May & Bill's "RTA Big Ride" Web Page
or
RTA's Bicycle & Entertainment Travelling Circus
for pictures go to "annotated pictures -links list" - click here or to go back to the "BeachClub Home Page"
Here are the "professional pictures" taken by "Top Shots" - these
include some pictures of Mr. Bill, too. May & B ill -
(see above), then Ms. May, or
Mr. Bill, and/or the
"Start" of the race.
for story - start here:
Well - we did "it" - yes - we went through the "FINISH" line of the "RTA (Roads & Traffic Authority) BIG RIDE 600km from Canowindra to Bega, NSW, Australia - 24 April - 2nd May with a "rest day" on 28th May in "Queanbeayn, NSW".
For those of you out there who don't know about this - It was a poster-ad that Ms. May found in our local council library, and we then registered - sometime in mid-late February, I guess, and off we went on the afternoon of the 23rd May to drive to the starting point, Canowindra, NSW - about 300 km west of Sydney, arrving back home this morning (Monday 3 May) at about 12:40am.
This event is run each year, jointly by the "RTA (Roads & Traffic Authority) and the "Bicycle New South Wales" (non-profit) organization. It has been going-on for about 10 years now, and it is run each year over a different course, through different cities in different areas of New South Wales. It is always a 7-15 day event and usually covers something between 500 & 1000km. This year this whole thing was organized by ride director Tracy Andie - a 23 year old college student and several other young ladies who work for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of New South Wales - the primary beneficiary of the ride (with approximately $20,000(Australian) net profit for the event.
Our shortest day's ride this year was the first day at 46km, and our longest day was 112km - though we rode a bus the first 46km of that - since the weather report said cold, rain, and wind directly out of the south - which is the direction we were headed (to say nothing of the hills). - As it turns out everything the weatherman predicted did come true - the rain, the cold & the wind - however we both finished that day, but at 76km it felt considerably longer & tougher than the second day which was 96km (in sunshine and shorts & shirts weather).
We won't bore you with all the statistics, other than to say that we mostly finished what we started and we felt extremely proud of ourselves for our achievement. For a couple of desk-jockeys I feel it was a real accomplishment. There are, though a number of "highlights & acheivements" as well as "disappointments" and "lessons learned" that we'll share with you here, in the hopes you'll get a feel for what it was like to spend the night in tents when it was 5degrees below 0 (centigrade) and how it was to ride in the rain & cold headwinds, and what it was like to eat, sleep & share in this escapade with 1548 other people, to say nothing of the 200-300 volunteers & paid staff & sponsors & supporters...
here's some selected ramblings from Mr. Bill's seat 24b on UA862 from Sydney to San Francisco, then onto Washington, DC. airplane ride (I hope 30 hours on airplanes in airports is enough to write down everything I want about this (to say nothing of the 163 e-mails I received while away, and the other things I've got to do)... Pictures are "forthcomming" - we bought a disposable Konica and I have it with me to be processed, I hope, in some photo place in Baltimore and try to get the PC-Pics on a floppy at the same time and I'll publish those here too - but probably just in list-form unless I get real energetic.
The web-page may be up before the pictures - so if you don't see them - wait a day or two they should be there...
So - in no particular order:
Riding your bike 600km in 8 days - sounds "hard " - is it??
Not nearly so much as I had anticipted - though since we sent our money in to sign-up for this - I think I"d been practicing 2-3 times a week when home with 1-2 hour rides in "Centennial Park" in Sydney, and then trying to ride both days on the weekends, too. Also working on the stationary bicycles in hotel gyms when I was travelling - really helped, too. However, Ms. May didn't practice quite as much and she finished too with no long-term damaging effects. However, she's a bit slower than Mr. Bill. But overall I don't think either of us considered it "HARD" - I think the key item is persistence and motivation o finish each day's ride (but be willing to accept that the weather forecast may shed light on things that you might find insurmountable (like the combination of rain, cold, hills and headwinds all together on the 29th & 30th of May (the Thursday & Friday) and once you know what lies ahead be willing to accept the fact that the bus-ride was a good idea.
Additionally - I suspect we're probably more fit than the average
people our age, and have both had a lot of experience dressing for
sports - via our sailing. That experience in how to dress
warmly while exercising in cold / wet weather was handy on the 29th
& 30th, however, after having put on everything you have brought
in your back-pack there's little left to do but
grin & bear it and peddle like crazy to stay warm.
which brings up: "Dressing for Success" how to stay warm / cool while alteranately peddling up-hill in the sun and riding down-hill at 45-55km in the shade... This was probably our greatest challenge during the week - which started out in how to stay warm in a "Hotel"(which in Auz means rooms over a (noisy by definition) country bar-pub)... Where we felt insufficient heat. We had brought lots of sailing clothes and that helps - but in sailing you're not working your muscles that hard, continuously, it's more of a sporadic exercise sport, whereas here - you're peddaling, peddaling, peddaling for up to 8-10 hours a day - except in rest / water / tea / lunch stops. So - our experience with lycra, thermal wind / rain shells & layering was really helpful. I was never "cold all over" - my arms were always chilly and my fingers and toes (in mesh-cleated shoes) were always cold early in the mornings (we were usually peddaling before 0800 - and our latest day I think I finished at 1700 or so and May at 1800 or so - on our shortest day (next to last - 19 km downhill) we finished about 1430 - so we spent some considerable time on the bikes.
