Singapore

Well I arrived in Singapore after a long 10.30 hr flight, and it was a boring as hell, as they are...

However I did get to watch a couple of movies:
Paul - it was really funny and a potty mouth alien made it all the funnier
Red Riding Hood - kind of weird with a rather boring story line, but enough eyecandy to keep my interest

So now I am back at the airport waiting for my next flight to Paris - 13.25 hrs why do I do this???

More when I actually get to France

Being a Bike Mechanic

Here are some photos (be it taken on my phone, so not very clear) of fixing and servicing my own MTB

Before

 During - I removed the cranks, rear cassette and chain rings

And, after - a nice clean bike where the chain doesn't keep falling off!

2 More Sleeps To Go and Counting...

Its Sunday night already, so that means its only 2 more sleeps to go- YAY!!!

I spend most of yesterday packing my stuff, actually I packed the most important things first - my bike stuff, so still need to sort out what clothes I want to take with me. I had to go hunting for my summer clothes, they were all hidden away in the bottom of my drawers (well it is winter here!)

Had a mission trying to get the pedals off my bike, they weren't going to give up without a fight, so I enlisted the help of neighbour Greg, who after huffing and puffing and taking the skin off his knuckles, finally got them off.

Other than that I am pretty much packed and ready to go! Luckily the ash cloud from Chile doesn't seem to be affecting any airlines except Qantas and Jetstar - and I'm flying Singapore Airlines and they seem to be flying as normal, so fingers crossed its all go on Tuesday.

Anyway here's a pictures to finish - can you guess who this is? Hint - he's my favourite rider...

Yep, its Jakob Fuglsang

New Watts Record! (and funny cat picture)

LMOA!! The more you stare this pic, the funnier it gets!

Anyway, a new watts record tonight - 781 watts, getting closer to 800...Does anyone know what maximum watts for a female recreational rider would be?

I know elite female riders can do between 1000-1600 watts - so any ideas would be good!

9 Days to Go...

Its only 9 days to go...can you tell I'm just a little excited about going to the Tour de France?

I was busy writing a list of things to pack over the weekend, and quite frankly my bike gear takes up most of the space! If I didn't take any bike clothes, helmet and shoes, my suitcase would be mostly empty!

Seems Leopard Trek is going well at the Tour de Suisse, Andy Schleck has the green jersey and Jakob Fuglsang is in 6th place on the GC - hopefully they will be on form for the TdF.

It was a quiet weekend for aftershocks and volcano ash clouds - nothing to report really, and hopefully it goes on like that!

I have a book that was produced recently which is called "You Know When Your CHCH When..." its a little book written with all the funny sayings and quotes from the earthquakes which people submitted to a facebook page. Here is a few of the sayings that gave me a few giggles

"You sleep in one suburb, shower in another, collect water from another, and go to the toilet where you can" (so true!)

"Your ensuite has a vege garden, a dog kennel and grass"

"Digging a hole and pooping in your garden is no longer weird" hahahah I can't say I miss the outdoor toiley!

Damn, I think I just caused another aftershock by saying we haven't any of note today...

Ashes to Ashes

Well if its not earthquakes its volcanic ash!

Not many flights are taking off from Christchurch airport here, the volcanic ash from the Chilean volcano has disrupted flights in the South Island of New Zealand. Hopefully it has gone by the 28th June, which is when I fly to France, otherwise I may have to get to Wellington to fly out from there!

I have decided this picture of Jakob Fuglsang will make me feel better - Awwww....

6.0

First there was the 4.9

    Then there was the 6.0

I am so sick of these f****n earthquakes! I am not come back from France if I have my way!!!!

I am grateful however that I work in a single story building and its relatively new so it only shudders and vibrates when we get a quake, but this time it was a rolling shake - a bit like being on a boat in a big swell, so bad that for a few minutes after it still felt like the building was still rolling side to side!

However...when I got home I discovered that we did have power - YAY! but we didn't have water - Boohoo! because you know what that means....

