I've never ridden, let alone attempted to ride, 300km in one go. And when a couple of mates suggested it over a few beers, it seemed like a great idea. A fun social supported way to check that little goal off the list, and away the idea snowballed. From Smoko (at the foot of Mt Hotham) to Corowa NSW to Wangarratta to Myrtleford and back to Smoko came to a princely sum of 301km and that was the route! With the usual heart muscle strains pre event, we were left with a select bunch of riders and 2 support girls, and a sunny day to boot.
Arriving at 11pm, with a 5.30am departure, was the first of many system shocks. Climbing over Tawonga Gap first thing was one of those shocks, but was strangely pleasant at the same time. What was not so nice was the state of my health- having taken an afternoon off earlier in the week, I'd resigned myself to feeling crap and just going as far as I could manage. Turned out that after lunch I finally started to come round, and by the end I was able to breathe a little, without the other effects I was feeling, so that was pleasant. It all came unstuck when I finished, to further remind us what the body is capable of!
Atop Tawonga, we took a monent to take some photos, as thats the only way you get to see pretty colours here, other than my boring as ceiling white text... With a few shots in the can, we ripped off down the hill to Tawonga and the Kiewa Valley, to take a leftie out to Wodonga.
With a tailwind wafting down the valley, we made it to Albury with about 30min in the bank, according to the scehdule. I'm feeling decidedly arse in this photo, and it got a lot worse before it got better, but thankfully nobody really insisted that I get off, so I kept at it. Crossing into NSW was a bit weird, the first time I've ridden over the border, but with B-Doubles roaring along the hwy, you'll not get a photo of that! Below is a photo crossing back into Victoria, or Gods country as it was refered to.
That was all squandered when we beat (rather, got bashed)into the crosswind all the way to Corowa, and after that, turned south into the teeth of it, for the 41 DEAD STRAIGHT kilometres! Not a turn for 41 km, not even a deviation! Crushing... We did grab some lunch at Corowa, that had been prepared by the most awesome girls in the world, and after a quick rest (where some were caught napping) we had to get back on it. Both Nick and Pete were dead to the world as soon as they lay down on the bank of the Murray here, with Nick later to fall victim to the frustrating headwind, hunger bonk, and extreme amount of k's, whilst Pete and Nick bashed away all day.
With a hint of a tailwind near Wangarratta, we were teased before another 6km run into a block headwind before we finally turned for home, and with 100km to go, we had the first non headwind in at least 6 hours, and not before time!! Slipping it into the 'big dog', the 3 of us pedalled our little hearts out, well what was left of them, and headed for home. It was getting to the stage of racing the clock, daylight and our own limits, and through sheer determination we got back as far as Bright before darkness drew a halt to proceedings. Having gutted it out for the last 3 hours at the limits of exhaustion and fatigue, not to mention broken bodies, there was no way on God's green earth that we were anything other than stoked to make it that far! 290km is 300 to me!
Flat out doing 25km for the last 80km, we were smashed. Sore everything, and dead legs were the prevailing ailements, and no amount of redbull or endura was getting us to go any faster! The funniest thing had to be breaking a spoke on my bike at about 25 to go, and the speed that Pete whipped out the phone was staggering. Equally amusing was his face when I bent it around and made it still spin, meaning he had to keep riding again! Pedaling squares and doing our level worst to hold form on the bike, we finally hopped off in Bright after dark, after 12 hours of actual riding time, having been handed every weather card in the book from sleet to sunshine and freezing my ass all day, and with 290km on the clock and felt pretty bloody pleased with ourselves (in hindsight)
Dinner was a well deserved cookup at the Shack, sitting around a brilliant campfire telling each other lies about how easy it was and what time we were going to get up and ride Hotham in the morning, over a few glasses of local wine. Turned out we did go for a ride the next day, to the next town to buy a coffee! And yeah, the saddle wasn't my best friend... Also having a dip in the Ovens River for a bit of recovery was well needed and deserved, but damm me that was cold!!
Anyway, that was my weekend. Thanks to Nick, Fi and Pete for their hospitality, Em for her supporting and not making me get in the car when I definately should have, and to my riding companions for helping us all get through the longest ride i've ever done! And finally, my Felt F1c was amazing to soak up the road shock day making it like a magic carpet ride, surely reducing my fatigue by an enormous amount. These carbon bikes are sensational, the guys on carbon commented all day that it felt so much smoother, so have a look at the Felt Range of Carbon bikes here
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