Cessnock 300

After riding 3 brevets last month, I've have had a couple of weeks off to enjoy a spot of bushwalking and brewing. Got to have balance in all things.

Yesterday I lined up for the Cessnock 300, complete with new Cinettica Velocita jacket and new ay-up lights, wile I didn't get use the the jacket the ay-up's are terrific. High speed descents are now beautifully illuminated. I really enjoyed this ride and continue to learn lots more about how I react to longer journeys and how to manage myself better on the bike. As a result I finished strongly and felt that I could have kept on riding. That's a big improvement over my first 300!

The ride route was really lovely, generally keeping away from busy roads and included the lovely section down from Bucketty to Wollombi - which is probably some of the nicest cycling road anywhere - downhill too!

After stopping for lunch in Cessnock, I caught up with Bec Morton and we rode the last half of the ride together. Just as well, as I was navigationally challenged quite a few times. I also managed to bend my front derailleur at about 160kms and was unable to use my big ring for the remainder of the ride. It wasn't so bad but it slowed me down after I realised that I was going to be able to keep up spinning at 120rpm. It was good though to have to deal with the problem and keep going. Funnily enough, much earlier in the day Howard snapped half of the outside casing of his Campy Record front der, and still had full shifting. I haven't looked at mine yet, but I am hoping it is easily repairable.

So that's just the 600km ride remaining for my super series, and I have booked into the Border 600 out of Inverell at the end of the month. That should be a good ride.

Mileage in KM = 3180
Brevet km = 1500