Basically i don't write a diary, but I wanted to get down on paper as much about the weekend as possible before my goldfish-like memory started forgetting, so I blurted it all out in a post. It's not particularly reader-friendly, but then again it's for myself anyway so bugger you all!
Friday dawned a beautiful sunny day, one of those Sydney mornings where you know it’s going to be a scorcher just by the smell in the air at 6am. It was set up to be an absolute cracker, but I knew I had to be on the road early to make it down to Bright, so I had a small sleep in and got up at 6.45 for a quick ride to North Sydney pool and a lazy 2 km. At that time of the morning the lanes were fairly busy, but emptying out and it was already over 26 degrees so the swim was sensational – just the thing to stretch out the muscles before they’re stuck for 8 hours cramped up on a car seat!
Did some stretches at home and had brekky then Sarah kindly drove me across to Bondi to Brad’s place where we threw the bikes on the roof, packed the car and hit the road at 9.30am. A pleasant and fairly quick feeling drive as we powered through with only two or three swift stops to refuel and change drivers. From Albury Wodonga we chose to go past Mt Beauty and over Towonga Gap to check out part of the course and it looked like a tough climb and a long descent into Bright. Little did we know.
Coming down through that forest though and then along the valley floor into Bright was like driving into Shangri-La. What an absolutely gorgeous part of the world! An alpine valley in the height of summer where it’s 30 degrees and no humidity at 6pm, driving down a main street totally shaded by big leafy trees with a river to your right and a quaint little town built mainly to the left. We grabbed supplies at the IGA then pushed on the next few kms down the valley into Porepunkah and the Porepunkah Mill Big 4 caravan park. The ultra friendly proprietor Barbara checked us in and we settled into our delightfully cool brick cabin with kitchen and ensuite bathroom ($105 per night, 3 night minimum, $12 for any extra person after the first 2).
There was a lot of talk about what we should do in terms of a ride the next morning, since the day before we’d received an email from the Audax organisers saying that the forecast for Sunday was 38 degrees and they had a ruling that they would cancel the 200km race if it got to that, so to be prepared that it was most likely they’d scrub it and we’d have to do 140km instead. We came down prepared to do both climbs and we were damned if we weren’t going to do them, so we finally decided that we would ride Buffalo first thing Saturday morning, nice and easy. Then if that part of the ride was cancelled on Sunday we still would have completed it, and if not we could just do it again.
We prepped the bikes, made a massive pasta and watched an awesome Mountain bike DVD about the world championships Solo 24 hour race in Georgia where this American bloke was tipped to win his 7th title in a row, and was pipped by an Aussie bloke who’d never ridden it before called Craig Gordon. Very inspiring stuff.
SATURDAY
We woke at the appointed time of 5.30am to pitch black skies and pouring rain, along with serious thunder. It was rapidly agreed to get back to sleep, and when we got up again 2 hours later it was clear blue skies and quite cool temperatures compared to the day before. The good news for us was, while we missed the Buffalo ride it was probably cool enough that the full 200km event would be going ahead the next day, so there was no point smashing ourselves.
We cruised out along the rail trail towards Mytleford and had an easy spin along the flat for 15km out before turning around. It was a bit windy, but a lovely morning and just what we needed.
The rest of the day involved taking it pretty easy. Checking out the bike expo at the start / finish point in Bright, buying knicks and arse-cream, lazy lunch back at the cabins then hanging out with Stuart when he arrived shortly after lunch and going with him for a dip in the river at Porepunkah, followed by a couple of quiet beers under a shady tree outside the Porepunkah pub. Back to set up the bikes, organise ourselves for the morning and smash a giant pasta dinner before bed.
SUNDAY
Woke up to a perfect windless, cloudless, cool morning. Ideal conditions, we were very lucky. Brad drove 5km to drop the car off outside the Porepunkah pub with an esky full of frozen water bottles and other snacks we might want to load our pockets with later in the day on the way up to Buffalo. Stu and I rode in, picked him up and then continued to Bright, arriving at the start line crowd and rolling out at 6.30am with already 10km on the clock.
