alpine RR (brief)

Bleve said:

time : 9.37.30

is that elapsed or riding time? impressive, 'sprinter-boy' 😄

thought of you all yesterday. madness

flyingdutch said:

Bleve said:

time : 9.37.30

is that elapsed or riding time? impressive, 'sprinter-boy' 😄

Riding. Not sure what elapsed was. I think around 10 and a half to 11
hrs -
had a 15 min break at Falls and about 30 mins at Bright before Buffalo,
and
Buffalo was punctuated by frequent stops for water. Savagely hot .. I
figured
the best thing to do was just keep riding and get air cooled as much as
possible. Sitting still in the hot, still air was bad news.

That's a mammoth effort Bleve!!!

Anna and I said g'day as we saw you up Falls Creek. We were doing the 130km ride.

We were shagged at the top and spent about 20 mins up there recovering.

We got back to the base of Towonga Gap, where someone offered us a lift back to Bright - we took the opportunity.

I'm never taking the mountain bike again!

Saw Jaywoo there at the finish. He looked pretty fresh after his 200 km. Looking forward to his report.

Good job all those who had a go, what a shame the weather was so hot. I hope everyone made it safe and sound and I look forward to reading the reports. It was all I could manage to lie on the couch and watch the Tour Down Under so I am very impressed with those willing to get out and ride on Sunday.

Bleve said:

200km, 42 degress up Buffalo, tag it & bag it.

Details : 9968kcal (est by Polar S720)
202.8km (including ride to Bright from Porepunka in the morning)
av HR : 136
av speed 21.2 (!)
alt gained : 3785m
time : 9.37.30
bidon's emptied over body - lots
bidons drunk - 11
[censored] stops - 1 (!)
max temp seen : 50 degress (at Bright in the sun at the control point
before Buffalo)

Bonus points to the AUDAX organisers for free icecreams at the top of
Buffalo. Never has an icecream tasted so good! Got to say, AUDAX
organised a very good event - there was loads of motorbikes with water
etc on Buffalo, every 5 mins one would go past - very reasuring. I
think next year I might volunteer to ride a MB and help out, one Alpine
is enough for this lazy sprinter.

Drive home via Yea to Vermont redirected back to Hume by huge bushfire
blocking Melba Hwy. Smoke, Yea town under serious threat ... we have
photos .. amazing ... scary. I hope they're ok.

If anyone's wondering what the chopper was for, a rider had a meltdown
(liquified muscles, renal failure etc) and was airlifted to the Alfred
I think - according the local ambo at Mertleford.

One hot day at the office... glad it's over, I'm going to bed.

Well done Bleve and yes one seriously hot day. While going up Tawonga Gap from Mt Beauty it was about 40 in the shade and while in the sun it felt like you were melting, the water stop had run out of water and they had to go and get more from Mt Beauty.

Really well organized event on Audax’s part and yes the ice creams were good at Buffalo and there was also heaps of food but I didn’t feel like eating that much due to the heat.

Really friendly ride despite the condition, people were in for a chat along the way and while riding up Buffalo some of the riders coming down would give you the distances to the top.

Got home at 5.00am after taking a few naps along the way. Drove down the Hume and got smoked out at one stage obviously from the fire that you encountered.

jazmo said:

That's a mammoth effort Bleve!!!

Anna and I said g'day as we saw you up Falls Creek. We were doing the
130km ride.

I hope I replied and was polite 🙂 It's all a bit of a blur, all I can
remember is buffalo!
2km to go .. 1km to go ... 500m ... 250m ... and ... ICECREAM!

Quoted message said:

We were shagged at the top and spent about 20 mins up there recovering.

We got back to the base of Towonga Gap, where someone offered us a lift
back to Bright - we took the opportunity.

I'm never taking the mountain bike again!

Yeah? I'd have thought an MTB would be fine, all those gears ... you
can just twiddle all the way up the hills.

Quoted message said:

Saw Jaywoo there at the finish. He looked pretty fresh after his 200
km. Looking forward to his report.

Bloody climbers 🙂

Bleve said:

200km, 42 degress up Buffalo, tag it & bag it.

