Day 3 - Wangaratta Hub & Spoke Ride- Warby Ranges
Before I get to today’s ride , I should mention the dinner last night. Ric organised for us all to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was called Ronaldo’s Casa Cucina. The meal started with a couple of shared pizzas then pasta for everyone. The food was delicious and everyone enjoyed their meals. The conversation over dinner was bubbling from the adventures of the ride earlier.
This morning was an early start again for Chris and I in getting showered and dressed and having breakfast ahead of the start of the ride at 9.30 am.
All but Ric and Phil were on the Warby ride today. Ric and Phil did a shorter ride out to Milawa today which they said was delightful.
Before I get in to the ride, I should mention the weather which was great. Quite sunny with virtually no clouds and wind and temperatures in the low 20’s.
The ride started in Wangaratta and we made our way out of town in a westerly direction through some quite nice streets. Quite different from the areas we have travelled through before.
After reaching the outskirts of town the Warby ranges came into view! They looked quite imposing with quite high hills! I thought gosh we are in for a hard day today! Fortunately the route took us to a lower saddle to climb the mountains.
The climb was about 3 kms with some parts about 9% but it was through quite pretty countryside. Reaching the top of the climb we all exchanged our experiences on the climb which were largely very positive. Then it was off on the downhill!!!
A wonderful experience with speeds reached of about 50 km/ hour!
After this we rode on to our lunch venue at Thoona! Well to say that Thoona was dead would be an understatement!
The cafe was shut! The pub was shut! ….and there was no lunch!
Luckily most of us had muesli bars, bananas or other snacks to stave off the hunger! We sat outside the CLOSED cafe to eat and observed a couple of folk collecting their mail.
After lunch (????) we then rode on to the second climb for the day…once again crossing the Warby ranges at the Taminick saddle. This climb started with low grades but built towards the end to fades over 9%. Once again it was about 3 kms. Reaching the top we once again assembled to greet riders as they completed the climb.
After this it was another great decent for the final 20 kms back to Wangaratta.With the wind behind us the flat ride into town was quite fast and we arrived back at about 2.00 pm.
With an early finish the search went out to find a bakery for a spot of late lunch. Chris had researched this earlier and led us to a lovely bakery to get some well earned sustenance of pies, sandwiches cakes and teas coffee and drinks.
Today was a good day of riding for us all in delightful weather and lovely country.
Arriving back at the motel we were able to shower and clean up ahead of the Ellio inspired bbq dinner! I will report on this in tomorrow’s blog.
Several of us learned today how to use the group tracker function on our Garmins. This appears to be an effective way of determining where riders are who are in the group and have turned on the tracking function. To say that this has been a difficult process would be an understatement! Unfortunately what is a great function needs the combined intellect of about 4 Einsteins to get it to work! But today we seemed to have cracked the code. Well done to Chris and Ellio for their achievements!
Today’s pictures are as follows:
The ride route today
All of us enjoying last night’s dinner
The ride group assembled at the start of the ride
At the top of the first climb
Our failed lunch stop…. But we made do!
Ellio and I on the way down from the second climb…. A selfie!
A church converted to a house
Me on the road!
A view from near the top of the second climb looking east
