Day 7 - Where Did All These Hills Come From?
I Headed over to breakfast under the makeshift BBQ area, a tarpaulin stretched over a BBQ, yep this was definitely 1 star. It was sausages on the BBQ this morning because there was no hot plate for the eggs. Wayne had the BBQ firing as usual and we all stood back as the flames shot up toward the tarp which was probably going to catch alight any second. I steered clear of the Sausages and went for nutragrain. Apparently we’d consumed cartons of the stuff along the way. Thank goodness I wasn’t paying the food bill!
Packed up and ready to ride we wanted to get on the road, it was unusually chilly, reminiscent of Morrisett. We all had some sort of extra clothing on to start, wind jackets and vests. The quicker we get under way the quicker we warm-up and can get rid of the jackets. Pack 4 had left and pack 3 were assembling on the other side of the caravan park, maybe a secret meeting? Who knows, we didn’t wait to find out, we were all ready and saw no reason to wait. Not surprisingly pack 2 were also ready to go and followed us pretty much straight away.
We got out on the road and Luke said that we had a hill to climb about 2 km’s out of town so we would be able to warm-up on that. Soon enough the hill arrived. I was feeling good this morning. I’d been getting stronger as the ride progressed and knowing it was the last day I thought it was a good time to stretch the legs so to speak. See who was strong and who was tired. Off I went, the first climb was about 2km’s long and not to steep. By the time I got to the top I could see pack four just heading down the other side. No need to chase them I’d wait for the guys to regroup so we could ride together. I thought that we’d seen the last of the hill’s until the much talked about Tomewin before lunch, but was I wrong. After regrouping and rolling down a small decent we were climbing again, mostly small stuff, but enough to have some fun on, I waited at the crest each time for the pack to keep us all together. Then it came without warning a 6-7km climb at about 8% by this stage we’d passed pack 5 and 6 and pack 4 was half way up. I had them in my sights as I turned the pedals over at a consistent pace.
The whole morning I’d seen nothing of Terry our “King of the Hill” from day 5. Until I heard the creak of a loosed bottom bracket that had come on in his bike the last 2 days. By this stage it was loud, I didn’t even have to look back to know he was there, so I waited till he got a bit closer and then moved up a gear got out of the saddle for 100m, dropped him like a 3rd Grade girlfriend! Another 2km to the top a I stopped, all the boys rolled in one by one. By now I was pretty warm so I waited for Neville in the follow-up car. The rest of the pack had just started the decent when I handed Nev my vest and took of after them.
500m down the decent and there was a negative camber corner which you couldn’t see the end of so I slowed down to about 40km to make it round. To my surprise as I took the corner I noticed Terry picking himself up about 20m into the grass, he’d obviously miss judged the corner, taken it way to fast crossed the road and plowed down the embankment. Lucky for him there was a decent run off otherwise we may never have seen him again. I yelled out to see if he was OK and he gave me the nod. I kept going knowing that Neville would stop and I wanted to catch the rest of the pack to let them know and pull up. “Luke, Terry missed the corner and came off in the grass” I said. “What your kidding” was the reply. “No serious”! So Luke pulled us all up while we waited for Terry to get back on his bike and rejoin. Strangely enough he didn’t say much when he got back to us, perhaps the ego was a little dented. We rode off over another hill and had a giggle about Terry, anything he would do from now on we had a trump card on him. “Yes Terry that’s good, but mate, you can’t take a corner!” Sooner or later we get to the top of all these hills and descend into morning tea. The decent was about 4km and was it fast, I’m only a light guy a 70kg but even I was topping 75km/h. The bigger guys were way faster than me.
We were first into morning tea and the call was we weren’t staying to long. We had the big hill to get over and I think we were all focused on getting to lunch more than anything. We were around long enough for most of the riders to get in, after all the morning session was only 28km. But 26km of Hills! This was to be the topic as most people dismounted. Some look more kindly on the morning session than others, and a few heated words were heard. You see the last day of the ride was different this year and so those who were veterans had no idea what they were in for. Still everyone one had made it in one piece and could rest up as long as they needed before heading to lunch.
