Audax Mudgee April 30th 2011

[geoffs]

The Mudgee ride is on again and I am just posting this on behalf of Chris Walsh who is the organiser.
We had a great time last year and will be doing the ride again this year.

The Mudgee region is well-known for its wine, fresh produce, and fine dining. Combine that with undulating country roads almost devoid of traffic and small towns and pubs along the way and you have a recipe for cycling heaven!
The Audax Club has organised a weekend of cycling around Mudgee at the very best time of the year – early autumn – with rides that explore the Mudgee district from Gulgong out to Ulan and down to Hill End. All rides are on sealed roads (riders on the 150 km from last year please take note!) and apart from a few steep pinches on the rides out through Hargarves, are relatively gentle in profile. There’s a wide selection of rides to choose from, giving you the opportunity to visit the Ulan Pub (and sit at the Table of Knowledge) and Gulgong, and for those attempting the longer distances, Goolma (population 10) and its pub and the iconic gold mining town of Hill End.
Ride Schedule

All rides start at the Vineyard Motel, on Henry Lawson Drive just north of Mudgee township. You can register for as many or as few of the rides as you wish.
Friday 29 April @ 1 PM: Loosen your legs with a 50 – 60 km (return) stroll out to the Cooyal Pub, where Mark Renshaw’s mother-in-law will pour you a beer. On Friday night from 6 PM, meet your fellow road warriors at the Mudgee brewery – no bookings required but let us know if you plan to come along.
Cooyal 50: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Cooyal-50
Saturday April 30 @ 8 AM: You have a choice of three distances – 120, 150 or 200 km – all rides visit Ulan and Gulgong with the 150 km riders detouring to Goolma and the 200 km riders struggling up the hill to Hargraves. There is also a 300 km option that takes in all these options as well as Hill End – 300 km riders start at 5 AM!
120 km: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mudgee-100-MkII
150 km: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mu ... MkII389655
200 km: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mudgee-200
300 km: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mudgee-300 (2.5 km of rideable gravel road)
On Saturday evening we have booked a well-known Mudgee restaurant, Deebs Kitchen, from 7 PM. The restaurant prepares a fixed three course menu for $55, byo with vegetarian and other options catered for with prior notice. To help you select your wines, this year we will be having an entree based on okra on basmati followed by roast rack of pork with wild plum sauce and then a flourless chocolate cake for dessert. This dinner has proved popular in the past and with only 40 seats available it will be first in, best dressed.
Sunday 1 May @ 8 AM: Our scheduled event today is a 150 km randonee with two options. The first is an iconic ride from Mudgee through Hill End on a recently sealed road to Bathurst. While an unforgettable ride it does have logistic challenges and so we have also provided an out and back option from Mudgee to Hill End as an alternative.
150 km (Mudgee to Bathurst via Hill End): http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Mudgee-to-Hill-End . Riders returning to Bathurst turn at Hill End. There is a short length of rideable gravel road before Hill End.
Audax riding

Audax events are not races but randonées (“rambles”) along roads chosen for variety and interest. Randonneurs carry a brevet (had you guessed this style of cycling is French in origin?) that is marked off at different locations (contrôles) along the route as verification. You can ride at whatever pace you choose, in a peleton or by yourself. You just need to ensure that after the coffee stops, meal and comfort breaks and the occasional sleep you get to each contrôle in a time less than that taken to ride to that contrôle at an average speed of 15 km/hr. Easy!
Accommodation

Mudgee has a wide range of hotels, motels and B&Bs. For those who don’t want to ride to the start, I have booked a dozen rooms at the Vineyard Motel. If you would like to reserve one of these, please call the motel on ((02) 6372 1022) and let the proprietor know that you’d like one of the rooms that are reserved under my name. He’ll grab your credit card details and from then on that room will be reserved in your name.
Bicycle requirements

Riders attempting the 200 km and 300 km events must carry lighting and a reflective vest conforming to Audax regulations (see http://audax.org.au/public/images/stori ... ements.pdf for full information or check with the organiser).
Entry

Entry fees per event are $5 (Audax members and members of Cycling Australia-affiliated cycling clubs) and $10 otherwise. Please enter on line at http://regonline.activeglobal.com/Regis ... tID=938788 . Unfortunately you can only register for one event at a time so if you wish to ride Saturday and Sunday you’ll need to register separately for each event. The website also gives you the opportunity to register for the dinner at Deebs Kitchen – please show the number in your party who’ll be coming. You have the option of paying on line by credit card or bringing cash to the start. If the latter, please pop it in an envelope with your name – it gets hard when 30 people hand over money all at once!
If you are uncertain about anything, please contact me.
I look forward to seeing you in Mudgee in April!
Chris Walsh
walshes@optusnet.com.au
0401 055 494

[Adrian E]

Hi Geoff,
As always, keen to go back to Mudgee. Thinking of doing the 300 this time. I need an excuse to ride to Hill End.
Cheers
Adrian

[simon.sharwood]

I'm in! Anyone wanna share a room with a Dad on a leave pass? I'm thinking of leaving Sydney about lunch Friday. You can drive me and my bike there if you like, too

[Stuart]

Don't know if we're starters but if we decide to go then we'll be doing the house thing again, not the pub. The house has 3 bdr's if we get the same one and is about 750m from the pub.

[Eleri]

Adam and I are definitely in for the weekend. Not sure on timing yet.

[Camilla]

I'm there! Love the Mudgee ride. Might go the 200km this year. I wouldn't mind doing the dinner this time too. I'm over the Brewery...
I'll probably stay at the pub again, so those wanting to stay there too let me know and I'll do a mass booking.

