Milano-Sanremo, first held in 1907, is one of the oldest bike races in the world and, at 298km, is also the longest race on the World Tour. It is one of the five Monuments, the group of the most famous one-day races on the calendar, and it’s the first one to be run every season, hence its alternate name “La Primavera”. The race is largely flat but it’s the distance that takes its toll, so the question becomes who has anything left in the legs when the final climbs come in the run in to Sanremo.

I had intended riding Col de la Madone yesterday but a comedy of errors meant it never happened. Driving down from Milan, I chose to take the coastal route as followed by the race which of course was subject to local afternoon traffic. I ended up arriving later than intended so, after checking in & grabbing a bite to eat I opted to drive to Menton and just ride Col de la Madone from there. However, my newly acquired Italian SIM stopped working as soon as I crossed the border into France, so that meant no more maps or net or phone connection.

Rather than relying on my French to try to get directions back to Italy (easy outside a town, but pain in the arse in a town, with one-way streets and circuitous routes everywhere) I decided to turn around while I could still retrace my steps and call it a day. I managed to find a shop still open and load some credit onto my SIM so that the SmartPassport feature would work the next day for the drive to Bédoin.

Today it was up at dawn (jet-lag helped) and time to ride the last 20km of Milano-Sanremo.

Neither the Cipressa or the Poggio are mountains. They’re barely even hills and they’re both the sort of climbs that you could find around Sydney. However, as the last two climbs in Milano-Sanremo they are steeped in cycling history and a perfect wake-up for the legs after the flight from Oz.

There’s a nice bike path along the coast from Sanremo to San Lorenzo al Mare which is also famous, having featured as the Grande Partenza, or first stage, of the 2015 Giro d’Italia, used as part of a team time-trial route, so it was cycling history right from the start of the ride. The weather was perfect - slightly chilly, but early-morning sun gradually warming things up and it was a flat 20km out to the turnaround, at which point the real fun started.

First climb up was la Cipressa, 5.6km at 4%. Typically, in MSR, la Cipressa is ridden hard to stress the sprinters, but there’s never any real attacks. I cruised up it, soaking it all in. Unlike Newtown where you’re likely to have some graffiti art on your house wall, here instead there’s plenty of paint left by fans exhorting their heroes to greatness. Most of it seemed to be directed at John Degenkolb, the 2015 winner, along with some Italians like Bonifazio.

The descent off the Cipressa was great fun. The roads are in great condition and there wasn’t much traffic, though I still had to be a bit cautious as I didn’t know the road at all.

After a few km of flat road along the coast, it was time for the Poggio (3.6km @ 4%). This is raced full blast and an attack usually goes about 1km from the top. The descent is tricky and, since the bottom is only a few km from the finish, it’s possible for good descenders to hold their advantage to the line. For me it was a nice cruise, though I did find myself putting in a bit more effort than I’d intended, caught up in the history no doubt.

It’s quite an odd feeling knowing you’re riding one of the most famous climbs in all of cycling, while at the same time watching all these small-lot farmers getting their day started. My only previous experience of il Poggio was seeing the race live on TV, with the road closed and lined with fans. Riding up it sharing the road with locals in their micro-vans is a little different.

At the top there’s a sharp left turn and the descent begins. In real life, it’s a much wider T-junction and I had to wait for a white Audi to pass before I could get going. The advantage was that I then had something to chase down the descent. I was quicker through the bends, but he could obviously out-accelerate me on the straights. I managed to catch him two-thirds of the way down as a series of tight bends took their toll, but he was able to get away from me again on the following straight. Great fun though without needing to be reckless.

The descent over with, it was a sedate ride to the finish line as local traffic on the main road meant it wasn’t worth the risk trying to “race” to the finish.

Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

PS: I have descent videos, but they’ll have to wait until I have a decent net connection. I’m not sure uploading almost a GB from a rural Italian B&B would be appreciated.

Monster what?

A few years ago, while watching the Giro d’Italia late at night and admiring the stunning mountain scenery, I mused that I should really go and watch a Grand Tour some day. The Tour de France, as the biggest of the Grand Tours, is always super-hectic as it’s the one everyone wants to visit. However, when I discovered that 2017 was to be the 100th edition of the Giro, my plan was hatched. I was going.

I picked out all the major mountains I’d never ridden before and set about some route planning to see how many I could fit in. Most are in Italy, apart from Mont Ventoux and a few Swiss stunners just over the border which it would be a shame to miss.

Now that the list is down on paper, it’s bloody daunting: approx. 1400km & 40,000m vertical over 3 weeks! At 85kg I’m far from a natural climber, but I’ve got my 32-tooth cog on the rear and I’m fitter than previous visits to Europe, so we’ll see how it pans out. When push comes to shove, it’s an aspirational list rather than a must-do-at-all-costs list, so I’ll adjust as I go based on how tired I am.

