The whole family did it this year, 50km for us, 200km for Jo

After last year’s success and enjoyment, Cam and I had again entered the 50km option of the Around the Bay event, this time to do it on our own bikes.

Strangely warm when we got up at 6 am, I spied one of Jo’s warmer jerseys sitting on a chair in the kitchen and stepped outside to check the temperature, amazed to find that it was over 20 °C when I’d been expecting it to be down around 10 °C. We remembered sunscreen, but leaving in the dark to catch the train I forgot to throw in hats, leaving us getting more sunburnt on the nose and lips than was comfortable.

Once again it was the first day of Daylight Savings Time, so the 6 am wakeup felt like 5 am. The ride guide said we had to get there half an hour early but train timetables meant that would be almost another hour earlier and I think I’ve heard all of it before. As it was we joined the throng at around 7.20 am and with 2000 other riders there was no way we were going to get across the line in 10minutes, I think it was around 8 am before we finally got underway!

Warm and windy was the order of the day, very windy at times although miraculously, it seemed to be a tail wind more than half the time.

Slightly different route to last year’s 50km, after the feed point in a park in Williamstown we turned around immediately rather than go on to Altona, making up the extra distance once we were back onto the east side of the bay by passing the turn off for Albert park and continuing down to a second rest spot at Elwood then retracing the route back up the bay, into Albert Park and around the lake before the final few hundred metres to the finish line.

In typical small boy fashion he sprinted for the line, completing the event in 3 hours 50 minutes, 8 seconds, with me coming in four seconds behind him.

Then icreams, drinks, a bit of a rest and a walk around before riding back up through South Yarra to the station and catching the train home. All up, around 58km for the day. Number one son’s longest solo ride to date.

I suspect that this route makes for easier traffic management and a shorter lane closure on the Westgate Bridge, especially coupled with the fact that the actual “Around the Bay” is only offered in an anti-clockwise direction, no keeping the bridge open for cyclists arriving around 2pm from riding clockwise.

…meanwhile, Jo managed to pleasantly surprise herself and others and rode the 200km Albert Park to Sorrento and back! After completing the 135km last year she was looking forward to something around 150-160km, but although we’re convinced that there was a distance previously, nothing was available this year.

So, next year… I’m not sure. Its always fun once we’re there, but the stuffing around to get there on time and the cost weigh against it. We shall see….

See Also

Route on strava and ridewithgps