Brisbane Coot-tha Challenge 2011

[marinmomma]

The LBS put on a sausage sizzle which was really appreciated. Just to stand around, debrief and compare rides was really good. Kudos to John, Mat & Gayle from Boggo Rd Bike Hub.

Rode past there on our way back to our car...good idea as it was undercover as well. The rain was making staying at Southbank rather unpleasant.

[ohshift]

Just want to say thanks for the "thankyous" "cheers" "good mornings" from all of the riders today, it definitely made holding my right arm up for 3 hours much more pleasant.
I was the young dude marshalling on a corner of upland rd. It was the first bike event i've been to! Look forward to riding it next year.

[Comedian]

I forgot to say... we ended sticking around due to one coffee vendor taking 45 minutes to do a coffee

Anyway, they read out the top 10. Someone did it in 6:36 this year. WOW. There were a few around there too, and then it stretched out to 8 minutes by the end of the top 10. My mate got top 20 last year with an 8 minute time. If he'd done that this year it would have been top ten, so it was closer in a more spread out way if that makes sense

[gordy]

Just want to say thanks for the "thankyous" "cheers" "good mornings" from all of the riders today, it definitely made holding my right arm up for 3 hours much more pleasant.
I was the young dude marshalling on a corner of upland rd. It was the first bike event i've been to! Look forward to riding it next year.

Ha, funny.
As we rode past you this morning and after we said Thanks, I commented to my riding friends, that you had the most thankless job, standing for hours in the rain pointing right.
Well done and Thanks again.

[Max]

Congratulations to all of you who did the ride. I ended up staying home in the dry, then went out to brunch with a bunch of others who also chose to sit it out. We saw some hardy souls riding around Paddington with their post-ride swag bags. Good on you all

Max

[Comedian]

Is Stag Chilli a good recovery food? I hope so because I just inhaled a can.

A big thanks to the volunteers.. that was super great standing out in the rain and looking happy. wohoo!.

I'm off for a nap.

[notwal]

Just want to say thanks for the "thankyous" "cheers" "good mornings" from all of the riders today, it definitely made holding my right arm up for 3 hours much more pleasant.
I was the young dude marshalling on a corner of upland rd. It was the first bike event i've been to! Look forward to riding it next year.

Yes I was thinking you guys could all use one of those arm braces that you sometimes see on overbandaged accident victims. Next time maybe they could give some of those hospital cases a day out. Wheel them out. Park them on a corner. Give them some happy drugs to make them smile

I guess you guys were all volunteers. Thank you very much for that.

[gordy]

Just heard a friend's Mum from rual QLD came down for the ride, crashed in the back streets of Tennyson and broke her hip and pelvis, when she hit the gutter.
Quite an experienced rider caught out by the slippery conditions. Not good.

[Comedian]

Just heard a friend's Mum from rual QLD came down for the ride, crashed in the back streets of Tennyson and broke her hip and pelvis, when she hit the gutter.
Quite an experienced rider caught out by the slippery conditions. Not good.

That's horrible. Wishing her a fast recovery

[laager]

.

[Comedian]

Sniff... missed the 10 minute club by 5 seconds!!! OUCH. Still pretty happy though for not back riding for a year!

[Comedian]

Well, how did everyone else do?

http://coot-tha.bq.org.au/ride-info/hillclimb/

[notwal]

Gasp! There are some amazing times at the top of that list. Seven minutes seems to be elite time. Those guys must be made of helium. I think ten minutes is an acceptable target for a flesh and blood mortal.

That was my first BQ mass ride. I've never seen so many bikes in one place before. Grey St was like Woodstock, millions of bikes all pointed in the same direction like cows. There must have been a few births and deaths in a crowd that big but I didn't see any.

The ride was all very orderly, follow the leader and watch out for big red arrows and happy smiley course marshals. The tunnel was fun. Nice and echoic. I was tempted to let out a chorus of 'La Donna e Mobile' for my personal entertainment, but I didn't, not loudly anyway. It's a nice riding song.

On the ride up the mountain my HR was sitting on 169 and I was looking good but I started feeling nauseous so I had to join the walking wounded - disappointing but at least I wasn't alone.
I was fortunate to find myself behind the most gorgeous bum that I've ever seen, a bum made for lycra. It deserved a compliment (makes up story and deletes it) but I thought better of it.
The rest of my ride was uneventful and easy except for a trivial spill in front of me. Bloke had chain skip when climbing up Dutton Park hill near the Green Bridge. He toppled and I ended up leaning on his prostrate bod. He didn't seem to mind.

This was my first ride since my prang two weeks ago. I was concerned that my bum may not be up to it so I stuffed a great wad of foam down my shirt to use for padding if it became unbearable. In the event it wasn't needed. The left sit bone had to do the job of both sides on occasion but otherwise it performed acceptably. Next year with everything in tip top shape I will give it a proper go (target ten) just to see how well I can do.

I suppose BQ is financed by these rides. They must have to pay Queensland Police for a permit of some sort and for the police time. The Endeavour Foundation must have scored a handy pile. Hey, maybe they should provide the course marshals. ... I'll shut up.

[Crittski]

Well, how did everyone else do?

http://coot-tha.bq.org.au/ride-info/hillclimb/

Bummer about that lazy 5 seconds...

