Dear Rouleurs,

A few weeks ago, one half of  Team MMT did the 50km version of the 2016 MS Cycle.  Back in 2013, Team MMT did the 30km version with a few friends.  We also had it in our calendar last year, but untimely bronchitis put  this half of the team into bed for a week.  Needless to say this was poorly timed and made MMT very grumpy for a few weeks afterwards.

Fortunately, the 2016 version was a really enjoyable experience.  Unlike last year’s atrocious conditions, the weather was cool, overcast and relatively windless.  The event started and finished at Flemington, which Team MMT had never visited before. Overall, the event was superbly organised, with one exception. The outbound route looped around through the traffic queuing to to use event parking which put many cars and cyclists in close proximity to each other. Really not cool. The course map is shown below:

MS Cycle 2016 Event Map

The 50km route looped through a number of backstreets, lanes and bike paths in Flemington, West Melbourne, Kingsville and Altona that MMT had never ridden before.  Given the early start, the route was relatively car free and where the route changed direction or merged with traffic, volunteers were on hand to reduce any  road user ‘conflict’.   MMT had three highlights for the day:
1. Travelling over the Westgate Bridge and clocking 70 km/h on descent.
2. The volunteers were clearly cycling fans as they came prepared with cow bells and signs.
3. The village with post-event entertainment.

MMT has a few happy snaps to document the event.

Ready, Steady, Go….its MS Cycle 2016.	View from the top, looking towards Port Melbourne.
Climbing leads to descending…fast …which is much more fun 🙂	Atrocious selfie on the Westgate. How the hell does Gen Y take these things??
Hanging with fellow rouleurs at the third rest stop. I lost the triathletes I was drafting here…oh well 🙂	Serious kudos to this rouler who carted his kids round the 30km course. Finish line in the background.

Overall, it was great fun and hope to participate in the event next year.

Until next time, ride safe

Marv