Alex and Cyril
Sometimes you just have fun cycling and even though it seems a bit serious at the time (to me at least) it turns into like pure fun! George Greenough call that kind of thing the Innermost Limits of Pure Fun. Cycling can be like surfing in many respects or none at all depending on the view you take. I think its like it in the weather watching, exploring the country, screeching down descents and flicking back up along a curving wall. Mateship and planning. Talking about it all after a session in the water or on the road somewhere. I don’t surf anymore but I do ride bikes. On March 15 we ran the Warrandyte Cycling TT for the fifth year. A race against the clock and electronically recorded on Strava to see who finished the 41km through the hills in the shortest time. This year Cyril locked in 4 KOMs to give the climbers a chance at a prize.
Veronica and Shane
My ride was nothing spectacular but it was mine and I enjoyed it. I left later cause I was organising a few things, James Mugg came in as I was about to go and he followed me soon after. When he caught me on the climb out of Warrandyte I couldn’t talk cause I was near my peak. I appeared a bit anti-social but that’s how it had to be. We caught a couple of riders but I let him scream away up the hill towards Pigeon Bank. Somewhere down the road I surprised James by catching him and passing. Then in due course he swiftly passed me by until the descent to St Andrews again he caught me near A Boy Named Sue. We now had an unrehearsed, unspoken plan. Just keep tapping out the kilometres, passing and being passed by each other. Then we saw Dietmar and David in the distance. Chase time. Off we went and then at speed surprizing and leaving D & D behind at the Hursty/Panton Hill roundabout. From there it was on to Wattle Glen where we felt comfortable enough to chat for a bit before I remarked to James that there was a KOM coming up and he should go for it.. He did! After a couple of kms I looked over my shoulder and saw Dietmar in his distinctive fluro windbreaker on my tail and I was off climbing at full speed not wanting him to catch me.
Dietmar, Jack and Paul
James fell back into sight as I climbed towards Pigeon Bank and Dietmar had lost a bit of ground to me but he was “lurking”. I new both of these riders were better descenders than me and James was a better climber and in good form. My plan was keep Dietmar at bay by getting away and keeping James in sight but not too close and try to surprise him and steal his lead as we swept down the long hill to Warrandyte Bridge. That’s how it played out. Dietmar dropped behind and in that two hundred metres I surprised James passing him on a sweeping curve. He caught me just on the Bridge but the ride was over back about 50 metres before. We rolled into the finish, smelling the egg and bacon rolls closely followed by Dietmar who had descended very fast as expected.
The Ride for the Animals
Dietmar invited me to do a ride with him out Gippsland way in March and as it turned out it was within striking range of Maffra where Reuben has started his first year at teaching. It was a 95km ride to Bairnsdale from Fulham and the plan was to ride back to Maffra.
So I rode over from Maffra and Dietmar from Golden Beach where he and Kathryn were staying. We went through the registration process, grabbed some extra food, filled our bidons and waited for the formalities to be completed.Then the 60 or so riders commenced the event through an honour guard of dogs lined to bark us off.
Somehow we found ourselves winding our way from the back of the bunch to the front and behind the Animal Aid team lead car. We sat on there and soon found ourselves moto-pacing the driver which wasn’t the best as he wound it out to 45 kph. We backed off and cruised at 35 wondering about the rest of the bunch particularly the teams who looked like they would out gun us. Soon we were joined by another rider Dave, who sat on for awhile and then excused himself and waited for for the bunch.
As we neared Maffra Dietmar indicated he’d need a “coffee break” so we turned off and headed down the road a km or so. When we came back we saw one rider coming through the roundabout and another within sight so off we went catching him and now looking for the bunch. we passed the official pitstop in Stratford and off we shot still not being able to see the elusive bunch.
We raced our hearts out without seeing a sign of them until we hit the second pitstop only to be told we were the first through with 35 km to ride. We had a short break, grabbed some water, food and were on our way just as Dave rolled in.
Finally we hit Bairnsdale and the Animal Aid centre much to the surprise of all there especially when we said we were only half way through our day and had to ride back to Maffra. The Animal Aiders photographed and fed us. Dave rolled in and we chatted before heading out passing the bunch which was split now.
Dietmar caught up with Kathryn after he’d done 175km on the day and I rode back to Maffra after a bit of refreshment at the Stratford Bakery. It was a fantastic day and I celebrated my 205 km with Reuben later over pizza, souvlaki and beer!
Two Upcoming Rides
Ride the Ranges 130km on April 26 at Euroa. I did this last year with Cyril, Marty and Andrew and it was excellent. I also met Sam and Adrian Cummins who did the race too. I’m staying up there over the weekend and Mary Ann is going to do the 30 km version.Its my birthday on the 24th!
Cradle Mountain Ride 230 km of Tasmanian roads on November 1, 2015. Hardly know a thing about this ride but I’m booked and am yet to make plans. Are you interested?
and let me introduce a third… Amy’s Gran Fondo on Sunday, 13 September 2015 in Lorne.
mycyclingdotme 