A
Arpy
Hi guys
Now I know I said I would have a tri under my belt at this stage but I had to choose between a once a year event or do a triathlon early in the new year. Needless to say the once a year event got the nod.
This event is called "THe Great Bike Ride" [www.greatbikeride.com.au]. Again this is a charity event organised by the Rotary club in suppport of the Heart foundation [well you can't not support that can you!], and a couple of other charities. It is a 53km ride around our river - primarily on roads partly closed to traffic. Preceding the general population there is a 2 lap 106km race for registered professional riders.
I had entered at a proposed average speed of ~32km/hr for the complete lap. The majority of the course is undulating hills with a few fast flat sections and a couple of hills whiich had a significant number of people unclip and walk.
As someone who spends most of my bike riding time on my lonesome I had an absolute ball riding in a pack / peloton going hell for leather. The increase in speed in a group was just mind boggling and I was amazed to be looking at my bike computer and seeing 45 - 47kmh in some of the flat fast sections....and doing it relatively easily!!! Amazing what being in a slipstream / drafting does for you.
Finished the race in a fairly respectable time of 1hr 30mins and 12 secs at an average speed of 35.3 kmh for an overall placing of 163 out of ~2800 cyclists who participated. Given that this was 368 days since my operation it was the anniversary event and at the risk of sounding like an egotistical prick I was pretty happy with myself - especially when I compare myself to 13 months ago where I was flat out walking my kids 600m to school on flat ground without running out of breath!
To put things into perspective the professionals did the two laps of the circuit averaging around 45kmh. The fastest male on the 53km course completed it in 1:15:36 (42kmh) and the fastest female 1:22:17 (38.7kmh). So you never know another year of cycling in my legs and I'll lop off several more minutes and give the first female a run for her money!!!.
The event is only in its second year and will only grow exponentially I think over the next few years (doubled the riders from the first year). They are trying to replicate a similar event in South Africa where they apparently get 35,000 odd riders.
regards
Russell
PS : Just entered into another big event over here which is the Rottnest channel swim. We have entered a team of four from our company to swim the ~20km from the mainland to Rottnest Island. Occurs on the 18th February so best I start swimming training in earnest!
Now I know I said I would have a tri under my belt at this stage but I had to choose between a once a year event or do a triathlon early in the new year. Needless to say the once a year event got the nod.
This event is called "THe Great Bike Ride" [www.greatbikeride.com.au]. Again this is a charity event organised by the Rotary club in suppport of the Heart foundation [well you can't not support that can you!], and a couple of other charities. It is a 53km ride around our river - primarily on roads partly closed to traffic. Preceding the general population there is a 2 lap 106km race for registered professional riders.
I had entered at a proposed average speed of ~32km/hr for the complete lap. The majority of the course is undulating hills with a few fast flat sections and a couple of hills whiich had a significant number of people unclip and walk.
As someone who spends most of my bike riding time on my lonesome I had an absolute ball riding in a pack / peloton going hell for leather. The increase in speed in a group was just mind boggling and I was amazed to be looking at my bike computer and seeing 45 - 47kmh in some of the flat fast sections....and doing it relatively easily!!! Amazing what being in a slipstream / drafting does for you.
Finished the race in a fairly respectable time of 1hr 30mins and 12 secs at an average speed of 35.3 kmh for an overall placing of 163 out of ~2800 cyclists who participated. Given that this was 368 days since my operation it was the anniversary event and at the risk of sounding like an egotistical prick I was pretty happy with myself - especially when I compare myself to 13 months ago where I was flat out walking my kids 600m to school on flat ground without running out of breath!
To put things into perspective the professionals did the two laps of the circuit averaging around 45kmh. The fastest male on the 53km course completed it in 1:15:36 (42kmh) and the fastest female 1:22:17 (38.7kmh). So you never know another year of cycling in my legs and I'll lop off several more minutes and give the first female a run for her money!!!.
The event is only in its second year and will only grow exponentially I think over the next few years (doubled the riders from the first year). They are trying to replicate a similar event in South Africa where they apparently get 35,000 odd riders.
regards
Russell
PS : Just entered into another big event over here which is the Rottnest channel swim. We have entered a team of four from our company to swim the ~20km from the mainland to Rottnest Island. Occurs on the 18th February so best I start swimming training in earnest!
