The Weekly Rider - Wayne Gibbings
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Wayne Gibbings is the Weekly Rider! Wayneo has call Melbourne home for the past five years after moving from Perth. Jumping from Mountain Biking to Road and now getting a taste for CX, he loves to ride.

You’ll find him out on the 99 Bikes Rides, smashing out CX laps this season or munching Pizza at Little Joe Café… and like many of us finds time between a young family, work and everyday life.

Words and Images – Wayne Gibbings


Name - Wayne Gibbings (aka Wayneo)

Lives - Brunswick, Victoria

Dream Bike

It’s not very exciting but there’s something about the latest Canyon Ultimate that pushes my buttons, it has all the right touches.

Favorite local ride

I could cheat and say any ride with my crew, but Kinglake stands out, but adding in Mt Pleasant, Flanders, Mines Road and some of the other nice pinches out that way. Best done on a chilly, but sunny winters morning, with misty goodness floating in the valleys as you ride.

My current cycling goal is...

Winning the Cyclocross National Championship (Masters 3) this year, because I have convinced my wife we will have to travel to Mol, Belgium for the World Masters Championships to represent Australia if I do. Of course, now we’ll both be disappointed if I don’t win, so she’s totally invested in making sure I hit my training goals…

When I am on the bike I…

Am always entertained. It always amazes me that I can ride for hours and hours without any music or distraction but arrive back home and have not suffered a moment of boredom. Usually that is because of the top people I get to ride with and the never-ending banter.

How did your love for bikes come about?

Cycling has always been part of my life, including riding to school, uni and work, I lived in country WA and used to ride plenty of kilometers between friends houses.

In my early twenties I used to mountain bike in the Perth hills, and do lots of trials work in public parks. Then one day to impress a girl I asked a friend to borrow his road bike so I could take it on a holiday and ride with her father. I had never ridden a road bike until that day, and I remember the first time changing in to the big ring and pushing fast down a nice big smooth hill and feeling that amazing direct power transfer of a road bike from your leg power to road speed. I’ve never looked back since then, but I have returned my to roots somewhat now by racing cyclocross.

Share a cycling memory

My first big cycling goal was riding the Peaks Challenge Falls Creek for the first time in 2015. I started training in February 2014 with the goal of finishing inside the cut-off time, but as the year of training progressed I kept riding more and getting stronger and fitter and I decided that if I was going to do, I had to do it in under ten hours. By the time the day rolled around I was pretty sure I could do it but if would be the biggest ride I had ever done.

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It was all on track until I get dropped by the group I was riding with (too focused on eating fruit cake) just after Omeo – I chased back on along the valley reaching them at the bottom of Bingo Gap, but I had burned all my matches. From there to Anglers Rest was the pits of despair, but arriving at the rest stop my riding buddy (hi Todd!) was waiting for me. We regrouped and headed up the back of Falls, crossing the line with about 5 minutes to spare – it was an awesome day but we were cooked. Now of course next time I go back to do it (maybe next year) I’ll need to beat my time!

I love to ride because...

When I’m on the bike, I’m never far away from happiness – even if you are having a terrible time with mechanicals, fitness, the weather, you are always moving towards something better - be that improved fitness, your home and loved ones, a warm café and coffee or the replacement hanger that you probably should have put in your tool bag before you drove all the way out to Mt Donna-Buang. Seriously that mountain eats my bikes.

GUIDES.