Details : 9968kcal (est by Polar S720)
202.8km (including ride to Bright from Porepunka in the morning)
av HR : 136
av speed 21.2 (!)
alt gained : 3785m
time : 9.37.30
bidon's emptied over body - lots
bidons drunk - 11
[censored] stops - 1 (!)
max temp seen : 50 degress (at Bright in the sun at the control point
before Buffalo)

Bonus points to the AUDAX organisers for free icecreams at the top of
Buffalo. Never has an icecream tasted so good! Got to say, AUDAX
organised a very good event - there was loads of motorbikes with water
etc on Buffalo, every 5 mins one would go past - very reasuring. I
think next year I might volunteer to ride a MB and help out, one Alpine
is enough for this lazy sprinter.

Drive home via Yea to Vermont redirected back to Hume by huge bushfire
blocking Melba Hwy. Smoke, Yea town under serious threat ... we have
photos .. amazing ... scary. I hope they're ok.

If anyone's wondering what the chopper was for, a rider had a meltdown
(liquified muscles, renal failure etc) and was airlifted to the Alfred
I think - according the local ambo at Mertleford.

One hot day at the office... glad it's over, I'm going to bed.

Man that sounds like a tough ride! (So does that TDU ride as well). Feel alright today?

I had a top ride in the gold coast hinterland, but it was only 23 degrees up there and 34 when we got back to the gold coast. Bugger riding in 40 degrees!

Adam

adam85 said:

Bleve said:

200km, 42 degress up Buffalo, tag it & bag it.

Details : 9968kcal (est by Polar S720)
202.8km (including ride to Bright from Porepunka in the morning)
av HR : 136
av speed 21.2 (!)
alt gained : 3785m
time : 9.37.30
bidon's emptied over body - lots
bidons drunk - 11
[censored] stops - 1 (!)
max temp seen : 50 degress (at Bright in the sun at the control point
before Buffalo)

Bonus points to the AUDAX organisers for free icecreams at the top of
Buffalo. Never has an icecream tasted so good! Got to say, AUDAX
organised a very good event - there was loads of motorbikes with water
etc on Buffalo, every 5 mins one would go past - very reasuring. I
think next year I might volunteer to ride a MB and help out, one
Alpine
is enough for this lazy sprinter.

Drive home via Yea to Vermont redirected back to Hume by huge bushfire
blocking Melba Hwy. Smoke, Yea town under serious threat ... we have
photos .. amazing ... scary. I hope they're ok.

If anyone's wondering what the chopper was for, a rider had a meltdown
(liquified muscles, renal failure etc) and was airlifted to the Alfred
I think - according the local ambo at Mertleford.

One hot day at the office... glad it's over, I'm going to bed.

Man that sounds like a tough ride! (So does that TDU ride as well).
Feel alright today?

I had a top ride in the gold coast hinterland, but it was only 23
degrees up there and 34 when we got back to the gold coast. Bugger
riding in 40 degrees!

Adam

Where did you go, and what's the plan for Australia Day?

adam85 said:

Bleve said:

200km, 42 degress up Buffalo, tag it & bag it.

Details : 9968kcal (est by Polar S720)
202.8km (including ride to Bright from Porepunka in the morning)
av HR : 136
av speed 21.2 (!)
alt gained : 3785m
time : 9.37.30
bidon's emptied over body - lots
bidons drunk - 11
[censored] stops - 1 (!)
max temp seen : 50 degress (at Bright in the sun at the control point
before Buffalo)

Bonus points to the AUDAX organisers for free icecreams at the top of
Buffalo. Never has an icecream tasted so good! Got to say, AUDAX
organised a very good event - there was loads of motorbikes with water
etc on Buffalo, every 5 mins one would go past - very reasuring. I
think next year I might volunteer to ride a MB and help out, one
Alpine
is enough for this lazy sprinter.

Drive home via Yea to Vermont redirected back to Hume by huge bushfire
blocking Melba Hwy. Smoke, Yea town under serious threat ... we have
photos .. amazing ... scary. I hope they're ok.

If anyone's wondering what the chopper was for, a rider had a meltdown
(liquified muscles, renal failure etc) and was airlifted to the Alfred
I think - according the local ambo at Mertleford.

One hot day at the office... glad it's over, I'm going to bed.

Man that sounds like a tough ride! (So does that TDU ride as well).
Feel alright today?

No dramas, walking down stairs is not so comfortable, but that's always
hard after a big ride. Rode to work today, pretty well on my usual
pace. I'll use the first few days of the week as recovery before
hitting interval work late this week, road season aproacheth.

Quoted message said:

I had a top ride in the gold coast hinterland, but it was only 23
degrees up there and 34 when we got back to the gold coast. Bugger
riding in 40 degrees!

42 ... not 40 🙂

Tamyka Bell said:

Where did you go, and what's the plan for Australia Day?