The road between morning tea and lunch was narrow country road with some beautiful scenery and some small villages to pass through. We road single file so as not to upset the locals to much. The big mountain range was getting closer with every pedal stroke. Now being a Gold Coast local you’d think that I would have ridden Tomewin, well I had several times, just from the other side and I wasn’t silly enough to go down the backside, which I been told had a kick that was up to 14%. So I could only go off what the other boys were telling me, OK for the first 3km then at the freight container it kicks up for about 3km then it eases off for the last km. Ok add to that that the road was really rough and I only had 42-21 as my lowest gear, the big hill might pose a problem! I rode the first three kms at my own pace and Wayne and squeaky Terry sat on my wheel. I got about 1km into the steepest section, got out of the saddle and in the process managed to pull my foot right out of my shoe as the velcro strap gave way. That was it for me I pulled over, put my shoe back on and started back up the climb again. I watched Terry and Wayne who were now about 200m in front of me. I had no inclination to chase them after all Terry couldn’t take a corner! Craig came up beside me and rode with me for a little while then he put on a spurt and moved up the hill. The top came quick enough and we were now in Queensland, the boarder crossing was pretty much at the top of the hill.
Since Day five we’d been warning the guys that the decent down from Tomewin was steep, real steep, and we were now traveling down it at break neck speed with Luke leading the way. Just to add another element of danger as we passed one of the hilltop homes a black dog raced out onto the road chasing Brendon's wheel. Brendon swerved and made it round, but the dog turned and ran straight up the road toward the pack. “Dog”, “Dog” we all yelled as we scattered to miss the mutt. Everyone came through unscaved, but the heart rate went through the roof. We slowed everyone down as we approached the steepest part right at the bottom, if you took this to fast you’d go straight through a T intersection over a guard rail and into Currumbin creek. Unfortunately the hill did get the best of one of the riders in Pack 5, but I’ve since heard that he’s OK and just had a lot of skin missing. A short 5km to the lunch stop. We decided that rather than hold up at Currumbin and have yet another Salad roll we’d roll into Broadbeach where the main group was to assemble and have a counter lunch and a couple of refreshing ale’s to finish the ride off.
One by one the groups came through from lunch and after a Steak Burger and several refreshments we gathered with the rest of the pack to wait for a special guest Billy. Billy arrived and we gave him a warm welcome. He started off on his journey to Southport with about 5 support riders. The rest of us waited for them to get to Main Beach and we’d catch up to finish the last 2 kms. Billy was over the moon, and through little effort on our part we’d put a smile a young child’s face. Everyone was a winner.
There it was, we’d completed the ride some 976km in 7 days. There was some subjecture as to pack 1’s average speed, some had 33.5 others 33 and one at 32.9, so for the sake of the exercise lets call it 33km Ave. We’d completed a awesome ride, for an important cause, met some really great people and made new friends along the way. If your into your cycling and have a week to spare in April I’d recommend doing this ride, the organisation and support is superb.
Day 6 - The Mutiny
Bacon and Eggs, cereal, toast, juice. I was fueled up and after the usual packing of the tent, tubbed and ready to go. I had a bit of a chuckle to myself as I passed Terry with this king of the mountains jersey on. He’d been saving it! There was no real big task in front of us today, about 130km to Kyogle. No mention of hills or rough terrain.
I noticed as we were all getting ready when Wayne, pack 2 captain, had grabbed their support vehicle and headed off. Thought that was a bit strange as pack 3 was assembling at the gate ready to depart. It was about 8:15am and we were still sitting around. Everyone was ready, but Wayne hadn’t returned. Luke gave us the call up, we gather at the front gate, where half of pack 2 were waiting. A quick query and the answers, well, lets just say, they cant be printed here.
We headed off, leaving pack 2 behind us. There were a few tired legs so the warm-up was extended, but the boys from Orange got us going and were turned over in two’s all the way to morning tea.
Morning tea was about 45km into the day and we passed all but pack 3 as usual. They were on a mission. We did notice that pack 2 was no longer, there was pack 2A and pack 2B. They guys at the front of the caravan park had gotten sick of waiting and rode to morning tea without their captain. As we were assembling to move out for the midday session pack 2A shot off up the road, only a minute or so before pack 2B pulled up. There would be some interesting conversations at the dinner table tonight I’m guessing.
I’d like to say that there it was an interesting ride into lunch but nothing comes to mind, we just turned the pedals over and covered the k’s. The main topic of conversation was the mutiny. Lunch arrived soon enough and we chatted with the pack 2A guys, they basically got sick of waiting, a common occurrence apparently. The pack 2B car pulled into lunch, but with no riders, they didn’t stop! It was only 35km to camp and I don’t think they were looking for a confrontation. The day was starting to get more interesting!
Now if Grafton Camp site was a six star we’d gone full circle and ended up with a 1 star. Kyogle Caravan park was officially open in 1962 and I don’t think any improvements had been made since. Still all we needed was a piece of grass and a hot shower and the camp had both.
