McLaren Vale recovery ride

It was only a recovery ride, but since this would be my last ride in Oz, I decided to squeeze in a ride at McLaren Vale while the family went sightseeing.

Picked up the trail at McLaren Vale town, the Coast to Vines trail that goes through wine country. This portion was the Shiraz trail. Living up to its name, the trail brought me through vine yards and wine cellars - up close and personal. Headed towards Willunga, a small village well known for its Saturday farmer's market, where our families spent many a happy morning.


The ride was flat and cut through several quiet roads. But it took the momentum away, having to stop to check for traffic. Nonetheless, it was a really scenic ride. Worked well for me as a recovery ride.

Wonder if I would have the chance to do a bike tour in the wine region - be it in McLaren or Barossa. Such wishful thinking. :)

Recovery ride - that wasn't

Sunday riding group was down to just four of us. Couldn't let the gang down, could I? Of course not, even after a 30 km trail run yesterday. So at 4:58 am, I showed up with my bike at Duku Road, having decided to ride there instead of drive.

It was the same route as we did some weeks ago but did not complete due to heavy rain- down Mountbatten toward Fort Road, and then following the East Coast service road toward NSRCC. SY led this segment as he did the first time. It would have been the strain from yesterday, but the pace felt fast. I found out later that it was about our normal riding speed - 26 kph.

At NSRCC, I took over to pull. Perhaps it was the aero position or perhaps subconsciously I wanted to push myself, but the rest were to complain later that I went too fast. I couldn't tell the speed while riding as I didn't have a speedometer on the P2 (I couldn't tell even on the cento uno when riding in the morning). Note to myself- must do something about this. But it felt close to 30 kph. I didn't feel it was that fast as my HR (as I found out later) was between 140 and 150.

I was trying to keep my pace consistent, but as a newbie, I didn't do that very well at all. Sorry guys.

Over the last 2 km of the coastal road, I thought I would push it up a notch and it would be about then that we lost two of the group. PK was keeping pace with me throughout the entire coastal section, much to his credit. He's really improving by leaps and bounds, I thought to myself.

It was only at pit stop at the Changi Village temple that I realized that we lost half of our group. Needless to say, they gave me some grief for going too fast. I found out later that I averaged about 29 to 30 kph over this segment (with a top speed of 35 kph).

The third segment was thorugh Loyang and Selarang. As usual, I attacked Loyang Way (in my limited manner), but PK had some chain problem. The rest of the ride was uneventful, except the traffic at the PIE intersection, and I broke off from the group to head back home. 43 km.

Surprisingly, the legs felt better after the ride. It was a good recovery ride.

Overall ave speed: 24.5kph. Ave HR: 132

View ride in Garmin connect.