale (Lifecycle) Coffee Culture King of the Mountain.

Jack, Alex and myself have been spending our time planning for the upcoming 24hour Mountain Bike Challenge on the 21st and 22nd of April. Held at the Kooralbyn Hotel Resort the 24hour has become an annual highlight for many on the Queensland Mountain Bike calendar.

While my training has purely revolved around practising getting up at odd hours of the night (my 13 week old son Hamish has been helping me with this) and basically zero miles on the bike I thought I would pick the brains of my team mates to give you our Lifecycle 24 hour tips.

Tip 1: Pack Extra

If you are planning to do a 24 hour event you really can't be to prepared. A lot can happen in a 24 hour period, rain, hail, shine, you don't know what the weather will do. Therefore we suggest you pack a few changes of cycling gear. You might not think you need it but if it is raining we can guarantee you won't want to put your wet cycling gear back on that has been sitting out all night. If you are planning to ride in the same knicks and jersey all night at least take a bunch of socks. A fresh pair of socks can seem like the ultimate luxury to the sleep deprived mountain biker.

Tip 2: Fuel Up

Keeping the energy levels up over a 24 hour race is no easy task. They key we've found is to take a variety of foods as it is hard to know what your body will crave a 3am in the morning. Energy Gels and Energy Bars are a great choice as you can get them on the fly. Have them on your bike or in your Jersey pocket ready to go so you don't have to hunt for them in a sleep deprived state at 2am. We also reccomend taking a good supply of "real food": biscuits, fruit, pasta, whatever takes your fancy. Our favourite is my Mother's famous fruitcake: tasty, filling and packed with energy. 

Tip 3: The Right Bike

Actually there is no one "right bike" for a 24 hour though there are some things that help. A lightweight cross country rig is the way to go, sure we've seen plenty of guys whip out laps on their freeride rigs but 18 hours in you know they are cursing those extra kilos on the climbs. Jack, Alex and myself are all running quite different rigs for the event. I'm riding my all time favourite MTB the full supsension Stumpjumper FSR, this bike pedals well and has a plush five inches of travel that keeps you feeling fresh at 2am. Alex has choosen an Avanti Aggressor, with top quality SRAM X9 running gear, Fox Fork and Avid Juicy 7 brakes. Alex know he has qualiy parts that won't let him down. As you would expect Jack will be riding something different, a fully rigid Salsa El Mariachi 29er. A 29er is a mountain bike with 29inch tyres rather then the usual 26inch. Basically think of the advantages 700c wheels give you on the road and apply the same theory off road. Should be a light, quick bike. 

Tip 4: Good Lights

Well duh! Of course you need good lights but aren't some of them a pretty darn expensive? Well next time you are in store ask us about doing a pre-24hour deal on some nice re-charceable lights, we have some great pricing on Cygo-Lights that might make things a bit easier on the hip pocket. Also don't forget a rear tail light, even if you are so fast you don't think anyone will catch you it is a race rule that you must have one, so don't forget.

Hope everyone has a great time at the event. If you see Jack, Alex or myself out there make sure you come and say hello.

Tim Mullaly