IntroTwo weekends ago was that time of year again....Fitz’s Epic, where I get to haul my sorry a$$ over a bunch of climbs for the day all in the name of fun.
The lead-up to the event this year has been OK, but I don’t have a lot of longer rides up the belt this time around so I knew I was just going to have to rely on experience to get through the 207kms for the day. Also this year I decided I was going to ride the course differently and not spend over 2/3’s of it off the front solo.
Night BeforeMy original thinking was to ride to the race, ride, and then ride home afterwards to give about 250ks for the day, but the forecast, and then eventual downpour over nite with continuing showers in the morning put paid to this. It also had me scratching through my gear cupboard at the last minute trying to find lightweight waterproof gear.
I ended up opting for Defeet arm-skins, Assos knee warmers with a layer of Quoleum embrocation smeared on underneath. Top was a standard short sleeve with a Craft medium weight base layer underneath. I threw my Gore jacket in the back pocket as a just in case last resort.
The StartWith the showers coming and going of the proceeding 2 hrs before the start there moments there where I was asking myself if I really wanted to spend the next 8hrs in the pouring rain.... Manning up I threw the bike knowing that it should (fingers crossed) turn into a fine day, and drove to the start.
Lining up for the start, there was the normal 1 minutes silence for the fallen rider who crashed and died during the event a number of years back. Then the shout and we’re off.
Of course the Joule doesn’t want to work with the wheel sensor after I had swapped wheels for the event so I pull over after 300 metres and have a fiddle with it, no joy so I quickly change the mode and start off again and try making my way to the front. Straight away I can see someone up there is turning the screws as the bunch has already shattered we’ve done less than 1k and I’m dodging riders left and right trying to move up. By the first intersection I’m back in the front 10 riders, but the pace is still on.
I sit back and try to relax for the ride down into Pierce’s Creek, but after about 5k the rain starts falling again. It’s at this point a rider on a full TT bike comes ripping past and takes off down the road, everyone looks at each other shrugs and figures we’ll see him later.
Pierces Creek to Namadgi TurnAt the bottom of the Pierces Creek climb I look down at the Joule and the Intensity factor is 0.97, and while I’m comfortable I figure the bunch is going to start reducing very quickly and sure enough even though the tempo is steady we crest the climb with only 5 of us at the front. Over the next couple of k’s there is a re-grouping with riders coming back.
However the descents in the wet split the bunch again due to cautious riding by some, and plain nervousness by others.By the time we reach the space station turn the group has solidified with approximately 15 riders.
In the next 15k’s to Tharwa we are hit by another 2 rain fronts and lose some riders with the bunch coming down to 10. By this point the pace has come down but with the tailwind we are still covering the distance quickly. The drop into the base of the Fitz’s climb enables the riders to sort themselves out in terms of climbing ability before the ascent starts.
Having reacquainted myself with the climb the previous weekend I knew it still sucked, with a near maximum effort required for close to 14minutes to crest the top. With the roads still being damp even though it had not rained in the past ½ hour, I was struggling with wheel spin on the climb every time I got out of the saddle to change muscle groups. The geometry of the bike plus the steep grade meant that there was less weight over the rear so I would get a ¼ turn of wheel spin on the down stroke.
Having packed the trusty 29t cassette for this ride, I was still doing it easier than others. I can normally grind it out up Fitz’s without having to resort to using it but today in the wet it came in handy on the lower slopes to maintain tempo without having to drop my cadence below about 65rpm.
Over the top of the climb there were two riders that had managed to gap the small group I was with, over the next few Km’s to the far turn we kept them pegged at under a minute and within sight distance. It was at this stage that Tri-boy went flying past in the other direction, I estimated he probably had about a 10 minute lead at this stage. One of the front riders dropped back about a kilometre before the turn before we all stopped. We re-grouped at this stage to about 7 riders, got out the tear and go slips to prove we had made the turn and set off for Apollo Rd.
Namadgi Turn to Top of Corin Climb By this stage fatigue was setting in with some of the riders, and we had a low speed fall on one of the rolling climbs after a touch of wheels. The group waited for the two riders to catch back up with no one seriously injured.
Also caution was exercised on the Fitz’s decent due to the still wet surface, before a couple more rolling hills then the left turn into Apollo Road.
At this stage the sun appeared from behind the clouds, and it warmed up enough to roll my arm-warmers down. Up the first 1/3 of the climb is where the damage is done and myself and two other riders gapped the other 4 and grunted and stomped up the 3 ramp sections before crossing the cattle grate and climb levelling out. From here we kept riding a solid tempo up to the checkpoint at the top. About halfway up I kept expecting to see tri-boy flying down the climb, and we he didn’t appear we assumed he had blown up and gone home.
Another re-grouping at the top and we set of back down the descent. About 1/3 of the way down, I spied tri-boy stamping up the climb and had a good laugh to myself. Even though the left turn is clearly sign-posted he had flown past it and now was having to make up time.
