Alarm, 4:00AM Priceless.
Breakfast - Porridge with prunes,honey. Toast and vegemite, banana, Tomato juice, water.
Check the list, helmet, bidons of overstrength sports drink., hydration pack (2.5 litres of water) , shoes, knicks, sunscreen, dried fruit, muesli bars, sunglasses. Off to the car.
Arrive at Alan's place, switch bike onto Alans' car, head to start
Arrive at parking place, begin ride along Chapel St, Prahran to start on Alexandra Ave.
A taxi had overtaken both of us on Chapel St, then pulled over to let some lads out, leaving it's rear poking out, I took evasive action, swinging out, skip the front wheel over the tram tracks and continue on.
That terrible sound of a bike hitting the road behind you......
Visions of Anderson Roundabout, circa 2006.
Alan's lost a bit of bark off his right elbow, dislodged his glasses, dumped the bike and himself on the tram tracks just north of the the intersection of Chapel St, Dandenong Rds.
Recover Alan's glasses from middle of tram tracks.
Alan's Ok, just a bit of bark off and a stiff shoulder, off we go...
Arrive at Alexandra Ave, filter up to start area.
Ride
6:00 AM - Official Start, Very crowded & slow, lots of bikes so no-one can get anywhere fast. Perhaps a start in the city isn't the best as there are too many lights & too many bikes in one place at the one time.
6:30 AM - Made it to base of Westgate bridge, it's thinning out now.....
6:33 AM - It's a lot thinner now at the top of the bridge. Now we-re moving...
Down Millers Road to Altona, head towards Geelong Fwy to Laverton, turn south again to newish suburbs (Can't name it) before heading west again and coming out onto the Geelong Fwy before stopping at Lara for top-up of drinks and a snack. Alan & I agree that 5 mins is about all we need here.
Head out onto the Geelong Fwy again, hook onto the rear of some groups, and sit on the mid to high 30s for a fair bit of the way to Geelong. Lots of new bikes out, some with new bike hassles. Turn off to North shore, head towards Geelong via the back/Bay roads amongst the Woodchip loader & Oil refineries. A very industrial part of town here. Back onto the Geelong Rd near North Geelong, follow this to Geelong, thru the CBD and onto the Bellarine Hwy. Bypass the water stop at Geelong.
The Bellarine Hwy is pretty flat apart from a couple of "slight undulations" as you climb towards Wallington. I'm feeling pretty good at the moment and keep riding in the high 20's with a group. I wait at the "top" of the climb to Wallington for Alan, who is not far behind.
Continue to Queenscliff, a few short climbs and we are there. Join the queue for lunch and ferry passes at about 10:40. Averaging about 28k for the 110 to Queenscliff for the start. Still in the queue for food & ferry passes, it looks like we'll get on the 11:30 ferry, Hand over tear off section of number, get lunch,drink,banana go to eat in the park for about 5 minutes before joining queue for ferry, don't want to miss the 11:30. Eat in the queue. Get on the ferry, it's packed with cyclists. I won't bother to estimate, but there wasn't sitting room for every one. At least my bike was only about 3 deep (with about another 12 below it), so late on, early off for the ferry.
Sorrento : Lets get out of here, what a crowd. Score some more freebie bottles of sports drinks, pour into bidons, drink the rest and then get on our way. The ride from Sorrento to Dromana is lovely, a few little undulations etc, but nothing like the hill we are about to climb. We stop at Dromana, refill the hydration packs and then continue.
Switch over from the coast to inland near the Peninsula Fwy, I can see the hill we are going over (I remember it from 1996, the previous time I did this). Alan says to me, "see you at the top" , so I go a bit faster and overtake a few guys on their own, then a couple of groups, I look back after a few minutes to see about 30 riders on my tail approaching the foot of the hill, A the top of the hill I pulled over for a drink and a cool down, the guys who had been on my tail were a couple of minutes behind. I didn't think I had gone that fast, but I was still feeling pretty good, drinking regularly and still spinning the pedals. Alan crested the hill and we joined again. He said that he has walked some of the hill. A lot of people were slowing down.
Apparently this was the hottest ATBIAD.
From there, we rode together for a while and made plans to stop at the Frankston stop. We joined a group that was riding at a comfortable pace for a while until the slight uphill drag out of Mornington where I left Alan behind and continued on. I stopped at the top of Oliver's Hill and waited for Alan. We rolled into Frankston for a snack & some water. The end is in sight.