After all the planning and dreaming, here we are. I fly out in 10 days! I’ll be travelling solo, riding in the morning and doing a few hours work in the afternoon/evening.

So, here’s the list :-)

Day 1: Cipressa & Poggio - ease into it with the iconic finish of La Classicissima, Milano-Sanremo, the first of the Monuments in the cycling calendar. The pros do 298km, I’ll do the last 30.

Day 2: Col de la Madone (optional) - favoured training climb of Lance Armstrong, Chris Froome and Richie Porte.

Day 4: Mont Ventoux - La Géant de Provènce. The first of the big climbs, 21km averaging 7.5% and topping out at 1912m. Iconic Tour de France climb.

Day 6: Colle della Fauniera - back to the Italian Alps with a bang! 22.5km at 7.5%, topping out a touch under 2500m. Will notice the altitude on this one. Also known as Colle dei Morti, The Pass of the Dead.

Day 7: Mont Cenis (optional)

Day 8: Colle della Finestre - the first climb I’m actually nervous about. 18km at an almost constant 9.3%, some of it on dirt roads. Got its name as the view from the top was called ‘finestre sul paradiso’ - windows onto paradise.

Day 9: Colle del Nivolet - Highest climb of the trip, topping out at 2612m. Stunning scenery, so hopefully not snowed in. Hopefully catch the latter stages of the Giro stage finish into Oropa.

Days 10, 11, 12: Giro watching, plus various riding.

Day 13: Passo Pellegrino and the mighty Passo Fedaia. Rewards you with a stunning gorge then kicks you in the nuts with 3km @ 13% straight after.

Day 14: More Giro watching, with Passo Pordoi (both sides), Passo Sella and Passo Gardena. Sella Ronda - some of the most stunning scenery in the Dolomites too!

Day 15: Passo Rolle, both sides. The mountain that first brought the Giro to the Dolomites, 75 years ago.

Day 17: Big day out: Passo Campolongo, Passo Giau, Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Passo Falzarego to finish off. Giau’s another big one: a bit over 10km, averaging a bit over 9%.

Day 19: Off to Switzerland for the Furkapass - Grimselpass - Sustenpass loop, all three over 2000m. Bond movies, glaciers, hairpins and stunning vistas should help to keep the mind off the 130km with 4000m+ of vertical.

Day 20: Backing up: another long day, over Nufenenpass (2478m) “one of the most intimidating prospects in the Alps for a cyclist”, then down the other side and, bugger the tunnel, over St. Gotthardpass and its old cobbled road.

Day 22: All the massive climbs are done, so it’s only fitting to finish with Muro di Sormano and a visit to the museum atop Il Ghisallo. Madonna del Ghisallo was deemed the patron saint of cyclists by the Pope back in 1949 and the museum has gathered the greatest collection of cycling history over the years, as superstitious or grateful champions have donated items to the collection.

Last year I was pretty slack in terms of racing, a situation I want to reverse this year, so on Sunday morning it was time to line up for our monthly club races at Heffron. This was also doubling as our B-Grade 2014 Club Champs, as our previous attempts to hold it had been cancelled; due to rain on the first attempt, and due to a bad crash on the second. So, we would have a race within a race; riders from other clubs going for the overall win, and also the first three SUVelo riders across the line who would comprise our Club Champs podium.

I wasn’t really hoping for much as there are a few guys like Rob Cheng and particularly Peter Ristkes who have really trained up a storm last year and progressed in leaps and bounds, so my plan, such as it was, was to hang on for the first half of the race and see if any opportunities presented themselves in the second.

The gun went and we settled in to a decent pace. I stayed around the middle of the pack of 30, paying attention to where the wind was and trying to position myself in advance so that I’d be nice and sheltered down the main straight.

Image © Joshua Nicholson

Things were going well for the first few laps. Holding position was easy and I was cornering well and not leaving gaps out of the turns. I had a near-miss when a guy in front of me hit the brakes and swerved into my from wheel, but it was only a slight tap so I managed to stay upright. Overlapping wheels is probably the most common cause of a crash, and it’s always your own fault, as guarding your front wheel is your problem. I’m pretty confident I wasn’t overlapping with this guy and it was only his dab of the brakes which put me in that position, but it was still a timely reminder to concentrate!

After a few more laps I was starting to feel the effort and the constant accelerating out of each turn was starting to take its toll. The bell sounded for the mid-race prime and everything stepped up a notch as the sprinters got into position. The second half of the lap felt tough and I went bang at the beginning of the finish straight, pulling over to one side to stay out of everyone’s way. Race over.

