I arrived at Sth Barwon Reserve expecting that no riders would turn up as the weather forecast didn’t look too promising. But I was surprised to see Hermann waiting in his car. We were discussing whether to abandon the planned ride and go home when David Fisher arrived on his bike so we decided to ride after all.

I was impressed that Hermann kept up a good pace on his trusty ebike, as I had only ever seen him riding on the Barwon Trail or the Bellarine Rail Trail, and we managed around a 20km/hr average on the ride down Barwon Heads Rd, Lake Rd and 13th Beach Rd to our coffee stop at Garage in Ocean Grove.

After a nice coffee break we headed home via Wallington Rd and Bellarine Hwy. Just as we turned into Bellarine Hwy there a loud bang (I thought it was a gunshot 🙂 and we saw that Hermann had stopped. When we checked we saw that he had a major blowout in the rear tyre. There was no chance of a roadside repair so we decided that I would ride home (just a few km away), get my car and come back for Hermann and his bike. David waited with him and until I returned with the car (thanks for waiting, David) and soon we had the bike in the back of the car and were heading back to Sth Barwon Reserve. Not the planned end to the ride but all was well anyway.

Thanks Hermann and David for an enjoyable and memorable day!

–Dave S

This was a joint ride with our friends from the GTC.

Ross Glover from the GTC has produced a great ride report and I have copied it below, Thanks Ross!

Dave Simpson Leads the Combined Ride with Cycling Geelong from Torquay to Anglesea on Sunday 11.11.18
Just 5 riders for todays´ combined dirt ride to Anglesea – Dave the ride leader and Kevin from CG, Chris Hu and Ross from GTC and John M representing both clubs. The 40 km ride was advertised as 75 km on the GTC web site and that may have discouraged some potential participants. Also had an interesting range of bikes – one modern mtb, one classic mtb, one gravel grinder, one hybrid and one frankenbike – and all coped well with the varied riding surfaces.
As always, an enjoyable ride through the bush between Torquay and Angelsea. Nothing difficult but lots of great vistas and  plenty of undulation. Nothing much to report other than a mixup on the return trip where 3 of us waited at Bells Beach for the other 2, only to eventually discover they had ridden past without seeing us. A very pleasant place to waste some time watching the surfers perform down below.
Thanks to Dave and the crew for a most enjoyable outing. Ross.

–Dave

It was a great day for cycling on the BRT from Drysdale to Queenscliff. We had 5 riders, ride leader Dave S, Dirk & Barb, George and John M.

John got a puncture so we had a rest stop while he fixed it. We were impressed by the amount of spares and tools he was carrying and soon we were under way again.

We had coffee at the Marina in Queenscliff and then rode back towards Geelong and turned off at the traffic lights and onto the path along the sea wall to Pt Lonsdale. After a stop at Rip View we headed inland, past the golf course and back onto the BRT to Drysdale.

Thanks to the group for an enjoyable ride.

–Dave

We had 8 riders at the start point at Sth Barwon reserve. As it was a strong Northerly wind I initially thought about doing the ride in the reverse direction, to get a tail wind on the Highton Pipeline path, but Lynton had to get back early so we set off in the planned direction, heading to Waurn Ponds first. It was a good day for riding, no rain. When we got to Deakin I led the group around the gravel loop and we stopped for a picture by the lake on the western boundary of the campus (picture kindly taken by Tim who was out walking his dog). 

We then continued on for a quick tour through the middle of the campus, with ‘tour guides’ Lynton and David S who told us about the roles of the various buildings.

Heading off after a short ‘pitstop’ we made our way into the headwind along Pigdons Rd and then along the Highton Pipeline bike path, then down Roslyn Rd to a coffee stop at Two Sugars where we found a nice table in the sun. After coffee we rode along the river path, stopping to watch a Dragon Boat race, back to Sth Barwon Reserve.  A great ride, thanks everyone.

–Dave

We had 3 riders, Dave S, Lynton and Colleen, at the designated start point at Rippleside. It looked like a great day for riding, with no wind at the start and predicted North wind later, which would help us get home.

We met Coralie on the road at Corio Quay where we saw that some gigantic wind turbine blades were being unloaded.

