I’ve had several V-Line adventures in the works, but I
basically need a full day to do them, and have the right weather
conditions. 7 days after my first triple
century, an opportunity arose, and I worked out a route going to Ballarat and
guestimated it to be around 260km’s, and figured I could pop in to say hi to my
Auntie & Uncle in Mount Helen along the way. As long as I got up at 2:00am I should have
the time to do it.
It was a beautiful morning, and I had the roads to
myself. I planned on going via Beach
Road, and the direct route would be to take the Dandenong Creek path up to
Carrum. I looked at the map, and really
wanted to do Beach Road from Frankston,
which would add what I guestimated to be an extra 15km's, and could snare a few PB’s on the way, surprise, surprise I guestimated the distance wrong :(
 |
| View from Port Melbourne |
By the time the sun had come up I had almost nailed a
century, and was feeling strong. I
pushed myself for several PB’s, but wondered whether I was foolishly killing
energy. After leaving Frankston I came
upon two riders that were travelling slightly faster than I was, but preferred
to hitch a lift so pushed & caught up to them. Our group just grew, & grew, & grew
as we kept going, and got faster & faster.
We were averaging 32kmph to start with, which towards the end of my time
with this group we were pushing close to 50kmph near Black Rock, and I could hold on, but was
giving it a 100% in doing so, and I knew I was nailing PB’s left right &
centre, but a voice inside was screaming “slow the fuck down! You’ve still got over 150km’s left to ride!”. The group thankfully splintered at Black
Rock, and I was left to ride alone, and hurting. I had hoped to join a group to give me an
easy trip up Beach Road, not do a smash fest on an Audux type ride. I managed to get to Port Melbourne and was
hurting, and knew I’d have to be careful with my pacing, and took the foot off
the accelerator a little.
I was able to take bike paths all the way out to Werribee, but
unfortunately knew that I had really bad times on them, so was pushing myself
as hard as I comfortably could without really hurting myself. But I was conscious of the fact that I had a
heck of a lot of riding ahead of me, and could bonk badly if I did this
wrong. From Werribee I started to
struggle. I headed up Ballan Road which
is the longest straightest road I’ve ever travelled up, at about 25km’s. The road was narrow, there was a fair bit of
traffic, my legs were hurting and it was as boring as all bat shit. I had to go into my happy place to get
through this road.
I realised that I miscalculated the distance, and my
original prediction of 260km’s was now going to be closer to 300km’s, & I
would need to keep a good pace to finish it on time. As soon as I turned off things got
better. One of the major motivation for
doing a ride like this was to get another chance to ride through the Brisbane
Ranges. They are one of Victoria’s best
kept secrets for riding, and will happily ride there any chance I get. The main climb through there isn’t overly
hard, but is challenging enough to make it worth your while to visit:
http://www.strava.com/segments/3700808
 |
| Heading towards the Brisbane Ranges |
I paced myself up the climb, and given the lack of climbing throughout the day really enjoyed this one. I little down the road was Merredith –
Durdidwarra Road which I was keen to revisit. Last time I rode down here I crawled at a snails pace. Foolishly I wanted a decent PB in this
section and absolutely hammered it, and got a really decent time, but cooked
myself. It was really hot, and I stopped
in Merredith to top up my drinks, and get a much needed icy-pole. Several riders at the General store said I
looked a bit wrecked & asked me where I’d ridden from. The look on their face was priceless when I
told them. One of them said “I thought
we’d done a big ride today with 130km’s”.
To get to my Aunties house I needed to go straight up the Midland
highway, and I thought that the trip from Werribee was onerous. This one was close to 45km’s of straight
road, and I copped a light head wind to make it all the harder. I was in the hurt locker and I grinded my way
up to Buningyong.
Time went slow, and it was after 3:00pm in the afternoon when I left Merredith, and I was
conscious of the setting sun. Given how
tired I was I was able to push out a decent tempo, but was going a couple of k’s
slower than I was earlier in the day. As
I neared Mount Buningyong the road started to rise, and I had never been
through this area before. I grinded up
this hill that seemed to go forever, which ended up being 3km’s @ 3.2% which
nearly killed me. When I got to the top
I recognised the top of the Nationals course and knew where I was, & knew
it was all downhill to my Aunt’s. I had
275km’s in my legs, and still had a bit of riding ahead of me. I took the back way around the Nationals
course to get there and arrived at around 5:00pm, and boy did I enjoy being
able to sit down in a comfortable chair after riding for almost 14 hours. I had a great chat, and respite for about an
hour and a half before heading off to the train station which thankfully was
all downhill, and was such an amazing sight descending into Ballarat as the sun
was setting. When I got to the train
station I had an annoying 295km’s on the Garmin, and had to ride around &
around in circles for awhile to notch up my second triple century in just over
a week.
 |
| Ballarat |
I was spent, and enjoyed the rest on the train on
the way back. Unfortunately there was a
lengthy delay at Southern Cross Station, and I didn’t get back to Dandenong
Station till after 10:30pm. I had 11km’s
to ride from Dandenong Station to home, and took the bike trails and rode ever
so slowly. I left home at 3:00am and
didn’t get home till after 11:00pm, and was truly an epic adventure. There were only 4 medium sized climbs on the
ride with just over 2,000 vertical climbed, and I’m usually not big on flat rides,
but thoroughly enjoyed this one. I
averaged just under 27kmph which was stoked at, as I was still new to long
distance rides, and still couldn’t believe that I could do a ride like this. Just over two weeks ago I had wondered whether I'd be able to ride a triple century, and now I've done two in consecutive weeks.
Here is a link to my Strava Activity here:
No comments:
Post a Comment