Year: 2010

3 generations en route home from the Expo

Girls hard at work racing against the “Metal Guy” at the Bike Expo

The weather was great today so I decided when I got up to see if I could find a ride to join. The Native Planet group were heading out at 9:30 from the east side so I decided to see if I could make it over to that one. However, by the time I’d kept my promises to the girls on the various things they wanted to do this morning I was running pretty late and got to the start about 40 minutes after everyone else had left.

I decided to see if I could catch them up and headed out to follow the cue sheet by myself. It was a great route with some nice climbs but the only sighting I had of my fellow riders was in the car park at the finish. Oh well, at least it got me out on a nice route today.

(As a follow up ride this afternoon, Ashley and I took the tandem over to the beach. She did great and helped power up the long hill from the beach car park without any complaint or rest. When we last used the tag along for the same ride we stopped 3 times going up that hill. It was funny riding over when Ashley decided she wanted to tuck her leggings into her socks to protect them. I could see via her shadow that she was just resting with her feet up on the down tube as she pottered away tucking first one leg and then the other in as I pedalled away).

This was the official kick off for the SIR Brevet season, a hilly loop out from Renton hitting Tiger mountain and May Valley. There were 90 odd riders at the start and we got sent off on our merry way by a bagpiper in full regalia.

My legs felt pretty good but there seemed a lot of riders ahead of me. I got to the finish and the area behind the pub was full of bikes (and the pub full of bikers eating and drinking). Once the official results came out I saw that there were actually a fair few riders still out on the course after me (I came in around 36th) so I was in my standard mid pack position after all.

Now the challenge for the rest of the season is to get faster!

The sun finally arrived! Clear blue skies and a great day on the bike heading up over the hills from Redmond and out to North Bend and Lake Dorothy.

No punctures today and I rode at a better pace, averaging 16.5 mph for the day with no breaks.

I need to bring a more varied selection of food for these rides as gel blocks and Zone bars were getting a bit old by the end of the ride. A sandwich or banana would have gone down well.

Next up – the spring populaire next Sunday and the official kick off of the 2010 SIR brevet season.

Pretty wet roads at the start of this ride. I promptly got a flat after about 4 miles and saw the peleton vanish up the road. 25 minutes later (not my fastest tire change) I was back cycling and wondering if I’d get to see anyone else for the rest of the ride.

Fortunately I eventually caught up with Larry (who had also got a puncture) at mile 22 or so and had some company for the rest of the ride. We decided to shave 9 miles off the ride at an opportune moment to catch up with more people and thus had even more company for the last 15 miles.

Pleasant company and a nice opportunity to test out my new aero bars for portions of the ride.