Atb

[MikeyOz]

I know a lot of people are not interested on here, but thought I would post my comments anyway about the day.

Brilliant weather, not too cold and not too hot, with a smattering of rain to make it a little interesting. Certainly noticied the extra distance around the peninsula, especially with the wind and the rain. But managed to drag my brother and a mate on his first Around the bay around until the finish so it was a great day all around, 2 Flats in our small group, apparently 1 heart attack victim along the Freeway, hope he is doing ok and they managed to get to him I have not heard anything about the person but really hope they are ok ????

Saw 1 nasty incident only about 10 kms in and was thinking this does not bode well for the day. Maginificent trip over the Westgate as usual with the sun coming up.... almost worth the price of the entry itself.

One of our who group who actually opted out of the 250 at Geelong because he was slightly under prepared noticed a very "LARGE" amount of people who had entered the 250, actually doing the 210 instead. And we also noticed a lot of people cutting chunks off the extra distance when we saw them coming out of side roads on the stretch back toward the main road to QUeenscliff.

AWESOME chicken tandoori sandwhich on the ferry across! Got stuck on a small ferry, was a little cold. But overall a great day for riding and well done to all those people had not done anywhere near enough training but got out there anyway. Especially those people who get out there and do things like the 100km and just make a whole day of it, a lot of people with smiles on faces and also some with not so happy faces, especially passing them go up Mount Martha and some of the irregular breathing.

Very well done, Bicycle Victoria.... and Im glad to see they don't waste tooooo much money on Sign Posting

 

[flyingdutch]

one word. tired!

did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86 inches.
REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be arsed jumpin off and changing it back.

legs kept turnin in bed last night...

 

[Harng Goh]

flyingdutch wrote:

> one word. tired!
>
> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
> inches.
> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
>
> legs kept turnin in bed last night...
>
>
> --
> flyingdutch

Only saw one guy on a singlespeed mountain bike, but I was wondering
where all the fixie riders were - didn't spot any.

Actually, I lie. I did see two fixies - two guys on unicycles coming up
Mount Martha.The mind boggles...

 

[MWP]

I was overtaken near the end by a rider on a Birdie foldup bike.

Harng Goh wrote:

> flyingdutch wrote:
>
> > one word. tired!
> >
> > did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
> > inches.
> > REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
> > arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
> >
> > legs kept turnin in bed last night...
> >
> >
> > --
> > flyingdutch
>
> Only saw one guy on a singlespeed mountain bike, but I was wondering
> where all the fixie riders were - didn't spot any.
>
> Actually, I lie. I did see two fixies - two guys on unicycles coming up
> Mount Martha.The mind boggles...

 

[Dancier]

apparently 1 heart attack victim along the Freeway, hope he is doing ok and they managed to get to him I have not heard anything about the person but really hope they are ok ????

Approaching Avalon the road was completly blocked to all traffic, they had the chopper in the middle of the road. Apparently a guy had a heart attack and came down in amongst a pack and took a few riders with him. We were there for at least 10 minutes until we were allowed to pass. I was near the front of the pack leaving the accident seen and their was a guy on a TT bike leading and going for it so we all had a great ride into Geelong. Not many people on the 250k route though.

 

[Rory Williams]

I know a lot of people are not interested on here, but thought I would post my comments anyway about the day.

But overall a great day for riding and well done to all those people had not done anywhere near enough training but got out there anyway. Especially those people who get out there and do things like the 100km and just make a whole day of it, a lot of people with smiles on faces and also some with not so happy faces, especially passing them go up Mount Martha and some of the irregular breathing.

Very well done, Bicycle Victoria.... and Im glad to see they don't waste tooooo much money on Sign Posting

I too had a good day

For vairety I went 'door-to door' from home. I had a new colleague from work along who wanted to have a go but was a bit underdone so he was just planning to stop at Geelong.

Out the door about 05:30 and more or less straight south from Hughesdale to pick up Beach Rd at Chesterville rd. Very quiet on the roads with no congestion all the 83km to Sorrento, nice well behaved groups at my kind of pace. A bit of rain arround Mornington but not too bad. Small ferry across with a bit of a delay loading etc so we had about an hour and a half's break all up.

