First ever organised 200k on the Gold Coast

That's what's coming up this weekend. Winders Park, Currumbin, 6am on Sunday. Audax are organising a 200km ride on the Gold Coast. It comes at a perfect time for me, as I seem to be regaining my form right now after the illness setback, it also makes Sunday's determined effort suddenly worth that little bit more, I can go into this Sunday with confidence. I guess the question the (two) regular readers of this thing are asking, is why do I care about an organised 200km ride, when I do them solo all the time anyway?

There are a number of answers here, but this one is a little more personal for one thing. I, myself have tried to organise longer distance rides on the Gold Coast taking in the beautiful Hinterland and Tweed Valley in the past -- but often without any success. Those few that did turn up seemed to come from Brisbane more often than the Gold Coast. Add to that the reluctance of many Gold Coast cyclists to ever leave the coastal strip for any other reason, and you have something I've spoken about previously on many fora -- the "only in the designated areas" aspect of the cycling culture here. Just why this should be so is beyond me, as my own experience indicates that riding in these areas is often considerably more stressful than riding in the areas these people avoid. However, it's definitely a factor.

Consequently, I'll be interested to see what sort of turn out there is on Sunday -- and also just how many of them are actually from the Gold Coast. I don't know much about the route itself at this stage, and that intrigues me. All I know is Currumbin, Chillingham, Mooball, Tomewin, Currumbin. Now this opens up some possibilities. The most direct lines between these points, by my estimates, is actually slightly less than 200km, meaning that there has to be a deviation in there somewhere. Will the inital stretch between Currumbin and Chillingham go via Salmon's Saddle (Springbrook) and Numinbah Valley? Will there be a deviation toward the Condong Range at some point between Chillingham and Mooball? How will the climb of Tomewin late in the day perform? Is there a road somewhere that I don't know about (or have forgotten about)? Call me a geek, but I find these possibilities absolutely intriguing. I just hope I pull up well enough from it to back up for the 100km the next day.