Live Strong

Almost 7000 cyclists took part, the majority of them choosing the longer route. I didn't even know Perth had so many people. Did the whole city turn up?! It was fantastic, taking over the expressway and riding through the tunnel. It's like heaven on earth, no cars, just bikes. No petroleum powered overweight metal cages carrying their disproportionately laden (human) weight, just the most efficient human-powered machine ever constructed battling the wind and the tarmac. They sent us off in batches, I stupidly answered in the online application form that I expected to take a long time to finish the route, so was assigned the D group, the last group to go 40 minutes after the first had started. The wind, like a lottery with 4-1 odds, was not very favourable, though it could have been much worse. And there were people standing on the bridges and roadside clapping and cheering, just like on TV (though on a much smaller scale.) I finished in about an hour and 20 minutes. Not too bad, I guess, all things considered... More pictures here.