Day 6 Sihanoukville to Kep 133 k's

Shortest day on the bike today. Jill had rung ahead and organized seven massuesses from our and a neighbouring hotel. 

Dived in the pool, got clean had a massage and then took these photos from our hotel. 

All the above, it's Jillls  birthday and it's the last days riding tomorrow, that's 1,2,3...  and action. The guides had organized a cake.

A little about the Nannes on tour,Jill Frank and Kain. They are like the Swiss family Robinson (Franks side) meets a Midwestern homecoming queen and has kids. The most photogenic family presently in Cambodia. 25 years between them and riding behind Frank and Kain u had to check for the elastic blue knee brace to differentiate between the two of them.

Ironically it was Kain (son) with the brace.

Seven days Jill was in the vans keeping everyone fed, watered and their sunnies cleaned and dried (impossible to do yourself when u are constantly drenched)

keeping everyone calm and encouraged.

If its possible to have a crush on a family they're it.

This is the bike Ramone, one of our guides was riding on the tour.

I'll cry if I try and comment about that bike and everything it tells me about this world. Let me just say that Ramone and Rith (another guide) themselves are two of the gentlest , warmest young men you could meet. 

There's a different projection to their voices and I was only to willing to do what Rith asked me to do. It's a voice tone I've never heard before and I envied it.These guys in their twenties ( ramone barely) but are very aware of the hospital and are so sincere in their appreciation of what it means for their country that  it will make it hard not to come back next year.

I've been alternating between rooming with Fordy and Matty. I was in with Matty tonight. He's contributed so much. He turned up like a one man camera crew started pedaling at about 120 rpm and hasn't taken his foot off the accelerator since. I've got a bit of a crush on  him just quietly also. Whilst I'm pretty clear in my feelings he has terrorized half of Cambodia charging into roadside houses with his own roll of toilet paper in his mankini bib shorts - he's special. 

It's all happening with a rush.

I'm planning on getting the last days blog done as quickly as possible, then a supplementary overview analysis report ....what???

Fordy had five beers at lunch btw and was never out of first place from there til the finish. I'm having none , have had 11 actual chucks so far and am in Joeys ear each night about how tough it is and how unfair a place the world can be. My whining has gotten so monotonous she gives me exactly 90 seconds then tells me another calls coming in and she has to take it. 

Ok peeps let me get some rest.

Day 5. Kirriron to Shoukouville. 160k

We started out into a strong headwind for the first 30 k or so and were probably averaging 17kph. I had lost the will to live .i was also told it was 185 k's. That's a fair old way into a headwind stronger than one of Mat Talbots mojhito's.

In the first bit of good fortune since I got a fantastic hot weak flat white at Singapore Airport ( so good I ordered a second ) the last bright spot in my life gastronomically speaking, the wind dropped and it bucketed down for almost the rest of the day. The people who had trained in Singapore not as pleased but Johnny Harris and I coming out of a wet Perth winter, big thumbs up.

Here's a picture of me and the founder who some of my friends already know very well.

It has to be said, he's riding pretty well. For some reason I'm yet to fathom the Fordy boy is thriving on this shit. The only upside if u can call it that is that he has been too gracious to date to dish out too much sledging to the rest of us. That said his knocking over a dozen beers at night and a few wines isn't doing much for the self esteem for the rest of us.

The waiter walked past me with an open can of beer last night and I chucked.

Here's a photo of a new close friend of mine, big Steve Jones, who

Isn't going too badly himself on the bike just quietly.

Just to bring a bit of old fashioned Hollywood in we went the selfy 

Speaking of Hollywood here's a picture of Johnny Harris himself putting on a show for the locals They've seen some celebrities thru here before but none as big in the insurance celebrity stakes than Johnny

Thats another celebrity's finger in the foreground.

 had a rush of blood and stayed out with the group til 9.15.pm

Three people fell off the bike today. 

Day 4. Phnom Penh to Kirrirom . 160klms

No stage of today where I wasn't in the hurt locker. Over 100 k's of trails and rutted dirt roads. Most of the group enjoyed it but I found it torturous.