After a few minutes, we head out on the highway bound for our next stop, Mordialloc. It's a bit of grind along the Nepean Hwy through Seaford , Carrum etc. The traffic is chaos along here, a lot of people in cars avoiding the Mordialloc bridgeworks. I guess a lot of people went to the beach today too, given it was a warm day. Lots of bas tempered impatient car drivers everywhere. Turned left onto Beach Rd, then to the stop for a snack and a rest before the last bit to the finish.
After 186k, Alan was pretty tired by this stage and not feeling 100%, so we stopped for a bit longer and decided that the best course of action was for him to catch a train back to the car. I headed off along Beach Road with 1 mission on mind. Alexandra Avenue, then back to the car.
The ride along Beach Rd was quick and there was always someone ahead of me that I could use as a target to catch. Sat on between 30 and 35 for the remainder of the trip, catching my breath at traffic lights.
Not many people with punctures this year along here. Quite a few ambulances though, and lot of riders looking like they were suffering from heat stress (not stroke), spewing up at the lights, making basic mistakes like forgetting to unclip and then falling over etc. The traffic around StKilda was heavy and agressive, too many "Fully Sick"
lads there for my liking, fortunately the bikes were much faster than the car traffic on average so the guys who gave you lip out window always got left behind.
In through South Melbourne was chaos was lots of beach goers and bikes, turned off up to City Road, then to Alexandra Gardens and the finish. 215k Round trip not including Prahhran return. Did the obligatory ride through the finish line, then off to St.Kilda road and the ride back to the car. Turned left onto High St, and stopped at the Punt Road lights, one other rider there. I still had a little bit of energy left, so out of the saddle and keep rolling at 35, perfectly timed hook turn at High/Chapel St and down Chapel to the car. Alan is there, just locking up the gate for where we parked.
In the car, all I could think of was food and drink. Finished the remainder of the sports drink, finished the remainder of the hydration pack.
What I consumed for the day:
Breakfast (See above)
Water : Approx 4.5 litres
Sport Drinks : 2 * home made overstrength bidons (1.2L), 3 * 600 bottles.
Approx 7.5 litres fluid consumed.
2 bananas, 2 sandwiches, chocolate brownie, 4 muesli bars, some dried fruit, nuts.
2 sports energy bars.
2008 ? Ask me next year...
Observations :
Whilst I do admire a carbon fibre BMC road bike with full Campagnolo Record groupset (when it doesn't suffer premature failure of the freehub, turning it into a slack chained fixed wheel) , I still prefer my steel framed road bike with 36spoke wheels that's been "run-in".
It must have been "buy a Bianchi" week somewhere.
Low spoke count wheels really wobble when you pop a spoke.
There is nothing quite like the sound of the inside of a rear derailleur rubbing on spokes, apart from the sound it makes as it "catches" on the spokes and breaks off at the derailluer hanger.
Hydration packs are a good thing, I could never have carried/consumed enough fluid otherwise on a hot day.
The gentleman on the Hillbrick Pista (track frame with brakes) fixed gear with 82" (46:15) gearing has my respect. Ride on.
-
Andrew Dunne
Having already ridden the official Around the Bay in both directions I had decided that waiting for the ferry with hundreds of other sweaty and cranky cyclists is not exactly a lot of fun. Last year we pioneered our own version of the ATB ride which we christened "The Big Bay Ride". This not only allows the participants to tailor the exact distance they want to complete, but also has the advantage of costing exactly zero to enter.
At 3.00 am I staggered out of bed and did my best not to wake either the cat, the dog or "she who must be feared". I have to admit that this time of night is best experienced secure in the land of Nod. Apart from three days spent as a mail sorter during my university time, I have been happy to restrict my waking hours mostly to those when the sun is above the horizon.
After dozing my way through breakfast I discovered that I had actually woken up too early and found myself trying to kill 30 minutes watching early morning TV (and that's a really, really sad state to be in). I finally crawled to the car at about 4.30 am and started the long drive down to Frankston, where I arrived at about 5.30 am. The sky overhead was starting to lighten and gave promise of a fine and hot day ahead. On the way to our prearranged starting point I was relieved to see that Jon and Lothar were also early and unloading their car. By 6 am we had also been joined by Phil and Ross and we were all waiting at the Subway store for Peter, Werner and Ben to arrive. They were starting from North Rd at 5.00 am and we estimated that it would take them about an hour to get to Frankston.
Thirty minutes later there was still no sign of our missing riders but we had attracted the admiration of a group of local lads who had obviously been passing the night drinking copious quantities of turps. By the time that the group started to swell, Ross and I decided that it was time to take up a more secure position - at the top of Oliver's Hill. We waited there until all of our peloton was assembled. This made up a group of 8 riders. Glenda had already indicated that she had headed off early and would wait for us at Rye.
