Buckley's Ride 2019

A small plastic box....

bolted on at the front for storage.

Front light mount off and.....

lights recharging.

Coreflute marked out for .....

new water bottle mount.

Start of Buckley's ride.

On the ferry, Peter Donnan centre.

Lunch on the ferry.

Checking in at Albert Park, a swan and some German tourists fairly oblivious.

Ahh! Home and with a cup of tea.

Buckley's Ride 2019

Hi

This ride is usually my first Audax ride for the year and I prepareded for it fairly carefully, mostly by fixing up bike accessories: I replaced a destroyed drink bottle mount, charged batteries on lights, pumped up tyres, finessed the wheel discs at the back and reattached a storage box at the front.  No real mechanical tuning was needed, everything was fine.  Actual training was limited to the OzHpv rally rides,5 or 6 40k round trip commutes to work, some 10k rides from Spout Creek to Airey's Inlet, and one 40ker, Aireys Inlet to Lorne and return.

So anyway, the night before the ride I was in bed early and had everything I was going to take or wear laid out on the couchor in the bike already.  A half hour trundle to Albert Park, and very soon we are off under instructions from ride director Sarah.

On the edge of the city, one bunch of 10 including me got through a traffic light, leaving 20 or so behind.  I stuck with the front bunch till Williamstown, when they got away from me, never to be seen again.

Fortunately it didn't take long for a strong rider from the behind bunch to come throughand overtake me, and I stayed with him till just after Weribbee when he turned off into a service station for supplies.  Not long after that, the "behind bunch" started coming through, and I pulled in with them or small groups of them all the way to Lara where I stopped for refuelling myself.  Through Geelong I was with Heather, Henry and another rider, but had run out of puff a bit by soon after Geelong, and they rode off into the distance.  Another group passed me, and then I started noticing the time and "distance to Queenscliffe" signs, and worked out that I could make it to Queenscliffe for the 12 O'clock Ferry, but only if I rode a bit harder!  Which I did, arriving about 12:04, just as the ferry was about to leave.  Whew!

The ferry ride passed quickly, eating lunch, using the bathroom, taking a few pics and chatting to a middle aged lady who was on the ferry to visit Sorrento for a lunch party.

By the time I'd been to the bathroom and topped up my water in Sorrento, most of the other 12-o'clock-ferry -Audaxers had pushed on, and I was able to pass one or 2 before Dromana where I rested for a while before the hilly Dromana to Frankston section.  It was a bit slow and steady through the hills but I got through it ok, and rested again in Frankston.  After that I did quite well on the flat and familiar bits, Frankston to St. Kilda and got in to Albert Park with some energy left at 6pm. 

I was home by 7pm and had earlier ordered a cup of tea from my wife Christine on one of my report-in phone calls. The cup I'd bought in Dromana was in 2 cardboard cups which were very good insulators and the tea stayed too hot for me in the time I had to drink it. I reported this to Christine and she said "God it must have been #%^house" as I am known for my very low standard of tea making and tea acceptance!

After that it was a shower, pyjamas and bed. 

 Overall, I think I did well for the amount of training I did.  I'll stalk the Audax calendar a bit to see what my next ride will be.

Regards

Steve Nurse