Wednesday, 26 October 2011

DAY 3 - ONLY THE FOOTHILLS FOR DAY 4. ARGHH!

Well I've arrived. At long last. What a day! Today I spent over 9 hours in the saddle and covered about 169km. Our sheet told us we were suppose to do 158 but at least four of us using GPS navigation came in with 169.

Departing as a group at 7.30am this morning myself and Arne arrived at the Bucket's Way Hotel in Gloucester at 7pm. That's one tough day at the office let me tell you. Now the other boys arrived at varying times between 6 and 6.30 but the two pastors were determined to be the rear guard. Now that has nothing to do with the fact that we are slower than the rest of the boys we were just determined to make sure that no one was left behind. ;)

After a brief continental breaky at 6.30 we delicately placed our tender backsides onto those very uncomfortable and severely under-padded pieces of rubber. I'm not sure why but every time you stop for more than about five minutes and sit back down it takes a good five to ten minutes for your bum to get used to it again. Unless of course you've got cycling knicks like Arne which he tells me he picked up at a local cycling store on the northern beaches for a measly $165! Now I reckon I've not spent much more than that on all my cycling equipment in the last 18 months. It's amazing what you can get between eBay and Aldi. I'm riding with two pairs of knicks each day, one from eBay which I got for about $8 and the other that Neil Gabin gave me for a gift last year. Thanks Neil, they're still going strong. Actually, come to think of it all our knicks are pretty 'strong' by the end of the day - so grateful for washing machines each evening. ;) I never had a sore butt at all last year, even when most of the other boys could barely sit down on days 6 and 7 but this year it's been pretty tender right from the start. Not enough time training in the saddle I'm guessing.

The first 40 odd kilometres this morning was quite enjoyable as we made good time in relatively flat terrain heading up from Cessnock through Maitland en route for Gresford Public School.  I hung back with Colin to get to know him a bit better and to enjoy the lush green countryside. At one point I did see a road called Flat Road and despite my pleadings to go that way I was reliably informed that it was the opposite direction from where we were headed. I'm not sure what the road we ended up taking was actually called but I think some of the boys may have nicknamed it B****y Hell Road. Ok, so that was Arne who was heard to make that exclamation at one point on the journey. So for all you holier than thou's out there who were giving me the 'Tsk, tsk' after reading last night's blog you can now see it's not just me who's so undignified it must be a C3 Pastor thing. But I'm getting ahead of myself...




By the time Colin and I arrived at Gresford Tezza had already completed his OCF spiel to the kids and rejoined the rest of the boys for Lunch at the Twin River's Cafe at East Gresford. (I must commend Tezza once again, he really is the man for that job. The kids love him and he will speak with anyone he meets. In fact he's started recording a segment called '60 seconds with Tezza'. He interviewed the ladies at the Twin Rivers Cafe. I've just texted him asking where he's posting them so as soon as I find out I'll send you the link so you can watch. I must warn you though - it might be a good idea to turn your computer volume down a bit first. ;) Oh and also make sure you've got a coffee and some time to spare coz I've renamed his segment '60 minutes with Tezza' ;) ;) Oh Tezz, you know I love you bro...

Lunch was tasty but once again it reminded us of Subway on Day 1. One poor lady just about had a heart attack when she saw 15 hungry men walk in. She was on her own and had to prepare all our meals by herself. I doubt that they'd ever get 15 people in the cafe at once, let alone 15 cyclists. Needless to say she was a little stressed as she received one order after another. In the end our support crew member James ended up in the kitchen assisting with the cooking. Not sure about OH&S regs on that but he is a qualified chef and we were too hungry to care anyway. As it was our lunch break ended up being about 1 1/2 hours, not real good when you've still got over 100km to go and you're departing after 12.30pm. And from then on the day started to get really interesting.



