The crazy things we do on a bike!!!

This morning four of the group (Gav, Brad, Brock and me) ventured up Mt Cootha for a bit of hill work which went pretty well with a couple of PBs set so spirits were high as we rode across the ridge line before we got to the descent.

Now you may have noticed that we have included a link to Strava.com on the blog showing the details of how far, how long and how high the members of Team Powerade are riding each week. Strava is an amazing website which not only captures all of your ride data it also ranks riders on particular ride segments. Check out our Team Strava site at http://app.strava.com/clubs/team-powerade

Recently we have found that we are quite far up on the leader board for the Mt Cootha descent so with near perfect conditions ie. no wind and dry roads we agreed that today was the day to give it everything and attack the down hill to see just how far we could go up the leader board.

There are two segments which start at roughly the same spot with one finishing at a T intersection with the other one continuing through the T intersection to the very bottom of the hill.

We wound it up ensuring we hit the start point at maximum speed and from there it was flat out for the next 2.2km.

Gav led the charge with Brad glued to his wheel I followed with Brockie not far behind. I knew we were on a good run when I managed to glance down at the Garmin which showed I was doing 81kph!!!

Brad passed Gav near the end but not to be denied Gav took him under brakes. We continued to the end of the bigger segment and after stopping for the obligatory coffee checked out Strava.

The results with rankings were as follows:

Mt Cooth front short descent (2.2km)

Gav - 2nd out of 513 av speed 66.1kph
Brad - 3rd out of 513 av speed 65.5kph
Kent - 10th out of 513 av speed 64.5kph
Brock - TBA

Mt Cootha descent (2.4km)

Kent - 6th out of 465 av speed 65.2kph
Brad - 8th out of 465 av speed 64.7kph
Gav - 9th out of 465 av speed 63.3kph
Brock - TBA

To make it even more impressive Craig, another Powerade rider, is ranked 6th and 2nd on these segments respectively making it 4 Powerade riders in the top 10 for each of these!!!

Team POWERADE welcomes a couple of new GIANTS

Its always exciting when a new bike enters the group and this week Greg and Gav picked up their new bikes from Cyc'd for Bikes at Norman Park.

Greg went all out with the 2012 TCR Advanced SL with the following specs:

• Fizik Arone CX saddle with braided carbon rails
• Dura Ace D12
• Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLRs
• Look Keo Blade Ti carbon peddles
• Zipp carbon bottle cages

Check out this awesome looking machine....looks fast just standing there!!!!

Gav picked up a new TCR Advanced SL frame from Cyc'd for Bikes to replace his broken LOOK frame and had Jaaron rebuilt it and the result is a good looking machine. Check it out here...

The big news is that Gav still has one more Giant to get in the coming weeks and rumour has it that it might look a little like Greg's!!!

I'd like to put in a huge plug for Jaaron and the team at Cyc'd for Bikes Brisbane's premier Giant shop. They are great supporters of ours and through their great sales and service we now have seven of our riders on Giants from Cyc'd for Bikes. Great guys, great service and great bikes!!!

Team Powerade to support Smiling for Smiddy in 2012

Over the past few years riders from our group have participated in a number of Smiling for Smiddy events to raise money for the Mater Foundation and to help fund cancer research. You can find out all about Smiling for Smiddy at http://www.smiddy.org.au/

Over the past couple of years our riders have raised over $100,000 to help fund cancer research.

In 2012 members of our team will once again ride in support of Smiling for Smiddy and raise money to help fight cancer.

This year seven of our riders have signed up in two different events. You can support them and the fight against cancer but donating at their fund raising sites below.

