I set off from home in the South of Canberra and met Andrew in the city for a 5 hour 100 mile roll down to Cooma, this was a very flat, easy uneventful commute; We just tapped our way down there, stopping for drink refills at Williamsdale and Berridale. The ride was easy, but I suspect if there were Southerly winds, it would have been a lot tougher. Not exactly a beautiful ride, more of a commute with a bit of traffic about, but we did have the emergency lane to make the ride safe. We ended the day at a local motel and refuelled on pizzas, yum!
In the morning I awoke to some horrifying stomach cramps though, I won't go into the details, but I had a pretty uncomfortable 3 hours before hitting the chemist for some Imodium, which seemed to help almost immediately, phew! The rest of the crew (a mix of experienced ultra endurance and endurance racers) arrived in Cooma by car and Heather came along with her car so we were able to put a bag in the boot with a change of clothes for the night (and Andrew and I could get rid of our packs which is always a relief on the back after lugging them to Comma the day before, thanks Heather! :)).
We rolled out for Jindabyne together, but with no more than 4 pedal strokes in the bank, Andrew goes off the front, baiting Garry and that's it, the bunch is split from the get go, so much for a social training ride! I stuck with Dan, Jeff and Clayton as they were much more sociable, but halfway to Jindabyne the full effects of that Imodium kicked in; I hadn't considered that it might shut down my whole system, but it did, big-time. I couldn't eat a bite of any food, and resigned to liquid carbs, and even that was a struggle to get down, it wasn't long before I inevitably bonked and the boys dropped me while I dribbled like a vegetable off the back.
At Jindabyne there is plenty of food on offer, but we decided to stick with drinks there and regrouping for lunch in Thredbo, so we rolled out and headed for the climb to Thredbo. I thought it might be pretty hard, but it turned out to be mostly 5% grade and pretty easy (even in my sick state). I wish I could have eaten something for energy though, the pins and needles were starting and so was the tunnel vision and dizziness, these are not the best signs that things are going well ;) The crew were long gone up the road and for a while I considered turning around and staying in a motel back in Jindy as it's all downhill to go back that way and all up hill to get to Thredbo, but with no mobile reception, I couldn't contact the others to tell them my brilliant escape plan, so I resigned to pushing on to Thredbo were they would be waiting and I could pull out of the tour there.
The road here is so smooth and the views are getting better and better as you ride along though, its a great ride. At Thredbo we all regrouped for lunch and stocked up on drinks and I forced down a sandwich. Being so close to the summit at Dead Horse Gap, I was keen to ride up there and see how I felt after some food.
It's only a few kilometres to the top, where you commit to well over a vertical kilometre of descending (which means you are committing to climbing back out of there!). Being stupid, and really wanting to see the rest of the ride, I joined the boys and we headed down, and down and dowwwwwn, weeee! Flowing corners, hot mix and alpine views, this really is one of the best pieces of bitchumen I've ever ridden, just awesome! A word of warning that guru Andy Blair gave to me and I have to give to you, is that some of these corners are tricky and tighten up as you go around them, which can lead you to over cooking it and flying off the mountain, so enjoy, but be careful :)
At the bottom is what looks like a small climb up and over to Khancoban, but it only looks small on the profile graph as it's dwarfed by the massive descent we had just done and the massive climb we were facing the next day. In reality it's 600 vertical meters of climb, the same as climbing the Clyde Mountain, so it was a bit of a challenge to say the least! Its beautiful country though, so the view distracts you from the pain ;)
175km and 7 hours done, we rolled into Khancoban where hot pizza, garlic bread, hamburgers and chips awaited. It's just such a shame I couldn't stomach any of it, I had zero appetite and my stomach felt like a bag of concrete. The others seemed to be enjoying the well earned reward though, lucky bastards ;)
We stayed at the local Caravan Park in some cabins, which were great, and got a solids night sleep.
The guys at Shane O's Cafe don't normally open until 10am on a Sunday, but we wanted to get away as early as possible to climb the 2 vertical kilometres to Cabramurra before the day got hot (and the predicted afternoon rain came); they were awesome enough to open at 8am just for us and cooked up an awesome breakfast for us, legends! Wish I could have eaten it though, my scones ended up in the bin :( The vibe around the breakfast table was ominously silent, everyone just eating and contemplating the climb.
