Distance: 218k (inc. 30k commute from home)
Time: 9:37
Speed: 22.7km/hr
Climb: 2689 vertical meters
Heart Rate: 129bpm avg
The format would be the same as last year, a 200km race from Dickson in Canberra, to Batemans Bay on the South Coast. Then ride back the next day as group a social ride. The weather forecast was 80% chance of rain Saturday and 40% chance Sunday with showers both days... would it be a mud fest?
With a gap opened up and both of us keen to not torch each other the entire way, we backed it off and settled into a nice steady aerobic pace and rolled toward Rossi where the first climb of the day begins, into the Tallanganda. It was here that we caught up with World 24hr Solo SS Champion Bec Parkes, leading a group of casual single speeders that had left an hour ahead of us. They were all having a good ride and in true SS style were smiling and having a great time, which was good to see. We rolled on, up the climb to Harold Cross, nice and easy, saving the legs for the many many kilometres to come...
The bureau were predicting thunderstorms at dawn and rain all day, so as we climbed into low cloud and light rain, I was mentally gearing up for a tough day to come. My new Topeak Dry Bag passed the test of keeping all my gear dry, but it was loose on the handlebars and falling onto my front wheel from time to time, it needs some rubber strips under the bar clamps to hold it on tighter I think, plus I need to tighten the allen keys better before an off road ride ;)
No stopping at Majors Creek, I was keener to get straight into the descent down the Great Dividing Range, hoping that the weather would be different in the valley below. The descent was a bit of a suffer fest, wet and cold, and both Andy and I had stinging eyes that meant riding with one eye open, while trying to un-sting the other, not fun at over 50km/hr on a wet dirt mountain road full of switchbacks!
At the bottom though the weather was different, no more light rain, just beautiful warm coast air, so we hit the pub for some PowerAde and Coke and headed off for the sweet single track that awaited in Mogo State Forrest. As we were rolling along to the base of Knowles Road, a random chicken ran in front us and instantly a seed was planted in our heads... Chicken Burgers! I'd never been keener to push on to Mogo...
With Gaz away and Andy starting to get a bit tired (at last!), we climbed Knowles Road nice and slowly, chatting away, all the while I was secretly thinking Gaz needs to do a few pairs races or a solo the week before I do rides with him too! From the top its lots of fun descending and you're at the Angry Doctor's AST single track before you know it. Now is the time to put in some effort! Flying down the single track, over jumps, railing berms, was so refreshing after a hundred miles of fire roads. So much fun, lots of laughter, hooting and hollering and ear to ear grins. There's a few trees down around here though, so we had to tack on a few bonus miles to track around the damage and then come back to the Snake Track, where more fun and good times were had, before rolling out of the forest and into Mogo Town to satisfy our long awaited burger cravings :P With a full belly and a fresh Coke recharging my caffeine levels, we headed out of Mogo and up the nasty climb of Dog Trap road. It's not that it is steep or long; it's just a bit cruel with 200km in the legs and only 15km to go. There's a sweet reward at the top though, with the flowing Ridge Road single track taking you all the way to Catalina, where you drop down to the Bay, straight to the fish and chip shop! With a belly full of hot chips and chocky milk I sat back in my chair one very satisfied man. It wasn't long before the other 10 riders and a few support people got to town and we all caught up for dinner on the Esplanade. The SS crew were into the beer (by the case!) while we all tucked into pizzas, fish and chips, garlic bread, pasta, and some of the biggest ice cream scoops I've ever had (I highly recommend the Rocky Road flavour!). Everyone had finished with a smile and had a good ride; the most impressive effort was from those in the SS crew that had never ridden this far before, nice work!
We hit Araluen at around 10:30am, too early for the kitchen to make their legendary Araluen Burgers, so we settled for a couple of toasted sandwiches each and had a nice long lunch break. Personally, I was nervous about the climb back up to Majors Creek. I'd not done it before (last year I went up there in the back of a ute ;)), and feared a granny ring climb for half an hour. It was nowhere near as hard as I thought though; we spun up nice and easy in middle ring in 20 minutes or so, it's not too bad. At the top, we waited for Craig, and waited, and waited some more. When he appeared at the top it was clear his lunch choice of sausage roll had not agreed with him too well, but he was keen to ride on.
Ed was clearly feeling bit fresher than most, putting in a few attacks, and with the big climb of the day behind us combined with feeling a lot better than expected; the bait was laid, and the games were on! Hijinks and attacks to nowhere all over the place, buzzing the tower and cackling like 12 year olds over a fart joke (there also plenty of fart jokes, but I'll keep this report clean ;)), my favourite dirty move was Andrew's slow and steady speed increase along a long bitchumen flat with Ed and I in tow; one minute we are cruising in a social pace line, the next he's ramping it up one kilometre per hour every second, 35km/hr, 36km/hr, 37km/hr, and so on, all the while Ed and I are on the back struggling to hold his wheel and wondering what the hell was going on! Hilarious fun and it kept the laughs going the rest of the way to Canberra.
After a quick top up of bottles in Queanbeyan, where the heavenly Anne Napier was waiting for us, having driven our bags back for us in Jeff's car, we split up and Andy and I headed to my place where Pizza beckoned... As we hit the Monaro Highway, Enduro Pulse's Jamie Bailey rolled past on his road bike, so we cruised and chatted past Hume towards a little climb at Isabella Drive where Jamie put down a full attack on two very tired boys on their mountain bikes... halfway up the hill I was dropped like stone but Andy showed his usual grit and stayed in Jamie's draft, impressive!
Less than 5mins after arriving at home the Pizzas, Hot Chips and Garlic Bread were ordered and we stuffed our faces while watching The Biggest Loser, which felt a little ironic :)
Thanx to all that came along, it was a great weekend! Especially to Andrew for riding with me the whole way both days, Ed for organising the event again, Jeff and Alisha for making their car available, and Anne for lugging our stuff back in the car on the Sunday.
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Race Day
Distance: 218k (inc. 30k commute from home) Time: 9:37 Speed: 22.7km/hr Climb: 2689 vertical meters Heart Rate: 129bpm avg |
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The Ride Home:
Distance: 190km Time: 8:36 Speed: 22.2km/hr (must have had a bit of a tail wind?) Climb: 3103 vertical meters Heart Rate: 114bpm avg |