Cobram Audax 200k

 

Strathmerton Post Office where I...

posted off my....

Completed Brevet Card. 21.2 k average from start to finish, very pleased!

Burning off in the afternoon near Katunga

Namurkah with Red Car

Namurkah with White Car

Outside Nathalia

Nathalia

This Pub for Sale, Nathalia

GPS worked well!

Near Katunga in the morning

Richard showing off.

Herding cattle

Near Katunga

The start

The Motel

Bike in the Motel

The Map

Hi

Yesterday I got back from a 2 night stay in Cobram, and fitted in a visit to my Aunt, an op shop, a few bakeries, and a flat Audax 200k ride. It was a long-ride-debut for the new tailbox and fairing-parcel-shelf on the trike, my first Audax for the year, and my first formal training step for the Great Southern Randonee in November. Its not a huge ride given the sort of training I've done, but nevertheless I was keen to get a few Audax k's under my belt before trying something with more consequences.

The visit to my Aunt was great. She lives on an unsealed road about 5k from Beruga, which is in turn about 4k from Cobram. I hadn't ridden out there before but decided to try it this time. And like some previous visits, I overshot her gateway and kept going for a k or two on the jarring road before turning back. A gentleman had stopped in the road to inspect a dead kangaroo he'd hit in his car the day before. He was picking up bits of broken headlight and his car was obviously bashed in. It was a big roo. Anyway, he directed me to Mary's place (not far). 

Mary was with her friend Pat and they were impressed with the trike, so much so that Mary rang up her son David and invited herself and me and the trike over so I could show it to David and his family. This involved me following Mary's car over sand drifts and corrugations for 3k or so. We sat around the table and chatted for a while. It was good to catch up and meet everybody. It was getting dark by the time I left, and David, who drives trucks and all sorts of agricultural machinery offered to drop me back to the made road rather than negotiate the sand drifts in the dark. I gratefully accepted and got to relive my ute riding childhood on farms, grabbing the back rail of the ute with one hand and the trike with the other and riding with David to the top of the hill just after the bitumen began. I dismounted with the trike, and was on my way in the dark, only stopping in Barooga to adjust my seat which had slipped back a bit on the trip. After a pub dinner I was in bed early. 

After plenty of sleep, it was very easy to pootle down to the 7:30 am start. I fell in with Richard who did a steady 25 kph most of the way to Nathalia. Something was irritating my kidneys and I needed to pee a bit so that kept me always playing catchup. Finally outside Nathalia my bottom bracket came loose and needed fixing, and he pulled away for good, and after that I didn't see any other riders.  

But I did ok. It was quite warm, I stopped in Shepparton to have a pie and get my Brevet card signed, then stopped again in Namurkah. After that I was still riding quite well, and when I checked the time realised I could do an overall time of under 10 hours, or 20kph average. So I kept up the speed and was happy with the result.  There were some headwinds but they didn't affect me much and the Garmin did a good job of navigating. I still can't get it to show my speed as I'm rolling, but I'll get there with that or find a workaround eventually.

No real problems with the bike. Things dropped out of the fairing tray when I went over bumps, and I will improve that, and I have found some neobdinium magnets to use as catches for the tailbox hatch and am looking forward to installing them. The seat needs a bit of attention too, like 2 layers of padding on the bum and tidying up a bit.

Next up is a ride from Port Fairy to Anglesea, a tough one, 300k with hills, but I am familiar with the territory, am training on hills, so am hoping for the best. I am thinking that in lieu of steep enough hills, I will just ride up the local hills faster, at 13 or 15 kph instead of 10 kph say.

Regards

Steve Nurse

Bike all packed up and in the car.