Lifecycle Charity Bike Ride - Campbelltown to Canberra

[Hotdog]

Any other BNAers signed up for the Lifecycle Charity Bike Ride on the 2nd-3rd May? I've just registered for the two day Campbelltown to Canberra option. I've been toying with the idea of riding from Sydney to Canberra for ages, so when I heard about this organised charity ride it seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally do it

[hartleymartin]

Is this a self-supporting tour or do we have a sag wagon? I might have a crack at it. The first day would qualify as an Imperial Century...

[Rockford]

Getting back looks like a major PITA.

[Hotdog]

Yeah, the logistics are a bit of a challenge. Of course you could always ride back, after all it's mostly downhill on the return trip... Personally I'm going to be relying on my very helpful girlfriend and her car for transport to the start and back from the finish. The ride organisers are looking into hiring a bus with trailer to ship participants and their bikes back to Sydney, though it's not clear yet whether that'll definitely be happening.

Martin, from what I can gather from the ride website the level of support is a little below what you might get from a fully supported tour (i.e. there's no mention of luggage transport as far as I can see) but it is pretty high by the standards of 'event' rides (route marshals, support vehicles with bike mechanics and first aiders, food and water stops, overnight accommodation and dinner, and, yes, a sag wagon).

[hartleymartin]

I suppose I was asking so as to determine whether or not I should pack panniers. I wonder what time they are planning to arrive in Goulburn, and more importantly what sort of average speed they are expecting from participants? My commuting/touring bicycle doesn't exactly go all that fast. Perhaps I should fit some stronger headlights...

[leximack]

Yeah, the logistics are a bit of a challenge. Of course you could always ride back, after all it's mostly downhill on the return trip...

correct, about 500m more climbing if heading to canberra,

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2948319

on the way back from canberra on the weekend i flicked the garmin on when i hit the Freeway entrance. From there to home it was 1500m climbing and 2000m descending, so obviuosly opposite on the way back. Also i noted that NONE of the climbs on the way back were more than 5% gradient.
I still want to do the canberra ride but thinking coming back will be better/easier and aiming for home rather than a hotel room is more appealiing also.

Don

[Hotdog]

The entry form asks you to put yourself into one of three categories: 'slow/amateur', 'medium/regular rider' or 'fast/professional', and gives you an option of stating your expected average speed. I think this implies they're expecting a wide range of speeds from the participants, so I wouldn't worry about being a little slow. Note that the start time is 6am-7am, and sunset on the day will be at 5.26pm and dusk at 6.20pm. That gives you up to 11 hours to cover the 173km to Goulburn before the light starts to fade, so you only need an average speed (including stops) of 16km/h. If you plan for 3 hours or so of stops then the required average becomes 22km/h to arrive before sunset

[Hotdog]

Thanks for the GPS trace Don.

I've had a go a Bikely-ing the routes for the two days, and extracted the resulting (approximate) elevation profiles. Here are the Bikely routes:

Day 1 - University of Western Sydney to Goulburn
Day 2 - Goulburn to Canberra

And the elevation profiles:

Day 1:


Day 2:


Interestingly though I'm pretty sure I've got the start and end locations right I get about 30km less distance for the first day's riding than the ride's website. Perhaps they're planning to deviate a little from the obvious 'highway all the way direct to the motel' route. I do get the same distance as the ride organisers for the second day's ride, however.

The first day's route gives a distance of 144.4km, 1564m of climbing and 970m of descending. A lot of that climbing takes place early on, with something like 600m of almost continuous climbing taking place between the 20km and 65km marks after which there are no more really long climbs. The gradients all look fairly moderate.

For the second day the route is 89km long with 561m of climb and 662m of descent. There's a couple of steep looking bits, most notably the 80m climb around the 55km mark which I think is the hill you face just as you're leaving Lake George behind. Overall though not too daunting, and it has a nice downhill then flat finish for the final 15km or so.

[hartleymartin]

Its good to see that the final stretch into Canberra is mostly downhill.

[Hotdog]

I've since put the two routes into MapMyRide (day 1, day2) which gives better elevation data than Bikely. The most significant difference is that MapMyRide gives you smoothed gradient data in the profile plots, and allows you to download the full elevation dataset to analyse to your heart's content. What I can say is that with the exception of a few short pinches (which get smoothed out in the profile plot) there are no climbs steeper than 5% on either day, the gradients are for the most part very gentle. In other words, excellent terrain for an aerodynamic but slightly heavy recumbent

I'm still confused about the missing 30km though...

