Ride on 13/9/2019
An idyllic spring morning revved up the spirits of the twenty cyclists who gathered at Heidelberg station for a cruise to Fairfield. Everyone safely negotiated the short on-road stretch to the Main Yarra Trail, the hairpin bends of the Banksia Street underpass and the gravelled bend where, a couple of years ago, we witnessed a speeding rider from another group come to grief. Then it was a matter of chatting and soaking up the sunshine as we pedalled on to the bridge across the Yarra near Ivanhoe golf course.
At this point we left the MYT and followed the narrow path beside the golf course along the right bank of the river to Wilson Reserve and the fearsome Royce Amiet hill leading up to the Boulevard in Ivanhoe. The whole group took on the challenge of the hill and a good proportion made it to the top, a much more impressive outcome than the day on which Royce was the only member of our group to ride to the summit, and held his bike above his head in triumph. Either OYB is improving its overall fitness with the passage of time or is attracting a sturdier breed of rider these days. We continued on to join the Darebin Creek Trail at Heidelberg Road, rode upstream to Darebin Parklands – another testing hill – and along the new cycle path to coffee and comestibles at Nikos in Fairfield.
