Gongride 2008

Sydney to Wollongong is a charity ride held yearly which covers 90 odd kilometres from Sydney Park to Stuart Park in Wollongong, the ride travels south through some very scenic roads both in a lovely forest and along some of the prettiest beaches in Australia. The course itself is rather hilly and a medium grade ride, the hilly sections being maybe 10 kilometres in total. All up there's possibly 2 hills that raise the eyebrows when you look at the elevation map. There's 2 incredible descents that give the wrists and forearms a thorough workout on the brake levers, i have a slippery bike and it travels at around 30k's under heavy brakes, unfortunately they have marshals that limit the speed you travel at.

I have visions of organising a downhill run where the gloves are off.. CARNAGE!! Close the road in both directions and let people down in 5 min intervals, sending an ambulance down every 30 min to recover the bodies.. "Carnage 2009, sponsored by the Australian Association of Orthopaedic surgeons" The winner gets a specially fitted pair of fortified pants to support their oversized cohone's!

It never ceases to surprise me at the range of riders who participate in the Gongride, there's all sorts, from elite riders who you're passing halfway into the ride and they're riding back, to hacks on their grandmother's rusty bike. Then you get the 'tour de gongers'.. These are the clearly out of shape riders on rusty or brand new bikes, powering out of the starting blocks, passing you like they're some testosterone fuelled version of Cadel Evans, only to walk their bike to the train station after the first 'real' hill, sore legs, sore egos and a goal to work towards for next year.

The ride is well organised and kudos need to go out to the many volunteers who spend the day directing traffic and slowing down the wannabe Eddy Merckx's from damaging their overly expensive and inadequately ridden Cadel signature Ridleys.. Kudo's as well to NSW's finest, who with their involuntary suntans and sheer presence alone negate any chance of road rage. It's a great feeling holding up traffic and knowing that there's a badge nearby to quell any chance of an irate motorist swerving into you to see just how close he can place the side mirror to your elbow.

My ride this year was dedicated to my beautiful friend Anna, who's been fighting MS for too many years, she's such a positive influence to my life and unbeknown to her teaches me to be a better person every day. MS is such a debilitating disease, yet she handles it with an inner strength that is pure testament to her amazing tenacity. Thanks for your support this year.. You're the best!

My training leading up to the event was lacklustre, a friend and I had planned to ride to Wollongong in a relaxed fashion so my training for the week's leading up to it were based mostly on long steady rides to prepare my ass for a 5-6 hour cruise rather than work on strength or speed. Yes.. You guessed it, Jason's work commitments meant I was alone.. Awwwww... This left me with a dilemma. Do I cruise or do I push it?? I decided to do it hard as I could up the hills.

The type of event precludes anyone turning it into a race against the clock, there's too many interruptions to allow the elapsed time to have any significance, for example, we walked our bikes for the first kilometre and a half due to the sheer volume of participants, this year being upward of 16,000 riders who rode either the 94 or 54 kilometre course. So a race against the clock is meaningless, however, self flagellation on the hills is not only possible but mandatory.. :P Spank the mountain, feel the burn and cruise downhill munching on whatever goodies you fish from the cycling jersey back pocket lucky-dip while you sipped warm electrolytes from the bidon.

This year the weather was co operative and produced an overcast day with temperatures in the mid to high twenties. A perfect day for a ride.

All in all it was a great day, a chance to do something for a cause that's close to my heart. I'll be back next year and hopefully I can convince a few friends to burn some calories.. Who knows, next year I may ride back.