DAY 21 - WOODEND - MELBOURNE 44.4M

Today's ride into Melbourne was certainly very different from any other on this trip as it was mostly (30 miles) along a freeway - Australia's Motorways, that do allow cyclists.

Generally Freeway riding is straightforward. You go like a bullet along the stopping lane, taking care at intersections (where you are supposed to stop and cross on the slip road rather than taking your life into your hands by going straight on!)

There's also the nice benefit of getting wind draft from the lorries piling past. That and the downhill gradient helped me to 21.0 mph average at the 30 mile mark (when leaving the freeway). That's the quickest I've ever had over a distance.

So in essence, it's a quick ride but uneventful and not that scenic, and in the heat you melt. Today was 35C in the shade, and a lot hotter in the sun, where I was suffering. There's no shade along the freeway.

The worst problem was my 2x1 Litre bottles of squash were like piping hot Beacham's after 3o mins of riding, certainly hotter than body temperature and quite useless to drink! Maybe they sell Thermos bottles for bikes here?

After the freeway the 15 mile ride into the city was a lot slower due to traffic, lights, trams, pedestrians and so on. There are a lot of dangers if you are not used to it, you have to pay attention to the lanes, watch out for getting your wheels stuck in tram lines and pay very close attention to the traffic lights that pop out seemingly everywhere.

I passed through real Kath and Kim territory in the suburbs: Keilor, Essendon, Moonie Ponds, Travancore, Flemington, North Melbourne and finally into the CBD (central business district) and to the main railway station to get back to Woodend, Southern Cross.

All in all it was 44.4 Miles, Average 17.5 mph.

DAY 19 - WOODEND - LANCEFIELD - COBAW 32.4M

I needed a rest day after the Bendigo slog, and relaxed at the MCG watching the boxing day test match between Australia and Pakistan. I definitely took the train to Melbourne, no chance of cycling there!

So it was time to rectify the missing ride I had back on day 4 when mechanical troubles cut short the Lancefield ride.

Lancefield is a small town but was once considered for the capital city of Australia! Canberra won out in the end, but there are still signs of governmental buildings and other clues of Lancefield's illustrious past.

The ride out is quite undulating and there was a severe wind from the side. The route is pretty and tree-lined in most places giving protection from the sun. Going back via Cobaw is a much quieter road and has a steady but shallow climb for the most part. 32.4 Miles later and in 2 hrs 10 I was back in Woodend, at the slow average of 14.8 mph.

DAY 17 - WOODEND - BENDIGO 51.3M

Today I went for what will probably be the longest ride of this trip with a 1-way to Bendigo, which is Victoria's 2nd largest city behind Melbourne, and is a good hotspot for shopping. Making it to Bendigo was one of the aims of this trip, now with this and Mt Macedon out of the way, the only major hurdle remaining is Woodend to Melbourne.

The route was published by a fellow cyclist at bikely.com and appeared to be suitable for road bikes. You can go to Bendigo using the Freeway but this route takes back roads and I thought it would be a lot more interesting. (Besides, on the Freeway you would melt on a hot day like this as there is no tree coverage to give you some much needed shade. Today was 28C in Bendigo).

The first 20 miles was fine and very quick. The scenery reminded me a lot of "Far Cry 2" a computer game set in Africa. If you see the photos and have played the game, you'll understand!

When I got to Metcalfe, the road swung round to the left and there was a turn off to a dirt track on the right. I followed the road to the left up quite a tough hill and at the top, realised I'd left the predefined "track" on the SatNav. Oops! Time to go back and correct. The SatNav (Garmin 60csx) beeps at you to warn you of turnings but sometimes when the turn isn't sharp, you get no warning.

Anyway, the turn I missed was the dirt track. Unfortunately the directions I inherited from Bikely has dirt tracks in it. It didn't look too bad to begin with so I headed down there. Not much choice really as replanning the route is very hard on the portable unit (I can do this on the PC easily enough but never just with the unit).

Things got tougher as the track went on, and it was very remote, no sign of houses or farms. The dirt track went very rough and the severe juddering on the bike (and me) meant only very slow speeds were possible.

Then for some reason, the SatNav stopped giving me instructions on where to go next! I was about halfway to Bendigo in the middle of nowhere.

