Ride Updates

While the Biker Bunnies have been finding time to ride, there doesn't seem to have been much time to post about rides on our blog, which is why I thought on the eve of the  Loop the Lake  ride - I'd add some photos from our latest adventures...


November 2011 - February 2012
Gosford to Ettalong and back
A sunny pre-summer day in November, took us on a slightly longer than our trusted Gossie-Wossie ride... We continued past Woy Woy down to Ettalong - where we had a most interesting coffee experience (which included a lecture on the failures of making a strong coffee :P)... and a browse in the outdoor shopping arcade area, before embarking on the return pedal. All up this adventure covered about 35km.

Amanda at the start near Gosford Pool

Tor arriving in Woy Woy

The waterfront between Woy Woy and Ettalong

...hmmm interesting coffee indeed!

... couldn't agree more :)

Ettalong cycle path with the Jacaranda in full bloom

Gossie Wossie Rides and more...
Amanda and I fitted in a few rides to Woy Woy and back before the Christmas rush. Then early in the new year (after another bout of rainy days), Tor - with her brand new bike came along for an adventure along a slightly wetter bike path. After coasting along for years on her old (but still lovely) bike, Tor literally flew to Woy Woy and back on her aptly named (female) Stallion:

Coming out of the railway tunnel at Point Claire

Biker Bunnies with style :)

Amanda's bike is 'looking after' the new Stallion...

Early February Amanda and I did a hilly ride around Springfield (no camera on board for this one sadly). We started in Erina and cycled down towards the art gallery where we turned into the back streets of East Gosford and Springfield. There are a few decent hills along the way, which gave us a chance to grunt and pedal through the lower gears for a while. Almost at the end of our loop (finish line in sight),  yours truly came up with the idea that we could turn around and double back the way we came to make it a longer (and hillier) ride. Amanda delightfully accepted (you know she secretly loves hills...) and proved a star going up the mad hill where the round-about is painfully positioned before you get to the top... No time for coffee at the end of this ride, but it was still a fabulous adventure :)

Bike re-vamp...
After spending the early part of its life being pink it was time for mini-Amanda's bike to have a re-vamp. With spray cans and stickers at hand, we embarked on a mission to give her bike a new look. This involved cleaning the bike, pumping the tyres, oiling the chain and masking (some) areas before taking aim with the spray can - and here's the groovy result:

Hope you're all well and stay tuned for an update on the Loop the Lake ride which we're off to do tomorrow!

Annette :)

Famous Cyclists

I was going to post this a few weeks back when my sister sent me this cute photo of her cycling with both her kids through Brisbane. Whoever took the photo thought it was such a great show of cycling that they're now using it as one of their header images on the Bicycle Queensland website :)

cheers all and happy cycling!

Annette :)

Spring Cycle 2011 - part 2

Well well well!

A 4am start is not ideal for a Sunday morning by anyone's standards – least of all mine. I knew that I couldn’t start the day without breakfast, a coffee and a shower so up I got in the dark. It was surprisingly warm and this bode for a good start to the day. I picked Tor up at 5.15AM but made her cut her finger open whilst she rummaged for her phone in her bag – twas only me texting her that I was outside – poor poppett. All smiles she came out in her bunny attire and we set off on our smiley way – tired but excited at what lay ahead. MMMMMMmmmm as I write that I realise how mad it sounds at 5.20am but hey gotta get your kicks from somewhere.

The drive to Wahroonga was quick and easy as was the train ride to North Sydney (even though two silly bunnies managed to get lost on a bridge – and the station was literally two minutes away from the car park – I blame it on lack of sleep rather than sheer stupidity – ha ha :)).
We got to the starting line and literally we were off – cameras flashing as we zoomed by with our ears flowing in the wind. Careering down through North Sydney is always exuberating as you pick up speed before getting onto the Harbour Bridge which never ceases to excite me. The sheer thrill of cycling over the bridge into an empty CBD is hard to beat (now you know I am lying!).

Black Beauty loves cruising and she is damned good at it but on the downhill run she leaves everyone behind so I reined her in in the Botanical gardens only to be told by a serious cyclist that I had chosen an inappropriate place to stop – not my fault he doesn’t look up when he is cycling and he hunts in a pack like a wolf (and he is hungry like the wolf). This unnerved me and I nearly stacked it getting back on the track with the other bunnies – that would have been rather embarrassing.

It is amazing what a pair of bunny ears can do – people either love it and smile and comment or they look at you like you are some kind of twat that has just crawled out of a dark hole in the earth – most people commented as Netty as told you and one told me that I was too beautiful – blushing I said now don’t be silly – surely you are not talking about me? And he wasn’t because he actually said that I was the ODD one out – imagine that ME? Why because I had matching socks – that should mean that I am NOT the odd one. Obviously the other bunnies had brainwashed him along the way to lose sight of what was normal in this world.

