It's been long few months working up here. Trouble is, driving back and forth and even staying up a few days a week is really impacting how much I get to ride these days. Some days I feel like a "drive in, drive out" (similar to the "fly in - fly out" in the mines) employee which is basically the reality of it. Just have to suck it up for now - it's a job and I'm employed so I shouldn't really complain I suppose.
I still follow the Hell's 500 website and their Instagram account. Some days I feel envious that those riders get to both ride so often, and to do their Everesting attempts without complaint. But for now, any everesting attempt will by the nature of my work, have to wait for another day.
But on the brighter side, I have found some really interesting places to ride up here, and of course, being at the top of the range, there are a never ending source of climbs to check out, some ridiculously steep and other just long drags. I've been reliably informed that there are also a couple of 20% climbs around the place, so they will be next to find and ride. Might be a case of bringing up the TCR though, as it has both a 28 on the back (versus 27 on the Lapierre), and it's a little lighter (in other words, a better climber's bike).
Now that I have the Shamals put on the Lapierre after speccing a shimano hub on them so they'd work with the Ultegra cassette, they've certainly lightened up the bike and also given it an even more comforting ride. It's a great long distance bike, extremely comfortable, stable and (now) light. Different horses for different courses in other words.
Ride to Hell
Last weekend I did the "Ride to Hell". After having been asked by my wife to pick up some assignments to mark (she's a teacher) from one of her colleagues, I decided to go "the long way' and do a ride I've been wanting to do for a long time.
The route was out to Dayboro, up and over Mt Mee (a 15k climb up from Dayboro) and then the plan was to hit a shortcut through to Caboolture and then onto my wife's friends place to pick up the assignments. The shortcut route off the top contained many steep declines, and also contained some very steep incline pinches (they were a bit disheartening!). Of course I got lost (OK, maybe it was just an "adventure") and having no phone reception ended up on the highway to Kilcoy, miles from where I was supposed to come out. Having established I'd inadvertently added another 40k to the journey I decided to just "ride" and "get home when I got home". Much to the changrin of my wife....
Having only 1 piece of toast for breakfast, and no gels at all, I hit the wall at the 60k mark, and was shattered for the rest of the ride. It was a case of just "diesel home" (slow and constant) and just to keep the pedals turning over....So despite it being only 130k's, it took a considerably longer time than I'd anticipated. I left home at 5.30am and got home at 1pm. Ugh! despite the pain, it was fun in a sadistic kind of way!
Ride details are here https://www.strava.com/activities/310458100
