Archive for November, 2008

Tour De Femme 9th November 2008 - Team C.C.Coglioni (ACT Chapter) Ride Report

Published
by
FlirtyODirty
on November 28, 2008
in Ride Report
. 3 Comments

As an honoury member of the C.C.Coglioni clan and a proud wearer of the team colours I thought it would be a tad un-Coglioni not to take up the opportunity to don the shirt in the annual Tour de Femme organised by the Canberra Cycling Club. In addition, I thought that a team representation would be the right thing to do. So, with the help of O’Dirty in sending spare shirts for the event the team presenting on the starting line was:

Flirty O’Dirty (Fiona Doherty)
Femme O’Dirty (Carrie Logan)
Femme Nelmsey (Chris Wicken)
Femme “Blanc” (Karen Whenan)

Femme O’Dirty and Femme Blanc had competed in this “arduous” 20km race around Lake Burley Griffin in 2006. Although Flirty and Femme Nelmsey had had plenty of recreational sojourns around said lake this would be the first time competing in an event and cycling in a group.

The team plan was simple – we didn’t have one. Flirty had a secret wish to beat Femme O’Dirty’s previous time of 45 mins but knew that her lardy bot may create some drag.

So after some quick pre-race chattering the team set off. The O’Dirtys immediately decided to make a break to get out of the crowd and out onto the open road. Flirty thought that they would stick together but no sooner had they reached Commonwealth Bridge, Femme O’Dirty launched into her attack (considering the machine of choice for the day was a Marlin MTB this was quite impressive).

The rest of Flirty’s ride was spent in solitude from the rest of the team and became a personal challenge (breathing, staying upright and not crashing). Flirtys fear of hills was also overcome with the “if you don’t do it you won’t finish” mantra and with the final climb out of Yarralumla out of the way, the realisation that the finish was achievable lifted the spirits.

With a ride so short, the tales of the adventure are somewhat limited, so the results are the only thing to come:

Femme O’Dirty came 212th at 46:50
Flirty O’Dirty came 305th at 51:57
Femme Nelmsey came 372nd at 55:13
Femme “Blanc” came 416th at 58:06

The team came 16th (out of about 22) at 3.42.06

On the face of it this may not seem impressive, however this years the turnout was in excess of 600 riders with the cream of local and national team riders taking top honours.

The consensus at the end was that we should cycle more as a group and improve the result for next year.

As the event was an all female affair there was some talk of the alternative team name. A friend of the ACT contingent has suggested that “C.C (Rompi) Coglioni” would be appropriate and became the cry of the team…..an official suggestion to the committee shall be submitted.

Over and out from the Nations Capital!

It’s a strange world

Published
by
Bif
on November 26, 2008
in Bollocks
. 0 Comments

Cycling is the new golf and there are now as many hackers on the roads as there are on the greens. More and more people are cycling for fitness, fun and financial savings (well, that’s one way of justifying the carbon fibre in your diet). But in spite of this the amount of abuse from motorists experienced on a ride seems to be increasing. It can range from mere heckling to dangerously threatening driving, but it’s a rare day when you’re out for more than hour without some kind of incident.

So I had to marvel while browsing a copy of (Australian) Wheels magazine at lunchtime today. An article describing a road test of three turbo-charged sixes (a $60,000 Ford FPV F6, a $148,000 Nissan GT-R and a $450,000 Porsche 911 GTR for you rev-heads). Seeking superlatives to describe a champion that excels among champions they first invoked a logical image for a motoring magazine: Ayrton Senna in the wet. To go one better they obviously needed to go Aussie, but I was still more than a little surprised to find they chose Anna Meares’s stunning comeback from injury to win silver in Beijing. Good things come in threes so how could they top that? A champion among champions among champions? Well, seven-time Tour winner and wannabe comeback kid Lance of course!

Two cyclists invoked as icons of superlative excellence in a motoring magazine? It is surely a strange world.

Mission accomplished - Bif 10:17

Published
by
O'Dirty
on November 23, 2008
in Ride Report
. 5 Comments

Never has the collective might of C.C.Coglioni been so focused to help one of our number to achieve a goal. Always regarded in the cycling world as a team of team players, today was the day where that would be all too evident. The goal was to get Bif across the line with the best time up the Coglioni classic climb of Kalamunda road. Although O’Dirty used this thin sham as a way to get Coglioni members to actually time themselves up the climb in preparation for the Kalamunda Christmas handicap.

It has long rankled Coglioni riders, Bif and O’Dirty, that their joint record of 11:07 had been pipped and held by Eastern State Coglioni member Technoboy when he set a time of 11:06 prior to the 2007 end of season windup. Bif has worked tirelessly this year to improve to the point where he was ready for the challenge. With the impending birth of No2 child, waiting for the glory of the Xmas handicap to claim the record back for the Western States was not an option. So a plot was hatched to get as many Coglioni out to give Bif some tasty rabbits.

O’Dirty offered a slap-up lardy brekkie, with sparkling shiraz, to entice riders to commit. The two reasons were to get data in order to set handicaps for the Xmas handicap, and to provide Bif a pseudo handicap to go for the record. The temptation of lard and shiraz worked with Bif, O’Dirty, Stuey, Spunker, Sicknote, Ted, Crash, Cookie, Digger and the as yet “unnamed” Roland all meeting on the bridge for the start. Notable absentees were the Coglioni stalwarts Paddles, Blinder, Babel and the Doctor who all had valid excuses, however will still be penalized for being soft.

