Continuing with the overdue ride reports, this ride report is about a Melbourne Cup public holiday ride to Mordialloc and back.
The day dawned sunny, clear and warm. Heading down to the meeting point in St Kilda and the roads were extra quiet except for all the early morning race goers at Flinders Street station headed for Flemington in their finery. Polkadotlisa and I had a good chuckle at all the cashed up bogans (CUBs) dressed on in wanky suits with their collars up and tool-worthy shoes and sunglasses on. I weep for the future!
At the meet point the group all arrived promptly except for the rider organiser- Jane (vicjane). One rider I had never met before was an older guy John (fixie on the BV forum). He was on a MBC R1 bike that he had just recently picked up and Matt (commi) was green with envy (Matt was STILL waiting to get his bike). John was a bit stiff and sore from a recent crash and wasn’t able to reach his back pockets, so I was a little worried about him right from the start. Eventually Jane turned up and we all set off towards Mordi.
We had a slight headwind so we rode at a manageable pace of around 26-28kph, but before we even got to Brighton, John had to pull out with his heart rate apparently skyrocketing! We were all a bit worried about him but he assured us he would be fine so we rode onwards as he turned back.
At one set of lights, a few riders pulled up behind us with a car load of partying louts yelling stupid crap at us all. As the riders rolled past us they commented that “their not with us” which was pretty funny. Just what is it with some people in cars wanting to yell things at cyclists who are not in the way or doing anything wrong? I just don’t understand it!
With the headwind giving us some resistance, Richard (RDK) and I took over the lead a bit before Hampton to give Jane and Marc a break from the wind. Richard and I pushed hard to keep the pace up with everyone giving a bit of a sprint into Black Rock.
As we left Black Rock, I called PDL up so she could take her turn on the front but combined with the effort to sprint, her lack of drinking while riding and the rolling hills around Rickets Point, PDL was struggling with the pace and she dropped off a bit. We all splintered up over the hills but with some hard work, we all regrouped into the final flat into Mordi.
The tradition rest stop was pretty quiet for a change with not as many riders assembled. So the usual pee, drink and chat were had and we all headed back towards St Kilda for breakfast.
The pace back was really on and everyone was splintered up fairly quickly over the hills. PDL was a bit ahead of me on the uphills but I was able to close back in on her without going into the red zone too much and we rode together from Black Rock all the way to St Kilda.
Along the way we passed a heap of riders, some looking far fitter and lighter than me, and on lighter, faster road bikes than my heavy flat bar. To say I was pleased was an understatement. It’s not that I want to beat other riders; it’s just the fact that I CAN beat other riders that makes me happy. It’s a measure of my improvement and that is the best reward I can think of.
Back in St Kilda and the rest of Melbourne was just starting to wake up. We took a table outside the usual post ride stop (the Grocery Bar in Fitzroy St) and had our usual eats and drinks. Yum!
PDL and I talked about doing a group ride up the 1:20 and everyone seemed keen about the idea which would later on turn out to be a really popular ride (see later post).
After breakfast we all split up and went our ways. As PDL and I rode down Brunswick St back towards home, we were both enjoying the ride so much we just wanted to roll on and on and on. However a BBQ that afternoon was beckoning so we finished with a good speedy 72km of early morning riding under our belts.
PS- Later that day there was a horse race. Some horse won with a tiny guy on its back, much cheep booze was drunk, many a cheap polyester frock was vomited on and the trashy had their moment in the sun. The sport of kings they say… classy!
Friday, November 23, 2007
The horses are on the track!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
By the time we got to Woodstock…
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration…
'Woodstock' by Crosby Stills Nash & Young
A few weeks ago on a drizzly Saturday morning of November the 3rd, three guys set off on a ride from Melbourne to Sydney in three days as part of a fund raiser called ‘Ride Like The Wind’ for the Starlight Foundation. With the route passing right by our door, we really had no excuse not to join the trio for a send off ride, so Polkadotlisa and I found ourselves rolling up and down the service road at 6am, waiting for the group to ride past.
The guys (and other entourage of fellow riders) suddenly arrived from around the corner right on time, so we took off up High Street with them. As we came up to the Westgarth Rd intersection, the group kept going straight rather then turning off towards St Georges Rd as per their predetermined route. This route diversion really isn’t a big deal, but it meant we now had to ride up the High St hill which for some reason I had always viewed as killer hill (yeah- this from a guy who has already ridden up Mt Dandenong twice- go figure?).
