Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Sydney to the Gong 2007 full report


2007 MS Sydney to the Gong Ride
November 4, 2007

5:45 Alarm


6:00 Leave house after getting dressed, eating a banana and staring at the cloud-filled sky and wet driveway for five minutes, thankful for loading bike in car the evening before


6:45 Park car in McEvoy Street, near the start, with about 50 other riders and families setting off


7:00 Ride the 2.4km to the start line, realising that there were many parking spaces much closer

Not the actual start line, but just over the hill. Very wet. Very rainy.

7:14 Ring dad to find him, no answer


7:15 Ring dad to find him on the opposite side of the building I was standing under


7:30 Set out in pouring rain to start line with dad & his regular ride mate John


7:45 Meet their other regular ride mate, Bill, after finding he’d already had one puncture pre-ride


7:50 Walk across start line


8:00 Finally get on bike in rain


8:01 First bottleneck


8:10 Get riding seriously, raining, easing and patches of blue starting to show already


8:30 Chain starts to skip, stiff link due to rain and grit


8:40 Stop to check chain, nothing I can do, push on


8:42 Hit sweet rhythm as we hit La Perouse, stiff link begins to ease as sun comes out


8:43 See first crash, mountain biker weaving in and out comes unstuck, nobody really stops


9:00 Stop to see Bill changing second flat for the day, Sutherland turn-off


9:30 Rest break at Loftus, bean-up


The steeds make it to Loftus in one piece and much dirtier.

10:10 Reach Waterfall and turn off main freeway, held at top of hill awaiting recovery of crashed rider #7 for the morning


10:15 Reach mid-point of descent as woman goes over side into bush at medium pace, no injury


10:20 Reach bottom, start climbing already


10:40 Lunch break at Cedar Flat


11:40 Leave lunch for climb out of National Park


12:10 Finish climbing out of National Park after passing lots of granny-geared MTB’ers

From the lookout atop the National Park climb. Note the eagle scouting for dead cyclists.

12:45 End of Seacliff Bridge for photo opportunity

South end of Seacliff Bridge.


12:55 Lift toppled lady off kerb and dad’s bike, try to loosen her pedal tension unsuccessfully, remount and start the final run


1:57 Get flat rear tyre, limp last 500m to finish with squeaky, bumpy rear wheel


2:00 Finish


2:30 Get back on bike to ride to adjacent sports facility to meet a friend for a ride to his place and warm shower


Trip computer:
86.4km
4:38:41 riding time
18.5km/h average
58.3km/h maximum speed

Polar HR monitor:
137bpm average HR
185bpm maximum HR
6:44:00 running time (includes stops)

Insert tagline here...

2 comments:

Old Hutcho said...

Its always good to spend a day on the bike with your boy. No feeling like it in the world.

Old Hutcho said...

Its always good to spend a day on the bike with your boy. Best feeling in the world.