A few weeks before this event I watched a video of Trent Lowe pre riding the course, this was a bad idea. If Trent Lowe says that this will be a challenging course then this is going to be an absolute killer of a course for someone like me.
The day started VERY early, all the usual pre-ride preparations but at a ridiculous hour of the day. I found that I was at the start a bit too early, damn you Google maps. I started getting ready after picking up my number and some zip ties. Lots of extra embrocation needed today, very cold morning and looking like it will stay that way for a while yet.
Chilly start to the day.
Start time rolled around eventually, with all of my waiting though I ended up starting the ride with numb toes and fingers. I had heard people saying that the first few kilometers were going to be tough for the cyclocross riders and this proved to be very true. I had elected to use a semi-slick tyre on my rear wheel to ease rolling resistance but this was proving to be a bad choice given the slimy conditions we were faced with for the first climb. I was getting zero traction on the rear and not much more on the front as the knobs on that tyre were quickly filled with mud anyway, homemade slick anyone?
I could see the guys I had started with just ahead of me, they seemed to making better progress through the mud on their mountain bikes than I was. I looked up to notice that they were stopped just in front of me, I figured that they were struggling through the mud like the rest of us and had simply stopped to dab a foot. I decided to keep on going thinking that if I stopped now I would not be able to re-start. Little did I know that they had fallen victim to a large gash to one of their tyres, ouch, sorry guys.
My Garmin told me that this section was a 24% gradient before I got off to walk as well.
These cheeky little signs were strewn throughout the course.
OUCH
!
Checkpoint number one.
I eventually made it to the top of the first climb to come across the first checkpoint of the day. Some welcome sugar refuelling and as I went to refill my water bottle I realised that I hadn’t actually drank anything yet. Not the best way to start a ride like this one, whoops. After waiting at the first checkpoint to let the guys catch up for a while I came to the conclusion that they might not be coming and I wanted to stay close to the people I had started riding with so back into it. These guys were a bit faster than me so I really was going over my head to keep up with them, another bad decision.
Climbing into the mist.
In the mist now.
We climbed into the mist together for a little while until I blew up and was spectacularly dropped. This gave me the chance to take the camera out though and catch some of these cool misty images. Time to settle in and try to find a rhythm of my own, making sure to keep drinking!
Gratuitous shop name shot.
After some spectacular descending we came across the next checkpoint where I got a chance to eat more, catch my breath and shake my sore hands out (from all the braking on the descent).
While doing this I noticed a couple of riders I had been riding with earlier come in to the rest stop and start unloading their pannier bags. I noticed a couple of baguettes sticking out of the top of one of the bags and was getting rather curious as to what was going on here. They said they were hungry and seeing as how this was the “Dirty Gran Fondue” they had better get their fondue fired up and get stuck into their lunch, followed by a question of “Where is your fondue?”
Very cool I think, this was a tough ride and to make it even tougher by carrying all that extra weight was a very fair effort. Kudos.
“Dirty Gran Fondue”
At this checkpoint I was overhearing a lot of people struggling with the decision of, “Do we keep going on for the ninety kilometres or do we cut the ride short and make the turn for the sixty nine kilometre option instead”.
I opted to keep on going, a decision that I would later regret.
There was a nice long and fast downhill from here but all that meant was that I would need to regain all of that lost elevation again. The longer I was descending the more I was getting worried.
I was really starting to feel it from my earlier efforts to stick with faster riders than me.
Before long the descent ran out and the climbing began again. Gorgeous scenery but that didn’t help with the pain in the legs, “Shut Up Legs!”.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Yummy
MMMMMMMMMM Dirty
MMMMMMMM Yummy
This sign was on one of the bigger final climbs, nice.
Lots of us out here today.
I was starting to go to some very dark places on the last few climbs, wondering why I was out here, why I do this to myself, why they had to make this course so hard and why don’t I just go home and relax in front of the heater with a good book. Then I came across the final checkpoint of the day, I was obviously looking destroyed from the volunteers reactions. They were nice enough to tell me that, “It is almost all downhill from here, only one more little climb and your done”.
Four kilometres or so into the third climb after this and I was starting to doubt their honesty.....
It was finally time for the last descent of the day, this was going back down the first climb we did this morning. VERY COOL, lots of large water bars that just launched you into the air whether you wanted to or not followed by some very rough rutted out sections that really required your utmost attention to stay upright on. Attention that was sadly lacking when I slid into one of these ruts and “supermaned” into a mud puddle, what a lovely way to end the ride.
So after this descent it was a nice flat cruise to the finish line and then a sprint (in the car) to the local fish and chips shop for some well earned fatty food.
Even though I went through some dark places on this ride I still had an absolute blast and would like to thank the crew at Big Hill Events for a fantastic day on the bike, looking forward to the next one.
- Brad.