We were all waiting for the pack 2 fireworks to happen, but it all happened at the hotel’s where some of the riders were staying. I did get a run down from Wayne later in the night a the Kyogle Bowls club where dinner was on. It was all to do with luggage and transporting it back from the Hotels to the main truck. Either way I think everyone in Pack 2 had a big group hug and made friends again. There was still one day of riding with the big Tomewin hill to traverse so working as a pack tomorrow would be important!
There were two things mentioned while we were having dinner, one that someone named Chris from pack 4 had done a nudie run at the Grafton camp site and was caught on camera. The picture blown up for all to see! Secondly we were told a young boy who was struggling to overcome a serious illness wanted to ride with the pack. We were all for it. They’d organised for him to meet up with all the riders tomorrow afternoon and he’d finish the ride through Surfer Paradise on to Southport with 109 riders in tow. Tomorrow was going to be a rewarding day.
Day 5 - The Longest Day 168km
Day five began like the last four, up with the sound of the breakfast truck and movement around the campsite. Even though each camp site was different everyone seemed to have a familiar pattern about their movements. Just as I was getting back from the showers pack 5 & 6 were rolling out together, a joint effort for the day. Pack up the tent and the gear, throw it into the back of the truck, grab the bike, do a quick check, everything’s OK.
Stash’s bike finally got fixed last night so he was back on the road again and pulled out with pack 4, quickly followed by pack 3, then pack 2 and we were off. Not much mucking around today. We had a lot of ground to cover. The warm-up seemed to be a little longer than normal today, perhaps some of the guys were getting tired, or just nursing decent hangovers. With four 100km+ days under my belt I was actually feeling pretty good. I wasn’t at all fazed by the distance we had to cover today, or the hill we had to climb, actually I was looking forward to the hill. It’s where I do my best work.
Soon enough we had a nice steady paceline going keeping it under 40km/h cruising down the road. Luke had mentioned that we had to take a bike path coming into Coffs Harbour and morning tea. This would be interesting for the back-up car! As we approached Coffs we saw that the police had stopped one of the groups, so we hung back for a minute till things settled and cruised past. It seemed like a routine stop, but apparently there had been complaints from motorist about the amount of packs on the road slowing up traffic. Some people have no patience.
We hit the bike path and singled out. The path was actually in pretty good shape except for the occasional branch and school kid. Luke’s whistle came in handy and they all moved to the side of the path for us, we hi-fived them as we road past at 40km. One slip of the hand little Johnny could have quite easily been knocked for six. All part of the fun of the day.
Morning tea was a quicker stop than normal as Luke wanted the lead out car for the session between now and lunch. We quickly rustled everyone up and headed off. Now there was 14 riders in the pack at the start of the day, and for some reason now we only had 13. We were missing someone, Dr Greg, where was Dr Greg! We stopped and waited, but no sign. We got word back to camp and heard that he would pull out with the next group and meet us at the lunch stop. Off we headed toward the hill, “is this it Luke?” I asked as we climbed up the highway north of Coffs. “No not yet” I was excited, finally I could have some fun. We turned off and there it was, A hill covered in Bananas. Luke got Bill our lead car driver to come back to the pack so that we had something to follow. That lasted about 30 seconds, sorry Luke, but everyone climbs at a different pace. Actually having the car to focus on made the climb even easier. Terry not to be outdone bridged the gap to come up behind me. I moved over and let him in beside me with the car. In the middle of the climb the road flattened for 200m allowing for some rest then it kicked up again about 8 or 9 % I’d guess. Nothing two difficult. Me and Terry were talking as we climbed. I assumed we would both just follow the car to the summit, I didn’t have anything to prove, but that was just me, Terry on the other hand couldn’t just ride shoulder to shoulder and took off with 200m to go. No biggy. Until we stopped at the top and the rest of the guys came through and it was “I was first”, “I was first” Somebody give him a medal quick! I went back down the hill to ride the remaindered with back markers.
Luke gave us the all clear to open up the legs to lunch. He told Bill to stay close by and took off down the other side of the hill at breakneck speed. We all chased, but before we knew it there was a 50m gap then a 100m gap then 200m. We were pulling turns off the front but we were no match for the Range Rover lead car that they were tucked in behind. A few of the guys eased off and we were down to about five chasing three. After about 5km the lead car came back to us. And we jumped on and worked to get back to the main three out in front. Even with the car it was still hard work and by the time we closed the gap I was peaking. I told Bill to go back and help the other guys to get back through, but Luke was waiting for us to use the car again. They had rested up while we chased and now they were ready to go again. Nathan jumped across and joined them, making four, but I was stuffed and couldn’t hold the wheel.
