Sunday turned on perfect conditions for the Round the Channel Audax ride, a delightful trip down the Huon Valley and back up the d'Entrecasteaux Channel. It's a tad undulating, in 105km there's over 1,000m of climbing. After waiting for possible latercomers thrown by the daylight savings change, two of us pushed off from Longley 8.30am.Fortunately Paul and I were pretty evenly matched so we chatted away as we zoomed through Huonville before stopping at Cygnet for a coffee, and in his case a smoke. Back on the bikes we made good time up the Channel before another smoko at Gordon. We parted ways at Margate, and with a hilly century starting to tell on my legs, I crawled back up the hill to Longely where my car was parked.
Pleasingly over the last six months my fitness has improved somewhat. I knocked a good 40 minutes off my previous best time for the trip to stop the clock a shade under five hours. A most enjoyable ride and a good confidence booster coming just two weeks before the Oppy. Mind you 360km in 24 hours is a slightly bigger ask. At least rural Victoria's a bit flat.
1,425km so far this year.
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