We have registered as a "D" Group, the slowest, for the 30km length.
Now, if you wish to join our team you have two choices:
You can register under the name "Team Lympago" and then hare off on your own but share in the prizes and glory if we win anything. This is basically a chance to be part of a team without the restrictions of actually having to talk to people. Be welcome.
or
You can register under the name "Team Lympago" and join the group that's riding together (prizes & glory also included if they eventuate) - that includes Rob and Leece. Hi! We will be riding strictly at the pace of our slowest team member, as this year we want to have a more social time of it. We will both be riding mountain bikes.
Our suggested training regime is at the bare minimum, in the week before the event, that you should complete 30 klms of cycling. It can be over a few days, say 10 k for 3 days, for example.
Have your bike checked the week before the event.
Strongly suggested equipment -
* a hydration pack (almost essential - one litre just ain't enough.) 3 litres at the minimum. More if you sweat like me. There are water stops along the way, but this avoids having to wait, because they're always crowded. * cycle computer (more useful for training, to make sure you're doing the right amount of riding) Your bike shop can install it. * sunscreen * hat for when we stop * rear view mirror (you should have one anyway)
We'll have UHF CBs Channel 19 CTSS1 up and running if you have compatible handhelds. (On Vox, naturally)
Super duper! Some pleasant training rides around the river sometime in a group might be nice?
Cost is $30 by post for an adult. They don't show this anywhere on the website except the registration. There doesn't seem to be any mention of early bird discounts this year either, from what I could see in a quick read through.
Regards Mark Who does hope to get to it this year. If it doesn't clash with Settlers.
Good luck everyone. Maybe I'll be able to get to Perth for one of these things one day.
If you cannot see the causal relationship between "I have chocolate" and "Life is Good", you simply aren't trying hard enough. Pirates of the Burley Griffin
Rob, I and Mark were Team Lympago, and all of us were keen (aka Mad Fools) to ride in the 2007 Freeway Bike Hike. Rob and I had ridden in it twice before, it was Mark's first go.
We were set to take things easy this year, as Friday before last, to my dismay, I sprained my knee 'orribly.
Rob and I got ourselves ready and got up really early on Sunday morning. Unfortunately we didn't check the times, and, alas, none of the special trains ferrying cyclists from Joondalup stopped at any of the intervening stations, so we were stuck at Stirling for a bit.
We watched the moon come up, looked at the stars (it was pretty darn early) and looked at the oddly quiet freeway, buses going by, dropping off marshals, police doing sweeps etc. We sat and waited. Express trains full of cyclists from Joondalup, Mark one of them, roared by.
We weren't concerned with being late, the first normal train would get us there in good time.
At around 7.12am a lone roller blader with a car escort[/url] was espied coming past Strirling. He would've been going for about 1/2 hour, very impressive!
A while after that some more people came, rollerbladers and handcrankers, elite groups. We waited and finally a train came that we could get onto.
The train driver announced that all of the bicycles on board the train would have to ride to Belmont from Perth. Huh. We weren't impressed, it's not that far, but all these little rides add up when you've got a sore knee and a thirty kilometre ride in front of you. We decided to catch a train to Claisebrook, which is a little nearer.
However, as we were getting onto a train, a Transperth lady told us to get onto another, as it WOULD be stopping at Belmont, despite what we were previously told. Some miscommunication there, and I'm going to write to the organisers about it, because Transperth are good at arranging this sort of thing, if only they are asked!
Then it was basically just keeping going. It was pretty cool really, with some cloud cover and not getting too hot, so that's one thing daylight saving is good for, I remember the other two rides as being a lot hotter. We rode and we rode and we rode. I had to stop once to refill my hydration unit, and once to apply some heat cream to my protesting knee going up the off ramp right at the end, but the rest of the ride wasn't too bad, just like a dull, nagging toothache. I couldn't really sustain more than 14kph on the flat, though. I think my average was around 13kph. It took us 2 hours and 20 minutes, which isn't too bad with the sore knee.
Hot and tired, we paused briefly to grab some free artificially flavoured fake salty water - but didn't stick around the stopping point to see if there were any more freebies - last year they gave away fruit and flavoured milk. We wandered up to Cosmos Kebab's which we'd scoped out a couple of weeks beforehand.
Well. They recognised us, and gave us some freeby chips and delicious Turkish delight, so I'm going to give them a plug. I think everyone was getting extra from them, I saw other people being give free chips and little children being given icecreams, which was really nice of them.
Cosmos Kebabs, 133 Grad Boulevard, Joondalup. Good, fine people and delicious food. Visit them!
They also let us squat there, plying us with free coffee while Mark had trouble with his lock.
After a while, a splendid lunch and too many chips and many games of Treehouse and Martian Coasters, Rob went to see if the Joondalup City Hotel would let us in. As it happened they would, and I deserted him to get let in too.
Mark joined us shortly after, having resolved his lock problems, and we all had showers and spent the afternoon playing Hive, Treehouse, Zendo and Martian Coasters, after which we went down to the hotel restaraunt and devoured Butter Chicken and Pear and Chocolate Terrine. Yummy!
Mark left after dinner and we lumped around, went to sleep and caught the train back home on Monday.
All in all, a fun event even if my knee was crummy.
I'll post some links to the video Rob took later, the links aren't working for me yet.
Lympago Forums › Special Interest › Cycling › Freeway Bike Hike 2007 (Moderators: rdm, leece)
Author
Freeway Bike Hike 2007
Administrator
Logged
Locked Board