Driving and Mobile Phones

by Mark Ferguson on October 11, 2011

…and a great example of why we shouldn’t talk (or text!) on them whilst driving

Your atten­tion can’t be everywhere.

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Crossfit Improves Your Cycling

by Mark Ferguson on October 4, 2011

So you ride a bike and you’re look­ing to improve your horsepower. Even if it’s just to keep up with the local group ride.

If you don’t plan on spend­ing massive hours on the bike or you work long hours, I have a sug­ges­tion to improve your riding.

Cross­fit.

I per­son­ally do cross­fit at night after work and ride my bike in the early morn­ings (when I can get outa bed)

What is Cross­fit?? — Well here’s a little movie I made of last years cross­fit games in Sydney.

These are just some of my fel­low Cross­fit humans at Schwartz’s Cross­fit Mel­bourne.

In a nut­shell — tra­di­tional gym, is purely about sculpt­ing your body, lift­ing heavy things and look­ing good whilst doing it. Bar­bell curls aplenty, pos­ing down in the mir­ror, creep­ing out cute chicks in the mir­ror etc etc.

Pretty much the same shit — dif­fer­ent day. Yeah you get endorphins and kill an hour but even­tu­ally most people fall off the wagon and often, most aren’t even doing the move­ments correctly.

Enter Cross­fit — you learn­ing func­tional move­ments whilst get­ting strong (and flexible).

These include mobil­ity (which most cyc­lists lack), gym­nastics, power­lift­ing and olympic lift­ing. As an adjunct to that, you  sculpt an amaz­ingly fit look­ing body whilst improv­ing your strength and flexibility.

For the crit’ cyc­list or a track sprinter — It’s like Shane Warne and Liz Hur­ley — It fits.

Here’s the video from last years Cross­fit Games in L.A which I also went to. Proper rock­star sport — loved it.

If you’re keen to try it out — google cross­fit gyms in your area and I guar­an­tee you find one. This sport is on a growth cycle of epic pro­por­tions and soon, it’ll be the norm’ for lift­ing heavy things.

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Mud Wrestling On Bikes

by Mark Ferguson on September 30, 2011

Doesn’t this look awesome?

This is the only time, you’ll ever see a race offi­cial throw­ing obstacles and a buck-o-shit on the course.

Cyc­lo­cross or CX Racing is where a whole new style of muddy, dirty and hurty bike racing is headed here in Melbourne.

When asked his opin­ion on CX racing, a friend of mine who now lives in Vegas, said -

So long as you’re ped­dling a CX bike, you’ll be chew­ing the bars the whole time’

From what I’m told, not a truer word has been spoken. I can’t pos­sibly ima­gine the suf­fer­ing that goes on, mash­ing the ped­als in soft sand and mud.

Although I shelled out nearly $2K for a Cyc­lo­cross bike just weeks ago, I haven’t actu­ally had a chance to get it muddy yet, thanks to a real job and week­end work.

These pics were taken by a good mate Jar­rod at a recent Cyc­loross Race in Mel­bourne last month. The first one offi­cially sanc­tioned by Cyc­ling Vic­toria I’m told.

 

If you live here in Mel­bourne check out Dirty Deeds and Full Gas Pro­mo­tions along with Cyc­ling Vic­toria for upcom­ing races.

If you have any more info, please share it in the comments.

Also, may it be an awe­some AFL Grand Final this week­end for every­one . I don’t care who wins so long as it’s close and the amber liquid is flow­ing aplenty.

Have a good weekend.

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Your Helmet Is Not A Cowboy Hat

by Mark Ferguson

Whilst we’re harp­ing on about hel­mets, this is a poignant reminder that you’re rep­res­ent­ing all cyc­lists whilst on the road, so keep the fore­head tan­ning for the beach. I see a lot of new­bies sling­ing their hel­met on their head like it’s excess bag­gage. Appart from it’s safety bene­fits, lets look at a few ways to […]

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Bunnings Is Not A Bike Shop!

by Mark Ferguson

It’s come to my atten­tion that there’s an increas­ing num­ber of cyc­lists, who are try­ing to look like big­ger dick­heads than they already look. As if the over­sized jer­seys, hel­mets on side­ways, sunglasses fit for life on the sun aren’t bad enough — could it get any worse? The answer is YES! Swoop­ing killer, psy­cho mag­pies or not, this […]

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