However on the Friday-run - May made the mistake of hanging around the lunch-stop too long and got cold - and as she and I have both experienced while sailboat racing - in the between-race "wait" for the race-committee, we frequently got cold and had to give-up because once cold we never seemed to warm-up again and be able to perform to peak. So she had a tough time that day.
However, even on the Thursday - when it was raining, cold & wind-in the face, I was never cold to the point of being unable to readily keep up my pace and was never worried that I wouldn't finish the day's stage.
We will both say, though, that next time we do this -we'll prepare our clothing with more care - and I'll certainly do something with my gloves the Saturday-Tuesday rides were in excellent weather - but that part of NSW is very very dry and my thumbs, forefingers and middle fingers all got dry and cracked open and bled. I think if I'd had diswashing gloves or maybe surgical gloves under my padded bike-gloves the wind wouldn't have dried my fingers so bad, They're really painful, and I suspect it will be a week or more before they'll heal fully. May didn't have this problem but she wore a pair of synthetic full-finger-length gloves under her half-finger length padded bicycle gloves - so her fingers were fine. However "dry hands" apparently is a hereditary thing for males in my family as my dad has this problem on almost a chronic basis, and I have had the similar problem before. You're thumbs & forefingers are very exposed to the wind & sun during bike-rides of this duration, so there's a "lesson learned".
Bike-seats are also an obvious point of potential problem(s) - as tender parts can wear in a painful way if you're not careful. We both have gel seats or seat-covers, and I had only one painful day - the Thursday. May was pretty well off in this respect and reported no problems - though I know some women bikers do have problems.
Bicycles - equipment:
Well - we had, at one time - 5 bicycles - the movers that moved us
into Sydney couldn't figure out why two people had 5 bicycles - but
more on that some other time. May used her "GT Pantera"
mountain bike - with a VERY LOW gear ratio (at top speed (pedals) in
top gear - she can manage about 20km/hr on flat ground - 25 if she
really pushes it. I was on my 6 or 7 year old Trek 5200 all-carbon
frame (very(700x20) skinny tire road bike) with a VERY HIGH gear
ratio - where at about 30 rpms on the pedals I'm struggling at 6km
hour up the hill(s). I'm convinced I need a lower-low-gear (and
a higher-high) gear so I'll probably do something about that sometime
soon. In general though - we took what we had - what we were
comfy
with and what we'd spent lots of time on. The only thing we modified
was we bought seat-post-mounted rear-luggage racks for bike-bags -
which I'd bought YEARS ago with REI co-op refund coupons - we each
had one and they were indispensible. I would like to modify them to
give them support from the rear-axle-boss, so they were a bit
stronger, but even
right out of the show-room they worked fine - her's was a "Blackburn"
and mine was "Topeak" - and they are highly recommended. I
might go back to a (very-smaill) fanny pack that I've worn for about
4-5 years with my tools in it, instead
of tools in the bike-bag. Which we used mainly for food and
clothing (if you start in the morning when it's cold and it gets
warm but then gets cold again, or rains - you've got to carry all the
day's clothing with you - so that's where it is all carried - in the
rear-rack-bike-bag. AND - we carried a LOT of clothing - I had 3
layers on both top & bottom that frequently
started with all on, then all off except the bottom layer, then all
on again. The bike-bag also held the rain-gear which we
didn't need but one day. (Except May wore her rain gear (actually a
sailing / paddling jacket) on the bus on the way back
from Bega to Canowindra because it was cold on the bus).
other than bicycles, - obviously - there was the tire-changing stuff - but May had no flats and Bill had three in a row on a dirt-road section (a GREAT thing to do on "skinny tires") but he wowed the crowd with his speed through the dirt sections on skinny tires (until and after his flat(s)). One was a "pinch flat" - when you hit something really solid then it pinches the tube between the hard thing and the rim & the tube has two little holes in it - looks like it's been bitten by a rattle snake. then he fixed that and the patch came off (but not the patche's fault - Bill's fault - he hadn't cleaned the tube well enough - then within 100 meters he managed to get a thorn about 8mm long - WOW - but all in all - not a bad deal - however now his 3 year old tires are pretty sad so he'll get some new ones - these were Continental Grand Prix and they are pretty tough - and they are VERY FAST downhill (with the right crouch & start you can do 70km / hr downhill-coasting if you have guts - I only went that fast once - but repeatedly did 50km - skinny tires are the key to down-hill speed.