Smiddy Challenge - 1600kms in 8 days

Stephen Jennison http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/stephen_jennison

Brad Scriven http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/brad_scriven_2

Rowan Foster http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/rowan_foster_8

Mary Lindores http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/mary_lindores_3

Midi Smiddy - 570kms in 3 days

Andrew Barkham http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/andy_barkham_4

Brock Yates http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/brock_yates


Sharky's OZ 7 in 7 - Stage 5 - 2,400km in 14 days

Read about Sharky's amazing around Australia adventure at http://www.smiddy.org.au/page/get-involved/challenge-yourself/Sharkys_OZ_7_in_7/

This year Craig Mitchell from our group will be joining Sharky for the fifth stage from Esperance in Western Australia to Adelaide, via the Nullabor a total of 2,400kms!!

Support Craig at http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/craig_mitchell_4

Team POWERADE on the road - Video

The boys were looking so good in the POWERADE kit on Sunday I just had to pull out the iPhone and get a little video footage of the guys in action.

Thankfully they took it easy as I tried to film them cruising along the Sandgate waterfront.

The new kit never fails to get a few glances from other riders and the general public.

I hope you enjoy this short clip of the lads in action....

Race report 18 Feb

Today 3 members of the team raced at Nundah in the local crits. Jase and Rowan raced B Grade and I backed up for my second race in C Grade.

After the steep learning curve in race 1 two weeks ago I felt much better prepared for the race but even still I had that weak feeling in the stomach as we rolled out for 40 mins + 2 laps of racing.

After a couple of laps things had settled down pretty well until two riders attempted to sneak away as A grade passed us but the peleton was awake to it and I was pleased that I could contribute to the chase as we brought them back into the group.

After finding myself too far forward on the last lap in my first race I was keen not to make the same mistake and settled into about 15 place looking for one guy in particular who I knew would be moving forward. I found his wheel and stuck to it like glue and he took me forward.

The final straight saw a big group come together and just as I thought my options had been closed a small gap appeared and I went for it sneaking through with a clear run to the line. In a blanket finish I crossed in 4th place just half a wheel from second. Pretty good result with $30 coffee money for my efforts.

B Grade was a very tactical race with many surges and solo breakaways but nothing seem to stick. Jase and Row spent more time than usual in the middle of the pack assessing the situation but finally Row had enough and went to the front in an attempt to up the pace but nobody would work with him. Jase was keeping his powder dry for the final sprint and was well placed going into the final lap.

Unfortunately Jase had picked the wrong wheel to follow and the guy in front dropped off the pace leaving a gap to the first 5 riders. Jase gave it everything but couldn't bridge the gap finishing a gallant 6th. Row finished mid field having given his all towards the end to help set Jase up.

Here are some pics of the Powerade boys in B Grade....

Jase crosses in 6th place

Jase  biding his time in the peleton

Rowan putting the peleton under pressure

Rowan riding hard at the front

Another good weekend for the team

After last weekend's sufferfest up Mt Glorious we were all keen to see how many would show for this weekend's ride and given that quite a few riders were away it was good to see 13 turn up for the Jinker/Sandgate loop.

The ride was largely uneventful just a good solid hit out of 65 relatively flat roads with some good banter going on.

When we hit Brendale a few of the lads decided to ramp it up and give it a bit and the next 5km were ridden at an average of 44kmh...the Powerade train was on the move!!

On the Sandgate sprint Gav showed that it is possible to do a massive turn on the front and still come back and win the sprint....well done mate.

Unlike last week we had heaps of time for coffee which was much appreciated by all. Jenno made all of our days when he handed out the goodies from the Tour Down Under. The Powerade water bottles tossed aside by the pros during the race were much appreciated by all....thanks guys.

Powerade bottles for Team Powerade

Yesterday Rowan and Craig raced B Grade at the tough Lakeside track and reports back suggest that Rowan again dished out the pain to the 65 strong peleton with Craig finishing 5th....great effort guys!!!

10,000 page views and counting

What started as a blog to tell the story about our fund raising efforts for the 2011 Smiling for Smiddy Challenge has grown into something quite a bit bigger. When I started the glog in May last year I hoped share the story of the 4 guys (Brad, Gav, Dammo and myself) as we went about our fund raising and training for the 1600km cycle over 8 days.

