Brisbane to Gold Coast Challenge 2010

[brades68]

Downloaded my Garmin results - stoked with a moving time of 3:36:15!

Wish i had remembered the sunscreen
I loved it, will be back for next year - well organised event - and i will be better prepared. I will NOT suffer cramp next year.

Cheers
Mick

[Purt]

so who was first over the line ?

Apparently a guy riding fixed was at the front with another guy for a good 25 or 30km. They then got caught and a group of about 8-10 came in first. Time was apparently about 2:30 or so.

[Dave R32]

I will own up to starting in the red group and struggling all day, 28.7 ave speed riding alone for the entire 100kms. Very surprised no one has commented on the headwind...especially on the Yatala sugar cane flats, I really battled for that middle part of the ride.

The organisation was great, as were the volunteers and police. Thanks to BQ for this.

Cheers
Dave.

[Drunkmonkey]

I will own up to starting in the red group and struggling all day, 28.7 ave speed riding alone for the entire 100kms. Very surprised no one has commented on the headwind...especially on the Yatala sugar cane flats, I really battled for that middle part of the ride.

The organisation was great, as were the volunteers and police. Thanks to BQ for this.

Cheers
Dave.

My comment was aimed at the people that were way under the red speed category - ie those that were averaging under 25k an hour (and those I saw walking their bikes up the first decent climb).

You would have been doing over 30k average before you hit the headwinds and bumpy roads. Cracking effort to keep that pace by yourself.

[Dave R32]

My comment was aimed at the people that were way under the red speed category - ie those that were averaging under 25k an hour (and those I saw walking their bikes up the first decent climb).

You would have been doing over 30k average before you hit the headwinds and bumpy roads. Cracking effort to keep that pace by yourself.

Sorry DM...my comment wasn't aimed at you in particular, just owning up to not performing well enough on the day to be in the red group. At around 70kms I felt that crap I was contemplating getting off.

It amazed me how many riders couldn't maintain a steady pace, I found I would get passed on the flats and downhills and then pass the same riders going up the hills and I am nothing special as a climber.

My Garmin told me the following when I downloaded it:

101.97 kms
3.30.53 moving time
Ave 28.7kmh
Elevation gain 563m
Elevation loss 549m
Ave HR 161 ..... I am not sure how to gauge this. As a 46 year old I think being able to average this over 3.5 hours is good, or should I be aiming to get it down?

Max HR 179
Ave Cadence 91
Max Cadence 128
Calories = 2644
Min temp = 19
Max temp = 29

First 55kms ave was 30.9kms....then I hit the wall

Cheers
Dave.

[Comedian]

Groundhog day here.

I had a great run... had much more fun than I was expecting, and I felt it was better organised than I expected. I was astonished at how many roads they had closed for us and how many people they had guiding and helping. WOW.

As to the run... well I left at 5:19 in the orange group. I was riding with 3 ladies and mrjones from my ride group. We took it pretty easy for the first two stints and I think we helped the girls along a bit. We took about 30 minutes at each rest stop For the last stint though the girls told us to go on so mrjones and I put the hammer down We were overtaking everything in site and generally hammering into that head wind.

We finished at about 9:39 so the average was just above 30 with 3:19 of ride time. MrJones tells me that next year we're starting up the front in red and going for sub 3 hours which sounds like a blast.

[elantra]

I was impressed with the support from volunteer marshalls and also the Police officers were great.

I did the TDU-associated Adelaide ride in January, it was similar to this ride but longer and there i was really punished by roaring headwinds.
The organisers in Adelaide did a good job with water and powerade, actually they had a lot more water stops.
But all we were offered to eat in SA was truckloads of unripe bananas !
By comparison, the nice little Lady-fingers on Sunday were very yummy.

[marinmomma]

Awesome ride, great weather despite the headwind!

Parts were a bit tricky especially on going up hills as I'd be overtaking slower riders but then also getting overtaken myself!

Saw some people with some rather ill-fitting bikes...what a painful way to ride either 60 or 100k's....especially the girl who had her seat up way too high and was rocking from side to side just to pedal...how she made it to the 1st rest stop was beyond me!

