Race From The Rocks 2022 – Tourist Class Delayed version

After watching from afar all those brave riders head out from Sydney on 3 September in crappy weather, I made up my mind to try to give the Race from the Rocks route a go when I got back to Sydney later that month. Well, at least the entrée anyway (Sydney to Orange).

I’m a Sydney local who grew up in the Blue Mountains, so had a pretty good idea what sort of terrain I was getting myself in for, but at 67 years young and a with a new knee in 2022, I was determined to hit up the course flashpacking style, maybe over a few sessions. Once the weather cleared a bit.

Of course, thanks to La Nina #3, it didn’t clear much, but on the weekend of 15/16 October, sunshine was forecast. Trails were still pretty wet, but I thought I’d make a start. Friday night I prepped my Curve GMX+, packed a rain jacket and some snacks and we were ready to go.

Day 1:

6.22am starts are not really tourist class material, so I left my northern beaches home at 8.30am on Saturday 15 October, cruised down to Manly via a couple of beaches, caught the 9.46am ferry to Circular Quay and left the Opera House at 10.22am.

Much of the route was familiar, though the couple of kms before the Spit Bridge were a much hillier route than I normally take back to the Peninsula. Just a taste of things to come. The Manly Dam track was officially closed because everything was still sodden, but the sections included in the route were in pretty good nick and mostly not single track. Heading over Wakehurst Parkway, I took the soft option of the Engravings Fire trail and Bantry Bay Road rather than the single track, as the local trail fairies had counselled against riding the single track until it had dried out further. The fire trail itself was a series of muddy puddles.

After a stint on the (drier) Pipeline Trail and a short road slog in Davidson, I decided that was enough for the day and rode back down to the beaches. Total distance, including about 10kms on the ferry, was just shy of 60kms, with 694vm. Only 37km on the RFTR course though, so not a great return on effort.

Day 2:

Another leisurely start, rolling out from home at 10.20am, up into the hills to Davidson and the point where I had left the route the day before. I was soon off into the dirt again, sloshing down the Cascades Fire trail and then up the dreaded Quarry Track. I’d ridden all the way up this once, when I was a sprightly 50-something and training for XCM racing, but it was very rutted at the bottom and muddy in places, so a bit of hike-a-bike was required.

Took a while to get across Mona Vale Rd, with lots of Sunday traffic. The single track running beside Mona Vale Rd was pretty damp and rutted and in the middle of it all at St Ives Showground there was a huge bouncing castle festival on, with cars and kiddies everywhere. I enjoyed the old horse track single track east of the showground, a section that I’d ridden on since the early 90’s (when it was mostly used by horses, and mtb’s were pretty thin on the ground), but hadn’t been on much in recent years. Then it was off onto the Ryland Track, with its normally deep sand sections firmed up with the recent rain, and down the very steep Cooyong Track to a slippery but pretty crossing of Kieran’s Creek.

I took a break there for a snack and to admire the view, then hit up the damp and at times steep fire trail and then road slog up to Terrey Hills, stopping for a water top up at the park next to the shops. The next section of off-road was the Terrey Hills / Duckholes fire trails and again there was plenty of standing and running water and rubbly sections eroded by all the rain. Same with the climb up the Chiltern Trail. These tracks are much more fun when it’s been dry and there’s a bit of a traffic line worn by regular use.

The next off-road segment was an area I’d not ridden in before. The Ingleside Tracks were a bit rougher and rockier than the sort of riding I mostly do these days and were a slog at this stage of the day. I was happy to pop out onto a nice bit of downhill fire trail at the end, then dismayed to find I had to go back up the hill on road, before zooming down to Pittwater and Winnererremy Bay Park, where I again parted ways with the RFTR route and headed home. 

I’d racked up 57kms and almost a vertical km for the day, but again only 30 kms on this tough RFTR route.

Day 3:

After a month off for a tag-along 4WD tour in Costa Rica, I had a short window for some more of the ride before some planned time off for hand surgery. Sydney had dried out while we were away, but the next leg was pretty much all bitumen anyway. I headed off from home again, up around Narrabeen Lagoon and across to Winnererremy Park to pick up the route. From there to the Palm Beach ferry terminal was quite the slog again, especially on legs that hadn’t seen a bike for over a month, except for a short jet-lagged spin the day before.

Most of this ride’s elevation was in the 15kms from the Park to the ferry, taking in some very scenic cliff-top suburbs. Grandview Pde was rather inaptly named, as the main view I had was the top of my stem! After a short stop at Palmy to admire the view and watch a couple of ferries come and go, I took a flatter route back down to home. Total distance 55kms, 750vm and close to 4 hours of riding, to cover the final 15kms of the Sydney part of the course.

To Be Continued

The next instalments of the Race from the Rocks route would have to wait until my hand had recovered, and probably until some more family travel commitments in January were out of the way. At this stage I wasn’t sure whether I’d resume the “day trip” approach to covering the course , or have a decent crack at maybe a 4 day ride to get to Lithgow.

Lachlan’s ride links:

https://www.strava.com/activities/7964192632
https://www.strava.com/activities/7969739001
https://www.strava.com/activities/8182823425

We’ll continue sharing Lachlan’s journey along the route throughout the year. [Mattie]