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• cycling - 43
• football - 4
• general - 22
• results - 2

Mon, 18 Sep 2006

Trip to Sydney. - 22:12
Rachel, Kirsten, Neil and myself visited Dangar Island again on the weekend, this time to formulate an offer for the place. We are still trying to work out exactly how much the house andland is worth and how much we can afford and offer.
Neil and I raced at the Southern Hemispehere Cup on Sunday. I got C grade and Neil moved himself from B to A. I thought C grade would be good, as I'm suffering with allergies, but it was a bit too slow.
So, about half way through I tried a breakaway, one other guy came with me and we had quite a break. Then, my front tyre started going down slowly. Bummer! The guy won in the end, even though he got caught. He broke away again on the final lap. I reckon we could have won if we stayed together. Neil got 3rd place in A grade, he broke away early with a bunch of other guys.
Results are here

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Wed, 06 Sep 2006

Cootamundra Classic Weekend. - 23:24
Neil and I took a trip to Cootamundra for two days of open racing. Saturday was the tough Coota Classic, a 120km handicap race. I got a good mark and managed to blast into town with the main bunch of 80 or so. It was akin to a Tour de France sprint finish. I was following a good wheel for the last 10km or so. But I lost Charles GASCOYNE in the last few kilometres of the race. He was a really good wheel as Charles ended up coming equal first with Kevin NICHOLS. John Dukes did well, picking up a couple of primes in his first open. Neil suffered because of a lack of training and a dodgy apple pie. Tony was troubled by his leg a bit and Simon rode well to feature in the main bunch finish. Results are here
Sunday saw us line up for the Coota Recovery race, a 69km Handicap. Again I got a good mark, this time John Dukes was in the bunch with me. My buch rode strongly, indicated by the continual shedding of weaker riders off the back. We looked like we could win the race, I was in exactly the same position the year before when my bunch was caught in the last few undulations within a kilometre from the line. John CHAMBERLAIN from Coota was in that same break away bunch. So, when 5 of us got away in the hills on the last lap John organised us all to work together to get the win. John Dukes and I had the advantage, with both of us from Canberra, the Vikings and from the ACT Vets. We could work together. My idea was to attack early and win by myself. So I did; only a km or so from the line. But they caught me; my surprise tactic did not work. John had the advantage of sitting on the chase and came over to win the sprint. Results are here.

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General Update. - 22:56
Rachel and I took a trip up to the central coast a few weeks back. Now Rachel would like to buy a house on Dangar Island, just off Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury. The Island has a cute little ferry service and the main Northern Train line is right there. So it's living in Sydney without living in Sydney. Check out some more info on the island here. I've put some of the house photos on a photo website.

Dangar

Sep 6, 2006 - 25 Photos

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Sun, 03 Sep 2006

Fixed gear - 12:01
With a fixed gear, I choose how fast or slow I go by just pedalling. Riding can be sweet and completely silent. When I'm going well I'm always spinning. I am in touch, connected to the bike; I am a part of it. I pedal faster to go faster; I pedal slower to go slower. My brake is there just in case, maybe just to govern the speed on long downhills. I only have to use it in case. When I head downhill, as I spin faster and faster, I'm right on the edge of losing control, but never do.

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Thu, 15 Jun 2006

Updating from the Dapper Drake. - 21:51
I've finally got around to updating my Blog. Been busy lately, changing jobs, something I'm regretting now even though I'm thoroughly enjoying the time off to absorb all the wonders of the Football World Cup. I also plan to do the same when the Tour comes up. More so because the Tour motivates me to ride more, so it will be really good to have the days off to ride in the sun (hopefully) Australia's win v Japan brought tears to my eyes. Mostly in memory of Johhny Warren. On the cycling front, well I've not been doing much, choosing to take it easy after a hectic end of season with the nationals and such hard races. But Neil, Tony and I made the trip to Wagga on the weekend to take part in the Wagga Motors Open 120km Handicap and Butch Menz Memorial 70km Handicap. Can't say it was a classic weekend. Tony and I punctured in the rain in the Saturday race and Neil suffered at the back of the block bunch. I rode back all wet and sorry and tried to convince the boys to head off home. My motive was of course the world cup, but It was pretty obvious it was either going to be wet or wild, windy and cold on Sunday. It was wild windy and cold. The good thing for me was that they gave me an easier handicap. I turned out to be one of the strongest in my bunch, quite handy when you're battling head and cross winds. But, the day was to end sadly. A guy crossed wheels in the wind, and fell, yep, right in front of me. I ended up going over the bars, forward rolling ending up in a sitting position with my bike a metre of tow behind. I got up expecting a heap of gravel rash, but all I have in a gash on my face. I reckon I'll end up with a nice sabre type scar. Monday was fantastic with the win in the football, while I've spent a few days with Ian Downing fixing my bike, re-aligning the frame was a nice cool steel frame thing to do.