It was a brisk morning and we spun fast along the flat for a few kms to pick up a large-ish group and then let them drag us along only a couple of kms to the Towonga turnoff and the gradual start of the climb. Stu lost a chain but quickly recovered, then the three of us just spun it up the hill, weaving our way around the crowds. After a while I ran into Alexis Kaless and his girlfriend, both resplendent in hot pink, and he and I chatted until the top which made the rest of the climb go really without noticing it. At the peak I stopped to regroup with Brad and Stu who had gone ahead, then started the first descent of the day which I must admit I was extremely nervous about.
I’ve been hopeless on descents the last few months since my fall (I was never that fast to begin with) and I wasn’t comfortable with screaming down an unknown twisty hill at high speed with tonnes of other cyclists shooting past me. I rode the brakes and took it real easy, keeping a left-leaning line and just letting them all go by and before long I was on the flat.
Cruised the couple of kms past Mt Beauty and started the climb of Falls shortly afterwards. It wasn’t a long piece of flat land and then we were in the forests of Falls creek, undertaking an up-and-down, but steadily climbing ascent. I managed to get a good cadence on and spun easily a couple of gears from the bottom cog, continuously passing people. Chatted to Alexis again, then Tony from Boundary riders, and continued on up. It was a long climb, but it was cool, the gradient changed regularly enough to give the legs a break and there was always someone to chase. The forest was beautiful too. I had a brief pee stop halfway and then about 9.30 rolled into the top station checkpoint.
Saw Brad immediately, I must have passed Stuart on one of his 4 pee stops up the climb because he rocked in about 10 minutes later. I didn’t want to hang around because I know the boys would pass me on the descent so I crammed in a banana, some watermelon and an apple turnover, refilled my bidons and reapplied sunscreen, then said I’d meet the boys at Mt Beauty and hit the descent.
Again I was nervous, but just told myself to take it easy and started picking better lines and counting off the kms 5 by 5 as I cruised down the 30km into Mt Beauty.
Brad and Stuart passed me about 5km from the bottom then we regrouped at the roundabout and carried on to Towonga. Stu dropped back at the very start of the climb, then Brad and I got into a good spinning speed and starting chatting and climbing easily. It was a perfect climb, we were talking without puffing and matching each others pace as we passed a tonne of people on the steep side of the hill, some of whom heard us nattering away and growled “Bastards!” as we passed. The top came pretty rapidly as we were distracted by talk. Brad elected to wait for Stu and descend together while once again I pressed on so as not to slow them up.
This descent was more gradual with wider corners so got easier for me again (although I was still passed by every man and his dog). When the boys caught me near the bottom it was straight enough for me to keep up, so I put and effort on and stuck on their wheels. We established a 3 man pace-line and made up ground at a very good clip all the way back into Bright where they directed us around town to the football field for lunch.
I think it was around 1pm at that stage and same drill – sunscreen, salad roll, filled water bottles and sat under a shady tree to eat and chat. Stu was complaining a bit, but he still seemed pretty strong. Brad and I also felt good, a bit hot by this stage as the temperature was topping out at 34 degrees.
Probably half an hour or 40 minutes later (although it felt like about 5mins, the stopping time goes so rapidly) we resaddled and put on some pace on the flats out of Bright towards Buffalo. Brad and I pulled off at Porepunkah to grab stuff from the car while Stu carried on claiming we’d catch him on the hill.
It was bliss to grab an ice-cold Endura bottle, throw more food in the pockets and reapply some (esky-cold) Aussie butt cream to my knicks in a very quick pit stop before firing off again. First time I’ve ever used saddle cream and I’m definitely a fan!
It wasn’t long to the Buffalo bottom pay station and the climb began. Brad and I stayed in the 2nd to bottom cog and spun it nicely up the hill. Still both feeling good – not too hot, well hydrated and well fed and the legs were doing fine. We caught and passed Stu after a while, changing into the big chainring as we did to pretend we’d been climbing the whole way in the “Big Dog”. He wasn’t fooled.
