Well if there was 1 thing that was better than the last Bike 4 Life it was the weather! No way was it anywhere near the ridiculous cold we experienced last year!
It didn't look like the numbers were up for the 100 k ride on last year but I could be wrong. Away we went with most punters opting to go in the 30+ group which would have been around 100 riders.
The usual stop start through Rocky but once we got out on the Emu Park road the pace settled around 35 which was comfortable in a big group. As the group neared Emu Park the couple of slight inclines combined with some increases in pace started to reduce the group size.
Once we turned at Emu Park we picked up a decent tailwind and the pace was pretty much never below 40 from there to Yeppoon at the front of the group.
This year there was a sponsor who was a Bakery and all riders were sent in to this shop for a compulsory stop of 10 minutes. We were around the back of the shops and the sponsor put on some great food but there was no way he could deliver what we wanted in 10 minutes....a bloody good coffee! We scoffed some food and headed for the main drag for a coffee. This meant we would miss the support vehicles but it was something we could live without. As we passed the SES worker pointing us to Rocky we said sorry we're off for a coffee, he dropped his arm and gave a knowing smile ;-)
We met up with Suzette at the coffee shop and the coffee was great. Once refueled the 7 Grinders did a lap through town discovering about another 30 riders around the corner with the same idea lol
We headed off with a bit of a tailwind here and there and the pace was solid. We picked up a few riders along the way but they were all a bit knackered to hang on as we passed. With about 8 k's to go we slowed the pace a little near the hills but regrouped once up the long slow grinding incline was passed. Schaulk was toast after a decent turn on the front in the breeze and told us to leave him and keep going, which we did after some hesitation. The last few k's were pretty fast with a tailwind and a lot of downhill and were a real buzz. Of course by the time we got there a lot of the other riders were already gone but there were still a few around with the other rides still going.
A great ride at a good pace. I hope they don't take the coffee shop run out of this ride for good, it's part of what makes it so much fun.
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