DAYS REMAINING UNTIL NOVEMBER 29!!!


Can I do the 110km to 130km leg please?

Thursday, September 18, 2008

"Get Ready for Taupo" on SKY TV

Tune into SKY Sport in October to catch "Get ready for Taupo". Aimed at first time riders the programme will feature Mark Richardson of "The Crowd goes Wild" as he trains for a 40km leg of the relay. It's the brainchild of popular media commentator and TV producer Jon Bridges, an accomplished cyclist who has ridden both the Cycle Challenge Classic Race and the Solo. Bridges says the aim of the programme is to show the novice rider how easily they can accomplish a 40km ride, and with a little bit of knowledge and preparation, get the maximum enjoyment from participating.

The show will give helpful tips on bike selection, training and nutrition and feature Olympian Bevan Docherty and last year's Classic Race winner Gordon McCauley giving Mark tips on motivation and maximizing his performance. It also covers what riders can expect if participating in the 160km Solo ride, and gives advice on bunch riding.

Cycle Challenge Event Director Keith Crate says the programme is perfectly timed as it shows that beginner riders can prepare easily for a relay leg in a just a couple of months, and for those riding regularly, little or no special preparation is needed. The programme will also emphasize that the ride is stress free as all riders and their bikes are transported to and from the relay changeover points.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Armstrong returns!!!

News in the cycling world: Armstrong is to return! Exciting? Motivating? Indifferent?

What's your take on it? News articles are attached to the blog website. Lets put this blogg to use, I want your feedback.

I think this is pretty exciting, if he does go for the 8th Tour win, it will definitely make the Tour interesting next year. As much as everyone thinks he is on drugs, I would like to think, like Michael Phelps, there are freakish athletes out there that can achieve the unthinkable and on their own accord!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Hey All,
Just thought I'd drop a note and see how the training is going? Any exciting stories? Big races people are planning on attending as a lead-up to the Taupo race? At the moment I know there are a number of people in Auckland interested in doing the Pukekohe race on Oct. 19th, it's 100km and should be a good time. Another one to think about is the K1/K2 or 1/4K, I should be heading over to Coromandel if anyone else is interested in a weekend away.

On another note, just a few safety reminders when riding on wet and dry roads (thought I would send this after two guys I was riding with went down, one was in really bad shape and had to be taken in the ambulance. The crash could have been a lot worse had more people gone down):

Top 11 non traffic related items to watch for on the road when alone or in a pack (is my top 11 only, and not really in order:) :

1) If in Canada, Ice! Ok, maybe if in the South Island too.
2) Fresh tar sealant, it is a smooth and slippery as ice! (was cause of accident this morning)
3) Painted road lines and cateyes
4) Manholes and catchpits (not only b/c of the bump, but also slippery)
5) Pot holes
6) Glass
7) Gravel or sand (very easy to slide out on, not a lot of traction)
8) Fallen tree branches
9) Uneven surfaces
10) Kiwi birds and other stray animals (possibly road kill)
11) Everything else I did not mention, including bananas dropped by Mario or Luigi.

Keep riding safe! For those who are interested, bunch rides on Wednesday and Friday mornings (6:30am) leaving from Cyco Cycles on Ponsonby Road.

Cheers,

Dave

Friday, August 29, 2008

Any ICE members out there???

This little gem appeared in my Inbox on Monday:

"TAUPO BIKE CHALLENGE 29 November 2008

"Would you be keen to be tagged with ICE at this years Taupo Bike Challenge?

"The ICE committee are out to prove that engineers can ride bikes as well as design them and are putting several teams into this years challenge. If you have been entertaining the idea but not quite cast it in stone, now is a great time. We have members wanting to do 40kms - a quarter of the race and therefore will be putting relay teams in accordingly. Tim Warren is leading the charge with relay Team#1. Of course if you want to do the whole race (160kms) solo, we would be delighted to tag you with an ICE logo."


Well... Perhaps we can challenge the NZ ICE members to match our efforts?

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Training tip

I thought I would share my latest training tip with you all - riding in the hail! Yesterday, I was cycling home up the Brooklyn Hill when it started hailing - I was amazed at the extra energy I discovered to get me home faster!

Cycling Accessories, Apparel & Parts

Please place any messages here regarding buying, selling, renting or borrowing any cycling gear.

To start this off, there are magnetic wind trainers on Torpedo 7 reduced from $399.95 to $119.99. Check out http://www.torpedo7.co.nz/products/TZTRWNN11

I've just bought one and can give you some feedback once I've tried it out.

Jon

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Cycle Challenge Briefing Session & Training Seminar, Tues 5 Aug

For those who were unable to make it to last night's briefing, a copy of the PowerPoint slides is located at:

file://tontay.com/corporate/auckland/management/Tonkin%20&%20Taylor%205%20August.ppt

And we have recorded a podcast of the talking, currently can be played on Windows Media Player (working on the iPod version, and putting it on a CD to go out to people), available here:

file://tontay.com/corporate/auckland/management/CycleTaupo%20podcast1.WMA

PLEASE NOTE - you can only download these files from a machine logged on to the T&T network. We will do a bit more editing on this over the next day or two...

