Around The bay in a Day

[william]

Report for ATB.

This was a ride I'd been looking forward to since purchasing the Bacchetta Corsa. My initial rides had me worried a little of being able to complete the ride let alone all the uncertainties of a first time rider. The other bug was recumbents had to start from the rear. Much mixed thoughts here as close to the day my average speeds for the same course I use had increased from 22 to 29 Kph. My usual cruising speed is 32-34.
From the Bicycle Victoria forums many were starting from different locations because of start congestion and team grouping. In the end I elected to do the right thing and start from the back.
I rode to the start, just a mere 10 k's, and became overwhelmed at the mass volume of bike riders and these were just the 210K group. the 250 k group were elsewhere in the neighbourhood and starting in the dark at 5:30 am.
I took a couple of videos and photos with my little camera but the quality was poor.
There was a huge line of riders taking up both lanes of the road in the pre-dawn light but the flashing bike lights and red blinkies made it look like Christmas. I couldn't see the end of the line and riders were still coming from everywhere. I'm now beginning to see what everyone is talking about.
I finally found my usual ride buddy, Tommy, who was in the middle of the pack. i told him I would catch him up after we got under way... Wrong... Follow on.

The 6:00 am Start got under way with the faster riders going first and so on down to the recumbents who numbered 3 trikes, a tandem trike and me on a Bacchetta. Sad! Considering the number of recumbent riders around the state. There was however others who had elected to start elsewhere. I now understand why.
It took 24 minutes to cross the start line and I was sitting upright peddling my feet along the ground. The start went straight into the city roads with , of course, city traffic lights. Some 8,000 riders on the same stretch of road. nothing I could do except be patient but this was wearing thin as I just wanted to ride but also catch up to my friend Tommy who I know was going to gloat about slow disadvantaged recumbents.
After another 30 minutes of crawling through the streets we eventually got into the ride and built up a bit of speed stopping for the usual traffic lights. if i was near the front I would blast away with speeds up to 45 or more just to break away from the packs. Unfortunately I only encountered the next packs and worked my way through, pack by pack looking for a group with a sensible speed. Never happened.
After more than an hour I had settled into a sensible all day ride and although feeling restrained and tethered to slower than normal group riding I thought it the sensible thing to do being the only recumbent I saw. Then, coming into Mordialloc I saw 3 velomobiles heading to Melbourne flying at an estimated 45-50K's. They looked fantastic, a blue one and two others. In a moment they were gone. In the BV forums they travelled from Frankston to Melbourne, then did the whole ride and back to Frankston. That would have been close to 300K's. Phew!
Seeing them spurred me on a bit and at that point I saw one of the trikes ahead. From that point on I didn't want to hold back any more. A quick look in the mirror and whoosh! I was off. No more mister nice guy. A polite g'day to the trike guy as I passed and kept moving through.
From this point I followed groups until it was safe to pass and I just went for it.
After Frankston there is a few long rolling hills that tend to overheat the thighs a little but some fantastic downhill runs. One in particular i let fly and passed a couple of serious roadie guys. They were peddling like crazy and i just rolled on by. One even had the tour de France style of downhill riding with his chin over the handlebars and his hands gripped from underneath the bars. I didn't see them again.
Along the beach from Dromana there was a slight cross head wind strengthening and occasional light showers. I was siting on 32 K's and passing everyone I saw. many people were taking shelter in the cafe's and the thought of a nice coffee crossed my mind but I didn't want to miss the ferry either.
At Sorento, a beautiful country coastal town, the ferry was in and running late and the queue was huge. I gathered my lunch and quickly got in line. It took me 4 hrs to do just 100K's. Not too bad considering.

[img]ATB2.jpg

The waiting for the ferry and the crossing took 1:50. Phew! Where is my bike, even with a flag.
I eventually caught up with my friend Tommy on the ferry and as he was on the opposite end of the ferry again I said I'll see him on the road but somewhere I must have passed him.