Out of Queenscliff they took us across to Ocean Grove which was a bit different. The BOM website tells me that the wind was around 30km/h out of the SW and it wasn't a lot of fun but we eventually picked up a good group to get us into Geelong.

At Geelong my colleague left me (he lives down there) I had a water stop then set off up the freeway with a good group, a tailwind and the swoosh of passing cars all the way to Werribee. Everyone well behaved but a fair bit of crud cast off from trucks etc. in the stopping lane.

The route from Werribee was a bit confused chopping and changing from one side of the freeway to the other. It very much highlights the lack of direct off-freeway routes in the west.

Ended up at Docklands about 14:30 to see what was going on. 205km down at this point which made the Queenscliff-Melbourne leg 122km which seems a bit longer than advertised. (or my computer is a bit off). Had a bit of a break then rode home to finish up with 225km for the day. The last 20 being a bit of a grind.

Well done again to BV on a good day

RoryW

 

[Euan]

flyingdutch wrote:
> one word. tired!
>
> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
> inches.
> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
>
> legs kept turnin in bed last night...

You. Are. Mad.
--
Cheers
Euan

 

[Resound]

"Euan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> flyingdutch wrote:
>> one word. tired!
>>
>> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
>> inches.
>> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
>> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
>>
>> legs kept turnin in bed last night...
>
> You. Are. Mad.
> --
> Cheers
> Euan
>

82" of gear over the Westgate is some serious mashing!

 

[The Real Andy]

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:24:16 GMT, Euan <[email protected]> wrote:

>flyingdutch wrote:
>> one word. tired!
>>
>> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
>> inches.
>> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
>> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
>>
>> legs kept turnin in bed last night...
>
>You. Are. Mad.

I am not quite sure what you are all on about, but I am thinking its a
big cog on the front with a really small on the back with big ass
wheels. Sounds awefull. What gears should I use on my trip to cairns?

 

[ritcho]

[snip]

Well done again to BV on a good day

RoryW

I didn't have such a rosy view of the day... on the plus side, the marshalls and volunteers controlling intersections and providing directions were great.

Big poopoos to BV for stuffing up the ferries. I was lucky enough to get a ticket for 1100h at Queenscliff, only to be prevented from boarding with about a hundred other ****** off cyclists. Why? 'Cos they loaded up too many _cars_. We were there first, ticketed and paid for, yet had to wait till 1220h (yes, that much later). As with all things, queue position was everything, so we had to sit in the cold and windy carpark for over an hour. The ferry's toilets overflowed and flooded the passenger deck with stinky filth. Not nice.

There was one of those toilet truck-trailer things at Queenscliff, but it was out of order (of course).

I feel sorry for the heart attack victims and the numerous crash victims and wish them a speedy recovery. One crash victim riding immediately in front of me almost took me down when he touched the wheel in front of him. Lucky for me, I was able to stop in time (and those behind as well). He had some skinned knuckles, but was otherwise fine.

Too many people, too expensive and not enough organisation at the ferries. Give money directly to charity next time and go for your own ride.

Ritch

 

[Bleve]

The Real Andy wrote:
> On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:24:16 GMT, Euan <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >flyingdutch wrote:
> >> one word. tired!
> >>
> >> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
> >> inches.
> >> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
> >> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
> >>
> >> legs kept turnin in bed last night...
> >
> >You. Are. Mad.
>
> I am not quite sure what you are all on about, but I am thinking its a
> big cog on the front with a really small on the back with big ass
> wheels. Sounds awefull. What gears should I use on my trip to cairns?

Certainly not a fixed gear ...

 

[Parbs]

Bleve wrote:
> The Real Andy wrote:
>> <snip> What gears should I use on my trip to cairns?
>
> Certainly not a fixed gear ...
>

But he did describe himself as a madman.

Parbs

 

[Gags]

"MikeyOz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
....... apparently 1 heart attack victim along the Freeway,
> hope he is doing ok and they managed to get to him I have not heard
> anything about the person but really hope they are ok ????
>

The group I was with rode past this guy on the side of the freeway...there
was a support car there along with a few people and the guy was getting CPR
(I later heard from a mate that the news reported two heart attacks with
both victims surviving). This slowed our group down for a while (pretty
sobering) but the pace soon picked up again.

