Full Moon Ride – Cement Works

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Thanks to Tina, ride leader, for the ride report and photograph.  Tina led nine riders in all for the evening, leaving the Cement Works at 6pm.  There were four guests, friends of Tina’s, and it was a new experience of riding for one person in particular.  The weather was perfect, a warm balmy night, light breeze and clear skies to see the moon in all its glory.

The outward leg to the Corio Club was along the Ted Wilson Trail.

Kevin proved to be the full moon expert determining on which direction to go in for optimal view of the moon on our return trip in the dark. We returned via Cowies Creek, no uphills on our return much to the amazement and delight of a guest rider.  Kevin has great local knowledge and riding experience.  The ride finished at 10.30pm.  It was a perfect ride on a perfect night.

Two guests are so impressed with the introductory rides they have done with the club they are going to become members.

This ride was a replacement for a proposed ride St Leonards to Portarlington return with dinner at Portarlington Golf Club which clashed with a fun run along the same route.  Tina plans to lead this St Leonards-Portarlington route  for a Full Moon ride in March.

Barwon River Circuit: Saturday, February 8th, 2020

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Kevin led a group of 17 cyclists on the river circuit.  The riders welcomed Ruth, new to this ride, who, despite not riding for some time, accomplished the whole ride, including riding to an from the circuit from Belmont. There were plenty of rowers on the river, but the path wasn’t too busy.

Geoff and Ian made short work of puncture repair (with support, both actual and oral from other riders) and caught up by Fyansford.

Doug joined the group along the way but had to leave the ride before the mandatory coffee stop due to his being a presenter on the Bicycle Show.

As it was the first Saturday in the month, Barwon Edge was very busy, but, as usual, service was fast and friendly.

Puncture repairs
Chatting near Princes Bridge
Charlotte and Caroline
Richard welcomes Ruth to Saturday riding with Cycling Geelong
Doug is all prepared to present on The Bicycle Show

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Ride and Races – Dave’s view

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My Cadel Weekend 2020

Race Torquay

Some of the WoW regulars rode to Torquay on the Wed before the Thursday Race Torquay to check out the 13km course. We rode 3 laps in total, with a coffee break between laps 2 and 3. It’s a great course, with a few nice climbs and descents. I wouldn’t like to do 10 laps though!

Race day on the Thursday John M and I were going to ride down and watch at least the Men’s race but after riding the regular CG Thursday ride to Drysdale in the morning I got home and it was just too hot to go and stand in the sun, so I watched the races on the Web, which worked very well.

People’s Ride, Saturday

I was disappointed when I saw that the course had been changed to have everyone ride just the ‘short’ course, but I guess the organisers had to take safety into account as the BOM had predicted pretty bad weather for Sat morning. When I got up, with the plan to ride to the start at Steampacket for 7am, the weather radar was not good! I was in two minds whether to ride at all but things started to clear up and I made the decision to ride up the BRT to Boundary Rd and join the course there. I got there at 8am and everyone who had started at Steampacket were already down the road so I had a great ride on an empty road to Barwon Heads! I started catching up with other riders as I got close to Barwon Heads and then there were lots of people stopped at the various coffee places along Hitchcock Ave. I just rode through, no stops, and made good time back towards Geelong and just got rained on a little as I rode up Boundary Rd towards Eastern Gardens and the finish. I passed through the finish line, collected my freebie water bottle and then rode around the piece of the course I had ‘missed’ back up to the BRT/Boundary Rd corner and then home.

Race Day, Sunday

I rode up the BRT and watched the peloton go past at Boundary Rd. I then rode around the river to my brother’s place in Hamlyn Heights for lunch and to watch the progress of the race on TV. We saw the first climb of Challambra and then we headed out on the bikes and rode around the river path, and got to Scenic Rd just in time to see the peloton come blasting down the hill and squeeze across Queens Park Bridge! We then continued our ride around the river and climbed up the access track to Barwon Blvd and then rode up Challambra. The marshals made us get off the road just where the barriers started at the top, at the 200m point, so we walked a bit further up and watched the two final climbs from about the 50m to go point and on the TV screen at Montpellier.

After the race was over we rode down Scenic Rd and made our way down to the finish line at Steampacket via the East/West Corridor cycle route and the Green Spine and ended up scoring a free Mapei hat and relaxed with a beer. Afterwards as I was riding home via Limeburners Rd one of the Cofidis riders came racing past me, doing at least 30km/hr (having just ridden the 170km race 🙂 and disappeared up the Boundary Rd hill. An easy warm down ride for him, no doubt!

WoW Wednesday – making up for the shortened People’s Ride

We decided to ride the newly modified ‘elite’ race course, to check out the changes that had been made this year. We met, as usual, at Sth Barwon Reserve, which is on the course and headed to Barwon Heads. We made a slight change to the route, going via Lake Rd to get away from the traffic on Barwon Heads Rd but rejoined the correct route at the airport corner. We then continued down to Barwon Heads, and through to Torquay. John M told us that he had seen that Bells Blvd is now closed for roadworks for two months so we had to follow the signed detour up the GOR to Addiscott Rd then via Bones Rd back onto the correct route and through past Bells and Southside before doing the pretty tough climb up Jarosite Rd. We then turned onto Addiscott again, in the other direction, and headed towards Gundrys and Vickerys. It was interesting riding these roads as on other WoW rides we have always ridden them in the other direction. This time the climb up Vickerys was fairly hard, normally we would be racing down there towards the bridge at the bottom!

