The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Wrap Up

The ride is over. A total distance of 563.59km covered and while I am extremely proud of the achievement, I am exhausted and my butt and legs are sore. 

If you ever wondered why cyclists have fancy seats on their bikes and wear tight knicks with padded bottoms.... there is a reason. Even though I don't wear Lycra bottoms, I did wear special cycling underwear with the same padding.

I fulfilled my promise to myself, I did not get off the bike and walk any hills and I did not go on the Sag Wagon. Also, another plus is that we did not have any mechanical failures, injuries or punctured tires. Not bad for a combined total (for 4 of us) of 2,254.36km.

We also had good weather for the ride, after a little bit of rain on the first night at Pemberton, it remained dry for the rest of the ride (excluding morning dew on the tents).  It would have been nice if it was a bit cooler, but at least it did not rain heavily which can make camping miserable.

I have a theory that there were more uphills than downhills as I distinctly remember spending much more time climbing hills than I did zooming down the other side. (Please don't point out that the start and end point were at the same location and therefore the same elevation).

One highlight of the ride was finding an adult who was shorter than me.

 

Then again, there is always someone taller than me. (Sorry about the specks on the photo, there was a lot of dust in the air and the flash picked it up).

 

Below are the links to each of the posts for the ride:

• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Introduction
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 1
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 2
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 3
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 4
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 5
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 6
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 7
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 8
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 9
• The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Wrap Up (this post)

Some other links:

• West Australian Newspaper: Great Show for Great Bike riders
• West Australian Newspaper Galleries: The West Australian Great WA Bike Ride (we are in picture 1 of 18)
• West Australian Newspaper Galleries: Great WA Bike Ride - Marges (from Margaret River)
• West Australian Newspaper Galleries: Great WA Bike Ride - Busso (from Busselton)
   
• Donnybrook - Bridgetown Mail: Cyclists sweep through district (includes named picture of us)
   
• Bicycle Victoria Great Rides: The West Australian Great WA Bike Ride
• Bicycle Victoria Great Rides: Western Australia - Experience Extraordinary
• Bicycle Victoria Facebook Gallery: The West Australian Great WA Bike Ride 2011
   
• Aaron's Blog: The Life Of An Azinater

I hope you enjoyed following my family and I on the ride.

I suppose I have to get back to the real world now and start with some technical content again.

David

30-Mar-2011: Add Donnybrook Bridgetown Mail article link.

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 28, 2011
  Well done guys, what an adventure and you completed it.  Good call on not wearing the bike shorts:) keep your sense of style while riding.  Great following you on the updates.

• Anonymous
  March 28, 2011
  David, Congrats on finishing the ride in one piece!  It was fun to follow your journey the last few days! Jen

• Anonymous
  March 29, 2011
  Congrats David, excellent work. I must also admit honestly; Aaron's blog posts were much more interesting to read ;-)... Incredible achievement by you, Aaron & Rohan.