stats. Today 99.76km Trip total 370km
A very windy day — and an even windier night last night! A storm passed through just after midnight, howling winds, lightning and thunder, and a few drops of rain — but mostly just the wind! Bicycle NSW were so concerned about the reports and warnings that they received that they turned all the floodlights on and were attempting to take down some of the marquees. Reports of 80km/hr winds were being forecast. Apparently when it arrived the gusts were to only about half of that, and only the tea and coffee tent was damaged.
The wind wasn’t the only interruption during the night — Goulburn is a major rail yard and we were right next door to it. Trains kept a large number of people awake for the rest of the night — I didn’t even notice, but still had trouble dragging myself awake and out to face the day.
Today was “teams day and so most of the people I knew were off riding together in their teams. As a result of this, all the groups were limited to the speed of their slowest. I didn’t manage to meet up with any of the groups prior to departure, so decided to head off by myself, hoping to meet others along the way.
After about 9km of warm-up spinning, a gentle down-hill run, and a pleasant tail-wind, I found myself riding along at an absurd pace for a solo ride of almost a hundred kilometres. It was loads of fun, pushing myself just that bit too hard until I flew past the morning tea stop — 39km at an average speed of 32km/hr. There was then a right-angle turn into the wind and I found out why the first stretch had been so much fun — the headwind almost stopped me dead! Windellama to the lunch stop at Tarago was just one long slog, the average speed dropped to 28km/hr, and it was only in the last few kilometres that I found anyone to ride with.
Lunch at Tarago would have been pleasant, except the icy south-westerly wind made sitting in the sun too uncomfortable. A quick coffee and we were all back on the bikes for the last third of the days ride — almost straight south along Lake George between Tarago and Bungendore. The more southerly direction meant that there was less of a headwind, but the gusts from the side kept threatening to send me off into the ditch. By the time I reached Bungendore, average speed for the day was down to 26km/hr.
Bungendore made a real effort to welcome the ride, even without my parents living there it would have been a great place to visit. The main street was closed off, there were free bands in both pubs and activities elsewhere. I relaxed at mum and dad’s, showering and lazing on the couch for a few hours before we had to head back into Bungendore so that I could get my dinner and mum could help out at the CWA stall.
Where?
Goulburn(-34.75,149.7166667), Bungendore(-35.25,149.45)