To be honest I thought the ratio between joyous moments and bottom of the hole type moments would be a little more even. 

Below is one of our guides Rith sitting in a peloton that you don't see every Saturday in Perth

Came a cropper 4k from the hotel- here's what it did to the helmet.

I thought i came down quite acrobatically but the eye witness accounts and forensic evidence begged to differ

Got in at 6.15 pm , hopped in the spa , shower and  bed with 2 liters of water by 7.30. 

Is it enjoyable - no.

Is it enjoyable - yes.

You share 4 days like the last 4 with ten other people and it feels like you've known them a decade. I'd like to be able to stay up a little later and have a beer and a coherent conversation with them.

That's it for now.

Day 3, Krakor to Phnom Penh. 155klms

Where to start.

It wouldn't surprise anyone if I was to say you see different things over here. Markedly different and lots of examples of some quite ingenious thinking. Today I saw three people on a scooter ( nothing unusual so far) but the lady up the back was holding a saline bag up above her head with the drip feeding into her elderly mother sitting in the middle. 

If I wasn't sitting on 45 klms per hour I'd have whipped out my iPhone. I and we didn't go close to that speed today. I think we were between 23 and 24 for day. The slowest avg of any ride I've ever done but one of the hardest. I still can't work out what's different..,

I've got a bit of heat stroke or sun stroke so have scuttled off to the room. 

My two roommates have been Matty Talbot who's a force of nature and Bruce Ford. Two of life's genuinely excessive characters, limited to only the positive connotations of that description. They both get a bit thirsty on a hot day. Trying to get out of having a beer with those two gentlemen tonight will be harder than today's ride.

Something I haven't mentioned Is that another guy doing the ride is a guy called John Harris. I briefly worked with John in 1990 or thereabouts, not long after getting to Australia and here he's popped up again. Only two people from Perth and it's him and I. He's got a great mate of his along - Steve Jones - who was one of the three that did the ride last year and unsurprisingly he's just a jet as well.

I hope it's just the sunstroke but I'm finding this ride a little tougher than I'd anticipated. I'm also getting less funny by the day. When I got here I was officially the 7th funniest bloke in Perth. I'd be lucky to crack the top 1000 in Siam Reap as things currently stand. Hopefully life's back to normal tomorrow on both the cycling and the comedy circuit. 

It's 7.17. Time to Viber the family, brush the molars and kip really quite hard.

Day 2. 26 August. Battambang to Krakor

Let me start at the end and work backwards. It rained pretty heavily late arvo which cooled the day down for the last session. Had a bit of a bottom lip moment this arvo. We thought it was going to be 145k which was going to be plenty as it was 37 degrees and 25k of it was VERY off road.

The theme of todays blog is pictures that dont do justice to the points I am trying to make - looking at that photo

It doesn't appear VERY off road even to me and i was there.

The ride was actually 165k  or more - cue the bottom lip. Started a little after 7 on basis we thought short day, and finished at dusk. Obviously stops along the way, but nothing lengthy.

Alls well that ends well and the rain helped drag the 37 degrees down!

Here are My roomies Mat Talbot calves. 

In keeping with the underperforming pictures theme now that I've inserted this photo they don't look as impressive as they do in real life! I'll get a better depiction and post it before the trip is finished.

I feel like I know some of these people quite well already. It's fair to say sitting on your bike for 8 or more hours each day fast tracks your appreciation of the people in the group. 

We visited the school that Fordys company largely funded. It was a holiday but the kids ( hundreds) came in in their uniforms. Photo below.

 It's late and I'm shattered so don't want to purge everything I'm feeling but I would like to publicly pass on my admiration for Bruce and Sharon for lmaking a meaningful difference to a comparatively vast number of lives. Not just for the 850 kids physically going thru the school in this generation but the choices that education will enable the kids to make with their own kids and relatives.

Following is a picture of Frank looking for his sunglasses. The reason I found this quite funny is that exactly the same thing happened to me an hour earlier. Between us we'd asked a handful of people if they had seen our sunnies.

Right people you are keeping me up. Chat tomorrow.

