This morning's Coot-tha Challenge was an epic battle of strength and determination that was thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part. Simone's Seven pulled off a well-deserved and narrow win with a 57 second improvement on their PBs, ahead of Blair's Boys who finished second only 49 seconds behind. The Dalglish Dashers were third, only another 24 seconds behind and the Farrington Five finished only another 45 seconds back. Considering there are 5 riders contributing to each time gap, the teams all finished up very close to each other. 

King of the Mountain was awarded to mountain goat Liam McCarthy who danced up Mt Coot-tha in a lightning fast 8m 01s.

Queen of the Mountain went to Simone Grounds who led the Simone Seven in with a time of 8m 56s. King of the Wombles was Hamish Dalgish who delivered a fine time of 9m 40s. Queen of the Wombles was Lisa Duncan who had a great time of 10m 17s.

Rider of the Challenge goes to Anna Koblova who took out the Lanterne Rouge, best improved time (53 sec off), best dressed and an integral part of the winning team.

All 25 riders finished within a range of 7m16s starting from Liam's 8m01s. We would all like to thank Chris Gibbs and Rod Stewart for recording times.

Tom Boonen stormed to an emotional victory at the Paris-Roubaix, winning the 'Queen of the Classics' for the second time in an exhibition of perfect tactics and unbeatable sprinting. 'Tornado' Tom and his Specialized Roubaix were the driving force behind a decisive attack in the final 35km that forged the winning three-man move in Sunday's six-hour test of wills across Europe's roughest roads.

Boonen's team, Quickstep, already have two classics wins this season and attribute much of the team's success to their Specialized Roubaix bikes, specifically engineered for rough roads like those at the Paris-Roubaix. "I guess the bike works!" Boonen said as he climbed to the top of the podium yesterday. "This bike (Roubaix) is perfect for Paris-Roubaix because it's comfortable on the pavé, but fast on the smooth roads."

Whether a Pro racer or enthusiast, the Roubaix is engineered for maximum vertical compliance; the top tube and seat stay design soaks up bumps, and a generous wheelbase keeps the ride as smooth as possible. Best-in-class lateral and torsional rigidity combine to give the Roubaix just as much speed as it has endurance.

There are several models in the Roubaix range to suit all budgets: Elite ($2999), Comp($3499), Expert($4499), Pro ($5999) and S-Works ($7999). Please visit us in store to check out the awesome Roubaix bikes or go to http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sid=08Roubaix for more information about the Roubaix. 

Boonen's bike blends the Tarmac SL2 with the Roubaix

The front end bears strong resemblance to his usual custom Tarmac SL2 with its giant-sized down tube and chain stays, slightly curved top tube and the tapered and oversized 1 1/8"-to-1 1/2" front end. To soften the blows of the cobbles, though, the Roubaix SL-like seat stays include the now-proven Zertz elastomeric inserts which are also found in the fork. The frame was also likely reinforced with additional carbon plies as is usual for Boonen and the frame geometry appears to reflect the longer and lower front end that Specialized made just for the Belgian superstar last season to accommodate his sensitive back and longer physique.

For more information please see http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/apr08/roubaix08/tech.php?id=/tech/2008/features/paris_roubaix208.

We are clearing out all remaining Bianchi bikes at massively discounted prices. These bikes are brand new 2007 models and they're on sale because we aren't stocking Bianchi in 2008. There are only a few left and they're running out the door very quickly so don't wait and miss out! See below for the models on sale:

Bianchi Via Nirone Team Liquigas (RRP $2499)
This stunning Bianchi is made in Italy and is super light and stiff and comfortable for performance handling, maximum speed and riding enjoyment. This is a special edition Liquigas edition and you will be the envy of the peloton with this Italian beauty. This model comes with 10 speed Campagnolo Xenon gears and Mirage brakes, a 7000 lightweight alloy frame, carbon fork and Italian-made Ursus wheels.

Bianchi Via Nirone (RRP $2299)
This Italian-made gorgeous Bianchi is super light and stiff and comfortable for performance handling, maximum speed and riding enjoyment. You will be the envy of the peloton with this handmade high performance work of art. This model comes with 10 speed Shimano 105 gears, a 7000 lightweight alloy frame, carbon fork and Shimano wheels.

