The year ahead

Published
by
Bif
on January 3, 2009
in News
. 0 Comments

With a return to work looming on Monday it seems like a good time to preview the year ahead. Stuey gave us a heads up via email that this year’s Cyclosportif programme includes two “regional” events, by which I mean they are far enough away to be almost impossible to do as day trips. This is an interesting development and merits a brief review of the history of Cyclosportif events to put the changes into context.

Cyclosportif started in 2005, and the first two years included a number of routes not used in the relatively stable two years in which C.C.Coglioni have participated. The inaugural year went as far afield as Collie and Dardanup, while 2006 dropped Collie and added Albany. Chidlow and Swan Valley debuted in 2007 along with the C.C.C., and had it not been for the hassles that saw the Toodyay event move to Lancelin, 2008 would have more or less repeated the programme, albeit with one less event.

In 2009 there will again be six core Cyclosportif events, but only York, Swan Valley and Lancelin have been retained from 2008. With Pinjarra dropped that makes York the only venue that has been used every year. Moreover the three replacement events are all new: Margaret River, Perth and Bridgetown. As Stuey has pointed out the first and last events will most likely demand an overnight commitment and will challenge our ability to field three or even two teams.

These changes are interesting and prompt mixed feelings. I was of the impression that the “far-flung” events were dropped because of complaints about having to travel too far. While I understand that feeling I do think it’s good to have events in places where we might not otherwise ride. But if dropping them altogether was going too far one way then having two distant events in their “comeback” year seems a leap too far the other.

I’m also a little disappointed to see my three favourite courses all dropped for 2009. Variety is great but so is re-visiting a past pleasure. Obviously I’m not privy to any political or other issues that may have influenced the choice of locations, but it seems to me that a couple of changes each year would be enough, with only one event held much more than 100 km from Perth.

Other events that may also draw our attention during the year include the Freeway ride, the Tour de Perth support ride, the Menzies classic (we’ll get there one day), the Golden Spokes and the Great Perth Bike Ride (we can only hope for more sensible pricing this year…). Of course there is also last year’s Christmas Handicap to kick things off and no doubt Digger will again be running the Freo Gift.

We will also be looking at some new options for clothing, so keep those T-shirt orders coming but hold off on knicks and jerseys till you see what C.C.C. has to offer. Meanwhile stay safe and I hope to see you out there sooner or later.

Have a Blinder New Year

Published
by
Blinder
on December 30, 2008
in Ride proposal
. 2 Comments

If you’d like to start the new year with a 75km trek that starts with the usual Roe Hwy route out to Welshpool Rd., up the hill to Canning Rd then left to Kalamunda, down to Mundaring Weir and up the other side to Great Eastern Hwy, then cross over and ride the “back streets” along the old railway line through to Chidlow and the Lake, then come and join us. It’s a great ride! You can then stay there at the lake and rendezvous with your own families (you will have a great day and given the forecast temp of 39C a lakeside retreat maybe tempting), or turn around and head back for the 150km. There’s a pretty good cafe for good coffee, food, ice-creams etc. If you would like to join in for the ride and/or day, give me or Paddles a call. Paddles and I will head off from the Shell Service Station cnr South St and Nth Lake Rd at 6am this Thursday. I’m not good at estimating when/where the best rendevous points could be along the ride for those of you who would like to meet up along the way - I’ll leave it to you with Google map expertise to work it out! Hope to see you for a spin.

Wishing you a Coglioni Christmas

Published
by
Bif
on December 26, 2008
in Ride Report
. 1 Comment

Best wishes for a happy and safe festive season from everyone here at C.C.Coglioni to, umm, everyone at C.C.Coglioni. May your sacks be full. Just remember that every kilo you stack on is 15 seconds slower you’ll be up the hill at the reconvened Christmas handicap. While the handicapper takes a dim view of secret yuletide training, he has little sympathy for those of us who struggle to slip into our jerserys come the new year.

Stay tuned for our new year’s message.

Kalamunda Extras

Published
by
O'Dirty
on December 22, 2008
in Ride Report
. 0 Comments

With the official Kalamunda Christmas Handicap postponed until January, there was still enough interest to warrant a Kalamunda ride. Deb was keen to test herself on the climb whilst Blinder, Cookie, Crash, Digger, Sicknote and O’Dirty were all eager. There were a few non-showers however. Blinder texted your humble scribe at 6am to say a bad night with the kids had rendered him incapacitated. A hard day on the sauce had rendered your humble scribe in a similar fashion, so I was hoping for more excuses like this. Excuse no.2 came by way of Deb. She was actually en-route and had snapped her chain, very unfortunate as she was more eager than anyone I have seen to get out to Kalamunda. So she waited for a bus to talk her home, but the bugger wouldn’t take her bike! It was apparently a bit early to get hubby out of bed. So she walked up the hills, rolled down the hills (into a headwind) and scooted along the flats until she was home. Had a stern word to her mechanic, and is apparently giving her one more chance.

So it was looking like a return to bed for O’Dirty when Cookie and Crash rolled up…. Bugger. Sicknote was wise to stay under the covers having shared a few wines with O’Dirty the day before. So just 3 of us rolled out, Cookie, Crash and O’Dirty. We expected to meet Digger on the way but he was afraid a rain drop might clean his bike, so he was yet another scrapee.

It was a great ride out as we had a raging tailwind, 35kph and hardly peddling. Due to my big day the day before I was feeling a bit fragile, however felt good on the bike, maybe the tail wind was helping. We did the warm-up climb of Ridgehill Rd and on the decent Crash got a flat. Took a while to fix as he had a particular tricky thorn to get out of the carcass of the tyre, plus had evidently forgotten how to change a flat after a few years off the bike, so Cookie and I helpfully pointed at stuff for him. We then rolled to Kalamunda Rd.

Cookie and I gave Crash a 2 minute head start before setting off after him. I don’t know what it is but I can’t seem to just take it easy on the climb and feel I have to punish myself for something, maybe too much red the day before…. I dropped Cookie on the steep bit and tried to get my legs going. Just managed to catch Crash at the penultimate roundabout. Managed my best time for the year at 11:40. Crash slashed his previous time by 31 seconds doing a new PB of 13:47. We then met John at the cafe, who had somehow managed to drive there instead of riding, and had a tasty croissants and coffee.

Hard roll home into the wind plus we almost made it the whole way without getting wet until we were in Mt Lawley and got hammered the rest of the way home.

All in all a good extra hilly ride before piling on the kegs over Xmas.

Token offering or fourth way?

Published
by
Bif
on December 14, 2008
in Product Review
. 2 Comments

The paraphernalia section of the October/November/December edition of Ride magazine features a brief overview of a fourth groupset option. Apparently Token have been inspired to take the leap by SRAM’s success with its Rival, Force and Red gruppos. I’d never heard of them but it seems they’ve been in the business of after-market upgrades to road components for some time.

The article describes Accura as the “top of the range” but from the website it seems there is only Accura, though it comes in AX and CX variants, whatever that means. The pricing in ride certainly puts it in the “not cheap” department - around $2000 with a crankset.

What’s most interesting to me is how innovation reveals the obvious. While Shimano and Campagnolo’s shifting systems had forced SRAM to be truly innovative, Token have found their difference by having a pair of dedicated shift levers behind the brake lever. With the benefit of hindsight this seems the most obvious solution of all.