Tuesday

I woke up this morning to the sound of tree limbs thrashing around in a minor gale. Uh oh. I had a peek out the window - no clouds, just lots of wind. I can handle riding in rain. Or wind. But the two together is a mite unpleasant. It wasn't a cold wind either - the leg warmers have gone back into the cupboard, and may not be seen again until next winter if this weather keeps up (oops, this "climate change". My bad.)

It was a case of tucking the head down and just grunting it out on those long, open straights where the wind was smack in my face. I won't complain about it - getting stronger and fitter requires me to work progressively harder. A morning battle with a stiff breeze is simply a better workout for my ageing bones. The flip side is that because my route loops around, there were stretches when the wind was at my back, and 40km/h on the flat was a doddle.

Photos: a small pack heading for the Pyrmont Bridge. I almost collected a pedestrian on this zebra crossing - she was masked by a cyclist on my left, and I only saw her at the last minute when he swerved wildly to go around her. She was a dainty little thing, and I doubt I would have felt a bump if I had run over her. My bad, again.

A foursome of very fit, very loud blokes. Could this be the 1750 at the start of the day? It was taken just after 0750, so that would be a nice coincidence.

Boy, could these guys talk. Cyclists have a tendency to shout at each other all the time, regardless of their speed and location. Sure, you have to yell when tonking along at 40km/h+, but we were idling over the bridge at this point because of all the pedestrians. I'm sure everyone on the bridge could hear what the blokes in front of me were discussing.

The evening ride home - a small pack waiting for the green.

We have green - and we're off! The mad scramble for position begins. At this point, we are about to head down a small hill, and we face a sharp right hander at the bottom where we have to go through a cut in the concrete island. Only one bike at a time can go through the cut, so everyone jockeys for a good position in order to get through quickly. The results can sometimes be pretty interesting....... almost like Rollerball.

Grunting homeward into the wind and sun.

A lone bike, up there in the sky.

A "fixy" having a short break on the same bridge. He might have been blowing his nose on the cars below for all I know.

A rather relaxed form of cyclist.

On a lighter note, Junior is currently watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for the first time - possibly one of the best movies of all time. I feel no need to watch it, having seen it 30 times or so last century. I think he has been slightly taken aback to find that a reasonable chunk of his current teen culture has its genesis in an old movie that featurs an actor who only wears suits these days.