A few near misses, caused mainly by children and older men saw us all reaching the last 10 kms going – are we nearly there yet? Feet numb from the cleats Netty and I stopped to take our shoes off and a delicious young policeman stopped to check we were ok and even asked Netty is she wanted a foot massage which she declined (whilst Lou stood there looking beautiful and trying to muster in on massage offer :).

A very slow and painful last 10kms (because we actually thought the last 10 kms started at the 30km mark) saw us all cycle in happy and tired ready for the train trip and a beckoning lunch at Wahroonga. What a great way to finish an almost awesome day (it would have been better if Lou had packed a picnic and a sauv blanc). Thank you bunnies for the fun and laughter had on the way especially Lou and her shadow Mr Clawhead!

Amanda :)

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 :)

Winter rides 2011

The weather has been a bit all over the place with a mix of rain rain rain and some absolutely gorgeous sunny winter days thrown in to lift our spirits. We have done a number of bunny rides and in between these I've  been cruising up and down the old Pacific Hwy on my own (looking for bellbirds....) when the weather has been kind... So it's about time I update this blog with a few photos.

I've been thinking a fun project on bicycle would be to take photos of interesting signs... there are plenty about the place, just have to find a way to psyche myself into actually stopping to take the photo.

The Spring Cycle is just around the corner (early bird registrations end in 2 days!!!) so get your entry in and come on an adventure - they have changed the route this year to include the Botanic Gardens and a few more exciting places - so it's well worth the experience if just for the sight-seeing. :)

Amanda and I have traversed along the Gosford - Woy Woy track a number of times; stopping off for coffee at the Gnostic in Woy Woy, giving us a chance to giggle and collect ourselves before completing the second half of the ride. It's funny how the wind always seem to change on this ride - you ride into the wind no matter which way your are going!  One morning we did a cruisy ride from Mingara up to The Entrance and back. The ride itself was lovely - taking us along the bike path for most of the way - however, the start to our adventure was quite dramatic with magpies out in full force attacking anyone with a bike helmet! Luckily resourceful Amanda had plastic ties in her car which we fitted to our helmets! I figure it's ever so much better looking like someone who communicates with aliens, than lying flat on the ground after a successful magpie missile connects with your head!

In the school holidays Tor & I walked with our kids riding their bikes from Long Jetty up to The Entrance and back. It was a fabulous day out and even though we weren't riding we still got to walk at a fast pace with all the 'little' people on 2 wheels :)

This morning Janine and I rode from Gosford Gallery to Woy Woy and back where we had a coffee and another admiring look at the Mad Potters Tea Party (love your work ladies!!!). It wasn't quite as sunny as we'd hoped but still a lovely ride with just one incident with an angry lady and her lead-less dog... Everyone else along the way (and there were a lot of people out for a morning ride or stroll) were all very civil and pleasant.

Here are a few of the photos from the latest rides:

   Coffee spot no:1 in Woy Woy :)

   Mirror surface at the Woy Woy jetty

   Reception appears a little hazy....

   Yippeee! Made it half-way :)

   View over bushland and Gosford from the lookout on Kariong hill

Looking forward to more rides and SPRING which is just around the corner.

Annette :)

The Century Challenge 2011

Hello all :)

A beautiful sunny Sunday provided a perfect day for the Century Challenge 2011 (compared to last year's rainy conditions), and I did feel quite excited in my half-awake state as I signed the registration papers at Mount Penang to enter the 110km challenge. Sadly neither Tor or Amanda could make it, but I'm hoping that more bunnies will be enticed to brave these mad and gruelling hills next year.

This is by far the hardest long ride I've done - with NO flat section along the way; undulation while lovely and inspiring in the beginning - turns to sheer pain towards the end: your legs scream in protest and you have to pretend you can't hear them in order to get to the finish line. I believe a trance-like state of denial helps too... ;) "that's not a hill, it's just the earth turning slowly and I'm actually riding on a flat surface".

To give some idea of the 'undulating' ride - here's the topography & map of the route:

This is a fantastic ride though; the scenery is amazing and the Erina Rotary club (who organise the ride and raise money for Coast Shelter) do a great job in putting on the event - the best for any charity ride I've done: You cycle along remote country roads and arrive at rest stops with friendly marshals providing home-made chocolate cake, fruit, water and.... snakes :) If this doesn't get your spirits up to continue, I don't know what would... :)

You could probably count the mountain bike riders (in the 110k challenge) on one, or maybe two hands. The big bulk of the riders were all jazzed up on their road bikes and zoomed off into the morning sun (not to be seen again, I might add ;)) - which allowed us slower paced riders to enjoy the scenery without any hustling & bustling... It can get lonely out there on the remote roads though, and so it was very exciting to find a like-minded friend at the first rest stop (while digging into the newly arrived chocolate cake). Maddy (solo champion rider) and I - braved the second half of the ride together, with jelly-beans for fuel and sheer determination to get us to the finish line where we were greeted by our very own cheer squad of patiently waiting partners...

