The best bike computer that you can't buy...!

Cycling computers have evolved over the last 10 years. Remember when you had to have a wire running from the sensor on your fork up the the handlebar mounted unit that displayed speed and distance, and that was it. The big breakthrough came with wireless units - I remember my Cateye Cordless 7 being the envy of the day! Then Polar came along and suddenly you could have heart rate, and even altitude on your computer. In my opinion, and in the opinion of no less a blogging authority than the Fat Cyclist, the best bike computer currently available is the Garmin Edge 500, which adds GPS. However, at about R2,400 (or $250 in the States), this is an expensive bit of kit.
Now, if you ask any cyclist to turn out his pockets at the end of a ride, in amongst an assortment of keys, mini-tools and sticky energy bar wrappers, you'll always find a cell phone. And most top-end phones include GPS, so why should we have to pay twice for it? There are numerous apps available for Android, iOS and Symbian phones designed for runners and cyclists, and most of them have a free version. Most rides I go on I track with my phone - I love being able to sit at my computer and see my exact route, speed at each km point, altitude etc.
The problem is, most modern smartphones are a bit big to strap to your handlebars, and their screens are notoriously difficult to read in direct sunlight.

And then I saw the Sony LiveView micro display, and the answer was revealed to me! This is a tiny, Bluetooth connected device that gives a status linked to your phone, letting you control your music or see your Facebook updates. It's so small it can even be worn as a watch! Unfortunately, with only a 1.3" display the LiveView would be a bit small, and with an LED display would almost definitely have the same problems in sunlight as a fully fledged smartphone. The ideal bike computer would have an LCD display similar in size to the Garmin Edge 500 above, but the unit would link via bluetooth to your smartphone which would be doing all the heavy lifting! Even with it's expensive OLED display the LiveView is retailing for only $100, so I figure with a cheaper but slightly larger LCD screen, my device needn't cost any more than that! Any takers?


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Track your Daily Mileage with dailymile.com

I recently discovered a new on-line training log called dailymile, and it's a really great site whether you're a cyclist, runner, walker or swimmer. I have decided to use this to help motivate me as I try to resume my training regime.

What sets dailymile apart from other such sites, is it's social networking aspect. After entering your data from your training, you get the option to share it, with comments, on either Twitter or Facebook, or both. You can also add friends from within dailymile, and track your mileage against their's.

Your training history can be displayed graphically, and the charts have a great, clean look. Another useful feature is being able to plot your routes using Google Maps - I really like that it gives a distance reading, so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into! Other features are to add races and challenges, but I haven't quite got to grips with those yet. What I did like is the widget that you can add to a blog - check it out in the sidebar!

Lastly, there is a fun aspect too, based on the theoretical calories burned during your training. After only 2 days I've already burned the equivalent of 11.42 donuts! Now that's great motivation!

Thanks for reading!

Nokia N79 with Sports Tracker

I recently blogged about the brilliant Sports Tracker program available in Nokia Beta Labs. Running on my 5800 XM phone, I was very impressed with this program, although it lacked some features that would make it a potential replacement for my regular Polar CS200 cycling computer. The most obvious of these is the lack of a heart rate monitor (HRM).

Shortly thereafter I was contacted by Nokia SA to see if I would like to trial the N79, which has a unique HRM belt designed in conjunction with Polar, specifically for this phone. I jumped at the chance.

In this post I will concentrate on the Sports Tracker application running on the N79, and not on the phone itself. Needless to say, as an N Series phone, the build quality is great, and the compact package includes such features as changeable Xpress-on™ smart covers, a 5 megapixel camera and integrated A-GPS. Pretty good considering the phone was released in August ’08.

I received the phone pre-loaded with version 2.06 of Sports Tracker. I was a bit thrown at first, but eventually figured out that there is no physical button to access the menu, and instead you press the area between the buttons to the left of the D-pad. This allowed me into the applications, and the Sports tracker application itself. Scrolling down to Settings, I was able to access the setup wizard for the HRM. The phone uses Bluetooth to connect to the HRM Belt, and it quickly paired itself to the belt.

