On the 6th of November I took part in the Gong Ride. It is a fundraising ride for the MS society. I raised more than the $250 target set on joining the ride. The ride itself fell just short of achieving the $4 million set by the organisers. This may be due to donor fatigue from the Qld floods and other natural disasters or to the uncertain economic situation.
I was undecided about which bike I would take on the ride and decided to take the Shogun Katana Road Bike which I had upgraded with a 9 speed cassette. I replaced the old Selle Italia saddle with the Brooks Saddle and strapped on the Carradice bag. I filled the Carradice bag with my rain jacket, puncture kit and tools for repairing punctures.
I joined the Pedal Power team which was led by Chris Mann, whose parents live in Wollongong. Some of the team spent the night in Wollongong. I spent the night at Ruth’s mother’s place and caught the train up to St Peters in the morning. While on the train I got talking to some riders one of whom bought his bike for the event a few weeks before and had been doing roller training to build up road strength for the event.
When we got to St Peters I got myself ready and eventually caught up with the rest of the team who had arrived late. We got a team photo and eventually got ourselves on the road. The ride had some delays caused by some people being eager to get to the new Ikea outlet on the Princess Highway. It was good going through old familiar areas and seeing how some things had remained the same while others had changed sometimes for the best. We passed a group of motorcyclists who also were on their way south and were gathering at Deano’s Diner – now a Harry’s Cafe De Wheels at Tempe.
As we were late we found ourselves with riders who perhaps had not had as much training as they should have. Things were a bit slow and there was an incident that could have caused a crash. One rider was handing another rider a mobile phone as they were approaching a set of traffic lights which changed to the red signal. Fortunately they stopped albeit abruptly.
The first stop was the water point after Brighton – Le Sands. It turned out to be a scorcher of a day so water was in high demand. I estimate I went through over 3 litres of water during the ride. Eventually we made our way through the St George area and into the Sutherland Shire. We proceeded on to the morning tea stop at Loftus
At Loftus the Pedal Power team regrouped and we discussed the ride and when we were going to meet afterward. It was decided we would meet at a beach side cafe at North Wollongong. I also took the opportunity to catch up with some St John people I know. It turned out there was also a St John team in the ride as a promotional team. We got rolling again and it was great to see the rolling countryside of the outer reaches of Sydney.
When I got to the entrance of the Royal National Park there wasn’t any of the usual delays for the road to clear. I proceeded down the steep descents riding on the brakes. I have to admit being a scaredy cat with the speeds some people were descending at.
As we proceeded to the lunch stop the hills and heat began winnowing out those who had not done enough training. There were some people walking their bikes and others stopped by the road side. There were also some crashes with St John Ambulance having to treat some people by the side of the road in some cases for what appeared to be serious injuries.
Eventually we made it to the Lunch post and again the Pedal Power team regrouped. Chris was able to check out some maps of the ride on his mobile and we had discussions on riding and touring. It was good to get some Lunch and more water in because the heat was taking a toll.
We regrouped again at Bald Hill where we had some ice cream from a van that must have done a roaring trade on weekends with the heat like the one experienced that day. Eventually we got to Lawrence Hargrave Drive and the last of the serious descents.
We then entered the Illawarra towns and made our way through to Scarbourgh and the Fruit stop. The heat brought out a great crowd at the beaches at Thirroul and Austinmer. There were some interesting moments with people dashing across the road to the beach or to the shops but nothing serious.
Eventually we went along the Sea Cliff Bridge and there were photos take there. When we entered the northern suburbs of Wollongong we wound up on one of the local share user paths and I caught up with Chris Mann again who took some photos. As we wound our way through some of the back streets of North Wollongong near the university and on to the finish line, I came across a guy mowing the lawn in Speedos – something that gave me an inkling into how laid back the area must be.
Eventually we made it to the finish line – had the ride finished at the lighthouse it would have made it to the 90 Km mark but the numbers and organisers finished it at the park with a photo and some stalls and some meeting points for the various teams. I picked up my copy of the Sun Herald which I used in the cleaning for my latest bond inspection and bought a souvenir jersey. I then made my way to the cafe where I caught up with the rest of the team. I had a coffee and a bacon and egg roll and discussed other rides with the team. Eventually the group went back to it’s hotel and I went to Wollongong railway station and onto a train at Dapto to catch up with Ruth.
