I haven't ridden my bike since JC's funeral, I have sacrificed so much to get this bike, I need to ride it! Because I had everything packed and ready to go (only needed to pour water into my drink bottles), I got out of my bed, put on my cycling clothes and went out the door with my bottles and cycling bag and drove to Diamond Creek. I wasn't 100% if the ride left at 7:15 or 7:30 so I wanted to get there by 7am with enough time for a toilet stop. All I can say is THANK GOD maccas, it was right next to the train station!
I was there with plenty of time to get ready and the group left for the ride from Diamond Creek - Hurtsbridge - St Andrews - Kinglake - Pleasent Creek - Humevale - Whittlesea - Arthurs Creek - Diamond Creek.
Sunday Kinglake Training by evalin1980 at Garmin Connect - Details
The ride was life changing - I was up the front behind Clare and Paddy but as soon as we hit Kinglake, my body broke down. The fog made the ride so hard for my breathing that I was coughing all the way up the first part of the ride. I was getting dizzy from the lack of air too. I was coughing so much at one point that I had a small spew along the way. After passing the foggy part of Kinglake climb and to where it was clearer, I got my breathing back and I could get a rhythm back onto my pedal stroke. The other thing which made my ride hard was my legs were still sore from Thursday night runs. My muscle soreness is really an issue as it takes several days for it to subside. I know I should do several things - ice, foam roller, walk etc but I just didn't have time after the run as I had to get up early the next day for the swim!
I had someone from the TA group with me the whole time I rode up Kinglake so it was good knowing that I wasn't alone. Then when we got to the Bakery (top of Kinglake), the group was nearly off to the next part of the ride. I rested for about 5min, had a gel (didnt have time for a toilet break) and off to Humevale we go. The ride after Kinglake was amazing! Long straight downhill (with a small up hill only) and going to Humevale was also an adventure. The road had a speed limit of 100km/h so there were some areas where it was scary to ride and the conditions of the road on the left of the white line was in no condition to ride on! Some cars were a bit angry but seriously....you get to live another day. When we got into Whittlesea, I finally had a chance to go to the toilet - I really needed it and felt like I lost about 2kg.
The ride from Whittlesea to Arthurs Creek was amazing - I got down on my drops and it took no time to reach Arthurs Creek Road. Athurs Creek road has been dedicated to Cadel Evans (as his mum lives there) so there were paint messages on the roads as well as along the fences of the properties. There was a small hill along the road and that's where I dropped my chain and had to get off the bike to fix it. At this point, everyone passed me and I was the last one of the group. Once I got my chain back on, I was adamant on not being last so I rode past as many people as I could.
When we got back onto Main Road, the stress of riding along a main road was high. It was close to midday so there were many cars on the road that were not bike friendly.
After the ride I drove to work to take a shower to get ready for Ausbike. The Ausbike Expo was not as good as last year - not as many stands and not all the major brands were there. Last year Ollie was at the Altitude stand too so I think the price for an expo stand was high and not many ppl thought it was a good investment considering that ppl cant buy straight off the shelf and will research and buy their bikes online.