Then it was simply a case of selecting the workout mode, waiting for the GPS to connect, and I was away. In the box, along with the phone and the HRM belt, was a handy pouch to allow the phone to be carried strapped to your upper arm. This position also allows one to easily attach a pair of headphones so you can listen to your favourite tunes while exercising. However, I did not really like this position while cycling, which was a pity. A handlebar mounting would have been better.

On the go, there are a number of real time outputs you can watch while you train. These include various options for speed, altitude, time and distance, as well as the all important heart rate. There are also graphs for HR/speed/altitude vs time, as well as the time spent in each of 3 HR zones calculated by the program based on age and gender. These can also be manually adjusted if you have specific zones you want to target. As with the version of Sports Tracker I have been running on my 5800, there is also a live mapping feature, and you have the option to allow the program to download the necessary maps, or just to let it run on a plain background.

At the completion of your training session, you then have the option to upload your training session to the Sports Tracker web site, where you have the option to share it with friends. On the website, the map of your route is shown courtesy of Google Maps. One of my favourite features is that any photos taken along the route are shown on the map, along with what music you were playing!

I really love this program, and it’s made even better with the addition of the HRM features available with the N97. However, there have been several rumours on the web that Nokia is going to discontinue Sports Tracker. In actual fact, Nokia is not killing Sports Tracker, but giving it some wings. Towards the end of 2009 they will be migrating it to Sports Tracking Technologies, a company founded by the creators of Sports Trackers (Ykä Huhtala and Jussi Kaasinen). I only hope that they will continue to develop the program, and keep it free to users.

Many thanks to Lauren for arranging the loan phone.

Thanks for reading.

Mountain Bikes, the Hill2Hill, and Why I Love My Nokia 5800

Yesterday, Sunday 20 September, was the annual Sunday Tribune/Jeep Hill2Hill Mountain Bike Race. The full 100km race is from Hilton, in the KZN midlands to Hillcrest, outside Durban, but for the slightly less fit there is a 43km option starting at Cato Ridge and running the same route through to the finish.

I volunteered to second for my brother on the 43km race, as my own preparation for the race had been hampered by a recent bout of flu. The start at Cato Ridge Golf Club was a chilly 9°C, even at 6:50am when my brother’s group got underway.

OK, so what has this to do with my Nokia 5800? Well, as I prepared to set off to the first spectator point in an area I was unfamiliar with, I activated Garmin Mobile XT application on my phone, which offers full SatNav and turn by turn instructions to keep me on track. I must say that ever since I first experienced SatNav in Japan in 2001, I love the freedom to explore without having to worry about getting lost.

Despite the shortcomings of Nokia Music, the 5800 is a great MP3 player, and connecting it to the car’s sound system allowed me to access all my favourite music from the 8GB memory card, and play it in seamlessly in the background, while still operating the Garmin XT system.

On arrival at the first spectator point I quickly opened Google Latitude’s fantastic S60 application, and was able to easily find my brother’s location in relation to my own, and time his arrival with precision. Great assistance when there were nearly 1,500 entrants streaming past.

While I was waiting, I opened my Twitter account via Snaptu, and was able to send off a couple of Tweets. That’s 4 different applications open simultaneously, and the ability to easily switch between them. Try doing that on an iPhone!

Back to the race. While waiting at the finish for my brother to arrive, the leader of the 100km race, DCM Chrome’s Brandon Stewart, entered the finish arena and took the win in a record time of 3:53, nearly 5 minutes ahead of 2^nd place man Ben Melt Swanepoel. An incredible effort, with the winner averaging over 25km/h over some incredibly tough terrain and with over 1,900m of climbing.

My brother came in at a very respectable 3:23 a few minutes later; a great performance for his first competitive MTB race. Next year I hope I’ll be there too.

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Nokia Sports Tracker

One of the best apps I have downloaded since acquiring my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia Sports Tracker (NST). A Nokia GPS enabled phone is a requirement, and while currently Nokia don't officially support the 5800, Version 2.05 works perfectly on my phone.

After some basic setting up, and entering your NST account details, you choose your activity (walking, running, cycling, skiing and other), wait for the phone to find satellite connections, and then hit start. Touch screen is supported. On the phone screen you'll see your activity time, pace and distance covered. It's not the best UI I've ever seen, but the numbers are big and clear enough. Admittedly, the 5800 screen is hopeless in direct sunlight.

