Specialized Prevail RRP$299.oo

Cadel Evans wins the overall title at the Tour de Romandie in one of his lead up races for the TDF. After an injury layoff he looks to be back in good form. Get some early nights as I think July is going to get very exciting….

Just to let our loyal customers know we will be open to 7pm tomorrow due to the Royal Wedding.
Yes we will be back here again 10am Saturday as long as the reception do’snt last to long.

We will be open on Easter Saturday from 10am to 4 pm
Thursday 21st 9.30am to 6pm
Easter Friday 22nd CLOSED
Saturday 23rd 10am to 4pm
Sunday 24th CLOSED
Monday 25th CLOSED
Anzac Day Tuesday 26th CLOSED
Wednesday 27th 9.30am to 6 pm.

Happy at the finish

Topgear’s own Tim Devlin took on his toughest race ever today by completing the M2M adventure race. The event consisted of a 19km run from Marysville , then 90km ride from the Dom Dom Saddle via Kinglake to Eltham. Then the athletes traded bike for running shoes for another 15km along the beautiful Yarra Trails. Finishing up the run at Ivanhoe then hoping into the kayak for over 30km into Docklands via the Yarra river. A fantastic course for athletes to push themselves to the limit. Also a tough day for helpers and Supporters as we juggled getting to the different transition points with Kayaks and bikes on board. Well done to Topgear Cycles sponsored athlete Alex who finish up near the pointy end of the field [ results and race report to follow]. Great result for every one who got to the finish line today……

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With so many Cycling events on in the last few months , we thought we would put some of our experiences down  to get you inspired to take on your next challenge. With lots of riders commenting this week about the Otway ride last weekend as an absolute must do ride for next year. With a few distances offered and some great roads to ride on hopefully you can tick this one of next year. Well done to all those who have tackled events like , The 3 Peaks, Otway Ride,  Amy’s ride, Mt Buller Challenge . With more and more events being offered  all year round , there is no excuses not to get out there.

Katie riding at Mt Buller race

Monday, March 28, 2011

Terra Australis 2011 – Day One

No more training to be done, Sunday 20th March dawned and we were on the start line for Terra Australis 2011, at Windy Corner, Falls Creek. The next seven days held the epitome of mountain bike stage racing in Australia.

A tour of the Falls Creek village took us along the aqueduct, on a climb out to Mt Mckay then descending to the bitumen for a roll toward the first feed station. What stood before us throughout the 65km stage was about to get a whole lot tougher with a climb toward Mt Nelse. Holding a rhythm across the rough access tracks was a challenge with the course peppered with various sized rocks and sections of the vehicle track rutts deep enough to interfere with the pedal downstroke.

We soon crested the highest point of the Terra course that pointed us down the rarely used and minimally maintained track covered in tree debris, rocks of all sizes and all concealed by grasses and bracken. It was a switchbacked road with straights between the bends that were long enough to let the brakes go while the eyes scanned for any rocks, potholes or branches as the speeds crept to the 40km/h mark. We reached the fast flowing Big River with bikes in tact and fore arms burning from the rough, fast descent. A short climb to a clearing used as a helipad preceded the second step of the gnarly road down to Bogong Creek. Sections allowed some faster speeds but the terrain became a lot more loose and commanded a greater respect. At one spot we stopped to check on the well being of a fellow entrant that had succumbed to the obstacles littering the trail. The creek was lined with rounded river rocks, as was the following 50 metres of road, the rocks wet from the overflowing creek throwing a slippery mix into the bag.

It was not much further to descend to the welcomed second feed station before another 8 or 9 km of BIg River Fire Trail taking us to the Bogong High Plains Road. We were able to hold a good pace and rhythm along the bitumen picking up another team then leading them into the second last single track section for the day. Using the single track to our advantage we opened a bigger gap to cross the bitumen one last time and hit the single track that would take us to the stage finish line in 3 hours 35 minutes.

Terra Australis 2011 – Day Two

The brief for Day 2 was a stage starting at 1550m and ending at about the same elevation – so, virtually flat… The profile certainly suggested otherwise.

As with Day One, we started in Falls Creek at Windy Corner, except this time we headed directly for the Rocky Valley Dam and on to the Alpine National Park retracing 3km of the previous days tracks, then breaking (more…)

Hi everyone,

With summer behind us now, it can only mean one thing for me, it’s race time! Although the weather has been lousy to say the least this year, my training has been going really well. I’ve worked through a couple little niggles, and had some good results in lead up races for the duathlon season. The first duathlon of the year for me was the Asian Duathlon Championships, held in far north Thailand in the rural town of Chiang Saen, right near the ‘Golden Triangle’.

I always love racing in Thailand, personally I find the weather beautiful (except maybe on the second run when the sun has a bit of sting to it!), the food is amazing and even more amazingly cheap, and the people, particularly in the rural areas, are just super friendly. Don’t even get me started on the $5 hour long thai massage, I generally have one a day for the length of the trip!

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Specialized bikes are launching their new road bike this weekend at the Milan San Remo road race. Hopes are high that Mark Cavendish can push for the win on his new Venge. The bike which has been in the pipe works for some years has had unprecedented coverage thanks to the power of the company with the “Big S” logo. Specialized not only know how to build the best bike in the world [yes 1st and 2nd at last years Tour de France] but they know how to build up the hype for a new product. Look out over this weekend on cycling websites ,or for now see this micro site for more details http://www.venge.specialized.com

Check out our great new shop frontage. It was time for a face-lift and we are rapped with the finished product.
With whats been a busy summer of cycling events we continue to get involved with supporting riders of all abilities achieve their cycling goals.
This week see’s Pete, Bryce ,Greg and Ben take on the huge challenge of the Terra Australis MTB event up at Falls creek. 7 days of climbing mountains
from Falls Creek to Mt Beauty, Beechworth, Dinner Plain and Bright. over 550km and 15,000m of climbing. Check out this site for race updates. http://www.terraaustralismtbepic.com/

This week Tim , Peter and Celine celebrated working 10 years together at Topgear. Still having fun fixing and selling bikes. Thanks to all those who have supported us over the last decade.

Happy Ridding