We’ve been talking about this for a bit, but here’s a real excuse to do it… Saturday 21st is a time trial stage in the tour - would anyone be interested in doing a fixed-gear time trial around Melb that morning in place of the Saturday ride?
The course will include a mix of roads, tramtracks, staircases and bike paths (something like our Kensington-drain-Brunswick loop). Length will be about 15km, riders will start at ~1 minute spacing. Start and finish will be near fed sq, I’ll mark the course the night before, and issue course maps on the morning… Just rock up for the Saturday ride.
Since there is traffic, lights, and weather this could be a fun challenge - the fastest riding may not get you the best time
Afterward we’ll go for an easy cruise to seek out some coffee and BGQ for the debriefing.
Damoh and I will finalise the course before the event - unless there are objections!?
Length is ~15km. It includes a healthy mixture of street, staircase, bike track, cobbles, back streets, busy roads, and tram tracks.
We’ve gone on pretty much all of the course (exept for a few fun surprise sections) on various Saturday rides so everyone should know the course. We will mark it out the night before, and give out directions on the day. There is enough random stuff along the way to even out fast and slower riders.
Start line is the super commuter green bike at the pedestrian crossing/taxi rank at Flinders St. Station. One bike per green
Finish is the chute up past the heckler at Fed Square.
Based on our recon last night, the time to complete should be less than 50mins even if you are taking it easy. So yeah - Saturday 21st, Fed Square, Normal time! Don’t miss out.
As for equipment… probably best NOT to bring a TT bike with disc & singles…
You will probably need to keep your eyes peeled so as to not miss out on those vital left and right hand turns that could sneak up on you.
There will be a 1min 30sec interval between each rider to keep it relatively close, but it will also mean you will need to do a bit of work to catch up to the guy in front.
As site admin (and experienced underperformer) I hereby decree that drafting is allowed in this ITT. Maybe we should have an Eddy Merckx Grand Prix-style event sometime?
