Sydney Australia

The Head of IT at the Branch here in Sydney agreed to lend me his triathlon bike for the weekend (together with his helmet, shoes, tools etc. I brought my own customised baggy lycra from the UK to maintain standards). I went out to his house Friday night to collect the bike. I brought it back into the city on the underground (unlike London where bikes are not allowed on the underground, the Aussies are very accommodating and don't bat an eyelid when you lift a bike over the ticket barrier).

The bike is a very nice BH with an aluminium frame, carbon forks and fitted with Ultegra. The gearing is a comp on the front and a 12/25 on the back. The cranks are 172.5 compared to the 170 I usually ride. It also has a built in seat post which means there is very little saddle adjustment without a hacksaw.

Unfortunately the bike is a little big for me so I am stretching to get the cranks around. I can just about cope but it gives me a disadvantage and is not exactly comfortable when the reach to the handlebars is also a stretch.

There are a lot of cyclists here at the branch. A guy on the IT Projects team and one of the Front Office Sales guys arranged to take me out on Saturday morning. At 7:45 AM I came out of my hotel looking for an estate car taxi to take me to the rendezvous point some 30 km north of Sydney at a place called Terrey Hills where we were going to ride in the national park. The taxi driver was not the sharpest of people and looked puzzled when I told him where I was going. I showed him the Google maps print out of the map and instructions on how to get there. He brought out a large magnifying glass and then told me he couldn't read it because it was not in colour. He then proceeded to drive whilst trying to look up the place in a colour road atlas. I decided that safety might be an idea and took the book from him and opened the atlas at the correct page. I then navigated whilst at every set of lights he squinted at the atlas through the magnifying glass. We thankfully arrived safely. I wouldn't want to be his passenger later in the day when there was more traffic around.

Once we were all assembled (there ended up being four of us) we proceeded up the road. About 5 Km out I stood up on my pedals to climb a hill and my saddle fell off! I discovered that the retaining bolt had dropped out some way back along with the retaining mechanism. I resigned myself to a painful ride back to find the nearest bike shop to buy a new saddle. Two of the lads went on and I and one other started back. About 1 Km later the guy I was riding with spotted the parts in the road and I was saved. I rebuilt the saddle (aren't they complicated!) and we set off again.

We did 50 Km over a hilly terrain in the sun and heat. It hit 31 degrees. We even saw the beach where the Australian soap "Home and Away" was filmed.

On the way back into town I was going to catch the train, however, due to track works there were no trains, just a bus replacement service. The driver surprisingly allowed me on with the bike and we started a slow drive back to town. The bus got more and more crowded until we were playing sardines for the last 20 minutes.

I was shattered in the afternoon and after a plate of room service spaghetti bolognaise and a banana split (the banana split was off the childs menu) was just falling asleep on my bed when a colleague called me to invite me to join him and his partner for coffee and cake in town. I was home asleep in my hotel bed by 8:00 PM

On Sundays there is a big group that rides out from Kings Cross (not that far from my hotel in the Central Business District) at 8:00 am and I was planning join them for a ride. On Sunday morning I got up and looked out the window. It was pouring with rain. I did venture down to reception to stick my head out the front door of the hotel just to assure myself it was not going to stop before I decided against going and went back to bed.

A little later when the rain abated, I met up with a colleague and we walked from Bronte passed Bondi up to the ferry at Watsons Point (about 6 miles) stopping occasionally for coffee. At one point we stopped to ask a spotty youth whether there was a route we could walk that went along the coast or whether we had to walk inland. He replied that we might as well take the bus. He looked very perplexed when we insisted that we wanted to walk and asked our question again - I mean, why would anyone want to walk when you could take a bus?

Tomorrow morning (Tuesday) I have to be in Centennial Park at 5:45 AM for laps (a bit like Richmond Park) before work, and I think some of the lads here have got some other challenging rides to test me - oh dear. Well, at least I am getting some riding in.