Self Righteous Cyclist

Hands down the hardest road race I’ve ever done. The BCC club champs attracted riders from the youngsters, the up and comers, the newbies, defending title holder che d and the old’uns. Just think of a field of 27 riders between the ages of 9-69 and of every grade. Before the main event got underway the juniors raced a shorter 12km loop chaperoned by the main peloton. In fairness to the older riders, they were given a choice of one or two laps of the Granite Rd course. My request for 4 laps was declined by Mr Pink. Right from the start the posse of u19s like a herd of young bulls were keen to assert their dominance over their older rivals, but we weren’t about to rollover and let them take an early break. Stewart Hay, Phil Naidoo, Andrew Gannon and myself got into an early break and worked well together, until Stewart’s intensity shredded the attempt. I soon paid for it by falling out the back of the bunch scrambling to stay on. Che was in the same boat and we worked hard to bridge th...

 Thanks to Tim Carroll for penning this story about his recent bike packing adventure with two mates. Tuillio, Rob and I just completed our first bikepacking adventure. We’d hoped to ride in autumn, but as always, work and life got in the way. Rather than postpone again until summer, we chose to head off in mid-winter—right after a week of heavy rain and freezing conditions. (We gave that zero thought.) It was now or never. Tim, Rob & Tuillio Day One We caught the train to Lilydale, followed the easy gravel route to Warburton, then road into The Reefton Pub for an early lunch around 11:30 AM—burgers and chips. We all said, “Don’t eat the chips, they’ll make the Reefton climb harder.” We ate the chips. We regretted the chips. At the top of the climb we spotted a dusting of snow, got excited, snapped a few photos, and continued on. We turned off onto Cambarville Road—a dirt track that leads to the back of Eildon, about 60 km long. The snow thickened quickly, covering the road...