A few kms on and Brad’s pace was just slightly too quick for me, so I pulled up to a comfortable cadence for me and let him go. Very quickly he was out of sight. Shortly after this was when the pain began.
It was hot. It was exposed. The gradient stayed exactly the same, which seemed about as steep as we’d had all day. It was relentless. The legs began to scream for relief, the cadence slowed and the speed correspondingly dipped. I knew there was still a long way to go, but for the first time that day I thought “This is getting really hard.”
Try as I might I couldn’t seem to make my legs go any faster and catching even the people slightly ahead of me seemed like it was an insurmountable task. At this stage my speed was down to 12km/hr and I was praying for a change in gradient, anything to give my legs a break.
The sun was relentless, cyclists were lying in the shade of trees by the side of the path in ones and twos all the way up, panting and trying to cool down and I have to say I was envious! However I wasn’t too hot, I kept drinking all the way, but I couldn’t get my legs to spin. Every time I tried to stand up just for some relief the muscles screamed even louder. Finally I saw a water stop and while part of me considered pressing on to the top, the subconscious part of my brain turned my handlebars left and unclipped my shoes.
It turned out to be a good move, I got doused all over by a guy with a spray-hose, filled up my water bottle with ice, took a quick pee in the bushes, crammed in a few bites of peanut butter and banana sandwich and got back on the bike a new man! For all of thirty seconds, after which I felt EXACTLY the same as before the stop.
The grind continued. The only people I was passing were going below 10km/hr, so slow it was a miracle they remained upright. Mainly were slumped over their handlebars with the bike veering wildly in all directions. I got passed a few times, sort of like a snail race in uber slow motion. A few of the guys who passed me, I saw later lying in the shade or passed again as they dropped below walking pace. Others I never saw again. There was a “5km from the top!” sign, followed every km with an update which suddenly made it all seem bearable. However I had in mind that there was a new section at the top, an extra couple of kms added this year of riding along the plateau then up to Dingo Dell so I wasn’t getting too excited just yet.
I was extremely happy to crest the mountain and get a few hundred metres of flat land in. Then going past an alpine lake came the next sign “3km from checkpoint”. And the climbing recommenced.
But by that time I didn’t care, it was so close and not that steep and I knew I’d be there soon. Sure enough there was the Dingo Dell turnoff and I rolled to the chalet with a big smile on my face. It was mainly downhill from here and even the thought of that long decent couldn’t put me off.
I saw Brad, who had been waiting a while and then I got to business. Iced watermelon, a frosty fruit iceblock, another of my banana sandwiches (the muffins and cake were unlikely to be vegan) all went in the gob. I had my sunglasses cleaned by the man in the tent, reapplied sunscreen, filled the bottles and – just as Stu arrived – told the boys I was going to press on and pick my way tortoise-like down the hill as I knew they would flash down and pass me.
The descent was fine, narrow switchbacks at the top which were difficult, but by that stage there were very few people going past me. The views were absolutely sensational as it’s a fairly bare mountain and you could see all the way into the valley and right back to Bright. The corners got less and less hairy as we descended and I found it easier to pick a line. There was still a long line of people struggling up the hill at a similar glacial pace I’d been reduced to and I spared them all a kind thought, as it certainly wasn’t getting any cooler.
Before I knew it the corners has eased to the point where I didn’t have to brake at all and I cruised happily over little rollers near the bottom pay station and spun easily up the final hill, shocked at how my legs were able to climb again without pain! Down on the drops for a cruise back to Porepunkah where I jumped off the bike after the roundabout at the appointed spot as the boys hadn’t passed me yet. No sooner had I dismounted than they yelled and whizzed past so I jumped on and caught up and they started pace-lining the final 5km to Bright. I held on for a couple of km, but it wasn’t fun and I thought “Screw it, I’m going to let them go and take this victory lap at a comfortable easy pace that I can enjoy and savour”. They sped off, but a block before the finish line I caught them again as Stu’s chain came off in only the 2nd mechanical of the day (after his chain coming off at 7am on Towonga).
