I attended the first Critical Mass ride for a while. I heard reports that it was dying – this is partially due to some of the usual characters leaving Sydney for the greener pastures of Melbourne. Fortunately I found it is still going despite Moz and Phuong’s departure. I notice it is thin – 50 riders. I did catch up with Julian and go t some advice on a single speed project otherwise there were only 2 other of the old faces and some of the new ones are ring ins or visitors. To put a not to finer point on it I suspect Sydney Cyclist is doing a fine job of keeping numbers low. The ride was slow and not much happened. The big issue for me going into the city after such a long absence was the increase in the number of people cycling. It looks like we are starting to have an impact. The cops attended as well which was a bit of a surprise – they sent 2 officers on MTBs for the sake of observation at the begining of the ride. They had a chat to a Kiwi guy who gave a spiel on corking and who appeared to take a leadership role (Moz was Kiwi and copped flak from the Daily Terror who published his telephone number for the punters to ring with gay abandon). The long and the short was we did a loop of the town and rode through the Rocks to China Town, where we had a feed at the quintesential Australian institution the Chinese Resteraunt. I had a chat with Chris over issues cycling and we had some good points. The long and the short of it is I think there are some people who are in the know over who Allan Odds really is. It was interesting that the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) didn’t pick up on his obvious name play with the head of the NRMA – Allan Evans, but then again they didn’t pick up on the spoof nature of the National Roads and Cyclists Association (NRCA). Either that or there is an active member on the staff of the SMH. Suggestions went around as to who wants to be the spoof names of other NRMA board members. I gather Fiona wants to be someone on the board but who knows. I saw her at Mass as well but she disappeared with the Bike Bus.
On Saturday I also had a good Slowies. I joined a motorpaced line (I was expecting something like a motorbike pacing the peleton). I was able to last 4 laps at the head of the group which diminished to 3 riders. We rode in a line/bunch – it was my introduction to what competitive riding is and involved drafting etc the guy who was instructing us was pretty on the ball. He had me close to him and we went at 28 Km an hour. I enjoyed the ride so much I had coffee at the cafe in Marrickville. The only negative that day was motorists who were impatent. One overtook us on double lines and gave us a glare when we passed him stopped at lights. I was with the leading group on the way back to Marrickville.
I also had a close call the other night when I rode down the aptly named Coward Street. I was in the left lane as required by law and the green arrow for a left turn came up (the traffic lights for streight ahead were red). I got abused by a guy in a white van who threatened to run me down when he got the lights went green and I went streight ahead. I got to Centenial a little shaken and stirred. I did my laps and then headed off. It is now raining and it is annoying. I am hoping to get to the City Of Sydney breakfast for commuting cyclists. I have a good idea of how I will get to the closest breakfast to me but will wait and see how it goes.
