On a still, humid warm morning,  the MS Melbourne Cycle (2017) serves up a different experience than other Melbourne cycle events.  This was a ride that traversed through the urban areas of  Kensington, West Melbourne, Docklands, Port Melbourne,  Spotswood, Altona North, Williamstown and Yarraville.   At times, it had a parkour feel about it as you race through the carpark at South Wharf,  make several hairpin turns to get on/off the Westgate Bridge and loop through side streets seemingly included to extend the course.  In the unseasonably tropical like weather, there was a certain stench in the air, coming off the bay and enhanced by the Williamstown pumphouse.    This tainted the postcard scenery of Point Gellibrand and marina’s off Williamstown,  but it definitely provided an incentive to crank up the pace.

The event starts and finishes at Flemington Racecourse.  Running a bit late, I found an ideal spot to park the car across the river in Edgewater, less than a kilometre ride from the back entrance of the racecourse. The event seems to have less fanfare than others, but that could very well because it was dark and I literally took off when I arrived at the start line.  I recommend this new and improved approach as it beats waiting around for the event to begin.

I suspect a lot of people do this event for the chance to cross the Westgate Bridge and the roll down is definitely worth the gradual climb up. The real climb on the course is a little stinker (pardon the pun) up Kensington Rd in the last two km’s.  At almost 10% gradient it was not the easy run into Flemington that I think several people had expected and caught some off guard.   Note that you only cross the bridge once, on the way out; going under the bridge on the way back.  I had thought that you went over the bridge out and back, which obviously shows that I didn’t study the course closely beforehand.  However, there is no chance of getting lost ( http://thecyclingbuzz.com/2017/03/20/a-ballarat-classic/ ) as the volunteers on the day were brilliant and enthusiastic.

Bring your own food supplies for the ride as there are none supplied on the course.  Although, there was a hot donut food van in the village which is not common for a cycling event.  You can’t go past a good hot jam donut.   Carbs are good for the end of a ride aren’t they?? Or is that meant to be protein, I’m never quite sure!

This is generally a flattish course allowing for a great pace, most of which can be attributed to the the two blokes who kindly allowed me to follow their wheel on and off for the second half of the course. I will definitely do this event again; for a great cause to boot.