If selected in the options, the block in the top left can incorporate a map, but obviously this will mean using a fair amount of data. On conclusion of your activity, you have the option to upload your workout to the net. After logging in to Sports Tracker, you will see the dashboard, which looks something like this:

The routes taken on all your workouts are colour-coded, and shown on the map beside the summary. Selecting one of the workouts presents you with more detail:

The map, courtesy of Google Maps, is now zoomed in to show your route in detail, with your points of highest and lowest altitude, as well as fastest and lowest speeds indicated. As usual with Google Maps, you can switch between map and satellite modes.

To the right of the map is the profile, showing speed and altitude against time. As you can see, heart rate is also accomodated for owners of the Nokia N79 Active, which comes bundled with a Polar Bluetooth chest strap. To my knowledge these are not available separately, which is a great pity, and a huge oversight.

One of the best features of NST is the ability to upload any photographs taken along your route. The location of each photo is indicated on the map by the camera icon, and clicking it opens a larger view. A great addition!

There is also a nice social aspect to the program, and you can choose to share your workouts with friends, create groups, comment on other people's workouts, and so on.

I'm still pretty new to the service, so there are many features that I haven't touched on here. I already have a very comprehensive cycling computer/heart rate monitor, but it'll be really great to record some of my regular routes to share with friends, and I have already started a group for my local cycling club.

Of some concern, unfortunately, are comments from TheGuru over at symbian-guru.com, that Nokia have lost interest in the service. This would be very disappointing - to my knowledge Apple don't offer anything like this for the iPhone! You can read his blog here.

Thanks for reading.

2009 Tour de France Review

Photo credit ©Sirotti

The 2009 Tour de France came to an end yesterday with Mark Cavendish taking his 6th stage win on on a packed Champs-Élysées in Paris, and Alberto Contador taking the top top step on the podium with a well deserved victory overall.

Photo credit ©Sirotti

For me, however, the last week of the Tour was an anti-climax. All the ingredients for an exciting showdown in Alps were there, but unfortunately the team tactics, and the supreme power, of the Astana Team prevented this from happening.

The gentleman's agreement that exists between cyclists prevented 7 times winner, Lance Armstrong, from showing his potential in the high mountains. Could he have attacked Contador and claimed victory for himself? We'll never know. Contador proved himself a worthy winner though, and even more than his seemingly effortless marking of any attacks on the big climbs, his victory in the final Individual Time Trial showed that he was a worthy winner of the this year's Tour.

Photo credit ©Sirotti

In second place overall, Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank showed his form in the mountains, and was the only rider to remotely challenge the dominance of Contador. Contador was up to the task though, but Andy has many years left in the sport, and I have no doubt he'll claim the top step in the coming years.

Photo credit ©Bettini

Third, of course, was Lance Armstrong. Some people thought Lance would win his 8th Tour this year, others wrote him off due to his age. Armstrong proved his detractors wrong, and despite some serious conflict in the Astana camp following the stage into Andorra, where Contador disobeyed team orders and attacked on the final climb, he adopted the supporting role to Contador, and undoubtedly assisted the Spaniard to his victory.

Photo credit ©Sirotti

Normally, I wouldn't comment on 4th place, but Bradley Wiggins of Garmin - Slipstream deserves a mention. A former track star, and multiple Olympic Gold Medal winner, Wiggins was, for me, the revelation of the Tour. His ability in the mountains was totally unexpected, and I would not be surprised if he were to improve on this position in the years to come.

And so, while we reflect on the last 3 weeks, I can't help looking forward to 2010.

Lance Armstrong has announced he is forming a new team with sponsorship from RadioShack, and probably with his mentor, Johan Bruyneel, at the helm. I have no doubt Armstrong will be the undisputed leader of the new team, which is as it should be. There is only room for 1 leader in a team. At 35, can Armstrong make a bid for win number 8? Contador and Schleck will have other ideas, but Lance will be better prepared after a full year training and racing; I'm looking forward to it already!

Thanks for reading.

Tour de France Entry List

The 2009 version of the Tour de France is underway, and after the first 2 stages it looks set to be one of the best races in a while.

