Seat bolt blues on Bah Humbug

Bah Humbug attracted almost 20 riders on the last Saturday ride before Christmas. It wasn't hot but there was a stiff wind assisting the riders to Seymour. The normally quiet roads had more traffic than normal brought about by an accident on the Hume Freeway. Ride organiser Tim Laugher had to do a detour and only just made it to set up the Seymour checkpoint before we arrived. One rider Michelle had her seat bolt fail early in the ride and was an early DNF. Most people had not heard of this happening before.  Now contrary to the law of averages but consistant with the sentiment of Bah Humbug Ron McInnes arrived back at the finish in a ute as a 2nd DNF'er. The cause  - a broken seat bolt! 

BAH   HUMBUG!!!!

Nearly shot at Jump the Gun

Jump the Gun at Maryborough this year attracted a good number of entries for distances from 100 to 600 kilometres. The ride startred from the Maryborough Caravan Park. We had booked a cabin there and I literally just had to walk out the door, take about 5 paces and I was on the start line!

Riders assemble before the start

After my experience a fortnight ago with illness during a warm 300k I chose the conservative approach of only doing 200k in conditions that were to be humid and warm to hot.
The early weather was very pleasant being quite mild with an overcast sky. The sizable peleton held together for the 40k to the first checkpoint at Dunolly.  We seemed to cover the first 100k fairly quickly and on arriving back at Maryborough I split off from Hans and Garry with whom I had been riding to have a quick coffee with Carol at a local take away.

I linked up again with Garry and Hans as we left Maryborough on our second lap.

we left Maryborough on our second lap

The clouds having burned off had the temperature rising to the low 30's and the humidity was quite oppresive. The long gradual climb to the historic town of Maldon was a bit of a hot grind so we decided to stop there for a well earned cold coke. Peter Curtis had joined us on the climb and Bridgette pulled in for a break also. We watched a number of riders go past heading for the checkpoint at Newstead a further 12k or so down the road.

The long gradual climb was a bit of a hot grind

At Newstead we took another break for more refreshments before setting off on the last leg (for 200k riders) to Maryborough.  On a descent shortly after Newstead I seemed to roll away from the bunch and found myself a few hundred metres behind Bridgette and Peter and the rest of the group seemed to have fallen some distance behind. I decided to push on and caught Bridgette and Peter and chatted for a while but on reaching Campbelltown I decided to let them move on ahead. Just after Tullaroop Resevoir I caught Frank Preyer and rode with him for a bit but then I began cramping and I let him move off ahead as Maryborough approached.  

I was very  happy the ride for me finished at 200k as the conditions were certainly not to my liking and any further and I would have repeated the ride a fortnight earlier. As I sat with Carol recovering Hans and Garry rolled in only a few minutes behind.

Thanks to Gareth Evans for putting on this ever popular ride.