My first 100

The unseasonably balmy autumn weather continues. A 30° day with light winds, a day off work, a bike and a destination is the perfect combination. It also seemed like the perfect opportunity to do my first 100km ride after the aborted ‘broken spoke’ attempt a few weeks ago.  So I mapped out a ride sticking to the Veloway and the Sea to Vines trail all the way to Willunga, then up the hill, along Range Road, down Pennys Hill and back home along the bike path. According to MapMyRide this is 94km, so I thought a run down along the Esplanade at Seacliff would be a nice way to round it up to the ton.

Hitting the road, it was indeed a perfect morning for a ride. The 35km to McLaren Vale was pretty cruisy after the first climb up the Veloway. I stopped for a stretch and a bite to eat at the rest spot on the trail just past Field St, then continued along the path to Willunga. After stocking up on Powerade at the general store, I took a deep breath and headed up Old Willunga Hill.

I’ve only done this climb once, back in January, just after the TDU. Back then, it killed me. I had fresh legs and I still had to stop for a rest a couple of times and was pretty knackered by the time I got to the top. So, I was keen to see how I’d go now, given all the climbing I’ve been doing over the past few months.

After the first kilometre of the climb it was pretty clear that my legs were noticeably stronger than they were three months ago. I settled into a nice rhythm in my granny gear and, whilst my progress was slow, I was finding it relatively easy going. I maintained that rhythm all the way to the top, feeling quite okay. It still took me 21 minutes but I was pretty pleased to make up there so comfortably. In fact, I found the other road up Willunga Hill (Victor Harbour Road - that I climbed a couple of weeks ago) to be more punishing. Anyway, now that I’ve done it, I reckon I could push a bit harder and maybe knock 4 or 5 minutes off my time (which would lift me from 489^th to around 400^th place out of 537 for this climb on Strava! Whooaa .… go crazy.) Here's some pics I took on the way up (I managed to not drop my phone this time).

Anyway, I stopped for a quick drink before heading off along Range Road. This is a great part of the ride – it’s a pretty quiet road with great views down the coast to left and across the rolling hills to the right. After a left turn onto Pennys Hill Road, the descent starts quickly. On this particularly quiet morning, it was extraordinarily good fun and I even managed to finally crack the 70km/h mark. 

Range Road

Looking to the coast from Range Road

The top of the Pennys Hill descent

From there on it was relatively cruisy around to the end of the expressway, where I stopped for a stretch in the tunnel. I was 75 km into the journey and my legs were getting pretty sore - I was hoping there was enough left in them for the climbing up to O’Halloran Hill. Mind you, I think my bum was hurting more than my legs – might be time to try another saddle. Anyway, I forged ahead and got through the hills, rolled down the Veloway from Majors Road, then headed across to the coast for a spin along the Esplanade and back. The last 15km was fairly painful. I kept cramping up but I was determined to reach my goal and not get off the bike. So it ended up being a painfully slow and painfully painful last few kilometres.

So, all up it was a bit of a milestone ride – I finally did my ‘century’, I got up Old Willunga Hill without stopping and I did my fastest speed. Life’s just dandy.