Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

ride pack arrived yesterday. Jersey is much better than previous.

Haven't got mine yet...Grrr better check they haven't forgotten me

Fly out on Friday, god and Qantas unions willing!!!

If anyone is going to the festival in Alexandra gardens, either before or after the ride, check out the live music, especially John Luke Shelley and High Speed Steel. Great guitarist and great blues based music.
Playing Sat. 12-3pm, and Sun. 4-6pm.

Only two more sleeps now Good luck to ya all and have a good ride, weather isn't too bad by the looks of it. Possible showers in the morning and then all good. Oh and watch out for the nails and glass that seems to appear on the day of the around the bay...

my wife filled me with confidence today, she woke up and said 'only 2 more sleeps until your last day on earth'. I really hope she means i'm going to get abducted by aliens.

Southwesterly winds. Hope it favours us clockwise riders. Hopefully get a tail wind up the Westgate.

Semar wrote:Southwesterly winds. Hope it favours us clockwise riders. Hopefully get a tail wind up the Westgate.

I think it'll definitely help the Clockwise riders. Geelong Rd is a long boring ride and the wind will be super welcome... Not sure about the talk of hail though, that won't help in the slightest

Best of luck to all riders...

Anyone know of any good spots to park near the Alexandra Gardens start point???

had a very easy ride today, Red Hill to Melbourne with a mate. we rode up from Melb yesterday to watch the race at Arthur's Hill.

had an incredible run of punctures - about 6 over both days. some of my old spare tubes had clearly expired, but even the newer replacement one holed for some reason (different locations, so not a foreign object in the tyre). i was sitting on the corner of swanston and la trobe sts, repairing the last one, when a Katusha rider on his way to the Lygon St criterium came past, looked at me funny and said hello.

Glad some one had a good day. My bottom bracket started to disintegrate at werribee (doing m-q-s-m), wind between pt Wilson and Lara crushed my spirit. Limped in to geelong, out of juice, trying to keep my thinking from working everywhere, drenched and a little embarrassed I was slowing my bro down so pulled the pin at geelong train station a bit after 11. He was still going at 5pm, 30km from a finish.

i had a bad day too, being crook during the week didn't help and i also had to pull the pin at Geelong after only 70 odd km's. After training for months it's been a huge disappointment. Normally 70km's is fairly easy but the terrible winds on the hwy killed me and i got really bad coming into Geelong. My 2 mates are still going, they should be done at about 7.30pm, but they have done it really tough. Huge kudos to them.

Looked like tough riding out there today. We drove from Geelong to queenscliff to catch the ferry, looked like a number of knackered riders. Spoke to a couple of blokes on the ferry, they mentioned head winds from Werribee to Geelong. Massive kudos to the bloke I saw riding a roadie with 1 leg (no prosthetic or anything). As for the old fella riding a tiny clown bike with a massive seatpost stem, I think you're nuts. But good on ya

Little bro made it, arrived at 7, said the last 30km were bad for wind too. 11 hours in the saddle, massive effort.

M-S-M Long day today, left knee was stuffed from the starting line which made it tough. Cold n Windy, would be nice to have a warm ATB one day. Those gusts were bloody annoying and made it that much harder, saw two near stacks but no injuries thankfully. All up 239k. thanks to Mrs LTR and friends who had lunch ready for us down in Sorento

Now looking to the 75k time trial next month.

Soft commute tomorrow me thinks

Livetoride wrote:saw two near stacks but no injuries thankfully.

i saw several. after my 3rd puncture and late start, we got caught up with the 'slow' riders. clipstacks and one guy who apparently just rode into the kerb (not clipped it, rode straight at it! probably tired) and countless riders cruising along but on the RHS of the bike lane/LH lane, causing the pace line bunches to go right around them into the RH lane (and issue some stern advice).

i nearly bought it when a rider in front of me on a hybrid decided to get out of the seat and threw her bike backwards about a foot at my front wheel

I did M-S-Q-M - huge tailwind on the way back. 40-50km/h for something like 90 minutes. I also may or may not have broken the speed limit coming down the Westgate.

