04
Apr
2014

Day 7 Eildon to Melbounre – and onboard the Spirit of Tasmania (its a ship, not a ferry ;))

Less eventful ride today – but Eildon was a nice place & we were very lucky to have been shacked up in Craig Deane (Full tour rider) holiday house on the lake with 8 other riders.  a very comfortable stay.

Perhaps a notable development is that we now seem to have a gastro bug working its way through the team a bit which is something we need to manage – its a 24-36hr bug and requires a full day off the bike and in the car.  Hand Sanitiser is a well used item at the moment.

We got quite wet at the end of yesterdays ride, and the morning things were still quite damp, a few bikes had a bit of a squeak, showing signs of water ingress.  We rolled out just as daylight began, today I was in P2 and scheduled to visit 2 schools.

The first part of the day was a flat warm up and the roads became dry quite quickly, a couple of punctures again plague the peleton, which keeps the poor mechanics very busy. After morning tea we headed to the coveted Blck Spurs, which is a fabulous climb inot the rainforest with a 4km ascent, but a lovely 7km descent through fresh hotmix and sweeping corners.  all the while lined by large trees and foliage.  Today was wet so the speeds kept very low.

We had rain, roadworks, mechanicals and fatigue today so we were running behind schedule by quite a lot.  We did a presentation at Healesville school, then slammed sown a very quick lunch and continued on through the Yarra Valley vineyard region.  A nice ride, and the road became dry again.

On to Melbourne outer suburbs the noise slowly increased and the traffic lights made themselves known again, so many days being used to silience, nature and constant rolling, now interrupted by bustling traffic and intersections.

We were becoming very late and still had another school t present to.  Peter Braine Full Tour rider was to present to his own school, and they had a lovely bunch of students to meet.  I was also very happy to see my Aunt – Karina come and visit – great to have a familiar face there – thanks

 

Off we rode with only 110mins to the ship leaving port.

 

Made it with 30mins to spare

 

Stats – 154km 1800m ascent

 

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