So there were four of us in no man’s land, the guys behind us couldn’t really help and the guys in front certainly weren’t going to wait again. So we started off to lunch as a small pack, Dr Paul, Dr Tim, Wayne and Myself. After a short while we turning over nicely and getting enough recover to maintain a reasonable speed 37-40km over undulating terrain. We rode through Glenn Innes and caught a glimpse of the lead car, only there was two riders 2 left. Right Guys lets pick them up. We worked hard and soon enough they were ours. We passed Luke and Nathan they were done. We grabbed the lead car and headed down the road in search of the other two out the front Mick and Terry. About 5km later we came across Terry, somewhat worse for wear out on his own, he pulled in behind the car. Soon after Mick was on the crest of the hill, that was everyone. We signaled Bill to pick up the pace to an even 40km and cruised into lunch. Terry and Mick had a sprint from the bridge, I’m not even sure who won that one, I was too hungry and tied to care. We’d done some good work to catch the car and then the guys out in front.
We almost beat the lunch wagon in and were about 30min earlier than expected. It was a hard 60km section. The temperate was up and I think we all felt it. Lunch was a little longer and the boys from Orange grabbed a bite and headed for the pub which was only 200m away. I was more pre-occupied with how I could get into the local swimming pool which was right next to the lunch tables. Talk about a tease. It was midday and the pool didn’t open till 1pm. We’d be gone before it opened.
We’d been at lunch for about an hour and the legs were getting a bit stiff. “Hey Luke, lets get this show on the road” I said. We rounded up all the guys, including Dr Greg, who made a cameo appearance in pack 2. All but the boys from Orange, we’d get them as we left. Out of the pub they came with beer breath. Now if these boys hadn’t proven themselves as excellent riders in the last 5 days I’d be concerned, but their inebriation just gave is something to laugh about as we made our way to Grafton and camp for the night.
I have to mention the Campsite at Grafton, if campsites can have five star rating this would be a six, magic, and so was the pool as it cooled down a pair of tired legs. I Set-up the tent, showered, changed and jumped on the bus to the Grafton Bowls Club for a fabulous bistro meal with the main group. Beer prices were also great and so we all took advantage of them polishing off drink, after drink, after drink. Stories came out about the days event, but my favourite for the night has to go Luke for his Army story of when he lost a Gattling gun to the enemy in a simulated war training exercise. "Buckets of Bullets, Buckets of Bullets!" Luke, you had me in stitches mate. If your ever on the ride buy Luke a beer or two and get him to tell you the story, it’s a classic. I was having such a good time that I didn’t even realise it was raining outside, this would test the tent. As usual we caught the last bus back to camp and I crashed after a big days riding.
Day 4 - The Day before Day 5
Waking up in Laurieton to a overcast day, could this be the first lot of bad weather for the ride, possibly, but for now it was off to breakfast and the usual pre-ride ritual. Cereal, toast with eggs (scrambled today) peach slices, bowl of nutragrain and juice. That should get me through to morning tea. My bottom lip which had gotten sun burnt on day one and that now was showing signs of blistering had got the better of me and I asked Sue our “go get it lady” to find me a lip balm with SPF15. It was the only thing I didn’t think of.
During breakfast the skys opened and the rain started. You could see the mood change, people were now talking about rain jackets and booties. Stories of previous rides and wet days came out, but I didn’t think today was going to be one of them. We had over 100kms to cover today and could quite easily ride around, our away from the shower.
Today’s preparation was either quick for me or everyone else seems to be slowing up My bike was out and ready to go, I threw some oil on the chain for good measure, even it was going to be a wet day no need to have a squeaky chain. All the boys from pack one and some from pack 2 were under the cover while a light shower came through. We got the call up to meet at the front of the caravan park. As usual pack three took off about 5 minutes after pack 4 and we had a wait for pack 2 to get underway.
Finally we were on our way heading up towards Port Macquarie and some great scenery alone the coast road before we turned inland. By his stage we’d covered about 10km and had maybe 35km before morning tea. The road became undulating and I realized by the hand painted sign on the road that we were on the course from the Ironman that was just two days earlier. Soon enough we were on open flat road again and picked up the pace as we rolled alone. No paceline today was the call, “Big day, day 5, don’t want to go to hard, just stay in your two and roll off when you get tired.” Everyone was talking about the 168km we had to cover tomorrow and the big hill we had to traverse. So we cruised, only catching a couple of the back packs.
After pulling into morning tea at the roadside service station/park I’d heard that Stash my friend from day one had snapped a derailleur hanger and would be off the bike till a replacement part could be found. I was talking to him about it and noticed that the chain was also bent and that a couple of spokes has also broke, this could see him out for a while. I think you were lucky not to have gone down with the bike Stash, good job.
