Round and round

Well the ride today didn't end up being that bad. I am still a bit over riding around this Island, but by exploring some new roads I didn't end up having to ride around the same roads five times. In fact it turns out that if you ride up and down pretty much every road on your way around Rottnest Island you can get in a about 30km. That meant I still needed to do three laps to get in my 90km today, but it could have been much worse.

The hills didn't feel as bad as they did during the Long Course either. They are certainly still here, but when you aren't trying to ride as quickly as you can, they don't feel quite so relentless. Other than being a bit monotonous, I would even describe the ride around the Island as pleasant, certainly scenic. Plus there is something kind of nice about riding around knowing you don't really need to worry about vehicles, or even really other cyclists.

Riding today did confirm for me something that I had suspected from the Rottnest Long Course though, that the riding here is on the slow side. Not sure if it is the road surface (a bit rough) or the winding roads, or the undulations, or a combination of all three. But it isn't speedy. Certainly my ride today was a bit slow for the effort I was putting in.

Coming back to the road surface for a minute, today I got some real life proof that the Falco V does indeed absorb vibration through the beam. The roads here are much rougher than I realised from my experience during the race. Riding around for the Rottnest Long Course I felt no real road roughness. Today though, on a regular road bike I had all sorts of sensitive bits of me going numb. Certainly rougher than I realised. Different wheels too, which goes to show how much difference stiff carbon rims can make.

Today has been our last full day here on Rottnest, tomorrow morning we head home. It has been a great break and a real chance to get away from it all, but it will be nice to get home. If nothing else it will give us a chance to rest up. We may be here on holiday, but we are all exhausted. This relaxing thing can be hard work.