Tech Stuff

Right now that I'm back it's time for the tech update for those that like that sort of thing. I had the chance to check out some of the other team’s gear and here’s some of the bikes on the track so here's what I found.

Firstly the Aussies are riding the new BT Blade. BT have made a pursuit bike that looks quite different from the old one. The most obvious features is the new clean look seatpost clamp. There is a stop down the seat tube and the seat post is cut to the right length and rests on the stop with a hidden bolt to hold it in place. The result is a nice clean line – no ungainly and un-aero clamp dirtying up the airflow. The rear edge of the seat tube is concave (barely legal when the wheel is right the way in the dropouts) and hugs the tyre for more smoothing out the airflow onto the wheel. More subtle up front is a head tube the is narrow in the middle to the same width as the top tube to disturb as little air as possible and options for different fork tips for different rake/trail.

The Germans use the FES bike again with a nice clean seat post area and a pretty serious looking front end. It bloody heavy too which must be reassuring for those 2000 watt starts.

The prize though has to go to the British who have spared no experience in their R&D budget as you might’ve seen during the Olympic coverage. No stone has been left unturned with their gear. The front end has had special attention. The sprint bars (Notice the box section of the tandems in the back and foreground) are pretty striking and must be real stiff if Chris Hoy can swing on them the way he does and not move ‘em. The head tube is only as wide as it needs to be and no more. None of this oversized rubbish that the roadies go for. The fork blades hug the contours of the Mavic comet front wheel right down to the tip where the small part of wheel axle/cone showing is an aero shape to cheat the wind and the dropout has a plug to fill in the dropout under the wheel axle once the wheel is bolted in place. The wheel nut is low profile too. The aero bar option has plenty of beef in the stem area and the seat post area is also very clean.













I didn't get to see any of the Zen bikes that Milton down at dynamic composites has been working on for the kiwi pursuit squad so unfortunately can't show you those. Anyway that’s enough of that. Last photo though - here’s the other side of the motorbike that we used in Perth just so you can see the names there as well.

Final Race

I just wrote a big long entry and then managed to lose it to the internet
before i got to post it. Bugger huh.

Thats all the racing for me. Paula 'Testarossa' Tesoriero is ok after her
fall and trip to the hospital for various scans. We are pretty damn happy
with 3 medals. A silver would've been nice in the road TT but considering
we weren't planning on a medal at all we are not complaining. 18 seconds
was the gap between silver and bronze. Not so happy with the Chinese
ambulance service. They were appalling but thats another story so enough
said.

Gold

Wow what a busy couple of days. Paula's head is ok. Doc Ian Murphy has
been checking her every 3 hours and we have just been given the medical
all clear to race tomorrow. So bring it on. We had to skip the live feed
back to TVNZ closeup tonight because of medical requirements so maybe
another day.
Imanaged to get a provisional drivers licence today for the road TT. It
came with a copy of the chinese road rules but in practice I've worked
outhtat you just lean on the horn and move over.
More soon

Blogs

Hi All,
Sorry I haven't been blogging until now. Had some trouble witht e website
but El Jefe has fixed me up so here I go. I'll update you all later but in
the meantime I got to go celebrate Paula's gold medal. We just arrived
back at the Village and there is a bit of a buzz around the kiwi camp now.
Mission accomlished.

Perth

The team is all in Perth and the sun is out. The weather guy threatens us with rain every other day but so far so good.

Paula's form is good at this stage and she's clocking up some quick laps. Aussie Brian, the local coach that has been looking after Paula before I arrived, set the challenge for her. A motorpaced 200m. He told her if she can get in under 12.5 sec then she could write her time on the motobike for all who follows to see. As you can see she is in some pretty good company too. That Bos fella is no slug!

The last couple of days have been spent at the track testing some nice bits and pieces. The Zen wheels are fantastic and along with her new sprint straps bolted to her pedals she's looking evry bit the sprinter. Sprry about the blurry photo but I was trying to run 2 stopwatches and yell encouragement the same time.

Got to run as Mal wants his laptop back but stay tuned for more news.

Si out.

Attitude TV

If you ain't out riding on Sunday morning then you must be going watch Attitude TV at 9:30am on TV1. This Sunday 29 June 2008 is about Paula's preparation for the Paralympics so tune in.

