The weather gods really were looking down on us last night as I joined ~160 fellow riders on the Newcastle Overnight ride. The day had been wet and I was preparing for a soggy 170km up to Newcastle. But those fears were unfounded. We ended up with perfect conditions – little wind, comfortable temps and zero rain.
The assembly point was Observatory Hill, just on the southern side of the Harbour Bridge, and we were treated to an amazing view across to Luna Park as we waited for 9pm to roll around. There were bikes of all types, which simply reflects the all-embracing culture of what is almost an underground cult event! Recumbents, tandems, flat pedal “regular” bikes and I even spotted a TT bike. People who love riding getting together to do something slightly crazy by the light of the (mostly) full moon.
And so we set off, rolling over the Harbour Bridge and then heading north out of the city. Various groups formed, got broken up by traffic lights and new groups came together.
Out of the city and we came across our first major climb, heading up Mt White. Riding in the dark was fun and my lights (and brain) coped well. We did hit some foggy patches and that was more freaky as there was no way the lights were getting through that pea soup. Thankfully those patches were short-lived and ended up not causing too many issues. There were few cars around and those that came across us were considerate and gave us plenty of space.
At the top of Mt White volunteers had set up a food/drink stop with plenty of food on offer and hot instant coffee available. I got there at midnight and took the opportunity to have a hot coffee and then decided to press on rather than sample the food.
I only had one bottle on the bike, filled with Infinit and the plan was to replenish that with Powerade as I needed it. That became necessary at around 2am!
At around 4am, and with 50km to go is when the struggle started. The lack of sleep was starting to tell and I was getting sore and uncomfortable, and ready for it to be over. I managed to get through the next 25km and at that point stopped at another service station for a refill of Powerade. At that point I figured another caffeine fix would be a good idea so an iced espresso joined the party!
Soon after I reached what I considered the highlight of the route. If I weren’t so tired and sore by then I would have loved it even more, but it was still lovely. The route put us onto the 16km Fernleigh track, a sealed rail trail which wound its way north through bush land. The sun was coming up by then and, with it, the birds were waking up. I passed an incredibly noisy, but beautiful, flock of rare black cockatoos – always so special seeing those birds. Another highlight, at the end of the trail is the 180m curved tunnel. I had seen pictures of it and so it was a buzz to see it and ride through it.
Finally I was in the final few km and rolling into Merewether and the ocean baths. I stepped off the bike a shade before 6.30am totally stuffed, but equally chuffed to get through it.
In the meantime St Pete was driving to meet me at the finish. He was able to sleep before hitting the road and timed it well. It was only around 15mins after I got in that he turned up, ready to celebrate with breakfast on the waterfront and a swim in the ocean baths.
All in all it was a fabulous adventure. As an Audax Australia hosted event it cost the princely sum of $6 to enter, plus $15 for the one month Audax membership fee. Even when you add in the optional Audax Australia finisher’s badge for $8 you get an incredible value for money event. No road closures, no event marshalls, just a bunch of like-minded individuals living life to the full and supporting each other to the end.
A magic night, a magic memory and hopefully the first of many more. But first, I have some sleep to catch up on!
A big thanks to my St Pete, as always, for providing my personal taxi service and letting me sleep most of the drive home and the afternoon after we got home! And Coach Scotty who, as always, prepped me perfectly to take this on and execute to plan. What a team, understanding and believing in my version of fun. Or is that crazy?!
A group of 4 men hid behind some shops and threw eggs at us as we rode through Long Jetty.
At Bateau Bay, a P plater was swerving across the road, we caught up with a rider whose mate was clipped by that rider. Took him into the bunch and delivered him safely to Newcastle.
Other than that – a great ride!
Danni
In other news
Firstly, thanks yet again for an amazing event! This was my 5th overnighter, and I loved every minute. Even the awfully painful ones!
No real stories to tell, other than the fact that I was blasting disco tunes on my bluetooth speaker for the climbs at Mount White and Calga and a lot of people seemed super grateful for the motivational music. That, or they were just trying to be nice
. I know they helped my spirits anyway.
Additionally, Chris fixed my bike issue at York Lane. I was so worried I’d have to bail given I couldn’t shift gears, but he came to my rescue.
Have attached the photos I took. Again, thanks for everything!
Jase
Some good friends and I have done this ride twice before and were looking forward to a third time but an unfortunate recent accident left me with a broken arm.
The solution (obviously) was to ride a tandem. You don’t need two fully functional arms if you’re not steering, right?
The usual stoker for the bike we selected is a 10 year old girl so we had to make some modifications including a longer seat tube, additional grips and, most importantly, longer cranks. The cranks we selected had a much bigger front chainring so we had some minor issues with the chain and front derailleur but nothing too much to worry about.
Generally there were no problems at all for the first half of the ride although the big descents are a little bit terrifying when you’ve got to give most of the controls to someone else. There were less interactions with local wildlife than the previous year but more with local wild life (almost got hit by a lady driver who was looking out for ghosts and not cyclists).