Fearing I would be totally dropped up the hill and knowing the guys were not going to wait around (fair enough, they had 900 odd kilometres to go), I really put in a big effort up the hill with no warm up to get the legs going and I was happy to find that although I was last up, I was well in sight of the group and was quickly back with them. Whew!
From High St we zigzagged to St Georges Rd and continued north. As we rode on, the drizzle started to fall on the quiet Saturday morning roads with only the sound of our breathing and chatting cutting through the silence. It was great!
The whole way north out of Melbourne was slightly uphill and with a pace around 28kph, I had to push hard to keep up. Somewhere around Epping, a group of the riders ahead found themselves running through a heap of broken glass on the road which resulted in one of them having a flat. With all the ‘Ride like the wind’ riders ok, we kept going, eager to help the guys keep to their schedule.
As we left the suburbs behind us and headed into the paddocks, the drizzle progressed into rain which meant the now country road caused muddy water to spray up from our wheels, leaving us not only wet but also dirty. Me- I loved it and was enjoying the whole experience, even though I was struggling to keep up the pace on the constant incline.
By the time we got to Woodstock (which was nothing more than a house and a roundabout), I said to PDL that I was done for the day and wanted to turn around. PDL also had to be home in time to go to work, so four of us (Marti, Dave, PDL and I) said goodbye and good luck to the group and headed back to the city. 
Now with the road all downhill slightly, we kept up a cracking pace in the low to mid 30’s. I looked down at my bars as we rode along and it was covered with watery grit while PDL’s lovely new wool jersey was left with a great big brown dirt streak down the back. Nobody wanted to ride close behind me due to my tyres throwing a huge water spray so I sat up the front and went progressively faster and faster until Dave yelled out to me to slow down as I was dropping everyone. Oops!
Back in the suburbs and while rolling up to a set of lights on a 3 lane road (with no traffic), Dave was ahead and had pulled up at the lights taking the whole left lane. A blue 4WD had pulled up right behind him. On the lights changing, rather than just pull around Dave, he sat right on his ass, revving his motor aggressively, so Dave ignored the 4WD and held his line (as he had every right to).
Around this time I arrived on the scene and pulled up on the left of the 4WD wondering why he was doing what he did. I moved up to get the drivers attention and waved for him to just go around Dave (2 totally traffic free lanes next to us remember). The driver ignored me so I yelled to him and again motioned for him to just go around. This time the driver started hurling abuse at me and started to drift over towards me. I yelled at the driver but he kept moving over on me so I thumped my fist on the side of his car to get his attention. Next thing I know, there is 2 tonnes of blue metal swerving towards me, forcing me right into the very depths of the gutter. I unclipped as I attempted not to fall and the 4WD sped off (wow- now he changes lanes – dick head).
In hindsight, thumping my fist against the guys car probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but I was trying tell him off for drifting over me.
With that scare over, we kept riding south towards Melbourne with a few sprint points raced for on some of the downhills just for kicks which were great fun! Eventually we arrived back at our apartment having done a swift 52km’s, wet, mud splattered, but happy.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Yes I know - I'm overdue for an update!
Before you all start pestering me to update my blog, I've been REALLY busy with work and I have been generally lacking in spare time. However I'm over the hump now so stay tuned for a complete update very soon. I promise!
Monday, November 5, 2007
It started as a dare…
Last weekend was the monthly BBC ride. However with the Around the Bay in a Day ride just the week before, many of the usual riders seemed to have backed off. Its funny but I only just realised that while I view cycling as a personal challenge and I really enjoy pushing myself every week, for most people cycling is actually just a fun activity and they are quite happy to have an easy ride. I have to remind myself that not everyone’s as driven as I am and that’s perfectly OK.
Anyway, the BBC ride this month was split up into two groups- the 7am fast ride to Mordi and back; and the usual 7.30am easy ride to Black Rock and back. Being the limits pushing guy I am (hehe), I went for the 7am ride. Polka Dot Lisa wasn’t able to make the ride this weekend due to her working at the Illustrators Festival so it was just me heading down to BBC for the start.
