RTB 50k

I made the mistake of assuming the trains ran on Sunday morning on our line, so after wasting 10 minutes sitting on the station at Seaholme - which almost at the end of the 50 k ride - we realised we'd have to ride in or be way late. I persuaded my wife Anne to come on the tandem on the promise of an easy one way ride back to Altona with a tail wind, so she wasn't too happy to find we had to do a sprint into town into a headwind.

Forecast for the day was for 31 with a strong Northerly, and even before 8.00 the hot wind was kicking up. We missed the start, but intercepted the ride in South Melbourne. We met up with Tony a friend from work at Clarendon Street, and enjoyed a relatively easy ride thanks to the tail wind over the Westgate. Very jolly crowd despite the heat, and the tandem seems to cheer people up. Anne was really chuffed to get over the bridge, and Tony took the photo of us below just as we got to the top – a nice moment to have captured.

We stopped off for a coffee at Nosh in Newport, highly recommended. By the time we got back on the road, the main group of cyclists had gone, and except for one school group which we kept running into, we hardly saw any other riders for quite a while. We rolled down through Williamstown and round the bike path to our place for another morning tea. Anne declined the option of another ride over the Westgate into town. As Tony and I headed back the heat was getting serious, and every patch of shade along the way seemed to be sheltering a group of red faced cyclists. A real pity about the weather. Saturday was just beautiful for riding, but I wonder if the experience of Sunday will actually put some people off.

We got to the gardens about 1.00, had some lunch, watched the race on the big screen and generally got cooked by the sun, then I rode home again, very glad to have the tail wind. As I rode home under the bridge, there were still plenty of cyclists heading up and over – a sight I'd never seen before. I wound up doing a smidge under 100 k for the day. A good time had by all I think.