6th January 2007, Amy's Ride non-competitive cycle road ride.

Amy’s Ride.
http://www.amygillett.org.au/index.php/amy_s_ride_2007
Organized 120kms road ride from Geelong & the Bellerine peninsular.
Me & Paulie drove down to Geelong from Melbourne for the start at the Botanical gardens @ 8:30am. The Amy’s ride start was also the location of a round of the Bay Classic – a road criterium race series which visits various locations around the bay area.
The weather was forcsted to change from the near 40degree heat of the previous day to a thundery change .We were all hoping that it’s rolling in on the tail end of our ride, with a cloud layer during the ride to take the sun out & a cool southerly to push us home on the return leg. The course traveled clockwise taking in Geelong, St Leonard, Point Lonsdale, Ocean Grove, Barwon heads & 13th Beach.
Brendan & Sully were still motoring to the event from Melb when we called them after we parked the car in Geelong near the start, so we let them know where we were & they parked nearby. Both Brendan & Sully had not turned a wheel since the ‘Bay ride’ in Oct ’06, with Robin (Sully’s) bike comp still displaying the 252kms trip distance of that event. As this ride wasn’t over 150kms none of us were taking it too seriously, just a leisurely roll around which is most likely why both Brendan & Sully didn’t get any riding in leading up to it. Paul & I had been riding to/from work, we did the 24hour MTB event at Redesdale in Dec ’06 so we ourselves weren’t too fussed about a 120km road ride.
Amy’s ride had stressed the aspect of abiding by the road rules, sticking to the ‘two rider abreast’ & highlighting the ‘courteously’ aspect of the ride. But as you would have it, even though the roll out at the 8:30am start split the all the riders into small groups let out about 30secs a time, the first 40kms had riders bunching & spreading right across the road in some places – 3-4 abreast & and everyone riding as if the road was ‘closed’ to all other traffic. This meant some cars did get caught up with riders during some climbs & a few beeps of the horn etc were heard.
Us four rode out together, me on my Crosslight (road bike), Paul on his Avanti Giro, Sully on his Merida ’something’ & Brendan riding his Gitane. We took an easy pace & spent a lot of time just gasbaggin. We came across a few other riders we knew along the way too.
The was a problem, even though it was easy going, the hot northerly was sapping all the fluids out of me & I was going through both biddons I was carrying in the first 30kms arriving at Portalington.
From Portalington to St Leonards the going was easy, we turned south for Point Lonsdale & then we began to feel the strong hot cross wind of the changing westerly. This run down the south coast spread us out & Me & Paulie dropped Brendan & Sully. From Point Lonsdale to Ocean Grove & Barwon heads we rode along the road across the coast, with sand drifts of the dunes & a real strong cross wind to deal with. This seemed hard going, I was taking swigs of the biddons every now & again but the buffeting crosswind would send me onto the shoulder of the road sometimes.
At Barwon heads, just after crossing the bridge Paul & I stopped to wait for Sully & Brendan. This gave us an opportunity to watch the traveling side show that these sort of cycling events draw. Recumbent, aero-bodied recumbents, tandems & a hot pink quad-dem with booming stereo.
As Brendan & Sully rolled in, we filled our biddons at a shop (buying to obligatory drink as a ‘thanks’) & set off. As we were rolling back towards the west at this point, the heat & strong westerly was taking it’s toll. There were more riders on the side of the road taking breaks or flat out under trees etc. At one point half way up a gentle climb one rider ahead of us actually dived off their bike while still riding, as we rolled by offering assistance he said he was suffering a leg cramp, and there wasn’t anything we could do.
The final part of the ride around the open roads near 13th beach & back towards Geelong had the wind pick up even more & it was just head down & pedal time. The riders had really spread out, me & Paulie were on our own how dropping Brendan & Sully a while back & we took turns leading into the wind.
with less than 25kms to go I ran out of water again ,but luckily enough there was a bloke on the side of the road with a hose near a dip & turn in the road across a creek, filling riders biddons & a spray on the head every now & again. We both pulled over & joined the end on a short queue out here in the middle of nowhere to fill up. While we were there a rider we know from Dirt Crits – Mik – rode by so we both hollered out to him, he returned a wave looking back but didn’t realize he was drifting off to the wrong side of the road around a blind right corner & wouldn’t you know it there came an oncoming car. No worried though as he corrected just before anything bad happened, but we both stood there feeling a little guilty in almost causing a cyclists to get hit by a car on the Amy ride no less. Oh dear.
Made it back OK, the hot wind which was still blowing made it hard but we did get rained on twice over that last 20kms . The start/finish area was gearing up for the criterion race @ 4:30pm., the racers were circulating the short 2kms loop course warming up. Brendan & Sully were still to finish but that was OK as with no riding leading up to this ride it wasn’t surprising that these hot & windy conditions would slow them up. Paulie & I filled up on free apples & muesli bars on offer so hanging around wasn’t a problem.
I picked up an Amy’s Ride jersey for the event. It’s a top made by Uno. Half way through the ride my nipples were sore from the fabric funny enough. Not that the top was unusually tight or anything.
Riding into such a hot headwind like we experienced this day would normally really do my head in & most likely would have had me considering pulling out. But watching all the riders around me suffering & cutting their pace down, especially at the tail end of the ride, put all my suffering in perspective & allowed me to concentrate on a considered, measured pace that brought me home in OK shape.