Anyway, first a note about my username. I have to thank my stage partner, Rana, for that. She wrote to me a while ago, and also I believe to the race organiser, expressing her ‘fears about how lions go for the slow gazelles that can’t keep up with the pack’. I chose my username to show solidarity: if we’re to be eaten, we’ll be a two-course dinner rather than a lonely entrée.

My training didn’t really get off to a good start as I took a month off work to holiday with the family in Queensland and didn’t take my bike, which is the longest I’ve been off my bike since I broke my wrist last year. However, I did take the opportunity to give up smoking. How great it feels to finally get that monkey off my back! And now that I’m riding again, I have to say it does make quite a difference. Why did I wait so long?

I’m counting on my regular, rain-or-shine 200km weekly commute to give me a reasonable base level of fitness, but last week I stepped things up a notch. With three kids, I always knew it would be hard making time to train, so got up and out of the house before anyone else was stirring. The Sunday before Australia Day (25 January), I decided to jump on my bike at dawn and head east. I am lucky enough to live in the eastern suburbs and within minutes I’m in a beautiful rural environment, even when on the main roads. I headed straight down Bulleen Rdand was soon wondering whether I’d bitten off more than I could chew as I surveyed the viciously dipping hills stretching out in front of me. I suddenly remembered Quentin telling me he’d hit a top speed of 80km on this stretch of road. I made the most of the downhills and laboured the uphills for about 20km, all the way to Warrandyte. I’d never been there before and was surprised how Country Victoria this old gold-mining town felt. It took me about 5km and half an hour to find the Yarra River track, which I took all the way home, about 27km. This was (obviously) much flatter, but mostly gravel, which was also good practice on my relatively new touring bike.

For those who don’t know, I have to pass on a remarkable coincidence. I managed to trash my old Cannondale F1000 MTB last year when it fell off the back of my car as I was travelling at 110km/h down the Calder Fwy. Although this was initially a great blow – we’d been together a long time and travelled more than 50,00km together – Luckily I was fully insured, new-for-old, and I was soon salivating at the racks of bikes in Brunswick Street Cycles! I ended up buying a Cannondale Touring Classic, mostly as a solid commuter, but also on the off-chance I’d be selected for the Tour. As it turns out I was selected and the amazing coincidence is that, as a design feature, a map of Kenya is printed on the frame of the bike! So if I get lost, all I have to do is check out the map on my bike.

Back to the training log… When I got home, my 11-year-old son was upset that I hadn’t woken him up to take him along, so I promised that he and I would do a ride together on Australia Day. Which we did: east on the Koonung Trail to Eastlink and back, a total of only 30km since this was Griffin’s first ride in a while.

Next day was my first working day and I had decided to add a couple of loops of Kew Boulevard in on my way in. This is a really popular hill rider’s training run – not for the Lycra and latte Beach Rd crowd, with their expensive bikes and middle-aged spreads (nothing wrong with making utterly dismissive generalisations, eh?). It’s an undulating 13km round-trip and I did it twice on the way into work on the first day of the heatwave (40°C+). Luckily I started early and completed the 50km ride before 9am, by which time the temperature had reached only about 30°C. With the regular 20km ride home, that made it a 70km day all-told. Tuesday and Thursday were the regular 40km ride; on the 45°C Wednesday I couldn’t turn down the very unusual offer of the car! To make up I threw in one loop of the Boulevard on Friday. Saturday was a rest day and Sunday I rode to Watsonia and back with Griffin (about 25km).

First week total: 310km.

Second week (last week) I took it a bit easier: three days regular commute; one day an extra loop of Kew Blvd; one day two loops of Kew Blvd. Total: 250km. Feeling good at this stage, but anxious to do some more challenging road surfaces since our leg apparently has the worst roads on the Tour.

Martin ‘Don’t eat me first’ Heng