Just up Beechmont and on to Binna Burra and back. Very nice, about a 800m climb, not that steep but a fair bit of up and down. Dunno about Australia Day yet, didn't get any bites from my post so it might just be a quick run up Mt Nebo or do Binna burra again.

Adam

adam85 said:

Tamyka Bell said:

Where did you go, and what's the plan for Australia Day?

Just up Beechmont and on to Binna Burra and back. Very nice, about a
800m climb, not that steep but a fair bit of up and down. Dunno about
Australia Day yet, didn't get any bites from my post so it might just
be a quick run up Mt Nebo or do Binna burra again.

Adam

I wouldn't mind doing Beechmont/Binna Burra... where would you go from?
I was thinking a loop, out coastal and back via Canungra/Beaudesert, but
I get the feeling I'd have no chance of keeping up with you, even if I
wheelsucked the entire way and attached an occy strap for the hill.

Tam

Bleve said:

200km, 42 degress up Buffalo, tag it & bag it.

Details : 9968kcal (est by Polar S720)
202.8km (including ride to Bright from Porepunka in the morning)
av HR : 136
av speed 21.2 (!)
alt gained : 3785m
time : 9.37.30
bidon's emptied over body - lots
bidons drunk - 11
[censored] stops - 1 (!)
max temp seen : 50 degress (at Bright in the sun at the control point
before Buffalo)

Bonus points to the AUDAX organisers for free icecreams at the top of
Buffalo. Never has an icecream tasted so good! Got to say, AUDAX
organised a very good event - there was loads of motorbikes with water
etc on Buffalo, every 5 mins one would go past - very reasuring. I
think next year I might volunteer to ride a MB and help out, one Alpine
is enough for this lazy sprinter.

<snip>

What a day!
I went over my goal time (<10hrs) but I’d decided to take it easy (if that’s possible) due to the heat. My planned food & drink intake and approx climb rate was going well up to Falls Creek. Every time I do this event I learn a little more & do a little better. Sometime after the return climb on Tawonga I started to feel a bit unsettled in the stomach. It could have been not quite eating enough at the Falls Creek checkpoint, the volume of water I was trying to drink or the water itself. Either way when back in Bright I struggled to eat some lunch.
Before the Mt Buffalo National Park entry gate and the accent proper, is a shortish rise of only a few km’s but in the full sun. This was like being browned in a pan before the slow cooking on the main climb. I thought that would be the worst part & there would be more shade further on.
My legs weren’t feeling too bad, heart rate was OK and I wasn’t gasping for breath. I still didn’t feel like eating any of the energy bars I had. The warm water & Powerade I had to force down. I made a few stops to drink & see if my heart rate would lower. Anything over 5 BPM I called recovery & started riding again.
Real distress came from the sweat pouring into my eyes & the cloud of flies this attracted. Most of the stops I made were to flush my eyes with a bidon. The midway water stop was fantastic; they had ice for our drinks & a water sprayer to remove excess salt from your face.
I recommend ice-cream as recovery food for future AUDAX checkpoints.

Elapsed Time: 11:29:54
Max HR: 159
Avg HR: 130

Highlights: The AUDAX organisation & volunteers.
Lowlights: Meteorology & flies.

Bikesoiler said:

Sometime after the return climb on Tawonga I started to feel a bit unsettled in the stomach. It could have been not quite eating enough at the Falls Creek checkpoint, the volume of water I was trying to drink or the water itself. Either way when back in Bright I struggled to eat some lunch.

didnt have any water from the Springs halfway up did you?
Have heard from others there was reports of eColi there???

Bikesoiler said:

Max HR: 159
Avg HR: 130

Bugger me! 159 maX!!!
i can do that eating ice cream 🙄

F"so glad he didnt do AAC"Dutch

On 2006-01-23, Bikesoiler (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

stops to drink & see if my heart rate would lower. Anything over 5 BPM
I called recovery & started riding again.

It's a bummer when your HR drops to 4 BPM 🙂

Quoted message said:

Real distress came from the sweat pouring into my eyes & the cloud of
flies this attracted. Most of the stops I made were to flush my eyes
with a bidon. The midway water stop was fantastic; they had ice for
our drinks & a water sprayer to remove excess salt from your face.
I recommend ice-cream as recovery food for future AUDAX checkpoints.

....

Quoted message said:

Highlights: The AUDAX organisation & volunteers.
Lowlights: Meteorology & flies.

