The Lance Armstrong fantasy... (minus the cancer)

The following is a bit of a Beach Rd riders fantasy come true...

Arrived at Beach Rd in Hampton for the mornings tootle to work, to be greeted by road closures and barriers and blokes in flouro jackets thinking they were important. (And they probably are.)

"No worries" I thought, "Just hop the road to the bike path and head on my merry way". But as I was hopping cross Beach Rd a little demon on my shoulder said.. "go on AB... you know you want to... go on..."

So I did...

Didn’t jump that last barrier, but turned the sloop north and started cycling towards town on the Comm-elth game time trial course!

Nice smooth car-compressed bitumen, barriers keeping off the pedestrians/dogs, no cars screaming in from side streets, no car doors being flung open in my face, traffic lights sealed off so red just meant GO BOY GO. Ahh.... true cycling nirvana!!

Now I will admit that each games official I saw I was positive would tell me to "get off the track you turkey" (though it was more than 2 hours before the race start) but none did.. all the way until St Kilda and Catani gardens (about 13 kilometres)... and even then it seemed they only barked cos I was about to collide with the start gate for the event.

And in true Comm-elth games style, I got my PB for riding to work (bit over 45 minutes) at over 27km/h av speed. Ok, to a common or garden variety $3000 road bike rider, let alone a true comm-elth games participant, that might seem like going slower than a hamstrung snail, but on my mountain bike with wide slick commuting tyres, carrying full tool kits, half a litre of water and a rider who could afford to lose a kg or three, I reckon it was pretty good.

And it kept me on the streets.