BR44b – The Half Pint
Perpetrators: DaveB, GPLama, hippy
Woke up after a crappy “on/off” sleep (waaay to gee’d up from Sunday..)
2pc Vegemite toast for brekkie.
Greased my nipples.. hey, this jersey chaffs!! 😛
Rolled out and started HRM.
Look down two minutes later to find HRM showing all 8’s.. WTF?
Press Start again.. HRM totally resets! ARRR!! CRAP! There goes yesterday’s race data!! WTF?!
Determined not to let it get to me I ride on, now with only a rough idea of the time since the clock reset to 10am. I reset my wheel circumference so I’d at least have accurate distance and speed measurements.
Ride past the clocktower in Ringwood and feel guilty about not participating in some kind of ANZAC service. Roll another 20m and, as if by magic, the guilt disappears 🙂 (I am a bad person..)
Arrived at Doncaster shopping centre with, I guess, 15min to spare. Rolled around not sure of exactly where the start point was, as I’d previously joined the bunch around Blackburn Rd.
Rolled over to 7-11 and took advantage of the 2-for-$4.50 offer on Powerade bottles. Tasted the Powerade. Regretted being such a tightarse. Bleh! Oh well.. I only wanted the salts not the flavour.
Rolling back towards Donkeyaster Mopping Polenta I spot a bike. It’s GPLama. Hiding in the bushes nearby was DaveB. Wait. Chat. Roll out when no one else arrives.
88.7kph down the fast hill, without trying as Dave said something about a sharp dropoff and road works cutting something.. I dunno.. wind noise! 😛
After the big climb (timed apparently, from, the Bus Stop – “The Rock”) we turned left instead of right at the round-a-bout. Lots of mostly downhill followed which was good for me – my legs still ‘tender’ from yesterday’s race.
107.9 down Foote St. (BULLCRAP!! Must be sensor glitch.. I did ‘see’ 88kph though)
Through lots of suburbs I’ll never remember and eventually deposited back around Doncaster, where we split.
On the way home, I decide to take it easy so ride no hands for a while.. At a set of lights (perhaps Blackburn Rd?) my front tyre suddenly goes squishy! WTF?! Puncture? Arrr!!
I check the tyre and see no evidence of a puncture so I pump it up and ride away – seems fine? Next set of lights.. stop.. flat front tyre!!! WTF?! It’s like the valve is operating on centrifugal(?) forces and opening every time I slow down.. kinda like Speed the movie just without a bomb! This is the weirdest ‘flat’ I’ve ever had!
I pump the tyre up a second time and this time I hammer. Any time I come to a set of lights I find another way around that doesn’t involve stopping or I time my arrival so I get a green light.. crazyness!! I make it the rest of the way home without having to inflate the tyre – it _must’ve_ been a valve issue! :S
Eat some Vegemite toast, drink some Ice Break IC, type this while thinking about the Snickers in the cupboard and a shower.. mmm.. shower.. what a top idea!
I think I recovered most of the Polar data from the “glitch” and now present the stats:
Distance: ~71.2k
Time: 2h:53m