The ride started with a loop around the river, riding on some of the Great Perth Bike ride route, a ride we were protesting against for the lack of funding to charity because the funding seemed to go to funding triathlons, a cause not endorsed by the club. A relaxed pace out to the hills, which were draped in cloud, was briefly broken by a flat for Cookie. As he fixed it we were educated by Stuey about some use of a finger (and what has a Pilchard got to do with it?), yet to be explained, that almost made Spunker choke on his mueslie bar.

Rest of the ride went without incident and we negotiated the Ridgehill Rd testers. However the group rode up well with no real stragglers. We regrouped and rolled to the start at the bottom of Kalamunda Rd. The handicapper, O’Dirty, set people of as follows:

Handicap starts
Time Rider
Limit Sicknote, Ted and Roland
+90secs Digger
+120secs Crash
+150secs Cookie and Stuey
+180secs Spunker
+210secs O’Dirty
+240secs (Scratch) Bif

Neither Spunker or O’Dirty were feeling on top form, Spunker due to a recent spate of back issues and O’Dirty because he had not taken any HTFU recently, but they were ready to assist Bif where they could. O’Dirty was the first to be caught by the flying Bif. Just after the top of the steep bit Bif was all over him like a bad suit. O’Dirty tried to lift to give Bif a tow but it was not enough as Bif swept past, stating later “I was going to sit on but you were going to slow”. Your humble scribe watched, from the rear as Bif gobbled up rabbit after rabbit. Spunker proving resistant, turning in a PB ride, and keeping Bif at bay almost until the 50km sign. The trio of Sicknote, Ted and Roland also resisted until almost the top, being caught close to the servo. So Bif was left to sprint to the finish by himself, but with the knowledge that Technoboys record was gone, it was just a case of how much he could squeeze out of it. The answer was 49 seconds to bring the record down to 10:17.

But it wasn’t all about Bif. It was a day when most Coglioni riders produced either good times or PBs. The as yet “unnamed” Roland also posted his longest ride, by more than double, plus an excellent time for a first time challenge on the testing Coglioni climb, and looked as fresh as if he had just done 25km to Gino’s. An effort that was also toasted at breakfast. Times were:

Kalamunda Climb 23/11/2008
Rank Rider Time
1 Bif 10:17
2 Spunker 11:36
3 O’Dirty 11:53
4 Cookie 13:05
5 Stuey 13:18
6 Crash 14:18
7 Digger 15:05
8 Ted 15:06
9 Sicknote 15:16
10 Roland 15:45

A spirited ride home to get breakfast going was followed by a slap up feed and sparkling red to celebrate the days achievements. All in all a good day out. O’Dirty at this time would like to recognize Cookie, Ted and Bif for assistance in brekky prep.

11-speed Centaur in 2010?

Published
by
Babel
on November 17, 2008
in Bollocks
. 2 Comments

My 2002 9-speed Shimano 105 groupset is still functional (with the help of a new chain and cassette this year), but the levers are starting to rattle (no, it’s not just the brake cable tension), and since buying Campagnolo Eurus wheels, I’ve been hankering to switch to a Campagnolo groupset.

This is partly because, to use the Eurus rear wheel with my 105 cassette, I had to buy a Campagnolo-manufactured Shimano 9-speed compatible freehub body. I should be grateful that such a thing exists at all, but it seems to have been made from recycled lead sinkers. I suspect this is a derisive nod by Campagnolo to the cross-industry interests of their competitor. (You want to change gears with fishing tackle? Here you go.)

I’m also hoping that a shiny new groupset will help motivate me to get out on the bike after this year’s baby handicap.

Given that the 2008 Centaur groupset seems to have so far survived Cookie’s destructive testing, I’ve been considering upgrading to the 2009 Centaur groupset with carbon levers and cranks.

However, now that Chorus and the two higher-level Campagnolo groupsets have gone 11-speed, it occurs to me that 2009 might be the last year that Centaur is 10-speed. (Centaur often inherits features from the previous year’s Chorus.)

Will 11-speed trickle down to Centaur in the foreseeable future, or will the extra cog remain a distinguishing feature of (what I think of as) Campagnolo’s “racing” gruppos (Chorus and up)?

Campagnolo tough

Published
by
Bif
on November 17, 2008
in Product Review
. 0 Comments

…and now for something completely different. When I kitted out my mid-life crisis bike carbon-fibre bidon cages seemed like obliglatory bling. Luckily the bike shop miswrote the spec and I got them for half price, or I might not have had a leg left to peddle with. Oddly enough the matching bidons are competetively priced, considering you would be bold or wreckless to risk anything else in the expensive holders. So although they’ve become familiar over the years they retain an exotic air.

Riding out in the rarefied air of 5.30 am on a spring morning might not take four o’clock in the morning courage, but thanks to daylight saving and a 3.30 wakeup from my daughter it wasn’t far off. No surprise then that a dull thunk and strange loss of traction didn’t distract my attention long enough to wonder if a bottle had jumped from its cage. Half an hour later in brighter gloom I happened to glance down and noticed the holder bereft of its cargo.

I was too far down the road to turn back, but I was determined to check for it later. As luck would have it I didn’t get the chance til 12 hours later when I took the hound for a stroll up the road. She’s probably still wondering why we took an unpleasant walk up South Street rather than taking the usual route to the park.

It seemed like a fool’s errand, not least because I’ve seen the odd dropped bidon pop like a paper bag under the first obliging car wheel to come along. But I’d had some luck recently with lost-and-found at the local pool, and I was annoyed that the thing had come loose despite an obviously inadequate check prior to departure that the bottles were firmly in place. I wasn’t even sure I could remember the right location, but sure enough there in the gutter across the road from where I’d ignored the fateful thunk was the distinctive grey water bottle, intact apart from a few dozen extra scratches and a tear in the cap retainer. If only I had that kind of endurance.