Headwinds, magpies, and an absence of bungey cord

Lilydale Warburton Rail Trail

A windy cycling week in Melbourne. A group from work met up on Sunday to ride the Federation trail, from Millers Road in North Altona down to the Werribee river. Getting to the starting point up Millers Road, about 6 k from where I live, nearly finished me off, but we had a nice tail wind to Werribee, and of course a stiff head wind all the way back. The surface of the path is much improved, but still a few rough patches to fix.

A mixed bag for the week's commuting. A beautiful evening on Monday, a head wind strong enough to send me veering off the road Wednesday morning, and find myself grinding along putting in maximum effort and getting about 14 km per hour. I was plugging away down Footscray Road, drafting behind a fellow OC (that's "Older Cyclist" - we're the ones with unfashionable bicycles and cycling garb) when his pannier decided to detach itself from his bike. My front wheel missed it by a millimetre or less, back wheel somehow hit it and bike bounced sideways in an exciting fashion. Definitely woke me up, that one. Having lost a pannier myself - though not with anyone following close behind, I now make a point of using a bungey cord as an additional fastening device - a good practice which I'd commend to all us OC's who use panniers - and everyone else for that matter. Anyway, Wednesday was one of those days with the morning northerly headwind followed by the south westerly headwind home. Got home, had dinner, said I'd just have a little lie down, and passed out about 8.15 pm. I was knackered. On the basis that I was planning to do an Audax 100K ride on Saturday, I declared Thursday a recovery day, and Friday I figured I was "Tapering" and caught the train both days. I had to wrestle with an underlying feeling of guilt, but thanks to the catholic education system I'm used to that.

Saturday I caught the train from here at 6.44 am (just after being swooped by a magpie) to be at Lilydale by 8.30 for the Warburton Connexions ride. First part along the Rail trail to Warburton, second part a choice of either up to the top of Donna Buang (one and a half hours climbing at least) or an undulating jaunt beside the Yarra river up to McMahon's creek. I chose the later, which as I managed to have a puncture, and blow one of my replacement tubes after having replaced everything, was probably a wise choice in retrospect. The weather was perfect, interesting people to talk to, absolutely beautiful country, lovely towns - all in all a great experience, apart from the puncture and yet another magpie swooping. The ride cue sheet says for 41.4 K "There was a magpie here last week - watch out!" I happened to glance at the cue sheet, then at my odometer, just as that distance came up, and like clockwork, "whoosh" there was the magpie. I hate being swooped. Hard not take it personally.

All in all, with wind, falling panniers, malicious magpies and exploding tubes, it was an interesting week.

Tally for the week:

349 Kilometres
Rain: light sprinkle on Wednesday
Near misses:one close encounter with a pannier
Punctures: one and one blown tube
$ spent on bike stuff: none, but it was a struggle. Surely I need one of those nifty cue sheet holders from Abbotsford Cycles ? And a nice rack top bag?