Days 3 and 4

Hills, wind, a flat and then lots more hills

As i type this its the end of day 4 – my real tour de kids day, but more on Day 4 later.

Day 3 – Bright to Corryong.  183km, 1700 m vertical – 8 hours

So first things first i held back on the double nix on day 3, saved them for day 4 – i knew you’d want to know…

2 big hills and pretty flat in between, I went with the early group again (more on that below) and whilst it was a long hard day, i was reasonably comfortable, although no where near the front at the top of either hill – the last 40km (after the 2nd hill) seemed to take a long time and lots of little ups and downs.  To be honest, as I sit here after day 4, i cant actually recall much more of yesterday.

However during the long flat run from the end of the first hill into lunch (in the RSL where the CWA ladies made us sandwiches) I managed to hit a rock and get a flat about half way and a quick tyre change was immediately followed by the highlight of the day – a 60kph run back up to the bunch drafting ehind the van.

The day ended on what at the time seemed to be a low point – the boys decided i needed to go with the later (faster) bunch for the big hills of Day 4  - that had me worried.

Day 4 – Corryong to Adaminaby. 140km, 3,450m vertical – 8 hours

Despite protestations i was indeed forced to ride with the back group – referred to by some as the Racing Pilots.  Hmmmm, well i was no wing man, probably more of an aircraft carrier.  I got dropped on each and every hill of the day, and some poor bugger would have to drop back and ride up with me and the constant drone of the truck sitting 10m behind me – i did find a few occasions to go back to the truck for “support” – it did seem to happen on the really steep bit too!

Seriously big long hills today and by lunch (and 2500m up) I decided i needed a bigger cog on the back and swapped with Tim for a 27 (i had in fact tried to shuffle rear clusters the night before, but fount the 25 i am running was jammed tight onto the soft aluminium freewheel).  After lunch was more down than up, but we still did about 1000m vertical (we passed a sign that said 1500m elevation – went down a great descent, only to climb back up to 1480m, and then 1390m)

I am pretty sure its my biggest vertical climbing day ever.

In the end, well in fact pretty early really, today was my tour de kids day – that’s the day i ‘get’ why i do this, i usually end up pretty close to tears and think about quitting – and when you get to that point you really do think about the fact that is is transitory but the kids get it forever, so you try and open a can of tuffen up and stick woth it.  Almost cracked a few times and had to stop and just take a moment each time, and perhaps leave the sunnies on just a smidge longer than i needed.

It turns out that the early starters that i would have liked to have gone with took a wrong turn early in the day and did more vertically (400m) and 20km longer on the ground, and those who completed it did 10 hours out there – go figure.

Into Canberra tomorrow – sausage sizzle at Harvey Norman (a major sponsor) and then we ride our bikes into GG’s house at Yaralumla and have a chat in Lycra – should be fun!!