> Saw 1 nasty incident only about 10 kms in and was thinking this does
> not bode well for the day.

Not sure if it was the same person but we saw a girl looking pretty dazed on
the side of the road not too far from the Westgate. She had road rash on
her chin and was bleeding from the nose (again she was being looked after so
we rode straight past).

I was with a mate from work and four of his mates. We started from Brighton
at about 0500h. We were going pretty quick and passing quite a few
groups..One big group of about 20 guys in green jerseys (smsfactory or
something like that??) decided to hook onto the back of us and then
proceeded to stuff everything up for quite a few kms. They were all over
the shop, with some of them deciding to mix in amongst our guys and the pace
was all over the shop. We waited until one of the little rises prior to
Geelong and then moved to the front en-mass and upped the pace.....some of
the guys in green struggled and we finally dropped them all (I think some
decided to wait for the others). We ended up catching up with a couple of
other groups through Geelong and rode with them until Queenscliff (the 250km
option). There were about 30 of us all up in the group and the pace was up
pretty high pushing into a headwind and crosswind. I was not particularly
enjoying things as about three times the guy in front of me dropped off the
wheel in front of him and by the time I realised, I had to go around and
make it back up to the next wheel. I pretty well had my **** hanging out
(and was busting for a toilet break for about 2 hours) but managed to hang
onto the group until the ferry. We got there at just before 1000h and had
time to fill water bottles and go to the toilet prior to catching the 1000h
ferry.

Got off the ferry and there was a cold breeze and it was raining a bit. I
was freezing and shivering so my mate and I decided to start riding slowly
by ourselves as we had somehow all got split up when getting on the ferry
(turns out later the other guys "got lost" and didn't get on the ferry).
Once we got going I felt a lot better and we sped up and rode two abreast
from Sorrento to the finish without ever drafting behind anyone. We were
keeping a decent pace and ended up with about 60 or so riders in our
'peleton' consisting of guys we had overtaken or who had caught us up and
were happy to leave my mate and I on the front. We lost our bunch going up
the hill at Balcombe but soon had some new followers after that. We didn't
really get overtaken by more than one or two guys until the last 10km or so
on Beach Rd when a few guys and small groups went past.

We ended up doing 260km in a bit under 8 hours (can't remember exact time
but average speed was 32.7km/h). The 160km or so to Queenscliffe was the
furthest I have ever ridden without a break (not even a **** stop) and the
last 100km or so was the furthest I have gone continuously without drafting
someone. I ended up with a Giro Atmos sunburn pattern on my head (very
attractive) and sunburn from the bottom of my knicks to the top of my knee.
All in all a pretty good day although I am not sure if I will bother with
the 250km next year......might do the 210km on the fixie.

Gags

 

[rooman]

felt much better after this year than last, because I'm 10 kgs lighter perhaps!

I did the 210, which actually measured at 208.47 (whereas last year's 210, measured closer to 221 ... hmmm!)

couldnt complain about the route, I went BlackRock, via docklands Westgate, Queenscliff, ferry (hi speed charter this year, wasnt going to lose the endorphins levels this year, with a break longer than 35mins to cross the heads, dock to dock was 21mins..woohoo), then Sorrento to Black Rock...worst bit of road was at the upper end of the rise up into Mt Martha, edge was breaking up, a masterpiece of road repair , it had a perfect tarmac out to the left lane/bike lane line then crumbling crud of a bike lane to the shoulder...great work Mornington Council/VicRoads, we really appreciate your dedication to giving us safe, servicable bike lanes when you do, and keeping them in such great condition NOT.

head wind on the Geelong freeway wasnt a lot of fun, but loved the tail wind from Dromana to Black Rock and arriving back at the start, had a massage waiting, a good nosh and some more hydration

carried a bit too much gear (about 5kgs) made up of three tubes, three gas bottles, some allen keys and multi tool , 6 Gu's, 6 Power bars, 4 small jam sambos and 1 litre bidon of water and 1 600ml bidon of electolyte (gatorade mix lime / lemon) had a small micro fibre rain jacket courtesy of Déscente and a spare pair of socks, a spare headsweat band and two small first aid kits for road rash, phone, digi. camera and HRM. Apart from the food I really didnt use anything bar a head sweat band change at Geelong.

