That's a pretty good time there Shav. You were probably on par with the time I did over the 65kms. It's a shame the Mrs wanted to bail, I was only about 15 mins out at the refreshment station at the 55km mark. Only had to cover the last 10kms which looks like it took me about 15 mins. Oh well, how about meeting up at the finish line of the TDU?
Yeah, there are heaps of nice bikes out there and at other cycling events too. At least you don't have to worry about your bike being stolen as there are much better ones there than yours
Definitely do the 65km ride next year. The hardest part is that climb at the start and the rest is pretty easy. A couple of small hills towards the end, but nothing too major. Definitely not like the 7% grade there at the start! We did have a bit of a wind blowing though, but just tuck in behind other people and you can negate that a fair bit.