Tour de Holidays comes to an end.

After 3 and a half very lazy weeks, the Tour de Holidays has come to an end. That's right, back to bloody school today for some not so great times. But lets go back to the happier days of the holidays. Last week didn't see the potential epicness that it could have, but finished the Tour with a bang. After a Wednesday morning bunch ride which I think I did very well in, riding at the front in the climbs, there was a days rest before the final stage. Canberra to Goulburn to Moss Vale to Nowra, a 220km battle against the Hume highways gravely shoulder and constant ups and downs, variable but reasonably strong winds and some mind blowing hills. The ride to Goulburn (100km ish) was pretty flat and sunny with dad helping me with a bit of pacing. After Goulburn, the road started to go up and down a bit more, but not any real climbs, but some pretty bad road surfaces. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it was only the shoulder/cycle lane which had a crappy surface, the rest of the road had buttery smooth hot mix which I couldn't ride on because of all the traffic. Riding through the southern highlands wasn't much better and the friendly folk in Moss Vale really motivated me to move on and finish the ride. I knew I had the descent into the Kangaroo Valley followed by a climb and another descent, but had no idea what I was in for. Droping down the Dividing Range into Kangaroo Valley on the smoothest of smooth hot mix roads with so many corners was the only thing in the world that could make me smile like that after such a long day. What followed was a 5km climb up an amazingly steep hill. It hurt more than anything, and I'd had it but I was determined to make it to Nowra as fast as I could. My music stopping halfway up didn't help either, but rolling down the other side made it all worth it. They sure know how to build a mountain road in the Kangaroo Valley!

So although the Tour de Holidays did see a few too many rest days, a lot has been gained, in both training and great cycling memories, and I now have an extra 897km in the legs (that's right I mapped out each ride on bikely).

What now I hear you all chant? Well this week is a bit of a rest/stay up watching the last week of the Tour de France week. Ill probably do the Hour of Power in the morning and then maybe a road race on the weekend. Then I will start focusing my training on speed and power, with hill climbs and hard bunch rides in abundance and a long endurance ride on the weekends. I think my endurance is pretty good right now, but if I want to keep up with the elites riders, I need to be a lot faster than I am now.

So that's all for now, good luck to Andy Schleck but Contador is going to win, and keep on rolling.

Tour de Holidays

Well there have been a few more crack stages and some not so cracker stages. A trek up to Burra and back last Tuesday saw some nice climbing and high speeds due to a strong tail wind on the way home. A pretty good ride at about 3 hours I think. The following day was a very unmotivated Cotter Uriara loop, which was briefly interrupted by some exploring of Mountain Creek Road, but was rudely interrupted by a very buckled wheel due to a broken spoke. It ended up being a very slow and hungry 4 hour ride as great care was taken not to further buckle said wheel. Last Friday saw the return of the always inspirational Honeysuckle Creek ride, a 110km ride with an 8km climb reaching gradients of 20% and a 400m altitude gain. Probably my favourite ride due to good roads the whole way, with opportunities for high speeds, and a cracker of a climb that really lets you enjoy the high mountains, and finishes in the most peacefull surroundings.

Yesterday I raced the CORC club race, and wasn't really feeling like it, and after the first lap decided to stop racing and just rolled the last lap. I had a bit of a recovery ride today out to Stromlo and back. Wednesday is likely to see a long awaited return to Corin Forrest and potentially Corin Dam itself. There is also speculation of an EPIC 200km ride to farewell the Tour de Holidays.

But for now, I'm going to have some dinner.