Unofficial Busselton Blog 2018

The day dawned cool and sunny with not a breath of wind and riders started assembling from 7.30 in the car park at HQ to join their groups.  The 1s, under the leadership of Michael G, aka 'The Navigator', were off to a bad start when he turned up 5 minutes late, explaining that he'd somehow taken 4 wrong turns between his tent and the car park.  And a fine-looking group they were as they took off towards Dunsborough and then Yallingup to visit every known hill in that region.  The scheduled coffee stop was Dunsborough but these plans were almost abandoned when they chanced upon what seemed like a remarkable stroke of luck at the Petra Olive Oil farm.  This turned out to be a load of manure, however, as the coffee shop was only opened 9 - 5 Saturday.  So off again to Dunsborough with a detour to climb the tortuous hill up Vidler Rd, then down it again and back onto Caves Rd for 5km of downhill with a tailwind to coffee.  Hon. Pres. realised how lon...

With some of the bags packed and the bikes loaded it's off to Busselton for the 2018 edition of the Over 55s Cycling Club's Camp.  HQ is the RAC Busselton Caravan Park but for those without the money or influence to secure a spot at this upmarket resort it's a rush after unpacking to get there in time for 'Happy Hour'.  In particular, one didn't wish to miss the opening Presidential address before an attentive and captivated audience in an almost packed auditorium, some of whom were unfortunately caught up in the continuing Freeway chaos resulting from 55,000 disgruntled fans all exiting Optus Stadium at the same time on Thursday night.  In a stirring speech, after stressing the need for safety and  courtesy at all times, the President reminded us that there were sprints out there to be won and King of the Mountain points on offer on all the climbs, and what's more, he intended to be out there winning them, so 'bring it on, ba...