Ascend starter packs.

Ascend have just released their two new protein starter packs. Check out the links and get more bang for your buck. I have been told the muscle bars and recovery bars are about a week away from hitting the shelves so stay tuned.

Muscle Starter Pack.

Recovery Starter Pack.

Winter series memories...

Ponying up at dawn o'clock, all too silly to suggest its to wet/cold, saw us rolling down the road at 6.30am. Jason was ready to rip after a festive evening, not altogether unhappy at the prospect of a shorter local ride, having driven through one of the many storms just to meet up.



Singlespeeds were the decision at 10.30pm last night, a concession to the weather.



And the weather was truly crap, with hail, driving rain and one tiny, tiny glimpse of blue sky that whisked off on the wind.

Lysterfield loop was the order of the day, and was quite pleasant really. Nothing too mental, just lots of chatting on familiar trails and hammering around our old haunts. The trails seemed to hold up quite well to the weather, but a drought will do that now won't it.



So muddy as hell, we were looping back when the heavens opened once again. So cold was the rain, that we all got instant ice cream headaches!!



A full set of thrashed brake pads for all of us, thumbs up for my Innova tyres which were soldiering on through the mud we found, and big thumbs up for the Squirt chain lube in the crap conditions!



And to leave you, we have this...

You know you have crap timing when...

You are midway through planning your weekend and subsequent rides, and you read this...

***************

MELBOURNE is forecast to be soaked in a month's worth of rain this weekend as Gippsland braces itself for possibly devastating floods.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood warning and flood watches for East, West and South Gippsland catchments as a low pressure system developed in eastern Bass Strait.

Senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said the “East Coast Low” was looking very similar to the systems that developed for the June and November floods last year.

“Falls of more than 100mm are expected with gusty, squally wind,” he told the Weekly Times.

The floods in June killed about 600 livestock, destroyed thousands of kilometres of fencing and ruined roads, sheds, tanks and farm equipment.

Mr Carlyon said the slow moving system would bring rain from Saturday afternoon, through Sunday and clearing on Monday.

The State Emergency Service will meet today to prepare for possible widespread flooding.

Meanwhile, Melbourne is expected to receive close to its average rainfall for November in one weekend.

To read the full article...

Yarra Glen loop. (with new photos)

Finally getting over the WA slog we decided to rally the troops for a fun day out on the slicks.

We all met in Heidelberg and set off to Kinglake then on to Yarra Glen for some time in the saddle. One of the joys of this ride was the pace! No hearts rates recorded, no specific zones to be reached, just a punch of friends catching up on a Saturday morning out to enjoy the sport.



More photos of Grover goofin off. Easy to do when you are sporting some legs!

Old bar tape (John) vs tidy whitey (Jason)

In the big dog and that gear, nice and ready for the wild dog climb (NOT).

A new record was set on this loop. I have heard of it happening but never witnessed it in person. Six mountain bike riders rolling turns… yep I will say it again, rolling turns! For around about 30kms we rolled around in some sort of formation and didn’t shell each other in the process. It was a miracle.


As Grover is midway through explaining the merits of the shaken coke bottle, it blows the top off and sprays all in the vicinity with a nice fine coating of sticky...

It takes either a good pie, or a long ride to get Jason's eyes to do this little trick!

He may look confused but we know exactly what the sign means. Please don’t ever do it to yourself.

Just another pic of Ash smiling away and me suffering. Home by 11am and around 130km under the belt, and headed straight for the fridge *food*.

New products

Whilst over at the Cape to Cape, we were lucky enough to get our hands on some brand new chain lube.

Squirt Lube is a South African company that is now making chain lube which they claim to be sensational! Most companies would say that now wouldn't they, but when you have T.Brown, Ned 'the lung' Overend, Mike Kloser, Jaap Vergier (from the 'Croc' a few years back), and Anna Baylis all lending their name to the product...

It would be rude of us not to give it a thrashing!

My chain is totally clean at the moment, and it will solely be getting squirt lube on it for the duration of the container, and we'll see how we go!

Stand by...!

Photo dump from the Cape to Cape

I've found a few more stories and such about the net for your viewing pleasure, and I'm also going to hijack some of their photos as well, so photo credits are due to Ascend Sport and to Rohin.

More stories can be found here and here so be sure to check them out, but amuse yourself by scrolling through the photos below for a few moments. I'll endeavor to get through some of the cool stuff we found and used whilst over there, some time this week...





Looking (kinda) pretty with all the shiny new products on offer to the riders. To directly quote the Ascend boys,

"In answer to the many requests; the bars will be available online before the end of November; rolling out in select gyms, specialist cycling & triathlon stores soon after that. The drinks are scheduled for a similar roll-out, beginning before the end of 2008 – so look out for them!"

Also look out for a special offer that will be made available to readers of this blog when purchasing their Ascend products.




Bogged down in the sandy starts, after a team time trial to make the start. We soon sorted that out though, with Johnny and Willow smashing it out at the front.




The end of stage one, happy to have that out of the way!




Curiously, the tallest lighthouse on the mainland at 39m apparently...






Stage one - go!!



Its was a super fun week, sadly Johnny had already made it to the massage table and was in no mood to get up from it!






And finally, putting the hurt on the boys... Be sure to check out Rohin's take on the week as well, and let us know if you see any other stories around the web.