Today was the Kinglake Ride which starts at Whittlesea - Arthurs Creek - St Andrews - Kinglake - Glenburn - Flowerdale - Humvale back to Whittlesea. This is a 120km route and this year was its 4th year.Melbourne weather is unpredictable, unreliable and can sometimes be an absolute bitch! Today, Melbourne weather was a bitch on PMS who just got its heart broken.
The drive up to Whittlesea was interesting as there were road blocks so the trip was extended by about 15min or so. By the time I got into Whittlesea, I got a parking spot right in front of the starting line which was very handy. I got all my bags and bike ready and went to the TA Taj to get ready.
The ride started out with Sally, Kerri, Margaret and I but quickly (due to the amount of ppl on the roads), that we lost each other pretty quickly until Arthurs Creek. At this point, due to the coldness, I had a bad headache from the coldness and this headache stayed with me the whole time on the ride - not pleasant! I decided to ride through St Andrews where I saw heaps of ppl taking their first break as it was the break before the big Kinglake climb. I didnt want to waste my time there so I kept riding.
The Kinglake climb was good - much much better than the first time I rode up the climb and my legs were feeling ok. I kept the cadence high (70+). I didnt know where the girls were at Kinglake but heard Margs call out my name at the intersection. We didn't stop for long as it was too cold and the rain/hail also started to kick in. The ride after Kinglake was painful. It started to pour and it was also a descent which meant that we had hail hit our faces and it was a cold cold way down. Once we did 60km, Margs and I decided to stop - toilet, water etc. At this point, we were both shivering and had to warm up in the caravan. Once our core temps were good, we started again. The next 60km - 80km was pretty boring, there were not many ppl on the roads (lots of ppl turned at Kinglake to do the 70km route) and many ppl would have called it quits due to the freezing temperatures and some would have just finished.
We decided to stop at 85km as it was too cold to eat on the bike. We had our water filled again and off we went. After this stop, it was through Flowerdale so there was another climb to do. I felt weak and my stomach started to get bloated and this would only mean one thing - too much fructose, maltodextrin and my stomach was filled with gas and I needed to go to the toilet bad. My ride through Flowerdale was uncomfortable and I thanked the skies that was one more toilet stop and so I went (to the toilet). After the toilet stop was the ride through Humevale before Whittlesea - this stretch of the road is a descent and not cyclist friendly. I applied on the brakes many times and also tried to balance myself as I was getting blown left, right and everywhere in between. After the ride through Humevale which was the most nervous part of the ride, the head wind appeared again down to Whittlesea. At this point, I was so close to the end, I just got on the drops and just rode it like a time trial!I overtook several cyclist and had a car "horned" me (so annoyed - I wasnt even on the main road and there is a cycling event on you d*ckhead!) When I rode into Whittlesea I was so releaved. I think I rode it so slowly as I wanted to take in what I had just completed - a long 100km+ ride with hail, rain, rain, wind, rain, some sunshine....such an amazing achievement! The finishline was amazing too. I pumped my fists in the air and hope to get some great photos.
I got out of my wet knicks into my trackies and drove home - so tired that I felt my eyes closing several times on the way home.
Such an amazing achievement, no words could describe what I was going through during the ride and what an amazing event! I actually cant wait for next year!
Genovese Kinglake Ride by evalin1980 at Garmin Connect - Details
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| Kinglake - See you in 2012 |
