Bupa Around the Bay

OK so it's a road ride but I had to write about it as I have never ridden a road bike until today.

While overseas a few weeks ago with some of my work mates from Melbourne who are all roadies & triathletes we got on the grog and yours truly shot his mouth off about shaving legs & drinking soy latte's in your lycra etc. The challenge was thrown out - come and ride the Round the Bay event with us. "What's that?" I asked. "Oh just a ride around Port Phillip Bay".

Needless to say my alcohol affected ego told them I'd not only join them but these hairy legs would teach them how to ride around that little bay of theirs! One of them was kind enough to offer me his spare road bike.

I flew in to Melbourne last night and drove out to my workmates house to collect my bike. He handed me a pretty sexy looking Argon carbon thing and it must have been alright because I had a number of riders today want to talk to me about it. He had a garage full of bling looking bikes so I started getting a little concerned about the ride. I put my XTR pedals on and my saddle then raced back to check in to my hotel, get sorted and get some sleep.

We met at 5:30am at the start which was only 1km from my hotel. That 1km ride was my first ever ride on a road bike and I was just about to race my mates on a 210km course around VIC. As expected, it accelerated well and maintained speed without a lot of effort. If only I could work out the gears! I realised there was a lever under the brake lever but could only get it shifting in one direction. They were labelled "double tap" so I double tapped but no good. My mates explanied how they worked on the start line - hows this for wierd? You push the lever slightly to shift one direction or push the same lever in the same direction but a bit harder to shift the other way. I just don't get it.

After a long wait we finally got away at 6:30am and rode anti-clockwise around Port Philip Bay. I adopted my usual strategy of holding back for the first hour or 2 and then stepping it up while those around me smash themselves early. Besides I was running as a single speed for an hour as I just didn't get the gear thing anyway.

We soon hit the highway to Geelong and the forecasted 50km/h winds hit us in the face. I was really struggling to keep up and often found I was riding alone despite the 20,000 or so starters. I found the narrow road bars very twitchy and getting my drink bottle was scary as I had to ride one handed on those twitchy bars.

We arrived at Geelong which I think was about 70km and took on some water and got going quickly to get to Queenscliffe which was the half way mark. We arrived there to a very well organised set up. We rode through the timing mats and were handed a lunch pack and they stuck a label to our bars which was our ferry ticket and announced we were on the 12pm ferry which was an hour away. We ate our chicken sandwhiches and all the other yummy stuff and slept until they called us to go to the ferry which took nearly an hour to cross the opening of Port Philip Bay to Sorrento on the east side.

Finally after a 2hr break from our racing we took off again. The wind was still there but so was the sun so the bitter cold had gone and we could take off our spray jackets. There were a few hills on this side of the bay so I finally got to stand and smash it and get out of that friggin saddle. My mates were amused at how they kept dropping me and then I'd come flying back to their wheels again in surges. Truth is they were dropping me because I was getting bored with the constant grind and I'd reach for my bottle or a gel and by the time I looked up they'd pulled out 50m on me.

Anyway, my endurance paid off as I pushed the pace over the last 70km as the earlier pace had taken it's toll on my mates. I also hadn't taken the lead until now as I was determined to sit on wheels of these shaved legged whippets as winning was important. One of them hit the wall with about 30km to go so we all backed off a little to get him to the finish.

So at 5pm exactly we finished our 10.5hr adventure. Our actual ride time was 8.5hr and it felt quite an achievement doing 210km. I have pain I don't normally get as I was in an unfamilar riding position so my arms and neck felt strain but despite the constant cadence my legs finished feeling good.

I really don't get the roadies hand signals for obstacles, passing or stopping. Surely when you are racing your mates it is cool to try to suck them into a pothole?