Week #51. 2018. That’s That Then…..

My 2018 “Challenge to Self” has been completed. Ride 100k a week or 5,200k in the year. OK I didn’t ride 100k every week but have averaged it over the year and I reckon that’s OK

The penultimate week in the year went OK. More weather dodging but early starts and the “Ride of the Week” provided more than enough kilometers covered to do the job. I suspect that the 52nd week of the year will be light on for cycling.

The Ride of the Week – Up the Grunter

Up the what? The Grunter is the name given by the people in the Meander Bridge Cafe for the hill on the road from them up to Huntsman Lake. According to Ride with GPS it is 17% = quite steep. I rode it just after getting the Magnum and it is time to do it again to test the impact of the smaller 24t front ring fitted since then.

The figures above are a bit screwed because they add the “crow flying” distance between Longford and Deloraine. The ride was actually a tad over 50k.

Starting at the Train Park I navigated around the back streets of Deloraine to climb up away from the Meander River. Cycling through the main street – Emu Bay Road – would be a torturous battle with the traffic. Up past Sis-In-Law’s place I spotted Sally in the garage and we had a waving session. I couldn’t speak – it’s quite steep up there. More climbing up to and along Emu Bay Road to the Mole Creek Road turnoff and then a relaxing downhill with quite a good hard shoulder from which to watch passing vehicles. After a few ks we turn left onto Montana Road and the traffic drops away.

The initial section of Montana Road has a couple of steep hills to go up. It’s bottom gear work laying back in the seat watching birdlife in the hedgerow. No problem at all. No traffic. No wind.

As it goes on, the road flattens out and views of the Meander Valley start to delight. I decided to turn down Brocks Road. I knew I had ridden it in the past and hoped my memory was correct – that it joined up with the Caveside – Meander road.

The clouds were thickening as the road got closer to the Tiers. It didn’t look like it would rain though and the forecast was for rain much later in the day – so – onwards.

The road surface deteriorated somewhat the closer to the junction I got. Pot holes had to be avoided and corrugations appeared. Stopping for the above picture it was noticeable just how quiet it was with no wind. In the distance a couple of irrigators were working – but no sound reached me.

At the end of Brocks I was indeed able to turn left and head towards Meander. Along the way was this sign.

Shortly after not finding the dead cow I met Glen and Carole coming the other way. This time I didn’t need to beg dinner money from them as I had remembered to bring my wallet.

It was a quiet and steady cycle into Meander where I turned right and headed towards The Grunter. This time there weren’t the really nice views, instead the land was cloudy. Which was interesting in it’s own way. Soon I was climbing the precursor hill leading to Grunter. In the hedge were some small birds with vivid yellow atop their tails. Don’t know what they are as yet. Watching them led me to the start of the really steep bit. Focussing on spinning the pedals rather that simply pressing them one at a time things went OK most of the way up and then the muscles used to pull the pedals back had had enough. So the final slog was just that – a slog. Then the crest was over and we continued along to the lakeside picnic area.

After a look around and a skiddy session coming back up on the wet grass, it was time to enjoy a speedy descent. Last time I did this I was new to Magnum and flashing along at nearly 60kph had shown me how direct the steering was. This time, after more weeks of practise, my reactions are now more in tune with the trike and it was an uplifting experience! In the “slow down” zone there was a parked car and a gentleman visitor to these shores who couldn’t wave hard enough – with his excitement you would have though he was riding the trike!!

Back into Meander and a pleasant lunch at the Cafe. This was followed by a good run back into Deloraine along the main roads and another ride was in the bag – along with the 2018 Challenge.

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That’s all for 2018. I will have to think about a new Challenge for 2019. Have a great Festive Season everybody – I reckon I will !!

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Total for week :    110 k                                      Total for year :    5,231 k        

Kilometers to go in 2018 :   0  k                   Number of weeks to go : 1

Brompton :   19 k                                           Magnum :   91 k