Puzzles

So I finally got my hands on a set of the new XTR cranks, and things didn't go smoothly fitting everything up. Normally changing cranks is a 1/2 hour job...this it turned into a full on 80 minutes!

Removing the old gear went smoothly, fitting the new chains was OK, adjusting the front derailleur I hit problems. Because the outer ring is 39t I had to drop the derailleur down and there wasn't enough clearance on the chainstay for the bottom of the derailleur. Moving it back up resulted in a gap of about 9mm or way to much above the big ring, even though it shifted perfectly.

Cursing and swearing ensued until I decided to pillage the SRAM XX derailleur off the Salty. Cue having to break two chains removing and swapping the derailleurs and readjusting the stops. And I was finally done.

Shifting is OK with the SRAM derailleur but definitely not as smooth. I'll get it on the dirt tomorrow and test it out. Again though I have full range of gears with no rubbing on the cranks or derailleur, it's great!!!


Still in the box


The old


The New...yay 30gms!

Alpine Challenge 2011

Well behind the eight ball again with the ride report for the 250km Alpine Challenge. But here it is finally.....

Unlike last year I wasn’t as nervous this year with the route having ridden it previously. Also the volume of training leading up to this year’s event meant I had almost 3x the kilometres in my legs including some big days in the mountains from the Kosciusko 360 ride. Even the drive down this year was more relaxed with 2x stops at McD’s to allow Wee Man out to have a run around the in playground and stretch the legs. The start/ finish area was the same as last year situated beside the Oven River, and I swore to the wife that once I finished this year I was going straight into the water as a cool down.
This time around I actually got a full night’s undisturbed sleep and woke up refreshed before chugging down 2x cans of chocolate creamed rice. The drive was again in the dark to the start with a pull over at the top of Towanga Gap as Wee Man.....well needed to wee!
Getting to the start I loaded up the pockets with food for the day and rolled to the start.
After hearing a couple of snippets of conversation I realised the 250k wasn’t starting for the same place as last time up around the corner for some reason so I hopped up onto the side walk and pushed my way clear of about 200 people before heading around the corner and getting to the start proper.
I caught up with Thomo who I met on the Kosciusko 360k ride and he picked my brain for 5 minutes about the course and what lay ahead.

The Start to Mt Hotham

At 6.30am we were set off and rolled out at what felt like a very leisurely pace for the climb up Mt Hotham....but in fact it was probably about 30kph. My legs weren’t feeling fantastic, but at the same time I was feeling antsy to get the pace a bit higher. So when we hit the first slopes on Hotham I hit it hard, firstly to try and warm the legs up but also to get some pace into the bunch.
People soon settled into their rhythm and a largish group of about 12 formed at the front which stayed together through and across the top and false flat before the exploding after the descent and the final climb up to the peak of Mt Hotham. Like last year my legs just refused to work up this second portion of the climb and I soon found myself riding with 3 others while a group of 6 disappeared up the road. The road through this section this year was battered by freezing crosswinds which made the going even harder and I was hoping it was not a omen of things to come.
On the decent from the top we had a ripping tailwind as the direction changed and screamed into the first checkpoint at Dinner Plains.
Getting in I quickly refilled my bottles got my wrist band scanned and managed to roll out with the front group again!

Falls Creek

For the next 10-15ks we had a tailwind at our backs and made excellent time before dropping into the valley and loosing the wind completely. About now my legs were starting to protest a bit at the pace and on a couple of the rollers I started to lose contact before the final big climb into Omeo the elastic snapped completely on the climb. I kept the group in sight but I didn’t rejoin them before the next checkpoint. This one proved to more chaotic and we lost a couple of riders and ended up rolling out with only two others.
The other two weren’t too sure if the others were ahead or behind and so after catching a couple of riders from the group that started at 4.30am we worked out they were behind and slowed the tempo down up the climb out of Omeo. This allowed a bit more of a recovery, and we avoided running over the wiggly stick that was making it’s way across the road halfway up the climb.
Talking to the others, I found out that one of them was the one that had crashed on the decent off Towanga Gap last year and ended up going to hospital.
The other 4 riders caught back up across the top of the climb before the decent down into Anglers rest and the climb up to falls creek. Due to the wind this year the descent wasn’t as fun and you had to work quite hard to keep the momentum up. The group stopped at Anglers rest to refill bottles before we took the left hander and began the climb up Back of Falls. I filled up my bottle and rolled out by myself and set a slower pace until the others caught back up.
Next was the left hander and given the way I was feeling I thought this would be the last I would see of the others but I was in for a surprise. The road kicked and I got out of the saddle and suddenly the legs came to life....I was suddenly feeling strong the initial 20% grade and a couple of the others who I expected to ride off dropped off the pace.
As the graded settled a group of four formed in front on me while I settled into a high tempo pace knowing what lay ahead. The group only got a lead of about 200m before two riders lost contact. This gave me something to chase over the next 3k, slowly reeling in one then the second. The other two had disappeared from sight, but I was enjoying the climb this year rather than suffering. The road had bedded in over the previous 12 months and while there was a surface of loose stones every so often it was miles ahead of the year before. What also helped this year was the temps were definitely down by about 5 or 6 degrees.
At the top of the climb into the alpine area, the wind picked becoming into a wicked crosswind and after a couple of kilometres I spotted the two lightweights that had disappeared up the climb. Picking up slower riders as I went I soon had a 5 rider echelon sitting behind me as I drove it to close the gap by the time we reached the Falls Creek check point. Coming into falls Creek I had shut down all but 100 metres of the gap and when we stopped the look on the other two riders face was priceless, one of how did the guy that had been struggling for the previous 50ks close a 2 minute gap inside of 15kms????
A bottle refill and we were off with the standard warning about the lefthander 1.7kms on the way down. I decided I would have some fun on the way down, and started chasing a Ford Falcon through the top section of corners sitting about 2m off the rear bumper. The only problem with this was that because the straights were so short, accelerating to 60kph then braking down to 25kph for the corners I heated up my rear rim and caused the tire to blow off the rim after about 6kms of the descent. Luckily I managed to stop from 60kph to 0 in only about 20m. I’m actually pretty lucky it wasn’t the front as I’m not sure I could have kept it upright.
The other two stopped, surprised that I had kept it upright after the tire exploding before disappearing off down the decent when I assured them I was alright. With the tire already half off the rim it made the tire change easier. However as I found out the disadvantage of a mini pump is you really can’t get enough air into the tire to be confident on a decent.
Once back up and running with a softish tire I continued making my way down the descent with more caution this time.
The decent has a nasty kick in the middle of it, and after the time on the side of the road my legs didn’t appreciate it much. Down into Mt Beauty and the drag along the main road before the left hander and the road up Towanga Gap.

Towanga Gap

At this point I decided to shut it down up the climb so as not to go too far into the box for the day. I set an easy tempo up the climb using the 26 and 29 tooth cogs on the back before pulling into the way stop after 3kms up the climb. I refilled my bottle and started on my merry way for the remaining 5kms of the climb before cresting the climb.
On the descent I exercised caution again, and sure enough on the same corner as last year there was a rider in the ditch being attended to by medical officers. His bike was poking out of the ditch with the front end snapped of front the impact of going into the ditch. Another timely reminder that there is no need to push it when you don’t need to.
The valley floor was drag again with a headwind before the turn back onto the main road and into town. I linked up with another rider at this point and we traded of turns until crossing the line.

Numbers for the Day

So the numbers from the day were,
Time: 9:11hrs
Distance:248Kms
Climbing:4370mtrs
NP:237w
IF:0.818
TSS:517
Calories:5809