Phillip Island teams GP

On Sunday the team raced the Phillip Island teams GP part of the VRS (Victorian Road Series).The team consisted of Ned Powell, Daniel Braunsteins, Chris Zucchett, Clive Silcock and myself. From the gun the race was on, straight into a tailwind section. Second lap on the second corner there was a 20 man pile up involving myself, with a flat front wheel and bruised thigh I took the van around to the start/finish line to get a spare so I could rejoin the field as they came past. Then next laps up until the finish the peleton seemed to learn from the crashes and made sure they were careful around the corners and especially the rumble strips. Unfortunately Chris was caught up in a fall and went to Dandenong hospital, however we can now report that he has lots of cuts and stitches, but importantly no broken bones. 

Image from http://brianmangano.com/ (Chris and Daniel leading Ned out for the KOM)

At the end of the day Ned came home in 7th and Daniel in 21st, whilst Clive and I followed in the bunch. Melbourne Unibicycles came home with 6th in the team classification and a great day for us. 

Thanks to John (DS), Rod (Melbourne Uni Sports), Thom and Micheal for driving us down and back and helping before the race. 

Calum

2012 late wrap up and 2013 start

2012 was my first year with the newly named Melbourne Unibicycles and it got off to a great start.
I achieved what I wanted to get out of the year, getting a top 20 in a NRS stage, finishing the Melbourne to Warnambool despite being in a car collision two days prior and lastly getting the chance to race abroad in America and gain more experience to aid my cycling goals.

2013 is another year, although it hasn't started as planned, coming into the middle of the year it's starting to gain the momentum needed for me to tackle the mid season races (Victorian Road Series) and in August two of the National Road Series tours, the Tour of Gippsland followed a week later by the Tour of the Great South Coast. September will possibly see me race the Goulburn to Sydney again, looking to finish this time as I punctured in the 2012 edition. October will be the last couple of races, the Melbourne to Warnambool and Shipwreck Coast Classic.

Now time for some hard training!!

Calum

Colorado, Mountain time!!

I'm first day here we had planned to race. It was the Colorado State Crit Champs. Feeling the altitude of 1600m just walking around, it was to no surprise that I was going to feel it on the bike. We warmed up for 30 minutes or so, me breathing quite heavily. Still I lined up to start what was going to be a tough race for me. Philip had previously lived here over the winter just past, so he was somewhat at an advantage. The race rolled out, 40-45km/h average, although the race was hard for me, if I was breathing alright there was only one real hard section, it was a long straight with a side wind then a fast right hander into the head wind. I stuck with the 70 or so Pro 1/2 men for as long as my lungs could take. This was 30-40 minutes in, I sat and rolled around the closed off streets watching Philip still racing. He ended up come in 13th, a great result.
After the race we decided to go do another hour on the bikes, just around the flats.

The following day was even harder than the day before. We planned to do 4 hours up in the mountains. Starting in Boulder riding up the must do climb of Flagstaff then on to the town of Nerderland, across the peak to peak highway and then dropping back down to Boulder. Making it to the top of Flagstaff for me was the toughest part, I had gone out a little fast, forgetting how hard it is to recover at altitude. But after an hour of climbing we had made it to the top. But this wasn't the real top of the ride. We descended down the other side until it came to a dirt road, even more descending got us to the bottom, then it was just a climb up to the town of Coal creek. It was then a flatish ride to Nerderland, my legs were hurting after climbing for 40km but I seemed to be getting used to the altitude with most of the ride 2000m+. We made it to Nerderland just before the afternoon storm hit. We found refuge in a coffee shop and was planning to wait it out until it was safe to descend back down to Boulder. But the problem was it wasn't letting up. A few hours later after scumming off the shops wifi, Philip called his brother to come collect us. I was glad that in the end we didn't get wet. It took away the factor that we could have gotten sick. Happy that we didn't. I have some photo's to come.