The result of being unable to eat was obvious and inevitable, before we even left the town of Khancoban I was off the back and riding alone, toward the base of the biggest climb I've ever done; 1.3vkm from top to bottom, followed by another solid climb up to Cabramurra, totalling over 2 vertical kilometres of climbing. I stuffed a third bottle in my jersey pocket and hoped 3 bottles would be enough to get me there...
When you're this far away from help and sick it can be a touch scary, especially when it's a hot day and you're throwing up what little food and water you could get down. In hindsight I should have jumped in the car with Heather, but she was long gone by now, and there's no phone reception out here.
With the speedo hovering around 5km/hr, and the nearest town 60 kilometres away it didn't take Pythagoras to work out I was in some deep crap. After some emotional lows and internal whining, it was time to harden up and get the job done; I didn't want to spend the night out here, so I tapped away at the pedals and kept moving. The climb is broken into 3 sections, and at the top of the first section Jeff was waiting for me, to check how I was travelling, what a top bloke! I told him to ride on and tell the others I wasn't going to make it; at least if he could catch them he could let them know to come pick me up after they finished the ride and were back at the cars in Cooma.
We were still 110km from the finish which would mean a 2 hour return drive for the boys to pick me up, crazy stuff I thought, so I pushed on, figuring I could reduce the driving distance for the boys to come grab me.
I had bought a bag of lollies for emergency rations, unable to stomach anything else (including the many gels and bars I had in my pockets), I started to eat them, one by one, and immediately I got some energy back, like petrol going into an empty tank! I was able to start riding again, slowly, but better than the stop/start and walking efforts I had been forced to do for the last hour.
At the top of the next section of climb I caught Jeff; apparently I wasn't the only one suffering now. 8 weeks off the bike and a little extra xmas weight gain put Jeff in the box too. He was still in good spirits though, and at least we could suffer together now, misery shared is misery halved, or something like that :D
It was awesome to have some company and it my lifted my spirits big time, I cracked out the iPhone and put on some cranking tunes and we cruised to the top, and down the 500 vertical meter decent to Tumut Pond Dam. I dunno if it was the sweeping open hot mix, the company, the views or the lollies, but this section was the highlight of my trip, stunning country! Past the dam there is a 400 vertical climb up to Cabramurra. The climb isn't too steep and we were getting some mojo back now, so we cruised up there pretty easily in search of the shop for vital supplies. Looking back toward the dam from the top of this climb offers the best views of the trip, but the iPhone camera was not able to do it justice.
We stopped for lunch and contacted the other guys to find out they were only just getting to Adaminaby, not too far away from us after all. Phone reception meant I could also check the weather radar and big rain cells were coming in from Cooma as predicted. Luckily the shop here sells rain jackets, so I grabbed one (and a Snickers bar, I was getting my appetite back at last!) and we pushed on for Adaminaby.
Being at 1400-1600m for about 50km meant awesome views, alpine countryside, wild flowers and the road here is in amazing condition, open blacktop with no pot holes, hardly any traffic and heavenly rolling hills. The climbs get shorter and shorter as you go along, so they seem easier and easier and even when the rain started, it was still nice being out there. In no time at all we rolled past Selwyn out of the park and into Adaminaby.
Being a bit broken, it had taken us until 5pm to get this far (120km, 6 hours on the move and 3 hours stopped!), the day was getting old, the rain was coming down and the other boys were about 20km ahead of us and only facing a 50km drive to come pick us up when they finished... so it was pretty easy to call them and sit tight at the local takeaway and enjoy some hot food while Garry drove back to get us and the Big Trout kept us company.
So that's where my ride ended, 50km short of the 500km target, a shame, but its even more motivation to come back again. This was a fantastic ride, even when I was sick as a dog, so I can only imagine how good it would be if I was fit and well. It was also a learning experience about the effects of Imodium when riding, something I'd been keeping in the goodies bag for emergencies at races, but it turns out it would not be a good idea to use it during a race as it makes it impossible to eat, which is kinda vital when you're racing ;)
Thanx to Heather for driving our gear to Khancoban for the night and back to Comma the next day; Andrew for joining me for the ride down to Cooma (or should I say the tow down to Cooma ;)); Jeff for riding with me to the finish, you're always great company and its reassuring when someone has your back when times are tough; and to Gazza for the lift out from Adaminaby to home.
Some stats for fun:
Distance: 455km
Time: 19:08
Speed: 24km/hr
Climb: 7142m
Descent: 6653m
Heart Rate: 123bpm
