“It’s 120kms return to Mount Eliza. We got a full tank of bananas, half a pack of Goo, it’s (nearly) dark and we’re wearing sunglasses! Hit it!”
And so began Sunday, 17 October, with nearly 9,000 cyclists braving the early morning darkness and chill for the annual Around the Bay in a Day. In front of them, a long day in the saddle covering the 210km around Port Phillip Bay.
As proud mountain bike riders, Santa and I originally planned to ride from Sorrento to Melbourne - a distance of just 100km. When the bus to Sorrento failed to show, we decided to make the most of a bad situation and ride the 120km from Melbourne to Mount Eliza and back.
After leaving Crown Casino at 6:30, we reached Frankston around 8:45. Another twenty minutes and we were in Mount Eliza, our legs having (just) conquered the coastal hills of death.
A twenty minute pit-stop in Frankston saw us fresh and ready to conquer the flat road home. No problems at all…until we hit the wall. Memo to self: be sure to eat more than two slices of toast before riding for five hours.
Another rest and a chance meeting with Guy in Mordialloc, and we were practically home. Now just to follow the beach to Port Melbourne, turn right and finish at the Docklands, 5hrs 15mins after we started.
All in all, a great, if not tiring, morning.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 7:03 and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.