Not So Magic Roundabout

In typical perth style the corporate sports challenge (which is organised by the local government to get more people into sport) has a bike to work challenge. Basically it encourages companies to enter with their employees to get them cycling to work, everyone logs their mileage (or kilometerage) over a six week period and there are prizes at the end.
My preparation didn’t get off to the best of starts though. The week before the challenge found me hitting the ground on a roundabout after having been hit by a car. The bike was totaled with me sporting cuts and bruises only thankfully.
Whilst waiting for the cuts to heal and for the drivers insurance to replace my bike, I put together a slightly unusual single speed full suspension mountain bike with slick tyres based on what I had in the garage (since like many I never throw bike bits away, much to my Nadine’s frustration). The first week of the challenge found me still limping around so I tentatively tried a ride at the end of the week and found the legs still worked okay. After a few rides around the infamous roundabout to purge the demons (wearing more high visibility clothing than a railway worker) I was back in the saddle for cycle commuting. I’m used to pretty poor cycling conditions so the cycle paths and weather here in Perth are a revelation to me. Each ride to and from work has allowed to explore paths I would normally miss out in the attempt to ‘get the mileage up’ for our team the X men. On week 4 of the challenge the call I had been waiting for came though and a replacement bike was waiting for me down at the local bike shop. I bid a fond farewell to the singlespeed as I converted it back to a bike for Nadine, I was back on the new bike by week 5, just in time for a government great prize giveaway (see pic above)

I obviously didn't drink and ride!

Our team (the X men) managed to clock up 5527 km in the 6 weeks between 6 of us, equivalent to about Newcastle to Dubai, or in energy terms 615 Mars Bars. For the eco-conscious amongst you that saved around 1625 kgs of Carbon Dioxide. Check out http://www.homecorporatechallenge.com.au/b2w07/b2wblog.html
for more details.