*No water to drink (though we still had 20litres of water from last time)
* No shower
* No toilet - digging a hole in the back garden :( not so bad though, just like tramping, but getting cold bottom from the frost! hehe

Good news though, the water came back on about 6pm, so hopefully its still on in the morning so I can have a shower before I go to work. Having no water isn't that bad, though it is a inconvenience.




Glad I didn't drive down this road! Liquefaction is a bit of a hazard!

I'm On Twitter!

Yep, I'm on Twitter!

Have no idea how to use it but probably only on there so I can follow Andy Schleck and Jakob Fuglsang...speaking of Jakob Funglsang (who is my favourite person in the whole world! with Andy Schleck following a close second!) there is a really cool site called justfuglen.tumblr.com which has just about has every picture of Jakob ever taken. Worth a look if you are a fan.

14 days to go until I go to France, I hope the ash cloud from the volcano in Chile has gone by then, it has however created a hazy sky for the last few days and some spectacular red sunsets, very nice but not good for flying.

Was feeling nostalgic and looking through my photos from the 2009 TdF, this is one I took of the TT, I think its either Andy or Frank Schleck. Planning to get some photos with Jakob or Andy this year - hope I can get close enough to them!

Alpe-d'Huez

Last night I decided to ride Alpe d'Huez, not literally but virtually, and since we will be doing this climb in a couple of weeks, I thought I had better refresh my memory on how arduous it is!

This is how it went:

First 5km - was going pretty well, and I was thinking its not to hard, I hope I can keep this up!

2nd 5km - getting harder, legs starting to hurt a bit now and the distance between each bend was getting longer! (or so it seemed) anyway reached the last bend and I though yay, close to the end, but no, there was still 3.4km to go!

Last 3.4km - legs felt like lead, and I so wanted to stop, it seemed to take for ever to do those last few km's, but finally made it to the top.

so overall its actually a good climb, and not too steep, the switchbacks gave some reprieve at 4-5% and most of the climb was between 7.5-11.5%
Time: 1.42.34 not bad for me as I'm not a climber by any means, but the pros do it in about 50mins - something to aim for I guess...

Map of the climb, it looks steeper than it actually is

We will be doing a lot of big climbs during the Tour de France, most of them i have already done on my virtual trainer, so I'm looking forward to seeing how different it is on the road compared to on the trainer, I hoping its about the same!

More Earthquakes

I am so sick of these damn earthquakes! another 5.5 this morning had the lights swinging and my heart racing - I'm thinking of moving to France or Texas (Cindy, make up the spare bed!).

Anyway since winter is here I have been looking back at my TT times from last season-
Best time: 30.42mins
Worst time: 32.59
The course is a 16km out and back course which is flat, but slightly downhill on the way back, though there is usually a wind blowing on the way back so it really cancels out the downhill benefit! Looking forward to seeing how the pros do it at the Tour de France this year.

On a cute note, this is the Ginga Ninja, who loves to display himself in front of the fire, he has such a hard life!

As I am just about to finish today's blog another aftershock has just rumbled through (yes you can hear them coming) Grrrr....

A Day in the Life of a Bike Mechanic - Me

Well today I was a bike mechanic - "No she's not!" I hear you say - but yes its true for one day a week

I decided I needed to learn more about my bike so, I went to my local (bike shop that is, not the pub) and asked if I could do some work experience on Fridays. Darryl kindly agreed to take me on and teach me all things mechanic. So today was my first day, and I eagerly showed up at 8.30am for work.

In a nut shell I put a bike back together - cranks, rear cassette, chain and tuned the gears and lastly cleaned it. Its was really good experience as I have never put anything mechanical back together, and, by some miracle it all works properly and changes gears like a 20 year old brown painted MTB should! (don't ask why the owner had painted it brown) So I was feeling very proud of myself, next stop: Pro team mechanic.

Next week I can bring in my own bike to work on if we aren't busy.

Also a watts update - last night I did 746 watts, its getting harder to go any faster!