As for other's bicycles - that was also interesting - there were
recumbent trikes, recumbent bicycles, tandems (about 10-15), there
was one recumbent tandem and all manner of extremely fancy expensive
down to the simplest 3-speed 10 year old, to say nothing of the kids
on bikes (some seemed about 10) and then the dad with his two infants
in the kids-bike-trailer, and mom on a single bicycle. There were
many a mother-daughter teams and dad-son teams - and so forth - the
average seemed to be the mountain bike and/or the hybrid seems a good
compromise. My skinny tires caused me to have to walk across a
couple of bridges that were laid with planks long-wise and the gaps
between the planks could easily have been twice as wide as my tires -
so walking was the only safe thing to do - May's mountain bike
slicks are great - she rode across all
the bridges.
How about "off-road" - how about the logistics of 1800 people (plus or minus) and all their gear (tents, bicycles, sleeping bags, food, dishes, clothes, etc.) and "How do they do this thing - this "travelling circus"" - it is an AMAZING thing to WATCH!!!
If you ever need a lesson in how to put on a "road show" these guys definately have their act together. Imagine if you will two soccer pitches or two US_style football fields, - cover them with 2-3-4 man tents - then around the outside put 3 40-foot shower trucks (each with 6 men & 6 ladies showers in them). 3 - 40 foot bathroom trucks (similarly configured), 1 40-foot cold-food-truck - 1 flatbed wrecker truck (used to carry the fork-lift around (for taking PALLET-LOADs of food off & on the other 40-foot dry-goods food truck (remember you're feeding 1800 people or so 3 x a day (and each day in a different city), 1 - 20 foot rental-style truck for what I called the "water supply division" which supplies water to both the kitchen truck(another 20-foot rental-style truck) and takes the waste water from that and the 6 wash-tables(for washing your dishes (you take your own dishes - REALLY cuts down on environmental waste), - And then there's 2 40 foot container trucks for people's luggage (we took two MONDO BIG duffles - one with tent, air-mattress, and two sleeping bags, the other with our two back-packs) oh - and don't forget the tents-truck(yes there's a food prep tent a food-serving tent, a hot-drinks tent(water-boilers & dry-mix dispensers (all you can drink) tent, and another 8 tents or so for sponsors & organizers (OH - and don't forget "Hot Shots" - the picture takers - they have a trailer (with it's own Konica 35mm film processing & 5" x 7" printing machine in it - (yes - you get pictures of the event each NIGHT - and you order them, pay, then they mail them to you!) - oh - and this stuff is ALLLLLL set-up each afternoon, and broken down the next morning and moved to the next city and set-up again before (most) of the cyclers arrive.
Now - you've got to admire the thought & experience
& so-forth that went into this - they've been doing this
for 10 years or so -and have obviously learned what works and what
doesn't and they also obviously have designed all the equipment &
such for quick set-up & tear-down - knowing they have to move it
all each day - and most of the equipment (not all) is owned by
"Bicycle New South Wales" - they rent the tents & the people to
put them up & take them down, they rent the generators, and they
rent the show-grounds / sports grounds but they run everything else
themselves. It's a really stunning thing to be part of this -
all the people - all working together towards this common goal - and
it pretty darned much goes
like clockwork - and it just happens. - Amazing stuff - truly
amazing!
Food: - how do they cook & deliver it - and how do you eat it all?
Their basic philosophy is - they cook it - we eat it: - breakfast
is from 0600 til 0730 (they want you on the road early so you don't
stay out after dark) and then dinner is 1800 to 1930. You have
a plastic badge you're supposed to wear all the time - and it has 24
little numbered squares on it - they punch-out one square for each
meal - and they have a vegetarian option - May had that and it
was pretty good. Now I'm no culinary critic or anything -
and I guess after cycling 50-100km a day you're
going to be pretty hungry - but the variety and the quality can't be
beat - and considering what you've paid for this 9 day entertainment
circus (about $300 US - everything (including the bus from the finish
at Bega back to the start at Canowindra, to pick-up our car) is in
this price)) there's no way you can complain. They always had
something for everyone and they sure know how to serve good hot food,
on time & within excellent quality realms. You supply
your own bowl and/or plate and/or cup and/or cutlery for breakfast
and dinner - we each took a small bowl (big mistake - should have
taken something much larger, and bought a couple of very
light-weight, serviceable coffee cups for about $1US. May had the
genius idea of taking chopsticks instead of knife, fork, spoon, etc.
