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jethro's picture

LunarC Mountain Bike Cross Country

4th of Feb late afternoon I headed for the LunarC MTB XC event with Andrew my team mate. We borrowed the Wolves Support Vehicle, loaded it up with all our gear, 2 bikes each and a couch and a mattress.

By early evening we were working in a practice lap, good thing too as Andrew broke his chain and I hadn't pumped my rear shock up. After a quick pitstop mid lap we continued and decided the course wasn't too bad.

2011-02-04 LunarC MTB 167Andrew went home for dinner and a sleep and promised to return by 11PM. I had a rest on the couch reading a book, chatted to the neighbouring competitors, had a meal and relaxed. Come 11PM the site was buzzing as the countdown began for over 140 competitors. Andrew decreed I should ride first and who was I to disappoint. Lining up on the start line with all the other cyclists wasn't a new experience for me having raced many times before, however lining up in the dark with headlights blazing everywhere was. the first kilometre was bedlam and thick dust. After that it settled down a bit and I finished my first lap in a fast 45 minutes, just short of being lapped by the fastest riders but about mid field as it turned out. I was so wrecked that I missed Andrew passing through on his first lap (he was doing 2 laps to my every one) and consequently mistimed his return. I had lost some air from my rear shock, though it was still rideable, and my glasses were covered in sweat. I was still pulling on my gloves when Andrew returned and I raced over to transition (right over the track from our position) without rectifying these things. This proved to be a mistake as about 5ks in there were some very dusty berms and i was unable to see the ground clearly, crashing at a low speed. Bit comical really. I washed my glasses with water from my bladder and then found a checkpoint official who had a tissue. I finished the lap in 46 minutes so consistent with the first one.

jethro's picture

Tons of useful links

Today I am focussed on clearing out my browser from all the interesting things sitting there. No real organisation to this post – its just a link dump.

And I will leave you with some of my best photos from the Triathlon.

IMG_7426-1600 IMG_7611-1600 IMG_7444 bandw-1600 IMG_7444 colour-1600  IMG_7615-1600 IMG_7635-1600 IMG_7766-1600 IMG_7678-1600 IMG_7869-1600 IMG_7945-1600 IMG_8043-1600 IMG_8104-1600 IMG_8117-1600 IMG_8141-1600 2010-04-11 Tre-X 086-1600 2010-04-11 Tre-X 105-1600

jethro's picture

Another Tour is over, Cadel still one spot short

Le Tour de France is over for 2008. Last night I watched the last 145 riders head into the Champs-elysees for the last stage and the sprint at the end. Cadel finished in the bunch, along with Carlos Sastre who had retained the yellow jersey after a disappointing time trial by Evans and a blistering effort by Sastre sealed the result for him. Cadel finished in second place just 1 minute and 5 seconds behind the leader.

tour_de_france_logo Michael and I were cheering him on from the comfort of our home theatre, but the big screen and surround sound couldn't disguise the fact that the time splits were not small enough for Cadel to win. Sastre rode out of his skin to produce probably the best time trial of his life. He deserves the win.

Another reason Cadel probably didn’t win and Sastre did was the difference between the two teams. The Silence Lotto team worked very hard for Evans, but they were underpowered and not able to help enough when he needed it. I think Popvych’s performance was very disappointing. On the pother hand the CSC team was amazing. they were the best team on the tour by over an hour of combined riding, in the mountains and on the stages they needed to they had a coordinated steam train going up the front assisting Sastre and also Frank Schleck who had the yellow jersey himself for a number of stages.

jethro's picture

The cobra is a cheat!

So now we know why Riccardo Ricco was so good on the climbs – he’s a cheat. He has been removed from the race after testing positive to a banned substance, a version of EPO. Other team members also have been targeted for testing and as a result the whole team has been scratched. This has changed the rankings for the images yellow jersey, polka dot jersey and white jersey. I would hate to be the sponsor of that team -Saunier Duval - Scott! Interestingly this team had made the most money from the race so far also. I’m not sure what happens to that.

The good news here is that they have picked this up early enough that it isn’t going to affect the end of the race. I just hope that there are no more riders trying to escape the testing and cheating.

More news on most major news websites. The Guardian reports that Ricco was taken into police custody.