The three of us crossed the line together and punched the cards at 4.29pm for a total finish time of 9hour 59minutes. We were hot, happy and exhausted, but all feeling relatively good and in great sprits.
Did some stretches at home and had brekky then Sarah kindly drove me across to Bondi to Brad’s place where we threw the bikes on the roof, packed the car and hit the road at 9.30am. A pleasant and fairly quick feeling drive as we powered through with only two or three swift stops to refuel and change drivers. From Albury Wodonga we chose to go past Mt Beauty and over Towonga Gap to check out part of the course and it looked like a tough climb and a long descent into Bright. Little did we know.
Coming down through that forest though and then along the valley floor into Bright was like driving into Shangri-La. What an absolutely gorgeous part of the world! An alpine valley in the height of summer where it’s 30 degrees and no humidity at 6pm, driving down a main street totally shaded by big leafy trees with a river to your right and a quaint little town built mainly to the left. We grabbed supplies at the IGA then pushed on the next few kms down the valley into Porepunkah and the Porepunkah Mill Big 4 caravan park. The ultra friendly proprietor Barbara checked us in and we settled into our delightfully cool brick cabin with kitchen and ensuite bathroom ($105 per night, 3 night minimum, $12 for any extra person after the first 2).
There was a lot of talk about what we should do in terms of a ride the next morning, since the day before we’d received an email from the Audax organisers saying that the forecast for Sunday was 38 degrees and they had a ruling that they would cancel the 200km race if it got to that, so to be prepared that it was most likely they’d scrub it and we’d have to do 140km instead. We came down prepared to do both climbs and we were damned if we weren’t going to do them, so we finally decided that we would ride Buffalo first thing Saturday morning, nice and easy. Then if that part of the ride was cancelled on Sunday we still would have completed it, and if not we could just do it again.
We prepped the bikes, made a massive pasta and watched an awesome Mountain bike DVD about the world championships Solo 24 hour race in Georgia where this American bloke was tipped to win his 7th title in a row, and was pipped by an Aussie bloke who’d never ridden it before called Craig Gordon. Very inspiring stuff.
SATURDAY
We woke at the appointed time of 5.30am to pitch black skies and pouring rain, along with serious thunder. It was rapidly agreed to get back to sleep, and when we got up again 2 hours later it was clear blue skies and quite cool temperatures compared to the day before. The good news for us was, while we missed the Buffalo ride it was probably cool enough that the full 200km event would be going ahead the next day, so there was no point smashing ourselves.
We cruised out along the rail trail towards Mytleford and had an easy spin along the flat for 15km out before turning around. It was a bit windy, but a lovely morning and just what we needed.
The rest of the day involved taking it pretty easy. Checking out the bike expo at the start / finish point in Bright, buying knicks and arse-cream, lazy lunch back at the cabins then hanging out with Stuart when he arrived shortly after lunch and going with him for a dip in the river at Porepunkah, followed by a couple of quiet beers under a shady tree outside the Porepunkah pub. Back to set up the bikes, organise ourselves for the morning and smash a giant pasta dinner before bed.
SUNDAY
Woke up to a perfect windless, cloudless, cool morning. Ideal conditions, we were very lucky. Brad drove 5km to drop the car off outside the Porepunkah pub with an esky full of frozen water bottles and other snacks we might want to load our pockets with later in the day on the way up to Buffalo. Stu and I rode in, picked him up and then continued to Bright, arriving at the start line crowd and rolling out at 6.30am with already 10km on the clock.
It was a brisk morning and we spun fast along the flat for a few kms to pick up a large-ish group and then let them drag us along only a couple of kms to the Towonga turnoff and the gradual start of the climb. Stu lost a chain but quickly recovered, then the three of us just spun it up the hill, weaving our way around the crowds. After a while I ran into Alexis Kaless and his girlfriend, both resplendent in hot pink, and he and I chatted until the top which made the rest of the climb go really without noticing it. At the peak I stopped to regroup with Brad and Stu who had gone ahead, then started the first descent of the day which I must admit I was extremely nervous about.
