"La Bella Italia" Stage 22 Chioggia-Venice

A sunny and warm day biking across the islands at the entrance to the Venice Laguna. The camping at Punta Sabioni was excellent and gave us a good base from which to explore Venice by ferry. Garmin Connect link

"La Bella Italia" Stage 21 Castel San Pietro Terme - Chioggia

A relatively flat but hot stage through rural and industrial areas. Pleased to make it to camp at Sottomarina and a cold beer! Garmin Connect link

"La Bella Italia Stage 20 Florence-Castel del Pietro Terme

Rolling hills and thuderstorms! A very pretty area for cycling. Garmin Connect link

My current Strava cycling activities

Here are my recent biking activities on the free cycling GPS website Strava

Highland Fling MTB 2014

My 5th "Fling" @ 100km. Finally made podium after all these years! Came third in Grand Masters (60yrs) category. 9th visit to the Fling ( having done 4x 50 km. I found this years course very difficult. Particularly some new single track segments in Wingello. I did these earlier at the "Willo" so knew what to expect. Can't say I enjoyed the last 15 km. A good contingent of out mtb group turned up. We enjoyed dinner at Bundy Hotel on sat night after I had done the "Dash". A gopro video will be posted soon along with garmin link.

Mont 24 2014 Kowen Forest ACT

Mike, Adam and me at the campsite after finishing our laps on Mont 24. Peter W is on the course doing his last lap

Mike, me, Adam and Peter Waldron at the end of the race

roos up early on Sunday morning

campsite at Kowen Forest

This event is a 24hr mtb race. Team "Ring-Ins" were me, Mike, Adam Smith and Pete Waldron. The course was approx 19km all on single track. The team completed 23 laps (I did 5 and the others 6). Our result was 9th in the male 40+ category (30 teams). Great weather with a brief storm on the course on Saturday afternoon. I struggled on the last couple of laps. On the first lap I ended up crossing back onto the first half of the course after reaching a turn only 2km from finish. I had to quickly re-think my route back to finish and found a couple of disused fire trails which got me there without losing too much time. Heavy dew on Saturday night meant that nothing dried so my kit was very cold and wet with perspiration when I put it back on at 4am for an early morning lap :-(

BUPA Around the Bay 2014

This charity ride is held each year in Melbourne.  It's run by Bicycle Network VIC and sponsored by BUPA. Ride distances include 100, 135, 210 and 250km. The direction around Port Philip Bay can be clockwise or anti clockwise. Because I was feeling crook that week I decided against riding 250km and did 210km instead clockwise. This was enjoyable but headwinds from Queenscliff to Geelong hindered progress significantly. I crossed the finish line at 4pm after over 8hrs cycling. The weather was overcast and hot with winds from the north shifting around to the south in the late afternoon. A better option to take advantage of the winds would have been the anti clockwise. The ferry ride to Queenscliff was a great chance to rest before the final 120kms ☺

Finish

Westgate bridge

Sorrento Ferry