Day 4 - Tuesday, 22nd February 2005 - Bredbo to Queanbeyan

After the rain of the last few days we finally seem to have left it behind. Last night was completely dry and so I was able to pack the tent up dry. As someone said the idea at Dalgety was to pack up quickly, not finesse, today you could afford to pack up everything carefully. Before I left I noticed that the rear tire on the bike was flat. I had a small hole in the tube that was caused by the rim tape again. I patched the tube and then I was ready to go.

The route again opened early, we rolled out at about 7:15am. I started out at a slower pace until we got to the highway, I passed the lead cyclists after about 200m, as I went past he commented that his leading of the day was now over. Once on the highway I was chasing the sunlight, I could see it ahead and I was looking forward to getting into it. The scenery again was spectacular, and for once I had the camera with me so I was able to take some shots. We were on the Monaro Highway to lunch and again it was a pretty dead surface with only a small shoulder with a reasonable amount of traffic. Along the road the official photographers passed me, I had challenged them to try and get a picture off me as the knew I was an early fast rider. They simply cheated today as they took a picture while they were driving.

The wind again was from the south so we all had a good tail wind to get us through the day. It was interesting as we actually crossed into the ACT, and the road surface instantly went to the better. From there it was only 10-15km to lunch. I again made lunch first, and there was only about 20km to go. I stayed at lunch for about 15 minutes chatting to the volunteers and the other cyclists as they came in. I noticed that 3 decided not to come in so when I left there were some ahead of me. Soon after lunch we had the only unsealed section of the entire route. It was very rough on the road bike as it was hard packed and very rough, at times it felt like the bike was getting shaken apart. It was only about 2.5 km long so it was over pretty quickly. Once I was through it I pushed up to the big chain ring and set off after the other 3 cyclists. The wind was again in my favour so I was really eating up the kilometres. There was another plank bridge but I again I was able to ride over it with no issues. There were only a few small hills and they didn't really slow me down. On the approach to Queanbeyan there was a good downhill and I passed two of the cyclists on that.

As I went into Queanbeyan there was a sign warning that some streets had a 50 limit, I looked down and I was doing about 50km/hr at the time. I ended up at camp 2nd today. I was a few minutes behind the lead cyclists but I had stopped for 15mins at lunch. After a few other cyclists had rolled in we went to town for a coffee shop as the luggage trucks weren't in yet. The hope was that when we came back we could just grab our bags and set up. It wasn't to be, I had to help unload again, but I had grabbed a spot up on the hill in the shade away from the main camp, but at least I will be out of the sun for a large part of tomorrow. I need to do some washing of my cycling gear and then I can have a nice relaxing afternoon with the knowledge of a rest day tomorrow.

Distance 72.82 km
Average 32.95 km/hr
Time 2:12:35
Maximum 60.10 km/hr

Images

br2005/images/117_1734.JPG
The fantastic view to the west of the route, the clouds were still hugging some mountains.
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The view to the east, and the sun shining for the first time in a few days.
br2005/images/117_1738.JPG
Tent City at Queanbeyan.

Day 5

Day 3
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