The TdU seems such a life time away now, the only thing remaining is the heat.

And on the other side the world, the Jensie is having second thoughts about leaving!

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Not long now till the Spring Classics, the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which is the the traditional opener of the Belgian calendar, is only a few weeks away on on March 1st. The Oomloop sees 10 climbs, including the return of the feared and popular Muur-Kapelmuur, a climb of around 700 meters of cobbles climbing a 20% slope following a narrow track up the hill. A bit like Sheok Road, except on slippery nasty cobbles. Fark!

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Following on from that are:

Paris – Nice from 09-03-2014 France
Tirreno-Adriatico from 12-03-2014 Italy
Milano-Sanremo on 23-03-2014 Italy
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya from 24-03-2014 Spain
E3 Harelbeke on 28-03-2014 Belgium
Gent – Wevelgem 2014 on 30-03-2014 Belgium
Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres on 06-04-2014 Belgium
Tour of the Bask country(Vuelta Ciclista al PaisVasco)from 07-04-2014 Spain
Paris – Roubaix on 13-04-2014 France
Amstel Gold Race on 20-04-2014 The Netherlands
La Flèche Wallonne on 23-04-2014 Belgium
Liège – Bastogne – Liège on 27-04-2014 Belgium
Tour de Romandie from 29-04-2014 Switzerland
Tour of Italy (Giro d’Italia) from 09-05-2014 Italy
Critérium du Dauphiné from 08-06-2014 France
Tour of Switzerland (Tour de Suisse) from 14-06-2014 Switzerland
Tour de France from 05-07-2014 France
Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian on 02-08-2014 Spain
Tour of Poland (Tour de Pologne) from 03-08-2014 Poland
Eneco Tour from 11-08-2014 The Netherlands/Belgium
Tour of Spain (Vuelta a España) from 23-08-2014 Spain
Vattenfall Cyclassics on 24-08-2014 Germany
GP Ouest France – Plouay on 31-08-2014 France
Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec on 12-09-2014 Canada
Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on 14-09-2014 Canada
Giro di Lombardia on 05-10-2014 Italy
Tour of Beijing from 10-10-2014 China

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Three Peaks

Well, after a few days of uncertainty, we were able to pick up the extra 3 tickets for 3 Peaks. JK, aka the Modern Day Legend, tracked down Cameron Hughes up in Brisbane. Cam is a cycling coach with his own business:

Cameron is taking 3 bus loads of his clients from Brisbane down for the 3P ride, and had a few spare tickets. A quick conversation and a few electronic transfers later and we had transferred tickets locked away in the bag.

Thanks Cam, hope to see you over the 3P weekend. The link to Cams website is camscyclecoaching

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A quick update on the training for the 3P, which is only 4 weeks away.

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My climbing is coming along nicely, just passed 25km this year.

The hot weather is still playing havoc with the training, but we’re doing what we can without killing ourselves.

Lat Saturday, which was a Declared Catastrophic Fire Danger day, the ASS Deux 3P crew had to pull the pin from our hills climbing at around 9:30ish due to the bushfire starting some distance away over in the Belair National Park. We could hear the CFS sirens blaring and after a short while the spotter plane flew not too far away from us on its way over to the Park. Fortunately the fire was brought under control by the dedicated CFS before it got out of control.

Sunday’s conditions were more favourable, and being the sportif director for the team training, I was able to set a series of steep climbs to get some pain into the legs and generally fark around with their heads. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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Old Belair Road

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Sheoak Road

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Heather Road

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Morgan Road

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The Wall

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Hell of the South – A balls out climbing epic over a distance of 117.4 km with an elevation gain of + 3,827m

This Sunday is the second annual Hell of the South, organised by the guys over at SPACE/Velo porte.

The ride starts off relatively benignly, but it slowly ramps up the pain the deeper you go into the ride, finishing with something that Mike Turter has been planning for some time but hasn’t quite pulled it of yet, and that is a Mountain top finish on Mt Lofty.

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The ride clicks in at 7:30, starting at Felici Espresso Bar at 261 Rundle Street.

https://www.facebook.com/events/696626443723284/

Check out the route here.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/3461464

All welcome – see you there.

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Toy of the week – Lavazza A Modo Mio Espressego

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Lavazza has introduced a new product called A Modo Mio Espressego, a portable capsule coffee machine that brews a pretty mean espresso on the road.

The A Modo Mio Espressego fits into a cup holder and whips up a thermos of Lavazza espressos in less than 2 minutes using a 12V cigarette lighter socket.

I have a standard lavazza pod machine at home and find it a very convenient way to brew a half decent espresso before my early morning rides.

If anyone has a spare one of these we can borrow for the 3P trip, you know how to contact me.

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And in Finishing

a few photos that have taken my fancy this last week

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