The time was now after 6.40 am and there was a steady stream of cyclists heading down towards Sorrento. We jumped on our bikes and maintained a good speed of about 35 kph to Mornington but this speed was soon reduced as we approached the hill at Mt Martha. The good part of cresting this challenge is that you know that you then have easy riding all the way to Sorrento. We settled into a good rhythm and noted that the road was becoming more and more crowded with large groups of riders who had obviously ridden from Melbourne.
While the majority of riders were well behaved some of the large groups seemed to think they were in the Tour de France and took pride in racing past and cutting in without warning. They also seemed to believe that they were entitled to occupy the entire width of the road. On the other hand we were amazed at the number of riders and motorists who called out to us as they passed by. Obviously the Ghost Riders are surprisingly well known in cycling circles. I was even more surprised when several passing riders even called out to me by name - I had absolutely no idea who they were.
I had previously told Glenda that we would probably be at Rye at 8.30 am, but due to a good run, we actually arived at 8.00 am instead. I pulled to the side and called out to the others to stop and wait for Glenda. I soon discovered that it is not a good idea to have two deaf riders at the front as Peter and Jon disappeared into the distance. In spite of my wavings the rest also kept riding on. I rang Glenda to let her know that we were in Rye and she immediately invited us all to her friend's house for morning tea. "Too late" I had to say, knowing that the rest of my peloton was already well on its way to Sorrento.
In fact it was not until I reached Sorrento that I caught up with the escapees. I soon regailed them for causing us all to miss out on a FREE morning tea, but it was far too late to turn back now. We all headed on the final few km to Portsea. This short section has a few rolling hills after the flat section between Dromana and Sorrento and we finally rolled into the Main St at about 8.40 am. We continued to the end of the road and then returned to the shops for a well earned cup of coffee and rest. It did not take long for Glenda to join us. The new cluster she has had installed on her bike had obviously helped her up the hills.
With the sun streaming down it was a treat to be able to lie down on the grass and enjoy an extended break, knowing that we didn't have to fight with the hundreds of other cyclists at Sorrento for a place on the ferry. The local birds were glad we had stopped there too, and seemed intent on stealing our cakes from us before we could eat them. It was an almost idyllic way of spending a relaxing 30 minutes or so.
We eventually fought off the sun induced stupor and resumed our cycling back towards Melbourne. Our original plan was to stop for lunch at Dromana but we were in danger of getting back too early for this. As we passed through Sorrento we rejoined the mass of riders being disgorged from the ferries. Here we saw the small group of pink shirted riders from Phil Hession's group.
It did not take us long to arrive back at Dromana, but we were all conscious of the steady increase in the air temperature and thought it wise to stop for a drink at the ice cream shop. Thoughtfully they had provided jugs of iced water for cyclists to help themselves to. What a wonderful gesture. Although we didn't feel like a mean we were quite content to settle down for a leisurely drink and snack before getting back on the treadlies for the final leg back to Frankston.
The first few kilometres from Dromana are quite easy but I was not looking forward to joining the mass of riders laboriously grinding their way up to the top of Mt Martha. With the temperature now in the 30s we could see that some riders were starting to do it tough. I also couldn't help recalling that this was one of the spots that I had spent emptying my stomach on last year's ride. I wondered if it had resulted in a patch of brilliant green grass or a patch of scorched earth. I was relieved to find several riders had resorted to walking their bikes up the hill, but I decided to take a little more time and ride up it instead. It is not always easy to stay upright at about 2 kph but I managed to reach the relative safety of the bus shelter without disgracing myself.
Over the space of the next few minutes the rest of our riders arrived and we were able to regroup and continue on together. The number of riders by this time had almost reached choking point and you really had to concentrate to avoid getting into a "close encounter of the worst kind" with those riding very close by. Another brief stop at Mornington saw Glenda leave to visit a friend while the rest of us faced the short distance to Frankston where we, once again, stopped at Maccas for a cold drink before climbing into the cars.
Ben had originally planned to ride back to North Rd but also decided that he would reather complete the ride on four wheels and joined me for the long drive back to Emerald. It was nice to be able to turn on the air conditioning and relax on a soft seat. I was safely back home by about 1.30 pm but spent the rest of the afternoon drinking. I think I downed about 3 litres before I felt like I was back in equilibrium again.
We might not have ridden all the way round the bay but we had all covered distances of between 100 and 170 km and had managed to enjoy the experience.