Monday 31 August 2015

In a little bit of borderline celebrity news my old cocker spaniel Bruce (Fordy ) Ford was good enough to breeze thru Perth over the weekend. Mostly family stuff but we did manage to jam one quick hills ride in. Anyone who is only here in Perth for a day or two and wants to go for a guided or unguided ride in Perth but can't be arsed packing their bike for just one or two rides check out Velo Bike tours. Started by a guy who rides out of Garlands in South Perth (where we all ride from.) In a word - awesome. I'll put a link in here at some stage. Focus frame carbon fibre bikes with dura ace Di2 running gear. 

Nice to turn the tables on the old Fordy boy, normally it's us going from 4 degrees in winter to 34 degrees in Singapore (or 40 degrees plus in Cambodia) so to have him turn up here without arm warmers etc was a nice change of pace. He's a nuggety sort of a rooster tho so to his credit he just got on with the job. Punched down two back to back flat whites at Halo within moments of getting off his Focus,  and like that , he was gone again. 

Speaking of nuggety roosters here's a picture of my brother Mike. Honestly , what chance have we got of hanging on to his wheel in Taupo in a couple of months when he's parading around in that sort of nick? 

I'm  only chucking this picture in coz my Mums not 100% and she's just auto subscribed to this blog site so I know she'll see this and have to smile at such a great pic of her second favourite son. You'd think he'd do the righty and hoover down a couple more donuts before he rides with us again wouldn't you...

His daughter Rachel (22) did the Coast to Coast ironman earlier this year. Just such a huge achievement - not least at that age.

Ok - closer to home,  just checked the cyclo over - all looks operational. Might grab some eye drops and lip balm before Thursday and then it's hammer time. 

I get to Cambodia late Friday and the ride starts Monday. I'll put up a post over the weekend and until then look after yourselves.

Harry is off on a two night camp tomorrow - first time away from home for that length of time 😔. He's outraged he can't take his iPad. Heaven help us.!

Monday 24th August 2015

Took a bit longer than I'd planned to get my next post up. I don't know why I'm surprised - everything gets a little busier just before launch date.

A fair few of the (10) riders are based in Singapore and as a group they've been doing some long ( round the island) rides 120k plus , especially over the last few weeks. It's pretty warm there and most of us ( that needed to) have shifted a few kilos of pudding.

Between collected funds and committed pledges I think we are approaching A$100k which is pretty good going, would have been nice if we could have attracted a little of that $40b that got wiped off the Aussie sharemarket before it disappeared into the ether. 

Just heard from Matty Talbot , ( who's done all three rides so far ) and was my roomie for the last two. It'll be a little strange without him along this year as he has been such a massive part of the whole experience. Hes going to leave big boots to fill this year , not least in the entertainment arena. Fingers crossed he's back next year. 

Ok, some things to do and then up early tomorrow for Bell Tower ride. 

Back soon. 

It cannot be the 10th, scrap that, the 11th August...

This is just getting ridiculous...

Four weeks from today and we'll have finished day one (1) and be powering through day two (2)..

Been up to Singapore since we spoke last... Loved it, huge fun..we went to one of the water parks there. Adventure rides , gotta love them. Highlight was the Torpedo which just opens up from under you ...like a trap door. Similar to a ride we did in Bali not surprisingly perhaps called the "Trap door". The Grizzies and us went there a few years ago when the H man was only little. No stunt doubles for Grizzy or I. 

Went for a couple of decent rides up in Sing both knocking on 120k with my brother in law big Iain Clarkieeee, Big Johnny Rey ,Big Subash, big Fordy boy joined us for the second day.

Fordy and Iain did a group ride a day or two after I left at over 34kph..pretty darned impressive..

At Perth airport they confiscated this dangerous weapon from me ( John McGyver). I got the customs guy to pose with it so I could buy a replacement for my old mate big Den who had kindly lent it to me only hours before. Den if you're reading this mate I'm on the interweb sourcing a replacement bro.

Just got off the phone from big Stevie J ( that's him in the picture) one of the original riders. He's peaking and tapering simaltaneously, don't know how he does it..before hanging up he confirmed he loves the night life and he loves to boogie.

There's a few committed funds coming thru as I post this so I'll wait a day or two to update the amount raised to date.

Keep those query rolling in. 

"They carried them to the flatlands

And they died along the way

But they built up with their bare hands 

What we still can't to today."

Neil Young

We're going large baby.