And to the guy who sucked at my wheel most of the way along Hope Island Road, if you're reading this, next time be a gentleman and take a turn out the front

And if I lent my sunscreen to you...anytime, glad to help so you didn't fry!

Next year I hope to improve my riding so I can enter the 25-30 start section!

[Dave R32]

Saw some people with some rather ill-fitting bikes...what a painful way to ride either 60 or 100k's....especially the girl who had her seat up way too high and was rocking from side to side just to pedal...how she made it to the 1st rest stop was beyond me!

I saw this poor girl as well.....it looked like pure agony to ride.

Cheers
Dave.

[brades68]

Very surprised no one has commented on the headwind...especially on the Yatala sugar cane flats, I really battled for that middle part of the ride.

i hear you there Dave, i also struggled on the flats with the wind but was a lot happier when a small bunch came along and i was able to suck along the back for a while before i dropped out not being able to maintain their pace. Back into the wind by myself but it was a challenge i enjoyed beating

We must have been passing each other at various times along the route - our results are similar. I was the poor bastard on the side of the road about the 74km mark part way up one of the short sharp hills trying to stretch out my quads as they'd started to cramp

The quality of the roads you SE Qlders have are great - hot mix bitumen is superb!

Cheers
Mick

[Comedian]

The quality of the roads you SE Qlders have are great - hot mix bitumen is superb!

Cheers
Mick

Where was that bit... was it just after ikea.. that had a super rough surface? it was really bumpy and I was so glad for my nix.. I thought without them there would have been much pain down there.

[elantra]

..............................
The quality of the roads you SE Qlders have are great - hot mix bitumen is superb!

Cheers
Mick

Hi Mick,
Yep nice to ride on but most local roads are not as good as some of those roads.
The Busway is near to perfection though.

On another note did anyone see the young child riding on a micro-bike, complete with ribbons on the handlebar ends i think.
I think she rode all of the 60 km from Beenleigh.
Truly an outstanding acheivement, please don't try to tell me that she rode all the way from Southbank

[marinmomma]

The roads out the back of Yatala were in a bad way! Glad to get back onto the service road again after that dog-leg!

Anyone know anything about the girl who came down on a left hand turn out in the cane fields?? I came past it only a few seconds after she fell....the marshall was a bit slow to direct traffic around her...she looked to be in a bit of pain, hope the she's ok!

[Dave R32]

Very surprised no one has commented on the headwind...especially on the Yatala sugar cane flats, I really battled for that middle part of the ride.

i hear you there Dave, i also struggled on the flats with the wind but was a lot happier when a small bunch came along and i was able to suck along the back for a while before i dropped out not being able to maintain their pace. Back into the wind by myself but it was a challenge i enjoyed beating

We must have been passing each other at various times along the route - our results are similar. I was the poor bastard on the side of the road about the 74km mark part way up one of the short sharp hills trying to stretch out my quads as they'd started to cramp

The quality of the roads you SE Qlders have are great - hot mix bitumen is superb!

Cheers
Mick

Mick,

I probably did see you, there were quite a few guys cramping just before the second rest stop. I had cramp in my right thigh when I got out of the saddle, first time I have ever suffered cramp on a bike.

Where I live (North Lakes) the roads are superb....the course chip out the back of Yatala is always a shock to my system.

Cheers
Dave.

[heay]

The roads were bad out the back through the cane fields. Didn't seem to bother me as the carbon bike takes away some of the rebound???

I can not belive the amount of cyclist that I did pass on the small climbs what's wrong with them? I even heard one guy say that this was most amount of climbs he had done in 9 months What? Where do these guys cycle????

I love climbing so bring on the Cootha challenge that will sort out the men from the boys.

[Dai]

As one of the slow hill climbers I must defend my kind

You try hauling 103km of lard to the top of even a slight incline and see if you can keep up your normal pace. Besides, I'm not fat. I'm just big boned.