[Boognoss]

Yeah, the logistics are a bit of a challenge. Of course you could always ride back, after all it's mostly downhill on the return trip...

correct, about 500m more climbing if heading to canberra,

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2948319

on the way back from canberra on the weekend i flicked the garmin on when i hit the Freeway entrance. From there to home it was 1500m climbing and 2000m descending, so obviuosly opposite on the way back. Also i noted that NONE of the climbs on the way back were more than 5% gradient.
I still want to do the canberra ride but thinking coming back will be better/easier and aiming for home rather than a hotel room is more appealiing also.

Don

Careful there mate, did you notice your top speed?

Good data though.

[hartleymartin]

Perhaps a good route to ride on old-school CRMO framed MTB...

[Hotdog]

Perhaps a good route to ride on old-school CRMO framed MTB...

It's been done before on a MTB... and in one day, not two! See this video.

[hartleymartin]

Well I'm going to HTFU and do it - the whole trip. I've just got to submit the forms tomorrow. Then put up a linky thingy to get people to donate/sponsor.

[ozlegacy]

Shame its same weekend as dirtworks...

[sandman]

Does this link actually work that was in the first post ? Is this Lifecycles in Penrith or something else ? Cant tell cause I cant see the page

Sandman

[Rockford]

Link works for me. It's a Youth Suicide Prevention Organisation which is doing the ride not Lifecycles at Penrith.

The site has an embedded YouTube video on it, if your work blocks YouTube that maybe why you can't see it?
Does this link work?
http://www.lifecycleaustralia.org.au/in ... ation.html

[sandman]

Ok, thanks for that link. I'm on our corporate network now, looks like an awesome ride, if I was back in Sydney I would seriously contemplate it !

Sandman

[Hotdog]

Just one more day to register for anyone who's still thinking about it.

I received my rider information in the post today and it seems that there will be a bag transport service so it will be possible to travel pretty light for the ride while still having changes of clothes waiting for you at Goulburn and Canberra.

[hartleymartin]

Damn - wanted to register but currently sitting in limbo with my employer not paying me on time.

[Hotdog]

Well, I did it And it was a great ride. There were about 40 people doing both days, another 50ish doing just the second day (Goulburn to Canberra) and another 10 or so joining for Lake George to Canberra. We were largely lucky with the weather, it stayed dry with light winds throughout though it was cold at times, especially on the Sunday morning when we also had fog to contend with. The riding along the Hume and Federation Highways was generally pretty good though the surface of the shoulder is very variable and can be pretty crappy, especially in the first half of the trip. One part in particular gave rise to the few 'oh !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!' moments, a relatively steep descent where the shoulder suddenly changed from nice and smooth to gravelly old chip seal half way down, fortunately no accidents though. There were no shortage of punctures however, I felt like I was reasonably lucky to get away with just the one. In total there's a lot of climbing (especially on the first day) but none of it exceeded 6%, the steeper parts (4-6%) were all fairly short, and more typically the climbing was done at only 2-3% gradients. The organisers did a great job keeping us fed and hydrated with two food stops and an optional water stop on the first day and a food stop at Lake George on the second. In general the organisers and volunteers were fantastic actually, always friendly, helpful, and very keen to gather advice and opinions from the riders to make the ride go even better.

For the record the official ride distance was a little inaccurate, it was actually 147km from Campbelltown to Goulburn on the first day, another 75km from Goulburn to the Eagle Hawk regrouping point and finally a leisurely 17km as one big group under police escort from there to the finish in the park in front of Old Parliament House. I was pretty pleased with my own riding, I finished the first day's riding after just over 7 hours elapsed, just under 5 and a half hours ride time for a 27 km/h average, and on the second day covered the Goulburn to Eagle Hawk trip in just over three hours elapsed, 2 and a half hours riding with a 30.5 km/h average. Not bad by my own standards.

I shot a bunch of video with my new helmet camera (a Vio POV 1.5) but haven't had chance to look through it all yet. I'll eventually get around to editing it down into some hopefully vaguely watchable highlights.

[Boognoss]

Just revisted this thread. Well done on completing the ride mate.