Spring Cycle 2011 - 16/10/2011 (Sunday)

[timbo]

Awaiting my entry kit.

Work recently decided to reimburse entry costs for all staff entering - very nice touch I think.

Do BNA people cycle together? If I don't see any work people I will be flying solo.

Cheers,
JM

Its best to arrange a meeting point at the start, so you can all head off together, and plan to regroup at the drink stations if you want to keep together.
Anyway, with so many other people out on bikes, you are never really flying solo.

[josephk86]

Hi All,

Anyone done this ride before, thoughts?

What is the difficulty like? How many people typically do the ride?

[sogood]

Anyone done this ride before, thoughts?
What is the difficulty like? How many people typically do the ride?

Not difficult given the pace, but that obviously depends on your fitness and endurance. For most, it's the lack of endurance for a 55km ride that'll hurt. Otherwise for the slower riders, wind and heat will pick up later in the morning and make the ride more difficult. If at all possible, start early and enjoy the early morning comfort.

[wombatK]

Hi All,

Anyone done this ride before, thoughts?

What is the difficulty like? How many people typically do the ride?

The ride typically attracts around 10,000 riders. Lots are pretty competent riders, and lots are not.

There are some hills which will see the less fit riders walking, but anyone who keeps themselves
in good shape won't be troubled by them.

The congestion will be a difficulty. This year's route will use the Anzac Bridge for the first time. The
spiral cycleway at the southern end has a decent grade but it not too hard when you're riding on
your own. But I won't be surprised if it will the scene of many a clip-stack this year - and that there'll be
huge numbers walking up it. The proposed use of the footpath outside the old White Bay power station
site at Rozelle is likely to also cause huge delays unless they've removed the bus shelter that leaves
barely a meter to pass behind it.

Another first is the crossing of Silverwater Bridge which is likely to be serious pinch-point too. Don't
know exactly what the plans are, but if it's to use the existing pedestrian footways, they'll be
hopelessly inadequate - and the u-turns onto them are hard to negotiate.

On the plus side, the separation of the short course from the long course will mean much less
risk of getting bowled over by clumsy kids at SOP.

So that's the difficulty - probably 3 troublespots that will try some people's patience. Everywhere else,
it'll be very enjoyable and you'll have a ton of fun.

Cheers

[CommuRider]

I've rechecked the route and the road closures so it looks like the riders are following the river via the George Kendall Riverside Park then use the pedestrian path on the Silverwater Bridge to cross the river.

http://www.bicyclensw.org.au/content/sp ... assic-ride

So they're not closing one lane of Silverwater Road but it's looking like heavy congestion! Woe betide any uninformed pedestrian or cyclist who decides to cross the bridge in the opposite direction! They'er also hugging the river on the south side so no detour via Newington Road but going past the Armory.

[sonj]

I vaguely remember doing this a few years ago with the optional start from Blacktown. Got told off by a copper for crossing on the pedestrian red at some major intersection, because no-one in sight of the button had bothered to push it! I was about 4 bikes deep away from it, and we had all yelled out 'has anyone pushed the button' to no response. So the bikes were piling up and piling up... and I just lost patience.

Anyway I'm doing it again and muchly looking forward to it It is a great social ride, but yes please watch out for the kids - we need to assimilate not annihilate them

[peter]

Surprisingly no track work this weekend, not sure if it's pre-arranged or coincident. Not complaining either way.

[sogood]

Oh no. More bottlenecks ie. ANZAC Br and associated routing. I'll have to reroute my Sun morning ride.

[peter]

Spoke too soon! Track works! #^$&$#$!#

[CommuRider]

Hope everyone had a good Spring Cycle. Beaut weather and the criterium was on! Nice exposure too - hope they do the same again next year because it is nice to see them about and they need more publicity. Arrived at the park at around 11am....most of the crowd came later. Wish I had taken a photo of a nice Peugeot golden oldie, and this tandem Cannondale with a chariot trailer at the back! Cool. Saw one with a Bike Friday...lots of fat MAMILs about and fat MAWILs too it must be said The lycra stretch is a bit confronting but good on them for exercising! Some of the corporates I saw included Transgrid and Cochlear. Saw the fattest tyre of them all on the Moonlander Surly. Bloody hell. 4WD on two wheels is all I can say. The 11am had the little ones racing and one of them came up to me later which was pretty cute, telling me how he came 3rd and won $40 and hoped to see me again (hahah). And then the 12:30 one had the big men of racing. Zoooooom, zoom, zoom. LACC had the biggest marquee but saw some from the Illawarra (Southern Cross?) and was surprised the mature race included very very mature blokes so I guess it wasn't by age group. Pretty good marshalling as no ped got run over but the crowd got a good look!

