Quickly around the Channel

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.