We had a sag car on both sides, but I opted to carry my stuff in a Limar helmet back pac bag ( super light) and wore a wind vest over the top, and used Campag. arm and leg warmers, poifect, just right for the wind and the temp of the day)

I rode in a group of 30, with 25 women and 5 guys, the gals rode superbly, no whinging, no complaints, they all did their turns and stayed on the wheel, and maintained darn good bladder control.....the guys were gatekeepers and we managed to keep the group free from unpredictable strangers... I had a few terse words with one stubborn coot who liked the fact we could tow him along, only trouble he wanted to be in the middle of the group and so he got my wheel in front, hip up to top bar manouvre and a subtle suggestion he could ride safely at the back, but if he stayed where he was, we were both going to stop very soon, and only one of us was going to get back on the bunch...he pondered this along with my suggestion that whilst he may very well be a competent rider, we do not know him, to us he is an unpredictable element we have not trained with and thus was not welcome IN the bunch, but could sit on providing he did not half wheel. He left....

we had 4 flats, ( two to the same people), but it wasnt hard, each flat took no more than 1 minute to change and we stayed together and resumed without any great delay...gas bottles are great...

after Sorrento we slpit the group into two as we knew the lanes would become tighter and some areas were marked single file, the lead group took overall approx 7 1/2 hours riding, max speed was a slightly illegal 62 on Ollies, and average overall was 28.5kph , second group had a slower ride up from Sorrento and smelled the daisies on the way, they came in 45mins after the lead, all looked refreshed and very happy.

No overtly difficult drivers on the Geelong leg, the semi's seemed to do the right thing and drove down the centre lane of the freeway, only one galloot in a Kingswood (yes the Kingswood!!) towing a caravan thought it was funny to drive at max speed in the left lane and as close to riders as possible...coming up from Sorrento we had a few Bogans calling out from their Dunnydores some incomprehensible muttering, and one Monaro hoon ripped up the back of Ollies at 30kph over the limit next to the bike lane with his horn blasting...seems the Bogans are very much aligned in their choice of behaviour and limited social skilling.

Noticebly higher police presence on the Geelong side of the Bay, fewer on the Frankston side, maybe the Bogan's knew something!

But to my mind, 'twas a good day for a ride.


And Dutchie..you're nuts!
Roo

 

[ProfTournesol]

flyingdutch wrote:

> one word. tired!
>
> did 2/3rds on 72 inches of fixed 'fun, the return from Geelong on 86
> inches.
> REALLY felt that larger gear going over the westgate but couldnt be
> arsed jumpin off and changing it back.
>
> legs kept turnin in bed last night...
>
>
> --
> flyingdutch

Only saw one guy on a singlespeed mountain bike, but I was wondering
where all the fixie riders were - didn't spot any.

Actually, I lie. I did see two fixies - two guys on unicycles coming up
Mount Martha.The mind boggles...

I think that they are the same unicycles that did it last year and also the GVBR in which case they have 3 speed hub gears, I'm not sure how they'd work as they'd be fixies wouldn't they?

I did it on my Bike Friday and thought that I'd take a different approach this year and destruction test my 'new' post '4 month cycle touring in Europe' body (even though I've only cycled 100kms total in the last month)! I was happy with the first leg to Queenscliff but between the 45 min wait for the ferry and the crossing it was almost 2 hours before I was on the bike again and I did the second half slower. It was nice to get 40kms of tailwind out of 210 though:-(

Did anyone see Hymie cycling with his Spring Street minders? I hope that he got the Frankston bogan treatment just so he can see what we have to put up with.

