TOBY RADCLIFFE

Professional Ironman Triathlete
http://tobyradcliffe.com

Sunday 16 November 2008

Sydney-siders do cycling

En route to Geelong I spent a couple of days in Sydney (thanks Lyndsey!), to get over jet-lag and finish off the off-season. Saturday morning, a local Sydeny tri squad, HERT, very kindly let me join in a group ride. This was an eye-opener in several ways. First up, it was a 6am start (something I don’t normally associate with cycling!) – on a Saturday morning, I wondered what I was getting myself into. We met at Centennial Park just after sunrise, and headed out southbound. I was impressed by their motivation so early on the weekend, but even more surprised by the route out of the city. After a leafy minute or two getting through the Park, we basically turned out onto a highway which fed into the motorway rolling south towards the airport. There were some hairy moments crossing feeder lanes, fly-overs, going through tunnels and with some early morning and rather less than understanding drivers, but once it started to rain again, and the ride really got entertaining. By the time we’d done the Botany Bay route and found our way back to a Paddington cafe, we were covered in grit and mud and soaked through. Luckily it was warm enough for this to be amusing rather than a soul destroying couple of hours on the road. My colleagues assured me that we hadn’t taken the scenic route that morning – a relief for the local riding! I’m sure there is good riding near Sydney, but that morning did remind me of the troubles of city living and the pain of getting out to any decent routes.

Much happier about riding now I’ve made it back to Geelong. A couple of minutes and out of the Great Ocean road seems like a good deal to me!

1 comment:

Russ said...

6am start? They like a lie in in Sydney? Hit the road at 5:30 up here on the GC!

Got to love the fact you can get soaked and still be warm here in Oz.