[img]ATB1.jpg
Riding into Geelong I was still looking for Tommy but the ride was more sedate and relaxed and all the time found myself chatting to people wanting to know about recumbents. The wind was a little cross head wind going to a cross wind before Geelong. I still kept passing riders everywhere. outside of Geelong a nice firm tailwind was helping the cause and as I felt I still had much in reserve I pushed a little harder along the freeway shoulder cruising along at 42-44 and had a roadie close up behind me. He was draughting and down in his drops and then I noticed a red trike behind this guy. The trike guy was hammering and my speedo was showing 44-45 at this point with a large group a few kilometres ahead. After 30 minutes we were with the group and the roadie came up and thanked me for the tow. he said he tried to come around but didn't have the strength to push past me at the speed we were going. The trike guy settled in behind too and rested for a bit untill a larger roadie group slowly passed. As they got in front of us I decided to go too and just then the whole 2 groups were going every which way. 5 or 6 of the riders in front had suddenly copped punctures from debris and tried to pull up quickly to avoid crashing only to nearly cause a heap going down.
After that I stopped in Werribee for a break and bottle fill. The trike guy kept going.
The wind was now a cross wind which didn't seem to bother me much but my speed was down to about 28 and saving myself for the last bit home.
I eventually got back into Melbourne about 4:30 with my emotional support crew waiting with drinks and lovely tasting junk food. As it was cold they went home and I chatted for awhile. I found the trike guys trike parked and looked like he got in before me. He must have been moving. i was impressed.
My friend Tommy got in just over an hour after me cursing the wind (as if). He was asking if anything ached... Nah! just sore muscles I said. He shook his head. We compared notes and my average was higher and max speed way higher and he didn't want to believe it.
Disbelief.
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[img]ATBiaD2.jpg
Support crew.

[/img]ATBiaD1.jpg

The Finish
Then I rode the 10 K's home.

William.

[william]

Ok! How do I post photos?

William.

[Kalgrm]

Great report William. I'm dying to see the photos, so here's how you do it:

• *Post your photos to your website, blog or a photo hosting site like Flickr.
  
  *Copy the location of that photo and paste it into your post.
  
  *Highlight the text of the location and hit the [IMG] button above the reply dialog box.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Freddyflatfoot]

Good report William! Well done!
Be interested to see who was riding the red trike? Sounds like who was really motoring along!
Might ask around on the VicHPV site.

[Low Racer]

Another well done from me. Good report.

Chong

[rog on a bike]

William.
Excellent!
Mate you've killed the pig. great read.
Cheers Rog

[william]

Thanks guys,

Now that its finished it feels like a void but I'm now looking at some of the Audax events. looks interesting.

As for the guy on the trike he looked like mid-late thirties and very fit. He didn't look one bit exhausted.


William.

[Freddyflatfoot]

William, just to digress. I'm doing the Pyrenees Magic Nov 15th. This a very well supported ride ~100 k's. Should be a walk in the park for you!
Just not sure whether I'll ride my SWB or trike.

[raptordesigns]

Report for ATB.
... Sad! Considering the number of recumbent riders around the state. There was however others who had elected to start elsewhere. I now understand why....

Yep. that's why, alright

William, was it you I saw getting off the ferry that arrived in Queenscliff at about midday? (was waiting in the queue going the other way and saw 2 trikes and a SWB come off the ferry)
John.

[william]

Yes! I'm sure that would have been me. Yellow Bacchetta jersey, Yellow helmet and little orange flag borrowed from my daughters tag-along. I was going to put a pink bra as a flag but common sense prevailed. Maybe next time.

I arrived at Sorento at 10:20 but the ferry didn't leave until 11:20.

Are you the John with the low flying green (from memory) missile?

William.

[raptordesigns]

Yes! I'm sure that would have been me. Yellow Bacchetta jersey, Yellow helmet and little orange flag borrowed from my daughters tag-along. I was going to put a pink bra as a flag but common sense prevailed. Maybe next time.

I arrived at Sorento at 10:20 but the ferry didn't leave until 11:20.

Are you the John with the low flying green (from memory) missile?

William.

Nope, that's John K. from Hastings and his green Xevon.

I'm John R. with the homemade carbon fibre lowracer. I rode the 250, arrived at Queenscliff at 10:40, but ended up on the 12:00 ferry to Sorrento, the one you were exiting.

[raptordesigns]

BV have a follow-up survey on their ATB page

Please contribute if you rode. You might like to mention that we'd like to be able to start with the rest instead of being stuck at the back at the official start location.

[william]

Thanks John,

I've already filled that in with a note regarding recumbents.

I've also sent mail to BV asking for an explanation and got a very political and meaningless answer relating to overall safety. I replied to that asking for an explanation to their judgement of safety and as yet have no reply.

Other than that and the ferry waiting I had a good day.

I think I saw your photo amongst the crowd from the Fuse website. Nice Bike. Would like to see it in more detail one day.
For a few of me in the fuse groups look for rider no. 6792

When I can figure out how to post photos here, I will.

Best regards,

William.

[raptordesigns]

I'm bib no 650.

I got a similar "runaround" about safety. I replied pointing out the flaws in the reply and did get a reply suggesting that my points were acknowledged and that I might be invited to talk with them soon regarding a review of the measure.

John R.