Sun City

A real taste of summer today - it got to 35 degrees, but doesn't feel quite that hot due to a strong and gusty NE'ly wind. I'm not ready for hot weather yet. We have only just started getting nice spring weather and then - bam!

Today I rode up to Yanchep - Sun City - all the way on Marmion Ave. The last 13km is real 'nice'- in that the road quality is great and there is a nice big wide bike lane. It is undulating and there are no houses or people around and very few cars also. It is a magic bit of road. Reminds me a little bit of what the 'Queen K' highway might be like in the Hawaii Ironman. Desolate, hot and windy! I really enjoyed heading up there into a NE'ly wind too! I was flying this morning. Felt pretty strong, but was hammering despite the wind. I got up to the big roundabout in Yanchep at an avg of about 32.6km/h all too soon. The dead bobtail lizard count was 4. Fellow cyclist count was also four. A trio of roadies that I passed on the way up and a triathlete I saw coming the other way. I was doing some interval work. 15min hard, 3min easy. The undulating road made it harder. Then I started heading back with a cross tail wind which had picked up a few knots too. I was having a ball flying along and got up to 60 a few times on some small descents. Then all too quickly, it was back to civilisation and cars and shops and people...

I flew down Marmion and somewhere around Ocean Reef or Hillarys, I got a flat. Always the rear wheel! So pulled off at a bus stop and made a fairly leisurely change. Got filthy hands in the process. Wearing my Cervelo white kit means I couldn't even wipe my hands on my knicks! Anyway, a quick CO2 cartridge later and I was back on the road. I called in to home to re-fill 2 bidons, grab another tube and cartridge and make a quick pit stop. Then headed off for a round the river (RTR) ride. 87km done.

I went with the breeze and headed down the coast to Freo. By the time I got to Port beach I had done 107km at an avg of 33.6km/h. Then I headed into the breeze as I went around the south side of the river the road goes in a roughly a NE'ly direction. Started to slow down a bit now and the avg dropped steadily. Finished my gels, and bars and kept drinking fluids as it was getting pretty hot now. Ended up downing 5 bidons. Finally cruised into home right on 4:31min, after stopping at the shop around the corner and buying 1.25l of Coke. Total distance 145km, avg 32.1. Pretty happy with that. Shoulders and neck a bit stiff but felt pretty good.