by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 19, 2013
in Trips
Day 7 Moss Vale-> Sydney: 168km, 1763m, 6h Ride Director Tim made a very insightful point at the last night’s speeches where he said that after an event like this it was easy to feel down upon returning to the real world. Whilst I’m sure everyone was excited to be with family and in their [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 19, 2013
in Trips
2013 Chain Reaction Charity Ride Day 6 Canberra -> Moss Vale: 183km, 1468m ascent, 6h40m. Wow. What a day. Canberra is collllld on departure (a common theme on this trip. Cold. Not Canberra). One thing I am really enjoying about this trip is learning a lot about the country we live in. Below is a [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 19, 2013
in Trips
Ahhhh-brrrrrrrr. What a cold morning! And hectic! We are late, again, despite us arising at 5.30am. We head off into bracing high-plains air with my Strava KOM from the night before safe (always wait for the group to go through before uploading it! ;p ), and roll through endless hills until we reach the Monaro [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 13, 2013
in Trips
Day 4 – Corryong to Adaminaby WOW. Central Vic and the Snowy Mountains truly are (probably) God’s country. Forget “The Shire”, this is -real-. There is no plasticity, no materialism. It is man, and nature. (Best personified in The Man from Snowy River.) Man’s footprint is minimal. What footprint there is is one of almost [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 9, 2013
in Trips
2013 Chain Reaction Charity Ride Day 3 arrives with some quietly ominous looking clouds. And it is BRISK. Best breakfast of the trip, with croissants close to being as good as French ones (maybe with 70%, which is about as good as it gets in Australia). The riders head off from Milawa toward delightful Beechworth. [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on May 9, 2013
in sportifs
What is La Maratona Ah, Italy! The home of pizza, pasta, (apparently) good coffee, history, stunning landscapes and one of the homes of cycling (yes, there’s Belgium too). Italy is also home to one of the sportifs second on my bucket list: La Maratona dles Dolomites. (Those curious about my bucket list: Haute Route, La [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on April 29, 2013
in Trips
Click here for day 1. A semi-civilised 7AM start, 5.45AM alarm. Less that perfect sleep due to an attack from a squadron of persistent mosquitos. Quick breakfast and we assemble for the start. An ethereal light creeps across the hill tops, casting the dry, slightly yellowing countryside with a slight purplish hue that is quite [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on April 28, 2013
in Trips
As I wrote in the post about local cycling trips you don’t have to spend a lot of money on cycling adventures. This week I am doing support for the Chain Reaction Charity Ride from Melbourne to Sydney, which gives me a chance to follow and help 40 executives from Westpac, CFS, Westfield and Gadens [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on April 3, 2013
in sportifs
La Marmotte is a gran fondo sportif organised by Sport Communication, covering an epic 174km loop through the High Alps in France. Although L’Etape du Tour (arguably) has a bigger public profile, a bigger field and is a larger event than La Marmotte, La Marmotte is one of – if not the – the hardest [...]
by Tim (VeloNomad) on March 30, 2013
in Articles
This 2012 Haute Route report is by Reader Steve. Reader Steve is a bit of a madman. He travels the world for his work, runs his own custom cycling kit business and in just his second year of cycling, tackled a bunch of epic sportifs. Steve was kind enough to share his epic adventures through [...]
March 24, 2013
Knowing how to choose an airline for a cycling trip isn’t just about choosing the lowest cost airfare; you’ll have to have a think about a few variables in order to choose the right airline. By knowing How to Choose an Airline you’ll avoid this situation: “I am very sorry sir, that will be $400 [...]
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March 2, 2013
How to Choose between the Alps and Pyrenees James in New Zealand Google IM’d me the other night wanting to know how to choose between the Alps and Pyrenees, and if the Alps or Pyrenees was better. James recently bought the Cycling in France Guide and was beginning to plan his trip. He had a [...]
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March 1, 2013
I’ve just come in from 8 hours of chainsawing, felling wild tobacco, mowing and whippersnippering the quarry on our 10 acre property (yes, a mini quarry). It is full of lantana, wild tobacco and wild rasperry. (Wild raspberries, incidentally, are delicious and nicer than normal raspberries. They get horribly out of control. But the smell [...]
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March 1, 2013
Over on the VeloNomad Forums, I had a request from Lentotron to review Sukkie hydration powder. After contacting Sukkie, I was promptly called by the owner Leon Harvey. We ended up chatting for an hour or so about Sukkie and I thought it would be awesome to bring his obvious enthusiasm, passion for his brand [...]
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February 7, 2013
It was hot and sultry (yesterday was dark and stormy, today, hot and sultry) out on the road today. You realised this was madness. Fun, yes, but madness. And, maaaaaan, was it ever brutal. Brutal and mad. Like a 10th century warlord. Is this what cycling was about? (Turns out, yes. Who knew?!) From the [...]
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January 31, 2013
For most people, gearing for Etape du Tour will be as simple as putting compacts on! I’ve done Etape enough times as a rider with pretty solid race fitness to tell you that compacts make sense. Here are my Etape du Tour reports from 2009, 2010 and 2011. And just to put the frighteners into [...]
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January 27, 2013
For most people, gearing for Haute Route will be a simple consideration – use compacts! There’s no point being a hero and rolling on full sized cranks (even with a 27). Sure you might look tough and it’s useful on the downhills (how much time can you make up on descents…hint: not as much as [...]
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January 21, 2013
When I was at the Tour Down Under (VeloNomad Tour Down Under information page) in 2010, I remember wandering through the village and stopping by the awesome Oakley Custom Bar, where you could customise Oakley sunnies into a mind boggling array of different colours and configurations. Oakley are going to be back at the Tour [...]
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January 19, 2013
It was truly serendipitous timing to receive two pairs of Oakleys for an Oakley Holbrook Review and Oakley Frogskin Summit Review sunglasses at this point of time. My poor old Oakley Andy Irons Hijinx are battered from being used as “gardening” glasses. Perhaps it’s a tribute to the longevity and robustness of Oakleys that they [...]
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January 11, 2013
Knowing how to avoid Overseas Prepaid Mobile Internet Problems involves a lot of research and some experience. Most long time readers of the site know I am obsessed with finding the best data and SIM card deals so you can have the internet on your smartphone when overseas so you can have a hassle free [...]
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