 

[sinus]

One big group of about 20 guys in green jerseys (smsfactory or
something like that??) decided to hook onto the back of us and then
proceeded to stuff everything up for quite a few kms. They were all over
the shop, with some of them deciding to mix in amongst our guys and the pace
was all over the shop. We waited until one of the little rises prior to
Geelong and then moved to the front en-mass and upped the pace.....some of
the guys in green struggled and we finally dropped them all (I think some
decided to wait for the others). We ended up catching up with a couple of
other groups through Geelong and rode with them until Queenscliff (the 250km
option). There were about 30 of us all up in the group and the pace was up
pretty high pushing into a headwind and crosswind. I was not particularly
enjoying things as about three times the guy in front of me dropped off the
wheel in front of him and by the time I realised, I had to go around and
make it back up to the next wheel. I pretty well had my **** hanging out
(and was busting for a toilet break for about 2 hours) but managed to hang
onto the group until the ferry. We got there at just before 1000h and had
time to fill water bottles and go to the toilet prior to catching the 1000h
ferry.

I passed that smsfactory group after Geelong. Some of them mixed in with our bunch and then lost the wheel on the hills. Left me high and dry. Then they kept sprinting past going down hills and dawdling up hills - I managed to shake them by Portarlington but was on my own by then. It was a hard slog towards Queenscliff till I was picked up by another bunch.

Talked to a Sydney rider who saw the accident on a freeway. His version is: the signal for a brick on the road did not filter through a very large bunch. One rider hit it and went down, following rider went straight into him and somersaulted landing on his noggin. Didn't look well. Must have suffered heart attack because they were doing CPR as I went past - not a nice memory.

I didn't look at my clock but was told I arrived at 9:55. Got a purple ferry tag and was told to go straight to the ferry, but we (two colleagues who had earlier dropped me) decided to turn around and catch up with some others riding clockwise. Ride back was good after Geelong.

All up 303 km for the day, including the ride to and from home. I was a little tired afterwards.

We passed a group of girls in SKCC colours somewhere in the western 'burbs. They were riding in a tight group with a great looking team kit. They all cheeped like birds as we approached a roundabout and "clear" was called. Was that your bunch, Rooman?

Anyone know anything about all the film footage shot by the two guys on the camera bike? They were riding alongside taking shots from all angles, from overhead bridges, lowshots from the side as we passed. We had to be careful not to scratch out noses or adjust our knicks for fear of making a ATB highlight video for the wrong reasons.

 

[rooman]

......snip the sms dropouts.....


We passed a group of girls in SKCC colours somewhere in the western 'burbs. They were riding in a tight group with a great looking team kit. They all cheeped like birds as we approached a roundabout and "clear" was called. Was that your bunch, Rooman?

Most likely us, they chattered like birds the whole ATB, a very happy lot. We do have a kit that looks very much like SKCC, the guys in Red White and Black, like CSC and the Gals in Pink White and Black, with Pink Inc on their wind vests,....they were a very tight group to ride with, they have trained hard and knew the calls, knew the manouvres and didnt whinge!!!, would ride with them any day any where....even on the track..!!( well some of them on the track, we had two Nat Champs with us and some very competitive regular club racers, a vet or two and some newbies on their first ATB. Shows if you prepare it can be a great safe, fun achievement for all.

......
Anyone know anything about all the film footage shot by the two guys on the camera bike? They were riding alongside taking shots from all angles, from overhead bridges, lowshots from the side as we passed. We had to be careful not to scratch out noses or adjust our knicks for fear of making a ATB highlight video for the wrong reasons.

didnt see any camera crews of note, but then we werent going to impress them with any anything less than a choice vocabulary rendition in unison of Queen's "BiCycle" ......maybe I was busy with the gals !! , but it was good to see a huge supply of mobile paramedics...good one BV, you get some things right... sometimes!

roo

 

[Craig Strong]

Good day all round for my team the Geelong Shell refinery. We opted to not go on the ferry this year and did the Melb - Sorrento and back. Good because we don't get over that side of the bay very often.
Annoyed at the cockfags who decided it would be funny to throw a whole heap of drawing pins on the road just out of sorrento. I somehow managed to avoid them going straight through the middle, but a few of us spend lunch pulling them out and replacing tubes.
Well done to BV and our team raising $5250 for the smith family.