A big thanks to R&R Sports for coming in to present to us, I have already loaded up a couple of website links that Doug Wester suggested (i.e. the Australian Institute of Sport Nutrition page, which looks really useful.)

If anyone wants some personal coaching, here are their personal details:

Private Coaching with Doug and Eric

Doug Wester
racedaycoaching@gmail.com
021 2491811

Eric Freitas
ecf76@yahoo.com.br
021 2155629

Roller Mayhem, Wednesday Nights in August

Thanks Tony Reynolds for this suggestion.
Every Wednesday in August at The WINCHESTER, 24 St. Benedicts Street from 7pmThis is an R18 event, as the Winchester is a licence venue.Entry on the night is $10 – we will race as many riders as time allows. First in first up.
More details: http://www.solocc.com/clubroom_article.cfm?cb_id=62
Who's keen?

Monday, August 4, 2008

Sample Training Programme and Previous Course Map

An example of a training programme, in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, has been put together for us and is able to be downloaded from:

file://tontay.com/corporate/auckland/management/Training%20Programmes%2027%20July%2008.xls

Peter Roan and R&R Sport have put together this calendar specifically for people in the Auckland office:

file://tontay.com/corporate/auckland/management/Auckland Office Training Calendar.xls

Also, thanks to intrepid adventurer and tandem expert Kate Williams, we have access to the 2006 course map:

file://tontay.com/corporate/auckland/management/course_map_2006.pdf

Please note: THESE DOWNLOADS WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU ARE LOGGED ONTO THE T&T NETWORK. Alternatively, contact one of the Challenge co-ordinators (listed below) and we will send them to you.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

T&T Wellington

Right then, T&T Wellington are all go for the challenge! We've got three people doing the full 160km, and two teams of 4 doing the relay. We're taking a relaxed attitude at the moment, since we've still got ages to go and its been raining heaps, and there are lots of interesting organising things to keep us distracted for now. I'll work on getting some photos sorted.

Comment on the Tour:
Don't dis Julian! He did an awesome job and had a brilliant Tour, if you ask me! He managed 4th on one stage, was 6th on the final stage into Paris, and was the 9th best sprinter by the end of the Tour. That's fantastic! Bring on the Olympics.

Friday, July 11, 2008

PHOTOS!

We need your photos, people. Sorry about last night, Jo and Andrew, but you guys looked so cool in your cycling gear.

Please email on any photos, news, ideas for the blog to the contributors listed at the bottom of the screen.

Tour news - a bad day at the office for Julian - finished 17 and half minutes down on the stage winners.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Stage 5, Cholet to Châteauroux

Latest news from Le Tour, notice that the Herald website has not registered this yet and there are no newsfeeds available from the Tour website.

http://www.letour.fr/

Stage 5 from Cholet to Châteauroux was billed as Julian Dean's stage, long flat section, with a sprint finish. In the end, the best he could manage was tenth spot (two Aussies were credited with finishes ahead of him), though at least he was up with the time.

Julian used to train on the bikes down at the Olympic Gymn. A group of us in Auckland are looking at maybe arranging some training sessions at the Olympic. If you want to join in, sing out!

We will be keeping an eye out for Julian and the rest of the Tour over the next three weeks.

Keep pedalling!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Some cycletaupo Blog FAQs

Hello again,

If you are reading this post, then you have already been invited to read this blog. To do this, you need either an account with Blogger or an equivalent (like a Gmail account). This will allow you to comment on any post.

If you want greater access, i.e. you want to create your own posts on new topics or add content such as training programmes, then contact one of the contributors (listed down the right hand side of the main page) and we will add you to the group. Contributors are generally the contact people for the Challenge for your Office. To add some breadth of comment and introduce some interesting content we have set up a few additional contributors - if you would like to help out by starting new discussion threads or adding content directly to the Blog, we want to hear from you!

If you do become a Contributor, we will send you a cheatsheet to get you started with Blog editing / html coding etc. But relax, Blogger is very user friendly blogware and if you should find it pretty quick to pick up.

As for the rest of us, invited readers and other interested parties, you should know that as this is an "invitation only" blog, ONLY T&T PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED AN INTEREST IN DOING THE CHALLENGE CAN READ THIS BLOG.

This is why we are using Blogger - we can have up to 100 private users without having to pay for the access.

We are also trying to set up an RSS feed, so you can track new posts/comments. Having a few issues with the fact that this is a private blog i.e. password authentication tricky, but hopefully we can get the newsfeed to work on most web based feedreaders (like Netvibes, Google and Internet Explorer.

Over the next week or so, you might see some changes to the look and feel of the blog. Keep posted and we will talk to you again soon!

Paul

Welcome!

Greetings and welcome

The Taupo Cycle Challenge is only 145 days away!

We already have a huge interest in the event amongst Tonkin & Taylor staff, right across the country.

To help you get started, we have created this group blog. Here you will find all sorts of interesting news to keep you going. We will be posting training programmes, team news and gossip, information about your participation in the event. We are interested in your contribution - advice on diet, bikes for sale, even photos (if you have any!)

Check back here regularly for news, tips and tricks! And keep pedalling!

Paul Tudor