So this left 1 rider still out front with a group of 6 rolling along to the climb up Corin. In the past it’s this section where I have opened up serious time to other riders because of how windy it normally is and how rolling the terrain is.
This year rolling in the group was a lot more pleasant, even though I was doing longer pulls on the front. Passing through Tharwa, we started having to dodge riders who were in the shorter distances and spread across the road. Towards the end of this section I was sitting on the front for 3-4k setting tempo because the other riders were really pushing their limits.
About a kilometre before the left turn into Corin Road I looked across and could see the rider I had nick-name red-jacket making his way across the first rolling/ false flat sections of the Corin climb. The others saw him too and started saying things like you’ll catch him up the climb etc etc, but I wasn’t too sure. He had held a gap of about a minute for the past 20+k’s so he wasn’t crawling.
Again on the climb the same three riders formed at the front, and we set a steady tempo up the climb. Compared to the year previously where the temps had been in the low to mid 30’s by this point the high teen’s was really really pleasant.
Up the climb I kept getting glimpses of red-jacket but as I guessed we didn’t make any time up, up to the check point.
Just as we were filling our bottles up and getting ready for the descent tri-boy came storming in, practically threw the tear and go at the volunteers and took off back down the descent. I quickly finished messing with my bottles and took off in pursuit leaving the other two behind.
Corin to FinishMentally I knew I was going to have to do a suicide descent to catch back what I guessed was 45 seconds to tri-boy. On the initial part of the descent I couldn’t even see him until we got about halfway down. So even pushing the limits, slicing the corners and not touching the brakes I had made up only 15 seconds. I knew if I didn’t get him by the left turn back onto the main road he was going to be gone. I was slowly running out of road to the turn and mentally I was preparing myself to have to do a maximum sprint up the last portion of the main road climb to try and close the gap....a do or die effort.
However just before the turn he pulled over and started grabbing free bottles and food from someone in a car so I made the corner first and started the drag through the remaining rolling hills to Mt McDonald. I decided to try and get as much of a gap on him through here to as a cushion into the final pinch climbs through Pierces Creek.
About 5k’s up the road I was joined by a group of riders from behind who I started rolling with before Tri-boy came flying past. No one else tried jumping on his wheel, so I had a go at it and before long we had gapped the group. Now if you haven’t tried drafting someone on a TT bike let me tell you it’s hard, they sit a lot lower down and provide almost no shelter!
After a couple of k’s he turned around and I think was surprised to find someone on his wheel, then he seemed to get a bit upset when he started motioning me through and I started shaking my head....hmmm I wonder why?
After get a small amount of recovery we started rolling before hitting the rollers leading into Pierces Creek and it was at this stage the legs had enough and I let him go. The final checkpoint this year was located further up Mt McDonald in the bend of the right hander before it steepens for the top. I did a quick stop here as the bunch I distance earlier had worked together to peg time back. So I did the tear and go and started off up the hill.
With not much further to ride I was giving it death up the climb still feeling good until just of the top where it starts to roll before the right hander, and I bonked spectacularly. One minute I was flying the next I was dizzy, fuzzy headed and just couldn’t put any power to the pedals. It took me a good minute to work out what had happened as it has been years since I have bonked this hard. The interesting thing was one part of my brain knew I needed to start shovelling food into my mouth, but the other part just wanted to keep riding and trying to turn the pedals over. After what felt like 5 minutes the eating part won, and I started throwing down gels, a clif bar, and a couple of clif shots.
I started to feel better straight away, but the damage had been done. I had missed eating regularly over the previous hour and a half and was now paying for it. So as I made my way slowly back to Stromlo trying to find my legs again I resigned myself to getting caught by the following bunch at some point and then spat out the back.
I made it as far as the top of the first of the three sisters before a group of 6 came past. I hung in for about 200 metres before my legs folded and I watched them ride off into the distance. With only about 7k’s to the finish I just kept pedalling and eventually rolled across the line for a time just over 7.5 hours.
After handing over my final tear and go for the pay I re-filled my bottle put the bike into the easiest gear I had and started the slow spin home....it took me just on 50 minutes to do 15k.
SummaryThis year I took a more relaxed approach to this ride, as the previous two times I have ridden I have ended up in the hurt box for the best part of the next week trying to recover. Fortunately this year I didn’t have to back up for the Highland fling 100miler like last year.
The best part of the ride this year was the weather. The wind was a lot less, and temperatures didn’t go as high. This meant the risk of dehydration wasn’t there. Also riding with others this time around for longer made it a lot more enjoyable.
The worst part was the first hour and a half in the pouring rain and a couple of very nervous riders who couldn’t descend in the wet. There was a couple of point where I had it almost locked up to avoid them due to braking in the wrong places.
