Strong Northerly Tortures Local Cyclists

It was a beautiful morning: the sun was well up by 7AM, the birds were singing, and there was a gentle dry breeze blowing from the north. Although reasonably chill in the morning (8) the day slowly warmed up towards a forecast maximum of 22. Six of us, Robbo, David, Michael, Stephen, Simon and myself, started shortly after 7 and rode at an average of about 31 to a rest stop at Frankston's picturesque 'Comfort Station'. After partaking of various forms of comfort, we rode up Oliver's and through the hills to Morny, during which our bunch fell apart pretty badly (one rider "I find we all go up hills at different paces" found himself some minutes ahead of everyone else). After regrouping, we rode down to the beach, up the esplanade hill--where the above photographs were taken--and back to the Nepean. By then, Simon had popped and soon decided to return home at his own pace. We stopped once more for Frank's Comfort, then began the long and painful battle into the headwind towards home. We tried rolling turns, but with only five, then four, it was barely restful. After Mordy, it was every man to his own personal world of pain, spread across various morphing groups. We basically kept in communication until Michael disappeared, and Robbo went home directly. Stephen, David and I enjoyed coffee for survivors then made a slow painful way home. I hope I will be able to walk tomorrow. At least I won't be sitting down for 16 hrs on a plane. [Total distance 115k, plus home-albert pk; Ride time 4h, but finished about 11:50AM; av. speed 29.3 kph.]

Franky

At 6:30, the sunrise was glistening off the tops of the city's sky scrapers, portending a beautiful morning; however, a strong westerly, that ended up blowing all day, rapidly blocked the sun and sprinkled us in gentle rain in the first hour of riding. We had eight starters, which dropped to seven when Nick turned at Mordy, then six when Steven dropped off the back. After Oliver's hill, we met Steven in Franky, at about 8:30, but meanwhile had managed to lose Damon, who failed to turn around at the top of the hill and is probably in Geelong by now. We rode in a rolling bunch with a few other randoms back to Mordy--this was relatively painless--where we waited briefly for Michael and Steven. On the final stretch, the gusty head wind pulled our rolling turns to pieces, and we finished in a depleted bunch of Tom, David, Stephen and myself. Steven was just behind, and he joined us for coffee at about 10:45 (Michael returned home directly). We averaged approximately 30.59 kph over the almost exactly 90-k trip. By about 10AM, the sky was clearing and we rode home in the sunshine.

Mount Dandenong

David, Stephen and I had a very good ride up Mt Dandenong via Sassafrass. We left just after 7AM and got back before 11AM, of which 3:13h was ride time. We averaged 25.4 over the 80 k ride. Lovely sunny weather, as you can see.

Putting an 'I' into Collison

After Juzzy, Tom and I piked at the last minute, only Robbo, Simon and Mike G (Annalise's brother) left from Bike Life to tackle the hills. Unfortunately, Mike (on my Lemond) ended up in a tackle with another cyclist's wheel (steel 'Cappuccino' Baum with a Record groupset) in Bayswater, and hit the tarmac on his collar bone. The X-ray is quite impressive. Robbo also got tripped up by bikes everywhere, and no one felt like riding any further. It was an unfortunate waste of a really beautiful sunny clear morning =(.