Sax
Thank you very much for the great event and the stop at Mt White which was highly appreciated!
Overall, the ride went very well but I had one minor incident with the Hoons around Moonee, I was hit with a plastic water bottle thrown from a white VW transporter, it just hit me on the back so no impact, Artem Chupis was behind me and witnessed it.
I heard later that someone was knocked off by one of these hoons in the same area, by a grey mazda 3 but assume you have already been made aware of this so good to mention my incident if speaking to the local police.
I’ll be encouraging more of my mates to give this a go next year,
kLite Dynamo is a newcastle based local business making the brightest dyanmo powered lights on the market. We thank Kerry for his suppport of the event over the years and are proud to have them sposoring the event again. One lucky registered rider will win a kLite light prize pack !
The Newcastle Overnight costs $6 for Members of Audax Australia, (If you are not a member you can buy a temporary membership for $15)
This equates to approximately 3.5c per Km or 12c per Km for non members. If you find a cheaper or better large scale cycling event in Australia please let me know.
We highly encourage donations via cash or EFT to the ride organisers to cover the food supplied at the tea stops.
If you are interested in these sorts of long rides and the spirit of randonneuring I highly recommend joining Audax on some of their other rides.
Some evenings Sydney just really turns it on , that perfect touch of warmth in the air, the Jacaranda trees blooming, the sun just gradually nudging the horizon. And so it was, after a couple of years of bad weather, that we had what most would describe as perfect conditions for the Newcastle Overnight ride in 2022.
Dieter from York Lane Bar was happy to host us for dinner again and we really cant stress enough how much his support has meant to us over the years.
215 registrations is a good number for us, 315 registered last year but the rain probably saw a good number stay home. Suffice to say there were a lot of riders at Observatory hill and the nice riding conditions we reckon led to a bumper number finishing at Merewether Baths.
Next year we will likely return to finishing at Newcastle Oceans baths when it reopens post renovations. That said, it was nice to visit a different magnificent sea pool. In a funny illustration of the somewhat impossible task of being a ride organiser we had at least one complaint from someone who didn’t like the ‘fancy’ cafe food at Mereweather and missed the hot chips from Newcastle Baths. This somewhat flies in the face of the consistent feedback every other year that people don’t like the hot greasy mess that Newcastle Baths generally presents as breakfast fare. We just generally laugh and take it in our stride, filing it away with the email we received one of the very early years saying “Really enjoyed the ride, good fun, nice route but why did it have to be so dark?”
This year saw a relative scarcity of “inappropriate bikes”, perhaps the lingering effects of Covid making us all soft or perhaps because we failed to organise any prizes.
We would like to redeem ourselves so have in fact sourced some beautiful printed T-shirts for all our nominees (and also for volunteers)
Leading the way was Jason on a modified single speed BMX with a sidecar attachment. Now this is just a bike that screams inefficiency but the real challenge is that it is in fact very difficult to turn left at any speed above about 12kms/h without tipping over. Perfect for whipping around a circular track where you only turn one way, not so perfect for a long windy ride to Newcastle. A moderate counterbalance in this case was provided by the life-size skeleton , angled as far as possible out the side to give Jason a fighting chance of getting around the corners in one piece. Just imagine hurtling down the descents at Mooney Mooney or into Gosford while being aware that even a minor course correction could see you flip this contraption.
Special mention also goes to Lindsay and Bill on a beautiful classic steel racing tandem. Both part of the Dulwich Hill Cycling Club assisted cycling project, Bill is blind and so for a spirited adventure such as this requires assistance. We think there is something wonderfully quirky and poetic about a sighted rider guiding a blind rider on a 175km bike ride in the dark.
Massive thanks to our tea stop Volunteers from Mt White, even on a glorious summer eve its still a wild thing to find yourself perched on the side of the road making hot cups of tea for strange cyclists. We are enormously indebted for these folks giving up their time (and sleep). Thanks all those who generously donated as well, we covered our costs for another year which is always a good thing.
Photos courtesy of Oliver Cashman, Ben Porter, Jason Lynch and Rohan @”Suburban Dirt”
York Lane bar and diner is a longtime supporter of the Newcastle Overnight. That’s where we congregate on those fateful Saturday evenings before heading up to Observatory Hill. Dieter from York Lane has done the ride himself a few times, but every year he puts on a solid dinner to power you up those hills.
This year the menu is roast vegetable pasta for $17, or with chicken $19.
There will be banana bread, muffins, protein balls and other assorted extras on the night. The coffee machine will be on as will a full bar including XO cafe patron shots available.
SMS Dieter on 0415 236 351 to preorder your dinner now!
and timed it well. It was only around 15mins after I got in that he turned up, ready to celebrate with breakfast on the waterfront and a swim in the ocean baths.
newcastle overnight 