It has been a while but it has been a busy few months moving into our new house. We’re pretty much settled in now, just waiting on the dining chairs to arrive! Other than that I have been keeping up with the cycling when I can.
As we’re now in Autumn heading into winter the weather isn’t also quite as nice as it has been, bit colder, wetter and also darker in the mornings. In order to keep up the riding and open up more options I decided to get a bike suitable for riding on the gravel. It also means I can ride in worse conditions without having to worry too much about the weather and the slippery roads. Disc brakes mean the brakes still work when wet unlike rim brakes on the road bike and bigger tyres mean I can go on gravel roads and trails.
I’ve already gone on a few rides along the trails to Jells Park and up to Lilydale Lake taking in gravel surfaces where possible. It is good fun but I’ve still got a lot to learn about riding on the loose surface, at the moment I’m going around corners super slow but hopefully I’ll learn with experience and plenty more riding.
I’ll post updates when I go on some longer adventures.
Back on the road bike; As has become a tradition for a lot of cyclists in the Eastern Suburbs I took park in the annual Good Friday Crucifix ride. This comprises of riding up Mt. Dandenong 4 times to form a rough cross shame ride. Around 30 people took part from Croydon Cycle Works with lots of others in different clubs and groups also heading on to the hill.
The route we did started by going up the “1in20” from The Basin to Sassafras, over the top and down to Fern Tree Gully to go back up the “Devil’s Elbow” climb. We then headed to Olinda and down to Monbulk the back up “The Wall“. Finally there was a ride down Inverness Road and back up all the way to Sky High. It doesn’t really matter what order the climbs are done in and there are a few crazy people who do a “Super Crucifix” by going all the way to Sky High each time; I’ll save that for another year!
It was a great day out on the hill, lucky we separated out into smaller groups throughout the day but you keep crossing over and seeing the same faces as Zigzagging over the hill. It was also perfect weather, was a bit chilly to start with but the sun was out and it never got too hot. I felt good on all the climbs and even set a PB on Inverness Road, the shortest, but steepest climb.
We finished up in Olinda, which was getting very busy with tourists, for a drink and a sausage roll around lunchtime before ruling back down. As I have a few screws loose I did a few extra kilometres along a trail to make sure I got a 100k ride in this month! I’m looking forward to doing it again next year if not before.