I should explain that the way I use the SatNav is not quite like when you program a SatNav in a car (which uses routing information). Instead on a bike it is more convenient to use "Tracks" which are really just lots of GPS locations (track points) joined up by lines, overlaid on the map screen so you can follow them to your destination.

The advantage of tracks over routes is that you can follow smaller roads and even off road if you want to. You can design a predefined track that you follow exactly to the destination. Routes tend to favour cars rather than bikes and are more dynamic (most SatNavs can recalculate routes on the fly if you stray off course). Cyclists don't like dynamic routes in case it takes them on a busy road, or along some adversely hilly terrain.

Later on I discovered the Garmin unit has a maximum of 500 track points per track, and I had uploaded one with nearly 1000 points from the PC to the unit, which had decided to truncate the track after 500 points about halfway, exactly where I now was in fact!

It would have been nice to get a warning about something like that before it turned into a major inconvenience (or worse), but at least the SatNav allows you to pan in and out of the map to try and figure out where to go, which was how I proceeded from there.

After a few miles the dirt track turned back into a road, but I was now tired because of the pounding terrain, and had to keep stopping to check where I was and where I should be going. Very very inconvenient.

The remainder of the way into Bendigo was no more difficult than the first half (tarmac section!) but my legs were so heavy it felt much harder.

IN the end I arrived at Bendigo station in 2 hrs 57 mins at an average of 17.3 mph. The distance was 51.3 miles. Meeting my wife and mother in law there I got changed and staggered around the shops, struggling to keep my usual high standards of advice on clothing for my wife!

This was a tough ride but you only get fitter by doing these kinds of rides so I will have another go at Bendigo later to see if I can do any better - And this time, the SatNav track will have only 500 points, and there won't be a dirt track in sight!!

DAY 16 - WOODEND - CARLSRUHE LOOP 16.4M

Merry Christmas to all 1 of my followers, and thank you for reading this!

Today's ride was a repeat of the 1st ride I did, up to Carlsruhe and back.

There is a 21mph Killer wind with gusts of 30mph! Mind you the ride out to Carlsruhe was amazing. The temperature had dropped from 35 and 29C on the last 2 days, to only 16C today. So it won't be such a sizzling Australian Christmas dinner as Clive James described:

It was the usual Australian Christmas dinner, taking place in the middle of the day. Despite the temperature being 100ºF. in the shade, there had been the full panoply of ragingly hot food, topped off with a volcanic plum pudding smothered in scalding custard. My mother had naturally spiced the pudding with sixpences and threepenny bits, called zacs and trays respectively. Grandpa had collected one of these in the esophagus. He gave a protracted, strangled gurgle which for a long time we all took to be the beginning of some anecdote. Then Aunt Dot bounded out of her chair and hit him in the back. By some miracle she did not snap his calcified spine. Coated with black crumbs and custard, the zac streaked out of his mouth like a dum-dum and ricocheted off the casserole.

From "Unreliable Memoirs" by Clive James.

DAY 15 - CYCLE REPAIRS AT CASTLEMAINE

I had a day off today, partly to recover from Mt Macedon yesterday, and partly to sort out an annoying creaking sound that drove me nuts when cycling up Macedon.

I thought it was the bottom bracket this time - I've done over 3000 miles on that bracket in 2.5 years since getting it, and it's coming to the end of its life.

Castlemaine

I was recommended the cycling shop at Castlemaine, a medium sized country town about 30 mins drive away that was important during the gold rush of the 1800's. In fact the town has a very olde worlde feel about it, some of the shop fronts look like they are straight out of the wild west. There's a lot of antique shops and a very large 2nd hand book shop. It has a lot of character and when I have a bit more time I'll return there to look at the gold diggings (and maybe do a bit of panning myself!)

Castlemaine Cycles

It was quite a result to get someone to look at this bike on Christmas Eve (with 1 hour's notice) so all credit to them for doing this. The mechanic, whose name is Bruce (yes), set about on the bike with expert hands while me and my wife chatted to the proprietor about cycling.

He told me all about the local challenging hills and in particular, Mt. Alexander, that I now have to add to my list. He recounted stories of his visit to the Tour de France and it was apparent he's a very keen road and MTB cyclist himself, it was so good to hear someone so enthusiastic.

