The final ride of the Victorian Gran Tourissimo Series started from the Melbourne GPO like the Primo a week before. We cycled out through the inner and outer suburbs till we reached the open farmland areas beyond Tullamarine where we began to seriously fight the beastly northerly wind that we would endure for much of the day. The first control at Romsey was a welcome rest but we were terribly disappointed to hear the news that Tim Taylor had been involved in a collision with a car on the way out of town and had to abandon the ride. Tim hurt his shoulder and ankle and several parts of his bike sustained damage as well. The quicker riders in the form of Kathryn Temby, Pepe Ochoa, Mark Hooy and Peter Curtis moved ahead progressively. There was Dave Harrington then a group consisting of Marcus Thiele, Adrian Whear, Henry De Man, Alan Baker and George Judkins also teaming together to share the workload. Bec Morton and Howard Dove were making up time after an early puncture on the way out of the city and Chris Rogers was rounding out the field as he had been delayed with Tim’s accident. The day was warming up as we made our way through Lancefield and Woodend to the lunch stop at Kyneton. The afternoon was even hotter as we headed across to Heathcote and another control. Now on the road to Bendigo I was riding with Adrian, Marcus, Henry and Alan and we stopped at Axedale to take a 10 minute break from the heat and cool ourselves from a tap at the local fire station. Arriving in Bendigo at 6:30pm with 226 km completed we debated where to eat finally settling on a noodle bar only to find Dave Harrington already there enjoying the cuisine. As we were riding out of town Adrian troubled by stomach cramp decided to call it a day planning to grab a motel room for the night and return to Melbourne the following day. We were soon donning reflective gear and turning on lights as we headed to Maldon in rising humidity. About 15km out of the town following a thunder and lightning show we were drenched by a heavy downpour. Marcus had a front puncture so we advised Henry and Alan to go on while I assisted him to change tubes. Isn’t it always fun fixing a flat in the dark and the wet? Repairs made we were off in pursuit but this was curtailed soon after as we approached the outskirts of Maldon my rear tyre started deflating so we pulled in under a street light to make further repairs. Now being annoyed and cranky didn’t help me getting the rear wheel back in and getting my hands covered in chain oil just seemed to top it all off.
Finally underway again we found Maldon abuzz with a folk festival in full swing with street music and crowds of people out in the street. It didn’t seem to be the place to stop for two tired bike riders so we headed on to an unscheduled stop at the Newstead pub for a cold coke and some conversation with a publican interested in our adventure. Already partaking of a lemon squash at the pub was Chris Rogers who had passed us when we were fixing our flats. We stopped a few more times as we made our way to Ballarat. Both Marcus and I had always planned not to sleep and with a lot of time lost fighting the wind and heat we only took a break to eat at the hostel where others were choosing to sleep. As we were leaving Ballarat fog was descending. Along the road to the next checkpoint of Rokewood I had to stop several times as I was finding it hard to concentrate, reflections back off the fog, tiredness and a body clock that was saying sleep was conspiring against me. It was a bit the same on the leg to Winchelsea but as the morning progressed I began to feel less sleepy. An extra strong coffee and a pie at the Winchelsea café did the trick in getting all systems firing again. While we were in the café my wife arrived to provide some encouragement as we live in the area and shortly after the faster riders pulled in.
Heading off refreshed we arrived at Queenscliff at 1:20 pm giving us plenty of time for lunch before the ferry trip to Sorrento and a pedal up the bay to finish at the GPO in Melbourne before dark.
Many thanks to Chris Rogers for organising this series of rides, to Janice Baker for her assistance to riders throughout and congratulations to all the riders participating and special congratulations to those who completed the full series.
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