(heavier, harder to wash, more things to lose-worry about) - on the
other
hand I'm fairly sure we were over our 20 kilo per piece luggage
limit, anyway (yes you had a weight limit(though no-one
weighed, and only you suffer - because you had to put your luggage in
the 40foot container every morning... - so that was morning /
evening meals - and you sit on your pad (you did bring your pad or
your stool didn't you(no we didn't, we improvised - using
up-side-down bread trays (remember you've got to have rolls / bread
for 1800 people, so there were a LOT of
empty bread trays), and then the bag for our therm-a-rest inflatable
mattress, and etc. - because the ground was always either wet and/or
cold - especially in the mornings.
Each day's ride included 4 water stops & two tea-breaks, in
this order: start - water - tea - water - lunch - water - tea - water
- finish - spaced fairly evenly - though on two 90 km days you didn't
get lunch until about the 60-70 km mark - but
even stll - I almost always got lunch before noon - but when you've
been pedalling since 0730 or so - that's soon enough.
There were a couple of water stops that were empty on hot days
but I don't think anyone suffered - it wasn't "that" hot, and
virtually everyone was carrying 2-3 water bottles - some tandem bikes
had six bottles - some recumbent trikes had 3-4, and so there was
always water if you just asked a fellow rider. Tea breaks were
a "for-charity(mostly Mutliple Sclerosis) thing that was typically
put-on by a lion-club or something similar - and then you could buy a
cup of hot tea or coffee (or at one a local version of Gatorade /
Powerade), or fruit drink and some cookies - I rarely had the
interest in either tea or cookies so I
usually just filled my water bottles and moved on - except for one
day leaning on a welded-steel gate-post and got a bee-sting
from bees who's hive was in the gate-post and the weld wasn't
complete - ugh - it still itches.
Lunch was typically a sandwich or something like that - a piece of
fruit, a roll and a box of juice and they served that from "Tom &
Ben's Catering" truck along the way - and most people rested for a
while - except on the cold days we kept on going.
That's it for now - battery running out on the airplane - I've not
got my airplane adapter sorted out yet - I bought one - but it didn't
have the right electrical specs - so - well - I need to get one this
trip - I will definately do that - and then can compute
all the way home - it's frustrating too, because I have more to write
for both this web-page and a LOT more Motorola work to do - and to
think I could do it all with an airplane dc-adapater - but - UGH -
haven't quite got it yet - so - well
more when I get time...
index to pictures (this done on Thursday morning 6 May in Baltimore):
[bill@necibear gfx <36>]:: ls -Flag
*.jpeg
22293 May 6 15:01
campviewl.jpeg*
- (left side) view of typical campground
23174 May 6 15:01
campviewr.jpeg*
- (right side) view of typical campground
37725 May 6 15:04
church.jpeg*
- an old - architecture church we found
23728 May 6 15:02
cranberry.jpeg*
- May in Canberra on rest day (Wed 28th)
23130 May 6 15:01
curview.jpeg*
- a road-view along a curve
36700 May 6 15:02
earlydin.jpeg*
- an early dinner scene - "al fresco"
23258 May 6 15:00
ginger.jpeg*
- May in tent with Ginger Beer (VERY good!)
16653 May 6 15:01
hillcurv.jpeg*
- a road-view along a curve
22336 May 6 15:04
hillstrt.jpeg*
- a road-view along a straight section
37697 May 6 15:00
lastbigh.jpeg*
- one of the last big hills
44247 May 6 15:04
lunch.jpeg*
- a typical lunch site view
25902 May 6 15:02
maybal1.jpeg*
- May in her "Balloon Jacket"
21396 May 6 15:03
maybal2.jpeg*
- May in her "Balloon Jacket"
19102 May 6 15:03
maybal3.jpeg*
- May in her "Balloon Jacket"
25725 May 6 15:04
maybike.jpeg*
- May on her bicycle
19952 May 6 15:05
maycont.jpeg*
- May trying (too early) to install contacts
30699 May 6 15:03
mayface1.jpeg*
- A BEAUTIFUL picture of a BEAUTIFUL lady
26160 May 6 15:05
maystudy.jpeg*
- May tries to study (didn't happen often)
36958 May 6 15:03
maytea.jpeg*
- May at Tea-Break
31060 May 6 15:05
mktstrt.jpeg*
- What the campground Market Street
28741 May 6 15:00
spider1.jpeg*
- (better) attempt at early spider web
27558 May 6 15:00
spider2.jpeg*
- (bad) attempt at early spider web
30092 May 6 15:05
tntcity1.jpeg*
- a typical view of the "tent city"
34316 May 6 15:05
tntcity2.jpeg*
- another typical view of the "tent city"
22901 May 6 15:04
view.jpeg*
- another road-view
48041 May 6 15:05
windchet.jpeg*
- the "WindCheatah" recumbent tricycle
