To love is to suffer

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you’re getting this down.

Love & Death (1975)  

I know it's not been nice weather, but the event is drawing nearer and every training ride between now and the event is, as we say 'money in the bank'. Don’t rely solely on our team training rides alone to prepare for the event. Of course that assuming you want to complete the event without lots of suffering. Now is the time to ramp it up, train on weekends at a distance similar to our team training ride schedule.

There's a saying in cycling circles "Training hard makes racing easier" or words to that affect.

It's time to ramp it up riders!
 

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

When it comes to bicycle chains anyway. A dirty and noisy chain is slowing you down, or making it harder to keep up with other riders with a well maintained chain.

As a rule of thumb, if you can hear the slightest noise coming from the chain area on your bike your chain is overdue for a clean and lube. Keeping your chain clean and oiled (don’t use oil) will extend the life of your chain.

Here's a Youtube clip showing how it's done.

Cycling's bad boy

The Olympics is a good time to check out some sports you may not see featured in the media. Track cycling is one of them.

Track racing may lack the prestige of Le Tour, but the track is where you'll find the 'big boys' of cycling displaying unhuman levels of speed and power. You won't see Cadel in the gym lifting 400kg!

This smartly produced video by the ABC program Hungry Beast gives us an insight into one of Australia's current track champions Shane Perkins.

Notice the rainbow design of his kit? The white with coloured striped design is know in all cycling disciplines (BMX, MTB and road) as the 'rainbow jersey' and can only be worn by the reigning world champion for a year - but only when racing in the discipline the jersey was won . . . but they have the option to wear it whilst training.
  
If you want to see the full screen version find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8H6fU9VNgQ