Day 1. Siam Reap to Battambang

Well talking about riding 180k and actually doing it are two quite distinctly different things. It was hot it was humid, most of us set new sweating pb's today.

I'm still somewhere between beet root and tomato in coloring around the chops.

Speedos fluctuated in the group but I had 170 k's. An upside down 170k at that. Can't be arsed rotating it 180 degrees Either that or I'm struggling with the know how to rotate it in this blog environment.

Avg  speed 26 kph.

Lot of buffalo alongside the road. Lots of kids saying hello. 

Below  are some of the team in the dedicated cycling kit. Kit most of us walked straight into the swimming pool not long after we arrived and checked in. Everyone did really well today on a challenging day. Couple of injuries flared up. The youngest guy in the group Kain Nanne is 21 and had his knee injury flare up quite badly. Couple of nurofen and a knee brace at half way and not a hint of complaint all day. Thats a lot of ticker for a young bloke. One person had arguably undercooked their training, not that you could tell by today's performance. 

Right a very quick power nap for 20 or 30 mins then lobby for dinner at 7.20.

K, downstairs in lobby, one beer in. Will post tis and if anything funny happens tonight I'll do a supplementary post.

Why would you have a big night less than a day out?

You wouldn't right.

A large proportion of the group were in Siam Reap for the Friday night. It was big. Shouldn't have been, logic dictates it wasn't going to be. And by big I mean really quite large. Everyone about to embark on an adventure and getting to know each other. A round of drinks less than $10. We went to a rooftop bar that had maybe thirty people in it but a band with a European lead singer who could have been playing to 20.000 and left nothing in the tank. My teammates are absolutely delightful. Several of them below.

Everyone was pretty committed  to a recovery day on the Saturday. We did 10 or 15k to make sure bikes all working ok. Pretty hot work.

Went on a river trip to the floating village today in Siam Reap.

How's this little guy in a large pot!

Well it's here. Writing this in the kip. 185 Cambodian kilometers tomorrow .woo hoo!!!

Last post in Australia

Catapulted ourselves out of the cot this morning. On the road at 5.10am. When I ran the numbers I worked out I'd actually gotten up before I went to bed.

 It's possible you could argue it was still late last night. I appreciate I'm laboring the point a little but I'm almost certain I spotted a werewolf - see photographic support above.

Awesome ride this morning. No fireworks just big Brend doing what he does - out the front and going large. Ive been very fortunate that Brend has taken his foot off the pedal for me for many weeks now. 

It's tripled the enjoyment quota having someone to do those long rides with. We could barely tolerate each other 3 months ago but now were a fair way down the paperwork to adopt each other. A surprisingly uncommon process as it turned out.

Managed to sneak in half a cup of coffee with big Grizzy Grogan at the Office Cafe on Harrogate st this afternoon.One of the customers in there gave us a quick heads up on terminology for pictures in blogs etc and we were pretty hip there for four of five minutes. Grizzy was initially as confused as a baby in a topless bar but geez he comes up to speed with a rush for a big bloke. 

Bike kit packed - check

Right , I'm about to smack it into turbo for an hour or so then next stop Cambodia.

I love the night life, I love to boogie.

Talk soon homies.

Tuesday in Kings Park.

Four of us out this morning. Rich just back from injury ( but hardly skipping a beat) medium sized Steve, big Brend,who you all know , and yours truly. We met up with Dave@58 (who's training for the Busso ironman) up in Kings Park who had already smashed out 4 or 5 repeats by the time he saw us.

It was ridiculously picturesque out this morning and I would have got a picture of the yellow and orange sunrise over the city but a/ it's a little cliched and b/ the boys don't even like me far less being prepared to wait for me. Speaking of weather I head off on Friday after months of shit weather and the forecast is basically fine from Friday. Stop it!

Hill repeats are never easy but to be fair they are not advertised as such. I'm enjoying them maybe 2% more than usual as having done a few k's and gotten a little stronger, relatively speaking I'm improving. As soon as you think that way of course some mountain goat comes past you doing 30k fair cremating any newfound optimism.

