DeF said:The Perth Freeway BikeHike was yesterday.
This is an event where 30km of the freeway
is closed to cars (yay!) and about 6000 cyclists
get to ride that section from Belmont Race Course
to Joondalup. It's a fund raiser for Asthma Foundation.
I've done it three years is a row now and it's a hoot.
It's a straight all out blast on a beautiful smooth
surface. Only thing is the thousands of other riders
of various levels of ability and experience in pack
riding. Packs of several hundred were forming and
there were several accidents. Plenty of riders
arrived at Joondalup with claret oozing from various
scrapes.
There were plenty of scary moments with sudden braking,
swerving and general shouting and craziness. In the
fast bunches (around 45kph) it was difficult to find
a safe spot.
One of the larger pile ups happened right in front
of me. I was off to one side of a large group where
I thought it was a bit safer. About three riders go
down at once and spill across the road. By some
miracle, I manage to brake and swerve around a downed
rider's head and stay up. Not so lucky those behind me.
About 20 riders go down in total.
I was wearing a helmet camera and caught the first
riders going down - very hard to tell how it happened.
Maybe I'll get it up on youtube when I've worked out
how to do it.
Great fun but in retrospect, I count myself lucky that
I arrived in one piece. Next time I'm going to try and
work out a safer way to ride it.
DeF
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e-mail: d.farrow@your finger.murdoch.edu.au
To reply, you'll have to remove your finger.
Yep, good fun. I did the short 10km course because I wanted to ride with the family and the younger daughter is only 11, so under the rules for the ride she is too young to ride the 30km.
You are right about the varying abilities of the riders.
I ended up in one of the crashes. On the ramp (normally a freeway on-ramp) at the end of the ride. There was a lot of traffic going up the incline and the slow riders had slowed right down, forming a moving chicane.
A group of slightly faster riders was moving through at about 15kmh. My 11 year old had gone past the slow riders and I was following. A lad of about 15 or 16 moved out of the slow bunch straight into me. He was too far forward to just bump shoulders and he put his pedal into my front spokes.
My bike stopped immediately. I did not stop immediately. I did the 'superman' over the bars. I continued down the bitumen on palms of hands, nose, chin, chest, knees. At some point in the exercise, I unclipped from my pedals.
The kid who caused the crash seemed to come off unscathed. He was very apologetic so I didn't rip into him. I was also more interested in making sure the bike was OK.
My wife and other daughter were well behind and did not see the crash but saw me standing up amid crashed bikes. They did not stop as I looked OK and they decided that stopping would have disrupted other riders.
However, they did stop and wait at the top of the ramp. We continued the ride together from there.
Coffee and cake at one of the many cafes that was open in Joondalup on the day made all the hurties better.
I think my kids were more concerned about the blood on my face and knees than I was. The green scouring pad in the shower at home cleaned up the face and knees. Occlusive dressings will make the skin as good as new. A few ibuprofen made the bruises on my hands, ribs and knees feel better. My wrists feel very slightly sprained but the ibuprofen is helping those too.
I am going to a 1 day conference at UWA tomorrow and it will be attended by the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and assorted dark suits. I can't shave due to the road rash on the face, the road rash itself is particularly attractive, and I'm moving fairly gingerly overall. I wonder what story I should make up to tell them?
Steve(yep, I'm going back next year. Why wouldn't I?)A
