21 Feb 2012 7:57am: Adam Williss looked at the route I took for this ride and suggested I was flipping the bird to the other riders on Strava. I can not claim this to be designed but rather accidental. The day started with me dropping the Lancer off for its 60 month service at Australian Motors Morphett Vale. It was for a big service and they told me it wouldn’t be ready until around 3pm. I had put the bike in the back seat and had dressed ready for a ride so off I set. Heading to Sheriffs road and onto the Southern Expressway bike path to head North. A nice little cruise down to Outer Harbour and maybe Port Adelaide in mind. Keeping a steady pace I cruised into Glenelg and along the shared bike/walkway to head out on the end of Anzac Highway. Turning left at the Buffalo and left again onto the bridge over the Patt. Turning right at the roundabout on the other side of the bridge I headed towards the “S’s sprint interval – Africaine Rd to Hamra Ave ” and “Adelaide Shores Sprint ” segments on Strava. The last time I tried these segments I was on the “Sunday Style ‘L’ ride” a couple of weeks ago and felt I did not perform very well in spite of creating PR’s on them. I managed to PR both of them this time. When I set off I did not intend to hit any segments but sometimes one just cant resist 
I had plenty of time up my sleeve and plenty of time to think about where I was going to go and had decided to head up Semaphore Road to Port Adelaide then down to Outer Harbour. I followed the normal bike routes down to 
Semaphore and turned right into Semaphore road before pulling over to take a photo and have a drink of water. Such a lovely day for a ride! At this stage I noticed that I had left my phone on a quiet profile and had missed both a call and an email from Lynn telling me that she had been called into work and would not be home until after 3:30pm. It was time to re-asses my ride so I decided to take a look at Port Adelaide
and the Port River Expressway. Riding up the Port River Expressway I had no idea just how far I would go and once I hit 
Salisbury Highway I decided to head up to Elizabeth Vale, specifically to my in-laws for a quick cup of coffee. They were a little shocked to see me but they did give me a coffee. After this 20 min break I headed out to Main North Road and down to Golden Grove road to head up to the end of Bridge Road. I had decided to head down Bridge/Brians/Hampstead road until I reached Ascot Avenue and then to head along it and Port Rush Road. This section was interesting while I mixed it with lunchtime traffic and lots of trucks and even a wide load. I had decided to head along Port Rush Road and take Greenhill Road down to Anzac Highway and eventually down to Glenelg.
With traffic control I was bunched with another ride heading down Greenhill Road so I started up a conversation with him. No, he had not just been up to Norton, he had just started a flatish ride and was intending to head down to Glenelg and back so I road with him all the way chatting whe the opertunity arose. On reaching Glenelg he did a U turn at the roundabout at the Pier hotel and bid farewell as I rode onto the shered walkway once again.
I headed towards Seacliff once again thinking that I was going to be a little early to pick up the car but a strong headwind had come up to slow me down to below 20 kph. I was feeling very tired now and was struggling against the wind.
At Seacliff, the bottom of Wheatland Street I stopped for a photo and another drink. Once again I noticed I had missed a call, Australian Motors this time. Ringing them back revealed they had finished the car early and it was ready for pickup.
I checked my rear gear to make sure I was in 4th or 5th and bolted up Wheatland street. It felt all wrong and I ran out of steam really quickly. I should have checked the chain ring as it was still on the small one! Well before Waratah I just sat down and dropped down cogs. I was beat, having already completed 120km I had very little left to burn. I just folded and dropped down to easy spinning all the way up the Coast to Vines. Crossing the Southern Expressway and up to Panalatinga road then following the Coast to Vines all the way down to Wheatsheaf Road before heading down to South Road and on to Australian Motors. I had a brief thought of going just a little further, another 800m would have done it, to put me over the 130km distance but decided it just didn’t matter.
Total number of Strava segments covered on this route came to 44 of which 14 are hidden.
DETAILS:
- Start Time: 7:57 am
- Ride Distance: 129.28 km
- Riding Time: 5h10m02s
- Elapsed Time: 6h09m56s
- Av Pace: 2m24s/km
- Av Speed: 25 kph
- Av/Max HR: 121/155 bpm
- Cadence: 61.2
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