Danya and I rode around the eastern suburbs today, as another training exercise for the ‘Gong, which is in two weeks time. It was going to be a straightforward loop out to Watson’s Bay, down to La Perouse and back to Marrickville. Unfortunately, Danya got a flat on the climb from Watson’s Bay, and we ended up with a more interesting route.

It was a slow leak and after changing the tube at the top of the hill into Bondi, we set off again. I was almost to the bottom when I realised that Danya wasn’t behind me, so I turned around and climbed back up to find him walking down to meet me. The spare had been already patched and the patch had given way. He’d sent me an SMS as I was too far ahead to call out to when it happened, and the SMS arrived just as I met him. Given that I was on the touring bike, my spare wasn’t compatible so using that  wasn’t an option.

The new phone proved its worth today, since I was able to search for bike shops  and then display a map showing the location of the closest along with our location. Unfortunately, it was about 2 km away on the other side of Bondi. Walking down past a cafe, I decided to ask a group of three cyclists, one of whom I’d spotted doing laps of Heartbreak Hill, if they knew of a closer shop. Instead of information, one of them pulled out his only spare and put it on for Danya. They said that we were probably best to get to Centennial Park Cycles, as they knew that would be open, and refused our offer of recompense. Full marks to Stuart and Ryan and Anuradha who are riding The ‘Gong for Team GTS Express, representing Citibank.

We rode off up Old South Head Road into Bondi Junction – the shop there was closed – and then down to Centennial Cycles. The phone again proved very useful in showing us where to go and how far it was, since I hadn’t been there in ages and couldn’t have told you where it was exactly, otherwise.

Danya got a couple of spares and the guys at the shop put a new one on the bike. They found a sliver of  glass which we’d missed when previously checking. They also provide me a couple of cable ties to jerry-rig the GPS mount which I’d just snapped the catch off as well. After that we rode home to my place and had lunch from the market which watching the pilot of True Blood.

A full day, in total, and it was a good thing for Danya to get this trouble now instead of half-way to Wollongong 🙂

Update: Danya – I found the team page of the people who helped us, on the MS site. It took me a while because I was looking for a team name of Citibank or Citigroup.  Google eventually showed the way from a staff page on the Citibank site.