The women’s tennis final is on the TV, the household is watching the game after an early dinner. I can’t rest and am finalising my prep for the morning’s 3.30 departure. I spend the evening packing and repacking my seat bag, working out what’s going in each pocket. Fortunately I pack my DHBC rain jacket. It has been crying out for a tour of the Victorian Alps and a thunderstorm is forecast for the afternoon. Too bad I’ve got a steel bike – I knew I should have gone carbon. Oh well, too late now.
I write out schedules for me and Camilla of checkpoints, water points and avg speeds required for various target finishing times. I plan to finish at 7pm (15 hours) – I figure 250kms with 4,800m of climbing won’t be that quick.
Camilla and I have decided to ride the 6kms into Bright for the 4am start of the Alpine Classic Extreme. There’s another start at 6am for faster riders, Mark Lacey is one of them.
We leave a few minutes after 3.30am and roll down the hill to Bright. Lots of people are there already. We are on the lookout for other women and spot a couple. About 10% of the 400 riders doing the ACE are women we find out later from our vollie insiders. Adam and Ted are down at the start to see us off before going for special volunteer breakfast and then spending the day at the top of Falls Creek where they will get to see everyone we know at some stage.
We are off! The climb to Mt Hotham starts with a 1% grade out of Bright and gradually gets steeper. It’s pitchy black and I’m glad I have my Ayups and on hi-beam. A bunch settles behind us, commenting on the quality of the light Camilla and I are casting, but not taking a turn on the front. The night ride with all those lights looks pretty impressive. Behind Harrietville the climb starts in earnest and Camilla rides off into the dark. I ride up Hotham with Bec from Audax NSW and the sun rises just as we hit the top of Hotham, the sky is blue and the view fantastic. But, we’ve been riding for hours and only gone 60km or something!
I sort of catch up with Camilla at Dinner Plains control, we exchange texts but don’t see each other. Then it’s mostly downhill to Omeo, which is a bit before the halfway point. The ride is pretty good and although I can see others I mostly rode by myself, passing one guy on the downhill only to have him pass me on the up-hill. At Omeo, I see Camilla just about to leave and she tells me Mark who started 2 hours after us has already left Dinner Plain.
Leaving Omeo I check out my average speed on the Garmin and find that I’ve done avg 2,700kph! Kms of confusion and I can’t work out what has gone wrong – I though maybe it had suddenly changed over to calorie consumption or something useless. Then I notice the distance is 17,700km. I’m fairly sure this isn’t true. This problem keeps me occupied for quite some kms as we wind around hillsides pretty much following the contour line, just like Richard described it the night before. By the time I try resetting the screen, whilst still riding (against instructions from Ted and Adam not to try multi-tasking on the bike), I eventually realise I can’t fix the problem. At the next stop I end the ride on the Garmin and start a new one. Game plan now completely out the window! How will I know when the stops are? I didn’t pack an emergency pencil. (But I do have emergency everything else.) And I can’t work out average speed so that I will know whether I’m on track to finish by 7pm.
Not long after the water stop at the Blue Duck Inn I’m riding along a river and thinking that it’s quite hot, well over 30 and hotness reflected off the road, I should jump in. Then I notice some people have! But just then the road turns left and after a moment of indecision, I go left too and away from the river. BIG MISTAKE – it’s the 2nd steepest hill I have ever ridden up and there’s no going back. I realise this is the start of the dreaded climb up to Falls Creek. I’m determined not to get off and to go up this hill which is allegedly over 20%. I’m not looking at the Garmin at this point. People are getting off and walking. But it only goes for about 800m or something and then softens off to about 14% … for about 5km. I thought the stories of people taking their thongs off were myth, but no there were plenty with thongs in their back pockets trudging up the hill. I’m still determined and grind away at about 5kph or something stupid until after an eternity it gets less steep. The drink stops are about 20 km apart and there are extra barrels of water in between. It’s so hot it’s baking. Somewhere here I have to break out the emergency gel and a fruit bar both of which I have to force down. Mark comes up along side at some point and we chat briefly, he looks strong and rides off and I’m imagining he will catch up with Camilla.
After another eternity I got to Raspberry Hill for a drinks stop and a painful but welcome face clean with a spray gun to wash all the gunk out. It was excellent. Ate 2 bananas and was off again with a promise that there was only another 4kms of serious climbing and then flat across the high plains before a descent into Falls Creek. I was so looking forward to a brief respite at Falls Creek and that I would see Ted and Adam and eat rice cream and fruit cake. Fortunately it really is a descent into Falls Creek and Adam and Ted are there waiting. I’m the last Dulwich Hill rider and they had already greeted and sent on their way Richard, David, Simone, Michele, Camilla, Mark as well as a mysterious rider in DHBC kit who they didn’t recognise.
Camilla was now about an hour ahead of me, with Mark still to catch her. Her message to me via the boys was not to race down the hill. Warnings were issued about road hazards. Duly noted and I was on my way. I took it easy down the hill as I was tired by this stage, but more my feet were hurting as well as my shoulder and the combination of being in the drops, braking and pressure on my downward foot was quite painful. At one point I started hoping the uphills would start again! Must be mad. Saw one cyclist off his bike, and with a paramedic, which was sobering.
The closer I got to be bottom of Falls Creek, the hotter it became. It was now about 5pm and the hottest part of the day in this neighbourhood. Only the climb of Tawonga Gap to go. Camilla and I had said that when we got to the top of Falls Creek we would know would be OK, after all it’s only Tawonga. Think again, it broke a few people and it was a hard, hot climb. People were off their bikes walking again. The water stop with ice packs was welcome and I stuck one on the back of my neck for 5 mins before riding another 1km to the spring where I stuck my head under to get wet and off again. About now the Garmin gave up altogether and I had no idea what time it was but still hoping for 7pm. Got to the top of Tawonga and suddenly everything was great! Only 20kms to go and it’s all downhill. I descended fast and confidently and turned onto the road into Bright with just 5km to go and a slight decline, down in the drops riding as fast as I could.
I got into Bright at 6.59pm ☺
Camilla came in over an hour before me and just pipped Mark. Her ride was most impressive given her lack of actual training because of illness, PhD, weather and other catastrophes.
We gathered on the hill in front of the Brewery to cheer in the other riders. One of the best things about the Alpine Classic rides is the welcome you get as you cross the line. Not long after Ted and Adam arrived down from Falls Creek after a very long day volunteering and we stayed around to watch the Lantern Rouge (last rider) come in at about 8.30. Imagine our surprise when they said that rider was Ron Webster! We gave him an extra cheer and congratulations.
Just then the rain eventually turns up, but it’s only light. It had been fine all day but it was still about 30 degrees so the rain jacket was never required. It had been on a nice tour but added only warmth to my kidneys.
Post script – my exceptional bike handling skills came into their own at the very end of the ride. Camilla and I bravely got back onto our bikes and rode the 6km home. I rode into our place, around the back and decided to ride straight into the bike room and bunny-hopped over the small step. Could have got off just outside and walked the last 2 m … but didn’t. Bunny-hop failed and I fell over much to everyone’s amusement. Fortunately Camilla didn't have a camera this time.