Training in Invercargill

Last weekend was the final training camp in Invercargill before Paula heads off to the warmer climate of Perth for her pre-Beijing build up. It was a good chance to test run her new dura-ace 160mm track cranks. Those sharp eyed techno weenies out there may well be saying, “aha … but dura ace don’t come in 160mm”, and you’d be right. But these are no ordinary cranks. They are modified 180mm cranks. The hole has been filled in and the crank re-drilled and tapped at 160mm. They work fine too – as long as your guy is careful to drill the hole straight. No problems there though.

Anyway cranks fitted and working ok we got down to it. Two sessions on the indoor boards of Invercargill just a day before the shortest of the year. I seem to remember El Jeffe (http://jeffsbike.blogspot.com/2007/10/report-2-from-sydney-masters-worlds.html) mentioning that this was a fast track because it is artificially heated. Well sorry pal but not in the middle of June its not. We woke up to a frosty morning. The car was covered in ice and when I turned the key the dash lit up with warnings of icy roads. We got to the track and I immediately noticed the temperature was bloody cold which I think is some below 3 or 4 degrees. Even with the nets down and all four netball courts in full swing for the duration of the session it didn’t get much more than a few degrees warmer.

After we’d finished Bruce Ross of Cycling Southland happened to stroll in and said that on frosty mornings they have to keep the air circulating around otherwise condensation forms on the ceiling and it starts raining inside. Unfortunately this keeps the temperature down and the track doesn’t get as fast as Jeff had experienced in the summer. The afternoon session wasn’t much better so we cut it short and went back to the motel to watch the rugby and sky movies. It wasn’t all bad though and Paula did manage some good times considering the conditions. Unfortunately when the netballers are playing we are not allowed to use the derny which means I have to stuff my trousers into my socks and jump on a club bike and pace Paula for her warm up. This isn’t ideal as my fitness isn’t quite at a level where she can get the quality of pacing as she would if I were charging around on the moto.

On our arrival on Friday night I went into the track and witnessed the annual corporate pursuit challenge that they run down there. It’s a very popular event with about 30 teams entered this year. Friday was a seeding round with finals coming up this Sunday. The races are 4 lap Italian pursuits with 4 in each team and must include at least one chick.

The blues

This is my new ride. Its a blue (http://rideblue.com/) and its aluminium! Some might say that this is quite a downgrade from the full carbon beast I'd been riding up until now but its stiff, responsive, fast and above all else it fits me superbly. I couldn't be happier with it. It is equipped with a full 2006 record group and the zipps have a powertap hub threaded into the rear. Both wheels have 28 spokes which suits me fine. All in all its a little heavier than the EMC2 but for a sprinter its fantastic.

I've never really ridden an aluminuim bike before. I went straight from a steel columbus genius frame (with 7 spd superbe pro components) to the full carbon EMC2 (10spd record) after the steel machine got tangled up underneath a car. So after riding the aluminium blue for about 2 weeks now I must say I'm very impressed. It is so well balanced and super stiff under power. Carbon stays, forks and seat pillar still give me a comfortabble ride too. I'm definately a convert. Why spend $2500+ for a top carbon frame when you can get yourself a sizzling aluminium rocket for well under $1000. Truthfully though the EMC is a good bike, it is just too small for me and was doing my back in. Look out for Hayden Richards on it.

This is Keren's blue RC7. Its carbon and its dirty. I guess sponsored riders don't have to clean their bikes. It's a bit small for me to test ride but I did have the privilege of loaning a new RC8 - the latest carbon offering from blue. It has a new fork design and a snazzy paint job. The ride was sweet and it was much lighter than my aluminium model - even with it's chorus groupset. Christian had it kitted up with some open pro wheels too. A damn good choice if you ask me. I didn't quite get around to testing with the powertap nor did I do any big sprints on it which I think Christian is quite relieved about. Keren races on some sharp looking DT Swiss wheels. They are as light as anything and miles better than ksyriums plus they are the best looking wheels around. She won't let me ride them either. Something to do with me being hard on them with my extra 40kg.

Paralympics or bust

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog. I couldn't resist it any longer.
Some of you will be aware that I have been named as a coach for the NZ Paralympic cycling team to compete at the Paralympic games in Beijing which start in September, about 2 weeks after the Olympic games end. TVNZ will be promoting and covering the Paralympic games on TV1 so stay tuned. We are busy making preparations for the athletes' build-up and the team camp in Perth prior to heading to Beijing in September.