At last, after several weekends of rain with nothing to do but be in front of a computer – I finally got off my ass (pardon my French) and did some riding with my friends. Meet Jeannie, Drew, Pauline and myself – photo taken by Ivor.
Unlike other rides that we do, this particular route does not end where it starts. The ride begins at the Bicentennial Park in Homebush and ends in Prospect Reservoir with lunch on the nearby Royal Cricketers Arm Hotel.
The challenge of such ride is how to get to the starting line. You can’t drive to it, otherwise you’ll end up cycling back for your car. So I decided to ride 12Km to the Blacktown train station and commuted to Parramatta where I met up with Drew. From there, we cycled another 10Km to Homebush. This route was new to me and it passes through the Granville cycle bridge. I drive past this bridge everyday on my way to work and been telling myself to cycle that route one-of-these days.
We had breakfast at Bicentennial Park and at 9:30am – we were ready to go. We’ve traveled only 200m when Pauline had a puncture. Drew replaced the tube while we milled around. Unfortunately, while pumping up the new tube – Drew broke the stem of the tube – but the pressure on the tyre was enough so that it can be used. He rode the bike back to the starting point to Chris’s Bike Hire shop, and Al, the bike technician, replaced the tube once more.
Rides are usually remembered by number of punctures we have – but the rest of the trip was pretty smooth sailing. I volunteered to be the sweep – the person who will stay behind and ride with slowest rider. Just as well – I’m the slowest rider 🙂 But Jeannie kept me company – she just bought a new mountain bike from Chris (Bike Shop) and picked it up that morning.
After lunch – we sort of looked at each other – assuming that the other person would know the way to the closest train station. As it turned out – no one did 🙂 But Drew and I are familiar with the area – so we took them to the most direct route – it wasn’t the safest route – but hey these are seasoned riders – they can ride in traffic 😉
When we got to the train station – I decided to save my fare and cycle the rest of the way – it’s just another 10 Km – I’ve ridden 58Km already – what’s another 10 (naks!) … but I did!
Photos of the day can be found in my Photo Gallery.
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