Today was a little more special than usual where we helped Tomarsh Loki celebrate his birthday.His family drove up to meet us and presented Tomarsh with a rich chocolate cake which we helped devour.After singing happy birthday of course.
Every Wednesday there is a bunch ride to Beechworth from Wangaratta return.Leaving Espresso on Ovens at 7.30am.It's a great ride with a little of everything.Some easy riding on the flats,a 15km climb up the rail trail where you can go as hard or easy as you like.Coffee in Beechworth and a fast descent out of Beechworth before settling into an easy pace the rest of the way home,arriving back into Wang. a little after 11.30am.When riding in the group on the flat we rotate turns on the front every 5 mins.
Today was a little more special than usual where we helped Tomarsh Loki celebrate his birthday.His family drove up to meet us and presented Tomarsh with a rich chocolate cake which we helped devour.After singing happy birthday of course. Every Wednesday there is a bunch ride from Wangaratta,leaving "Espresso on Ovens" @ 7.30am,to Beechworth and return.After a coffee in Beechworth of course. I try to join in most weeks, and now there is a Strava segment for the section of rail trail we travel up,there is the added incentive to improve your time.It was particularly pleasing to see Pete Goodman this morning who has been threatening to make an appearance for some time. Tully Lyster, and his father Laurie, showed their pedigree on the decent out of Beechworth, leaving us gasping in their wake.
Strava is becoming quite popular with cyclists. Using a Garmin device or an iphone with the Stava App running you can record your ride details then upload your ride file to Strava for viewing. Strava will pick out any rides you've done where there has been a segment created and you can compare your ride against others who have ridden the same segment.Most of the major climbs now have a Strava segment,including all our local Alpine Climbs.It's very interesting to compare yourself against other riders and also note your improvement. I've just created a segment on Strava that includes the climb we do on the Everton to Beechworth Rail Trail every Wednesday. I started the segment a little past where we enter the rail trail near Diffey Rd to the end of the climb before you start descending into Beechworth. I hope I've set the segment up correctly and I think I have but we can also create another if need be. Strava then looked through it's Data to see if anyone else has ridden this segment and has found 8 others. Currently I'm in the number 1 position so probably should keep this to myself as once others get on board it wont last long. I've seen a few riders on Wednesday with a Garmin 500 which is what I used and as I mentioned earlier you can use a iphone.So I'm hoping a few others will join Strava which is free unless you want to upgrade to premium membership. I'v also included Strava's Mt Buffalo Segment to give you more of an idea on how many others are using it. The Mt Buffalo Segment has been ridden 527 times by people using Strava. I've also created a segment for the descent out of Beechworth which is always full on. I don't know how long it will last but top spot has my name on it. Last year the Mt Buffalo Challenge was started on this website, it has proved to be quite popular in it's inaugural year.I'm still getting the odd time coming in but it's clear the sting is out of the tail.We've had 33 competitors both male and female coming from many different levels. At the moment the leader is Shane Miller with a very impressive time of 51 minutes 39 seconds. I've been wondering what to do about the competition,I will be awarding a very special trophy to the winner, I'm hoping this will be a perpetual trophy for other years too.
I'm after some suggestions before deciding on future of this and other years Challenge.I'll throw out a few ideas and hopefully will get some feedback and suggestions from others. 1. How do we wind up the competition for this year? Late Iast year I had been thinking we may be able to have a handicap ride off using the times submitted by entrants. But I believe this probably is not that feasible and that it would be difficult to arrange and how many people are likely to turn up for the race? Also many people are in their off season and not training much. Which makes me think the person with the quickest time come March 31st deserves the trophy.I'm thinking about framing one of my TDU photographs for the fastest female. 2.I'd like to run the Challenge again this year (starting after the snow season) and I think Mt Buffalo is the best option. So if anybody has any suggestions about the current or future Mt Buffalo Challenge please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. Rutherglen,although a reasonably small town has quite decent cycling scene. On Saturday and Sunday mornings there are bunch rides that leave from Parker Pies,at 7.30am sharp. Saturday morning the average speed is around the 30 kmh mark with Sundays ride a couple of kmh quicker. There are 2 bunches,the first is for experienced riders and the second is called the development group for those less experienced or those who want to ride a little slower. On Saturday morning I rode from my farm to Rutherglen, into a head wind, and was about 1 min late and I could see the group heading out the Chiltern road about 1 km in the distance. Bugger,already puffing from the head wind now I would have to chase them. So head down and heart rate up 6 km later I was on the back. I didn't count but my estimate would put the group at around 16,the developement group maybe 8-10. The route varies a little, Saturdays ride went out the Chiltern Valley Road to Chiltern, returning to Rutherglen via the Indigo Post Office Road with a sprint for the 60km speed limit sign back at Rutherglen. I reckon it's about 45km. Back at Parker Pies for a coffee and a chat. They are very welcoming and friendly and I'm always greeted warmly even though I hardly ride with them. Also on Saturday a large group from Wodonga pulled into Parker Pies, it was amazing, probably 40 cyclists in such a small town.I enjoy my Rutherglen rides and it was probably 3 months since my last one. So it was interesting to see a few new bikes in the peloton,a couple of BMC's and a Bianchi to name a few. So if your in the area and feel like a friendly group ride get yourself to Parker Pies in the Main Street at 7.30am,but don't be late,they are very punctual. My cycling activities have been a little quiet recently as I try to recover from an injured knee after slipping on a flight of stairs whilst in Port Douglas. The worse seems to be over as yesterday I did a pretty solid 70km and this morning there is only a small amount of muscle soreness around the knee. There were several cycling activities going on over the weekend. The Kelly Country Classic was held yesterday starting in Glenrowan and I have a few images taken at the start finish area. The Hume Veterans held their fortnightly race and you can view the results here. Also the Mt Buffalo Challenge that we're running on this website is really hotting up with a new leader and some excellent times being posted. Check out the leaderboard and latest news. I'm up in Port Douglas at the moment lolling around in the heat and humidity and loving it. Luckily or unluckily whichever way you look at it I flew with Virgin whilst my riding buddies from Melbourne all came on Quantas. Looks like they might be staying for a while. We came up to participate in a recreational event which raises money for a charity called White Lion with the event being run by an amazing woman called Lesley Stephens who survived a horrific sky diving accident and is an inspiration to all.
I'll put up a few photos of the ride as my internet keeps dropping out and I've already lost the first draft of the story I wrote. |
Tony Reeckman
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