After a quick pitstop at Coralie’s house to add some pressure to the rear tyre on her Bike Friday we continued around the Esplanade and then the Bay and Hovell’s Creek trails to stop for coffee at Espresso Blu, Lara.

On the way back Coralie offered to show us the roads around the Hovell Park area which were new to me and we then retraced our route back to Rippleside, taking advantage of the tail wind.

A very enjoyable ride.

–Dave

Well that was certainly an event packed ride to Drysdale.

All started out well, we had a good group of 16 riders at our usual showgrounds start point. The weather was very pleasant with just a light wind.

I had noticed on my ride to the start point that there was a lot of broken glass on the track between Wilsons and Coppards Roads, leftovers from Geelong Cup patrons I guess, so we were planning to take extra caution on that piece of the track. We met Doug on the trail before we got to the start of the glass and he joined the group at the back. Within minutes though there was a cry of ‘rider down’ and we backtracked to find that there had been a crash between Doug and Michael, who was tailender, and that Doug had done a somersault off his bike and landed on his shoulder, and that Michael had also fallen and had hit his knee. Doug said he was going to abandon the ride and return home and Michael and Paul set off to accompany him back to his house.

The rest of the group set off again and split at the Bellarine Hwy crossing, as usual, so that some people could take the road option to Leopold. As the trail riders group got to Whitehorse Rd George announced that he had a puncture so we stopped to help him fix it. Eventually we got going again and the rest of the ride to Cafe Zoo was fine.

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Heading back after coffee all was going well with the ride until, just west of Curlewis Rd, there was another shout of ‘rider down’. This time we saw that George had taken a very heavy fall onto the bitumen. It looked like he had attempted to dodge an overhanging bush on the left and had clipped Carla’s bike and then lost control of his bike and had fallen. He had a cut above his left eye and a nasty looking gash to his kneecap. We decided to call for an ambulance and Geoff phoned 000 and then spent several minutes describing what had happened and where we were located. Members of the group tried to make George comfortable and to keep him warm and shielded from the sun as he sat on the bitumen and to staunch the bloodflow from the cut on his head. We also tried, and failed, to fend off a sustained attack from what seemed like an inexhaustable number of mozzies that swarmed around us as we waited.

We called George’s emergency contact number and spoke to his wife to let her know what had happened. Geoff said that he would ride back up to Sth Geelong, get his car, and drive back to Curlewis Rd to collect George’s bike. Bill walked with his and George’s bike down to Curlewis Rd.

After about 30 minutes an ambulance and crew and a paramedic arrived and took control of the situation. We made sure that all of George’s personal possessions, phone, wallet, etc were gathered up and handed over to the ambulance crew and they got him onto the stretcher and into the ambulance.

The group got back on bikes and headed off, with the ambulance following us down the trail but to add to the events of the day Dirk declared that he had a puncture, so Russell, Lynton and Neville stayed behind to help.

Eventually we got back to the showgrounds start point, no more incidents to report. Geoff was there, with bikes on the car. We phoned George’s wife to ask if it was OK to drop his bike back and to get an update on George’s situation but it was too early to give us any news.

Thanks to all the group for working together to help out on such an eventful ride. We wish George a speedy recovery.

–Dave

Adding a bit to Helen’s report.

We managed to assemble a group of 11 riders on mountain bikes for the ride on the Surf Coast Path, Torquay to Anglesea section. This is a multiuse gravel path, mostly along the clifftops, past Jan Juc to Bells Beach. We then rode a short section of road to Southside carpark then took the gravel again around to Ironbark carpark followed by a fast descent down Hurst Rd to rejoin the Surf Coast path to Anglesea.

We had 6 riders from Cycling Geelong, 3 riders from the GTC and 2 guest riders. It was a most enjoyable ride, perfect weather, great views along the way – pretty big surf running so lots of wetsuits in the water, and a busy car park at Bells!

We made it to Anglesea for coffee in 90 minutes riding time, and synchronised nicely with the ‘roadie’ group. After coffee we headed back via a nice dirt track that runs parallel to the Geelong-Anglesea Rd, (after climbing the steep hill on McDougall Rd), eventually making it back to Ironbark carpark and returning to Torquay via our outward path.

I think everyone had a most enjoyable ride. Thanks to all the riders and to Doug for acting as tailender for our little MTB group.

–Dave