My cyclo cross bike is in at my local bike shop ( lbs) getting dismantled and packed. There's a definite spike in the content of the emails from my team mates 12 of whom im yet to meet. It's getting close to siren time ladies and gentlemen.

Easy 30 k ride tomorrow then a final hungy (100 k's) on Thursday morning with medium sized Steve and Brend.

Then it's hammer time baby.

In the words of the late, great, Kerry Packer...

I'm very pleased to have your company.

Sourn swa-khorn 

Welcome - in Cambodian

5.15am yesterday saw Brend and I rolling, rolling, rolling down the ( freeway) river.Just on 140klms later I was pretty keen to jump off the bike as home came into sight. Big Brend was showing a sign or two of being in the same boat so some small satisfaction as he's in a different stratosphere of rider than the old Quinny boy.

Two coffees back to back in a new p.b. (personal  best) then a quick staring competition with the inside of my eyelids.

Sprang up like a jungle cat into an ice cold shower like other hardened athletes, ok just a normal shower, then off to big Grizzy Grogans place for his son Sean's 18th birthday.16 full strength (3 mid strengths) later and it was time to bust a move. But not before the Grizz man produced a coffee of Goldilocks porridge standard (just right) pic below.

Stopped at the Merrywell bar for about 45 seconds on the way back home from

the Grizzys place to catch my neighbors the Berendse's but they moved me on fairly quickly for lack of quality input. 

There's four of us doing some hill repeats in Kings Park tomorrow. I'm 107kgs Brends 97kgs but a genuinely elite cyclist then the other two are under 70 kilo's. I think the gold silver and bronze might be safe for another Tuesday.

....you're failing to match me.

Throw your arms in the air like you're hailing a taxi.

Hilltop Hoods

Don't know what comes before "you're failing to match me"but it's the bit about the arms that elevates that couple of lines into noteworthy status.

Chum reap leah

Where did the week go?

Group ride this morning with the Garland Group. 70k at around 30kph. Could definitely still feel a bit of Thursday's ride in the legs , but otherwise all good. 

Big Brend has got 150 big clickers in his schedule for tomorrow so that's Sunday morning pretty well taken care of. 

We cleaned our bikes last night and bikes are like cars, you can't clean them without it raining the next day and sure enough...I know, I know, why home on a Friday? - because im old and just physically aren't capable of a couple of bottles  of pop then a ride the next day.

My only comment today about music is that I haven't completely ruled out taking an instrument with me to provide live music while we are riding. At this stage im thinking a ukelele. Having thought it thru even that might be too substantial on the bike. I'm thinking of perhaps prototyping a special "traveling"mini ukelele for just such a purpose. I'll probably need to gauge demand before taking this particular brief to a specialist instrument manufacturer.

Lastly,two news items yesterday caught my eye. Firstly a zoo in china was charged with fraud for parading a hairy dog as a lion. The article carried a picture and to be fair the dog looked remarkably lion like,albeit on the small side. The fraud was discovered when the dog barked. Google it, unlike the ukelele I'm not making this up. The second article was about ranking innovative companies. The point of the article was that IT companies such as google and Facebook that the average punter would expect to see feature quite highly, didn't.  My query is how does that zoo in china not crack the top 10.?I love them. If i knew how to "like"something on facebook i would. How funny  is putting your mangy pet out the front and putting a sign up telling people it's a lion! I was just telling the H man and he's with me that it's gold.

Right, can of diet coke to drink ( havent lost a kilo btw) and if that wasnt enough, at some stage shortly I'm going to need to start gearing up for the mighty black machine versus the Wallabies.

No shortage of adventure out on the roads this morning folks. Puncture, buckled wheel and 100 odd k’s of pretty ordinary weather.

Big Brend out the front putting it in for both of us, me out the back offering encouragement …. we take some beating as a team. 

Ordinarily Perth conditions would be pretty good for preparing for the humidity of places like Cambodia but going from 3 layers which is what we’ve been wearing for the last couple of months to very high humidity is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

It’s my neighbours birthday tomorrow – he’s turning 25. As far as I know he hasn’t given a thought to moving out of home as yet. Why would he?  I understand he’s taking some plans to an architect to extend out or at least find out about height restrictions for a second storey above his bedroom. He’s conceded it’s not going to do anything to add anything to the aesthetics of the property but as he rightly points out his current living conditions could lead to him feeling a little hemmed in.

