I had the best day today!

I rolled out of Albury on the Riverina Highway which was well utilised by trucks and cars. After about 15km I crossed a bridge over the Murray River, then turned onto the Murray River Highway, which is a minor C level road. I stayed on this road pretty much all day until 10km out of Corryong. I think I saw an average of one vehicle per hour, and they were mostly touring motorbikes.

The terrain was mildly undulating all day – meaning the climbs were not long or steep. Just what I needed for a break from mountains! I followed the Murray River all day, and the scenery was lovely.

I

t was very exciting to get my first glimpse of the Snowy Mountains and realise that I’d cycled that far!

My body felt good, my average speed even increased in the second half of the ride, in spite of a similar amount of elevation gain.

My nutrition went well, although I did hold of having afternoon tea for about 45 min later than I needed it, as I wanted to reach the next town to supplement my water supplies, and similarly I should’ve eaten something about 45 min before I finished. I drank about 3L over 8 hours, which is not very much! But I did try to keep hydrated, especially when it warmed up.

The weather couldn’t have been better, it got to a max of 30 degrees which was a bit warm, but then cloud cover came in and it dropped back down to low 20s. There was a little breeze at the start which varied from cross wind to tailwind, but it died down to nothing after the cloud cover rolled in during the afternoon.

My bum did start to get a bit sore on the couple of hours, just from sitting in the same position all day, but my Knicks were very comfortable. Undulations don’t give much chance for stretching out on short pedalling descents.

In spite of the cloud cover, it was still warm when I finished so I had a recovery wade in the pool overlooking the mountains!

I did a total of 155km with 1230m elevation gain in 8.5 hours (about 7 hours riding time). My average speed was 21.5kph.

Now it’s time to re pack the bike and ready the body for tomorrow.