Calum

Crash

Last race was barely worth racing, we had already decided we were going to drive after the race part of the way to Colorado. It was a 90km crit, but this time the field was terrible. The thing about I small field, it did mean that you couldn't just sit in and had to work. There had been a break away up the road and it look like it was going to stay away, with 8 laps to go one of the huge Germans swung up the road because his team mate had done the same. I didn't get out the way quick enough and crashed. The annoying part was in the 3rd last lap the break was caught. That's bike racing.

Calum

Willow Springs Road races.

Tuesday and Wednesday were 2 100km road race in Willow Springs, on the outer edge of greater Chicago. Tuesday was a 5km lap with a 1km climb each lap that at the top was the finish line, the race panned out just as the first had, heaps of breaks. One huge one with 10 riders in it, that one should have stayed away, but somehow the remaining riders were able to pull it back. The race resulted in 2 riders off the front, then another 2 in the middle. So 4 riders up the road. Then on the last lap climb more went off the front. I came in  leading the rest of the guys. 15th again.

Wednesday was a 16km lap, I had ridden at the back for some time before moving up to get in some break. Followed some good wheels, the German and Columbian, one of these breaks was up the road and could have gotten away with 2 laps to go. But only 4 out of 8 were actually pulling turns on the front. The South Africans have been getting riders in the breaks but then aren't pulling through, a tactic that the rest of the riders don't fully understand. Race ended with single riders off the front in the last lap. I rolled in with the bunch, couldn't get through the line of Germans blocking the road. But that's racing.

Calum

Chicago

We headed down to Chicago to stay with another couple, but before we got there we decided to park in Lincoln Park and ride the road bikes into down town Chicago. It was about a 3km ride along the foreshore, bikes everywhere along with people walking, running, skating, roller blading, playing volley ball or swimming. Everyone was out enjoying the sun. We rode into the Navy Pier, did a lap of that to take in the view of the city from different angles. Then into Millennium Park where there is a strange mirrored sculpture which the locals call 'The Bean' which is understandable, we hung out eating Chicago style hotdogs before we moved on to ride a bit into the actual centre. It's a pretty cool city with all the building and next time I'll have to stay there in a hostels to check it out throughly, not enough time this time round. 

Downtown Chicago

'The Bean' and my hotdog

'The Bean'

Calum

Cycling life

We may have got up early but we sure didn't beat the heat. 110 Fahrenheit (43 celsius), 2.5 hours in the saddle, with the most part of an hour sitting at 25km/h because I couldn't hold a faster pace. It sure did hurt, but one thing it did do was through me in the deep end, making the following day (race day) easy to handle.
The morning of the first race in Wood Dale, IL we went for a roll in the morning, end up with a nice 60km in the bank. Then one thing that I have been enjoying after a morning ride was my mid day nap, of about 2 hours, then off to the race in the suburbs of Chicago. It was a 1 and a half hour drive and we got there with plenty of time.

Lining up with an international field reminded me of the times racing last year in Belgium. This year I've had the chance to race with South Africans, Germans, Dutch, Columbians, Mexicans and also the Americans. The field wasn't huge but still consisted of 40 or so. An alright size for a 1.1km crit course.
First laps were slow, but with the lap counter starting at 85 there was plenty of time to get things going. I didn't know how i'd fair going straight into a fast crit, but I seemed to be feeling alright. The front straight was flat and came into a long left hander downhill, from there was another straight this time head wind, left again on a 250m climb of about 5%, followed but the front straight. The corners weren't technical at all so when the pace was on it didn't have much room to slow. Fastest lap we averaged 52km/h. Moves were constantly trying to get away, I had gotten myself in a few but they didn't have much luck. The move that stuck was 2 riders eventually lapping the field. In the end it came down to what should have been a bunch kick but one of the riders leading into the second last corner took himself out and the Texan i'm staying with Phillip Snodgrass (DNA Racing). I was forced to loose a lot of speed, in the finish ended up coming in 15th. 160km for the day. Not too bad at all.

Calum