When I pulled up at the finish line I learned that we’d been lapping at almost 41km/h, which is rocket fast for B-Grade. 39km/h would be a normal pace for us, and indeed, B-Grade on the day was riding as fast as A-Grade, so going bang halfway through the race wasn’t quite so disappointing.

Nonetheless, with some matter-of-fact post-race analysis it’s clear I have an issue with decision making mid-race, when the going gets tough. Once the prime was over the pace settled down again for a bit, so I should have just stuck it out for a little longer and I would have had a chance to recover a bit before things picked up again for the race finish. I know that’s how the race unfolds, but never processed that information when deciding to stop. A bit stupid in hindsight!

Oh well, back in the racing saddle at least!

It’s been a little over a week since I returned from the Tour Down Under and my legs are just about recovered. Here’s the training load over the week:

As you can see, training was pretty flat after being away for Christmas and then ramped up hugely for the week of the Tour Down Under.

What happens is that up to 50 of our club travel down to Adelaide with their bikes and spend the week riding through the Adelaide Hills, sampling the small-town bakeries and intersecting with the race to watch the pros do their thing.

In practice it means riding around 100km per day through the hills, so the workload (the pink line) goes through the roof and you dig massive hole of fatigue (see the green line above). During normal training I tend to take a day off if the green line dips under -30, but I hit -98.6 by the end of the TDU! That’s not sustainable, but I knew I could hack it as a once-off, which is why I did almost nothing the following week. The benefit is an almost 50% increase in fitness (blue line) in one week!

It’s also an interesting process, seeing both how far you can push yourself and how your body reacts. For me, all that really happens is that above-threshold efforts become really hard, but I was still climbing at threshold at the end of he week which I was happy with.

After the well-earned rest week, Monday rolled around and it was time to get back into it. Most of my riding for the last few months has been at a reasonably comfortable pace as I built my fitness up, but now that the fitness is there to handle the extra workload, it’s time to start adding some shorter, harder intervals in a bid to get faster.

I stagnated last year, so I’m determined not to let that happen again this year. Time will tell!

The second phase of backing up my photo archive was to find an online storage option. A bit of research narrowed the options to either BackBlaze or CrashPlan, and I ultimately opted for CrashPlan. For $70/year I can backup an unlimited amount of data, encrypted with my own personal key which never leaves my machine.

One downloaded and installed, I pointed it at my 220GB photo archive and let it loose… at which point the downsides to Australia’s ADSL network kicked in!

Living only approx. 300m from my local exchange, I have a pretty good ADSL line, connected at 20Mbps down, 1Mbps up. In practical terms, CrashPlan seems to max out at a sustained 850kbps, which means that, although I started the upload on Jan 11th, it’s still telling me I have 15 days to go!

I was away for a week at the Tour Down Under, but even still, this is what passes for excellent broadband in Australia and our current Govt. scrapped plans to build a Fibre-To-The-Premises network throughout the country, instead replacing it with Fibre-To-The-Node (where node is a cabinet at the end of your street), which will still rely on the existing crap copper infrastructure into the home.

Ah well, only 15 days or so to go!

Prompted by a discussion earlier this year when I mentioned to Jacqui that a few years ago I’d lost almost all my photos of our South African trip from 2002, I’d been meaning to get around to restructuring my backup procedures for my existing photo collection, currently comprising 27,500 photos and 225GB of data.

I had local backups, but it was a pretty manual process - copy from card to external HD, then at random intervals back that HD up onto a second external HD. Better than nothing, but still pretty haphazard.

Stage 1 was to get a RAID setup going, so after a bit of research I settled on a 6TB LaCie 2big Thunderbolt2. Configured as RAID 1 gives me 3TB of storage, which is plenty to handle my music and photo libraries. Since it’s Thunderbolt 2 it’s fast enough to handle editing and managing my photo library without needing the catalog on my laptop HD.

Next stage will be to figure out some off-site storage. At this stage I haven’t decided on a suitable option. My regular documents are sorted already so I don’t think I need a continuous backup solution, especially since, apart from the actual image catalog file, the image files won’t change at all. Furthermore, it’s all on an external HD which isn’t necessarily plugged in all the time.

A few hundred GB of FTP storage would suffice, but some of the online backup services are pretty cheap for unlimited storage, so it may be easier to go with one of those. That can be next week’s research project!

Success! For the the first time in a long time I’ve managed to not put on weight over the Christmas holidays.

We decided to drive to Jacqui’s Mum’s in South Golden Beach, 20mins north of Byron, so, since we had the car, I opted to bring my bike. The goal wasn’t to continue training and riding five days per week, it was merely to get a few longer rides in over the two weeks we’d be away in order to offset the extra eating.