The second leg of the day was uneventful except to mention the road was rather crappy. We pulled into lunch the stop and loaded up on the now somewhat familiar salad rolls. I heard through the grape vine that one of the Ironman competitors was going to be joining us today and finish the ride up to Surfers. Anyway it wasn’t to hard to spot Gary as he still had a faded letter “G” on the back of his calf. Good on you Gary for getting in and finishing the ride.
Now as today was just a rest day let me introduce the guys I was riding with. Dr Paul was from Sydney, he had a very nice Colnago full carbon bike, but the straight folks weren’t doing him any favours as we travelling over some very average roads. For a middle aged rider he was strong and was always ready to do his bit for the pack. A good conversationalist too. His ability as a rider was to prove handy for me tomorrow.
Then there was Dr Tim who I’d mentioned early, a reasonably good rider, after all he was in pack 1, but tended to run for the cover of a wheel whenever he could. Tim stayed with us though throughout the ride and of the few times that I was up the front with him he put in a solid effort.
Believe it or not there’s a third doctor, Doctor Greg a Cardiologist from the Gold Coast. Maybe Ken Robinson thought we’d be pushing the pack to the extreme and needed medical back-up but I think with these three guys we were certainly covered. So back to Greg. A slight on a man and if you saw him of a bike you wouldn’t be mistaken for wondering why. To his credit Greg might not have had the strength or speed of the riders around him, but he always did his turn and never once complained, Greg I hope you got a lot out of the ride and it was a pleasure riding with you, but get rid of that bell, it gives you up every time.
Wayne was a rider you wouldn’t pick for pack one on looks, he was a skinny guy only weighing about 65kg I’d say, and almost 6 foot. He was riding a Cannondale with areobars out the front and shifters on the down tube, I bet they were a pain in the backside. Never really heard much out of Wayne the whole trip, perhaps he was just concentrating on his riding. But I will say this he was a dark horse when it came to the hills, if I looked back Wayne was either right on my wheel or not to far behind.
Craig the Triathlete from Cronulla I met on Day 1, it was probably a good thing we had a chat on the first day because for the majority of the ride Craig was off the back of the pack riding solo except for the morning session when Nathan would drop back with a hangover and keep him company for a while, which from what I can remember was pretty much every day. Craig was on a training ride for an Ironman and wanted to feel the wind in his hair, could have got that from the front of the pack too Craig!
Seeing as we've been talking about drinking I need to mention Brendon & Mick the boys from Orange these boys could ride, and they could drink. It was nothing to see a dozen empties on the table before I’d even pitched my tent in the afternoon. I heard Brendon say that they were having a alcohol free day and they’d only consumed 10 beers. Good on ya boys even with all then beer you still kept strong. By now they’ve probably finished their round trip back to Orange, that’s right, they rode back, about 2250km round trip.
Steve the weatherman, always knew when a storm was around the corner and let everyone know. A good solid rider, paced himself well to get home in almost one piece, had a bit of a knee problem in the last two days and still managed to make it over all those hills.
Terry what can I say about Terry that he wouldn’t tell you himself. Not a lot I suspect. Terry talked it up and at times it was overwhelming, but I can tell you this guy is a strong rider, always at the front of the pack even if he did serge a bit and loved to attack those hills. Perhaps his bike handling skill could do with some work, but I’ll talk more about that on Day 7.
Nathan Berghammer or Hammer as he was to become known. Nathan only really made one showing in the sprint into lunch to clean up Terry and we all wonder why he didn’t do more. When we stopped riding on the last day and he showed us the amount of play he had in his folks and handlebars, I hope you’ve got that fixed Hammer! Nathan was the larrikin of the pack and always kept us amused. He’d even pull some turns once his hangover subsided in the day. You’ll have to go drink for drink with the boys from Orange Nathan and see how you pull up the next day.
Glenn Durey, now Glenn was the guy who got a bit excited on day one and got an earful for his efforts off the front. Surprisingly though from Day two he settled down and became a integral part of the pack doing his turn when needed and keeping a lively conversation going about “Race Across America” and “Paris Nice Paris”. If you ever want to know everything there is to know about either of these races then Glenn’s your man.
The Silver Brumby, Werner, a good friend of mine and a very experienced rider, Werner was the one who inspired me to do this ride so if you want to blame anyone about me being here blame Werner. Werner was solid all the way through and even kept Luke out of trouble. Always one to socialise, it was a pleasure to ride with you Brumby!
