Thanks for the accolades. To Ridenread: I sometimes feel like I ride as an excuse to eat without guilt. I try to eat and drink throughout the ride pretty much every 10-15 minutes. If you don't feel good digesting (I've experimented with different bars to see which ones are the easiest to process for me) while you ride (particularly if you ride in the drops a lot compressing your stomach) the gels work well as a quick calorie and therefore energy boost. I also use HEED (Hammer) in my water bottle and carry small packets to make sure that every 2 hours or so I add another shot to keep electrolytes up. You can also experiment with when to conserve and when to push. It's good to build in short recovery periods in the ride even though others are whizzing past.

Sad watching the daylight shrink and my weekly riding totals shrinking too!

Any Aussie readers, I envy you right now!!