Around the Bay 2017 is on Sunday 8 October.

[madmacca]

December but overnight

There is always the Salute To Irene Plowman ride which goes from Brighton to Portsea and return - overnight in early March

I think the one year I did that ride, it was a stinking hot night - overnight minimum 30C.

[hamishm]

there's a degree of safety in numbers in a large event.

I'd argue the opposite. There's far too many riders especially as many are relatively inexperienced.

[cyclotaur]

there's a degree of safety in numbers in a large event.

I'd argue the opposite. There's far too many riders especially as many are relatively inexperienced.

I rode alone for 90% of the time.
Very hard to find a group to sit with at the right pace with numbers down on historical levels, but formed a few small temporary alliances at times. But yeah, overall probably safer that way. I only saw one 'incident' and not sure it was a crash or whether the rider just conked badly in the wind or got blown over.

Bigger groups were either much faster (all the guns off the front of the field ) or slower (several large corporate groups being shepherded along by ride leaders at 25kph tops and blocking the whole of the left lane - "large car dealer starting with Z" I'm looking at you !!

[Mike Ayling]

Two of the people that I ride with on Sundays did a 100km ride. One rode Sorrento-Melbourne and the other Melbourne-Frankston-Melbourne. Both are slower riders and complained that their "free" sandwich packs were not available at a halfway rest stop and had ro be claimed at the end of the ride. Both are at this stage unlikely to ride next year.

Mike

[cyclotaur]

Two of the people that I ride with on Sundays did a 100km ride. One rode Sorrento-Melbourne and the other Melbourne-Frankston-Melbourne. Both are slower riders and complained that their "free" sandwich packs were not available at a halfway rest stop and had ro be claimed at the end of the ride. Both are at this stage unlikely to ride next year.

Mike

That's always been the case for the 100km rides. No different this year.

There's plenty of other free food available at the rest stops anyway - fruit, lollies, cakes/slices etc

[Calvin27]

There's plenty of other free food available at the rest stops anyway - fruit, lollies, cakes/slices etc

My general rule, which is consistent with my long ride strategy, is to plan the ride around McDonalds. Hasn't failed me yet and those that I have recommended to the method to have generally agreed it's a good way to go about it.

[HenryCharlie]

I was very tempted to stop at Mornington Bunnings for a sausage. Took a lot of willpower to ride past it.

[djw47]

Two of the people that I ride with on Sundays did a 100km ride. One rode Sorrento-Melbourne and the other Melbourne-Frankston-Melbourne. Both are slower riders and complained that their "free" sandwich packs were not available at a halfway rest stop and had ro be claimed at the end of the ride. Both are at this stage unlikely to ride next year.

Mike

Surely their sandwich packs were free, just not where they erroneously expected to find them? You're advised in the ride leaflets to keep yourself well fed and watered throughout the ride and iirc, there are gels and sugary snacks available at all the rest stops. To be honest if you can't sustain yourself on a ride and rely on somebody providing a sandwich at halfway on a ride to keep you going, you should consider whether you should be out riding in the first place.

[Arbuckle23]

The lunch packs were at the designated lunch stops, Queenscliff & Sorrento.
The other stops were "rest stops" and had plenty of snack available.

[Mike Ayling]

The lunch packs were at the designated lunch stops, Queenscliff & Sorrento.
The other stops were "rest stops" and had plenty of snack available.

I guess that they did not read their ride information sheets properly!

Mike