He swears by the Giant TCR carbon road bikes, pulled one down off the pegs for me to have a look. Quite impressive oversizing on the frame, and the best advantage over my planet-X was the stiffness of the frame (mine is prone to rear brake rub on the climbs).

He also told us about how cycle security just isn't an issue around this area and no-one bothers to lock their bikes (or their cars or houses). However if you go into the city you have to lock up of course.

Meanwhile Bruce was pulling the Planet-X apart by now and had eliminated frame crack, bottom bracket, cranks, loose chainring, saddle, seat post and the main part of the wheel (which had just had new hub cups/bearings). The creaking noises were still there and Bruce was starting to get a little puzzled.

Then Bruce remembered he'd once had a bike with similar symptoms caused by a poor rear wheel skewer. So they greased that up and sent me off on a test ride up the hill. Bingo! Everything's good. I would never have guessed it was the skewer. One year's free Karma to Bruce!

So that's another good bike shop on the list, thanks Castlemaine Cycles.

DAY 14 - MT MACEDON CONQUERED! 18.2M

Today I made it to the top of Mt Macedon, which was a major personal goal for this trip.

The temperature was 35C and stifling, which made it all the more challenging. I wasn't trying to do it quickly - In fact averaged 8.5 mph going up - It was a matter of survival to hang in there and make it to the top.

At the top there's a giant cross commemorating the fallen Australians from World War I, next to which I am sitting.


The view from the top looking South East - Melbourne's tall buildings can just be seen in the far right, 45 miles away!


Approaching from the North is the easier climb of the 2 possible ways, a long but steady climb that maxes at around 10%. There's some nasty hook turns with a horrific gradient on the inside. Overall the ascent is 450m from the bottom to the top. At the top the altitude is 1001m above sea level.



So this is much bigger than any hill I have tried to ride before, and the height above sea level is way more than we get in the South of England.

At the top I made a short video immediately after arriving. For some reason I have a northern accent when knackered!



And then for the descent - I just can't describe how good it was. It took me 1 hour to climb the mountain and 19 minutes to descend. It was like a roller coaster ride that lasted 19 minutes, way better than Thorpe Park or Alton Towers! As the descent isn't that steep and I was too tired to pedal most of it, I only hit a little over 40mph.

DAY 13 - INTERLUDE - CYCLING IN OZ

As we travelled back from the coast to Woodend today, there was no opportunity to ride. So instead I'll mention a little about what it is like to cycle in this part of Australia.

The Roads

In Australia roads are either tarmac'd ("made") or dirt tracks ("unmade"). If you look at a map such as google maps or the NavTec or Garmin maps, you won't see any distinction between made and unmade roads (except the highways and freeways which are all made roads, at least in Victoria).

This does present a problem when planning rides. Even google maps has great difficulty planning routes and will often choose 4wd dirt tracks when you ask for a "by car" route. So a little local knowledge is very useful when planning ahead.

The unmade roads are actually good quality (usually) and you could get by on a road bike, but it's not ideal.

For this trip I've stuck to made roads and it's these I'll describing. The great thing about them is that there's almost always a lane to the left that you get to yourself, like a hard shoulder that we see on Motorways in the UK.

The Great Ocean Road

This greatly increases safety and you feel a lot more confident with those lorries thundering past on the bigger roads. You can even cycle on most freeways (Australia's motorways)!

The safe lane is usually good quality but you have to watch out for the odd broken glass, dead kangeroo or other obstacle! (Dead roo count is only 1 so far on this trip, and I did nearly run over it!)

I've hardly come across any potholes or other dangerous road failings - They seem to keep right on top of the repairs unlike back home.

Traffic is very light compared to home, that is a given. But if you do ride into a city you will expect it to be the same as any city, anywhere, i.e. dangerous and busy.


The solitude

When planning longer rides, you have to take into account the possible lack of places to stop for food, drink, and general assistance. On our way from Anglesea to Woodend, there was a run of about 40 miles with nothing except the odd farm, and they were spaced a long way apart - much more than back home.

You don't see many other cyclists either, although cycling is popular, there's so many places to go and it's all so spaced out that you hardly see anyone else on wheels.

The heat

You can't really describe it until you experience it. The 39C day we had, with a sand-blasting wind from the North, was quite incredible. Luckily my bike was in the workshop that day otherwise I'd be looking for a different excuse not to have ridden. Correct clothing is a must, and protection from sunburn even early in the morning is essential. I bought a new cycling helmet for this trip (Giro Atmos) that ventilates much better than my previous one.

