Gravel Grinding

With the weather outlook grim, the TDR crew are looking at getting on board with the inaugural  ride of the Melbourne Gravel Grinders. Time to bust out the daggy gear and the CX bike!

Hurstbridge loop.

For those of you who don't have a 'genuine' gravel grinding bike in the quiver, here's some motivation:

WANT

TTT

TDR entering a 4 man team time trial in two weeks. 10 km in under 13 minutes hopefully.
Might have to give ol' mate Fabian a call to see if he's free.

Track Tuesdays

Only half the TDR track complement tonight. Big fields meant D'alfonso once again got shunted to B grade. Will he hold his own again? Lets find out:

"It was really busy so C grade had 12 - 14 riders and there was an E grade with 6 riders! I raced in B, with about 12 riders, and got absolutely smashed in the scratch, managed to hold on to the first bunch of 4 riders, came 5th but I was spinning out. The fastest I have seen it, crazy tactics and the rider skills, riders slam right in on you if you leave half a wheel!

The second race was a progressive points race with one point per lap with the final lap worth 5 points (5-4-3-2-1). Attacks like all hell, I didnt have the gearing so I was stuck up the back for the first half. Just as I managed to get to the 5th wheel, the 2nd rider comes down, and the race is called off. Changed my tactics for the last 24 lap points race.... attack!

Sprints at 16, 8 and 0 with about 20 laps to go, I was 2nd wheel, as I roll off, I hang high on the hip for half a lap until on the next turn, still up high, I slam it down the hill and attack, flew past the bunch to yells of "up up" but I was away, gained a quarter of a lap lead and managed to hold them off taking the first sprint, totally buggered, I then slowed, the leaders flew past me but managed to catch onto a group of 3 that dragged me up to the leaders again. Rested, I attacked again with 10 laps to go, and again, they were caught sleeping, so I got a break and managed to take the next sprint. At this point, im stuffed, my gearing is waaaaaay to low im moving to 90", 86" is just too low. So I spent the next 8 laps riding solo with the bunch is half a lap in front trying not to get lapped by the remaining 6 riders. Awesome though. Won the points race with a score of 10 second was 7 and third was 6."

Well done Palfensa. Well done.

Quick snap of Palfensa trying to intimidate B grade last night pre-race.

There was movement at the station...

For the word had passed around,
That Andi was going to shave his legs,
And leave not a follicle to be found.

Big movements for TDR in the near future including a new blog/website thingo. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's a lesson in looking dope courtesy of the immortal Marco Pantani.

TDR - The D stands for "Damn, I just missed out on the money again!"

SKCC Crit. 50 minutes plus 3 laps. Average speed 42 km/h.

Had the goal of getting away in a break and working hard without aspirations for a place. 5 man breakaway established after 5 minutes and it looked like being a long day. Worked hard and well together and ended up lapping the field. Didn't do too badly in the sprint with the first 4 riders finishing within 2 bike lengths of each other.

The other TDR crew are up at the Audax at Bright. Hope they're smashing it. Full report with pics from that event coming soon.

Just another lazy ride

Looks like another pre-work ride, 40km 600m climb.

Glorious defeat...

Captured on film:



Duggan finishing 2nd after being in a 2 man breakaway for 10 minutes and doing too much work. Damn. Promoted to C.

Conversation of the evening:

Steve: "Hey Elaine - I came second!" 
Elaine: "Cool. Does that mean Adrian won?"