Harden the f*ck up!

Only I would follow up a mountain climb on Saturday with two more on Sunday. My riding partner Martin and I decided to hammer a couple of climbs named Mt Tamborine and Beechmont. The fact that we did it on an Sunday meant an early start to beat the Mt Tamborine traffic that usually picks up around 9am on a Sunday morning. My legs were already complaining before we started the "warm up" 12% climb of Wongawallan, and they screamed even louder on Mt Tamborine. However, the thing about 14% gradients is that they generally don't last very long.





Further along we took the crazy descent down the "goat track" into Canungra. I actually don't mind this descent, as the switchbacks add some serious character to it. For my part, I simply took my time here, and enjoyed the views over Mt Misery and surrounds. It all reminded me that sometime I'll have to do another climb of the Darlington Range. As it was, today we had other fish to fry. We passed Sharp Park, which is significant as the destination of the overnighter that kicked off my cycle touring a little over 10 years ago, and commenced the ascent.



This can be a long and demanding ascent on a hot day. Fortunately it was unseasonally cool for late October, meaning it was merely "warm". Martin had fresher legs than I did, so he took off and I decided to coast at my own pace. This climb can also be desceptive as it climbs a spur of the Darlington Range, before switching to the higher Beechmont Range. I checked the time at the summit and was shocked to find that we were 10 minutes ahead of the schedule I had in my mind at the start of the ride. I'm still not sure how that happened.



The view switched from Canungra Valley to Numinbah Valley as we crossed the range and coasted along the top to the store at Lower Beechmont, and some vital food before the final stretch home. The 7km descent that followed passed relatively uneventfully, as did the final rolling hills through Gilston that serve no purpose save for adding a few hundred extra metres of climbing. Ultimately we finished about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Another great day in the mountains.

BBC's top ten cycling destinations

The BBC in conjunction with Lonely Planet have just listed their top 10 cycling destinations:

1. Isle of Wight, England
2. West Coast, Tasmania, Australia
3. The Luberon and Mont Ventoux, Provence, France
4. San Juan Islands, Washington, US
5. County Clare, Ireland
6. La Farola, Cuba
7. National Highway 1, Vietnam
8. Otago Peninsula, New Zealand
9. Cape Breton Island, Canada
10. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy

More detail is available in the full article. Having cycled two of the places on that list already (2 and 8 to be precise), I thought there were a few rather interesting omissions. It surprises me that the BBC would miss Scotland's west coast, particulary the highlands, with it's combination of mountains, islands, bays and thousand-plus year-old castles. If you're going to mention New Zealand, one can't forget the west coast of the South Island, or the Coromandel Peninsula on the North.

Having just returned from Japan, I can already nominate a few spectacular routes, such as the mountain route from Nikko to Takayama, passing through two of the Japan's most famous national parks, including some amazing old temples, surprisingly pristine forest and waterfalls and of course, those mountains. And pretty much anywhere on the island of Hokkaido (pictured above) will make for a great tour as well. Perhaps in the coming days and weeks, I might list a few routes that are on my top ten. In the meantime, this list might give me some ideas for my next tour.

Alive

Well, I guess it's time for an update. First of all let me thank all those people who sent me birthday wishes for last Friday. I had almost forgotten about my facebook account, one of these days I might even log-in! For what it's worth, I celebrated by heading out to Robina to watch Gold Coast United beat Wellington 3-1, thanks to two goals from super Bruce Djite. And now the Commonwealth Games have started in India, which means that there's now a sporting event being watched by few enough people to make our crowds look respectable!*

I snuck back from Japan a couple of weeks ago, after having the most awesome tour I can ever remember. There will be some pictures and some stories from an incredible month coming up on these pages soon, just as soon as I get some time to update on a more regular basis. All I'll say at this point is that I've never before visited a country that had such an incredible combination of spectacular natural scenery, a rich history, a vibrant culture and the friendliest people in the world. Even now I'm still taking it in.

My time on the bike has been somewhat curtailed since by a knee injury that I sustained when I banged my knee on the frame while narrowly avoiding a crash. A road closure in Kingscliff forced me onto a bike path temporarily, and a typical piece of shoddy bike path construction did the rest. Suffice to say, I have had no reason to revise my poor opinion of bike paths. I did manage one decent ride to Springbrook, and I'll post about that just as soon as I have some time, too. Now my knee has recovered, so there will be riding to do soon. I can't wait.

* if you don't get the joke, do a Google news search for "Gold Coast United crowds".

Collingwood fans still at the MCG

The MCG is still housing over 10,000 confused Collingwood fans who are unsure whether 68 is more or less than 68, and who has won Saturday’s Grand Final. The fans, who struggle to comprehend basic information at the best of times have been completely thrown, and are still yet to realise the game was drawn.

Stunned reporters said the entire Collingwood cheer squad is still sitting behind the goals asking each other is Collingwood’s 68 worth more or less than the saints’ 68. The crowd has begun using a white board to calculate the difference, if any, between the two scores recorded on Saturday. Unfortunately, within four minutes of their calculations, it broke down to a penis-drawing contest.

The remaining crowd has even broken off into different parties, some claiming Collingwood have won, others insisting St Kilda are the champions. There are even unconfirmed reports that a small radical party has emerged declaring Lindy Chaimberlain was guilty of murder and the holocaust is in fact a conspiracy theory. It is quite a contrast from the mild-mannered, intellectual St Kilda fans who shook their heads at the outcome and left the stadium to continue with their lives.

Collingwood cheer squad member Baz Jones said he was sure 68 was pretty close to 68, but thinks Collingwood may have just won the game.“I’m as sure of this as I’m sure that I’m not a criminal, apart from that incident last year but we won’t go into that,” Jones said. Jones, a surprisingly coherent Collingwood fan, also said the words hippopotamus and rhinoceros flawlessly before leaving to search for his missing moccasin.

Confused supporters can still be heard whispering to each other phrases including “Wait, I’ve got it…..oh no I don’t”, “So that means we won?” and “Look what I just nicked off that blind guy”. The crowd did nearly realise the game was over when one woman asked where the players were, only to be informed they were all searching for a calculator to help solve the crisis. The MCG has announced that the annual Victoria Police dinner at the ground tonight, which will ensure the 10,000-strong crowd disperses in a flash.