Tennent Creek Tour - The Outcome

As I said, if one keeps one's expectations low then one is never disappointed. So we drive for 11 hours to get there on the Friday. We swap drivers every hour or so and had some great laughs. We get there with the usual stiffness and lazy feeling when Andy bounds out of his van and says "What time for a ride?" We all look at each other and sigh. Anyway about a half hour later we're on the road checking out the course. It's a 20 something km out and back on some of the roughest road surface I've ridden on.

So the next day we have a 3.1km time trial which determines what grade you race in for the road race and the crit. I, not having ever been a time trialist am not worried about anything and confident of riding the 'C' grade road race of 40km in the afternoon. We race the race, I put in all I could and go back to the unit happy with my mediocre performance. The thing that was a bit weird was we didnt get to find out what grade you were in until the road race starts.

Aaron and I ride to the start of the road race and decide to take the back streets. Now Tennent Creek has had it's share of media attention regarding alcohol problems and as we went down the first back street we could see the whole street shimmer with broken glass. A quick 'yikes!!!' and we turn around and went on the main roads (very thin race tires and glass dont mix).

At the start the officials pin the results of the time trial and the subsequent gradings on the trailer and I am confused that I cant find my name in the 'C' grade list. Much to my horror I find myself in 'B' grade riding instead of a 40km race a 80km race!!!! This is not good news and thankfully Aaron made me put four Gu's in my pocket.

So I immediately went into defensive mode with the sole aim of not getting dropped and having to ride 80km on my own because: a) it's embarrassing and b) it's hard. We rode out and I took my turns on the front and Trevor (from Kunnunurra and riding for Darwin) and I noticed that no one wanted to do any work......it's going to be one of thoses races :)

Anyway I made sure I was on the front on the hills and the turn arounds but sheltered in the head wind and about half way I'm starting to feel that maybe if I hang on that if I'm in the bunch at the finish I might be able to give the sprint a nudge.

To cut a long story short I was about 10th wheel in the last km, Trevor and some bloke from Alice Springs were off the front by about 20m and I got boxed in but then about 200m to go a gap opened up and I thought 'go for it'. I rode past all riders and was gaining on Trevor but the line was too close and I got 3rd. I could not believe it!!!

I was very very excited about that and if you ever meet Aaron and Andy (who I shared the unit with) they will tell you that I didnt shutup about it :)

My crit was bloody terrible but I dont care I got a podium in the road race in 'B' grade!!!!

Top weekend and everyone was already planning next year.

Tennent Creek Barckly Agencies Tour

So I race twice at the new TDZ 20km handicap (replaces the old Secrett Rd event so popular for so long in Darwin) and get talked into going down to Tennent Ck to race a two day tour!!! Andy Barcroft is taking his work van down with the bikes and the rest in a few cars will go down on the Friday. There's a small prologue on Saturday morning followed by a road race in the afternoon. Sunday morning there is a criterium then BBQ lunch and we drive home.

What does this mean to me? Well I have 4 weeks to get some serious training miles in :) My motto for this event will be "If you keep your expectations low you will always succeed"

It was back to Plan 'A', The Kuranda Range

In a mad panic Mum rings me to tell me that there is some big festival up at Port Douglas on the day we were supposed to ride up to Port Douglas/Mossman and that 20,000 people are expected there on the Friday night. So it's back to riding up the Kuranda Range. Famous for it's traffic and lack of shoulders on the side of the road so we were a little nervous and as it turns out rightfully so.....it was crazy. We got off and walked a couple of times when we heard trucks approaching but it was so bad that there was hardly any room for that. Anyway the point of this post is, if you every get the urge to ride the Kuranda Range, dont do it at lunch time, maybe a dawn but not lunch time.

To make things a little more exciting Sandy had a bit of a tummy bug going on on the day we flew over. The sort of problem that makes you nervous if you are too far from 'facilities' if you know what I mean. She had tummy cramps, had no food and also dehydrated and put in a stoic effort to climb the range. She's a trooper.

At the top of the range with a big sigh of relief we found a caravan/camp park that was absolutely beautiful in the rain forest.

The cycle tour of Cairns and the Tablelands

We got back last night a great week. We got sick, got scared, laughed, caught up with family, ate lots of food, saw some magnificent scenery and will need to write more words later. But for now we attach the photos.

Turnbull Bay

As part of my Inshore Skippers course I went on an overnight sail to Turn

bull Bay, 32nm from Darwin. The next group of students were going on the 8th May and Jenny (runs the course and owns Zanibar the Farr 38 training yacht) suggested that anyone with a boat can tag along. Judith (co-student) and her hubby just bought a brand new Catalina 309 and asked if Sandy and I would like to join her on the Turnbull trip. Naturally we said yes. Funny thing was Judith's hubby was in France and Judith was not too familiar with her new boat, this sort of put me in charge a bit and it was a great learning experience.

Morning at Turnbull Bay looking at Zanibar.

We left the marina at 1900 (7pm to you landlubbers) and as there was no breeze we motored out toward Charles Point. At Charles Point we turn south toward Bynoe Harbour. When we were about 3 nm from Charles Point a bit of breeze picked up so We decided that we should be sailing and not listening to a diesel hum. So imagine this: New boat, to me and the owner, it has in-mast furling so the main sail just rolls out of the mast all very leisurely. This is when my nerves start unwinding, as the sail is almost out it jams and we can not get it out or roll it back in. This makes me a bit stressed as the next day is a forecast Coastal Wind Warning and I've got 9/10th of the mainsail up unable to reduce it!!!!. Anyway a bit of tacking to put wind pressure on the sail eventually freed it up and we unrolled all main and head sails and had a delightful sail down to Turnbull.

Judith cooking breakfast in the morning

The sail back in the morning was fabulous, a close reach in about 10 knots, if you know anything about sailing you know that that is a happy place in any boat but on a brand new $200K yacht it's not too shabby.

Sandy and I enjoying the conditions

Now I mentioned that there was a coastal wind warning due the next day so I knew what to expect when we hit Charles POint and came out of the lee of the land. Essentially the wind picked up to 20-25knots coming directly from Darwin (where we wanted to go). So the seas built and we had to bash our way on an offshore tack to get room to try and make Darwin on the next tack. Lots of fun and we reduced sail twice with spray coming over the whole boat as we pushed into the short but step swell.

Charles Point before the conditions got worse.

As we continued once we got on the close hauled point of sail, Zanibar, which is a race boat, took off and we couldnt keep up. We ended up rolling up the headsail completely and starting the motor so we could point a little higher as we all were very tired and didnt want to be getting back to Darwin in the dark.

A huge weekend and a great time was had by all!!!

Oh my Gawd, have you looked at the countdown

Sandy and I bobbing along doing what we do and having a great time suddenly realise that we have about two weeks until we are supposed to riding around the Atherton Tablelands!!!!

Quickly last weekend we load up the bikes with front and rear panniers filled with stuff to simulate a load and go for a 40km ride. The result was not too bad, could've kept going so we feel a bit better. Having said that there are no mountain ranges in Darwin :)

Gary's new dynamo hub

Now I cant have Sandy having a dynamo hub and me not :) So I ordered a groovy Schmidt hub and spokes and I built the wheel myself.