seven hills dash

[skull]

The seven hills ride is on, below is an email from the tas audax secretary


> Subject: Re: Is the seven hills dash being run this year?
>
> yes it is, but there are no food checkpoints this year thru
> lack of volunteers, the entry fee is therefore less.
>
> see http://www.audax.org.au/public/index.ph ... r&Itemid=2
>
> hoping to see you there
> cheers(Tas Audax secretary)

[BarryTas]

keen, depending on my health

[skull]

just putting this back out there. Seven hills dash is tomorrow, be there or ... don't be there, what-ever.

Hopefully this weather settles a bit as I didn't really enjoy the weather for the fondo.

[doggatas]

Hey Skull

How was it? I'm guessing it wasn't easy?

[skull]

Hard. Total time was 9 and a bit hours (Not sure on actual ride time). The taxman and I were the first ones in, have found some real nasty hills out there. We stopped at the top of the hills to recoup and regroup before carrying on.

The morning started and there was around 7 foolish riders who were up to the challenge. One of the riders was backing up from running 60km at the Bruny ultra on sat, he also rode the ride solo. We took off after rego and four of us grouped together for the 200+km slog. The weather was atrocious, there was snow on the mountain, down a fair way too, then of course the wind and the rain. The wind was blowing up from the south so for the first 50km we were battling into it. We made it up the first rise of hill 1 to Vinces Saddle and hit the Huon hwy and headed down to hootersville. Near the town the young fella with us decided to pull the pin and left the three of us to continue to Port Huon without him.

At the 50km mark we hit hill 2 on palmers Road and turned back North, was nice to have a tail wind pushing along. We then headed towards Cygnet and was once again battling into a head wind. Before Cygnet we took a detour and went up hill 3, Silver Hill, that was a nasty one. Once over we cruised into Cygnet and decided to have a break. Coffee and cake from the lotus cafe was devoured, then we got back on. By this stage we were at 100kms.

The next hill had us go up and over to Woodbridge, which by far the worst climb of the day. The taxman said it was 18-19% and it was brutal, also during this climb it started to hail. At the bottom we turned left and went around the channel, again into the wind, however once we cleared climb 5 just past Verona Sands and went around the point it was pretty much tail wind the whole way home. We stopped at Cygnet again for a drink and food resup and then carried on, we were at 150km at this mark. Just before reaching Huonville we turned right and headed up hill 6, Pelverata, this was the second hardest climb of the day. It started out with a couple of cruisy kilometers on some dirt with a minor rise, however as we went further along it got step and nasty. It topped out at Kaoota, here the third guy we had been riding with said don't bother waiting for him anymore as he was shot and was going to limp home.

So myself and the taxman continued on to Sandfly and turned left to Longley and up the last climb of the day to Nieka. Was uneventful and we got up and over and then hooted back down to town to the finish.

map of route found here http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ta ... -Dash-2010

Overall disregarding the weather it was a good ride, actually if it was hot I definitely would of struggled. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I also managed to take enough food and water to fight off bonking and cramps (I cramped big time 15km out on last weeks fondo) so pretty happy.

Also that was the longest single ride I have done now, both in terms of time and distance. Still not the hardest, the hardest is still Day 1 of this years Tour de Timor and it is followed by Day 2 of this years Tour de Timor.

[doggatas]

Nice Skull, glad you finished, I knew you would.

I'm exhausted just reading your posts, although every time I read the name "The Taxman" I can't help but have a little chuckle to myself.

Cheers
Dogga

[RobRollin]

Great post and well done on your achievement. I would like to see it on Strava now!

[BarryTas]

good work fellas, i was thinking of you all day

[jules21]

good work guys. a day out for the hard men!

[Baldy]

Well done Skull, thats huge! It would need to be a much nicer,hotter day before I try that ride. I do heat better than cold/rain.

[jules21]

just a tip skull and other taswegians planning to come across for the Alpine Classic - don't assume it will be any warmer. it can be down the -ve temperatures and even blizzarding up the top of the victorian alps.

[BarryTas]

i might push for a shorter version of this later in the summer

[mcdurdin]

Great work Mr Skull. Makes the Gran Fondo look easy

[skull]

Great work Mr Skull. Makes the Gran Fondo look easy

And I didn't flat for a DNF this time.