Breakfast

The whole thing about breakfast being the best way to start a good day is completely true. Which is why I’m sitting here at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, having not yet eaten breakfast or even showered. Safe to say, it’s probably not going to be a brilliant day, but that’s to be expected given the looming presence of my upcoming four hour shift at a supermarket. Fun times? I think not.

When breakfast actually happens, there’s one thing that guarantees a good start in winter. Porridge.

Porridge

Hot porridge. Creamy milk. Spoonfuls of brown sugar that melt into a glorious syrup. When the winter cold really sets in, it’s guaranteed to get your belly full and your body warm. Can’t beat it.

Summer time’s a different story, but you’ll have to wait a little while for that recommendation.

More words

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those … moments will be lost in time, like tears…in rain. Time to die.

-Roy Batty, Blade Runner

I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

-T.S. Elliot, The Waste Land

Slow news days

Low on updates around here. There’s a digital camera sitting on the coffee table here at BnC HQ with a bunch of photos due for talking about, but they’ve yet to make it onto the digital communications device that passes for a computer round here. Safe to say bikes have been ridden, on road and dirt (it had been too long). Liam is scouting out Melbourne, seeing amazing bands and drooling over luminous bikes. The rest of us are dragging ourselves through tedious days at work and all-too-brief commutes, followed by a few relaxing hours in front of the tour.

The sun was shining in some kind of mock summer today, and it’s done a fair job of increasing my lust for warm weather and blue skies. It’s been a long winter already and it’s not over yet, although we’re definitely over the summit and onto the plateau. Let’s hope the descent is fast and crash-free. No climbers jersey for any of us here, but it’s finishing the race that counts, right?

Here’s something worth getting excited about come summer time. Will they actually make it to the country this time, or is it yet another tease? Fingers crossed!

Double UGH!

There’s nothing quite like a bad mid-90s sitcom with a single set and a laugh track. Watch it and cringe, it’s difficult not to. It does feature Ted from Scrubs though, which is always a chuckle-worthy pleasure.


I’ll take a track bike over a laugh track any day “HA HA HA”.

And who said guys wearing pink was a new trend?

Read more for something a little more laugh-worthy.

Continue reading “Double UGH!”

Nothing like a bit of overkill

So apparently the greatest threat on the road these days is cyclists. They’ll come from no-where, kill innocent pedestrians and other road users whilst under the influence, and then flee the scene. Oh wait, no, I’m a little confused.

The Victoria Police have decided that the Melbourne’s infamous Hell Ride is worthy of monitoring from the air. A single tragic incident last year that resulted in the death of a pedestrian is apparently a sign that a group of cyclists is the most dangerous thing on the road these days. Never mind the number of cyclists killed by aggressive and inattentive drivers every year, or the disgusting attitude towards anyone on a bicycle that tends to exist amongst many stressed-out road users. Surely there are one or two better things that the man-power could be turned towards? I guess not.

Best of luck to them picking a kit-clad cyclist out of a line-up from 300m in the air.

Read the article.

Oh…shit

A quiet few days here at BnC HQ since ‘le Tour’ has kicked off. Life pretty much involves waking up, going to work, watching a bike race, going to sleep…rinse and repeat. Not much riding bar the short commutes to work, but I guess there’ll be weeks like that (hopefully not too many).

Melburn-Roobaix was on the weekend, but being stuck on a small island several hundred kilometres south on the venue meant we couldn’t attend. Probably saved a hefty dentist bill after having our teeth rattled out, so we’ll look on the bright side! Hopefully Andy’s computing machine will recover soon and we’ll be able to see a ride report.

Ever get the feeling you’re about to get hurt? 

The grand tradition

A trip to pick up some track bars from an ex-track cyclist in the north of the state on the weekend ended up with a conversation about the heyday of track cycling during the late 60s and early 70s at Launceston’s York Park. Every Friday night there would be up to 250 cyclists cramming in to watch and race, or so the story goes.

The more hardcore racers would compete in the six-day race, which made for white-knuckled racing on the less-than-perfect velodrome at York Park. In the first year of the ‘six’, in 1961, over 50,000 spectators came to the raceway over the six days to watch the action.

6-day track cycling in Launceston, 1970s

Photo: Joe Ciavolo (left) rounding the final turn at Launceston’s York Park.

“It was so flat, very difficult to get round on the corners and it was a small track. It just wasn’t banked enough. There were sparks all the time from where you would clip your pedals on the banks. The pedal clipping on the inside was spectacular for the spectators because nearly everyone could do it, not intentionally.

“The other [problem] was the back wheel skipping coming out of the finishing bend. Unless you knew exactly how to ride it the back wheel would always skip.”
– Joe Ciavolo

Racing ended at York Park in 1972. I wonder where the bikes that were involved in the epic races of three decades past are now?

It’s a grand tradition indeed.

Quote and image from The Licorice Gallery.

Bottles and beans

Is there such a thing as ‘too early for a beer’? Sometimes it’s a good idea to put the bottle on the back-burner and grab a cup full of life’s other liquid vice. I for one can’t really start using my brain until I’ve rocked the group handle and I’m pretty sure it makes the early morning ride to work through traffic a bit safer when your not falling asleep at the drops. Hey Mischa, you making a cup?

Every Day