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.

By the time we got to Woodstock…