Some photos - mostly of the criterium











(the littlies!)

(Apres velo)

(Check out the tyres!)

[squeakywheel]

I thought it was a great day, there were almost none of the bottlenecks of previous year and start line was just a flow-on from the ride up from North Sydney station - outstanding!!

There were a few narrow bits where we had to slow down, but the only real problems we encountered were at the Bay run where we seemed to be competing for space with a Sri Chinmoy running race. The crit race is a great idea, but not too sure why it was positioned in between the finish area and the train station, blocking the escape route. Very frustrating when youre tired and cranky and just want to go home!

As a (non-fat) MAWIL hopefully I didnt offend anybody's sensibilities too much but my friend who was a first timer thought it was brill. Well done to the organisers!

[Sydguy]

Excellent day. Managed to stick with two work people form Nth Sydney to the finish line at SOP. Starting in bursts is also a great idea, as well as a staggered start for different riders. We averaged 20km/h but were there to enjoy the ride and not looking to race/rush.

The racing at SOP was great, and I managed to meet some fellow Baybug riders, some of whom race with LACC.

The mens A grade was a real eye opener, they started with 40 riders and got down to less than half by the finish. Pretty sure a guy from LACC won by a very small margin.

The kids were fun to watch, I saw a folding bike and a BMX amongst some fancy Specialized and other big named road bikes. Must cost a small fortune to keep kids in racing, they grow out of everything so fast. The kids were doing a decent pace and proud of themselves with the little crowd being quite vocal.

It was nice to see the 2012 Giant range, and talk to some of the guys from MCCyclery, hats off to them for allowing people to test ride anything, including a $9,999 trinity, politely declined that one!

My 20 month old had a blast running into all the fountains, wife who sees cycling as a $ sink also enjoyed the day. The weather was fantastic.

JM

[wombatK]

I thought it was a great day, there were almost none of the bottlenecks of previous year and start line was just a flow-on from the ride up from North Sydney station - outstanding!!

+1 Yep - it was done brilliantly, and the bottlenecks I had worried about didn't eventuate. This year, they didn't hold up the 7 am (intermediate starters), which meant everyone was nicely spread out. Had to keep your wits about you for cyclists with death wobbles on the Anzac Bridge spiral ramp, but it flowed much more pleasantly than I'd expected. Same at Silverwater Bridge.

The route around Mrs Macquarie's Chair provided unbeatable views on a breath-taking morning, and the route through Concord and Meadowbank was more fun than the usual loops around SOP. There was also a much higher police presence at the more important intersections, and that was good to see the great work of the volunteer marshals too.

Well done to the organisers, volunteers, and everyone who took part. Certainly the most enjoyable ride of the last few years for me.

Cheers

[CommuRider]

Re crit, maybe they could have moved the route down to Olympic Blvd since the Springcycle finished halfway instead of where the station was. More gawkers on that side too.

[sogood]

ANZAC Br shared path got effectively turned into one way traffic. Seemed to have worked pretty well but definitely nothing speedy, even on the downhill section. The top of the spiral climb got turned into a big rest area as many were stressed by the climb and had to take a good rest. That's all I saw along with a long detour through Glebe to get to CP in the morning.

[trailgumby]

Ah, disappointed I had to pull out of this. The weather looked gorgeous. Glad y'all had a great time.

[gavinr]

I did the 16km 'family ride' along with my six year old (on his single speed extra-heavy K Mart bike). It took us about 80 minutes, the only bottleneck was heading on to the Harbour Bridge but that may have been because we were just behind the massed singing cyclists, because other than that it all flowed freely. We had to walk up the section from the Cahill Expressway to the Observatory because the little guy couldn't do that on his single speed bike (although he was not alone in this, plenty of more mature people pushing up there too!)