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Tue, 09 May 2006

Simon Clarinbolds's Story from the Australian National Masters Road Titles - 10:14

Hi Folks, Tony asked me what happened on Sunday:
Thought I'd put a few lines down about the Men's Masters 4 category road race on Sunday. We started with a field of about 65 riders, a lot of the big names were there, all the riders that had dominated the track races and the first 2 road events. As team riders Mark Harris and I had a chat about launching alternate attacks and which riders to watch. Last years winner, Steve Darracott, was heavily marked. The course consisted of 7 laps of a fairly undulating circuit, some of the roads were quite bumpy, and there was little through traffic. The race started at a reasonable pace until we got to the first hill where there was attack after attack, all being covered pretty much by the front runners. I tried to get away a couple of times and was chased down, then about 5 riders got away including Mark who bridged across. Big Steve Darracott was in the break of 5. I tied to quickly get over but didn't have the legs and was stuck in no mans land for about 5 k's.
Eventually the bunch caught up to me, I was thinking that I'd, yet again, missed the winning break and good luck to Mark - if the break stuck he might be sprinting for his second gold medal of the weekend. Much to my surprise though, about 5 kilometres later, the break just sat up, and was quickly swollowed up by the bunch. The surprising counter attack that followed floored everyone. Mark attacked again and managed to get a really good break. There were a few panicked chasers but nothing really effective, I just sat on and watched. Mark spend an entire lap out by himself.
At the same place on the next lap, that part of the course was on a long slow rise into a block headwind, Mark was caught. I launched a counter attach with another rider in an orange coloured outfit (as opposed to an outfit from Orange CC). The two of us worked well, I noticed another, thankfully lone, rider bridging accross to us. So we had three away. Orange did one huge turn, after I did my next turn the new guy, from Tamworth CC named 'Bags', did a turn, the orange guy had cracked, there were two of us left with 4 and a half 12.9k laps to go. Bags and I just kept working at a very high rate, the laps seemed to tick down, the commissare kept telling us what the break was, 35, 55, a minute, 55, 52, then it jumped to a minute 15. We held around a minute until, with 2 laps to go we were informed a chasing pair was 35 seconds behind, then the bunch was another 30 seconds back. I was pretty sure the strong man of the series, Craig Taylor, would be one of the chasers, so Bags and I did some really hard turns to respond, on one of the false downhills I had the speed over 60kmh for what seemed a kilometer or 2.
With 5 k's to go we were told the break was 32 seconds behind and the bunch had disintergrated. I had a few thoughts about how to win V coming second. In the end we rode tempo up the hill leading to the fairly flat and short finish. Bags led the way, then clicked down a couple of gears and jumped for the line at the 200 metre mark. I tried to respond and got quite a shock just how quick Bags was. I think I may have got a bit of an overlap, but he had the win and I was left thinking I should have gone at the 3k to go sign. Still, at least I came away with something. Craig Taylor dumped his break partner, I suspect where I should have gone (or at least tried), and came in for 3rd.
Steve Darracott came in with the bunch. I was told later by one of his club mates (Ian Lovell) that Steve, to his credit, decided that he was so marked he'd just sit at the back an see what happened. Anyway, to say I was pleased to be able to come away from the champs with something is an understatment. Regards,
Simon C.
The results pages for more info:
*Criteriums
*Road Races

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Wed, 03 May 2006

Australian National Masters Track Titles - 10:57

Here are some of the results from the Australian Masters Track Championships. Best results come from Graeme Allbon as expected; he beat the Australian record in the pursuit. Mark Harris was impressive in the points race grabbing third place. A bunch of guys finished 4th or 5th after doing some impressive rides, breaking away or bridging gaps. Anthony O'Connor made the break in the points, Neil Skipper got away with another guy towards the end of his points race. Simon Claringbold chased across and big gap to join Mark in the points race. Mike Hanslip was strong and got away from the main bunch in my race. I managed to hang on to the end in the points and I finished with Steve Jones. Jonesy tells me "you know you're really alive when you do a points race". Heart rate through the roof and a million and one things going on around you that you have to make decisions about - all very exciting.
Jim Veal had an unlucky crash when a pedal plunged through his spokes, Jim may have slid across the finish line. Leesa Carson battled out a tough race and pedaled strongly back onto the bunch many times after strong attacks from Michelle Crawford. That is all I can remember now and I only saw the points and team sprints. Back on Saturday for the crit and Sunday for the road races
The results pages for more info:
*Masters 6-9 Sprint Derbies
*Time Trials
*Pursuits
*Team Sprints
*Points Race
*3-5 Match Sprints