Bianchi 928 Carbon
This handmade-in-Italy full carbon bike stands out from the crowd with its swoopy tubes, courtesy of the Bianchi Active Technology used in the frame design. This technology lets the bike remain stiff, to transfer pedal power, while diffusing vibrations from the road. This bike holds a steady line down hills and in turns, and the handling is sensitive, not twitchy. It features a 10 speed Shimano 105 groupset and employs 3D Bianchi Carbon Technology.

Once again I find myself at another AIS cycling camp in our nations capital and this time there’s more than one strange twist. This time instead of sharing `ressie’s’ with the many strangely shaped athletes like 60 wrestlers (thank goodness!!), 20 mini gymnasts (a little scary too!) and heaps of long and lanky basket ballers. We cycling girls now find ourselves living all the way over at the physiology labs sleeping at 3000 meters in the altitude house.

The BOC altitude house’s slogan is `to live high and train low’ and that’s how we spent 2.5 weeks at the first AIS training camp for 2008. Sleeping at altitude is done in hope of increasing haemoglobin mass, which should effectively improve performance. I was looking forward to this part, however, on reading some of the fine print of the side effects or symptoms I was a little apprehensive.

This fine print included:

• headaches
• dizziness
• nausea
• shortness of breath
• persistent coughing
• chest pain
• abdominal pain

In the first two nights at altitude I experienced

• lack of sleep
• shortness of breath,

And from then on I also experienced the following:

• lack of sleep
• shortness of breath
• sore ears from wearing ear plugs to escape the loud/heavy squeaky doors which opened and then slammed all night and the squeaky bunk bed
• more lack of sleep from the more frequent bathroom visits you seem to need
• and a sore left hand pointer finger from wearing the pulseometer.

However after many sleepless nights we were able to take the pulseometer off and I smarted up and got the Rock n’ Roll chain lube out and spent the next 20 minutes lubing every single hinge in the altitude house. We also got the `friendly’ lab supervisor to tighten the screws on our bunk bed and that night I experienced my first night of relatively quiet sleep. Good stuff….

During the days we spent our time training hard on the road and testing on the bike and in the lab. We did many TT efforts and my favourite was the 30 min TT effort in the lab with a very uncomfortable saddle. I had good power but I’d pay for the saddle for several days after…. Oww! We also spent many hours in the gym impressing Ross our Strength and Conditioning supervisor with our strong muscles and great control. He he!!

As well as all the 'sport stuff’ I managed to escape the confines of the institute and altitude house several times with my friend Bella who was `doing time’ at the institute as a triathlete. We visited the Tasmania Devils and Llamas at the Canberra Zoo, caught a movie and ate some prawn skewers (Spain) and sausages (Austria) at the international food festival. We also busted out a few times for secret breakfast clubs at our favourite Canberra cafe `Milk and Honey’ and nearly broke our ankles walking with cleats on the floorboards and stairs. I’m sure we kept a few Canberrians amused with our little stunts there! But we really meant to do that!

After last year's favourable results, a large team of Lifecycle riders made their way to Christchurch for the 10th running of the toughest 100km 'fun' ride in New Zealand.

This year Liam McCarthy and Blair plus a couple of NZ Lifecycle riders made the trip to beautiful Queenstown for the annual Tour de Lakes race held every Easter. This was a hard lead up to Le Race and featured a hilltop finish for the last stage. A good effort by Liam saw him upstage some of the local teams with a strong finish in 5th place at the summit. Next year with a little bit more knowledge of the course could see him ready for a top place in the overall!

This years Le Race once again drew a large start list of 1000+ riders led by former junior World Champion Jeremy Yates. Our eager team gathered early with the thought of getting a good position on the startline but found 40min before was not early enough and we had to push in where we could……..some found later their net time was 2min better than they thought due to the time to get through the startchute.

The day was perfect with little wind, mild temperatures and a nice cloud cover to keep the sun off. A fast start saw Liam up with the leaders until Jeremy Yates put the foot down and take off on a solo journey which saw him break the race record by 5min! Our riders all did well with big improvements by some including Jeremy Moore who despite a crash just before the finish took 30min off last year. The courageous ride of the day was done by Lisa Duncan who fell in the first 20km and despite some horrible grazes still came homestrong ably assisted by Julie Uebel who was under doctors orders to take it easy.

Everyone had a great day and all are planning how to improve next year…..most of which is based on doing even more laps of Mt Cootha next year. So the date is set for next year March 28. They love us over there so let's have an even bigger group for next year.

To see more photos of our trip please click here to view the photo gallery.