Been wanting to do this for a while, give folks who wouldn’t normally ride gravel/dirt a chance to get out and give it a shot.
-Sunday 23 October, 9.30 am to roll out at 10.00
-45km dirt/gravel/bitumen ride (80% dirt etc)
-No real climbing, road follows the river for the most part
-Start/finish at Wiseman’s Ferry, at the park right near the ferry on the south side of the river
The plan is to roll out about 10am, take our sweet time getting to St Albans for lunch then roll back to Wiseman’s. We’ll take Settler’s Road on the north side of the river which is mostly dirt/gravel and has really nice views of the river and headlands, and even a First Fleet graveyard or two to check out. No real climbs to worry about, so fitness isn’t really an issue. There’s no shops or anything on the whole ride apart from the pub at St Albans, so bring food if you think you’ll need it, and you can refill bottles at the pub. Decent pub food at St Albans, and they do a really great hand-pumped real ale as well as normal beers n that. They take eftpos but bring cash just in case. It gets really busy on a Sunday, hence the plan to get there before noon…
The road is doable on pretty much any road bike, but the fatter the tyres the more fun you’ll have. Lorday did it on 23mm tubs with no problems once, but he’s reckless. I last rode it at Easter and it was in decent condition with only a bit of corrugation here and there. Oh, and if anyone gets to the pub and hated the dirt there’s the option to go back via bitumen.
Any questions?