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Sun, 30 Apr 2006

Masters Track and Road Nationals - 16:59

Neil Skipper, Jim Veal, Steve Jones, Tony O'Conner, Simon Claringbold, Graeme Allbon, Simon Nieimeyer, Barry Rose, Mark Harris and I are off the the Masters Track and Road Nationals.
I'll be racing in the points race, the crit and 98km road race. Graeme and Jim will be looking to add to their swag of medals collected at the NSW State Track Title a few weeks back. Neil, Tony and Jim are keen to defend their third place in the team sprint, while Barry, Simon and Steve may well have a chance against the speedy Bicisport team. Mark is also a chance in the points race and crit, having placed well in both those events in recent times.
For full entries (and results) check here

[/cycling] link

Sat, 29 Apr 2006

Photo from Stockingbingal Race - The sprint Finish - 13:55

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Wed, 22 Mar 2006

Good end to a bad week - 11:14
Last week was a bit of a bummer. Back to work after a good week off in Adelaide for the Festival and Fringe. If I had more time I’d blog about that as well.
Tuesday I was sick, but luckily did not get the big band version like Mike and others I know did. Wednesday I crashed in the rain in the crit, even Richard my brother in Kabul managed to hear about it and sent me an e-mail to check if I was OK. Thursday I could not sleep, a one night version of insomnia. Three-thirty in the morning I was e-mailing Richard. Friday, well that was a write-off with only three hours sleep under my belt. Saturday I raced like a dog at the annual Ti-Tree Handicap Race at Cooma.
Eventually on Sunday things improved. I traveled with Neil to Stockingbingal for the first race in the Riverena.  I got a good mark in the 40km Handicap and managed to place third and win a sprint prime out on the road. I nearly stuffed it all up as I did assess the wrong guy as the strong guy and consequently followed the wrong wheel and had to spend a bit too much energy jumping across a small gap as the actual sprint started. So I went home slightly richer and got my photo taken with the winners, but missed out on the Trophy and sash. Hopefully my handicap does not get too wildly adjusted.

Here is a report I stole from the Cootamundra Newspaper
Miller's victory in debut race Monday, 20 March 2006
Albury Wodongo rider Adrian Miller produced an upset and shock victory in yesterday's Stock Fair Cycle Classic. More renown around the NSW/Victorian border for his exploits with a golf club than a bike, Miller sprinted to the line in what was the first road race of his fledgling cycling career. Still coming to terms with the win after the race, Miller said he was as surprised as anyone with the result.

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Fri, 03 Mar 2006

I've amazed myself - 16:19
by making these pages in the blog look like the google pages, ahh the wonders of cut and paste. Still I'm suprised it works. Chris reckons I may have a future as a programmer, somehow I doubt it. This update also serves as test to make sure I've not broken the whole thing!

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Wed, 01 Mar 2006

Google Pages - 11:41
I've just added to my usage of google, in additional to gmail and google groups and the google personalised hompage I have added googlepages.
Google pages is a free web hosting, no ads and 100 meg of space, more info and sign up here.
Here is my new hompage, I slapped it together in a few hours.

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Mon, 16 Jan 2006

Goulburn Track Power - 14:47
My form has been coming back slowly; it's been a long and frustrating allergy season. But I think I've finally turned to corner. I tinkled with allergy reduction diets and the off anti-histamine in the last few months. In the end lots of rest and good food did the trick.
Now I'm trying to build up for the Masters Nationals and also the NSW State Titles, as always I can't decide if it's going to be road or track or crit, so stuff it, make it all three. More fun, but probably less actual good results. I've actually started off with a real program; let’s see if I can keep together the motivation to stay on it
On the weekend I raced with the usual Canberra suspects at the Goulburn Track Power Carnival. I traveled with Neil Skipper who raced very well, pulling off a few good results and a third place in the wheel race. Antony O'Conner was just behind him in most races, but still in the money. Sluggo was unlucky to miss the final of the wheel race after a bad start. I raced most of my races against Peter Ganss, who was very fast, I could only get close to him in the slightly longer races, where maybe a hint of fatigue set in. In the end I was very happy to win the Masters B motor pace. The Keiren and motor pace races are my favorites and I broke through to have my first open win.

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