Day 5 took us 7hr46min50sec - the longest time for a single day's riding that I've ever spent on a bike. The rain and conditions had been a certain test of wit, we began the day in fourth place of our 80+ category, behind third place by 11min 02 sec. The categories for the 2011 Terra Australis had been grouped into an open category and by accumulative ages, starting at 80+, 100+ and 120+, such that the two rider's ages added together had to fall within the category. We were able to make enough ground during the day to move into third place, putting 1min10sec between us and the Falls Creek team.
Now Day 6 stood in front of us, and what better way to kick things off for 5 day tired legs than a 13.5km climb up Mt Porepunkah to give us 650m elevation gain. Ben of Topgear Team Norden to the rescue! Ben stuck with us for the climb keeping the morale up, while the chatter of Greg got gradually louder as he caught up to us to share the last kilometer. We took off to get the most from the next 16km downhill run to the feed station, the first 8 or so down the mountain access road. The Falls Creek guys were about 500 metres ahead of us, and we weren't making any ground on them.
We were employing a new team technique where I was to grab Pete's bottle and take off within a kilometer or so of the feed station, get our bottles and food re-stocked while Peter rode through, leaving me to catch back up to pass on all collected at the stop. This seemed to work OK as we headed forward. The section between the day's feed zones was undulating bitumen where we could see that Mark and Francis (Falls Creek) had joined forces with the Giant and TORQ teams, getting the advantage of a group attack on the open road, and were slipping away rapidly.
We eased off a little to get Team Norden back on board. Soon enough the four of us were setting a much faster pace than just two could, taking rolling turns, except for the middle couple of kilometers where I faded a little and then had to really do some work to claw back on. It would easily have been the week's fastest stage between feed stations, and the hour that it took only seemed like twenty minutes before we were looking up the road at the second feed station.
Team Norden on their way...Again Peter rode through leaving me to bring forward the bottle. We had left both the bitumen and the Falls Creek guys at the feed tent to get a start on a solid climb along pine plantation access roads. Reaching Pete I passed him half a jam sandwich then a minute or so later his bottle. We really needed to practise that a little more as the bottle found it's way to the dirt road... once back to the task at hand there rose before us a track that steepened from a 20 percent gradient to unrideable for a little over a kilometer, and it was breaking people by the minute. Mid way through the hike-a-bike we had managed to walk past a couple of teams. The loose surface was so steep I found it easier to carry my bike across my shoulders while stabbing my toes into the dirt and rock to find or make step-up points. I could hear Peter singing, I presumed to take his mind off the climb, until I looked up ahead and matched his acapella Hunters & Collectors question of "Do you see what I see?" with the jerseys of our category front-runners. Buoyed by the chance, we hiked past them and got a hundred metres or so in front before reaching the top of the climb and being able to use the pedals once again. Onward we went along the plantation roads trying to take some subtle glances rearward whenever the road would bend around on itself. We were working hard to keep a consistent tempo and not let our speed drop too much on the last couple of gradual climbs, at times it felt like we were going frustratingly slow, but no other teams were showing in the rear vision mirror.
The final upward grind took us to a farm gate, which we reached in time to offer to close it as a team in front (Fred & George) had just passed through it. The same applied as we got to the next gate, after which we passed the other team as we travelled through the following section. Making it to the final gate of the day's stage was perfectly timed to see Spanish Beef just getting through with enough time to acknowledge we were right behind them to close the gate. Spanish Beef were from Canberra and had fellow Canberra rider Alex riding with them since Day 2 after Alex's team partner Libby was injured on Day 1 and unable to continue. We had a chance to ride with Spanish Beef (Mark and Randall) at some point during each stage (excepting the time trial), usually sharing the track for 5 or 6 kilometers at a time. It was the first time in this stage that we had seen them so we exchanged howdy-do's just as Fred & George approached the gate and returned the favour of offering to take closing duty. Once through the gate we continued with Spanish Beef (plus one) leading off. The printed course profile I had taped to my bars translated as all downhill to the finish line from here. With Spanish Beef riding two abreast up front, and Alex sitting behind, I had third wheel while Peter sat on. A good pace was developing as I checked my shoulder for Pete who was starting to wind up the 29er. A second check and he was still on, a third as I shifted up to the dog and it was go-time. I pulled out with Pete on my wheel and buried into a sprint as we leap-frogged the three others. The 29er was now nearing top speed as Pete moved forward, the dirt road changed to bitumen and suburban Beechworth now flanked the road. Sitting second wheel to Pete, I pointlessly yelled to Pete to keep it going. I had ridden with Pete enough times over the years to know it was pointless by the way the body in front of me had become all engine room. Turning left into LaTrobe's grounds we knew we were only one or two corners from the finish line so kept the pace on. After 3hr57:54 and 1865 metres of elevation gain we crossed the 75km stage's finish line at 40km/h, which earned us a category stage win by 8 seconds over fellow 80 plusers Spanish Beef. Holding third place we had increased our lead over the Falls Creek guys to 11min 18sec.
One day to go...
No comments:
Post a Comment