Luke our pack Captain, one hell of a voice, if you didn’t hear this guy you’d have to be deaf. A great leader of men, he had us all working well together, and riding smooth. You could see the way he rode a bike he was experienced. Great on the downhill, but not so crash hot on the up hills. Still we weren’t in a race and Luke’s leadership was just what the pack needed.
So Day 4 came to an end as we rolled through Macksville and out the other side to the Nanbucca River Caravan Park. We all pitched our tents on what seemed to be their front lawn and headed for the pool to soak the legs and get rid of a bit of lactic acid. A few beers at the Macksville pub later in the day went down well as we watched for our spot on the local news network. Sure enough the Ride got a mention, which would make us popular on the road the next day.
Day 3 - Sprints and Speeches
Bulahdelah was supposed to be an uneasy sleep because the camp site was right next to the highway, but I can tell you I slept like a baby. I actually woke up and didn’t feel to bad. The night before Luke our pack captain had given us the word “Everyone wear the ride kit”. So after another great breakfast and packing up the gear we all gathered in our ride kit. We looked like a team, it felt good. “Right boys it’s photo time”, happy snaps were taken and before we knew it we were off on another days adventure. Well after waiting for Dr Tim of course who seemed to still be on doctor time.
The morning session took a bit longer to warm up than usual, a few of the guys were complaining of stomach aches from Sammy’s food the night before. It was either that or they were just tired from two days of riding! Soon enough we got a roll on and started up on the paceline, back to the fun stuff. We were passing other packs as we flew down the highway at over 45km/h. Just up ahead was pack 2 and the signal was to pick up the pace and get round them. So we waited till the top of a rise to get them on the downside and off we went. A few hellos were said as we scooted past in paceline formation.
We started out the morning with 14 riders and now magically we had about 22 !! Some of the cowboys from pack 2 had decided to abandon their pack and cause havoc in amongst our now well oiled machine. Let me tell you it was instantaneous kaos, guys were surging off the front, pulling in, not to mention riding down the road at 50km/h trying to flash there butt crack at you (Thanks for that Pete). We must have just ridden past clown school.
After a couple of km’s we got to the top of another rolling rise and Luke pulled us over. We had no idea what was coming, but once we stopped he said “Right you pack 2 guys you’ve had your fun now bugger off back to your pack. We pasted you and beat you fair and square. Pack 1 lets ride” So off we went. Actually I was pleased that they went back to their pack, I could see someone being brought down at the pace we were traveling and it wouldn’t have been pretty.
We pulled up to morning tea stuff our faces with all assortments of cakes and slices, jellybeans and snakes and hit the road. The session to lunch was a bit under 50km’s and was typical NSW highway, long rolling flat section with the occasional rise just for good measure, we were turning over the paceline for a good portion of the leg, but then Luke called us in for a rest about 15km before lunch.
This is probably a good time to tell you a bit about Terry or 1300 as the boys were calling him early on. Terry has a habit of telling you all about his achievements and apparently on a pervious ride he sprouted that he’d been riding 1300km a week in training. OK Terry, sure! Well anyway by now we’d all pretty much heard that Terry was a hill climber and a sprinter, hell, maybe even an all rounder! Terry had been out the front for a fair while next to Brendon and egos meant that neither were going to roll away. So 500m before the lunch stop Luke called out “right boys lets see how much Terry’s got left in the Tank and they were off, Terry went off the front and then Brendon chased, Mick was a close follower. Then there was the Dark horse, Nathan, about 5’4” tall and legs like tree stumps, this guy had to be a sprinter. He shot up the inside and cleaned them all up before they even knew what hit them. Terry’s first comment was, "but he’s done no work". We’ll Terry, that’s what sprinters do! You've been done son, take it on the chin.
Lunch was uneventful until pack four came in and one of the riders through exhaustion or just forgetting to unclick and did the ungraceful 'fall off dismount'. Then the same happened again with a pack five rider, we all had a laugh, knowing in the back of our mind that we’ve all been there before.
The last session of the day was only 28km into Laurieton and camp for the night. Uneventful except for Wayne blowing another tube and tyre. I think that was Wayne's third unscheduled stop he wasn’t having much luck. We got him patched up and head down the road to base camp. Apparently this section was available for sprinting, but none of us had the inclination and those that did had their showing before lunch so we just cruised in as one. I heard at the speeches later that not all packs held it together down that stretch though.