After a late start (damn the snooze button!) I hammered all the way down via Brunswick St, Collins St, St Kilda Rd. I think I averaged about 27kph which wasn’t bad at all, however I missed having PDL along to pace with. :(
The ride down to Mordi started as a fairly easy pace as far as I was concerned. Commi from BV (Matt) rode next to me and somewhere around the Hampton area I piped up and asked the guys up the front if we could “pick it up a bit”. Opps... BIG mistake! Andy, Stu and one or two others took off like a rocket and that was the last we saw of them. “Hey guys, I said a bit faster, not 10kph”! LOL
Into Black Rock I did my usual trick of pulling out and sprinted at the top of the hill, only this time everyone tried to follow. I really MUST time my sprint a bit later. 1km of sprinting is a bit too much and everyone streams past me at the end!
As we rolled through the hills around Ricketts Point we spread out a bit as usual but we all pretty much grouped back up as we rolled into Mordi for a quick stop. Apparently we were only a few mins later then the uber fast dudes which was nice to know. It was warming up into quite a warm day so I took off the arm warmers. Unfortunately 10 km later I had wished I had taken off the leg warmers as well. I’m still getting the dressing for the temperature thing dialed in at this stage.
The ride back we all spread out a bit. My legs were feeling the fast pace down and I dropped off the pace in the hills. Thankfully, jmcleod waited for me which I really appreciated and we rode all the way back just the two of us. Along the way I noticed that his rear wheel was very out of true which upon making it back to the BBC we discovered was a broken spoke and cracking all through the rear wheel. Yikes!
As the day was so nice and sunny, BBC had moved the breaky outside, however the usual buffet breakfast was replaced with cardboard trays filled with an assortment of food. No fruit salad (wow, a mandarin!), no cereal, no refills of juice. Not impressed seeing as most of the foods was not low fat. Grrrr…
Over breakfast I was working on Matt re a ride up the 1:20 that afternoon. The night before I casually mention if anyone would like to do the Kew Bouli after the BBC ride as I wanted to do some more hills work and Matt jokingly suggested I do the 1:20 ride again. Taking the dare, I said that I would if he joined me. Matt was a apprehensive about doing the 1:20 but I nagged him until he relented. Oh I’m such a bad influence, LOL!
After breakfast a group of us rode to Melbourne Bicycle Centre to get Matt a new tyre and jmcleod some new wheels. 15 mins later and jmcleod wheels his bike out with a killer set of Mavic wheels (very bling!) while Matt has a new tyre. I brought nothing! :( Back at Matts place we fit the tyre and then ride over to my place to load up for the drive out to Mt Dandenong.
The day was heating up into the high 20’s and we were both pretty hot by the time we got to Northcote. A couple of glasses of Poweraide and a cool down, then it was into the Renault and onto the freeway to attack the famed 1:20 ride!
Because it was so hot and we had already done a good 74km’s of riding already, we parked right at the base of the climb rather than Anaconda for a warm up ride. A quick dunny stop and then it was straight into the 1:20 climb.
Matt quickly dropped me (just like I knew he would) and I pretty much did the same as last time, spinning in the mid 80’s rpm at around 11kph. It’s slow, damn slow, but any harder and I can feel my legs blowing out and my heart rate overdoing it. Last time I had to take 2 rest stops on the way up and my aim was to just stop the once this time which I managed to do.
As I stopped and sat on the bike catching my breath, I glanced down the mountain into the trees and there, about 50 metres down the hill in amongst the trees and rocks was a late model Honda road motorcycle leaning against a tree, facing back up the hill. It didn’t look damaged other than the rear cowling missing the top part and I couldn’t see how on earth it could have been ridden down there. I was worried that a rider may have crashed and somewhere down there was a hurt rider but I couldn’t see any sign of anyone. Another motorcycle was coming up the hill so I waved him over and showed him what I saw. He and his pillion had the same thoughts as me but unable to see any sign of a person, we both left to go on our way.
Now back on the road I only had about 2km to go. As I rounded the final corner I could see Matt standing at the timing finish line with his camera. So I rode towards him with one finger raised to signify how many stops I took. Next time- zero stops is my aim!
As I rolled to a stop in the small park at the top, I retained a bit more dignity than the previous week, and just sat down on the grass rather than falling in a heap. I was still rooted after a pretty hard day but happy all the same. Matt was pretty thrilled to have done it as well, giving me a big hi-five in celebration. He was hard to convince to do it before hand, but now he was rapt to have made it!
Both of us were pretty hungry after the meager breakfast at BBC, so we stopped at a café with tables and chairs out front and both ordered open gourmet burgers and soy chi lattes. Mmmm… it was good!
