Tour Down Under
Old man's game.
I grew up playing as much golf as riding bikes.
Sir Winston Churchill labeled the pastime a 'good walk spoiled'
When I was 12 my brother and I took some clubs my Dad had to the local football oval.
They were left handed clubs, with rusted heads and hickory shafts so we'd reverse the heads and smash them right handed. We got pretty good at that, a contstant battle of who could whack it the furthest. A few weeks later I bought a 5 wood, 8 iron and putter from K-Mart. Collectively the three clubs cost $89.
School holidays we'd play 36 holes or as many as daylight would allow, then walk the 7km home if Mum couldn't pick us up.
We'd fish golf balls out of the dams at night with a home made contraption that pulled out as many yabbies as golf balls, and sell the rubbish ones to the golf club, and keep the good ones for ourselves.
My brother and I had different playing styles, but with one thing in common.
A lack of conservatism.
If golf had a faster tempo, and wasn't so stale I might have stuck with it. Playing 'serious' pennant golf really killed it for me.
Every year we reminisce out golfing 'careers' by playing on Christmas Day when the course is closed, and you can 'bend' the rules.
Al enjoys working on his tan (2005.)
My golfing highlight would have to be playing St Andrews.
You can't tell from this angle, but there is a service road (Grannie Clarks' Wynd) at about the 220m mark which my ball took a mighty bounce off and landed pin high.
John Daly, my idol growing up, managed the same feat in 1995 when he won there. Without the bounce.
You may be thinking...
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH BICYCLES?!
In 1991 when I started playing, golf clubs where made with steel shafts, persimmon and forged steel heads, and they were small in clubsize.
Golf ball technology was also primitive by todays standards, the ball had a small rubber centre, was 'wound' with elastic and covered in a thin urethane shell.
Over time, technology has made golf 'easy'.
In 1991 the tour was won by a spaniard on a steel SLX frame equipped with C-Record, and the shifters were still on the downtube.
'Oi! Un bidon con EPO, por favour?'
Corsa Record.
Thanks to Campyonly.com for the scan.
Will cycling suffer the same fate?
More gears, lighter wheels, stiffer frames? Will the Tour distance eventually be made longer to counter the advances of science?
All that without even mentioning advances in drugs!
On the topic of C-Record, an addicted viewer in Holland sent this in.
Bad photo, mad bicycle.
Mapei Colnago, C-Record, fixed with deltas.
Nineteen Nineties.
Time for the guru.
Not everything back then was so 'colourful'.
Dan already has a nice Motorola REPLICA, but when the chance came up to own Phil Anderson's actual race bike, it was too good to refuse.
This is an early MXL 'Corsa Extra' development frame using MAX lugs prior to Eddy Merckx developing his own lug set which did away with the MAX top tube. Featuring the MAX fork crown as opposed to the nicely cast crown Eddy later released. Race plate hanger and all the chips and scratches you'd expect from some hard racing.
In the news for all the wrong reasons
I've ridden Plenty road so many times I can almost see the path I've beaten in the bitumen.
So much so that when I saw this photo, I even recognised the tree. Poor tree.
Live fast - die young.
In between deliveries.
Melburn. Summer. Nice.
Safe for work.
but where can I find this wonderment?
'Wwave of the future' and the above image is as clean as it's gets over at Milano Fixed - Roy's gallery of weird and wonderful might get you into hot water depending on your vocation/location.
Bravo, Roy.
The Tour Down Under.
If you follow Wade's blog, he already let the cat out of the bag.
I'm riding the Tour Down Under.
Stage 1 - Melbourne to Hamilton 315km
Stage 2 - Hamilton to Keith 280km
Stage 3 - Keith to Goolwa 180km
Hoping to catch the action from the Willunga stafe of the other TDU, and the final day in Adelaide.
Credit: Google Maps/Photo taken from space by a satelite
I'm riding solo. Bike, backpack, camera, sunscreen, toothbrush, and some spare tubes and spare knicks.
No iPod, no sag wagon, just the open road and more than likely, the wind in my face.
Going where the air is clear, there's better beer, in Adelaide.
For now, here's some Cannonball Run images from this time last year to whet your appetite.
Back 29th Jan with some images that'll have you jumping out of your skin, including the second installment of the Sabrina shoot.
Ride as safe as you can,
*TC
Comments
www.bikely.com/.../350910
Back road is nicer than the highway, just got to keep an ear out over some of the hills. Awesome ride either way I'm inspired to do the full length now.
Jeremy
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