I’ve been hopeless on descents the last few months since my fall (I was never that fast to begin with) and I wasn’t comfortable with screaming down an unknown twisty hill at high speed with tonnes of other cyclists shooting past me. I rode the brakes and took it real easy, keeping a left-leaning line and just letting them all go by and before long I was on the flat.
Cruised the couple of kms past Mt Beauty and started the climb of Falls shortly afterwards. It wasn’t a long piece of flat land and then we were in the forests of Falls creek, undertaking an up-and-down, but steadily climbing ascent. I managed to get a good cadence on and spun easily a couple of gears from the bottom cog, continuously passing people. Chatted to Alexis again, then Tony from Boundary riders, and continued on up. It was a long climb, but it was cool, the gradient changed regularly enough to give the legs a break and there was always someone to chase. The forest was beautiful too. I had a brief pee stop halfway and then about 9.30 rolled into the top station checkpoint.
Saw Brad immediately, I must have passed Stuart on one of his 4 pee stops up the climb because he rocked in about 10 minutes later. I didn’t want to hang around because I know the boys would pass me on the descent so I crammed in a banana, some watermelon and an apple turnover, refilled my bidons and reapplied sunscreen, then said I’d meet the boys at Mt Beauty and hit the descent.
Again I was nervous, but just told myself to take it easy and started picking better lines and counting off the kms 5 by 5 as I cruised down the 30km into Mt Beauty.
Brad and Stuart passed me about 5km from the bottom then we regrouped at the roundabout and carried on to Towonga. Stu dropped back at the very start of the climb, then Brad and I got into a good spinning speed and starting chatting and climbing easily. It was a perfect climb, we were talking without puffing and matching each others pace as we passed a tonne of people on the steep side of the hill, some of whom heard us nattering away and growled “Bastards!” as we passed. The top came pretty rapidly as we were distracted by talk. Brad elected to wait for Stu and descend together while once again I pressed on so as not to slow them up.
This descent was more gradual with wider corners so got easier for me again (although I was still passed by every man and his dog). When the boys caught me near the bottom it was straight enough for me to keep up, so I put and effort on and stuck on their wheels. We established a 3 man pace-line and made up ground at a very good clip all the way back into Bright where they directed us around town to the football field for lunch.
I think it was around 1pm at that stage and same drill – sunscreen, salad roll, filled water bottles and sat under a shady tree to eat and chat. Stu was complaining a bit, but he still seemed pretty strong. Brad and I also felt good, a bit hot by this stage as the temperature was topping out at 34 degrees.
Probably half an hour or 40 minutes later (although it felt like about 5mins, the stopping time goes so rapidly) we resaddled and put on some pace on the flats out of Bright towards Buffalo. Brad and I pulled off at Porepunkah to grab stuff from the car while Stu carried on claiming we’d catch him on the hill.
It was bliss to grab an ice-cold Endura bottle, throw more food in the pockets and reapply some (esky-cold) Aussie butt cream to my knicks in a very quick pit stop before firing off again. First time I’ve ever used saddle cream and I’m definitely a fan!
It wasn’t long to the Buffalo bottom pay station and the climb began. Brad and I stayed in the 2nd to bottom cog and spun it nicely up the hill. Still both feeling good – not too hot, well hydrated and well fed and the legs were doing fine. We caught and passed Stu after a while, changing into the big chainring as we did to pretend we’d been climbing the whole way in the “Big Dog”. He wasn’t fooled.
A few kms on and Brad’s pace was just slightly too quick for me, so I pulled up to a comfortable cadence for me and let him go. Very quickly he was out of sight. Shortly after this was when the pain began.
It was hot. It was exposed. The gradient stayed exactly the same, which seemed about as steep as we’d had all day. It was relentless. The legs began to scream for relief, the cadence slowed and the speed correspondingly dipped. I knew there was still a long way to go, but for the first time that day I thought “This is getting really hard.”
