This year one of my goals is to knock out at least one 100km ride each month. It’s something I try and do every year with varying success and a good motivator to get outside and ride – especially in the not-so-appealing months. Luckily for me here in Tasmania, January is not one of those months.

It may be summer, but it’s also a busy month for me. Looking at what I have on the cards versus the remaining free days to get in a long ride, I quickly realised I was actually running out of time! So it was up early this morning to get it done. I borrowed the name of this series – “Resolution Ride” – from Paul over at 36×25. I’m sure he won’t mind, it’s a great name and I wish I’d thought of it myself!

It wasn’t a perfect morning for a long ride, most of it was spent battling into a stiff crosswind or headwind. It was a good decision the night before to take off my 60mm deep sections and go with the shallow Mavic wheels!

I even threw in a short section of gravel. Unfortunately it was a corrugated (washboard) gravel road. If you’ve never ridden corrugated gravel before let me paint a picture: Imagine bolting your drop bars to a jackhammer, then sitting on a second jackhammer, then trying to balance as you get your bones shaken out of their joints. It’s like that, but worse…

Luckily it was only a short section on the way out and also back from Dunalley. Over the last few years the council have been slowly replacing the gravel sections with proper road surfacing. Hopefully they’ll do this final section soon too, as apart from that it’s a great route with spectacular views across the countryside and ocean.

I stopped once for a (really crappy) coffee at the Dunalley Bakery at around 75km. I knew it was going to be a tough slog home so I just put my head down and kept those pedals turning. That did mean I couldn’t stop to take many photos (sorry) as I was on a time limit to get home before 10:30am.

January Metric Century Ride Completed!

All in all a good solo ride to kick the legs into gear for 2020, although it did feel a lot tougher than I thought it was going to. One down, eleven more to go!