April 11, 2025
Quiet roads and sunny skies
Bacchus Marsh to Ballarat
Normal transmission was resumed with todays ride. There were quiet roads, perfect mid twenties temperatures and no wind. All our coffee and lunch stops were top notch, with excellent fare and no greasy calamari in sight. After a breakfast of two perfectly poached eggs with smashed avocado we headed out into the countryside. It was a gradual uphill drag all morning; nothing too steep but unrelenting. But after yesterday there were no complaints, only smiles.
My preparation for this ride has been less than ideal. I decided after Xmas to try and mimic the preparation of one my favourite cyclists, The Belgian racer Wout van Aert, a daring and charismatic rider known for his never say die attitude and his penchance for high speed crashes. In mid January I managed to break my collarbone and 5 ribs in a high speed crash much like Wout did about 6 months ago. After six weeks of convalescing (and driving Cherie crazy) I was on the indoor trainer for 3 weeks before attending a high altitude training camp in Sri Lanka. That left one week of road cycling before flying to Melbourne. I’m somewhat under done and already lagging behind on the hills.
After about twenty five k’s we stopped for an excellent coffee in Ballan and rode onwards and upwards to the village of Gordon for lunch at the only cafe in town. As Bill Lawry would say “interesting cafe that”. When the cafe opened they called themselves ‘Gordon Bleu’. All was fine until Le Cordon Bleu international School of Culinary Cooking sent them a threatening legal letter suggesting that ‘Gordon Bleu’ caused confusion and leveraged off their brand. After several more letters they gave up and changed their name to ‘GordonS’.
The run in to Ballarat was more downhill than up and by 3pm we were at the BnB Steve had booked. After a shower and a cup of tea I rode into town to buy a new helmet and a pair of speedos. I needed a new helmet after my accident and found a whizz bang Bontragger that fitted perfectly. It wasn’t cheap but helmets are not something to scrimp on.
I rode past a ‘Best and Less’ and thinking they might stock speedos popped in. The assistant directed me to their limited selection of budgie smugglers, but the sizing ranged from XXL to XXXXL hopefully reflecting a run down of summer stock rather than their target audience. She then suggested I try the big boys department. I was somewhat taken a back. It’s a long time since I’ve been called a big boy but I’ll take it as a compliment. As it turned out I was too big for even the biggest big boy swimmers so I departed swimmerless.
We ordered in pizza for dinner and washed it down with a 2018 Torbreck Shiraz courtesy of Steve’s cellar. I’m almost ready for bed and it’s barely 8.30pm. Maybe one more glass first.
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5 days ago
Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 129 km (80 miles)
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