Loved it, great fun and managed to see a whole heap of the city that I wouldn't normally.
What I didn't love, was this:
For those that may not understand, basically that's Melbourne, beneath the pretty coloured circle almost dead centre. The less blue and more red those colours are means the more rain that was smashing down into the very depths of my socks. The other colourful circle to the lower left, was moving up and to the right, directly over our route. This was the wettest day I've spent on a bike since I rode off a pier for shits and giggles.
The Melburn Roobaix is in it's 9th year and is known as 'The Hell of the Northcote.' Possibly some false advertising right there considering I don't think there's that much rain in hell, unless it's raining fire...of course, I shoulda thought of that.
Back to the point, it's an awesome concept that is obviously based on the Paris-Roubaix, just spelt better. So we hit the road and when there's cobbles, puddles and mud mixing with old, skinny, worn tyres and brakes, the concept gets a whole heap more Roobaixy. Here's the ride in all it's blurry, unclear, zoomed out glory.
I'll just take a moment to say, if your Steed for the day had tyres like this….You're kinda cheating.
I don't want to presume anything about people's choices of bicycle/dune buggy, but I'm pretty sure the idea is to struggle through the cobbled sectors, not float above them.
At the other extreme, some gentlemen seemed to feel a vasectomy was a bit pricey and so chose a bike to get the job done instead.
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| This bike + cobbles = unprofessional yet effective medical procedure. |
But hey, we were all there for fun! And from this came an amazing sense of camaraderie between participants, all caught out by mother nature who's obviously a driver at heart.
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| Figured by now I should have posted a picture of the Cobbles. |
Now, I was dressed fairly sensibly, going with my amazing jacket that spits the rain back, some comfortable shorts, and toe covers for my boots.
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| At the start with Angela who I rode with. I'm looking suitably daggy. |
Some people however, decided to go ahead and saddle up in some less-than-appropriate clothing. Many of the costumes were great, but the slight chuckle surely wasn't worth what must have been one of the most uncomfortable rides in the history of bikes. Despicable him indeed.
Here's my Roobaix list:
1. I didn't stack. Not once. Oh yeah! Now that's a win right there. I went close but fortunately directed myself into a wall and so remained upright. A shallow victory some may say considering I technically 'fell' into a wall, and hey, you're probably right.
2. Please refer to the pic below…
The last point on the Roobaix's list of 'rules' was entirely appropriate to the bastard who deliberately drove his/he car through a puddle in order to spray Ange and I.
"Yes, you at the back there."
"Did he get you?"
"Yes. Yes he/she did. But, let us not forget how completely saturated we already were so jokes on them. Sorta."
3. If you end up riding under city link with no other participating cyclists in sight, chances are you've gone the wrong way. Stick to the path and simply follow everyone else pedalling in front of you.
4. This one comes in two parts, (a) If you're taking photo's on a rainy day, chances are you'll get some water on the lens, giving your shot a distinctly 'instagrammy' effect. Account for this pre-photo. (b) Once you've finished remember, beer is cold, if your core temperature is threatening hypothermia, it will not warm you up.
5. And finally, when posing for your photo at the end, make sure you look like a bit of a dick for fun's sake.
To get more info on the Melburn Roobaix check out their website:
http://fyxo.co/melburn-roobaix/
As a sign off I'd like to clarify that rain is invisible in photo's, but also I tended not to get the phone out for snaps when it was bucketing down. Therfore, my constant mentioning but little proof of it is completely _______
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| Image source |
Thanks Justin.
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