BUPA AROUND THE BAY 250 KM TANDEM BIKE RIDE Sunday 19 October 2014 Oh! What a Feeling. Prior to 5.30 am on a warm but still very dark Sunday morning, there were literally thousands of very keen and enthusiastic cyclists on various configurations of bicycles but predominately road bikes all queued up on the starting line at the Alexander Gardens Melbourne eagerly waiting for the starter to give the green light for the start of the Bupa Around The Bay 2014 Ride for the 210 and 250 km rides. There were many pre-ride stories going around about past Around The Bay Rides and about the ride they were about to embark on being mentioned among the cyclists on the grid. I had previously done the ATB 250 km ride but not on a tandem bike so I was feeling rather apprehensive and wondering if we could go the distance. Bang on 5:30 am, the organisers made the announcement over the PA system that it was time to start this event and the first wave of 210 and 250 km ride cyclists were underway and heading for Queenscliff. Alain Romary and I were riding together on board my black Avanti tandem bike as part of the Toyota Australia Cycling Team (TACT). We were in the second wave of cyclists to depart and we were soon sent on our way. With a N/W wind behind us it was up and over the Westgate Bridge and on to the Westgate Freeway on route to our first stop at Geelong. We made a few ride organises detours along the way to avoid the very busy Geelong highway which all worked very well. We overtook many other cyclist and were also overtaken by a few faster bunches of cyclists. One of these overtaking bunches were dressed in there building construction team kit and consisted of about 30 cyclists. These guys were really getting into it early in the event ride and were riding in a very tight bunch. It wasn’t too long after they passed us that there was a fall which tool out four of them who were lying down on the road and were not getting up in a hurry. We hope that these guys were not seriously injured. Amongst the other cyclists that we passed before reaching Geelong were on two tandem teams. It was great to see other tandem bike cyclist on this ride. We also overtook another tandem bike team before reaching the finishing line. Well we were traveling along and going like a house on fire while maintaining our scheduled ride pace when all of a sudden our chain linking the front and rear cranks decided to part ways with the chain wheels. Bugger me, I noticed that the chain was a tad loose the day before the ride and I should have re-tensioned it. This dam problem occurred at least another half a dozen times on our way to Queenscliff which caused us to have to stop to put the chain back on. This of course took up valuable time and through us way behind schedule. Apart from the chain problem all was good and we soon arrived at Geelong for a quick pit stop for some food and water bottle top up. Back on our two person machine and off to Queenscliff we went via Port Arlington and Indented Head. We encountered some reasonable size hills along the way which gave Alain some grief as he was struggling getting up hills and combatting head winds. We eventually arrived at Queenscliff just after 11:00 am and were allocated a spot on the 12:00 midday ferry. We were handed a lunch pack consisting of a sandwich and piece of cake which went down very well and was a real treat. We met up with a few Melbourne Cycling club members who included Bron, John, Amanda, Billy and Yoga. I told Yoga about the issues I was having with the chain and he pointed out a bike mechanic to me who was with the Bicycle Superstore. So I took the troublesome tandem over to him and within minutes he fixed the problem. The mechanic found that the front lower bracket was very loose which had caused the chain to become slack and because the bottom bracket was loose, it was sliding from side to side causing the chain to dislodge. A huge thank you to the Bicycle Superstore for supplying a really good bike mechanic who knew what he was doing. Having had lunch and repaired the tandem it was time to load the tandem onto the ferry together with a few hundred other bikes and their riders. So we set sail for Sorrento and met up with a few other cyclists on the ferry who were had come down from Sydney to take part in the Bupa Around The Bay Ride. The ferry docked at Sorrento pier and after the cars had been off loaded it was time for the ATB cyclists to locate their bikes amongst the piles of other bicycles on board the ferry. Then it was a mad scramble to get back on our bikes and on the road back to Melbourne via the Nepean Highway and Beach Road. Our own next scheduled pit stop was to be at Frankston but we first had to climb up and over Mt.Martha together with a few other hills before reaching Frankston. My poor old pilot was beginning to suffer from fatigue and he was really struggling on the hills as well as on the flat but he gutsed it out and I have to congratulate him for that. We had another minor hick-up on the way to Frankston when Alain noticed that our front tire was slowly deflating. Yes you guessed it. We had a puncture which through another spanner in the works and put us further behind the eight ball. Not to worry, I replaced the punctured tube with a new one and we were soon back on the road. It was a welcome relief when we arrived at the descent down Oliver’s Hill where we were actually breaking the speed limit doing 74+ km/hr passing a few cars on the way down. We stopped at the Bupa wayside stop, topped up with some cake, fruit and drink in preparation for the final leg of our ride through to Melbourne without any more stops. We had some luck on our side when the NW wind had swung around to the SW which gave us some fantastic assistance on the ride back to Melbourne. When we turned onto the Beach Road we caught up with some of the Melbourne Cyclists we had seen in Queenscliff as well as Phil and Fiona who were all plodding along after stopping at Mordialloc. We must have woke them up because all of a sudden they found a new lease of life and took off like a shot out of a gun leaving us in a cloud of dust. Well we eventually swung off Beaconsfield Parade into City Road and after negotiating a heap of red lights and momentarily taking a wrong turn we made it back to the Alexander Gardens where we mustered up all of our remaining energy and sprinted to the finish line where we were presented with a medal and had out photo taken. The next and final stop was the bar for a well-earned beer and a left over sandwich to munch on. According to the official Bupa ATB timing device we completed this 250 km ride in an overall time of 11hrs 37 mins and actual ride time was 9 hrs 38 mins. However, my Strava GPS Cycling computer recorded our actual ride time for the 239.6 km journey as 9 hrs 1 min at an average speed of 26.6 km/hr which was not too bad overall. There was another tandem bike team in this Bupa ATB event with Ron Hooper (Stoker) and Peter Body (Pilot) on board who are also members of Tandem Bike Victoria. These guys did the 100 km ride from the Alexander Gardens to Frankston and back. Ron said that they had a very fast run down to Frankston with the strong NW wind behind them but they really found the going a tad tough on the return leg back to Melbourne because of the wind which was now blowing toward them. Ron also said that his pilot was suffering from saddle soreness on the way back. Ron said that this problem was probably due to a new pilots seat which had just been fitted to his tandem. Ron and Peter did an official Bupa overall time of 6 hrs 27 mins at an average speed of over 16 km/hr which was a great effort. Congratulations to Ron and Peter for taking part in and completing the Bupa Around The Bay 100 km Melbourne to Frankston and return ride. Last but not least I would like to give many thanks to Alain for being my pilot in the event and for not giving in and for grinding it out even when he was obviously fatigued and almost out of petrol tickets. Alain also had to endure me barking orders at him and shouting at him every time he stuffed up the gear changes all day. Well done and top effort mate.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 08:27:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015