Spring Cycle 2011

Sunday 16th October
This year's Spring Cycle was attended by 4 enthusiastic bunnies: Tor, Lou, Amanda and Annette. After a (very) early early morning rise - we zoomed down the freeway in a semi-awake state, to catch the train from Wahroonga to North Sydney where the ride begins...

The Ride...
Bikes unloaded, bunny-ears at the ready, and stripy socks on (all mismatched except for Amanda's elegant purple stripes), we made it on time without missing the train (although Lou and I went up on the wrong railway bridge, and had a slight déja vu of a train-missing tantrum some time back... not wanting a repeat performance from yours truly, we quickly found our way to the station entrance and all was good).

The weather was absolutely fabulous on this fine Spring Sunday morning! The 55km classic ride took us over the harbour bridge (always such a thrill to ride across this majestic and beautiful bridge), and then we went on a scenic ride through The Botanical Gardens, which was a new exciting change to the route. We coasted through some absolutely gorgeous parts of Sydney; passing the Art Gallery was a treat, as was riding down Macquarie Street right in the CBD. Riding a bike is such a fantastic way to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world! Oh I could rave on about the scenes, but I'd probably bore you to tears, and with my sense of location I'd be leading you on a wild-goose chase across the city (not remembering names of places....), but I assure you it was very nice.

The Hills....
Just after the shorter ride (16km city ride) ended, the hills started :) Lillyfield (I think) dished up a few surprise hills, which had quite a number of riders off their bikes and walking. Amanda (who secretly loves hills but says she hates them), was adamant there were a lot more hills this year compared to last.. still she cruised on up every one of the hills without getting off her bike! A nice thing about the hills was that the field spread out, with a lot of riders slowing almost to a halt... and there would suddenly be enough space around to push on and up to the top - and then you get to fly down with ears flapping in the wind! :) It did get a little tricky at times though - like on the hairpin turn going up Anzac bridge, when the rider just in front of me decided to stop and get off his bike without any warning - ouch! No bunny stacks this year thankfully - we all arrived at the end with smiles and well pedalled legs. Tired, but very happy and satisfied, we caught the train back to Wahroonga where we had delicious coffee and lunch, before making our way home.

The Bunnies...
This year boasted a dress-up competition, with prizes for the best outfit... We didn't enter in the competition, but give us an excuse to dress-up and we'll take it :) Our bunny ears drew lots of comments along the way... and also made it oh so easy for us to spot each other in the crowd (with 14,000 riders this year, getting lost wasn't on my wishlist). Lou sported her pink 'floppy ears', Amanda had her ears pointing up all prim and proper - obviously matching her purple socks, Tor swished along in happy yellow ears, and then there were my newly spray-painted black and red ears (still oozing paint-fumes). We got everything from "Hugh Hefner coming through, coming through!" - to kids calling out from the side of the road: "Look at the Bunnies mummy..." High-fiving a line of kids standing on the side of the road, would have to go down as my coordination feat of the day (managing to not crash into the little mites, or fall off my bike is a success). One guy even took note of our mismatched socks and told Amanda that her socks were wrong because they matched :D Not seeing ANY other dressed-up rider (maybe we rode too early..) we awarded ourselves the prize of best dressed bunnies in this year's event :)

The Stats...
Bunnies on board - Lou Tor Amanda Annette
Distance cycled - 55km
Time (including stops) - 5 hours
Calories - 2405
Heart rate - 127 (average) 171 (max)

The Photos...

The 55km classic ride map

Bunny Lou on the train...

another semi-awake bunny...

Bunny ears & feather boa - rearing to go!

Going across the Harbour Bridge

Lou doesn't miss a chance to pose for the camera...

Here comes bunny Tor - feathers et all...

Through the Botanical Gardens

Go fast ears swishing by...

... and who notices the camera..?

South end of the Harbour Bridge

Looking up the top of Anzac Bridge

Bunnies coming up the bridge

Posing at the waterfront rest-stop...

Tor and Amanda all smiles...

Sun-screen, water and check those ears...

10 km to go...

Sunny bunnies nearly at the end...

We did it!

One tired bunny going home...

Annette :)