Happy New Year. A Rapha Wrap Up. (Part 2)

Part 2 and the finale of the Rapha Festive 500.

Day 6 – December 28th. 54.0kms Total 384kms 76%

Another day sans GoPro camera. It was a pretty relaxed ride into town with Sam. Sam is a big fella and he was doing a hell of a job. He ended up with 421kms in the challenge and I reckon that was a hell of an effort. I am partly responsible for him not finishing the challenge, as it was me who suggested he needed a rest. I do know that with out Sam, Lewy and Michael, I may not have finished the challenge myself. Knowing they were going out certainly helped keep me motivated.

Day 7 – December 29th. 117kms Total 501kms 100%

Mission accomplished. Sometimes riding the roads can be an arse pain. This day I was lucky enough to do about 80kms on silky smooth private roads around Albatross Navy Base at Nowra Hill. Big thanks to Lewy for getting me in there, the riding was terrific. So much more relaxing when you don’t have to worry about cars whizzing by at 100kph.

I left home early enough to be in town and waiting for Lewy’s call to OK the trip out to Albatross. I stopped for a coffee and some fruit bread before the short run to the base.

Sugar, loads of sugar.

I got signed into the base and dropped the backpack off at Lewy’s car, then we were off.

Here is a timelapse of the 8.5kms around the base.

We did 3 laps then stopped for a rest. Another couple and then it was snack time. Lewy was feeling a bit flat after his epic 140km MTB ride a few days earlier. Weird thing was, I was starting to feel terrific.

Really Satisfies.

There was lots to see and lots of questions to ask. I now know what FOD is. 🙂

FOD Line

Those people with a keen eye would have seen Lewy doing the pointing in the video, but here is a still of him at his finest.

You can only see 2 of his pointers!

You know you are at an airfield when you have to swerve for planes.

PLANE!

We pedalled and pedalled and finally I got to my aim of 117kms, thus chalking up 500kms in 7 days. I had made it with 2 days to spare.

Rapha 500, Done

Day 8 – December 30th. 61.3kms Total 562.3kms 112%

Day 8 and it was another day with 4 riders. Lewy’s mate Adrian joined us and we had another easy paced ride. This time we went out to the end of Terrara Rd to the Comerong Island Ferry for a look around.

Lewy, Sam and Adrian

Terrara Road isn’t what you would call silky smooth. Actually, it is horrible in parts.

Smooth as ........

It was a nice ride out to the ferry on a terrific day. Sam even got to the front near the end of the bunch sprint and can be seen claiming victory!

Sam wins the bunch sprint.

Ferry Man.

Y.M.C.A.

Adrian and the bike of colour.

On the way back towards Nowra, we had to share the road with another big bunch.

Bunch Riders

Moooo-oove Over.

And here is Adrian clipping the apex on the bike of not enough colours.

Adrian and the Apex.

We rolled into Nowra for a coffee and then we stopped for a nature break by the river. Guess who got a flat?

Bugger

Arghhh. Oh well, was bound to happen. I quick fix and we were off again. It was an easy trip home after a very enjoyable ride.

Day 9 – December 31st. 68.1kms Total 631.3kms 126%

Well this was an interesting day. I was well and truly home and hosed as far as the Rapha Festive 500 went. So, defying all logic, I thought I would push hard and see how fast I could go. Also, I needed 58kms to make it 1200kms for the month of December. I really pushed hard and set a few personal best times on Strava segments. I rode out to the ferry again and had a bit of a spell.

That Ferry Again

It is times like this that I need to slow down, but I was feeling good for most of the ride, until I started heading home into the breeze. A stop was needed.

Sugar, give me sugar.

That got me home, and got me past 1200kms for the month.

So that is that. A Big month and lots of riding with good mates.

A big thanks to Sam, Lewy, Michael and Adrian for the company. I couldn’t have done it with out your help.

And thanks to Strava and Rapha for putting it on. Great work.