Another great ride, using some more of the many laneways in Geelong. Thanks to guest rider Gary for creating the route and leading the ride.

–Dave

Gary once again offered his leading skills to show us a new (and a few old) lanes in East, South and Geelong CBD.

We had a group of 9 riders for the start at Little Creatures, Swanston St. It was a nice ride, at an easy pace, of around 20km and we got back to the start pretty well in time for a relaxing refreshment when Little Creatures opened at 11am.

Thanks again to Gary for leading!

Here’s a link to a map of our ride:

–Dave

5 riders today at the start at Drysdale Station. After pre-ride coffee for some of the team we headed around the Drysdale Bypass bike path then via Portarlington Rd to Scotchman’s Hill gravel. Only a small amount of complaining from at least one of the riders about the condition of the road (!) We made it through to St Leonards after a very pleasant ride around the ‘noisy’ gravel path on the Esplanade for a coffee stop at The Fig Tree where we were able to sit outside.

It was then back on the gravel around to Bluff corner, through the back streets of St Leonards and back to Drysdale Station via Manifold Rd and Andersons Rd. 46km in total.

Luckily the weather stayed pretty good, just a small amount of occasional drizzle and not too windy.

–Dave

5 riders today at the start at Sth Barwon Reserve. A great day for riding, not too hot and no wind. Minimal traffic at the start of the ride down Barwon Heads Rd and Lake Rd (we took a slight detour over to look at the view of Lake Connewarre from Taits Point as Margy had never been there) but it became very busy as we got into Barwon Heads and through into Ocean Grove for coffee at The Dunes. We opted for takeaway as the seated area of the restaurant was full.

We made our way home via my usual sneaky route using the back streets through Ocean Grove, and Kingston, which avoids a busy section of Grub Rd before using Rhinds Rd and Malpas Drive to Wallington and then the Bellarine Hwy, BRT and Leather St back to the start. A very enjoyable approx 55km ride at an average speed of 19.8km/hr.

–Dave

We had 8 riders today for the rescheduled Geelong Loop ride (postponed from last week’s bad weather Sunday). We left from Rippleside to check out progress on the Boral cement processing factory which has slowly been taking shape on the Esplanade at North Shore. It’s an amazing building to see up close.

We then headed back and crossed over the railway line to Douro St and followed the Tom McKean shared trail and Church St up to Fyansford and then around the Barwon River trail to Highton shopping centre. Then over to Waurn Ponds via the Colac Rd shared trail for a coffee stop at Panache.

We then made our way back to Rippleside via South Barwon Reserve, Breakwater Rd, Carr St, Swanston St and Eastern/Western Beach trails. Total distance 42km.

A great morning’s riding!

–Dave

A great ride today through some of Geelong’s laneways for 10 riders.

I think some people surprised themselves by being able to ride the somewhat rough and bumpy laneways. Always good to push oneself to a new challenge! There were no incidents, mechanicals, punctures etc.

Coffee stop at the end of the ride was at Ripples.

A big thankyou again to Gary for leading and his choice of route.

I had a very nice email from Rod a few days ago, expressing regrets that he couldn’t join the ride owing to other commitments. I reproduce it here with his permission:

‘Hi Dave,

I can’t make the ride on Sunday with regret, because this is a beauty.

You have moved into the next phase of growth of Cycling Geelong and its a mammoth move.

The essence of a real working city is its connectivity offerings and here you are exploring this

in our own locality. Kevin has been doing this on his Monday rides as well but yours is more fine grained as I see it now.

I applaud your planning and note how the ‘old’ Geelong Bicycle Plan suburbs are partly used so the ride has signifiant historic value as well.

Please circulate this email to all club members. Its a real win and offers alternatives for the future.

I would love to be involved with discussion of where to now.

Wonderful Dave, how lucky are we to have you aboard.

Rod Charles’

Thanks for the kind words Rod and here’s hoping that you can come along for Laneways V3.0 !!