It wouldn’t be a cycling blog without two quick excerpts from songs

 ...and another thing,

ive been wondering,
lately..

The Hoodoo Guru’s – just literally firing a song out of a cannon – what a start…

Oh, the bottle has been to me
My closest friend and
My worst enemy

Natalie Merchant – lead singer from 10,000 Maniacs and ex girlfriend of Michael Stipe (lead singer from REM). That was a big bundle of talent in one relationship. You don’t have to drink a lot of pop for that lyric to strike a chord.

Back to cycling. Joey read my last blog (hurtfully, she ignored the first two) and having noted i'd used her abridged Christian name suggested I use her full name  going forward (the very beautiful Joey).

 

We are off in a week. Group ride this Saturday then a big ride with big Brend on Sunday.

 

I'm going to upload tomorrows post from my iphone which is what i'll be using during the ride.  It's going to include a photo or two. I'm not sure of what just yet. At this stage it's looking like I might have to scan a picture of Jack's planned extension  (see above)  - it's ambitious!

 

For anyone who's thought my posts have lacked punch to date I cant see tomorrow being the day it all turns around from my phone.

 

Until tomorrow. 

 

 

Had the option of parachuting in a quick 30 clickers this morning - after Joey back from walk and before we dropped the H man at school - but pretty quickly realised a bracing cup of tea was probably the better way forward.

 

Actually a little bit knackered today – Graham and I had a monster of a day at work yesterday. I’d also spoken to my brother in NZ who is training for a hilly 200k ride – him and his mates had just done 4 x 4k hill intervals in the big chain ring – I had to cut him short and jump off the phone as I was actually starting to fade a little just hearing about it. I’ve had to just make some stuff up about my own training to keep him on the phone.

For anyone out there who cycles a bit  - try watching this right thru without nodding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMCkuqL9IcM

 

Given the ride only lasts a week 25 – 31 August I’m thinking I might try and put in a sentence or two most days.If anyone wants auto uploads you can enter your email address at the top of this page and my valuable insights (for the next fortnight at least) will be delivered to you. It’s like magic.

Brend and I are on for a 100ker in the morning.  

 

We took Harry (8) to a disco last Friday. He quite likes $20 in my pocket and Gangham style etc

I'm trying to gently steer him towards a bit of Vanilla Ice

 

"If there's a problem, yo i'll solve it

Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it"

 

How do you improve on that?

 

For any music buffs Vanilla now has a renovating houses show on Foxtel

 

 

 

Don't be fooled by these rocks that i've got, i'm still Jenny from the block...
Used to have a little, now I have a lot, im still, im still...
Looking forward to rolling out a few classics to the group once we're on the move...

A mate of mine Brendon and I smashed out a few hill repeats this morning up in Kings Park. I say "smashed" but perhaps "visited" or "had a good look at" would have worked equally as well.

Brend's a very useful cyclist and is passing on some of his hard earned knowledge and tips. One little tidbit he shared with me was how some of the more experienced cyclists park their bikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQDe-nQjyK8

Looking forward to mastering that little manoeuvre in Cambodia

One issue that has become clear to me is that I need a sign off phrase for these blogs ...Rove McManus has got "say hello to your mum for me - that's absolute rubbish obviously, i've seen cyclists use "see you out on the road", passable - but taken. Also, i'm over 100 kgs and not a "real" cyclist. I'll keep thinking but if anyone has a suggestion let me have it - think of this blog like a peloton or an ideas factory.

C'mon!!*

* (Lleyton Hewitt for the sign off aficionado's amongst you)



 

Getting the Cambodian cycle blog going...

Welcome to my first foray into blogging.

So... the plan is, if anything interesting occurs to me or comes up over the next week or so before the cycle proper starts I'll whack it into this site. If not I'll start posting some commentary, and just generally exaggerating stuff once I'm there. For those "coming along"  I look fwd to having you along for the ride. Woo hoo