Me ride 299km? What, in a week?

Even that's doubtful these days. In my heyday I rode Sydney (ie Surry Hills) to the Blue Mountains (ie Katoomba) and back (that's 200km) for fun and 200km races for the jolly experience of it all, but 299 in a day? No, not ever. So to finish - let alone win - the Melbourne to Warrnambool (the 'Warnie') is simply miraculous, and these guys pulled off exactly that miracle.

I do wonder about the physiology of it all. I found that doing 500-700km a week gave me great endurance but knocked my pace down a notch. Which is to say I suffered in crits something fierce. But 200-300km a week was just perfect for club A-grade crits and my sprint came back. Occasionally I'd do 500, but anything above 200km was a bonus.

And come the track season the big winter road miles (Aussies do their road racing in winter) had built my strength up, so it was a case of simply dropping the miles back and sharpening up.OTOH if I'd had a slack road season I needed 400km a week and maybe some weights to get up to speed.

Even when doing those almost-slack 200km weeks I could still jump on the bike and ride Sydney to the Central Coast and back in a day (200km) with my time each way almost exactly the same. I had 'endurance memory' locked into my legs, I guess. But I seem to have lost it in the last 7 years or so. Back then I was knocking over 100km in 3 hours or less on my own, now I'm cramping after 50 and crawling home. Could it be my age? Nahhh. I've just slacked off the miles, haven't I?

Evans leads the CQ rankings

The what? The CQ rankings, for Cycling Quotient, a la IQ. Hmmm. Well it's designed to plug a gap that the UCI left when they opted for the ProTour, anyway. And now Aussie Cadel Evans leads both the ProTour and the CQ standings.

The CQ is comprehensive and gives us loads of stats on every pro race, all year long. Can't be bad, eh?

ProTour winner Evans on his season

Cadel Evans seems the least-rated contender no matter where or when he is racing. He's generally acknowledged as one of several contenders but always with a qualification of some sort. Either someone else is stronger or has won more recently, or Evans is tired, or perhaps injured. It never seems as though the guy is really likely to win, like Armstrong, Ullrich or Basso were and Bettini, Contador and Di Luca are now. Yet he's so consistent, when he gets the chance. Perhaps it's his quiet demeanor. After such a great 2007 maybe 2008 will be different for Cadel.

Interesting overview of his season, here at Cyclingnews.com.: Cadel Evans won the ProTour classification on Saturday after a consistent stream of steady results over the past four months. Before the Giro di Lombardia, he talked about his performances in the Vuelta a España and world road race championships, the Tour Down Under's graduation to the ProTour calendar, his plans for the months ahead and his Olympic aspirations.

Yes, that's quick

The 2007 Masters World Track champs are being held in Sydney right now, and I have to say (as a master myself) that's damned quick...1 David Le Grys (GBr) 0.34.14 (52.73 km/h)

I've done just one timed 500m run on Sydney's Tempe velodrome, a 40.09sec effort. I reckon I could get below 40 with some practice... but under 35secs?? Yikes!

Rider diaries are always fun

You have to be there to really experience it, but any racing cyclist can imagine themselves riding with Stuart O'Grady, can't they? Maybe Stuey jumps on your wheel as you attack the C-grade bunch, ha ha, or you come around him and take the sprint win? Well, maybe. Or maybe we should just read the rider diaries during stage races and get a feel for what it really feels like. From cyclingresults.net:After joking around with Stu Shaw, saying “I hope you have your sprinting legs on Stu”, with him replying “They’ll be on as long as you get your attacking legs on.” I decided I better do my part and got up the front jumping on everything I could. At around 25km to go, there was a break at around 30secs and I thought I should one more time. I looked around to find only Stuart O’Grady on my wheel, and along with him managed to bridge across. I must say, after only a month on the bike I was absolutely on the max just holding his wheel, but it was a pretty exciting experience for me.

As the season winds down... Steegmans wins again

Gert Steegmans is certainly proving his worth as a sprinter - not that we doubted that, having seen his explosive lead-out work for McEwen and Boonen in the past. He's done it again in the Circuit Franco-Belge with 2 wins and the overall (results via Cyclingnews.com):
1 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quick.Step - Innergetic 16.58.00 2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) T-Mobile Team 0.04 3 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux 0.14 4 Aurélien Clerc (Swi) Bouygues Telecom 0.16 5 Marco Marcato (Ita) Team L.P.R. 6 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Crédit Agricole 0.17 7 Allan Davis (Aus) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.18 8 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 9 Maarten Wynants (Bel) Quick.Step - Innergetic 0.20 10 Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick.Step - Innergetic 0.21 11 Mathew Hayman (Aus) Rabobank 0.23 12 Hervé Duclos Lassalle (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 13 Sven Krauss (Ger) Gerolsteiner 14 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Quick.Step - Innergetic 15 Evert Verbist (Bel) Chocolade Jacques - Topsport Vlaanderen 16 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank 0.24 17 Vincent Jerome (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 18 Aliaksandr Usov (Blr) AG2r Prévoyance 0.25 19 Frédéric Gabriel (Fra) Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner 20 Tyler Farrar (USA) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 0.26

Plenty of Aussies in that list, too.

A state of general unease

Does anyone else feel uneasy about this? Is it just me? Am I just a doubter by nature?

From Cyclingnews.com:Spanish media reported Wednesday that current Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was close to signing with Astana. Along with Contador would come Johan Bruyneel in a management role. Both Bruyneel and Contador are free to find new teams effective December 31, when their current Discovery Channel team comes to an end.

Maybe it's fate and it will all turn out for the best.