Winter Surf 2022 done and dusted

Batesford roadhouse

Batesford roadhouse

Golden hour, Batesford

Old and new at Anglesea

Anglesea

Near Batesford

Near Batesford

About 20k out from Anglesea. Some dogs on the farm opposite were barking madly when I made this wee stop. A lady came out eventually and asked if I was ok. (Yep, no problems)

About 10 k out of Anglesea

10k out of Anglesea

Anglesea

Anglesea

At the start

Phil and Ian at the start.

Spinup R03W Dyno

 Hi

The Winter Surf ride is done and dusted now, and I finished it within the time limit of 13 hours 20 min - with about 20 min to spare. Anyway, that was fine, Audax doesn't say faster times are any better than slow ones.  There ended up being only 7 on the 200k ride, and one extra doing a 100k "pootle".

Had a great start, and was keeping up with everyone till about 10k into the ride when I was fiddling with a map and lost the pelleton. Later, there were a few issues along the way - there was a bike-track only section around some Corio ferry terminal roadworks, and it took quite a bit of farting around to get past a Horseshoe Bend Road  detour in Geelong. As well, a wrong turn near the You yangs on the way back had me do about 2 bonus kilometres before logic forced me to realise I'd made a mistake, reread the cue sheet and turn round. There was possibly about an hour lost in all this stuffing around.

My biggest mistake though was to leave a bag with keys and my wallet at Batesford Roadhouse! I only realised this had happened about 20k from the end of the ride.  Luckily and thankfully ride organiser Phil Giddings helped me out at the end. He offered to give me a lift home, and my bike could be taken apart easily to fit in the back of his SUV.

By the next morning I had a wallet and keys recovery plan. I rang the roadhouse (stuff was there, yay!), then printed a Werribee time train timetable and bought a new Myki train ticket before riding to my paid job at Back2bikes. After checking with my boss, I left work early, rode to Flinders Street station, trained it to Werribbee, then picked up the car in Werribee using a spare key from home.  From there it was about 50 familiar km to Batesford.  I was able to pick up the keys and return home after a snack and drink at the roady.

Quite a nice place, the Batesford Roadhouse. It looks like it hasn't been renovated in years, and all the wiring just runs higglety-piggelty on the walls. Its decorated with pictures of bacon sandwiches and egg rolls and the like, but the food is good, there are toilets there and its pretty relaxed. Phil has been on or ran several rides through Batesford, and as he said,

"It is very basic as a checkpoint however in winter they have hot food and drink and are open until after the check point cut off time.  Over the years a few riders have been very grateful to be able to warm up there.   That's the joys of winter cycling."

As far as the lights went, once adjusted properly, the dyno combination discussed here  (Spinup R03W dyno, 20" Wheel, and Hi-Power Light) worked well and was enough to illuminate the road but was not spectacularly bright. I might be able to improve things though, at the moment the dyno cable and light wires are only twisted together, but tomorrow, I will solder them together, then cover the join in heat shrink. That should mean more current is delivered to the light, so its brighter and works at lower speeds. Will report more on this later.

In terms of training, I did about as much as I could within the constraints of injury and time, and it was about right for being able to finish this ride in the time limit. (I only had to walk up one hill which was great!) . Simon Watt was my unofficial coach and mentor for some previous big rides and the following routines seem to work for me and my recumbent 

* For several days before the event, ride at least 70k per day. 

* For long 1 day rides,  ride at least the ride distance in the week before the event.

* On hills, don't let your speed go below 10 kph. No other speeds count and its fine just to roll down hill.

* At rest stops, eat what your first instinct tells you to eat. This will probably have what you need in terms of salts, protein and carbohydrates.

* It's important to get good long sleeps in the days leading up to the ride. Don't worry too much if you can't sleep the night before, if you have slept properly the week before, that will mostly make up for it.

Thanks again to Phil for his excellent ride organiser support.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Update, August 17, 2022

The bling from the ride arrived today, see photos below. I did some bike maintenance and fixing after the ride, mainly  rewiring the front light and gluing a suspension block to the rear fork.

Coming up, I have already booked up for an extended 300k Buckley's (around the bay in a day) ride on September 24. So not much of a break in training.

Regards Steve Nurse

After the ride I

cleaned all this area up, and glued the suspension block (had been held in by magnets). Some extra glue in the join should exclude some of the dirt.

Rewired properly.