We’re off to Thailand in about 2 weeks time, so we’re starting to double-check all our arrangements. Finally the holiday bug is starting to bite! We’re going cycle-touring in Thailand with Spiceroads. We’re riding from Chiang Mai down to Bangkok over 10 days or so. Then we’ll spend a few days in Bangkok at the end.

Can’t wait!!

Yesterday Kevin and I did the Toy Run on our scooters. Thousands and thousands of two-wheelers met up at Ratanga Junction for the procession to Maynardville. Several thousand more came through from Ottery.

There were a LOT of toys donated for the underprivileged. Quite an experience!

Some more pics here.

We completed the Double Century yesterday in about 6:07. Not sure where we came but probably just outside the top 10. We had a bit of a mixed team - some strong riders and some a little weaker. And only 10 of us at the start line.

We managed to get 7 of us to the finish and it was mostly a smooth ride. Only one puncture which cost us 3 or 4 minutes.

In a blatant rip-off of the Mac/PC ads, Nintendo has produced this fun ad for the new Wii -

Can’t wait till I get one!

I had the first weekend off cycling for a few months, by going hiking in the Groot Winterhoek wilderness area. We did a 13km out and back route from the start to a hut at De Tronk. Unfortunately Saturday’s 13km turned out more like about 15km, and with substantially more climbing and bushwhacking than planned, when we missed a critical turn in the path. We added about 2 hours onto our outbound trip as a result. When we did get back to the trail though, we found some great pools and stopped for lunch.

We overnighted next to a big old barn and ate packet pasta, washed down with some good red wine, port and biscotti. The wind came up in the middle of the night and by the early morning it was raining with a lot of thunder and big lightning. Not ideal conditions in which to begin a hike. We packed up and got ready hoping it would clear a little, but eventually set off at 9am in a steady drizzle. Fortunately it stopped raining at about 10am and started to clear, eventually turning into a beautiful clear day with 32deg of heat. The route back was a lot easier than Saturday since we stuck to the marked path, and we got back to our cars by 3:30pm.

There’s some pics at http://www.nickcoyne.com/cpg132/thumbnails.php?album=43

So I’ve gotten 6 weeks of solid training in now and my fitness is starting to get to the level where I don’t have to worry about getting dropped, and instead I can focus on helping the team strategy on the day.

Unfortunately we didn’t read it quite right at Sunday’s Simonvlei league race. We let a break get away early that contained Geddan Ruddock and Craig Gerber, both pretty strong lads. Then we did a really easy tempo up Helshoogte, so the gap was probably still growing. Once we were over the top though everyone realised that we had our work cut out and the pace lifted substantially.

Despite a very high tempo though, the closest we got to them was about 500m, so our bunch sprinted for 6th. Then Robby got beaten by both Neil Bradford and Mark Moir, not suprising when you saw how much effort Robby put into the chase. The race was over already though, and barring any misfortune for Neil in the final race, he should keep the yellow jersey to the series-end.

I got some nice numbers out of the PowerTap. Average power for the race was 216w and normalized power was 267w. Both new highs. Then I set new PB’s for the range from 10mins all the way to 2hrs. Average power up the Hels climb was 301w for 12mins. The nice thing is that it felt pretty comfortable So my guestimated FTP is up to about 275w. Which is ok for my 62kg, but I’m really aiming to get it to 285-290w.

I’m missing the final league race this weekend ‘cos I’m going for a hike. The following weekend is the Double Century though, and I hope I can carry my form until then to help the team to a good time.