It was great to see so many families out doing this ride and hopefully it'll encourage more people out cycling regularly.

[KD1988]

Does anyone know when the photos and results come out?

[gavinr]

Pics will be on the Epsom Road website 'soon' according to the BNSW Facebook page

[wombata]

Was in a group at the 6.30am start. Agree with the others:
- brilliant conditions for riding
- generally well thought out and well managed route
- great variety and quality of views and sights
- everyone in our group enjoyed it immensely.

A couple of points for organisers next year:
- route was different in places to what was posted on the web. I'd rather things were safer than not, but it was a little confusing in spots for those who had looked on the web.
- there were three places I specifically remember where approach speed vs tight corners was not well posted. My suggestion is to design a specific sign which is publicised and displayed so that riders know to slow down, especially for those unfamiliar with the immediate area. One corner on the foreshore of the Parramatta River was quite dangerous, approaching at over 40kmh as a group to a near blind 90 degree right hander......
- there was glass on the road in several places (lots of it). Whether it might be possible to have someone run over the route a little before the pack to identify things such as this would be useful, but understand if that's a bit too much to ask.

On the whole, great day and well done to the organisers. Looking forward to next year already.

[Blitzen]

I started at 7:30 and just a thought:

- There was no volunteers and road closures in the last few k's leading up to Five Dock Park, a couple of use nearly got taken out by cars that won't stop at a fast approach to the roundabout on First Ave and Authur St

-Bottleneck problem at the narrow highway entrance opposite Ikea and crossing streets after the Anzac Bridge

-Major event clash with Bay Run participants, alot of close calls and I could her a few unhappy runners

-There was a blind right hander going under a bridge somewhere in Meadowbank, which you could carry alot of speed into. The road condition was questionable with potholes the size of pizzas, I worry alot of participants might has lost the front end on that corner

-quite alot of debri and broken glass at the gates to The Observatory


but! all in all, it was a great ride under fantastic weather - it was my first one after a 4 year absent and there's been much improvements overall

[wombatK]

-Major event clash with Bay Run participants, alot of close calls and I could her a few unhappy runners

-There was a blind right hander going under a bridge somewhere in Meadowbank, which you could carry alot of speed into. The road condition was questionable with potholes the size of pizzas, I worry alot of participants might has lost the front end on that corner

The Bay Runners were a regular Sunday morning training run - nothing special. If their leaders couldn't make some alternative plans to fit in with the once-a-year cycling event, it's their mistake. Don't think their numbers were within coee of the 10,000 plus cyclists, and if they tried to run on the cycling route (e.g. at Hawthorn Canal) they'd have to be given first prize for self-centred stupidity. In past years, there hasn't been a problem with them.

Oh hang on a minute, I've just found a youtube video of the jerks... http://t.co/j5DKv59U. As you can see from the video, cyclist are hugely outnumbering the runners on the Hawthorn Canal bridge, yet being forced to wait. The runners have just branded themselves as world-ranked selfish pigs, and Ashfield Council needs a rocket for letting them reserve pathway like that and treating cyclists yet again as third class citizens. There is an alternative route through there that could have been used without creating this kind of conflict.

Don't know where you had trouble at Meadowbank - I ride that same section at least once a week and don't have any trouble.There's some tight left-hand turns, but I can't think of a difficult right-hander on the north side of the river. The turn under the railway on the southern (Rhodes) side of the river is a difficult right-hander - but it was well controlled by police as we went through there.

I'm sure the organisers would love to have more volunteers to help with marshalling people through the pinch points. If you have wives, girl-friends or family sitting on the sidelines, maybe encourage them to volunteer next year.

Cheers

[warren.suen]

OK, my mate has taken some pics of the event http://www.flickr.com/photos/dryasading ... 249162552/

[CommuRider]

OK, my mate has taken some pics of the event http://www.flickr.com/photos/dryasading ... 249162552/

I saw 4 of those bunnies!



Cute!

[93360]

will definitely have to start riding earlier next year as there was a lot of congestion and bottlenecks when I set off at about 8am.. though i think some of the hills after the anzac bridge thinned down the pack a bit lol.