Was really happy with how the tour of east java ended. finished up 3rd overall and was climbing better than i ever have done before. the mtn on the 4th stage was incredible. from sea level up to 2250 in 40km. it started out reasonable gradual for the first 10km then was wickedly steep in places after that. the last 10km was like bluff hill the whole way with the last 2km even steeper! i had a 25 sprocket on but some guys had 28 and even a few with 32. it was sort of like riding whatamonga 5-6 times no-stop. great views of volcanoes from the top. 
 
Have just completed the Sort tech Ardenne challenge in Belgium on the weekend. i managed 4th place in the 2nd race of the series so was pretty happy. the race was in the very hilly area of belgium where the Liege-Bastogna-liege race is held. very nice area but hard. most days there was about 150-170 riders starting i think. form seems to be holding together pretty well which is encouraging as we head off to China tomorrow for the tour de Qinghai Lake. this race is rated 2.HC this year on the UCI calendar so there is going to be some really strong teams and riders there. this is my third time at this race so i know what to expect with regard to the altitude and weather conditions which will help. the race is 10days and has a low point 2250mtrs and a high of just over 4000!!!. 2 stages of 200km+. should be fun. 
 

Posted by: Robin Reid

Oh yeah, 
was on the plane the other day with Phil Anderson from Singapore to Frankfurt. pretty funny. Ha. he still has that pony tail from the 80's TDF days. Legend. 
for those who don't know, he was the guy who introduced "coke" to the tour oh, and those horrible old school Oakley's, and STI levers. 

Posted by: Robin Reid

Hey Hendo, can you just paste in that last report i did. thanks. computer dosen't usually allow me to login. 
 
heading to China tomorrow for Tou De Qinghai lake. 
www.tdql.cn (i think) 
 
will be bloody hard but hopefully i am fit enough now. 
 
Hope everything is well in the club. look forward to returning in august. 
regards, rob. 

Posted by: Robin Reid

well we have just finished the third day of the tour (www.tourdeeastjava.com) (if you want to check it out) and the whole team is riding really well with some good successes so far. 
 
stage one was 185km mainly flat but a little rolling in the middle but bloody hot, almost 40degs. a break went in about the first 25km of the stage and we had one rider in there ( Oggi - our Mongolian guy) he is riding really strongly, having just won the mongolian championships, both road race and tt on the previous weekend, the tt was his 17th in succesion! no joke. he did 52km in about 65mins. fast. anyway he ended up 2nd on the stage after being sprinted in by an irish rider on the Giant asia team who sat on the back most of the stage. the rest of us were in the bunch. 
 
I have worked out some useful tricks for riding in extreme heat now. at the start get a hunk of ice and stick it under your helmet and also a small bag of ice with a hole in the corner and put this under your shirt behind your neck. as they melt they keep you nice and cool. also tip cold water all over yourself when ever you get the chance. once you start doing races in temperatures up around 36-40 degs you no longer get any cooling efect from the air. you are like a car with a broken radiator so you have to keep tipping water on to to keep cool and keep going. 
 
yesterday we had a very hard 200km stage even hotter than day one. I managed to jump accross to the early break that went away after about 15km. we had 8 riders and gained about 6minutes on the main group at the bottom of the climb about 140 km into the stage. however we were going along very slowely (35-37km/h only) so once the bunch started riding hard the gap quickly came down. when we had only 3mins i made the decision to stop on the side of the road. i had a bit of a stomach problem! so anyway after i had delt to this the i rejoined the main group and we quickely caught the remains of the break. the climb was about 35km long and went up to 1350mts. it wasn't steep mostly like Shakespear Bay, Mahikipawa, maybe a bit steeper in places but very long and fast, mostly 30km/h. 
our group split a bit towards the end of the climb and our team still had 3 riders in front. the decent was very crazy and we split up again. We were 3rd, 7th, and 8th on the stage. so good day for us. 
 
(this is getting a bit rushed as i am in the race Media room and i probably shouldn't be on this computer) 
 
today we had a 55km crit. hot again. me and Nathan ahlberg) in a break of 12 guys. i was 4th and we moved to 1st in teams and i think i am up th 4th overall. 
 
tomorrow we have 130km stage and finish at the top of a 47km mtn at 2250mts and it is supposed to be bloody steep. 
 
if you don't here from me again for a while i'm probably still trying to get to the top of it. Hopefully i'll be ok. i think i am climbing ok. we'll see tomorrow. 
 
regards, 
Rob. 

Posted by: Robin Reid