The blog now covers the whole riding group and all our activities be it Sunday ride reports, team members on tour or race reports. Hopefully readers enjoy catching up with the goings on with Team POWERADE.

Naively I thought that it would be people in Brisbane or Queensland who might find the blog of interest but those 10,000 page views have come from visitors from around the world.

There is some big news in the wind for the team so stayed tuned in as all will be revealed in the coming weeks.

The top 10 countries by page view are:

Australia  - 6,895

United States  - 1,197

United Kingdom  - 961

Russia  - 154

Malaysia  - 79

Canada - 51

Germany  - 43

India  - 33

Netherlands - 31

Japan  - 23

Race report Saturday 4 Feb

Well you have read my little piece about my first crit last Saturday but the real action was in B Grade where Rowan, Jase, Craig and Greg took on about 50 other riders around the Nundah Crit Track.

I'd heard that the lads like to push the pace and get in early breakaways whenever they can and they didn't disappoint.

Rowan, Jase and Greg were prominant early on ensuring the pace was nice and high with Craig keeping his legs fresh for the prime. Watching these guys at the front was awesome and the team strategy was very evident as they came up to the prime.

Craig surged foward just failing to take out the prime finishing a close second. Here's how the prime finished....

With the prime over Jase and Rowan began to dish out some serious pain to the big group establishing a breakaway with two other riders although to be fair Jase and Rowan did 90% of the work. They managed to hold about a 20 second gap lap after lap but with one of the breakaway group dropping off and the other rider no longer contributing to the breakaway it was left to Jase and Rowan to go for home and with two laps to go it looked like they might hang on. Even with one lap to go they still maintained a reasonable lead but the group was getting organised behind them and closing the gap.

Rowan told Jase that he would give it everything on the last lap to set Jase up for the sprint and that's exactly what he did. Rowan buried himself and got Jase to within a few hundred metres of the finish but the group would not be denied and Jase was caught about 70 metres from the finish....so very close. Craig once again finished strongly and placed Team POWERADE on the podium which was a great result given how much work all four lads had put into it.

Here's how the race finished.....

Team POWERADE conquers Mt Glorious

Jase our ride coordinator has been keen to get some hills into the program and today he succeeded and how!!

The team is looking strong with 19 riders turning up at 5.30am with 6 heading off with Scott to continue their build up with a Sandgate loop while the other 13 heading off towards Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious not without some trepidation I should add.

As the road starting pointing skywards Jase gave the instructions for the day "Attack the hills at your own pace guys". "ATTACK" was he serious!!! Spoken like only a 63kg rider can.

With 5 guys backing up from racing yesterday there were some tired legs out on the road but everyone did there best to "attack the hills" as instructed by Jase.

I'd like to make a special mention of three riders at this point who could have taken the easier option of the Sandgate ride but decided to give the hills a go. Matt, Tim and Mark ground away all day without one word of decent or complaint. As we waited at McAfees and then Nebo the guys just rolled through and kept going. Well done lads.

We also had some people riding Glorious for the first time today and they did a sterling job up what is one of the real landmark rides of the Brisbane area.

It was warming up nicely as we approached the final climb to Glorious and with some solid 15% gradients this was no walk in the park.

No coffee at the cafe at Glorious but plenty of Coke and water was consumed before Jase had us back on the road and heading home.

Ready for the return trip from Mt Glorious

Sadly the 60k ride turned out to be more like 75k so there was no time for coffee today and we all headed home filled with a real sense of achievement for what had been a fairly brutal ride but don't take my word for it. Strava.com analysed the data and with something like 4hours turning the peddles and almost 2,000m of climbing rated it as "Extreme" and I don't think anyone would argue with that particularly with the temperature over 30 degrees C and the humidity at about 80%.

A good tough day on the bike for Team POWERADE....well done lads.

Memoirs of my first crit race

Well its been an interesting week on the bike!!

