This required a 4.00am start...which didn't happen, it was more like 4.30. Threw down a couple of slices of raisin toast and out the door by 5.00 to make my way over Stromlo.
This year the organisers got well, organised and sent out all the brevet cards in the two weeks prior to the start. Only problem was they seemed to screw up about half the riders cards who were doing the epic. So the outcome was on the day rego.
Briefing then, Off
We got the riders briefing and had a minutes silence for the rider killed on the descent off Fitz's a couple of years back.
There was a record field of 90 entrants in the epic, and I even spotted another 2 SRM's on riders bikes.
All calm on the Front
Like last year, it was steady tempo riding on the front till Pierces Creek. Now I might have mentioned before I really hate this climb! One of the riders I had marked as a good climber started riding off the front so I decided to join him and lead up the climb for a peak of 400w for 5 minutes.
Everyone regrouped over the top and it was tempo again and remained like this all the way to the 60k mark at the base of Fitz.
It's On
Now for those that haven't ridden this climb it's one that just requires you to ride as hard as you can to maintain momentum. So I went to the front and started doing my best monkey impression...swinging on the bars.
I was joined by the rider from before and we made our way up the climb slowly, painfully opening the gap to the other riders.
I always find it interesting with other riders on climbs to listen to their breathing to judge how hard they are working. I'm lucky in that I can deep breath even when in the VO2 zones and don't start shallow breathing. The rider today sounded like he was hyperventilating.
We crested the top of the climb and started the drag to the turn around with only a couple of kicks before the descent down to the turn. I beat the wife there this year and she turned up 3 minutes later with fresh bottles of wet, cold, goodness.
Clif Bar Salty Lemonade
We were soon joined by the other lead riders, but I had done my form, changed bottles, had a leak and was off. The rider I had been with decided to wait for the other riders but, I wasn't starting off at a reasonable pace back over the hills I had just ridden down. I figured they would catch me before the climb up Apollo Road or part of the way up (hopefully after the wall at 4k).
So Much for Planning
I made the left turn into Apollo Road still solo, and started the slow crawl up the climb. I was using PE rather then power at this point, riding just at the point where I was breathing deeply but not starting to go into VO2.
I managed to make it up the wall though I was really thinking that a 26t would have made things a bit easier. Cresting the top of the main climb there is a 4.5k false flat to the upper car park where the old tracking station used to be located.
I reached the car park handed over the my card to be marked off then refilled my bottle, sculled that in one hit, refilled again and pointed the bike back downhill for the 15min run back to the main road.
In the Dog
On the way back down I saw that the chase bunch had splintered and there were only two chasers behind at about 4 minutes. So I decided to get on the gas and open the gap up so that I could cruise the Corin climb. Again just like last year the wind had turned and I was faced with a head/ cross wind all the way to Corin.
Reaching Tharwa I started to strike the slower riders from the 100k event. By this stage the heat was out in full force and starting to take it's toll on everyone. A large number of the 100ker's were walking the hills.
Reaching Corin, I spotted a rider just after the turn off from the main road who was starting to make their way up the climb. I was thinking that either this was a punter out for a bit of hill work or a 100/160k rider who had mis-read the sign and were going to do a few extra k's.....which I thought was funny at that point. I closed the gap to them to about 20 metres and just used them for pacing up the climb which was great mentally. What was also funny was watching this person tipping water over themselves to keep cool while I was on conservation mode.
The rider stopped once cresting the top of the hill and pointed back down the road, and as I suspected they were just out for a bit of a punt around.
I reached the checkpoint at the top and refilled my bottle again. At this point I would have given my left nut for a cold can of coke but nothing, plain old water. At least I knew Heather had dropped 2 fresh bottles at the bottom of the climb to see me through to the finish. The drop back down gave me a chance to check the gap to the chasers and by my estimate it had blown out to 15 minutes at this stage. I stopped at the bottom grabbed the two fresh bottles and set off on the haul back to the finish via a Urriara loop.
Cars...Lots of Cars
I made the drag back to the next check point at the bottom of Mt McDonald and started the climb up, when coming down the mountain was a car rally. I couldn't quite work out the theme as there were various makes and models. The funniest thing was some bogan chick leaning out the passenger window giving me the finger, Gee 'cause I have never had some dirty slapper lean out a sh!tbox car and give me the finger before? Love I used to live out west in Sydney, I got that ever day riding to work!
Finish
I started cramping abit across the top of Mt McDonald but no where near what happened a month ago, I managed to ride through it and keep going. Unfortunately I missed my goal for this year which was to break 7hrs, I reached this mark at the bottom of the three sisters climb. From here I just went into conservation mode to reach the finish figuring that there was no point pushing harder then needed.
I eventually crossed the line in 7.5hrs.
Stats for the day
Km's 208.7km
Energy 5624kj
TSS 543
Climbing 3550 meters
P(avg) 206w
P(norm) 260w
Food & Water
clif bar mix: 6 bottles (3 litres)
water: 5 bottles: (2.5 litres)
cliff blocs: 5 bags (Margarita are still the best)
Overall I surprised myself, I didn't think I had the form to do as well as I did. In fact I thought I was in for a hammering. After the ride, the legs were tired and sore but no worse then the Angry Doctor. I think this might bode well for next weekend...well maybe.
nice work - that is pretty epic. And yes, the margarita blox rock!
ReplyDelete