Dinner was at the Laurieton RSL and I’m sure it was a fine meal, but I just couldn’t stomach another carbo bistro, so I rounded up a few of the boys and we headed to the pub for a 400g rib eye steak, fabulous, absolutely fabulous! I knew I’d be right for tomorrow with a good dose of Protein to balance out all the energy bars I been consuming. We headed down to the RSL to catch up with the riders and listen to the pack captain’s speeches. Now most of these were a quick run down of funny incidences and outstanding performances or performers, but not when we got to pack three captain Rod. Rod held onto that microphone like it was his long lost brother and his speech was more reminiscent of a ‘State of the Union’. What he said I honestly couldn’t tell you, but hopefully his pack and the others enjoyed it. Rod for next year point form would be great my friend. By now we’d had a few beverages and were quite happily holding up the bar and flirting with the cute waitress.
It was time for the pack 1 speech, and by now Luke was three sheets to the wind. This was going to be and interesting speech “Hey Brumby”, and Luke didn’t fail to deliver, not a long speech, some what repetitive “Hey Brumby”, but none the less very entertaining. If we hadn’t been labeled elite before that night, we’ll lets just say Luke certainly cleared up any doubt. “We’ve got and excellent bunch of rider all sticking together and taking their turns, I’m riding well, The Boy’s from Orange are on fire and even Dr Tim is doing good work, Hey Brumby”. Brumby by the way was Werner, Lukes left hand man. Well done Luke we all had a laugh with you.
Day 2 - Pace Line to Bulahdelah
After waking up 5am from the food truck idling (note to self don’t pitch tent near food truck) I got up and had a hot shower before the morning rush, Morriset isn’t that cold, but for a Queenslander a night in the sleeping bag wasn’t that warn either.
Wayne and the crew put on a cracker of a breakfast and we were all fed and pretty much ready to go by 8am. We slowly all gathered at the top of the caravan park and listened as the pack captains one by one give the riders a serving for not sticking to together, making unnecessary breakaways and moving away from the follow-up vehicle in yesterdays ride.
Our pack was no exception. Luke gave us a serve, perhaps today would be a bit more cohesive. He also mention a pace line which got everyone’s attention and gave us something to focus on. The whisper going through the pack was that the morning session into lunch was fast. I was looking forward to this.
We started out and warmed up the legs, the pack kept pretty much in formation. We still have some urban area to get through and although we weren’t going that fast we had to make a few turns, Luke had the map and was our guide. We’d just pasted pack 2 and headed down the road with them in close proximity. I’m not sure if Luke did this deliberately but we took a wrong turn at one of the roundabouts and took pack 2 with us, Wayne their pack captain was steaming. So much so that we decided to get to morning tea via an alternative route, with the support car in tow of course.
25, 27, 30, 33, 36km/h the pace was slowly building. The whistle went, time to roll over off the front and see what type of riders we had in the pack. It took maybe 5km to iron out the kinks and get everyone talking but we were pretty good. Turning over about 37km off the front. Morning tea came all to quickly for me, I was very much enjoying today’s ride.
We had our cinnamon buns, peanut butter and vegemite, coffee, cake and Megaburn bars. We all knew that we had a good session in front of us and were keen to get away. Soon enough we were on the road and building pace, then we hit the highway, flat and fast, smooth concrete. The whistle went and we were off rolling of the front in perfect formation between 42-47km/h it was tough but consistent so you weren’t going to blow up. There was not going to be any breakaway in this session! The distance between morning tea and lunch was 42km and we covered in about an hour flat. I think the average was 40.8km for the session. We all had a laugh when Nathan said he still had crumbs on his mouth from morning tea. Mind you the legs were now full of lactic acid and we were sitting down resting for lunch, the 54km's to camp would be interesting !!
Day two was Sunday the day of the Port Macquarie Ironman and a few of the guys knew people competing. We were getting regular updates as the day progress and this made for interesting conversation in the last leg. I needed something to take my mind off the dead legs that were hanging from my hips, the rest at lunch had done me no favours. The fact the road was long and undulating didn’t really help.
The only slight change in scenery was a pack of about 80 Rebel bikers who flew past us as we pedaled our way into Bulahdeluh. I was a great days riding, but I was very happy to get off the saddle at the end of the day, pitch the tent (now that I had some idea how to) and massage some of the junk out of the legs.
We were told by Duncan the volunteer catering manager that dinner was by ticket and the first people to get the tickets at the Bulahdelah Country Club would be served first when the Sammy’s Chinese Restaurant – bistro opened. So we had our tickets, mine was 79, and all milled around and told tall stories of the day.