I prepared a crib sheet of all the riders and teams, which you can download here.

Paris - Nice Stage 8

You had to feel sorry for Alberto Contador: after an absolutely disastrous Stage 7, where he bonked with about 7 km to go, he made an incredibly brave, but ultimately futile, attack on the yellow jersey in Stage 8. At the finish, Antonio Colom of Katusha outsprinted Contador for the stage win, but more importantly, Luis Leon Sanchez came in only 17 seconds later to ensure his overall win.

Sanchez, and his Caisse d'Epargne Team, did a fantastic job of controlling the race, and never allowed the break to get more than 2 minutes ahead. This was, in my opinion, one of the best Paris - Nice races we've seen in some time, full of attacks, tactical riding and a leadership changing almost daily.

Final general classification

1 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne         30.53.51

2 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank                      1.00

3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step                          1.09

4 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                               1.24

5 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha                         1.47

6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank                            1.59

7 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step                          2.29

8 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Skil-Shimano                          2.57

9 Yury Trofimov (Rus) BBox Bouygues Telecom             3.37

10 Mevel Christophe Le (Fra) Française Des Jeux          4.00

 It was not to be for Contador and his much vaunted Astana Team, and I'm sure that not making the podium will not sit well with the team, but for Alberto this is still early in the season; his target this year is the Tour de France. I was a little surprised how easily he was isolated from his team, but I'm sure he will have a stronger, more focussed team around him come July. And I'm sure we will see that in action in 2 months time at the Giro, where Lance Armstrong will have the job of defending Contador's 2008 victory, and there's no-one in the sport better at motivating a team to work for it's lead rider than the 7-times Tour de France winner.

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Paris - Nice Stages 5 - 7

Stage 5

Young Jérémy Roy of Française Des Jeux des Jeux took his first professional win in a stage that was well controlled by Sylvain Chavanel's Quick Step Team; no change to the top of the leaderboard.

Stage 6

Alberto Contador (Astana) at last showed the kind of form that won him the Tour de France in 2007. 5km from the top of the climb to the difficult mountain top finish he attacked his remaining companions, Luis León Sánchez and Fränk Schleck, and took nearly a minute off them before the finish. Chavanel lost almost two minutes, and Contador took the yellow jersey back in an emphatic show of his climbing prowess.

Stage 7

Luis León Sánchez (Caisse d'Epargne) attacked with 20km to go, and soon opened a gap of 25 seconds. Contador was left to do much of the chasing alone, and found him isolated from his team and he chased hard with Colom, Sánchez  and Schleck in tow. Sánchez rode hard and managed to open the gap on his chasers to over 50 seconds when Colom attacked, with leass than 5km to go. Sánchez and Schleck followed, but Contador was left stranded; the long chase have depleted his energy levels. It was a sad sight to see the yellow jersey being caught and left for dead by the peleton up the final drag to the finish, but I'm sure Sánchez was revelling in his compatriot's misfortune, as he finished 50 seconds clear of the Colom and Schleck, and took an incredible 2:53 out of the yellow jersey. Contador was visibly distressed after he crossed the line and was quickly attended to by his team soigneur.

With only stage 8 to go, it looks like Sánchez's race to lose, but with another tough day and 3 more Cat-1 climbs to go, the strain of today's solo effort might come back to bite!

General classification after stage 7

1 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne             28.05.45

2 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step                             1.09

3 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank                         1.21

4 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                                 1.50

5 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank                              1.59

6 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha                           2.16

7 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step                            2.29

8 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Skil-Shimano                            2.57

9 Yury Trofimov (Rus) BBox Bouygues Telecom               3.37

10 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française Des Jeux            4.00

Paris - Nice Stage 4

Christian Vande Velde (Garmin - Slipstream) attacked the break with 20km to go, and soloed to a well deserved win in Stage 4 from Vichy - Saint-Étienne. Alberto Contador attacked Sylvain Chavanel, the yellow jersey holder, on the final climb of the day, and quickly opened up a gap which he held on to to the finish. This brings Contador back to within 0:36 of Chavenel, who now only has 0:06 over Rabobank's Juan Manuel Garate.

