A bike track loop with da boyz

I have a friend who I went to high school with (several decades ago), who had arranged for a mate come down from Moe to do a 70km bike trail ride.  It was great excuse to catch up with Darryn & Sean & I invited Daniel along, who I hadn't ridden with in ages.  It wasn’t a long ride, but I figured that if I left early enough I could get in a sneaky long ride in for the day as well.

                                             Me & Sean down the Dandenong Creek Trail

I left around quarter to 6, and I was a couple of minutes down the road when the skies opened up.  I love riding in the rain, but this was ferocious.  It was cold, and I got soaked pretty quick, and honestly was considering turning around and heading back home.  A couple of k’s up the road was a bus shelter, & I sat in there for a couple of minutes till the storm passed.  It only lasted about 10 minutes, but it made the roads quite slick.  Today was going to be challenging as there was a stiff westerly forecast, and for what we were doing, we were either going to have a nice tail wind, or be fighting the winds.

 

 

Today’s ride was a nice social chit chat.  We didn’t set the world on fire, but the wind made sure that I got a good workout.  We did a loop up to Jells Park, and had lunch at the Jells Park Café. 

 

Chirnside Road (Berwick).  200 metres @ 18%

The return trip to Berwick was nice and easy with a good tail wind behind us.  After Sean & Darryn left, I took Daniel up to Payne & O’neil Road which finished him off for the day, and helped him to rack up yet another century.  I earned my money on the way back going squarely into a head wind.  I'm actually starting to enjoy riding right into head winds.  You’ve really got to focus on your technique, and it’s a similar experience to pacing yourself up a climb. I rode 100 miles that day (160 km's).  All up I had a great ride, which given the winds & cold conditions in the morning was a decent workout, and since December I have had hardly any chances to do long distance rides, so and was good to get the confidence up.  

 

Here is a link to my Strava Activity here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/242009025