AUDAX organisers/vollies /are/ fantastic. GVBR(2004), TDU(2006) etc
all have problems in the heat -- not enough water stops even for
people carrying 3 bidons, and crappy food provided, etc. I've only
been on one audax organised ride (150km), and it was very well
organised with lots of good food, and keep hearing about stories like
this.

Good on you, everyone involved!

I hope to do the AAC one year.

--
TimC
If I'd known computer science was going to be like this, I'd never have
given up being a rock 'n' roll star. -- G. Hirst

Bikesoiler said:

What a day!
I went over my goal time (<10hrs) but I’d decided to take it easy (if that’s possible) due to the heat.

So what, you finished!

****My Hero****

cheers,

Bikesoiler's Personal Soigneur, Beer Wench & Spa Room Attendant.
😄 😄 😄 😄 😄

Bikesoiler said:

What a day!
I went over my goal time (<10hrs) but I’d decided to take it easy (if that’s possible) due to the heat.

LOL I think FINISHING is an achievement in weather like that - hard to set time goals with conditions like those! 😄

flyingdutch said:

didnt have any water from the Springs halfway up did you?
Have heard from others there was reports of eColi there???

There was a spring half way up Buffalo that came out of the bank and into a small pit with a pipe sticking out, the sign said do not drink the water.

Some guys had just come down from the top and they stopped and poured a few biddons over their heads and as I rode by I decided to do the same.

I'd been looking forward to this ride for nearly a year, and keen to go under 10hrs at least...well that was the plan.

Started off at a steady pace, following a paceline set by one of the Anaconda guys, up to the start of Tawonga for the first climb. I wanted to keep the HR below 165 if I could, and had to force myself to slow down as I looked down to see 180 on the watch. Jaywoo, who started 20 mins later, and was high on caffeine had already caught me halfway up. Fun decent into Mt Beauty, where I had some tucker and topped up the bottles. Took it easy up Falls, with just the 1 passing me, and passing plenty. Felt strong going up, but kept it in the reserve gear until I saw the first lot of riders speeding down, and then I got a rush of blood and kicked it up a gear...ok just one of the foolish things I did on the day. Reached the top, just as Jaywoo was starting his decent. Drank, ate and got sprayed at Falls, prob up the top for about 15 mins, then for the highlight of the day, the decent down Falls, in which I had an absolute ball, and once again got carried away with the rush of adrenlin. Only got passed by two guys, and passed plenty (which wasn't bad for a bloke of my weight, and oh those GP400's handle the corners well 😄), out of the saddle for the little uppy bits and powering out of the corners. Swapped turns with another bloke up to Mt Beauty....kinda forgetting to keep an eye on my HRM. Hit Tawonga and died in the [censored], legs where still fresh, but my head was banging, and I was starting to get the shivers. Pulled over to cool down at drop my HR, which was racing...15 min later it was still above 145, eventually managed to get it down to 129, so set off verrrryy slowly...stopping another couple of times.......filling up at the springs, now why didn't I hear there was ecoli in there???? This may have been one of the reasons why I had the runs that night..hmmm. Anyway just rolled down the decent into Bright, back in 5hr 30 min. Jumped into the hotel room, many thanks to the cleaner for turning the aircon off that I had left on 🙄 and tried to cool down and get the resting HR done to a normal level, still debating if I should continue. 50 min later I set off for Buffalo, got to the entry gate...stopped for 5 mins, looked up at what was confronting me, and decided it just wasn't worth it. Thats right I wimped out...[censored] effort I know, but I just didn't want to risk it. Rode back to Bright [censored] at myself.

Hats off to everyone that completed the 200km..a sensational effort.

HR max 183
HR average (inc rests) 149
Elaspsed time 7hr 23 min
Distance 153km

essendon93 said:

continue. 50 min later I set off for Buffalo, got to the entry gate...stopped for 5 mins, looked up at what was confronting me, and decided it just wasn't worth it. Thats right I wimped out...[censored] effort I know, but I just didn't want to risk it. Rode back to Bright [censored] at myself.

Hats off to everyone that completed the 200km..a sensational effort.

HR max 183
HR average (inc rests) 149
Elaspsed time 7hr 23 min
Distance 153km

no shame there fella! 'we' have all done that one.
In those conditions merely riding was a huge effort
It took me 2 go's of wimping out after 130+km to do the full 200k.
Funnily enuff the 2 full distance i did were in much friendlier heat ('only' 25-30deg) 😄