Fatties BBQ

Reminder to all the Fatties, tomorrow night there will be a BBQ and drinks after the ride. This year there is a change of venue, we will be meeting at the Eaglemont Tennis Club, just around the corner from the Scout Hall. BYO food and drinks.

Sneaky rides...

Today I ditched the kids and hit the trails. With such a wet and busy weekend I didn't get out on sunday as I had planned. The local trails have recovered well from the deluge. Making a great little ride.

School finishes at the end of the week, so this was probably a one off kind of ride. Oh well, we can always dream.

Good weekend for ducks...

This morning I managed to sneak out the door for an hour spin before I needed to take the kids to their cousins 5th birthday party. Luckily I managed to miss the rain whilst out. As you can see from this pic, Melbourne has had a bit of rain in the last couple of day. I have never seen this creek this full. It is usually only a few metres wide at best, but currently it must be 30. I avoided riding this section (If I managed to sway off the foot bridge I would be in very deep flowing waters indeed) but rode a section further on that had most of my wheels underwater.
And in the wise words of my 4 year old, Olivia, it was a good day for ducks...

Chasing the sun...

I am beginning to love base level training. With my courier background, base training has been foreign to me. Working was my base. But as it looks more and more like I won't get back to couriering, I need to get some longish slow rides with no real intensity for the next 6 to8 weeks.

Tonight I went out on the Tour de Burbs ride. Not many familiar faces out tonight amongst the 100 plus bunch. But with Clackers also out, I had some company out the back as he is in his base phase as well.

My AyUps came out for the ride but they weren't needed. The pic above was taken 500m from my housing. I love long sunny days.

Sunny days...

I love sunny days. This is how I sometimes pick the kids up from school. The planets need to be inline for it to happen (ie. Robyn at home with Jack and Olivia at the right kinder etc.) Next year I might need to hook up the baby seat on the back and bring Jack along for the ride.

This is how we tried to escape this morning.

December for me is usually time to rest after a hectic finish to the year. But this year is a bit different. Because I took this year a easier on the race side of things, I am now fired up do get some good base k's in the legs and prepare myself for a manic start to next year. I have already scheduled over 100 hour of racing into my calendar by the end of April.

Today I rolled out the door for a little spin around Lysterfield on the Unit 29er. I had forgotten how harsh the rigid single speed was on the old body, but still it was fun. I bumped into a few friends whilst there. One of which ended up riding the last hour and a half with me, delivering me to my door. Evan Franzke (pictured below) deserves a mention, I have been racing this guy since I started doing Enduros back in 2005. He has since gone on to win many shorter enduro and as of this week will be riding on the Kona Factory Team. We might even team up in the Mont next year. So, good luck Evan in your new colors, enjoy the ride.

Fatties madness...

This was the result of a flat knacker head on whilst riding the Yarra trails last night on the Fatties ride. The pilot on this occasion was Randall. You should have seen the other guy, not a mark on him. The advantage of being built like a fridge I suppose.


Nice helmet indentation on the old forehead.

Dazed and missing a good bit of memory. Some thing aren't worth remembering anyway Ben, so don't worry about that buddy.

Better to be safe than sorry. Luckily he was released by the time I got home from the ride. Today he is sore but OK. He has posted his version of the events on the Yeti bog.

Lids...

This is why you should wear a helmet boys and girls.

Full story to follow.

Kona 24....

Sorry for the delay in getting this up. My Internet has been down since the weekend and I have had to hijack Robyn's computer, so I will make it quick.

Firstly I must say riding in a social team was a very relaxing way to spend the weekend. Everyone should experience it at least once in their life. As a team we weren't even worried if we had anybody on course. I was able to get out on each of the courses and enjoy the riding. Each of the three courses were fantastic. I recon you would struggle to find better riding in 24 hour event anywhere else in Australia.

Although I was there having fun, the competitive part of me wanted to be racing in a "proper" manner. So I have walked away from the event fired up to get some great training done and have a crack at some more 24 hour races next year.

Unfortunately for Jayden the kids race was not to be. He was fighting for the lead and had a altercation resulting in a nasty gash on his knee. It needed to be super glued back together, but in true Jayden form he was back on the bike within the hour.