Cycling

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jethro's picture

Vive le Tour

I came up with a bunch of different first sentences for this post - but ended up with this lame one because i couldn't decide which to use - potentially they were all lame anyway

  • htc_desire_sQuiet exuberance hardly describes my emotions…
  • I'm off to France - so long suckerssss…
  • Say hullo to the new HTC Ambassador…

See what I mean - lame.

Anyway now that that's over let me introduce to you the new HTC Desire S Tour De France Ambassador. Moi!

HTC have selected me to go to France for the last week of the 2011 Tour to be their HTC Desire S Ambassador. What that means is they are giving me an HTC Desire S Android handset and hopefully enough phone credit to go nuts with it over there. I'm to report on the phone and how i use it to keep a daily blog and photos and video of the tour including the awesome Champs Elysees seating package I have. Did i mention its also a cycle tour so i get to manfully (or whimper like a girl) struggle up Alpe D'Huez amongst some other rides including the penultimate days time trial circuit. In addition I get to meet the HTC Highroad team and report on their progress in the tour.

Trepidation, Excitement, Nervous Energy, Adrenalin. Some of the things happening right now. This has been a dream of mine for years. I was planning on going to the Tour Down under next year - but this tops that! No more late nights sitting watching scratchy SBS broadcasts (we live in a poor reception area) - I'm going to be one of those blokes on the side of the road with their shirt off cheering like an absolute idiot as the guys ride by up the Alpe!

Lucky Buggers I used to mutter under my breath. Now I am the Lucky Bugger!

Stay tuned for more.

Follow my tweets on http://twitter.com/spyjournal and facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HTCau?sk=app_251315594884338&app_data=author:tim-miller where my diary posts will be published.

jethro's picture

Easter Long Weekend

This is now the second long Easter weekend I have enjoyed as an employee being paid! Admittedly I still own part of the business but taking the 5 days off has been great.

2011-04-25 Anzac Flame 044So far I have gone riding, played board games with the kids and friends, read the girls stories, played with fire and taken photos and done one family photo-shoot for some clients.

Here is some of the photographic evidence of the weekend so far.

2011-04-25 Anzac Flame 012

2011-04-24 Witcher Family 1082011-04-24 Witcher Family 157

WP_000218 Stitch-smallFat possum in a creek2011-04-24 Jess and Sunset 012_3_4_tonemapped

jethro's picture

LunarC Mountain Bike Cross Country

4th of Feb late afternoon I headed for the LunarC MTB XC event with Andrew my team mate. We borrowed the Wolves Support Vehicle, loaded it up with all our gear, 2 bikes each and a couch and a mattress.

By early evening we were working in a practice lap, good thing too as Andrew broke his chain and I hadn't pumped my rear shock up. After a quick pitstop mid lap we continued and decided the course wasn't too bad.

2011-02-04 LunarC MTB 167Andrew went home for dinner and a sleep and promised to return by 11PM. I had a rest on the couch reading a book, chatted to the neighbouring competitors, had a meal and relaxed. Come 11PM the site was buzzing as the countdown began for over 140 competitors. Andrew decreed I should ride first and who was I to disappoint. Lining up on the start line with all the other cyclists wasn't a new experience for me having raced many times before, however lining up in the dark with headlights blazing everywhere was. the first kilometre was bedlam and thick dust. After that it settled down a bit and I finished my first lap in a fast 45 minutes, just short of being lapped by the fastest riders but about mid field as it turned out. I was so wrecked that I missed Andrew passing through on his first lap (he was doing 2 laps to my every one) and consequently mistimed his return. I had lost some air from my rear shock, though it was still rideable, and my glasses were covered in sweat. I was still pulling on my gloves when Andrew returned and I raced over to transition (right over the track from our position) without rectifying these things. This proved to be a mistake as about 5ks in there were some very dusty berms and i was unable to see the ground clearly, crashing at a low speed. Bit comical really. I washed my glasses with water from my bladder and then found a checkpoint official who had a tissue. I finished the lap in 46 minutes so consistent with the first one.

jethro's picture

Tons of useful links

Today I am focussed on clearing out my browser from all the interesting things sitting there. No real organisation to this post – its just a link dump.

And I will leave you with some of my best photos from the Triathlon.

IMG_7426-1600 IMG_7611-1600 IMG_7444 bandw-1600 IMG_7444 colour-1600  IMG_7615-1600 IMG_7635-1600 IMG_7766-1600 IMG_7678-1600 IMG_7869-1600 IMG_7945-1600 IMG_8043-1600 IMG_8104-1600 IMG_8117-1600 IMG_8141-1600 2010-04-11 Tre-X 086-1600 2010-04-11 Tre-X 105-1600