Florence & stuff...

Florence, Italy - just one of the many places on my "to-visit" list...
one day...

in the meantime, I continue to hear this song called Hurricane Drunk (on high rotation at the moment on Triple J radio) by Florence and the Machine with the lyrics...
'I brace myself cause I know it's gonna hurt,
But I like to think that things can't get any worse.'

Hey that sounds a lot like my last 3 races... (Jon Brooks at Toowoomba, Murarrie last weekend and then Nerang last Sunday).
And speaking of hurt,
lots of other races for cyclists to feel some hurt are on this week/weekend even though the TDF is now over...

Tour of Gippsland (go Budget Forklifts Team)
Tour of Denmark (go Simon Gerrans)
Cunningham Classic (go QSM guys & girls)...

Meanwhile I am happy to sit on the sidelines this weekend.

"Grande" rides

So this week has been another one of some grand 'epic' rides...
Sunday was another long 6 hour+ adventure over Beechmont and Mt Tamborine...
If you could get through the painful climbs, the views at the top were magnificent.

Fortunately we had a tailwind all the way home, and Cam didn't mind sitting on the front most of the way back!

I was happy to see that the women's Cervelo Test Team had a grand finish in the Giro Donne stage race on Sunday...

One of my favorite riders Emma Pooley (above) may not have retained the pink jersey, but it was one of her team mates (Claudia Hausler) who won overall.

Meanwhile, this guy (below) is doing pretty darn well at the TDF!

What a bike!... thanks Velo!!!

As I have said before, I am not a bike reviewer but after just a few rides on my new Time Edge Pulse, I can say that I am very impressed!...

But I haven't ridden another dozen carbon fibre bikes, so maybe I am biased? All the same, it rides exceptionally. Infact I just can't think of how it could be any better.

There is something uncanny about its ability to float up climbs and over rough roads. The carbon frame is stiff and light, but somehow shock-absorbing too. Our 185km ride on sunday proved to me its reported "all-day comfort and performance". And it steers so nicely with such precision and balance, and is amazingly stable at all speeds... I felt like I descended Mt Mee at twice the speed I normally would!

Riding was already excellent in the past, but it this has just put everything another level up again!
(and before you ask... 3T carbon bars and stem; bontrager carbon seat post; Ultegra groupset & Fulcrum 5 training wheels).

Scenic Rim weekend

Seven must be my lucky number at the moment, because that's where I came over all (again) in this tour...

Road race Saturday morning - a very misty, wet, muddy start for the A grade guys in the hills surrounding Boonah, but thankfully it dried up a bit before our race started. With hills slightly reminiscent of the Ipswich kermese, Simone and Louise put the hurt on the group early and broke away on the first long KOM climb. No excuses, I just simply cannot ride as well as these girls (yet!). Mental note for me: train more! The rest of the race was just one of attacks on the hills and some sitting up on the flats... and I wasn't very smart at the end and I got smashed in the final sprint.

TT Saturday afternoon - not sure what went on in this stage... we had a tailwind and I think I cruised way too much. Crap slow time overall but nice 12km sunset ride back to Mt Alford as a cool down!

Road race Sunday morning - at least I didn't miss the break this time... again Louise and Simone attacked on the longer climb on the circuit, and this split the bunch. Then I made the mistake of doing way too many strong even turns with Simone and Louise and 'toasted' myself... everything was fine until the sprint lap... it was my undoing, and I couldn't get back on after this. Oh well. Now I had the bunch chasing me for the last 20km of the race! I knew they would be faster than me by myself, but hopefully I would be able to stay away until the finish... and I did -but only just! Angeline tried her best to chase me down in the final sprint but I managed to hold onto 3rd place. Good fun race. When's the next one?