Brunswick Cycling Club

I had three targets A) to make the cutt off at the base, B) to Finish and C) not to be last.

Firstly Thanks to AJ (friend who had a son doing the race) who sacrificed his day and drove about 300k so that we (David Danks (DD) and I) could do a race. Also did a sensational job passing Musettes and Bidons.

I would like to also thank the smartalec that added an extra 8km of serious hills to an aready challenging circuit. By way of reference these additional KMs are comparable to simply adding 2 extra laps of the boulevard but with longer hills.

At warm up time news came through that it was sleeting along the way and 6 degrees on Baw Baw. I decided to wear some warm clothes which probably cost me later in the ride.

Masters 4/5/6 took off at 10:30 being the last group An early highlight was picking up a c grader who was on a mountain bike carrying a backpack Hope he had a tent – The first 15 kms were ridden at tempo and then the pace started to pick up before Neerim – A few riders dropped off but it basically stayed together. I sat down the back enjoying the draft and praying that they didn’t start attacking on the hills too early. I moved up the front as the group started to get a bit more antsy. Interesting when I was coming into a left hander when the guy in front of me decided to sit up and have a drink I got locked into the gravel behind him and then watched the group accelerate and we got gapped. We jumped back with no great drama (Thanks DD (brunswick rider) don’t do it again).

Then followed some seriously nasty pinch climbs and then a magnificent descent into Neerim.

Coming into the feed station at Neerim, the group got a bit awkward. One guy in front dropped his Musette which fortunately I rode over without incident. AJ passed DD and I a musette and bottle (respectively) without incident.

As we got our bottles we were gapped by about 200m and the commissaire passed us in the car followed by 5 other cars. 4 riders including DD & I got trapped behind the cars on the down hill having to brake quick hard and sit back. We had to put in a big effort to bridge back to the group and get past the cars.

DD started to cramp up and dropped off the group. I stayed with it until just on the top of Vespers and then formed up with four others as the first group behind the leaders. This later split in half with another Masters 4 rider from Brunswick and myself not holding on over one of the intermediate climbs.We were passing a few riders along the way. Over the next 20 – 30 km we kept up a solid pace together.

Getting to the 20k and then 15k to go marks were a big relief as I realised that I would make the cut-off!

I hit the bottom of the hill proper at 3hrs 25mins which was OK. And then it started – I was keeping a cadence of 45rpm at approx 8km per hour and weaving a lot to keep moving. I had ran out of water and was very dry (with hindsight overdressed and overheating but wasn’t thinking too clearly). At the 3 km mark I had to get off and push for a bit as my back got too sore and I wasn’t feeling great. I filled up a water bottle at a stream at the side of the road (crocodile dundee like) and this made a big difference. I got back on and resumed the grind deciding never to do this again.

The relentlessness of the final climb is unbelievable when you already have 100km of racing in the legs. I wanted to go faster and finish but had nothing. My heart rate was dropping but I just couldn’t turn over the legs any faster. It is just so steep. Each Km seriously feels like it takes an hour. Even with 1km to go I was genuinely wondering whether I would finish.

With 300m to go DD came past me and I couldn’t even stand up and pedal next to him to the line.

It took me about 1 hr 5 mins to climb the 6k.

Total time 4:31 which isnt particularly fast but I got to the finish and wasn’t last.

On finishing AJ handed me a drink which was magnificent. A happy bloke was passing around finishing medals which is great.

This is the hardest challenge of a race that I have done and it feels like a real achievement to finish. It was organised much more effectively this year and I would recommend it to anyone to have a go.

Beware: With the extra few km it is much much harder than it was before.

For next year I will need to train harder to make sure that I have some energy left for the final climb. With the lack of training to date I think this was as good as I was likely to do.

This entry was posted by T. Walsh on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Reports, Road.