The riders in the Tour de France for sure need stamina. But so do Australian viewers of the live coverage on SBS. Tonight's stage will only start at 10:55 PM and it usually finishes around 1:30 AM. I'm looking forward to the rest day. Rest days are important as we all know. I need to catch up on some sleep!
My whole system is getting out of wack. I envy my American blogger friends, for who the live coverage starts around 5 AM. That way at least the "normal" sleeping pattern are kept.
I went for a ride with Suz on Sunday afternoon. We met at 2:30 PM and it looked overcast but since it hadn't rained all morning we headed out anyway. It was quite warm and I was definitely overdressed and my arm warmers disappeared in my jersey pockets. Suz wasn't sure if she preferred an easy ride or not and she was still recovering from a big 100 km plus ride with Adam on Friday so we jumped on the bike path to start with and went "discovering". We caught up on latest gossip until the bike path ended. Since I had a fairly good idea, which suburb we were in, we just kept going on sleepy Sunday afternoon suburban roads. Rolling hills stirred my appetite for more serious hills. Then I recognised the streets as Donna's neighborhood and secretly started sneaking towards my favourite hilly ride along Eaton's Crossing. Suz felt good and happily agreed to ride towards Clear Mountain. OK, maybe not happily but intrigued enough to give this 14% gradient monster a go. The six kilometers of country side rolling hills roads leading up to Clear Mountain were awesome fun and even the onset of rain didn't put us off. 58 km later and I was back home in very good spirits.
Stage 9 last night was very inspiring. First Cadel crashing and pushing on looking like nothing had happened and then Ricco just flying pass the other guy with incredible speed. His pedalling style indeed resembles that of his hero Pantani.
Another tired start to the day. This morning I swore I would not stay awake and go to bed early tonight but that's all forgotten now and I can't miss Stage 10 with the Col de Tourmalet and Hautacam. If I start acting strange then it is probably just severe sleep deprivation.
Shayne called today to let me know that he ordered the PowerTap and I'm excited like a six year old before first day of school.
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Sella Ronda
6 hours ago
8 comments:
Would love to have a power meter on my bike. Lucky you!
Question: what saddle do you use?
Agree, it is inspiring to watch the tour. Only problem is if you watch all day, there is no time to do any training!
The past couple of morning's the TdF coverage started at 4AM here on the west coast of the US; fortunately all the good parts were late so I could just start watching after waking up ca. 5AM rather than setting an alarm for the start.
On the positive side for PowerTap, Saris finally came to their senses and will be supporting the ANT+ wireless protocol, with firmware upgrades for older models.
Betty - Thanks for popping over and visiting. :-) I'm using the San Marco Aspide Glamour. It's not perfect but the best I used so far. I also tried Fizik Arione (it was painful) and the Selle Italia Ldy (too heavy and not very comfy). I was recommended to the Fizik Vitesse as a good saddle for women but haven't tried it out, yet.
Tejvan - Agree. Training is suffering right now since I'm only getting to bed after midnight. There is no way I get up at 4:30 AM for my training ride. But I needed a break anyway ...
Cyclistrick - How cool is that! Cadel in yellow! Yeah!
i'm so intrigued by the whole power tap thing ... i'm fairly clueless about that sort of stuff -will be back to read how it all goes!
Cadel is looking good so far despite the rash. He needs to make something happen for himself and not just sit in in the mountains.
Ricco's win was great. I like him a lot despite his HEEUUUUGEEEE ego. He is going to give Contador all he can handle in the coming years.
At least you get to see the Tour; I'm stuck in work while it's on the box.
As for a power meter, I'm not at all sure what it is, but it sounds like something my boss ought to be fitted with.
Zanne - I'm quite curious myself and will for sure report how it goes. I've got the funny feeling it will force me to train harder.
Chris - Cadel in yellow. I think he couldn't believe it himself. He looked like he was waiting for someone to jump up and announce that there was a mistake with the time keeping. One second is a very small margin. AMR likes Ricco, too. His climbing acceleration is inspiring for sure.
Nick - hahaha.
True - I would have to take holidays if the live coverage was on during the day.
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