BIKES N BEERS
It should be no secret to anyone reading this blog that two of my absolute favourite things are riding bikes and drinking beers!
In the last twelve months, I’ve been lucky to hook up with the guys from Bridge Road Brewers, and create our own Life in the Peloton beer (a bit of a bucket-list one for me that!). I’ve also been really excited to start putting together some cool rides based around those two magnificent pastimes: cycling and drinking beer.
After the success of our first Melbourne event - where I took the chance to lead a pelo down a few Melbourne back lanes to visit some of my favourite craft brewers in my home town, in January I had the chance to put a ride together over in Adelaide to mark the start of the festivities around the Tour Down Under.
Thanks to Bridge Road Brewers our Life in the Peloton beer was on tap in twelve pubs. I couldn’t have hoped for a better reason to go and visit some of South Australia’s finest pubs.
Now, Adelaide isn’t my home town - but I did manage six participations in the Tour Down Under in my time racing, so it feels pretty natural to be back in South Australia. You can’t really do a ride in Adelaide without making a trip into the hills, but this time I had to make do without the same local knowledge I had in Melbourne.
Instead, this time I leaned on a mate and reached out to Dave Lawson, who happens to be a distributor for Bridge Road Brewers (he knows where the pubs are!) and gave him free reign to design a dream route. The conditions were that the pubs had to be good (of course) and the aim of the riding was about keeping things simple, social and enjoyable.
We scheduled the ride for the day of the opening criterium of the TDU. I had arrived the night before a little bit tired and literally dusty from the ride across from Melbourne with my good mate Pat Drapac.
Even though I was a bit worse for wear I was pretty excited as riders started showing up at Contour Coffee and we started chatting about the day of bikes and beers ahead. We were a group of about forty riders by the time everyone was there and after the last non-beer beverage of the ride (a few short blacks to get things going) we headed off and started to work up that thirst.
I always like to earn my beers with a bit of work on the bike, and the route was ideal for this - after rolling out of town we headed straight up Norton Summit in the direction of our first stop the Scenic Hotel that is nestled right at the summit of the iconic climb.
The first beers went down a treat (the sun was just about past the yardarm) and we soon organised ourselves and headed off along the top of the ridge line towards our second stop, The Crafers Hotel. For anyone who doesn’t know the riding up here in the Adelaide hills, it really is a great place to pedal along unhurried and take in the rolling twisty hills.
The beauty of this route was that most of the climbing was done by the time we arrived at the second pub. By this time the group was really gelling and enjoying a few yarns on the road and in the bar.
Realising that it was only 10k to go in the women’s race we made a quick detour down the road to Stirling to see the stage finish. After seeing Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig snatch the win on the famous uphill finish, we all hopped on our bikes and headed (downhill) to the next pub, The Edinburgh Hotel on the outskirts of town.
The rapid downhill back into Adelaide after a few frothies meant that the group split up a bit on the run in. I figured this was either riders being sensible on the downhill or trying to skip out a round of beers at the Ed! Either way after we got the bar at the Ed (and had time for a couple) there was a bit of a general regrouping before we set off on the way to The Franklin Hotel.
The Franklin is a real TDU staple, located as it is just around the corner from the Hilton where the entire World Tour peloton and staff are staying for ten days… I may even have had the odd beer there myself during my racing days!
Getting back to the centre of town felt like a sort of homecoming and even though some members of the group were now permanently off the back (either from the beers or the riding - who knows?) we had a really great core group and I was really loving how the day was panning out.
After 50k of riding and about six hours, we were finally in the home stretch - the last pub was The General Havelock. It was just a short hop across town from the Franklin, but it gave us just enough time for one or two more cold ones, a couple more stories before the crew went their own ways to watch the action by the roadside at the crit.
Even though I was pretty fatigued coming into the event, I genuinely loved the day. There are some rides that require you to bite off a bit more than you can chew, or that can get a bit much - too hot, too far - having to sleep in a hedge, but Bikes n’ Beers was all about a different pace of riding and a different way to enjoy the bike, and of course a few Life in the Peloton beers!
A big thanks to everyone who came out and made the day so enjoyable, I already can’t wait for the next one.
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