Some beautiful places to ride in Brisbane

This is only 10 minutes from the city.

Brisbane River

Sandgate foreshore. We busted a friend of ours picking up their Sunday newspaper as we cycled past. So we stopped & got a free coffee :o))

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Reminder Why do I ride

On the rare occasion, I manage to get down to the Brisbane River for the Monday night noodle ride.

Here is a quick description of the ride. Meet up, talk crap, ride off, spin a yarn, ride, laugh, attack the occasional hill, sprint, ride, stop, eat cheap noodles, talk more crap, ride home while burping.

Given the training I do, last night I was asked, "So Matt, what is this ride for you?"

I responded by saying that it is an awesome reminder of how much fun cycling is. The group is honest, fun & they are simply there to ride their bikes.

Before I met up with the guys I had a quick catch up with Hubcap Andrew Handyside. Smiling, riding & keen to smash out an awesome race this Sunday. Hubcap shared his goal for Sunday with me & I will be sure to call him on it.

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Sunday Morning Ride

I do almost all of my training either by myself or with my partner Natalie. So group rides are few & far between. Yesterday saw Natalie & I meet up with a few Ord Minett & QSM riders. All great people to ride with. A majority of the peloton were in Velo.net.au kit!

I have a new job! I now work for Ay Up Lighting Systems. Great location, great team, awesome product. Now I just have to work out if some part of my financial expenses for 24hr races are tax deductable ;o)

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Ride paddle walk 24 hours of fun fun fun

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In preparation for XPD, 3 out of the 4 team members of Team 145 L-Attitude headed to Noosa for an all day training session. Our 4th team member is still in recovery mode post Port Macquarie Iron Man Triathlon.

Our base camp was on the river in Tewantin. We arrived in Tewantin at about 6pm. Had dinner at the local pub & discussed the plan for the following morning. I should have got the lasagne & chips. Next time.

Before racking out for the night a few kit things needed to be sorted.



Ride 5 hours:

Sunday 3am the alarm went off. A few more food things, a kit check & get on our bikes...with packs. We had the pleasure of having all of the trails to ourselves for the entire ride!

Riding in the forests on the Sunshine Coast is beautiful. Definitely more visits for xc cycling in the near future.





Mmmm....the 3 stages of calorie consumption pleasure




Paddle 5 hours:

Sunscreen on, cycling shoes off, inflate the two person kayak (as used in XPD) & away we go for a 5 hour paddle. The darn thing had an air leak in the left pontoon. There was also a water leak!

Kirstie: "How are you going back there dog?"

Dog: " This would be my least favourite discipline"

I love being on the water. I feel as though I can paddle all day. Just not in the Sevylor inflatable tanks errr...boats.



Walk 10 hours:

This was the epic part of the trip. I know it wasnt on a bike, but this was my favourite leg. We got to try out a new bit of kit. A jetboil & some new flavours of dehydrated meals.


Its not all about training.


We covered about 40kms on the walk. Our Ay Up lights
were awesome all night.

No dogs allowed? Well this dog loves spotting critters in the bush. Especially at night.

My wildlife satisfaction bucket was full to overflowing with some of the amazing creatures we saw on our training session.

We spotted a Tawny Frog Mouthed bird, a kangaroo so darn big that Bear Gryls wouldnt even have considered it food, a very large & beautiful owl. These were easily the highlight critters.

The large owl was easily my favourite spot all night.



We also saw this little dude




After a few hours sleep we popped back into Tewantin & found a sign that said Big Breakkie $10 with a free coffee! After some dog therapy filled out tummies with an awesome breakfast.

Check out the road sign in the top left corner of this photo... "All other destinations"


We had wet shoes & socks for the most of the trip. Cairns will more than likely give us the same treatment. Time to pack up & head home already.



Until next time, Train hard, Race harder.

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