Rotary Club of Erina Century Challenge

Last weekend I took part in the Rotary Club of Erina Century Challenge. The major beneficiary of the Century Challenge is Coast Shelter, an organisation located on the Central Coast, which attempts to meet the needs of the disadvantaged within our community through advocacy and the provision of direct services. Coast Shelter provides accommodation to approximately 110 homeless men, women and children each night and also coordinates the provision of over 200 meals each day at the Donnison Street Community Centre.

A couple of my cycling friends and I have taken up the challenge several years in a row now, and it is fast becoming one of our favorite rides of the charity circuit.

We have been blessed with some wonderful Autumn weather of late and Sunday morning was no exception.

Waiting for Gadot

I drove up from Sydney and parked in the Mt Penang Parkland reserve. Always keen, I showed up 30 minutes before the 7:00am on-the-day registration booth opened. So I sat in my car listening to Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction getting pumped for the big ride ahead.

When 7:00am finally came around I rode my bike over to the registration tent and waited for Patrich and Jim to show up.

We took an opportunity to take some photos and talk about Cadel's great start to the Giro.

Jim showing off his new "Vecchi Grassi Bastardi Cycling" Kit



Patrich just showing off

The Rotary club representative gave us a fine welcome and sent us on our way.

The ride itself goes through some wonderful central coast roads with some nice climbs and nice long smooth descents.
The first climb of the day start at approximately the 10km mark as you climb out of Brisbane Water National Park and make your way up to Peats Ridge road.
The last climb of the day, and it's a doozy, comes at approximately the 90km. Here you go up and down to Somersby Waterfall and Picnic area, the elevation profile does not do them any justice at all.  
The official starting line moved a little this year making the ride just short of 100km at 98.78km. I rode up to the old starting line and back to get my Garmin clicking over to the 100km mark.



Elevation Profile

All in all, it was a great ride and one that I will be doing again.

Distance: 100.67 km
Elevation Gain: 1,235 m
Calories: 3,945 C
Avg Temperature: 18.6 °C
Time: 3:42:13
Avg Speed:27.2 km/h
Max Speed:62.8 km/h