Crazy Ultimate Mountain Stage

[chris641]

you are a machine pax! awsm skillz.

I take offence to that... hahah nah but he is a definite machine for managing to make it to the top of mt mee after doing the three other mountains. very admirable. anyway.. full report on its way

[chris641]

Allllllllrighty here it is...

I'll also post it in the 'training' section just so more people can witness our heroic feats..

Got up at 5, showered and ate breakfast and put on my sexy King of the Mountains jersey. Was feeling better than I have all week which was a good sign. Cruised the 2k down to the end of Eatons Hill where i was meeting Tim (Pax). 6am rolled over, and we were off, heading towards Mt Coot-tha. The first 15k were pretty normal, lots of rolling hills but not too bad and we were cruising along at a nice average. Tim was kicking my ass on every descent so I was getting quite worried about my prospects for the day. Anyway, we got to Ashgrove and picked up Dave (Winona), who impressed me sporting his zinc and headband (hellllllllll yeh). I think we were riding with Dave for about 50 metres when a car yelled something out at us, thanks for that Dave. So we rode the 5k or so to the base of Coot-tha and prepared ourselves for the first dose of pain....

Mt Coot-tha: 2.34km (AT) a gradient of 10%

Coot-tha began, the first kilometre isnt too bad - quite gradual. Dave was on the front, although I must say I don't think drafting has much affect when going uphills.. The second kilometre is much more difficult and quite a bit steeper than the first. We were grinding our way up and i moved to the front with Dave right on my tail, Tim was a few metres further down the track. So we just kept grinding.. i was in the smallest possible gear because im soft. Eventually made it to the top in a time of 10:40, and got the KOTM points for this one Dave finished pretty much next to me and Tim came up a minute later. 1 down... 3 to go. We then descended down the other side of Coot-tha rackin up some pretty good speeds and prepared ourselves for the next climb which began shortly after...

Mt Nebo: 19km (AT) a gradient of 4% (in reality its steeper but the random descents bring the average down)

Ugh.. i hate Mt Nebo, and really wasn't looking forward to it. It is so very long. And all the random short descents in the middle of it give me false hope, only to be followed up by short steep sections of uphill. I stuck myself on the front for the majority of this climb, in an attempt to earn my stripes (err dots) in the KOTM jersey. Tim dropped his chain about 4km into it, so we stopped and waited for him (what a pain in the ass ). The rest of the climb was pretty routine - grinding away for the next 15km until we made it to the Mt Nebo cafe where we made our first food stop for the day. Junk food was the order of the day. Stopped for about half an hour i guess.. talking about how shamed we were that a girl on a bike kicked our ass up Nebo.. Also Dave fixed up his bike coz he couldnt change from the big cog to the small cog, how inconvenient. Off we departed from Mt Nebo Cafe and.. clunk.. Dave dropped his chain. At this point im starting to think that these two are high maintenance.. Only other point of interest on this climb was that a motorcyclist nearly hit me.. So off we went for another 5k or so to the base of Glorious...

Mt Glorious: 1.5k (AT) a gradient of 10% or so??

Doesn't seem all that hard but after you've done Mt Nebo it is quite difficult. Nothing too exciting happened.. but i accelerated to the front, exclaiming that i wanted my KOTM points to replies of 'go for it' and 'you can have them'. Thanks for taking the glory away from my achievement lads.. haha.. Anyway we got to the top, turned around and readied for the 15% (probably steeper) descent to Samford. I nearly overcooked it on one corner and thought for sure that I was going to go over the barrier and die a painful death.. luckily i saved it. Tim summed it up perfectly when he said "Motorcyclists add an element of terror to an otherwise pleasant descent". So it was about 12k or so to Samford village where we topped up our water bottles, then heading on a 25k trek to the base of Mt Mee. This was the hardest point of the ride for me i felt like crap. Dave accelerated to the front of the pack coz he had to meet his lady at Dayboro... Tim claimed that he was 'powered by love' haha. We got to the base of Mt Mee and i had racked up 101km And then Dave left us for his lady.. what ever happened to bros before hoes!!!! hahah just kidding. So we said our goodbyes, then Tim and I prepared ourselves for Mt Mee.

Mt Mee: 7km (AT) a gradient of 5.5%

I knew I wasn't going to make it to the top right from the start...... I managed to make it halfway up and then i packed it in.. I stood there and watched Tim ride on.. very admirable!!! Well done Tim. I went back down to the bottom and waited for Tim to get back down. Then we went and had lunch at the bakery... who can beat meat pies.. Then we said our goodbyes and went our different ways!

Great ride with great people.. really enjoyed it. And both very good riders too!

Breakdown of the food I saw consumed today:

3 pies
A donut
Jelly beans
Milo bars
Mars Bar
Snickers

Coke
Staminade
Water

We are a healthy bunch

Anyway.. i managed 130k at an average of 25.3... pretty decent!

[BrisBoy]

Way to go dude. Congratulations on conquering all those hills. Must try to haul myself up a mountain or two one of these days

[Lark2004]

Sounds like you guy's had a good day... I wish I had been a position to join you... But my truck had some rust repairs that really needed some attension, as I have to get a machinery ticket for this lot of rego thats coming up.....Maybe next time

[Pax]

OK, it was a great ride, and I am sure I will regret making this comment cause it isn't in the spirit ...but I am proud that the 49year old legs made the distance you two young fellas!!

It was fun, and becoming more so with each passing hour as the pain reduces.

[tomns]

great ride by the sounds of it and an excellent trip report, when I get a bit fitter I will have to join you on some (certainly not all) of that trip

Well done, bet you were glad you went sunday and missed out on that big storm that happened sat afternoon

Tom

[beauyboy]

I have to say a big congratulations for you three doing that all in one day.

Puts us Brissy to Goldy riders to shame

Donald

[winona_rider]

new challenge!
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Three-Peaks-Gold-Coast-Hinterland

[chris641]

new challenge!
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Three-Peaks-Gold-Coast-Hinterland

I'm up for it

[Chris L]

I've done that a couple of times this year already. From memory it had about 1,700 metres of climbing. If you want to make it really hard, follow Springbrook road all the way to Best of All Lookout (hint: the place where the road turns off for Numinbah Valley/Pindari Hills is only actually half the total height of Best of All).

When are you next running the Brisbane mountain stage again? I might have a crack at that myself.

[winona_rider]

I've done that a couple of times this year already. From memory it had about 1,700 metres of climbing. If you want to make it really hard, follow Springbrook road all the way to Best of All Lookout (hint: the place where the road turns off for Numinbah Valley/Pindari Hills is only actually half the total height of Best of All).

When are you next running the Brisbane mountain stage again? I might have a crack at that myself.

yeah - i was thinking that too. we could stop at the two falls for a look - then up to BOAL and maybe walk our bikes down to the lookout point and get the awesome view! it really is worthy of its name.

[Pax]

pfffftt...as discussed at Mt Nebo cafe this is my next challenge
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Me ... Kosciuszko

...if I survive that I might join you.

Actually that "3 peaks Gold Coast" ride looks good, it'd be great to join you for another ride.