Onto the bikes for the pleasant 10km run to Horse Valley Hut, which provided a winning descent to the campground, during the last sleep descent I hit max speed for the day, 56km/h, sadly I also hit a rock with my front tyre and blew out with a pinch flat, there's no stopping at that speed and it was interesting controlling the understeer, pulling it up for a quick tube swap.
We were greeted at the Horse Valley Hut Campground by the scout leaders that had been camping there for there for the weekend. I was very jealous and it made me promise myself to come back later in the summer with the kids and stay for the night, I've had the pleasure once before and it was a stunning night.
A few powerbars later and we headed off for the 100m climb to the base of Mt Clear, it was my first attempt (in 6 runs here) to pedal up this ascent and to my surprise we all made it up, kudos to the crew, the 24 this month seems to have helped the old fitness levels afterall.
Another rocketing downhill to the base, where we stood in awe at the 670m main climb to the summit, it's a beast at an average of 1/9 grade, on the wrong side of the steepness scale for my liking, but the boys were keen to pedal up, lead by Neil (hence forth known as "crazy man Neil"). I managed to pedal with him for a 100m vertical meters or so, but here, the mountain got the best of me and I settled for walking the remaining 500 or so vertcial meters. Neil pushed on, making it around halfway up without un clipping! An impressive effort.
We walked the rest as a group, oh so happy that every time we saw what looked like the top, when we got there, there was more to climb :)
After 2 hours of climbing, we made the summit. Time to ditch the bikes and climb the Trig, taking in the view and the glorious weather, sun rays pouring down, and a good chance for a few photos, a chat, some food and rest.
From the top we got to enjoy 700 odd vertical meters of the best downhill fun around, lots of Neil and I playing tag team with the opposite lock slides and plenty of rocks and things to jump off! What a riot and it always makes the climb worthwhile.
A quick dawdle back the cars for cheers and kudos all round, a top effort from all the crew, and I was stoked we all made it and had a great time, well done!
The crew:
| Neil | Cannondale Scapel |
| Drew | Motitov Flaming Cow HT |
| Timbob | Kick-a-poo dually |
| Jason | Giant VT2 |
The Stats:
| Distance | 29.8km |
| Time | 4:43 (84 mins of breaks) |
| Climb | 1180 Veritical Meters (for every meter up, we had to come back down though!) |
| Speed | 56km/h max, 13km/h avg |
| HR (Jason) | 95% (171 bpm) max, 41391 beats total |