Stage 5 includes a Cat-1 climb, as well as 3 Cat-2 climbs, so expect more attacks from Contador, and more changes to the leaderboard.

This is turning out to be a very interesting race indeed!

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Paris - Nice Stage 3

Wow, did I ever get it wrong yesterday. After the peleton managed to chase down the early break another split occurred, and this time Alberto Contador was on the wrong side of it. It eventually came down to a 7-man dash for the line, and Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step took the win in a group that included 3 Rabobank riders. The gap back to Contador's group was 1:09, dropping him back to 6th overall, with Sylvain Chavanel taking over the yellow jersey.

Another day of rolling hills in Stage 4, with 6 Cat-3 climbs, so expect more of the same, and another leaderboard shuffle if Quick Step don't control the race.

General classification after stage 3

1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step                9.29.24

2 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank                 0.33

3 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank                 0.36

4 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step                   0.37

5 Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) Silence-Lotto                 0.40

6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                        1.03

7 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne         1.12

8 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis                            1.14

9 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream                1.17

10 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha                 1.22

Thanks for reading.

Paris - Nice Stage 2

The second stage from Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire to La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin ended in a bunch sprint, and it was Cervélo's Heinrich Haussler who got it right on the day, and took his 3rd win of the season.

Alberto Contador had a bit of a scare when there was a crash immediately in front of him. Luckily for him he managed to avoid it, and as it occurred within the final 3km, he was penalised on time.

The leaderboard remains much the same, and with three cat-3 climbs tomorrow it is likely to be another bunch sprint, so expect Contador to remain in the yellow jersey.

General classification after stage 2

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                           4.56.06

2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream             0.07

3 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne            0.09

4 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad          0.11

5 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream                    0.14

6 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank                          0.18

7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step                        0.19

8 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha

9 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam              0.20

10 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha                   0.21

Tour of California Stage 8

Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) might have won the stage, but the day belonged to overall winner, Levi Leipheimer, who has now won this race 3 years in a row. Levi finished 40 seconds back, in the group that contained his main challengers, Dave Zabriskie (2nd on GC) and Micheal Rodgers (3rd on GC), as well as all the big names in this year's race.

Lance Armstrong finished 7th overall, but appeared happy with his form. Floyd Landis, the only other man to have won this race before, finished back in 23rd place overall, but had recovered well after his pre-race training accident.
The Tour of California is now 4 years old, and continues to grow from strength to strength. This year's race had the best start list to date, and also enjoyed the best support from the public. I'm already looking forward to the next edition.


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Tour of California Stage 7

Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R) put one over a very elite break, including the likes of Fränk Schleck and George Hincapie, to take the win at the end of Stage 7 in Pasadena. It was the first showing from AG2R in this year's ToC, but he and his teammate, Martin Elmiger, were very animated in the final circuits leading up to the finish.

Overall, Levi Leipheimer holds onto his 0:36 lead over Dave Zabriskie, with only one stage to go, albeit possibly the toughest stage of the race.

Tour of California Stage 6

Levi Leipheimer (Astana) was awesome in Solvang, beating the US time trial champion (David Zabriskie of Garmin-Slipstream) by 0:08, and securing his overall lead in the race.

Levi's teammate, Lance Armstrong, only managed 14th best time, and drops to 6th overall. However, I believe this is an indication of how hard Lance has been working at the front of the peleton for the last 5 days, helping secure Levi's yellow jersey. A super domestique if ever there was one.

Another interesting result was big George Hincapie (Team Columbia-Highroad), who had the 6th fastest time. Although he's down in 21st place overall, his form is coming on nicely ahead of his Spring Classic campaign. I'll certainly be routing for George on 12 April at Paris-Roubaix. He come so close so many times - wouldn't it be great for George to finally win it?

Going into the final 2 climber's stages this weekend, I am confident Levi has the legs to hang on to his lead all the way to the finish in Escondido on Sunday.

General classification after stage 6
 1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana                             24.12.00
2 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream                   0.36
3 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad           0.46
4 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank                              1.10
5 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia - Highroad        1.29
6 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana                                 1.46
7 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                                   1.54
8 Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana                                     1.59
9 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana                                2.13
10 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Rock Racing                       2.15

Thanks for reading.