Racing and Bike Pumps

Well I have been absent for a while for several reasons:-
1. I discovered Bejewelled Blitz on the computer and am an addict and as such have neglected the blogging community
2. Shane is on holidays (he is a teacher) and so between Bejewelled, cooking and trying to emulate Masterchef on TV I have been TRAINING ON THE BIKE. I have just racked up two weeks of around 380kms.
3. The Tour (Just two words there nothing more nothing less)
4. Great to read about everyones latest wins and losses
- Parking tickets
- overtraining etc
But my favorite is about PUMP FEAR

So I ventured into the shed and counted our track pumps. Our big nightmare on pumps began when we started pursuiting on the track and the need to put around 230psi into the tyres made our old pumps redundant. THEN you also need a piece that you can hook up to the valve on disc wheels which was another adventure as well.....THEN there is our supply of tubes that are going to get fixed one day....and finally we have a few tyres which are for training wheels only - not for race wheels and we are gradually using these. We ordered a bulk supply of tyres a long time ago for about $35-00 a tyre for Vredestein Tricomps which was a bargain and they are tyres we love.












So five track pumps from over the ages. The connection for the disc wheel which looks like a device that is banned in some states!

I have raced the Tour of Riviera the last two weekends. Week One Iwas third in B grade, after towing two riders for 40km (could not ditch them) and then last week in undulating country the story was the same (different two riders). I did think last week the final hill would suit me better (wrong) and so was happy to push to the end (wrong) and this coming week is the time trial (my third of the series)...to their credit the two young riders on my wheel this week, were really racing each other and I was just the bus driver...so neither wanted to do any work....

The time trial will be interesting as the handicapper will be posting a time for each rider on the net and our job is to beat the time and points will be allocated to the riders who beat their allocated times by the biggest margins.....Now being someone known to love time trialling, I may be handicapped out of points......just like any non-astana rider (ouch). So I will have to try just that little bit harder.

Thats the round up for me...sorry have been distant.......life gets busy.

I am now committed to training and getting ready for the Pursuit at World Masters in Sydney in October which will be awesome.....I am hoping to ride a PB - and seriously not sure how I will go as I was way down the pecking order last year so need to get very serious!!!! and focussed.....(and practice the track starts...last year I went on the one and not on the beep and so I lost a couple of seconds before I left the gate!)