Metric Century!

Dear bicyclists,

I took my tourer out for a work in, having decided to ride Hornsby to
Gosford. At first light my silly mind kept thinking "Gosford,
Gosford, Gosford," and so I bought a ticket to Gosford. Realising my
error I got off at Woy Woy and did a metric century to my parents home
in Newcastle.

Hilights: Headwinds. Going north: headwinds; going east: headwinds;
going west: headwinds. Hill after rolling hill. Wyee Road was,
interesting. I also noticed (being a Novocastrian), that Central
Coast drivers were MUCH MUCH more polite than Lake Macquarie /
Newcastle drivers.

Riding the shoulder / outside line is much safer on "country" roads; a
complete 180 reversal of "take the lane always" innercity riding.

Why do you get gusting cross winds on an uphill narrow bridge? And
why is this when two packs of cars decide to cross each other?

Fun fun fun. I regret bonking at about 75km though, but got through
it in the end.

thanks for the inspiration which got me there,
Sam R.

"Sam R." wrote in message
oups.com...
Dear bicyclists,

I took my tourer out for a work in, having decided to ride Hornsby to
Gosford. At first light my silly mind kept thinking "Gosford,
Gosford, Gosford," and so I bought a ticket to Gosford. Realising my
error I got off at Woy Woy and did a metric century to my parents home
in Newcastle.

Hilights: Headwinds. Going north: headwinds; going east: headwinds;
going west: headwinds. Hill after rolling hill. Wyee Road was,
interesting. I also noticed (being a Novocastrian), that Central
Coast drivers were MUCH MUCH more polite than Lake Macquarie /
Newcastle drivers.

Riding the shoulder / outside line is much safer on "country" roads; a
complete 180 reversal of "take the lane always" innercity riding.

Why do you get gusting cross winds on an uphill narrow bridge? And
why is this when two packs of cars decide to cross each other?

Fun fun fun. I regret bonking at about 75km though, but got through
it in the end.

thanks for the inspiration which got me there,
Sam R.


Sounds like a fun ride let me know the next time you want to go do the
century and I can come along and offer you a wheel to sit on so the
headwinds will not be such an issue ( I am 193cm tall and weigh ~95 kgs so
you will get a good draught ).

I raced last night at the Clarence St cup at Dunc Gray.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/3...5f859533_b.jpg

I was just coming off the wheel and was giving it full power at that point,
I missed out on beating that rider by a few cm's.

I ended up 4th in the point score at the end, as I went out on the front for
too long in the 1st sprint and did not manage to get any points on the 2nd.
I did not have time to recover from the 1st sprint due to the race being
changed from a sprint every 5 laps to a sprint every 4 laps.

The race was shortened due to a big fall just before the 1st sprint was
meant to happen, several riders came down at over 50 km/h and the entire
bottom of the track was blocked and the race was stopped, and restarted with
the shortened format.

I got home in Newcastle at around 1:30 am managed to get to bed around 2:30
am, then was up at 6:20 am to get ready to ride the 25 km's over to the
races at Kooragang.

I raced in B grade at the veterans invitation races, we averaged 39.6 km/h
for the 42km ( a rather easy leisurely pace ), at the end of the race I had
the wheel of the winner but got taken off it by someone with some radical
moves, and I had to hit the brakes to avoid a fall.
A gap opened up really close to the line and I managed to get out of the
pack and sprinted to the line but it was too late I only managed to get 4th,
had I been able to stay on the wheel of the winner I would have rolled him
on the line and taken the win, but it was not to be and to be honest I would
rather not place than cause a fall or come down myself.

After the race I did a few extra training km's with 2 other riders, I did
about 140 km's in total today before lunch time.
I got home had a shower, made up a 1 litre banana, egg, icecream, yogurt,
honey and vanilla milkshake drank the whole thing and had a corned beef
salad sandwich.
I then got onto the lounge and watched speed week and fell asleep for about
3 hours, I was totally knackerd as I bet you were after doing that 100 km
ride.

On Feb 4, 1:41 pm, "Sam R."
wrote:
Dear bicyclists,

I took my tourer out for a work in, having decided to ride Hornsby to
Gosford. At first light my silly mind kept thinking "Gosford,
Gosford, Gosford," and so I bought a ticket to Gosford. Realising my
error I got off at Woy Woy and did a metric century to my parents home
in Newcastle.

Hilights: Headwinds. Going north: headwinds; going east: headwinds;
going west: headwinds.


Cyclones eh?!


Hill after rolling hill. Wyee Road was,
interesting. I also noticed (being a Novocastrian), that Central
Coast drivers were MUCH MUCH more polite than Lake Macquarie /
Newcastle drivers.

Riding the shoulder / outside line is much safer on "country" roads; a
complete 180 reversal of "take the lane always" innercity riding.

Generally, yeah, it's better on country roads to use the shoulder.
Some of the dodgeyest times I've had on the road have been on country
roads with no shoulder and trucks coming in opposite directions. The
gravel is often the safest place to be in that event!


Why do you get gusting cross winds on an uphill narrow bridge? And
why is this when two packs of cars decide to cross each other?

Fun fun fun. I regret bonking at about 75km though, but got through
it in the end.

thanks for the inspiration which got me there,

Great ride Sam, top stuff.

So it sounds like you could call this a wind training session. Reminds
me of a time I went for a ride in Forbes. I went 25 kilometres very
comfortably averaging 46 km/h. Turned around into a 45 knot breeze
with gusts. 20.5 km/h average for the trip back....Thank God there are
NO HILLS in Forbes

On Feb 4, 1:41 pm, "Sam R."
wrote:
Dear bicyclists,

I took my tourer out for a work in, having decided to ride Hornsby to
Gosford. At first light my silly mind kept thinking "Gosford,
Gosford, Gosford," and so I bought a ticket to Gosford. Realising my
error I got off at Woy Woy and did a metric century to my parents home
in Newcastle.

Hilights: Headwinds. Going north: headwinds; going east: headwinds;
going west: headwinds. Hill after rolling hill. Wyee Road was,
interesting. I also noticed (being a Novocastrian), that Central
Coast drivers were MUCH MUCH more polite than Lake Macquarie /
Newcastle drivers.

Riding the shoulder / outside line is much safer on "country" roads; a
complete 180 reversal of "take the lane always" innercity riding.

Why do you get gusting cross winds on an uphill narrow bridge? And
why is this when two packs of cars decide to cross each other?

Fun fun fun. I regret bonking at about 75km though, but got through
it in the end.

thanks for the inspiration which got me there,
Sam R.