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

Just 2 riders at the start today, Dave S from CG and John M from GTC. We waited an extra 15 minutes hoping that some more people would show but then headed off and did the planned ride.   We had a very nice tail wind all the way to Ocean Grove and set a fast pace!  While waiting in the queue at the Cheeky Cow for coffee we met John H, who was out walking and taking some photos.  We then had a bit of a head wind back via the Bellarine Hwy to Leopold.  A very enjoyable ride, and we managed to avoid the rain!

–Dave

We had 10 riders at the start today, braving the rather chilly weather. Luckily the rain held off for our ride to Drysdale.

We had a bonus today, courtesy of some work by Doug, we had a group picture taken on the newly sealed section of the Bellarine Rail Trail at Leopold by a photographer from the Bellarine Echo newspaper. Hopefully we will see the picture and story (and some publicity for the club) in next week’s paper.  Thanks Doug!

–Dave

We had 7 riders at the start at Rippleside – Sandra, David J, Herman, Allan M, Kelly, Dave S and guest rider Sylvia, who had driven down from Werribee just to ride with us 🙂

We rode around the familiar Bay and Hovells Creek trails, into a pretty strong N wind, which we hoped would stay and turn into a tail wind for the return journey (it did 🙂

As was the case last year, all the usual coffee stops in Lara were closed for Easter so we ended up at McDonald’s, where there is now a bike rack outside! It turned out to be a good move for those who had their Seniors Card, free coffee with a food purchase, so a $2 hot cross bun made for a cheap coffee stop! And I had brought a supply of Easter Eggs so we had ample sugar intake to fuel us for the ride home.

Thanks everyone for an enjoyable ride, and Happy Easter!

–Dave

Thanks to Peter J from the GTC for this report (and the great pics) on our joint ride Sunday 14th April:

Just 4 riders for our little run along the cliffs from Torquay to Anglesea, John M, Chris Ha, Peter J and our leader from Cycling Geelong, Dave S. It was a lovely day, lots of Sun and a light breeze. We followed the paths along the cliffs through Torquay, past the RACV Golf Resort and Jan Juc to Bells Beach where the Surf Classic is already under way, amazing the infrastructure set up on the cliff tops. A short run along the road and then we plunged back into the bush along a wide dirt track in front of the houses set in the bush. Looks good but not if there is a bushfire about. Followed a gravel road for a while with some good downhills but of course you get nothing for free and we had to climb out eventually. Some of the track is closed off for repairs and some because of dangerous cliff collapse but some good bypass track has been put in around and through the heather on the hillside. Passed by the Caravan Park, well supported by campers with lots of bikes and kids about. Hit the River and wended our way to the Café and enjoyed a well earned break before heading back along a slightly different route until we could get back on the cliff top track. Returned through Jan Juc as we considered the path would be super busy around Torquay.
A most enjoyable mornings ride, Thanks Dave!
Cheers, Peter J.

–Dave