My usual 40km loop from home - Norton Summit - Mt Lofty - Old Freeway - home this morning. 17 min 05 climb of Norton Summit which I think may be a PB, and a "mere" 6 minutes longer than Jack Borbidge's record. Crossing the summit I had one of those light-bulb moments. I did 600km last week riding to watch the TDU but most of this was done at a moderate pace, unlike my normal training rides which are mostly done at 90% effort, under the assumption that the harder you train the easier an event…

Normally I ride off-road on my mountain bike, tolerating necessary sealed sections, or on-road on my Long Haul Trucker. Yesterday I decided to try a style of ride that I've never done before by combining sealed and dirt roads into a loop in attempt to create a scenic meander through the hills. After a little planning I came up with…

I received an email on day in early December from a mate of mine in Hobart asking me if I wanted to ride the 2011 3 Peaks Challenge with him. Entries (including a "free" jersey if you finished) closed the next day, so without thinking too much about the consequences of what I was about to do I entered (and so did my brother). I've heard alot about the first 3 Peaks Challenge held in March 2010, and this…

Felt like going for a long ride through the hills this morning so decided that I would head up North East Road through Chain Of Ponds (nice fast cornering decents and good photo opportunity near the lake). …

Got up feeling a bit Leyland Brothers, so went to see a bit of Oz countryside.  Quite some time since I took the spiders for an outing, so put BIKE on the rack and drove to Nairne.  Cloudy to start with (10.30am) but soon became a gorgeous day.  Six kms into the ride I had my first surprise - Brukunga and the ex-Pyrites mine - fascinating.  Headed east and onto unsealed roads.  Gradual descent into the Bremer Valley and across the Bremer River.  Countryside here…

On a recent weekend journey through the Adelaide Hills I was struck by the realisation that there were far more bicycles on the roads than motorcycles. As a bicycle and motorcycle rider who has been enjoying the Hills on both forms of transport for the last 20 years I found this quite startling. There are normally motorcycles everywhere on weekends, especially down around Strathalbyn.

I've been mulling this over for a while now. At first I thought it was a result of cycling being the…

Ah, print copy cycling magazines, so many to choose from - if you buy them, what do you like and why??

Back in the 1980's I was a little transfixed by a magazine called "Winning - Bicycle Racing Illustrated" - I even bought a t-shirt (which I still have in less than perfect condition!)

I also subscribed to an Australian magazine called Freewheeling - most of the copies I still have - a really interesting record of Australian cycling from the 1980s and 1990s. Funny that…

Whilst I'm in melbourne on holiday Ii thought I'd check out the Bike Share scheme 

http://www.melbournebikeshare.com.au/ I've read a  bit about it on various web sites, mainly negative stuff about the lack of patronage, so I gave it a go to make my own mind up. My holiday apartmernt is a stones throw from Fed Square so I set off there this morning at 6-15 whilst everyone else was asleep. 

One of the often touted reasons for…

First off, as always very well organised. A big thankyou to those at the water stations, helping block off the roads and anything else that I may have missed. Also congratulations to those who participated :D.

I registered for the 91km route as I ride a mountain bike and thought that I would skip Checkers Hill. Began from Gumeracha at 7:00am. Met my friend there and we road together for the whole route which was good, much better riding with others than alone. As always we…

Decided that this morning (16th January) that my friend and I would meet up with another two riders that Ilya (my mate knew) and would ride up Norton Summit then to Mt Lofty Summit. Met both riders at 7:45am and I gave them a slight shock when they realised that I was riding a mountain bike and everyone else was on road bikes. None the less I kept up and thought I did alright.

Cruised over to Norton Summit with hardly any traffic which was a plus. At the base we met up with…

Today I had the pleasure and the honour to meet one of Italy's and Pro-cycling's up-and-coming stars, and key lead-out man for the new Team Leopard-Trek, Davide Vigano.

It is interesting that the same phrase is true of Davide as I have heard it said of so many elite athletes: down to earth.

Davide is excited about the year ahead and his job as a lead-out man for Daniele Bennati for most of the year. The TDU is Davide's best opportunity for now to seek his own…

It's summer time, and the rolling waves of Middleton were calling. But much as I love the surf, spending 10 days without a good bike ride just wasn't an appealing idea. But since the beach is a very do-able 100km from Adelaide, riding to the family holiday seemed like the obvious solution. It came at a handy time to train for the TDU Challenge Ride too.

So I put the call out to a few friends to join me on the ride. Early on Monday Jan. 3, I saddled up, left Mrs Snappy and the…

I thought this might be of interest to people. I personally couldn't believe how much difference tires made.

Certainly up to nearly 14…

Hello and happy new year I hope your holidays were good... but not too good as I found out this morning back on the bike after three weeks and finding the Wii cycling doesn't really cut it as training.

Down to business but first welcome to the 200 or so new members that have joined since early December. I've not had a chance to say hello.

It's TDU time again and what a vibe around town. It's great to see so many cyclists out and about. There has been so many great discussions…

Aside from the extra riding that I have been able to fit in around family time these holidays, I have had the great pleasure of being able to take the family out on a few extended jaunts.

First, there was the SuperHero ride, which was a great success according to those whom I have spoken to since…

I've been wanting to ride to Murray Bridge for several months now and finally yesterday I did it. Gorge Rd, Gumeracha, Birdwood, Tunkillo, Palmer and Murray Bridge. Although the temps got into the mid 30's it was an enjoyable ride, unusually I chose to ride with music, Santana, Mark Knoffler and Leonard Cohen live. After a refuel stop in Gummeracha I sailed through Birdwood, had no difficulty with the steady incline to and beyond Tunkillo. The long descent down to Palmer and beyond was…