Road Trip – Day 3

So day 3 was a truly hard day of riding! It started out hot, very hot – most of the day was between 38 and 40C.

The first section was from Brisbane to Rathdowney and this took about 90 minutes. I was sweating from the started and I took the M3 out of the city and then a section of Logan Road before getting back on to the M2 which put me on to Mount Lindesay Road through Beaudesert and on to Rathdowney. It seemed to take a lot longer than it should. I stopped to refuel the bike and me – the heat meant I really needed to keep hydrated.

Then on to Kyogle, 90 kms away. This started out OK and then became very twisty and hard work, not only because it was so hot but also because my rear tyre has now gone off and wasn’t giving as much grip through the tight turns. Added to that the heat had caused the surface to separate which gave me a few scares having no grip whatsoever! At times the traction control kicked in which meant that my speed out of some corners was non existent!

I carried on to Casino, 30 kms away and refuelled myself again, more fluids to rehydrate.

The next stage was to Grafton, another 100 kms. This was a cruise compared to the Kyogle section, although the wind was very strong and at times I had to lean in to the wind just to keep straight!

I stopped at Grafton for more fuel and water before tackling the best bit of the ride – the run from Grafton through Nymboida to Ebor. I hadn’t ridden this section for 10 years and it didn’t disappoint. This section was also twisty with some rough surfaces, however at around 3:30 the temperature dropped by 5 degrees making this section even nicer to ride through.

The sun was dropping and this made visibility harder but it was a great run. The road becomes the Waterfall Way near Ebor for the last 80 kms to Armidale and at 4:30 the temperature dropped again by a further 7 degrees which really made the last section easier despite now feeling like I’d done a full days ride, which I had – 7 hours and 540 kms.

The final day