I was stoked to get a touch over 13 mins.

[ValleyForge]

That was my first BQ mass ride. I've never seen so many bikes in one place before. Grey St was like Woodstock, millions of bikes all pointed in the same direction like cows. There must have been a few births and deaths in a crowd that big but I didn't see any.

It was a good deal smaller than last year! I can remember it was a real fight at the start then. but there were lots of no-shows this year due to the rain. Size-wise was perfect. Big but not out of control & good behavior all round.

[mcarrigg]

Hi all, loved the ride. First time up any sort of climb of more than usual rolling hill types (800m sort of thing) so all in all I am relatively happy with my 14:49 time. Had to bite the bullet and have two small walks of shame though...here is to breaking 12:30 next year with a bit of training and actual rides on Coot-tha!

[brades68]

Sniff... missed the 10 minute club by 5 seconds!!! OUCH. Still pretty happy though for not back riding for a year!

Well done! It's still a top effort. You'll be right for the Mount Archer KOM at the end of August

See you in a couple of weeks, i'll be there for the start of the 160 making sure i'm ready for the 100

Cheers
Mick

*edit - Has anyone got a garmin, or other, output to share?

[Zynster]

I got 12:37, which is a big improvement over last year where I walked the second half.

[correy]

Time: 06:38
Extra details about the climb I entered at the hill climbing website cycle2max. It allows you to track your best times so you have that benchmark to improve on.

If you haven't entered your times on cycle2max you should

here is mine:
http://cycle2max.com.au/ride-time.aspx?id=26427

I think that the time is made on that really big incline before you go round the corner to see the tv station on the right. You need to trust that you can recover when it flattens out again and then when u are recovered put in your final dash for the line.

Another thing I did was get my heart rate up about 10 mins before the climb. That way when you are going flat out your body won't tell you to stop as much because you already numbed those receptors.

[Dai]

Here is the output from my Garmin:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73944682

I probably wouldn't use this as a baseline for comparison. It took me a bit over 14 minutes to get to the top and the two guys I was riding with got there faster than me, even though they got off and walked for a bit. Happy to say I rode all the way to the top, but it didn't exactly happen in a hurry

[Billscott]

Just heard a friend's Mum from rual QLD came down for the ride, crashed in the back streets of Tennyson and broke her hip and pelvis, when she hit the gutter.
Quite an experienced rider caught out by the slippery conditions. Not good.

We were on the scene moments after this happened and my partner, a doctor, attended to her until the Ambos came. (And they took their sweet time coming - only upped her "priority" when the doctor got on the line and explained her condition in simple terms.)

Didn't actually see the accident happen but I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't pushed into the gutter by someone else taking the turn too wide - it almost happened to me a couple of times.

Wasn't too happy with the marshalls on site. I had to go up the street to slow approaching riders down because the marshalls were reluctant.

And when the ambulance arrived we almost had 20 riders in the back with the patient because the marshalls weren't warning people that it was there.

I hope there wasn't too much trouble finding her bike - the officials were going to take care of it. It is a good one.

If you could pass on my best wishes to here that would be nice. There were a bunch of people who stopped to assist her - it was great to feel the community spirit and mutual support.

Bill

[Waza]

A big congrats and well done to all who did the Coot-tha ride. i only did the taste of the tunnel ride which i very much enjoyed. dispite the rain. atleast it was cooler.
My first event and i hope to do the Coot-tha ride next year.
Great to see the amount of people who turned up.

[baarg]

10.59 so I'm in the 10 minute club, for one second! The mini-sprint at the end was worthwhile! Pretty happy with this result, goal next year is to do this under 10 minutes but not too bad for the first time and had to ride on the right hand side because the left lane was full of people. All those parked at the top, dudes, you should have hardened up and move! The mist at the top was really cool, so eerie

[Undertow]

I came off yesterday morning, couldn't see there was a puddle half way around a roundabout until it was too late, front wheel hit it, slipped out and down I went. Lucky the people behind me were far enough back that they could slow down and go around so I didn't take anyone else out.

Bent my rear derailleur hanger (so I couldn't get into my largest sprockets) which I had to ride with for about 25km as the mechanics weren't at the first rest stop. Somehow both brifters got twisted in but I was able to mostly straighten them, and a scrape on my right pedal.

I just got some bark off my elbow, and some marks on my hip and shoulder (didn't break the knicks and jersey so they kinda look like carpet burn instead of road rash) that should bruise up nicely.

The most annoying this about it is i've ridden that round about like 100 times and never had an issue.

[baarg]

Visibility on the mountain was dreadful. Maybe it got better later in the morning, but the cloud, rain & being a bit worn out first thing made this the most treacherous part.

As for accidents - saw one single bike off when someone didn't wipe their brakes before coming into the Radnor st corner at Indooroopilly. Then a multi near the back of the Tennis Centre - same story I suspect.

The LBS put on a sausage sizzle which was really appreciated. Just to stand around, debrief and compare rides was really good. Kudos to John, Mat & Gayle from Boggo Rd Bike Hub.

I wonder if you saw the same accident I saw? I am bad at remembering streets, but if it's next to the bridge, then I may have been there...although there were lots of crashes around there apparently.