On Friday the 7th of March, I went to Albury for the Amy’s Ride Albury. This ride was held as part of the Multisport Albury City (MAC) event held over 2 weeks (see http://www.multisportalburycity.com.au/ ... 111191.htm for more details). I decided to give myself 3 weeks off work to wind down and so decided to include the Amy’s Ride Albury and the Big Canberra Bike Ride in the first week.
There was a choice of either a 124 km ride or a 40 km ride. Both of these rides took the riders over the Victorian Border. I chose to do the 124 km ride. I left Sydney at about 09:30. I drove down the Hume Highway and found to my surprise that the petrol for the drive cost less than the rail or air fares. Earlier that week I had booked myself a hotel room at the Astor Hotel Motel. When I got there I found that I had been there before when I did a road trip to Melbourne. After a 7 hour drive down the Hume I found my way to the Astor and unpacked the car. I then walked to the town centre and got some breakfast cereal and other supplies. When I got back I watched the first quarter of the Essendon versus Collingwood game and then retired for the night. I wound up finding that the band playing in the Hotel part of the Astor and the subsequent brawling by some of the patrons kept me awake for part of the night.
In the morning I got myself up and packed the car. I got myself ready and double checked the directions I had been given to Noreuil Park. Fortunately I had been given a map of the town and checked my directions as I would have been sent on a wild goose chase and nearly wound up back on the Hume. After some wrong turns and a bit of dead reckoning - I found the park, unfortunately I wound up missing the start. I collected my registration and got a briefing on where the route. I fully expected to be told that I was going to wind up doing the 40 km ride. If I had I would have copped it on the chin and done the 40 km ride (it would have been a good excuse to go up to the Central Coast and do the Loop the Lake the next day!) However the organisers arranged for the car that was to be following the ride to wait for me over on the causeway over the boarder at Wodonga.
After getting my number pinned on I rode all out to catch up with the other riders. I found the support car and went through the back roads through Wodonga. Just outside Bandiana the support driver offered to drive me up to the rest of the riders but I knocked back the offer. I rode on through Bandiana and the back roads towards Tallangatta when I finally caught the last two riders and passed a guy who it turned out had broken a spoke in his rear wheel.
I said hello to the two tail end riders and we discussed the reasons for our lateness. All of us had not been to Albury for a while and had no idea where Noreuil Park was. We settled in and became the back of the pack group. When we got to a community hall that was open so we could use the toilets we stopped and used the loos and introduced ourselves. We were about to head off, when we found the kittens from a neighbouring house. It turns out there were 11 of them and the other riders were cat lovers. We finally headed off and rode as a group as we proceeded through Kergunyah towards Hume Weir.
The ride went through the back roads, we passed some local cyclists either commuting or touring. The attitude demonstrated by drivers in Northern Victoria was a stark contrast to the attitude of New South Wales motorists. We were given space and were passed by cars at slow speeds. We rode through the cattle country which included a sprinkling of orchards and horse studs. We rode past Latchford Barracks and onto the halfway point. Before we got to Hume Weir the other riders went to a service station for food while I rode on. I rode across the weir and into New South Wales. I met the rotary volunteers and refilled my water bottles and had some of the fruit and energy bars there. It turned out that one of the volunteers had lived at Sydenham and was familiar with my neighbourhood.
We headed off and followed the lake to a bridge where we crossed into Victoria again at Talgarno. The countryside was suffering from the drought, you could see the level the water had dropped by the layers of the sand in the lake. The hills started off some gentle climbs but we became separated as the climbs got steeper. The challenging climb came when I arrived at a Gap (I forgot who’s Gap it is named after but as I am beginning to suspect anything called a gap meant to describe a steep climb). On this Gap I found myself having to use the granny gear and on two occasions had to stop and have an energy gel and some water. I saw the other two riders followed by Colin (the guy driving the support vehicle) following me up the hill. I got my a second wind and went on to complete the climb.
When I reached the summit I was able to enjoy the descent into Bethanga. I there were some small hills but these were easy compared to the gap. I finally got backed to Talgarno and went for a toilet stop. The other riders caught up, we discussed the ride and were warned about the two cattle grids which we would encounter on the return route to Albury. After we freshened up we began our ride back into NSW.
We headed back across the bridge. We followed rode back to Doctors Point and then followed of the Riverina Highway to the outskirts of Albury. We turned off into residential streets which lead to a road that lead through and industrial estate and lead under the bypasses. The road followed the Murray after which we were diverted through residential streets to the Kiewa street and then onto Murray street for the entry to Noreuil Park. Collin had caught up with the other riders and lead them into the park but I was too far ahead and wound up riding in to the park at the tail end of a criterium race. Needless to say I got a few odd looks.
I had a look around the park and watch some of the racing.
I also got talking to the representative of the Amy Gillett Foundation. He and I discussed the possibility of a NSW ride and he claimed that NSW and Sydney especially is a difficult market. He claimed that Bicycle NSW wasn’t forth coming with support for the ride.
After having a meal and a look around the stalls at the Multisport village I packed the car and headed back up the Hume Highway.
The Amy’s Ride Albury report
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