The day dawned and I woke up not at all refreshed due to a fitful sleep. Due to Khancoban being small there wasn’t alot of choice for breakfast options, but the boys managed to convince the local takeaway shop to open at 8.00am. So it was another game of load the car up then off to breakfast. 45 minutes later everyone had eaten their fill, but there hadn’t been much in the way to talk with everyone in deep contemplation of the day ahead.
I came out of the takeaway shop to find my front tire had decided to go flat, so I did a quick change and we hit the road out of town at about 9.00am. The inital roads were course chipseal and heavy going before we took the right hander on the secondary road which would see us all the way to the snowy mountains highway. The first section of this really in bad repair with the top coat missing which just served to bash our already sore and tired bodies around more.
I was mentally hoping it was going to be like this the whole way otherwise what was shaping up to be a hard day was just going to get alot worse. Luckily after about 4k we dropped through a lefthander and began the never ending climb...or this is what I called it. First Andy then Gaz disappeared up the road leaving me to solo along at my pace. I decided to keep things pegged at a solid seated tempo and get out of the saddle to stretch and ease the legs through the numerous corners. The seal through here was good but it still felt like slow going.
I was watching the time and kms slowly tick away but it was alot slower than I had anticipated and by the time I finally reached the false flat along the top through the open alpine area I guessed I was about an hour behind schedule. The climb I had just come up was a solid two hour effort and the most climbing I had done in one stint ever.
Guestimating that I was still about an hour from Cabramurra, the next 10kms was pure torture with dead roads, driving crosswind and rolling to false flat climbs I mentally cracked at least three times through here.
The next false hope of the day was the descent into Tumut pond and realising I had to climb back out of the valley with 7kms to town. Being down at the dam and looking up while spectacular in view was a real mental kick in the teeth as the road just went up then disappear into the hill.
Up to this stage I had been playing tag with a bunch of motorcyclists with them roaring past and then stopping to look at the views allowing me to catch up before passing me again and off to the next scenic lookout. Ripping past me on the first steep portion I used the engine noise to work ou that in fact the road was a series of switch backs and wasn’t as bad as what I had been imagining.
Near the top I cracked again as I was out of water and stopped at one of the many culverts which had water coursing through it to top my bottles up. I knew how stupid I looked trying to clamber down these rocks to get at the flowing water but didn’t care. Immediately drinking half a bottle of some of the sweetest tasting water I almost over balanced and ended up face first in the culvert. It was here I had my first encounter with Australia’s marsh fly…..in fact I ended up with three bites including a huge one on my stomach which I didn’t discover till the next day when I was wondering what the pain down there was.
Out of the culvert and I hit up the last 1.5k to the top of the climb and the 2k roll down into Cabramurra. As I was coming into town Andy and Gaz were heading out. With the temps having dropped off about 7-10 degrees through the alpine area, I knew that the stop wasn’t going to be long. I grabbed a couple of cans of soft drink and sat down outside in a shaded are from the wind. I was trying to saviour the drink and clif bar I was throwing down my neck…but I’m sure that I drank both cans and ate the bar in under 5 minutes before saddling up for the next leg.
Cabramurra to Adaminaby
The next stage of the ride started with a climb for 500 metres before hooking left and back into the tree line and onto a downhill for a kilometre or two before more rollers and climbing. The road through here was as dead as previously and I was feeling better after the drink and food. Eventfully I broke out into another alpine area but it was completely different to the last one. The roads were fast the landscape was more of a grassy pasture type then the scrub that had been higher up.
Looking ahead I could see the huge black clouds and knew I was going to be in for rain inside of the next half an hour. Plugging along with a slight tail crosswind I soon reached the intersection with the Snowy Mtns highway. Turning right onto this brought a huge smile to my face, I was back on good hotmix and the wind was now a tailwind and even though I had begun to drizzle I didn’t care as I knew the next 30kms was going to be quick and a lot easier than the past 5 hours.
The rain stayed at a drizzle for most of the next hour as I hauled a$$ over the downhill rollers enjoying every minute of it. It was about 5kms from Adaminaby that the heavens opened up properly on me and I was drenched to the bone inside of a minute. The rain was intense but it wasn’t cold which was a relief.
My head became a bit foggy at this point and I passed a sign pointing off to the right to Old Adaminaby. I almost made the mistake of taking the turn down here but decided no it wasn’t the right way, and rolled into Adaminaby about 5 minutes later. I found Andy and Gaz sheltering inside the local tearooms and quickly bought another 2 cans of drink and repeated the procedure at the previous stop. They had been there for about 20 minutes previously and by the look of the table had eaten half the shop. Apparently they had been riding in solid rain for about the previous 30 kilometres and had only just started to dry out. As I was freshly soaked I wasn’t keen on sitting around so we ended up rolling out for the final 50 kilometres together.
Adaminaby to Cooma
Starting out Gaz soon let me know that he was blown and only able to roll through occasionally so Andy and I took turns at taking measured turns on the front making sure Gaz didn’t get gapped on any of the rollers we were soon going over. The rain remained steady or torrential depending on where we were but we were making good time and kilometre kept ticking over.
I started to do some mental calculations to work out when we would be back in Cooma as I had told wifey it should be about 5pm and it was looking close. In one torrential down pour on a downhill section I ended up gapping Andy & Gaz as I was having to much stomping on the pedals with the crosswinds. When I ended up turning around I found I was suddenly on my own with Andy and Gaz about 300 metres back…..opps. After this I eased up and made sure I didn’t push too hard into any of the cross winds.
Eventually we were back on the main road into Cooma and with only a couple of small risers it was soon into town and dodging the cars and a right turn into the Macca’s carpark.
I think all three of us were please with completing the ride, and more so given the conditions over the final 2.5hrs.
Numbers for the Second day
Ride Time 7.33hrs
Total Time: 8.02hrs
Distance 175kms
Climbing 2978m
Normalised Power 230w
TSS 415
IF 79%
I have to say that this was great way to start the year with a huge kick to the training and I will definitely be up for it next year.
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