Tag Archives: Ballarat Cycling Classic

Marv’s February Bike Log

Dear Rouleurs,

Well here’s a first, I’ve actually managed to complete my bike log on the first day of the following month.  Wonders never cease 😉   February was a productive month despite catching gastro and chest cold from No.1 daughter…sigh.  The gastro was particularly unpleasant and nearly forced MMT to withdraw from the Ballarat Classic.    Notwithstanding, I still managed 696  Km for the month, which is a smidge under MMT’s all time record of 702 km.  My log and stats can be found here. This puts me over 150 km ahead of my monthly goal of 542km.

New pretty graph for February.

The big numbers are longer training rides and the Ballarat Classic.  The impact of illness is immediately visible with 2 big gaps around the 12th and 22nd of February.  Here’s the   matching suffer score graph for the above graph.

Apparently, on average, I suffered less than last month. Hopefully that’s a good thing 😉

According to Strava, I seemed to suffer less in the Ballarat Classic than in the Cadel Evans People’s ride.

Until next blog, ride safe.

Marv

Marv’s Feb Bike Log

Dear Rouleurs,

February was a bumper month for cycling with good weather providing excellent conditions.  My personal highlight, being the 60km Ballarat Classic, where I did some reasonably serious climbing for the first time.  My Garmin account reliably informs me that it was a grand total of 505 m. This is what my weekly distance count looks like.  I’m about 200km ahead of target now and I’ve zipped past the 1000km milestone.

2016-Feb-Log-Graph

I’m really looking forward to this weekend’s MS Cycle.  Hopefully this week’s clear skies and warm weather will continue.

Until next blog, ride safe.

Marv

Marv does the Ballarat Classic 2016

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Dear Rouleurs,

It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve had a chance to look at this blog.  Unfortunately the job I do to fund my cycling addiction was actually interfering with my cycling addiction.  Needless to say this was making me a bit cranky.  I digress.

However, I was very lucky to participate in the Ballarat Cycle Classic, a well organised charity ride  that supports cancer research, last weekend.  The day was superb with good, sunny weather in the morning, before warming up in the afternoon.  I did the 60 km version of the event as I a bit scared by some of the course stats I was reading. The 85 km and 100 km versions looked pretty difficult.  The course profile is shown below.

What I can say is that the first climb isn’t too bad provided you are in the right gear, something I managed to stuff up.  The second climb is just really hard work. About 2/3rds of the way up Mt Buninyong Road I really thought I might not make the top.  A gradient of 5.3% might not sound like much but the average hides a few tough sections.  I was very glad that I had swapped over my bike’s crankset set and cassette.  After passing over the summit, the next 25 km or so aren’t too bad.  The overall course looks like this.

Ballarat Classic 60 Km Course

So onto the some photos, MMT had a team photographer taking some happy snaps, so for once I actually have some decent non-selfie photos.

Marv looking cool on his Wilier ;-)

Marv looking cool on his Wilier 😉

At the starting line

At the starting line, with all riders.

Having a break, Mt Buninyong in the distance

Having a break, Mt Buninyong in the distance.

Even my bike's tired...some idiot put it chain ring side down...d'oh.

Some idiot put it chain ring side down…d’oh.

I have to say I really enjoyed the day and was glad MMT made the trip up to Ballarat. Over the next few months, I’ll also be doing the MS Cycle and Ride the Bellerine.

Until next blog, ride safe

Marv