In it’s essence, the transfer ride is a simple concept. The idea of a transfer ride is to combine a ride with some form of transport, in this case a train, to enable you to open up routes they wouldn’t normally be viable due to their distance away. The beauty of it is that you can’t just pull the pin and take a short cut if you are having a bad day, especially, as in our case, you had taken the train out and were riding back. The idea for the ride was developed months ago as we started to plan for the 24hr team time trial that is the Audax Oppy, run in March each year. Warrnambool was our starting point for the ride back east to Geelong.
Warnie is a hot bed of cycling, the destination for the infamous Melbourne to Warnie cycle race, one of the longest and oldest one day races in the world. We would not be riding the reverse route of this race, famous for its brutal headwinds. We had decided to take the long way along the Great Ocean Road. Just for a little added spice, we would be starting out from Warnie in the dark, at 11pm when the train arrived, re-training our bodies to deal with riding at night and a lack of sleep! It was these circumstances that saw us boarding a train at Melbourne’s Southern Cross station at 7pm on a Friday night. The train would take almost 4 hours to reach its final destination and the idea of catching a little sleep on the way day proved to be a futile exercise. Bright lights and a busy carriage negated any chance of that happening. In truth, we were also probably a little apprehensive. It was going to be a long night with the forecast for a constantly easterly headwind. At least it was looking like a mild night.
The first thing that hit me as we stepped off the train at Warrnambool was the sweet taste of the ocean in the air. It’s something that we have lost in the modern age of air travel where the destination is the always the same, a bland airport with a sickly combination of jet fuel and sweat insulating you from any new sensations. Train travel can still deliver the magic - from the car fumes of Melbourne to that pure air, fresh off the Southern Ocean. We flicked on lights, reflective gear and chatted with the station staff who were slightly bemused by the idea of riding back to Geelong through the night.