Over the past few weeks I've been listening intently to the stories told by some of the other riders about their recent racing experiences and I must say my interest in following them onto the race track was certainly triggered. Of course I had to balance that enthusiasm for racing as I'm still scarred, mentally not physically, from the one one and only other attempt at racing I had back in July 2010 (yes its been 18 months since I last entered a race). On that occasion I was told by Gav and Jase that "no worries mate its all good we'll look after you, no need to do any work on the front!!" Well let's just say that being dropped after 30ks of team time trialling with 35ks still to ride was not quite what I had in mind for a first race!!!

So it was this in mind that I cautiously put it out there to a few of the boys that I may attempt a race again this Saturday. This was met with a great deal of enthusiasm by none other than Gav and Jase who I'm sure remember what happened last time only too well. Gav was so enthusiastic that he even put out an email telling everyone that I was up for a race.....there was no turning back I was committed.

The next conversation was with my lovely wife which went something like this.....

"Babe I'm thinking of racing this weekend"

"Isn't that something young fit cyclists do??"

"Come on I train 4 or 5 days a week so I think I should give it a go."

"What happened last time you raced??"

"Sure I nearly died but this is different I'm told its a crit."

"I'm not even going to ask what a crit is."

"Its a criterium around...."

"Stop right there.....is your life insurance paid up??"

"Of course but it will be OK....Gav and Jase assured me it would!!"

"How much is the life insurance and remember I don't wipe up spit or change adult nappies so you had better stay on that damn bike or do it properly!!"

Any way with that resounding endorsement and show of support I began thinking about the race.

Riding on Friday Gav gave me the benefit of his extensive racing experience which I listened to intently although I was a little suspicious as he came off his bike at 40kph in his last race.....mmmmm.

Friday night brought a few hours of restless sleep as different scenarios ran through my head and before I knew it it was 5am and time to get on the bike and head to the track. Banana check, Powerade fuel check, gels check, nervous sick feeling in stomach double check!!

When I met the Commissar for grading he looked me up and down (I thought he was checking out the cool Powerade kit) and then asked how old I was....46 I said sucking in my gut and trying to do my best Brad Scriven quad flex I could muster....C Grade he said thank god I thought he he had said B Grade it may have been time to pull a hammy.

Jase rolled up and was full of enthusiasm and support which eased the nerves a little until Craig and Rowan showed up insisting that I should try an early breakaway.

Anyway before I knew it was time to get to the start line and off we went. Things went pretty much as Gav and Jase had described and I was even starting to feel pretty good among the 45 riders. I stayed in the first dozen throughout but then it happened....

I found myself on the front and the adrenalin got the better of me and off I went. Feeling quite invincible I actually upped the pace to about 43kph and as i went through the finish line oh how I wished that was the last lap. The fact was we had at least another 15 minutes to race and I was out the front with a young guy who wanted to blow the race apart. After I did my turn he took over and gave me that look of we can do this.

He turned around and said "get on!!"

I replied "I have a son older than you young fella I'm waiting for the peleton!!"

Soon enough we were caught but I managed to stay near the front and recovered quite well from my short lived breakaway. With a couple of laps to go the pace picked up but I was feeling strong so hung in there with the lead bunch. On the final lap I even felt strong enough to up the pace and as we rounded the last corner with about 400m to race I was in about second place and for the briefest of moments a podium finish flashed before my eyes followed quickly by about 5 other riders. 8th place it was to be.

Leading the way....for a short while

The support from Jase, Craig, Rowan, Greg and Macca from the track side was fantastic and it was great to have their support throughout.

As we drank our coffee I received a txt from my concerned wife....

"Did u win?"

"Came 8th really happy with the race"

"Not bad for an old f*@k well done!"

The race lived up to my expectations and more and I can see why Gav and Jase said that I would be hooked and I am.

When I got home the trusty Garmin told me that I had averaged 40.0kph for the 32k race. Not bad for an old f*@k I guess!!!

What a week it has been.

PS more to follow on the B Grad race which saw Jase, Rowan, Greg and Craig ride an incredible race.