Monthly Archives: January 2018

Marv does the Cadel Evans Peoples Ride 2018

Dear Rouleurs,

Last Saturday, yours truly completed the middle distance course (65km) on the Cadel Evans Peoples Ride.  MMT did the 111km version last year, which in hindsight not the smartest of ideas, given he was still recovering from pneumonia.  That experience and the threat (and actual occurrence…) of some truly dreadful weather, scared MMT off this year.  The last 15 km of last year’s ride is something that still lingers in MMT’s mind.  Oh well.

This time MMT drove down on the morning of the event, parked in the back streets and just got to the start line ot 7am.  MMT then had to hang around 30 minutes, before being able to roll across the startline.  There were some 3,500 fellow cyclists there for the event.    Honestly, it looked a lot more than that. This photo has been creatively stolen from the Cadel Evans Road race site. Yep, C’est moi, right up the back.  Next time MMT be there at 6.30 am, to get a better spot.

 

The actual 65km ride is  ride is a pretty straightforward course.  MMT is surprised that its supposed to have 365m of climbing.  The course and profile are provided below.

2018 Course Profile

2018 Course Route

This is what MMT’s Strava account had to say about the ride.

so here’s MMT’s photo gallery.

   Getting ready for the big event…    Waiting at the start line.
   Still waiting at the start line    Crossing the start line…finally after a 30 minute wait.
   Feed zone at the beach.    View along 13th Beach.
   Another view of the feed zone.    On the road to Geelong.
  How cool is this racing trike?   Finish line in sight..hooray 😉
   Main stage in the village.    In the the village, is this Puff’s cousin?
  Team BMC signing autographs.  Looking towards the merchandising tent.

Overall, the 2018 event was really well organised.  The event seems to be growing, year to year, which is a great sign for cycling in Victoria. MMT thinks that short course of 35Km may have attracted larger numbers of recreational cyclists as opposed to Wannbes or MAMILs like MMT ;-).  About the only negative MMT experienced was the event merchandising.  The move to Santini has resulted quite nicely designed kit.  But the fitting was skin tight in the jersey which is a) a bad look on MAMILs and b) became a sweaty plastic bag after 10Km of riding.  MMT was really unimpressed with the $30 price tag of the event’s cotton cap.  MMT even overheard a fellow cyclist complaining about the quality of the cap, whilst in the Merchandising Tent.  Last year’s kit was much better value.

Until next time, ride safe.

MMT

Take a bow…Daryl Impey, Winner TDU 2018

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has realised that he hasn’t been paying much attention to the world of competitive cycling over the Christmas break.  It was only when he watched the end of stage 4 of the 2018 TDU, that he realised that Orica Scott/Greenedge/Bike Exchange had in fact changed name to Mitchelton-Scott, back in early December 2017.  Its amused the hell out of MMT as the press announcement/PR is still be published on the Greenedgecycling domain name…huh??

Anyhow, sponsor naming confusion aside, well done Daryl Impey in winning the first UCI event of the year and the 20th edition of TDU, for whatever the hell your team is called this year 😉  Tell the truth I’m not sure how he did it, between Richie Porte’s now telegraphed attacks on Willunga Hill and Peter Sagan blowing up.  Mind you, you had to feel for the European riders doing a stage race in the middle of a typical southern Australian heat wave. Well…not really….

Here’s what the paragon of Australian cycling print media, Melbourne’s very own Herald Sun, had to say.  Given its silly season for cricket and tennis, MMT is amazed that this event made it into the newspaper.

Even Daryl is a South African, MMT supposes that Australians will claim this victory, as he races for an Australian team.  Like Esteban Chaves, he should be added to the list of people that should be made Australian citizens.  Unlike our High Court and its interpretation of the Australian Constitution, no one will give rat’s bum they retain dual citizenship 😉

Until next time, ride safe

Marv

Marv’s 2017 Annual Report

Dear Rouleurs,

Hasn’t 2017 disappeared in the blink of an eye.  MMT had a great year all things considered.  He watched his adorable little red-haired girl grow from rug rat to toddler and attend childcare.  He received the best ever Father’s Day present in the form of her first steps in this world…awesome work bubba girl.  His beloved AFL football team, Richmond Tigers broke its 37 year drought and won the 2017 AFL Premiership.  MMT still gets goosebumps and feels a bit teary when thinks about that one.

So onto cycling, like Alan Kohler on ABC I have a bunch of pretty charts to present.  The first one shows my yearly worm, or how I accumulated kilometres over the course of the last 12 months. The sharp kick at the end is the Festive 500.  In December, alone, MMT did nearly 1000km.

The second, has the same data set, except its month by month.  This graph clearly shows the impact of worst cold and flu season Victoria has for 15 years. MMT was seriously YAFFed in April, June, August and September.  It also shows how doing Rapha related stuff has pushed my annual kilometres to almost 8,000.

The final graph shows my ride activity month on month.  It seems the combination of work, life, Bubba mean that about 22 to 25 rides a month is what I can expect for the next few years.

So in summary the numbers look like this:

So in an average month MMT, does 24 rides, for 660km, which takes about 28 hours and burns 33,460 calories.  Honestly, MTT feels that he should be much, much thinner than he is, after seeing these numbers.  That would be something to work on in 2018.

Until next blog, ride safe

Marv

PS Go Richie Porte in Team BMC in the 2018 TDU

January is slipping by…..

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT is back at work…sob…been through a recruitment/reorg exercise that has had more in common with a baby seal cull and unforgivably been neglecting this blog.  The shame of it!!!

Fear not, I’ve found another of Dave Walker’s cartoons to tide you over until I can write something sensible. I’m still way behind on doing my kilometres for 2017 analysis, although the final number looks like its over 8,000km.

Part of the joy of living in Port Melbourne is that it is a rare day indeed when the wind doesn’t blow.  As its summer, Melbourne’s equivalent of the Fremantle Doctor kicks in around 5.30pm and makes riding home from work a good deal harder that it is ordinarily.  That made me think of this cartoon.

If you look closely you’ll see what I mean about the bloody wind.  As this is a blatant act of intellectual piracy, here’s a link to Dave’s Book.

Until next time, ride safe.

Marv