Hi All,

Glad to report I actually survived my first metric century

I headed out of Kingston around 8am. Very pleasant, a few clouds, a light breeze and a nice cool 9 degrees to start my first small climb over the bonnet into the city.
Not too many people at Salamanca market this early in the morning, but still a nice place to be riding. From Hobart I’ve followed the bike track to the show grounds in Derwent Park, and then headed for the Bowen Bridge. Around here, I’ve met up with another rider going the same way. So we’ve helped each other out a bit until we get about half way up Grass Tree Hill. By then I was holding him up, so I send him off to enjoy his ride. As it turned out, he was only going to the top of the hill and back to Hobart, so I thanked him for his help as he coasted back down the hill to Town. So I made it over Grass Tree, and headed for Richmond. Stopped to fill the water bottle and have a feed, before doing the obligatory ride over the Richmond Bridge and then starting towards Cambridge. As I head into Cambridge, I check my distance. *****, only 60km down and 30ish from home. It feels wrong, but I head away from home and towards the airport. After about 6km I turn around and finally start heading for home. A quick stop at the servo in Cambridge to fill the water bottle, again, and then off towards the Tasman Bridge. As I come off the bridge, I realise that I’m still a few K’s short of making the 100, so again, I head in the wrong direction and back to New Town on the bike track. At least it’s flat. Time to make my way home. Back though Hobart, Sandy Bay, Taroona and over the bonnet to Kingston. This is my usual commute, and surprisingly I felt pretty strong on the last hill. As I’m coming a beautiful descent home I see the odometer tick over to 100km’s. Absolutely stoked!

After the ride, I’ve had another litre of water before settling in for beer and bbq, and to watch the AFL Grand Final on the projector that I’d borrowed from work.

Some stats from the cycle computer
Distance: 102.09km
Total Time: 4 hours 22 minutes
Ride Time: 4 hours 5 minutes
Avg Speed: 25.21km/hr
Top Speed: 61.5km/hr

Thanks for you’re advice guys. I made sure to eat and drink plenty during the ride, and felt pretty damn good the whole time

Cheers,
Dave