It's a simple matter of physics that an individual weighing 103km goes down hill and along flats much faster than they go up hills. I regularly ride up Mt Cootha and get left behind by my slighter framed colleagues riding to the top. The downhill is a different matter. My fastest so far is 83.3km/h on the way down

Back to the B2GC stats, I started in the orange group and managed a respectable 30.5km/h average with 3hrs 15mins riding time. I'm thinking I'm ready to graduate to the red group, but I'd totally get dropped at that first hill on the busway

[Max]

I can not belive the amount of cyclist that I did pass on the small climbs what's wrong with them? I even heard one guy say that this was most amount of climbs he had done in 9 months What? Where do these guys cycle????

The first time I did this ride, the number of hills was a shock to me. Most of my recreational riding was (and come to think of it, still is) flat bike paths. All those hills just did me in. It was the toughest ride I'd done to date. So, the short answer to your question: Probably flat bike paths!

Three days on, and I'm still jealous of you people who did the ride.

Max

[Comedian]

I can not belive the amount of cyclist that I did pass on the small climbs what's wrong with them? I even heard one guy say that this was most amount of climbs he had done in 9 months What? Where do these guys cycle????

The first time I did this ride, the number of hills was a shock to me. Most of my recreational riding was (and come to think of it, still is) flat bike paths. All those hills just did me in. It was the toughest ride I'd done to date. So, the short answer to your question: Probably flat bike paths!

Max

It was tough when I started commuting but I now realise that my hilly commute has been really good for me and made me somewhat of a climber

I vaguely remember that there were some hills on the ride but nothing I can't really specifically remember any

[the grid]

!! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! I suffered the last 50 total average 22kph. Not much good considering my fancy carbon bike being passed by rusty MTBs.
Need to improve the engine and fuel, I think.
Oh no just remembered I am signed up for 100K rainbow Ride this weekend!!!

[goneriding]

Need to improve the engine and fuel, I think.

Sounds like you forgot to eat in the first 50. The best thing I've had are the Garmin (recipe is on the net) rice cakes (sticky rice, bacon, egg, parmesan). Get a few of them into you during the first 50 and then move onto the energy gels later in the ride. Also make sure you get a monster pasta hit in the night before the ride. For breakfast on the day - porridge.

Do that, add a dash of HTFU and it'll be all good.

[Dave R32]

Do that, add a dash of HTFU and it'll be all good.

Good advice here. This is what I needed....I have decided I was being a sook for the second 50kms.

Cheers
Dave.

[term]

Great ride, avg was exactly 30km/h for the ride, though I did 120 because I rode into town.

Had a boggle at the discussion of hills, what hills were those? was a gentle rise going into mt gravatt with a 5-10% grade, but other than that there wasnt anything I remember having to shift down into my cheaty gears for.

Biggest hill for me was the one at the end of my street I have to go up every morning - fairweather

[brades68]

As one of the slow hill climbers I must defend my kind

You try hauling 103km of lard to the top of even a slight incline and see if you can keep up your normal pace. Besides, I'm not fat. I'm just big boned.

+1
As a 100kg lump, physics also plays against me! Being bigger boned as well, the hills - and they weren't that bad that i had to do the 'walk of shame' - did occasionally make me wish i still had a compact chainring, but i HTFU up them and into the wind (apart from the cramp)

My normal roads are all coarse chip - one road i have stopped riding on as it was resurfaced with really coarse chip.

I'm now planning another shot at the Ipswich 100

Cheers
Mick

[RepcoMonaco]

On my way back (I already bragged here about going to Gold Coast and back, making 212 km - but the post was eaten by the "Mysql error" monster) - anyway, on my way back I saw a few kids on BMX bikes - firstly I thought they were local kids riding along just for fun, but then I realized they have bibs attached (green group). Now that's tough - doing a hundred (or even 60 k's) on a "knees over head" BMX...

There also was a woman on a (scooter?) thinge where you push with your feet off the ground - she looked a bit exhausted.

Also there were a couple of weird devices on which you stand and move it with your hands and feet... one of them was at the finish before 10am, which means it moves reasonably fast

I'm not mentioning tandems and recumbents...

[elantra]

s*** I suffered the last 50 total average 22kph. Not much good considering my fancy carbon bike being passed by rusty MTBs.

Pffft. can beat that, i got passed by the 5 year old girl on a bike that looked like it used to have trainer wheels.

admittedly i was on the side of the road fixing my flat tyre at the time