Stage 1
The start of the ride takes you up Wisemans Ferry Rd (undulating up-hill) to the Peats Ridge Rd turn-off. Morning sun and still quite chilly in the air (cold feet...). Luckily I'd put on quite a few layers, thinking I could take some off as it got warmer in the day - as it turned out, the chill in the air stayed with us and I was glad to be rugged up for the whole ride. Wisemans Ferry Rd has quite a few potholes and chomped up edges, so you need to keep an eye on where you're going... Once you get onto Peats Ridge road, the surface is more reliable, and there is even a shoulder safe enough to cruise along...

Stage 2
Ride down Peats Ridge road to the Calga U-turn bay, where you cross the road and cycle back up to the first rest stop near the Peats Ridge road & George Downs drive intersection. The return trip from the U-turn bay is definitely more up than down, which made that lovely chocolate cake all the more welcome! This rest stop provided us with 2 route choices: 1) Be sensible and take the 65km shortcut - or... 2) Keep going on the century challenge route... Being die-hard (or foolish), we prevailed and soldiered on towards stage 3...

Stage 3
Probably the hardest stage of the ride - the road narrows quite a bit, to a winding and quite hilly country road - which you're sharing with a surprising amount of non-cycling traffic: there were countless motorbikes blaring past us and 4-wheel drives - where some found it hard to gauge how much room (if any) they should leave between their car and the cyclists! Not too well-read-up on the map situation, I was blissfully unaware of the turnaround point and called out YAY!!! 20km too early (this was just before the hideously steep 10km ride DOWN to Mangrove dam followed by the 10km back up again)! Without the support of the marshals at the rest stop at the bottom of the hill, there is no way my champion fellow rider and I would have made that leg of the ride.

Stage 4
From the top at Kulnura we were told it was 40 km to the finish line - and so we set our determination dial to maximum, and put our heads down for the home run. A jelly-bean boost stop at the 16km to go mark gave us the much needed energy to complete the challenge. Getting to that finish line practically had me in tears: exhausted & exhilarated with a certificate and lucky rider prize to top it all off! Am I mad enough to do it again? - Definitely :)


Ride stats:
Distance cycled - 106.6km
Speed - 56.1 km/h (max) 18.1km/h (average)
Time cycling - 5 hours 47 minutes
Total time - 7 hours 14 minutes
Calories - 3946 (!)
Heart rate - 172 (max) 137 (average)

    Friendly marshal showing us the way... 

    ... and posing with champion rider

    16km to go

    Jelly-beans DO work!

    A very happy bunny at the finish line

    We did it!

Happy riding to all of you - and definitely book this one in for next year!

Annette :)

Gossie Wossie ride-wrap

Hello all!
It has been a while since we posted anything about our adventures here - I think it's fair to say that life has been very busy with not much time to record "life as it happens". We have however managed a number of rides along our well-trodden path to Woy Woy (where they have fabulous coffee) - and before these photos become too outdated I thought I'd pop them up here:

January & February rides

In January and February the weather was mostly warm to hot and balmy & so we braved the heat with a swimming treat at the end of most rides. Our Bi-athlon training consisted of a speedy ride to Woy Woy, a coffee with lots of laughs and then a wind-in-face return trip to West Gosford where we jumped in the pool for a nice refreshing swim.

    The Woy Woy cycle bridge with Tor & Amanda shooting off into the distance.

    Safe girls pose with their helmets on...

    Chillaxing with a coffee at the Gnostic café

    Tor posing on the waterfront near Point Clare

    Fashionista bunny in her hi-vis-vest

    This bunny looks like she's going to fall in the water...

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Mini Bunny rides

Ben got a brand new bike for his birthday (which means he no longer needs to ride with his knees touching his ears...) We've had exciting sunny adventures riding around the parks and local streets where Ben has discovered the joy of flying through lots of gears:

A 110 km challenge!

Before I go I want to remind you all of an exciting challenge coming up in just a few weeks time:

The Erina Rotary Club is organizing the Mt Penang century challenge on the

15th of May. The date has been changed from the 1st to the 15th so hopefully you can make it :) There are 2 main routes to choose from and also a kids challenge around the Mt Penang Parklands. Have a look at the website and be inspired:

http://www.centurychallenge.com.au/  

Hoping you're all well and happy and I look forward to riding with you again very soon!

Annette :)