The ride back down was awesome with both of us flying all the way down. I lead the way with Matt right behind me. I think my top speed was about 55kph and it was a buzz. Approximately nine minutes of downhill is a ton of fun and at the bottom Matt and I were both buzzing! We packed up and headed back, stopping at Anaconda (Matt discovered he needed new brake pads) and a stop at Glenvale Rd to get some photos to show the steepness of the road (pics weren’t much use- I need a level and protractor).
After dropping Matt at home, I drove back home, but along the way, PDL called me to say she had just had a crash. She sounded a bit upset and shaken up with a few tears over the phone. I was really worried about her and said I would come and pick her up as fast as I could but to her credit, she wanted to get back on and ride home. I rushed all the way home, thinking she would beat me but as it turned out I got home about 3 minutes before she did. As she came in I was shocked to see how banged up she was- ripped clothing, weeping big grazes on her knees, shoulder, chin and assorted bruises and scratches all over. My poor polkadot was a mess!
I immediately went into nurse mode and helped get her out of her ripped clothing so we could wash all the wounds. It turned out that PDL got her front wheel caught in a tram track at the top of Brunswick St after some guy was sitting in his car with his door wide open, leaving PDL to ride out over the tram tracks. After hitting the ground and sliding along, not one miserable prick bothered to stop and help her. She was lying on the ground, bloody, with her bike in the middle of the road and no one gave a damn! One cyclist that was behind her slowed down but never said a word and kept on riding. What is wrong with people?!?
Anyway, PDL was pretty sore and lacking much in the way of bandages we drove up to a chemist to stock up. At the chemist, the woman there suggested we use the spray on bandages as nothing else they had would cover the size of the grazes. As it turned out this was the WORST thing we could have done. The spray on bandage was SUPER painful, leaving PDL screaming in pain. Never EVER use that stuff. It’s useless.
The next day (Sunday), PDL again had to head into the Illustrators Festival. As she had a lift already arranged she was right to go so I went for a ride with my sister Sara and Dave (Percrime) from BV. We met in the city and rode down to Port Melbourne on the bike track. It was a really windy day with the wind pushing up sideways on the road, but thankfully the wind was mostly at our backs so it wasn’t too bad.
This was Sara’s first time down Beach Rd on the bike so it was a new experience for her. Unfortunately with the crap weather, not a lot of riders were out so she missed that part of the experience, but it was good all the same. Dave and I were in super cruise mode with the wind pushing us along while Sara was doing fine also (tho still a good 8kph slower than I would have liked).
We stopped in at Startline to see Liz and then kept on riding to Black Rock. Sara struggled a bit on some of the inclines along the way and it SO reminded me of the first time PDL and I rode down this way. That time we stopped at Hampton and trained it back to the city as I was dead tired. So for Sara to ride to Black Rock without too much bother (all be it with a massive tail wind) was a great effort. We stopped in at Kennedy Cycles for a bite and a drink and Sara got a taste of the cycling culture of post ride café gatherings. The social side of riding is a great attraction and it was most unexpected when I started. Now if I have a ride without that part, the ride is really missing something.
Heading back was always going to be a tough ask for Sara. The head wind was so strong that drifts of sand from the beach were stinging us and we were being pushed all over the road. At one stage I almost got caught out by the gutter and only JUST unclipped in time. I tried to ride as a wind break for Sara to help get her up the hill just north of Black Rock but I just couldn’t ride slowly enough for her LOL. But to her credit she never stopped, even despite the wind and the hill. We rode on until Sandringham where Sara and I left the road to train it back (the wind was just too much for her and she had an appointment to keep). Dave kept riding on back to Startline where Kathy (Dave partner) was doing some training and I really felt for him in that wind on his own.
On the train as we traveled along next to Beach Rd we saw Dave struggling on. At one point the wind was so strong it blew his forward momentum to a stop and he had to get off. I really felt for him.
All in all it was a pretty tough weekends riding. I did about 74kms on Sat morning at an average of about 27kph, and then I did 15 km up and down the 1:20 ride, followed by 30km on Sunday with Sara and Dave. Sunday afternoon I crashed on the couch and slept for about 4 hours. I was stuffed.
Oh yeah- I lost 1.8kgs the past week. That made up for the previous week where I actually put on 0.1kgs. I'm getting there, bit by bit.
