Beach Road Riding

mark_melb

Hello All,

This is a call to all who may ride Beach Road on a Saturday and/or Sunday morning but not in a group, or want a new group.

If you are an OK rider and want to start a new one............

No age limits, but there would be fitness limits. No Lance Armstrongs and no shopping baskets. I'm thinking lycra brigade only.

This is a networking thing..........

Just as background, I'm usually at Beach Rd/Fitzroy St by 8.00 am, go to Black Rock roundabout and back home (Prahran) on saturday, and to Mordi (if in the mood) and back on Sunday.

Any meeting point suggestions?

Otherwise, are there any small groups that want to build some numbers.

I'm keen.

Mark

rek

Hi Mark,

Some of us used to have a bit of a weekly thing going on a weekend morning, but as winter set in, it started to lose steam ..

http://www.cyclingforums.com/t20829.html

I'm not sure if it was just the weather, but 8am was too early for us We usually started around 9 or 10.

We usually started up by the London Cafe at Station Pier, and went to Mordialloc and back (55km). Occasionally, one or two of us went for a second lap after a coffee. Average speeds were around 28-31 km/h depending on wind, etc.

I'm umming and ahhing about doing the Around the Bay in a Day so I'm keen to get some regular long distance, low intensity riding in again.

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

mark_melb

I'm looking at a little bit more c..c...commitment and reliability. The assumed cold, wing and 'too early' are poor excuses. Sorry.

rek

Understood .. I take it you're a serious road racer ?

Personally speaking, cold, windy, rainy, foggy, horrible mornings are when the mountain bike comes out to play. Why merely endure conditions, when you can enjoy them instead

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

mark_melb

Glad you understand. Off road bikes are a bit useless for Beach Road. I imagine you will be back out in it when the weather gets more favourable for you.
The cooler weather and fresh mornings are great for starting a day. The last few weeks have been the busiest I've ever seen it. Even summer was not as busy.
I suppose many think it's going to be too hot.
Thankfully Melbourne has a temperate climate.

su22

Hi Mark,

thanks for putting up this post. im not sure if youll still be interested now that it's Aug and you wrote in Apr!

i started road riding when i got into triathlon late 2002/early 2003. i ride on Sat/Sun mornings when i haven't been out/worked the night before but it's highly variable. i guess if there was a group i HAD to meet up, that would force me to rock up on time.

i think my av spd is 30kmh on a good day, and yesterday when i rode for the first time in this really frustrating headwind it was probably 27-28kmh.

on an enthusiastic day, i ride from Brighton (end of Nth Rd) to Mordy and back (35km tot) in 1hr10min, sometimes stopping for stretch/toilet at Mordy. cuz i ride to Melb uni from Bri (13km, takes me 35-40 min on MTB, incl bloody traffic lights) 3 out of 5 days, and swim and run other days, sometimes i dont quite feel up to the 35km, so i just do 20km. id love to be able to do 35km comfortably all the time. im no hotshot triathlete-- just wanting to be build myself up cuz it's all acting as a base for further years.

at the moment i dont ride with anyone, and am still pretty clueless on road riding etiquette. yesterday i rode 20-25km from Bri to Beaumaris; didnt get passed except by a pack of strong cyclists who zoomed past me. it was really windy so i sat on their tail until we hit a hill and they blitzed! another tag-along guy at (who had a nice Bianchi and looked big/strong/intimidating) lost the pack too, so we were the crap tag-alongs who couldnt keep up. i was surprised that i rode at the same speed as this guy. i was too scared to talk to him, and he looked up-himself, so we were overtaking each other every 2km or so. he looked like he was struggling against the wind too, and at one stage i noticed he was sitting right on my tail. i ended up being in front of him, and now dont feel so bad about my cycling. maybe he was just having a **** day??

and yeah i need some cycling mates who arent too fast, but again arent just looking at the scenery the whole time. ive tried to give an indication of my speeds-- sorry for the big message!! my max spd going down the steepest hills is probably 54kmh (but that's a little scary for me), and on windy/crap days going up the steepest/longest hills on the Beach rd trip i depress myself seeing the 17kmh reading on my speedo!!!!! (it's so humiliating!)

if you're still looking for people to ride with on Sat or Sun mornings pls send me an email: <worldwidewasteoftime@hotmail.com>-- that's if you can put up riding with
(1) a girl (sorry that makes me slower/less gutsy i think!) and
(2) one of those bloody triathletes with aerobars.

cheers
Su

mark_melb

Su,

Sounds like you were doing what I was in the wind on the weekend. I still say that if you are with the wind one way, it will balance out the other.

Still, it was a great morning for a ride......apart from the wind.

I'll send you a message.

Mark

rek

Tell me about it -- I did a 10km road ride on my mountain bike to make sure the speedo calibration was in sync, and it was hell compared to the same route on the road bike.


It's not so much the weather (I've been riding nights lately, when it's about 4-7 degrees) but the fact that Beach Road is a 30-40 minute drive away, and the singletrack is 5 minutes away If I was to ride to Station Pier and then do the two laps I like to do (to make it a worthwhile day) it ends up being 170+ km

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

mark_melb

Rek,

I did not realise you drove to Station Pier to ride your bike. It must be a real bitch first thing. I see your problem.
Mind you, it seems to be the fashion at the moment. Beach Road looks like a yuppy carpark in the morning these days.
One seems to have to own a 4WD to cart their, more money than sense, bike to where they want to ride.

Maybe in the summer.

Cheers

Mark

mark_melb

I think this weekend will test even the hardiest in Melbourne.

terminalvelo

Nah, if you've got the legs there is nothing like riding a few cafe racers off your wheel on an MTB. If the bunch is cruising at under 40 it's not that hard to sit on on a slicked up MTB, you can even do some turns if you don't make everyone nervous, though I've discovered that no matter how hard you try, you can't win the tea-house sprint on a 5 inch dually...

mark_melb

Good one Terminal.....Had me going there for a min. Horses for courses. Did not see any MTS's doing those pissy hills on Le Tour...........

terminalvelo

I don't think Virenque need be concerned. Haven't seen too many carbon Time's like his on the DH circuit though...

I just like to see people out on whatever they've got, roadie or MTB, so long as they show common sense and respect for each other. That goes for anywhere, not just down the beach.

Personally, I often ride an MTB on Beach Rd for threshold/leg speed sessions because it's close to home. Mostly I stay out of the bunches because a) MTBers often have limited group riding etiquette/skills, which makes the bunch nervous and spoils their day; and b) I generally only ride on Beach Rd if I'm riding to a program. Occasionally I ride in a social road bunch, and it's OK. If they wind it up they drop me pretty quick, but on recovery rides the pace is usually fine.

Pete

mark_melb

Actually Pete,

Can you tell me if you know of some good 700c (28-32mm)smoothish tyres that would suit my Mongoose Randonneur (sort of like a cyclocross/touring format). I found Conti Top Touring sssslllllow. Shwalbe Marathons?? This is my other bike for trails/bikeways. The Canondale is too tough on the botty for anything other than smoooooth.

Mark