Pretty good day overall - slightly warmer gear would have been nice, as would a lighter bike. No reason for discs and fenders today.

myself and rollin rob plus 3 others did mqsm route. had a hard ride but stuck to a good set of packs to geelong and made the 10am ferry. ride back up hurt, though the first 20km with the tailwind helped. finished in 6.50. a bit behind rob, had a flat spot up mt martha but a couple of gels saw me right till another mate started tiring so we backed off. hard day perhaps next year go clockwise. nearly hit a bollard after the bridge but quick reactions helped. saw one clip stack who then fell into a ladt next to him but besides that no issues
hard day all round i think especiallyq the anticlockwise route

Great day! My first ATB.
Wait for the ferry was chilly, but found a protected lawn spot in the sun. Battering winds from Q to Geelong.
But then the tail wind was a ripper.
Missed the Bridge by 15 minutes, but meh. Saw some truly gritty sites in Geelong near the docks and petrochemical works in the western subs. Great bunch of people to chat to. Winds in South Bank were gusting from everywhere. Caught every red light too. Sore ar$e.
Two hour drive home. Sleep now.

I saw the old guy on the clown bike too, about 15km out of Queenscliff... What a nutter ha ha. Also heard about a group of 4 guys on a single pink tandem with attached Ghetto Blaster!!! Awesome!!!

I had a pretty good day in the saddle. Did the M-S-Q-M and the tailwind was a huge relief. Averaging 50km/h along Geelong Rd for a good 45min. Plenty of good riders sharing the load.

Only had a road bike and been training for 2 1/2 months, but finished in 7hrs 27min (222 km- a couple of bad turns in Werribee). Was very happy.

Felt very sorry for the Anti Clockwise riders, very tough day.

I saw the old guy on the clown bike too, about 15km out of Queenscliff... What a nutter ha ha. Also heard about a group of 4 guys on a single pink tandem with attached Ghetto Blaster!!! Awesome!!!

I had a pretty good day in the saddle. Did the M-S-Q-M and the tailwind was a huge relief. Averaging 50km/h along Geelong Rd for a good 45min. Plenty of good riders sharing the load.

Only had a road bike and been training for 2 1/2 months, but finished in 7hrs 27min (222 km- a couple of bad turns in Werribee). Was very happy.

Felt very sorry for the Anti Clockwise riders, very tough day.

Anti-clockwise starting at Geelong (135km) wasn't too bad, wind must've picked up by the time you 210 riders got down there. Besides, we were probably much fresher not having to brave the open Geelong Rd, I really don't envy you guys!

Started at a freezing 6am, blew down to Queenscliff in a decent 30-33km/h average, made the 7:30 ferry, hopped on and considered huddling together for warmth! Finally got off the ferry, and had to warm up again, but was a pretty sweet tailwind cycling up from Sorrento.

Got to the Mt Martha climb (I still hate climbs), and that killed me, I was at walking pace. Stopped to catch my breath once and finally made it. Pretty stoked that I made it up the other smaller climbs though (did I mention I hate climbs?), and that nice short steep descent at Frankston was fun (70km/h, woo) !

Lunch at Mordialloc. Sweet, welcome lunch break. Sat around lazing waiting for some mates to catch up, I dropped them in the first leg, they made the 8am ferry. Lazed around some more while they had lunch, then finally got going again.

I agree with everyone, that last 30km from Mordy was definitely the worst bit though, with crazy, sand and salt filled headwind, was absolutely glad to finally turn inland towards the gardens and the finish line.

Not sure what my official ride time is, but total riding time from my own tracking gave me 5:10 for 135kms, about 26km/h average. I'm pretty happy with that.

flynnyfalcon wrote:I saw the old guy on the clown bike too, about 15km out of Queenscliff... What a nutter ha ha. Also heard about a group of 4 guys on a single pink tandem with attached Ghetto Blaster!!! Awesome!!!

That tandem is at Amy's ride every year also, usually with a couple of ladies on board. They have a great time, it's a very cool setup.

first around the bay and did the m-s-q-m. pretty happy with the ride but sooooo much wind... coming down the hills towards sorrento but couldn't go past 20km/h but it sure helped on the way back from geelong. knee gave out on me 60km from the finish so that was a big stuggle so thank god for the tailwind. almost got blown off my bike a few times. we missed the 1130 ferry i think it was and ended up waiting for the next one..which was a good time for a rest. finally finished around 6 something and could barely walk after that. will definitely have to do a hell of a lot more training next time and maybe get myself some cold weather gear. congrats to all the riders that got out there.

2nd one for me. Did it fixed this time and opted for the 250. Bit sore by the end but managed a recorded time of just over nine and half hours (times are up now on http://tiktok.biz/aroundthebay/2011) so pretty happy about that. Wind made that last stretch from Mordialloc interesting!
grw

brit_in_oz wrote:myself and rollin rob plus 3 others did mqsm route.

I'm one of those "others" here's my write-up for the day: http://laidcycling.blogspot.com/2011/10 ... uered.html

P.s. nice to meet you Rob and Phil - looking forward to testing out some of those climbs around Hobart!