Try as I might I couldn’t seem to make my legs go any faster and catching even the people slightly ahead of me seemed like it was an insurmountable task. At this stage my speed was down to 12km/hr and I was praying for a change in gradient, anything to give my legs a break.
The sun was relentless, cyclists were lying in the shade of trees by the side of the path in ones and twos all the way up, panting and trying to cool down and I have to say I was envious! However I wasn’t too hot, I kept drinking all the way, but I couldn’t get my legs to spin. Every time I tried to stand up just for some relief the muscles screamed even louder. Finally I saw a water stop and while part of me considered pressing on to the top, the subconscious part of my brain turned my handlebars left and unclipped my shoes.
It turned out to be a good move, I got doused all over by a guy with a spray-hose, filled up my water bottle with ice, took a quick pee in the bushes, crammed in a few bites of peanut butter and banana sandwich and got back on the bike a new man! For all of thirty seconds, after which I felt EXACTLY the same as before the stop.
The grind continued. The only people I was passing were going below 10km/hr, so slow it was a miracle they remained upright. Mainly were slumped over their handlebars with the bike veering wildly in all directions. I got passed a few times, sort of like a snail race in uber slow motion. A few of the guys who passed me, I saw later lying in the shade or passed again as they dropped below walking pace. Others I never saw again. There was a “5km from the top!” sign, followed every km with an update which suddenly made it all seem bearable. However I had in mind that there was a new section at the top, an extra couple of kms added this year of riding along the plateau then up to Dingo Dell so I wasn’t getting too excited just yet.
I was extremely happy to crest the mountain and get a few hundred metres of flat land in. Then going past an alpine lake came the next sign “3km from checkpoint”. And the climbing recommenced.
But by that time I didn’t care, it was so close and not that steep and I knew I’d be there soon. Sure enough there was the Dingo Dell turnoff and I rolled to the chalet with a big smile on my face. It was mainly downhill from here and even the thought of that long decent couldn’t put me off.
I saw Brad, who had been waiting a while and then I got to business. Iced watermelon, a frosty fruit iceblock, another of my banana sandwiches (the muffins and cake were unlikely to be vegan) all went in the gob. I had my sunglasses cleaned by the man in the tent, reapplied sunscreen, filled the bottles and – just as Stu arrived – told the boys I was going to press on and pick my way tortoise-like down the hill as I knew they would flash down and pass me.
The descent was fine, narrow switchbacks at the top which were difficult, but by that stage there were very few people going past me. The views were absolutely sensational as it’s a fairly bare mountain and you could see all the way into the valley and right back to Bright. The corners got less and less hairy as we descended and I found it easier to pick a line. There was still a long line of people struggling up the hill at a similar glacial pace I’d been reduced to and I spared them all a kind thought, as it certainly wasn’t getting any cooler.
Before I knew it the corners has eased to the point where I didn’t have to brake at all and I cruised happily over little rollers near the bottom pay station and spun easily up the final hill, shocked at how my legs were able to climb again without pain! Down on the drops for a cruise back to Porepunkah where I jumped off the bike after the roundabout at the appointed spot as the boys hadn’t passed me yet. No sooner had I dismounted than they yelled and whizzed past so I jumped on and caught up and they started pace-lining the final 5km to Bright. I held on for a couple of km, but it wasn’t fun and I thought “Screw it, I’m going to let them go and take this victory lap at a comfortable easy pace that I can enjoy and savour”. They sped off, but a block before the finish line I caught them again as Stu’s chain came off in only the 2nd mechanical of the day (after his chain coming off at 7am on Towonga).
The three of us crossed the line together and punched the cards at 4.29pm for a total finish time of 9hour 59minutes. We were hot, happy and exhausted, but all feeling relatively good and in great sprits.
After a relax on the grass and a beer by the river it was time for the last half hour ride back to the caravan park for a 220km total day. And to finally shower and relax on the grass.
Monday was all about a mellow drive back with 8 hours and nothing we needed to do except listen to the Triple J Hottest 100 from start to finish and visit the Dog on the Tuckerbox. Tick and tick, mission completed.
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