COVID rides in 2020

Due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 all international riding destinations are off the planner for the foreseeable future, so, we had to devise alternatives in our own backyard.

Our first trip was organised by a friend of ours with about 7 of us - a three day ride from Scone to Singleton. 212kms over 3 days of riding.

The next was to Canberra and Tumbarumba with a bigger group of riding friends for 270.5km over 5 days riding in October

Then in November we headed off to the Central West Cycling trail for 357.9kms over 5 days riding.

Click on the links to see the descriptions and photos from each of these rides.

Scone to Singleton Day 3 : Denman to Singleton

 

Distance 77.35kms

Elevation 684m

Top speed 55.1km/h

Strava Link : https://www.strava.com/activities/4104410095

7:30am push off from Denman (and a little hill) saw us catch a pretty strong tail wind through a lovely flattish valley along Bureen Rd where some curious cows came running up to the fence to see what all the fluorescent was about.

We counted many horses, sheep, alpaca, and saw plenty of green grass and very full dams. Then the climbing started and continued for the rest of the day, some smallish but there were 6 that were over 150m high. Tough going, but we did have a tail wind most of the way to help us out.

We had a little lunch stop on the top of one of the first hills, then lunch 1 stop in Jerry's Plains at a nice recreation area.

Then we rode through mining country. Oh my, they have some really nice roads to take the loads of the trucks that are consistently going in there. Smooth, wide and fast.

The last 17 kms saw us riding along the horrid New England Highway into Singleton where we had to keep our wits about us. The tension of watching for any puncture inducing material on the wide shoulder we were riding on, be aware of trucks coming from behind or even toward us and hold on as they pass cause their wake is at 100+km/h is enough to blow us off the bikes and then to just keep pedalling up the very steep hills.

We made it into Singleton just before 2 pm, and thankfully we had a support vehicle to take some of the panniers today which made the last ride of the trip a little less heavy.

After ice creams and hydration we said our goodbyes and left for our respective homes.

It was a challenging trip, I have definitely got over my back issues for now, feeling stronger and know that I can do hard things. 9 bikes, 18 tyres - no punctures or serious mechanicals for over 210kms. Thanks to Paul &

Prue Gage-Driver

for organising it all.

Scone to Singleton Day 2 : Merriwa to Denman

71.7km

600m elevation

Strava Link : - https://www.strava.com/activities/4099965518

Wayne & I did a warm up ride out to the "Welcome to Merriwa" sign I wanted picture of but was way too tired yesterday afternoon, then met the others at the painted silo about 8am, then we left for Denman.

We left Merriwa and took the roads less travelled. We had a bit of climbing to do to get out of Denman proper then onto Flaggs Rd - to Gungal through supremely gorgeous undulating countryside. We saw kangaroos bounding across the road in front of us, heaps of birdlife and just took in the serenity. A lovely little picnic along the way was enjoyed. At Gungal we turned onto the Golden Highway briefly (heading straight into the 30km/h wind) before turning on to Giants Creek Rd and then through a beautiful valley to Sandy Hollow with a honking tail wind blowing us along. Here we refreshed with lunch, before heading to Yarrawa and then on to Denman.

We had one nasty hill of over 18% gradient hill on dirt. Many of us walked the bikes over, Wayne did it twice, fully laden, just for fun. We then had to endure a 30km/h tailwind which blew us down the road at that speed with no effort - so fun, so easy.

Got into Denman after 72kms, 600m of climbing a top speed of 53.6km/h and feeling much better about ourselves than yesterday.

Stayed in the Denman Hotel and had a lovely dinner at the Royal Hotel.