So the whole reason we even went to Melbourne, was to drive 100km away from it, and then ride back. Make sense?

Hmm yeah. Well it was awesome, even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Known as the “Bay in a day”, it’s a big ride – 15,000 riders – organised by the excellent [Bicycle Victoria] – the folks who brought you ride to work day.

The name alludes to the original ride, around Port Philip Bay in a day, or if you’re good, in a morning. We weren’t quit up for that, which is either 200km or 250km, depending on your sanity. Instead we rolled up for the entry-level 100km ride, from Sorrento in the south back to Melbourne city.

After an insane, pre-4am start, and a chilly ride down to the Docklands, we pulled our bikes apart and stuck them in trucks, and we jumped on buses.

During the hour or so drive down, we were treated to a sudden, heavy, and very disconcerting rain shower – which elicted thoughts of “holy shit are we going to be riding in that for 8 hours”. Just as we were sharing our thoughts of doom the rain stopped and the sky cleared, more or less anyway. But a nice little joke from the man upstairs.

We were a bit late getting down on the bus, so we missed the 8am start, hitting the road about 8:30am. That wasn’t so bad, we missed the crowds, and so we had pretty unobstructed riding until the 50km mark or so when we caught the bulk of the riders.

Perhaps it was enthusiasm, or we’re just daft, but we rode through the 25km rest-point without stopping – we thought it wasn’t far enough and must have been for people going in the other direction. At 40km we realised our mistake, but that wasn’t so bad, we were making good time and felt good on the bikes.

The only serious hill was around the 40km mark, but only 100m or so vertical, so just 5-10 minutes of puffing and we were at the top. The rest of the ride was pretty easy going, nice to cruise for ages and really get the legs working. At one point we got a view south over the bay, which seemed to go for miles, and I coudln’t believe we’d ridden all that way – as it turns out that was only about a quarter of the journey – you sure can ride a long way if you try!

There was a bit of weather around, mainly just a bit of wind and a few minor showers, but nothing that got us seriously wet. Somewhere around 75km Meg got a puncture, thanks to some ####wit who’d spread thumbtacks all over the road. We had all the gear to fix it, and my legs felt better after the 10 minute rest anyway.

The last 10-15km into Melbourne were a bit stop-start, with traffic lights holding us up a bit here and there. The final hurdle, at something like the 95km mark, was the bridge over the freeway, not high, but steep and nasty at that point in the day. I raced over it just cause I still could.

In the end we rolled over the finish line about 5 hours after we started, not exactly fresh but certainly not spent, a nice little days outing.

If all goes well we’ll be back next year, maybe for the 200km, but probably not – that’s getting silly. Although we will be doing something to avoid another 4am start!