Duncan, however, had a trick up his sleeve, he held back the first five tickets and would auction them off to the hungriest, the proceeds going to “youth off the streets” the real reason we were all here! So Connor a veteran of the ride grabbed the mic and started a lively auction, the first went for $30, then $25, then $30 and so on. Scott one of the riders who had won an early dinner had a low ticket number 13 and so another auction started, only this time it was serious, egos got involved and before you could blink the ticket was up over $100, Scott you have to stop biding against yourself!, then $150 and finally topped out at $200. $200 for a meal at Sammy’s Chinese Restaurant in Buladehluh, who would have thought !! But all for a great cause and heaps of fun.
The wait for dinner meant that some of the boys and girls had a few and by the end of the night they were holding up the bar. Nathan developed a bad case of Turrets Syndrome which keep us all in stitches and not to be outdone Luke did a superb version as a tour guide on the bus back to the camp sight, even if it was only 1.5km away.
Day 1 - 128km Meet and Greet
Day 1
Meet at the car park at 6am was the call. I was only 2 blocks away and evidently was one of the first to arrive. I watched as all the cyclist turned up in cars unpacked and kissed there loved ones goodbye for a week. It was a meet and greet for about an hour, making new friends and for some finding old ones. I’d found my pack and loaded up the gear into the back of the follow-up truck. Now it was a waiting game for the five other packs to come together and start there seven day journey.
As usual there is always someone who is late to these sorts of event and today it was Doctor Tim. Apparently Doctor Tim was staying on the north shore and got caught in traffic, but he managed to turn up right on 7:30am (only 1 1/2 hours late) the time we where scheduled to leave. Luke our pack captain helped him load his gear into our support vehicle and pump tyres etc. It was time to hit the road.
After all the anticipation and training it was good to finally get underway. It was to be a slow first session what with the weekend traffic in Sydney and a new bunch of riders. So we all settled in and made introductions. I met Craig first a triathlete from Cronulla, as we rolled our way out of Hornsby.
With the pack cruising it gave me a chance to look around and see who was riding what. Let me tell you there were some interesting bikes there, some were pristine, like new, others were obviously well keep, but surprisingly there were some out of the square bikes, one was an old Wilier with a welded downtube, another a old Cannondale with shifter on the down tube. Personally I wouldn’t want to be riding 100km on these bikes let alone a 1000, but we’ll see how they go, after all it's the rider who pushes the pedals!
About an hour into the first session we started to clear the traffic and headed up a decent climb. The boys had warned me about it so I knew what was ahead. Don’t go hard on the first climb they said, you'll pay for it on the third day ! So I sat back and watched at a few of the guys inflate their egos. 5km to the top of the climb and we were at the first break, 15 minutes, some well organised food drinks and for the hard core cyclists coffee then we were off.
We’d been told that there were some rolling hills up on the plateau and then a steep decent down Bumblebee hill into lunch. The decent came soon enough, Captain Luke took off and we all followed. Half way down there was a distinct burning smell like something was on fire, surely we weren’t descending that fast that out brakes were melting. As I found out later Glen had a set of X-treme carbon race wheels on with cork braking pads, and that was what the burning smell was. The boys said there was a trail of smoke come off the break callipers. Perhaps not the best type of wheels for a 1000km ride Glen !! At the bottom of the hill was a T intersection and if you missed it you were in someone's front lawn. Luckily enough we made it to lunch in one piece, but there were 2 who didn’t.
A rider who I later came to know as Gus blew out a front tire descending down the hill and went over the handlebars, a substantial amount of skin was left on the road, but no broken bones, just a broken derailer and some rather large bruises I would imagine. He was out for at least the rest of the day while the bike was being fixed.
The other unfortunate rider was switching between packs because he didn’t feel to well and wanted to rest up unfortunately he missed the signal to turn and rode an extra 40km before he made it to the lunch area, 168km makes for a long first day especially when your not feeling well.
After lunch we headed for Camp for the night at Lake Macquaire Caravan Park, the road was flatter and we picked up a bit of speed rolling off the front at around 38km/h. There were a couple of keen riders Terry and Glen who continued to surge when they got to the front and had been doing it since morning tea, perhaps they had something to prove. Interestingly enough one of more experience riders said what we were all thinking and Glen got an earful about the virtues of pack riding. Would that be enough to settle things down. Only time would tell.
Morrisett first night camp. A good days riding, by no means a tough day but I still knew I’d ridden 120+ kms. More than anything I was looking forward to having a shower. First things first, put up the tent, right, so how does this thing go again! After five minute of head scratching a couple of guys Harry and Stash came over and lent a hand. The tent was up and I had somewhere to sleep, Thanks Guys, I think I still owe you a beer! A quick shower and on the bus to Morriset RSL for Bistro Dinner and the Ride Jersey and Nics, and a couple of beers. As usual there was much to talk about, who fell off, who got lost and who was first up the hill !
