Buckley's Ride 2017

Graham S. at the start

My trike at the start.

On the ferry

Hi

The 215k Audax Buckley's ride was a few days ago now and I am just about back to normal with sleep and sore muscles.

Last Sunday started off quite warm and even though I got up for the "Round the Bay in a Day" ride quite early it was hot enough to be riding in a short sleeved shirt.  I arrived in plenty of time at the Albert Park start point, and Graham Signiorini came up from Williamstown to see me off.  We had a chat, he will soon be heading down to Tasmania for the wooden boat show in the boat which he crews.  Nice work if you can get it!

There was a bit of a diversion off the standard route due to bridge works but otherwise riding was pretty good until near a right hand turn a few k out of Williamstown when a few of the tightly packed riders came down.  There were no serious injuries but the group split up a bit.  A few ks further on, there was another accident, this time Heather came down and broke a collar bone on a new section of bike track.  Everything was sorted out quite quickly, an ambulance was called and it was organised through Stephen Rowland's Little River checkpoint for Heather's bike to be picked up.  Most of the rest of the way to Geelong I stayed in touch with Helen Lew-Ton and Stephanie. 

In Geelong I stopped and took on drinks (petrol stations here have Obesity Specials on multiple bottles of sugary soft drinks.  In this case it was 2 1.25 litre bottles of lemonade for $4.00) and kept going.  In Leopold, an Ozhpv acquaintance, Simon Watt flagged me down and we had a chat.  Soon after I had one of the worst incidents of the ride, a combination of sunshine, sweat and sunscreen got in my eyes and I had to squint to see and rub my eyes a bit, take my sunglasses off and wait for it all to go away, which it did eventually. 

 A bit further on I spoke to Dieter who was in the ride and he mentioned the 1pm ferry.  That was about 15k from the Queenscliffe ferry terminal and I used my $2.80 cheapo watch and the road signs giving the distance to Queenscliffe to realise I could make the ferry if I fanged it.  So fang it I did, even on the slightly torturous uphills.  In the end catching the ferry was really up to luck, I arrived at the boat at about 1:05 and was the last one on the boat and Dieter who was about a k behind didn't make it.

There were a few other Audaxers on the ferry, and I was able to relax a bit and consume some of the food and drink I had in the trike during the ferry trip.  On the Sorrento side I did a few bike adjustments, changing the handlebar position and moving the seat up toward the cranks a bit.  That sorted It was off to Melbourne, a lazy 95k or so away.

Progress was pretty good with a tailwind most of the way, and often I was faster than the clogged-up coastal holiday traffic.  I had rests at Dromana, Mornington (refuelled there with Turkish Delights and 2 for $6.00 obesity special 1.25 litre cokes)  and then Mordialloc.

Eventually I got in close to 7pm, not too bad all things considered.  Dieter came in 15 minutes later, "very knackered" or words to that effect. The last time I did the ride I got in at 6pm but there were slightly fewer delays that time.   Once again next year?  Not sure!

A few lessons learnt.

Training helps.
Sunburn can be a problem, its worth having cream and arm and leg covers available to use.  With a combination of these, I avoided sunburn this time.
Fizzy, sweet, salty drinks seem to agree with my digestion and they don't force me to pee too often.  This all helps when long distance cycling.

All for now, regards

Steve Nurse