The Challenge : COUNTDOWN
  
The Final Challenge Preparations.
Have there been ANY preparations?!? ...read on to find out

Greetings

You are receiving this info if :-
-you are a financial sponsor for either
....Peter Buckingham
....Phil Irvine
....Alistair Murray
....Warren Slater, or
....Clive Vernon
-you are part of the bayside bandits support team
-you are a member of their immediate family
-you are a very close friend of a friend who has heard of them
-you met them recently at a pub or a nightclub
-one of them owes you money and has offered this 'information' in exchange
-i have misspelt someone elses email address
-you are a special agent who has detected the word 'tali ban' in this email

...in the case of all of the above...welcome to the challenge, the show that never stops.....
For 9 days you will be totally enthralled as the Porsche Bandits travel from Melbourne to Sydney on their treddlies.

If you are not feeling at all enthralled...and i am starting to annoy you ...kindly reply (immediately) to
bbchallenge2001@yahoo.com.au
and i shall have your email address removed from the distribution list

If, after reading this, you have the buzz, and you are still in need of excitement, kindly go to
www.baysidebandidos.com
and, i assure you, you will be titivated even further
if not, go there anyway, i want a lot of page hits, and you can help
...click for the bandits !!!

Moving on, and assuming you are cognisant of the reasons for this ride (if not, our hungry web site above waits to enlighten you), let me regail you with the final pre implementation details of our 1200 kms ride.

THE DAYS AGENDA
Firstly, being such a competitive bunch (we never train, we only race) we are starting at 7:30 Saturday 13 OCTOBER from Reserve Rd, Beaumaris and riding the 30 kays to the start. (1150 km isn't quite far enough so we are riding the 30km to the start!). The Porsche Boxster will be there to escort us. We are all riding up to Porsche headquarters in Collingwood for a bit of a send off. This will be punctuated by packing down some muggachinos and muffins (a few extra kilojoules for the tubochargers).

Then we off to the Exhibition Buildings for the official start, then to Yea with the 100 cyclists doing the challenge. There will be an extra 10 Bandits for the morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea package.

Hence in addition to the 5 of us doing the ride, it would seem that we will have a total of between 15 and 20 Bandits doing the ride to Yea. Which will be great.

..So that should be how the first day plays out.

How about some training and preparation information leading up to Saterday? Remember you are dealing with experts here ....

PETER B
Peter has sent me a detailed email on all the modifications he has made to his Porsche Bike R. Its pretty technical (and I studied engineering! ) In summary PB's bike has the water carrying capacity of a large Hairy Dromedary Camel (how apt), enough flashing lights to alert a spy satellite, and enough padding on his handle bars for them to double up as air bags. Hope i didnt exaggerate Pete. Oh yes, and he's carrying a back pack for 'bits and pieces' ( a derailleur here, a spare headset there, etc etc)

PHIL I
Phil being a lively competitor has taken up PBs challenge, and i shall quote him "i've got the whole hog....i've welded this old cast iron sink i've had lying around the place onto the handle bars"
So things are looking good, no problems with equipment shortages

CLIVE V
As in previous despatches (refer our web site for intelligence [but nothing on that tali ban word] ) Clive is definitely the dark horse. Has there been secret training in the Dandenongs? How much hammering has been going on at those Spin Sessions at the Uni? Has he actually got onto a spin machine? All I have been able to find from the man who signs off as 'C' are curt one liners. Such as 'OK', 'See you Saterday', 'How do I carry my bag?' ...So many questions unanswered....

ALISTAIR
Alistair is really in full stride. We've become almost accustomed to his business trip training in bars and sailing convention centres. And I think it was starting to tell. A few sentences here and there like "Jeez its getting hard to beat you guys in the sprints" etc ...Not big clues, but traces of uncertainty. The need for a new plan...

We are now seeing a new approach from "El Presidente". I call it "Kamakazi Training" .. a sort of crash, crash through , and then crash anyway approach. I should mention that EP has the highest hit rate of anyone on a bike. He has perfected the art of trying to smash his brains out on every opportunity. Who knows what he might have been had he not taken up cycling. A pretty good league player thats for sure.

Anyway El Pres has pushed the envelope again by somehow managing (whilst riding with his daughter Eleanor) to fall off his other daughter Claires bike (poor man, cant even identify his own gear any more).

At a mere 10km/h El Pres suceeded in rending a 15 stitch gash in his jaw and dislocating 3 fingers. Shaving has become impossible He now looks (Glen Lazarus style) like the Kiwi Fruit with Eyes.

I have observed that his damaged bananas (you cant call them fingers any more) are on his left hand. And are non operational.... For those who ride, that means that EP will be unable to engage the low gears and the rear brake. That means more entertainment from our beloved El Pres going both up AND down the hills.

Stay tuned for more more news from the soon to be Bionic Man

WAZZA

Well not much news from the Web Master and Destroyer of Wheelie Bins. . Im still trying to figure out how to pack my bag and get it all to the start. Its either get a 4 wheel suitcase to tow behind the bike or hire a project manager to do my organising for me.

I will report that I have washed the bike and polished the chain for my preparations.

I will also reveal right here and now my SECRET TRAINING ( I can see my Bandit colleagues pulling out pencils or pulling that mouse cursor up to the cut and paste toolbar)

Yes folks, its new and yet to be perfected by any sports coach.... I call it "Real Time Training". Perfected from the Alberto (La Bomba) Tomba school of last minute preparation. In brief it involves initial training of carbo overloading and then getting fit whilst actually performing the event.

Carbo phase has been implemented and signed off. All choc brownies and peanut butter reserves have been wiped out. The birthday toffees are history. The Mars Bars are past tense. And those yummy sugar coated gingers has passed thru and away.

So on Saterday ( the now no longer secret) real time training starts. Look out Lance Armstrong !!


THATS ALL FOR NOW FOLKS....
See you all on the WEB or via the next email

Aloha , Tallyban me Banana
Click on the images below…

Image Thumbnails - click on the image to enlarge

  
   
Bandits at rest Bandits at play