I had hoped to do 3 rides at Denise’s and a further two when we went up to Buderim to stay with Nath, but in the end I only managed 2 at Denise’s and 1 up at Nath’s. Still, it was enough to keep the weight off, and as a result I start this year at 85kg instead of 89-90kg.

I have a solid week of cycling coming up as the club heads to Adelaide to watch the Tour Down Under. The result will be close to 700km of hilly cycling and a few more kilos shed. If I get my shit together I might finally crack the 80kg barrier this year!

Well after the last post, the recommencement of training didn’t last very long. July went reasonably well, but August was a disaster. Three weeks of almost constant rain made it pretty hard to get out on the bike, and for some reason I managed to stack on all the usual winter weight that I had managed to avoid for the previous three months!

September started quietly from a training perspective with an excellent holiday to Uluru, followed soon after by my brother’s first ever visit from Ireland, and by late in the month my CTL (Chronic Training Load, which basically measures fitness) was down at 22 (which is almost untrained) and my weight was back up to 89-90kg. On the plus side, Spring had spring and the weather was getting a lot better, so it was time to get moving again.

Being that unfit meant it was a slow start, as interval type training would take too much out of me, so the first two weeks involved just getting out on the bike and putting in the hours.

My initial plan had been to do four-week blocks - three weeks solid training and one easier recovery week - but two weeks in it became obvious that doing three solid weeks back-to-back was going to be too much, so I’ve switched to three-week blocks - 2.5 solid weeks with half a week recovery.

Here’s the last month’s workload and things are ticking along nicely now. The three-week blocks work well, as just when I’m getting really tired at the end of the second week I can convince myself that it’s only a few days until I can take a few days break. Each of the solid weeks works out to 4 hard rides and two easier rides, and if I’m really tired I have the option of skipping the easy rides. Most of the time you actually recover better if you actually do the really easy ride rather than doing nothing. My CTL is now pushing 60, which would class me as semi-fit (based on my personal scale).

What also became apparent as I got back into exercise is that I tend to eat too many carbs. Despite riding 9-10hrs/week during the first block, my weight barely shifted at all! I was eating pretty healthily 90% of the time, but was still prone to snacking in the evening despite eating a decent sized dinner.

I’ve tried super-low-carb Atkins before and had good results on it, but wasn’t keen to go that extreme again, so instead I opted switch my focus away from carbs onto protein & fat. All it boiled down to was making sure I got about 120-150g of protein per day, then eat plenty of good fats like avocado, olive oil, fish etc. and then add carbs on top depending on how much training I was doing. Instead of carbs being 55% of my intake, they dropped to 25-30% and fats went in the opposite direction. Result: 89kg at mid-October, 84.8kg this morning, less than a month later. Riding 250-300km a week obviously helps shift the weight, but from previous experience, if I’d stayed on a mainly-carb diet I’d probably still be around 86.5-87kg at this stage.

Good to finally be making some progress again!

Now that the ‘man-flu’ has finally abated, I can get back out on the bike again. I have a rule where I completely stop training once a cold gets into my chest and I don’t start again until it has completely cleared. I’ve heard first-hand accounts of people giving themselves long-term heart problems as a result of training hard when under the weather, and whilst there’s always the possibility that I wouldn’t be training that hard anyway and/or they had a more serious infection at the time than a chesty cold, to me it’s just not worth the risk. Given I’m only a hack and not cycling seriously, there’s no point stressing my body with solid training sessions when it’s already stressed trying to fight off an infection.

Here’s the result of my time off…

A week of shite weather and hectic work, followed by two weeks of a cold, leads to a 40% drop in fitness. Total distance for the month of June ended up as 158km, when even a relatively easy month would see me doing 700km+ and a decent week’s training would be pushing 300km.

I got back out on the bike a little at the end of last week to see how things were. My legs feel OK, but the lungs were a little sluggish on Thursday, but OK by Friday. It’s going to be a relatively slow build back to some semblance of fitness I think, especially with the late nights of the Tour de France just around the corner!

It’s been a relatively quiet/lazy/relaxed (delete as appropriate) year on the cycling front so far this year. Here’s the graph of monthly kilometres ridden compared to 2013, and it’s not hard to see that I’m well behind. About 1200km behind at this stage!

The year always starts with good intentions and then various factors get in the way. On a positive note, I’ve managed to survive watching the Giro d’Italia without stacking on any extra weight this year. Laying off the late night snacks is not an easy feat when you’re up until 1.30am watching live cycling for three weeks.

Anyway, lots of catching up to do over the next few months. Once I get rid of this bloody chest cold I’ll be ready to get back into it.