My August on the Bike

 I think I'd describe my August as an encouraging start.

525 km

18 rides

3 ascents of Castle Hill 

54.2 km my longest ride

Nothing epic there, but considering I'd only racked up 1000km in the last 6 mths, I'd describe that as a very positive month.

I think that's enough rides, but I think I'll need to push up the average distances and attempts on Castle Hill (it's the only serious climb in these parts).  I'd also like to do a regular ride of 70+km - reckon those longer endurance efforts will really help with my cycling.

I do also do some exercise off the bike: the odd light gym visit, and walking the 4km round trip to the local coffee haunt. It's a rare day that I don't do some exercise.

I'm also trying to keep the calories down. I'm trying to run at a 7500 KJ (net) energy intake

The scales are also recognizing my efforts: down to 100.1kg. That's a drop of 2.9 kilos over the month. Still plenty to go, but again, promising.

Results from the Tiny Mountain Brewery Tour of the North

So the whole idea of the journey is to win D Grade of the Tiny Mountain Brewery Tour of the North in 2022.

Probably then make sense to have a look at the results from 2021.

So there were 4 stages: a prologue, a road race, a crit and a climb of Castle Hill. 

The prologue: an 8km time trial up near Ross River dam. 

Pretty flat, pretty straight out and back course. It was a slightly shortened version of this segment off Strava

D grade got won by Mario Romeo in 11.37, at an average speed of 37.6kph.

The road race: a 40km Road race in the rollers of Hervey's Range.

Not at all flat. Rolls the whole length of the trip. You rack up about 360m vertical over the course. Again 20km out and back, as you can see on Strava

 D grade was won by Tim Rademaker in 1.08.31, at an average speed of 35.0kph.

The crit: a 20 minute race around a short flat loop

The crit is pancake flat and non technical (Check it out on Strava). Fast paced. It's a race measured by the clock rather than distance.

D grade was won by Tim Rademaker. No average speed given the distance isn't fixed. Tim won in a 2 up sprint though.

The Climb of Castle Hill. 

Run in a TT format rather than a bunch race.

The hill is a 2.5 km climb, averaging 7.8%. That's deceptive though. The first half of the climb is a series of short ramps (of up to 11%) with a number of flatter sections to provide some relief, then after the last flatter section (known as the saddle) the remaining 900m of the hill is a constant 10% apart from the final 100m which jumps to 14%.

No picnic.

D grade was taken out by Dave Knight in 10.15, a result that saw him claim the overall win on the tour (Rademaker finished in 14.04, Romeo in 12.18). It might sound like Knight came from the clouds but he'd been top 5 in every stage (as was the fellow who finished 2nd, James Mort).

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A few things to note:

(1) Only the prologue and hill climb stages are useful from the perspective of benchmarking for me. Both the crit and the road races were bunch races, and riding in bunches is much faster than flying solo. 

The good news is both the prologue & hill climb roads are close to home, so plenty of scope to test myself on them

(2) There's no guarantee that any of the courses will be part of the 2022 tour. Chances are the crit course and hill climb will, but nothing is locked in.

That said, the tour in it's 2021 format was clearly won and lost on Castle Hill. Of the guys who seriously contended, they were all pretty close in the first 3 stages. They were only finally separated by the hill.

(3) All the TT stages were on road bikes were conducted on road bikes with standard bars. No clip ons.

(4) I've got some improving to do.

I'll lay down some times for both the prologue and hill climb courses in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

My Steed

So what bike am I riding?

Nothing overly flash is the answer: A 2019 Trek Emonda ALR5. Aluminum Frame, Shimano (largely) Tiagra groupset. It's a frameset I bought 2nd hand and built up. 

 

Quite a new machine, but fairly bottom end when it comes to race bikes. Tiagra and Aluminium doesn't exactly set many pulses racing. It's a $1500 bike.

That's though also something I'd like to prove on this journey: you don't need a flash high end carbon machine to compete at club level.

Indeed there are quite a few articles that talk about the fact that a new Aluminum/Alloy frame is better than a bottom end carbon frame (such as this one from BikeRadar, written in 2017). Aluminum frames used to be considered harsh rides, and were often heavier than a carbon frame. Not the case anymore. My 2019 Emonda is a nicer ride than my carbon 2013 Focus Cayo (which itself was highly regarded).

Compact crankset, 170mm cranks, 28mm tyres, rim brakes. Being Tiagra, it's 10 speed not 11. Probably the only three differences of note from what one would consider factory standard:

• I've added a Wolftooth derailleur extender
• I'm running a DT Swiss wheelset
• I use shimano MTB pedals
  

The Wooftooth is pretty cool. I can run an 11-36 cassette, where I'd usually be limited to 11-32 with a mid cage derailleur. And those extra 4 teeth make a massive difference to my climbing. Castle Hill is pretty much the only decent climb in Townsville, and the last km of Castle sits over 10% gradient. Not an easy climb, especially when you consider I'm weighting in over the ton.

 

The wheelset is nice but unremarkable. DT Swisse Allroads were considered a solid smooth wheelset. Nice high spokecount. Good for a Clydesdale like me. They've been well maintained and still run nicely.

MTB pedals? I took to them when I started riding cleats. Easier to clip into, the cleats don't wear out, the shoes are easier to walk in, and the pedals can cope with a bit of muck on them. 

Coming into the race next year, I'd toy with the idea of a new wheelset, and perhaps dropping the Wolftooth and going back to an 11-32 cassette. It shifts quite well with the Wolftooth, but I think it would be sharper without it. Depends on how well I'm climbing coming into the Great Northern Tour - hopefully I won't need the 36 tooth any more by then. I also think I'll swap out my Maxxis Refuse tyres for a set of GP5000s.