Amy's Gran Fondo, Lorne

We got the car packed early for the trip to Lorne, stopping to see Mum and Max in Belmont. Mum had made great muffins - so I had 2 :)

At Lorne, we had lunch at "The Arab" before checking into our accommodation. My safety briefing for the Gran Fondo was at 2pm. It was well organised, short and sweet. They gave me my bike number with embedded timing chip and an age group identifier. Then back to the room for more Panadol, Demezin and Sinex. Dinner was a large pasta meal with Cathy's homemade pesto sauce.

It was a great day for riding - cool, no rain and occasional sunny breaks. Mountjoy parade was full of cyclists - 2500 of us. A truly awesome start.

The start procedure was very well organised - Groups of 200 left every 2 minutes. Oh yeah - the roads were totally closed off to other traffic. It was a weird feeling to ride without traffic - I still spent 99.5% of the time on the left. A slight headwind to Skene's Creek.

After that it was a long climb into the Otways, followed by undulating roads and a short downhill into Forrest. There was a long queue for water. I decided to continue onto Deans Marsh. The road finally flattened out a bit - and so did I!!! The flu of the last 2 days finally caught up with me. I ate all my lollies looking for a boost. It was a slow drag into Deans Marsh but fortunately the shop was open for a Coke.

I knew the road to Benwerrin (I figured on 3 "major" sections) so I took it easy up the first 2, enjoyed some downhill in the middle before finishing the final climb totally smashed!!

I stopped to ring Cathy before enjoying a speedy ride downhill to Lorne.

A truly awesome day - cycling on closed roads, great weather, sensational organisation and a challenging course. See you next year, Amy.