–Dave

Six Cycling Geelong riders and one guest rider (my brother, Gary) today. It started out looking like rain but things improved and we even had periods of sun as we took a leisurely ride around a short 20km loop. From Sth Barwon Reserve to Waurn Ponds, a lap around Deakin on gravel, the Highton Pipeline path, coffee at Highton Shopping Centre and finishing up back to Sth Barwon via the Barwon River path.

It was great to introduce some of our members to bits of cycle paths that they hadn’t ridden before (always a good thing 🙂

Thanks for the ride.

–Dave

Thanks to Peter Jones from the GTC for this report and pictures:

Nine riders today on our Combined Ride with Cycling Geelong. Dave S, (CG) Lynton, (CG) John M, (CG & GTC) Chris Hu, Ross, Mark K, Kim, Geoff and myself. We headed off around the path with a strong wind which came around on to our tails as we made our way dodging many, many walkers, dogs and other bikes. This is a tough ride for most and a definite challenge. John M had a couple of little lie downs but we made him get up and continue as it was too early to rest.
Stopped at the usual places to admire the view and cruised along enjoying the ride. Extremely busy on the road, just as well we were off road. Traffic was backed back to the Forest Rd Roundabout going through Anglesea. Enjoyed a coffee and slices at Anglesea then took the usual tracks up hill, Lynton had a puncture near the top of the hill out of Anglesea but we were soon on our way wandering through the bush until we reached Bells Beach where we transitioned to the road through Jan Juc and back to Torquay, a most enjoyable ride as usual.

…and thanks to Ross for showing me a new way through the Eumeralla single track area to get away from the noise of traffic on the GOR on the ride back to Hurst Rd. (Ride on track 2 Green, then an easy piece of single track back to Pt Addis Rd).

–Dave

We had a team of 6 riders at the start point at Little Creatures, Swanston St, plus a message that Doug had a mechanical issue with his bike and would join us later on the route. Riders were: Dave, George, Roger, Lynton, John, and Ride Leader, my brother Gary.

Gary had planned (and memorised) a fantastic 27km route using laneways in East, South, West Geelong and Newtown, and Drumcondra, ending up, in traditional Roubaix fashion, doing a lap of West Geelong Velodrome.

We then cycled a short distance up Pako to have a celebration coffee at Pako Raw.

Thanks Gary, for a great ride, enjoyed by all!

–Dave S

Thanks to Ross Glover of the GTC for this report:

Five riders for today’s combined dirt ride to Anglesea. Our ride leader Dave, Margy, Jeff, Chris Hu and Ross set out under blue skies, through Torquay and along the Bells Beach path. It was slow going with lots of trail runners, walkers and dogs, plus plenty of stops to admire the views. Margy and Jeff decided Bells Beach was far enough and headed back, leaving three of us to continue on to the best part of the ride. Absolutely beautiful riding through the trees and along the cliff tops with just the occasional wet and muddy section to look out for. Chris was getting extra value for his money with his road tread tyres making for some interesting sideways action through the soft stuff. There was some discussion about the ethics of riding through the scout camp but the steps are in very poor condition so some trespassing was the better choice. A fast run down to Anglesea had us soon enjoying refreshments in the main street.
We experienced the first few drops of precipitation as we left Anglesea by the highway, crossing back to gravel path at the top of the hill. The ride through the forest was just as good on the way back and we were soon back on the bitumen section up to Bells Beach car park. Halfway up the hill the rain started, quickly followed a loud wooshing noise from Chris’s new tubeless front tyre. A quick inspection showed a largish hole in the tyre and a lot of sealant over Chris and his bike. We tried pumping it back up but it only lasted a few metres before going completely flat. Time for plan B. Chris found some shelter under a tree and proceeded to remove the tyre, wash out the sealant and fit a tube, all while the rain came down. Deciding it would be best to take the shortest way home, we rode the bitumen through Jan Juc and back to the Beachfront Cafe. Just made it back before the heavy rain started. Thanks to Dave for a great ride, to Chris for providing some entertainment along the way and to all participants for their good company.
Ross.

–Dave