I noticed I don't write much about cycling on here lately so I thought
I'd write about my todays ride.
I'm "sort of" training for the Busso Ironman and because of other things
I haven't had a chance to do any long rides. I did a 140 km ride about a
week ago and today I did the same ride but in the opposite direction.
Setting off from home at 3:15 into a headwind coming from the west I was
determined to try and average about 28 km/h for the ride. It was sunny
but I knew it'd cool down later on so I had on my booties and thermal
gloves and my new aero helmet. I must look like a big canary because I
was dressed in "netti Yellow" with blue shorts. I had a short sleeve top
covered with a long sleeve top and a windproof vest. My bike is a TT
Felt. Mounted on the tri bars is my trusty pair of Luxeons and a battery
pack in my jersey pocket, which I would connect up later.
I met up with a lot of traffic coming from the Worsley alumina refinery.
Worsley is HUGE and looks like a city at night time. Worsley drivers
worry me, especially the ones in utes with gear in the back, but I
survived. i took it easy because there's a bit of a climb going out of
town and I didn't want to get all sweaty too early into the ride.
Cresting Roelands hill it was a fast ride down to the coastal plain.
It's not the speed that worries me but there always seems to be gusty
crosswinds at Roelands and the road has random pot holes pushed up by
the heavy trucks. Getting from Roelands across to the main highway is a
game of russian roulette. It's a narrow, dead straight back road that's
really only there to support the local farmers but over the years it's
become the main connecting road between the coast and the inland areas.
being peak hour, I just had to have faith that the maniacs were awake
and watching the road.
Once on the coast road I had a slight tail wind down to Bunbury, went
through the round-about and on to Boyanup. These roads are much better
as they have a wide shoulder to ride on. Through Boyanup and on to
Donnybrook. About 10 km before Donnybrook (at Argyle) there's a small
set of hills. I stopped and had my new energy food, a vegemite roll!
Over the years I find I get sick of Carboshotz and sugary stuff so I
thought a vegemite roll might make a nice change, and it worked! the
salt in it probably helps too, vegemite is about 12% salt.
Rolling into Donnybrook it was getting dark. I pulled over and drank the
last of my first water bottle, stuck the bottle in my jersey pocket and
stuck the battery pack in the water bottle cage. I also put my raincoat
on as it was getting cool. (We had minus 1 degree C this morning).
The next 30 km from Donnybrook to Mumbalup has got to be the most boring
ride in the world. I've ridden it maybe 100s of times and it's a
steadily rising rough road with no real interest.
Finally at Mumbalup I turned left (at the pub, it's one of two buildings
at Mumbalup), then began a long series of climbs that take me to the top
of Lyalls Mill hill. half way up one of the climbs is a small shrine
dedicated to two old cyclists that had their ashes scattered in the
area. There's a stone with a brass plaque that details their exploits.
Last Sunday was the 80th Collie Donnybrook cycle race, there's a lot of
history attached to it.
Anyway, so once I got to the top it was a 10km downhill run, a few more
little hills and then home to a hot shower.
Time: 5 hrs and 2 minutes. Distance 140 km. Average speed 27.6km/h,
which is ok. Max speed 71.4km/h.(I think the speedo thing must stop when
I stop because my watch time was a bit longer, so toilet stops aren't
included.
The end.
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