You have to plan your hydration - They don't sell electrolyte powders out here, I asked in several large bike shops. Locals seem to go for Gatorade, that you can purchase in liquid form at any supermarket or petrol station. I didn't like it so much and went for a home brew lemon hydration drink.

Overall Experience

Road cycling here is fun, and safer than in the UK. I've been lucky to have had a really good mix of scenery, mountains, tree lined roads, and coastal. One thing you never get away from is hills! Oz has them just as bad as the UK.

DAY 12 - ANGLESEA - LORNE 37.3M

It was time for a bigger ride and there’s none better than straight down the surf coast to Lorne. I’d checked out the route the day before in the car and it looked fairly straightforward except a difficult climb at Grassy creek (and technical descent).

It was going to be quite a hot day at 29C so I set off early, about 7.50am to avoid the worst (or best?) of the sun. It’s funny to be saying this when everyone in England has snow!

Yesterday I did Aireys inlet so todays ride was the same way going right through Aireys, but no stopping at the bakery this time.

After Aireys you get a tremendous panoramic view of the coast, see photo.

Then you get the Great Ocean Road sign, where I stopped for the mandatory photo. There was a handy post to put the camera on to get the image.

After traversing that long beach, I hit Grassy Creek. It wasn’t quite as bad as I’d feared, about a 100m climb with hook turns. I tried to take photos looking down onto the road below but the dense tree coverage didn’t do it justice.

Then into Lorne, a nice beach resort, popular with families and the younger crowd, somewhat more developed and bustling than places like Anglesea. Lorne has a very old theatre used as a cinema. I took on a steak and onion pie at the award-winning local bakery before heading back.

Going back, Grassy creek was quite a ride down, I did brake on a couple of hairpins (and I think it was necessary!) It was well worth the effort of climbing to get the thrill of going back down the other side.

I had a bit of a breeze in my face heading back and that slowed things down a bit, ended up averaging 14.3mph not too bad for a ride with some big hills.

DAY 11 - ANGLESEA - AIREYS INLET 14.7M

Today the weather's fine, around 25 to 28C and sunny intervals, little wind. I headed off West down the coast to Airey's Inlet, a charming little place with a lighthouse and of course a nice beach.

On the way there was some fantastic scenery of the beaches.

At Aireys inlet there was the obligatory stop at the bakery. One of the great things about this part of Australia is that there are loads of bakeries, they are all open on a Sunday, and they all sell Vanilla slices, the local speciality. And boy, they are good....

See how the benches outside the bakery are nicely decorated with surf boards and surf speak?

I'll add a post later about what cycling in Australia is like. There are certain differences to the UK with both the traffic laws and conditions of cycling. In a word, it's better!

DAY 10 - ANGLESEA - BELLS BEACH LOOP 18.5M

Day 10 I did a very hilly ride out of Anglesea and down to the world-famous Bells Beach, where the surf is the best in Australia and attracts top surfers from around the world.

I was intending to go further but the short sharp hills took it out of me and I bailed out at 18.5 miles.

DAY 9 – ANGLESEA – WINCHELSEA RD, 16M

The day was fading fast when I got the repaired wheel, and I had time for 16 miles only. I had a route prepared to head out on the Winchelsea rd, but there was only time to do part of it and return the way I came.

The route was a 120m climb from Sea level out of Anglesea that actually wasn’t that bad, turning off the Great Ocean Rd and onto the flat Winchelsea Rd.

DAYS 4 TO 8 – WOODEND – LANCEFIELD, ABORTED RIDE

I was heading for a 33 mile ride to Lancefield, but ran into mechanical issues going up the first hill out of Woodend.

It sounded like free hub creaking, I couldn’t believe it as I just had the bloody thing serviced and the wheel rebuilt to avoid this very problem in England just before coming to Australia.

Now the problem was to find a cycle workshop that specialized in such a thing. Servicing this type of free hub isn’t something any LBS can do.

I started off at the local Woodend LBS but that was shut Sundays and Mondays.

A search of yellow pages on yellowpages.com.au showed some specialists further afield. The next day I was due to go down to the surf coast so I looked for places near there (Anglesea, Torquay and Geelong).

