Day 3 served up another 165k and some great scenery around the Great Ocean Road. We were expecting crosswinds and rain, however it was actually (mostly) tailwinds and no rain - HOORAY for Victorian weather (well, in this case!!)
Due to the forecast and the accident yesterday Roger and Ray gave a *frowny face* safety briefing before we set off at 8.30am. It must have worked - there were no incidents today except delightful rolling along the coastline.
My job today was to concentrate on video footage of the whole group and take as many shots as possible.
Anyway...about 5k in - there was a "small" incident. In AZed's words: "Within about 5km, I got a flat rear tyre, and had to change the actual tyre as well as the tube. The rest of the group kept going to make the most of the day, so that left 4 of us to chase for about 15km to catch up. That got the heart rate going for the start of the day! With views like this and being out of metropolitan areas, this was perfect riding."
Now whilst it was "perfect riding", the facts are not quite correct dear reader. The truth of the matter is that all but 5 of the group rolled on - whilst yours truly and 4 others, ducked down a small lane road just ahead of the tyre changers, to a scenic 12 Apostles lookout, where I cracked out the GoPro and took some awesome shots!! So before the tyre changers (including 75% of Team Bravien) got going, I had to perform my own chase to the main group and dragged the 4 others with me.
Needless to say that when, at the end of the day, Mitch, GT and AZed discovered said amazing shots, there was some commotion and consternation and calls about "team" etc etc!! Imagine how good it would have been if they were all there...but alas.
And then, Frank, the professional photographer travelling with us got another awesome shot of me chasing onto the group!! GOLD boys - GOLD!! Considering how blurry that background is, and how fast Frank's shutter speed was, damn I must have been moving!!!
After the regroup we stayed together for the entire day and averaged just over 30km/h. That's extremely good for a group like this. 64km down in the first 2 hours, and we rolled into Port Fairy around lunchtime after about 90km.
With only 70km to go from Port Fairy, we stayed together until the last 5k when the inevitable "reorganisation" happened for the town limit sprint into Portland. I tried to drag Dave Carney with me from Team Invest Blue to get him the win, but his legs could just not hold out.
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| Team Bravien on the front! |
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| GT With his guns out... |
There was a pinch of a hill about 1km from the finish so I gave it a good monstering and put another one in the bag for Team Bravien!! Gerard was there to provide some assistance to the back markers.
Compared to yesterday, we covered the same distance with all riders half an hour quicker – that’s the difference the wind can make. The legs are feeling good...but my butt was SORE! Riding at a slower pace puts a lot more pressure on your seated area because you are not pushing the pedals as hard. This is fine for short rides, but when it goes to 5 or so hours in the saddle, butt and shoulders get sore...See the ride here!
A little footnote from AZed: "we took [Gerard's brand new Trek Domane 6.9 with disc brakes] that was having a mechanical problem up the street to a shop with a big sign outside that said Bikes and Accessories. As we walked in, we realised we might be in the wrong place for what we needed. The guy running the shop asked what the problem was, took a brief look, then told us he knew more about fishing gear than bikes. We suggested he might want to change the sign out the front to Fishing Tackle."
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