I woke up at 4:40am yesterday morning with the intention of leaving pretty early. Don't know what happened, but my iPhone's battery, which I had charge on Friday night, was completely flat... it was down to 7%.
As this was going to be my first long ride in a while and as I didn't know the area in Sydney where I was going to be staying, I felt it important to have at least some charge in my battery, so I eventually only left here after 6:00am.

Set out with my new Surly Crosscheck, having just fitted the last piece, being the carrier rack, on Friday evening before I went to bed. As I had assembled a lot of the stuff on the bike, I did not feel terribly convident on the bike, must I must say that it performed brilliantly.

As I had said to everyone during last week, I was riding "towards" Sydney and made no claims that I would make it all the way. This was my first long ride since the end of September last year and whateva, whateva.

Got as far as Gosford and my knee was taking a bit of strain plus I was feeling overall tired. At that point I was still thinking I could go all the way to Sydney, but I knew that I had only done half the distance and the major hills only start after Gosford.
Haha... then I hit a hill just before Gosford, at Terrigal, I think. A BIG hill by my standards and I almost died. Plus, putting some effort into the hill, I realised that my knee was really not doing well.

So I ended the ride at Gosford and took a train in to Sydney. Did a few more kilometers in Sydney from the train station to the motel and all together I did 105kms for the day. So I didn't make nearly as much as I had hoped, but a 105km ride as my first long ride in a long time is okay. I'll get back into regular rides from now on and push the kilometers and the hill climbing.

Did another 40kms today, so 145kms for the weekend isn't too bad. Before the end of March I would like to do an imperial century (100 miles / 160kms), but I don't think it'll be the road to Sydney:) On the way back today the guy I was driving with took me through those hills to show me what I'd be facing and they are much, I mean MUCH, MUCH bigger than anything I've climbed to date!! They'll be a separate goal:)

Anyhow, so we're back into training.

As a matter of interest, Eric started his Tour d' Afrique yesterday. Hope it's going well.