Goldcross Cycles

I found a place called Goldcross cycles just out of Geelong that was on the way down there. Sounded ideal! Upon arriving they seemed pretty confident they could take the job on.

I explained that I was on a cycling holiday and they said they would get it fixed the next day. However when I rang the next day, they hadn’t had time to look at it and would do it the day after.

So, the 3^rd day they had the wheel, I rang up again and asked if it was done. “Yes, all ready for you” was the enthusiastic response. So I made the not-so-short trip to Geelong to pick up the wheel, only to be told “Ah, we haven’t had time to look at it yet.”

By now I was pretty cheesed off and explained that someone had told me it was ready, and his helpful explanation was “Ah yeah I’ve done all the other wheels, but never got round to doing yours”. I was wondering if this was Bridgetown Barbados, not Geelong Vic?

I was thinking about the movie “Desparado” with the bar sign saying “The customer is always wrong”!

So, onto day 4 they had the bike. This time they rang me to say they had taken off the cassette to realize they couldn’t service it, as they did not stock the necessary parts (bearings and cups). It takes about 5 seconds to remove a cassette and this could have been done on the spot on day 1. I’ve wasted 3 days with these guys but they did at least point me at another shop that might be able to help.

When I get a scanner I must put in here the fag-packet diagram of instructions the guy gave me to get to De Longhi cycles – It’s quite something. But I got there in the end. It’s a lottery navigating through a foreign city that you don’t know with a crappy diagram to go on and a misbehaving satnav designed for hand-held usage.

Berretas Bike Hub

De Longhi cycles, located opposite Geelong’s Kardinia Park Football stadium, were not able to fix the wheel before New Year, but were very helpful and rang another shop called Berretas bike hub and fixed me up for a repair the next day.

Berretas really knew what they were doing and sourced the replacement parts and had the wheel done the next day. They also gave me back the old components in a bag – I’ve never had a bike shop do that before.

So days 4 to 8 were lost, but onto day 9 where there was just time to get a ride in before the fading light.

Day 5 we arrived in Anglesea. This was the day I dropped the wheel into Goldcross cycles.

Day 6 was 32C, a perfect beach day.

Day 7 was 39C, with an unbelievably hot wind. There’s no way I would have cycled this day. It was pretty nice down the beach though, until the wind got up too much!

Day 8 rained all day. I wouldn’t have gone out.

DAY 3 – WOODEND – TYLDEN – TRENTHAM – ASHBOURNE – WOODEND 28.8M

Fresh from yesterday’s warm-up, I went for a more ambitious ride.

Heading out from Woodend high St, turning left down Forest St, starts a long climb into Trentham. It was tough for me being at the start of the trip, and the drag is about a 200m climb over about 16 miles.

The road past Tylden is pretty exposed and if you have any wind going in your face you’ll know about it. Guess which way the wind was blowing today?

Once you get to Trentham it’s a small pretty place with a couple of bakeries, and a charming looking tea shop that used to be a bank.

There’s also a very nice waterfall at Trentham Falls, I visited there 5 years ago.

The ride back to Woodend from Trentham starts with a sharp climb, then about 12 miles of undulating hills, big downhills and smaller uphills. As I was a bit knackered from the ride in to Trentham I didn’t enjoy the downhills so much as I could have but got down on the drops when I was hitting near 40mph.

The scenery on the Ashbourne road is very pretty, tree lined and interesting. The roads are very quiet in this part of Australia and I only met 1 other cyclist on Ashbourne road, who was far too cheerful, stomping his way up a steep hill.

Day 2 - Carlsruhe loop 18.37M

Today I re-assembled the bike, too only about 20 mins. No issues, everything's together.

1st Warm up ride: Carlsruhe loop 18.37 miles Av 15.3 mph.

This took me past hanging rock (see photo), a mysterious-looking rock formation that's quite a climb to walk up there.

No sign of DVT and came back feeling OK.

Weather was 16.8C and wind 22.2kph SW so quite cold and windy for this time of year.











1st ride abroad!

Day 1: Arrival in Oz

Arrived in Oz. Good journey, didn't sit next to any psychos. Bike stopped at customs while they checked for soil contamination - Didn't know about that! oops.

Bike arrived in 1 piece, no damage, phew!