[Camilla]

Oh No! I take that back: bad timing. I blame Easter. I'm slated to do the Dirtworks on Sunday May 1, so Mudgee is a no-go for me this year. Unless I do both ... a quick drive down the Bells line of Rd on Saturday night. No, that would be extreme.

[Wazz]

Wazz and that Pommy Bloke will be there too !!!!!!!

[tedrobin]

After a week in Bright and another in Tasmania, I'm finding it a bit hard to get enthusiastic at the prospect of any long ride (with the possible exception of one that only went downhill). That will probably change in the coming days, and I'll sign up for Mudgee, but at present the memory is still a bit raw, figuratively and literally. Al Sumner's building me some new wheels, so I guess I'd better get out there and use them. And Mudgee is always so much fun.

I know that Noel was very interested in the prospect, since he comes from out that way, but I don't know how long a broken scapula takes to heal.

[Susie]

Unfortunately I won’t be able to tandem with Lindsay this year as I will be overseas - my first trip to the US.

[Adrian E]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make this now. Pia and I are going to go to Cowra the week before for Bike North's Tour de Cowra which has a bit more of everything ( http://www.bikenorth.org.au/cycling/tdc11/ )

I still highly recommend the mudgee ride. Always good fun.

[Stuart]

At this stage Jo & I are out. Try and enjoy yourselves without us!

[michele]

I'm in but will be staying with my friends in Mudgee again. Have a heads up for a good dinner option. Camilla, dirt and mud or a 200km ride through vineyards and wine!!! You've made the wrong choice and if you come you get the mud in mudgee

[simon.sharwood]

FWIW, looks like I am out: humungous computer company CSC has invited me to do a day of the Tour de Cure (http://www.tourdecure.com.au/) , and it's not fair on the family to do that AND Mudgee.

I'll be doing the mercifully flat day 2: Wollongong to Huskisson.

[Eleri]

I'm about to book some accommodation in Mudgee and will happily organise same for others but really this thread is all about who isn't going.

Any preferences? I'm happy to find a house but if the pub is the preferred option, someone remind me what it's called and I'll book there. It's definitely central! Otherwise the caravan park down the road was a pretty good option or there's quite a few holiday houses around, some of them that accommodate up to 12 even.

This is who I think is going:
Me and Adam
Geoff and Marian
Ted
Mark and Wazz
Michele (but got own accomm)

[tedrobin]

It's the Amazing Shrinking DHBC Contingent: Mark and Wazz are now out too (so Mark told me last night). I'd be happy with anything accommodation-wise. Since I can this year, I may even go up on Thursday so I can do the little ride on Friday and have a somewhat more leisurely Mudgee experience. The pub was the Lawson Park Hotel, I think.

[Eleri]

The late entry of Trevor Hambley gave us a DHBC contingent of four for the Mudgee Audax ride. One of the very best things about this ride was that the weather was perfect, if a little on the windy side. Just the right temperature and partly cloudy but with plenty of sunny patches. Compared to the wettest ever Sydney April, it was dry.

Ted, Adam and I lined up on Friday for what we believed to be a leisurely ride to the Cooyal pub, allegedly to have a beer poured by Mark Renshaw's mother-in-law. It was a great day for a ride and yes the pace was a gently 24kph but the route was indirect shall we say. A review of the garmin showed we had pretty much done the equivalent of a Waterfall ride with the same amount of climbing but into quite a strong headwind.

This was now officially Adam's longest ride. He discovered the hard way what happens when you work quite hard and don't drink when he cramped up badly on a hill on the way back. Apparently he was riding along swearing loudly. What would I know? I was up ahead trying to keep up with a bloke who turns out to be the 2010 Waratah's points winner. I didn't keep up for all that long. So much for a leisurely ride!

The Saturday was another beautiful day for riding and I started with a windvest but dispensed with it early. Trevor took of early and wasn't spotted by us again. The 3 of us took it easy, wanting to be sure that we all made it intact, to the end, within the time limit. Again the ride out from Gulgong to Ulan was into a strong headwind - could have lived without that. The ride back to Gulgong was beautiful though and once we had made the climb up to the top of Ridge Road we had a very pleasant ride with a tailwind and mostly downhill or flat.

We did see 2 snakes though - I rode very close to the first one and realised that it was a) a snake and b) very much alive and looking far too interested in me. I made a girly noise, but too late for Adam to do much else other than follow my line (he was clearly wheel sucking) but we managed to divert Ted who was a bit of a way behind. None of us fancied getting a live snake tangled up in the wheels. This reminded me of Peter T's joke snake of last year. Then we saw a 2nd snake later on, but probably dead. After that, pretty much everything looked like a snake.

At the 100km point, we stopped and toasted Adam's first metric century. A pretty good effort. Unfortunately he's going to be faster than me and there will only be so long I can trust a 14kg bike and chunky tyres to hold him back. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

The rest of the slog back into Mudgee was into a headwind. We were half an hour inside the time limit, not bad considering how long we managed to stop at Ulan and Gulgong.

All in all, a good weekend. Here are some pics


The ride out to the Cooyal pub - the chap in the Waratah's jersey is last year's point score winner.



Eleri, Trevor, Ted and Adam at the start of the Mudgee Audax


Adam at the roadside celebration of his first 100km. (I'm sure he meant to smile.

[mikesbytes]

Well done Adam !!!!!

[Stuart]

looks like a great weekend and congrats to Adam on a an obviously strong ride and his first century (what's this about metric Eleri - we've been metric since the 70's so 'Imperial' doesn't count).

Also, fabo to see Adam in an Amy Gillett jersey