After that the new route is pretty interesting and we made it through for a coffee at Moriac General Store. We then headed up Cape Otway Rd, Hortips, Considines onto Barrabool Rd and back towards Geelong. There was some discussion about whether everyone wanted to tackle Challambra/Westbury and then Melville Ave but we decided to go for it! Those climbs are hard but the group survived well, just Paul H didn’t make it up Westbury. (I saw him today and he said he made it to the roundabout sign just down from the top, but at that point his pedals refused to turn and he had to stop 🙂 so he rode back down and home ). The rest of the group made it up Melville then down Church etc to Steampacket. At that point John M headed home and I rode with Gerry around the rest of the course to complete it at Sth Barwon.

I am impressed by the changes made to the course. It will be interesting to see if it is used for the Peoples Ride as well as the Elite rides next year.

–Dave

Thanks Dave, for your perspective on this year’s CEGORR.

Start of 2020 People’s Ride – We see that Visit Victoria still hasn’t got it that Geelong isn’t a suburb of Melbourne.

Full Moon Ride – change of route

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Saturday, 8th February, 2020, 6pm

The Full Moon Ride will now commence at the Cement Works Bowling Club, corner, McCurdies Road and Autumn Street, Herne Hill, at 6pm.  The ride will be along the Ted Wilson Trail to the Shell Club in Corio.

Please let Tina know you’re coming so she can confirm numbers for dinner.  RSVP Tina 0412 431 526

Riders on a Full Moon Ride in March 2019

The reason for the change is that the St Leonards ride clashes with a fun run on the same route.

Goldfields Tour 2020: Westward Ho!

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ARARAT – HERE WE COME!

Keep Grandfinal Weekend 2020 free!  We’re off to Ararat for the latest version of Allan’s Goldfields Tour.  (Grandfinal Day is 26th September, so we’ll be setting off on Friday 25th and returning to Geelong on Sunday 27th September.)

Ararat is on the western side of the goldfields triangle, on the Western Highway.  Allan has planned accommodation at the Acacia Caravan Park.  There are cabins with en suites, in various configurations, as well as caravan and camping sites.

Allan has already visited to check possible wineries (most important), riding options (very important) and refreshment stops (pretty important too).   There’s also lots to do around the town and region for those partners etc. who don’t cycle.  Naturally, the ride will be supported with our club bike trailer, and Allan will organise shared transport.

If you haven’t joined Allan for a Cycling Geelong Goldfields Tour, they’re a highlight of the club year.  Ask anyone who’s been before.  You can check out some highlights of last year’s tour here.

For forward planning, if you’re interested, please contact Allan directly, as soon as possible.

Docklands to Altona Beach: Wednesday, 8th January, 2020

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This Ride was set up as an alternative to the Geelong Flyer, Capitol City Trail Ride which was held on a day with extreme heat. Both Rides were to give an experience of the new Ferry Service from Geelong and include one of the City Ride routes.

Eight of us, Kevin, Lynton, George, Dirk and Barbara, Coralie, Sally and I boarded the 11.30am Geelong Service to Docklands. It was a lovely day with a comfortable temperature.

Arriving at Docklands we were met there by Margy, Jeff, Joe and Sandra. We cycled the shared path through Docklands around past the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel and onto a path that runs alongside Footscray Road, to the Maribyrnong River.

From there we cycled the paths that took us under the Westgate Bridge and onto a path that follows the Yarra River to Williamstown. We enjoyed lunch there at Carter Smith Delvin Co Café in Nelson Parade.

Following lunch, we made our way to Kororoit Creek Road cycling to Millers Road, Altona and finding our way to Altona Beach; where we had a brief break and took in the scenery of the Park and Beach area.

The return route took us back along the Bay Trail and connecting back onto Kororoit Creek Road and back to the Bay Trail at Williamstown. We scooted back along the Trail following it upriver to meet the Westgate Ferry at Spotswood. Lynton rode ahead and secured a boarding for us as the Ferry was preparing to get underway to cross the River. The operator did well, securing an extra 10 fares; he had one other customer!

On crossing we connected with the Bay Trail at the northwest end of Westgate Park. This took us onto Lorimer Street, South Melbourne which eventually led us back to South Wharf and a crossing over the Yarra from where were able to make our way back to Docklands; where the Ferry berths.

On the way, Joe and Sandra left us at Collins Street as they were meeting Edith at Southern Cross, to catch a train back to Geelong.

Margy and Jeff had cycled back earlier in the afternoon and had caught the Ferry across the Yarra as we had.

Apart from an incident that involved a fall, a great ride was enjoyed by all.

Great for us to now have a Ferry Service directly into Melbourne via Docklands. It is easy to access the City from there whether it be cycling, walking or public transport.

Robert T, Ride Leader.

Thanks to Robert for this report, and leading yet another memorable ride.