The Gong Ride - The real thing

A very early 4:30 am start, breakfast etc and off to the Railway station for the trip to Sydney for those doing the 90 Km ride, or Heathcote, for those doing the 56 Km ride (Me). I was tempted to do the 90 Km ride, but on the train trip up, the wind was blowing, not only from the south, but also blowing the bush almost horozontial. The cowardice in came out :-).


The start at Heathcote was delayed for some unknown emergency, but we got away into the wind and past Waterfall into the national park where the trees and mountains kept the wind at bay. Exiting the park led us into the wind and from then on it was a real struggle.



Here is a photo of the rather famous Seacliff Bridge. It looked just like that with the wind and rain and I heard that some just simply walked it out of fear of being blown into the wild Pacific Ocean! On a day like that Sunday (5 Nov 06), there was little to encourage you to take the time out to appreciate the engineering feat.

The last 15 Km was well and truely in the open so it was just a matter of dropping a few cogs, head down and keep on pedalling. The finish line was a great sight and the 56 Km took me 4 hours 30 minutes to ride, so it was pretty slow. Some of the Sydney riders started to lap us 20 odd Km from the end, so they were *very* strong riders.

Here I am with a very low number for this 25th anniversary ride.