You'll recall me discussing the two hills we had to ascend today in yesterday's blog and the first one in particular. Well let me tell you words could not describe this mountain. It wound itself up and up the side of a mountain for about 5km. Now that might not sound like much to you but when trucks are struggling to find a gear low enough to pass you and you're only riding at between 6 and 7kph you know you're on a steep incline. Well that was the speed that Arne, Flax, myself and Colin were doing anyway. Upon arrival at the top I promptly asked the other boys, and Antoni in particular how long before me he arrived and the top. His response was, "Which time?" Did you get that? "Which time?!" Turns out that after ascending this mountain (which the boys called 'B****y Big Hill' - we later found out it was called Bingleburra) about half an hour before myself and my colleagues at the rear arrived and waiting 10 minutes on his own he thought he'd ride half way back down to see if everyone was OK. Finding one of the boys he escorted him to the top, dropped him off and then went back down again! Can you believe that? I said it last night, I'll say it again, Jerk! When I asked Ant his speed on the way up he told me that he was doing about 13kph, about twice as fast as us. And he was ticked off that he couldn't keep up 14kph. This guy is a deadset cycling machine I tell you. Antoni I wanna be just like you when I grow up.  What else can I tell you about the hill? Oh yeah, we could name it 'Vomit Mountain' coz Rob Grae threw up twice and Flax threw up once on the way up. For those that are unaware, that's not because they had a tummy bug. Extreme physical duress will do that to you. Personally, while I found Bingleburra challenging I was very fortunate to not have to face the constant mind game that I had on Sunday where my body was screaming to get off and walk. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the experience, in some quirky kind of way. And then there was he descent. That was something to behold. Pastor Fred got some brilliant footage of us all strung out down the side of the mountain on Arne's camera. As soon as he gets it edited I'll post some on the blog for you all to see. As was the case on Sunday I topped out at 81.8 kph on the way down. Gotta love that! (Incidentally I did say that I'd post a link to Pastor Arne's blog. If you want to keep up to date with his view of events click HERE)

The view across the valley and up Bingleburra Mountain.




But all that's nothing compared to what we face tomorrow. Today we ascended about 250m from the base of Bingleburra to the top over about 5km. Our first significant climb tomorrow, will see us ascending more that 630m in just on 7km! And there doesn't appear to be much of a space for a breather either. If you stop on these kind of ascents it's nearly imposible to get back on again. One of the ladies in the restaurant here at Bucket's Hotel just mockingly laughed at us when we told her where we were going tomorrow. Doesn't really inspire great faith in me I must say.  Over all tomorrow we will ascend more than 2km! I say it like that because it sounds so much more menacing than 2000m. Our net gain after ascents and descents is about 1100m. Our highest point on the journey will have us at an elevation just shy of that of Thredbo Valley! When you consider that we are starting less than 100m above sea level that's pretty scary. Reckon the blog might be a bit shorter tomorrow night, or you may even have to wait til Thursday coz I'll probably collapse on my bed as soon as I arrive in Walcha.

Day 4 Elevation Graph. Today's graph fits in the bottom one quarter of this chart...




Anyway enough chat about those dreaded mountains. After our final significant ascent today the real cyclists decided they were too bored with waiting for Arne and myself and decided to take off and leave us to fend for ourselves for the last 60km. Now I should stress that Arne and I did actually finish the ride today. Not like those three wimps, I mean mean men, who came up with some pitiful excuse about having muscle cramps or knee pain or something like that. Sorry Flax, Rob, and Colin. You know I still love you guys, just can't have the folks back home thinking that their pastors are the slowest and laziest. ;) Now to be fair, Rob was genuinely struggling with a knee injury and that was after being blasted in the eyeball by a rouge drinking bubbler at Milbrodale School yesterday which left his eye all swollen so it's fair to say he's had a rough time of it. And Flax, well he's been fighting a hip injury for a couple of months and up until Sunday had barely been on the bike in 6 weeks. And Colin, well I must say that I think he's doing an awesome job. He knows that he's slower than the other boys but he's constantly pushing through the pain barrier and going well beyond what his body would ordinarily let him do. That's why both he and Sam are my heroes. That shows real courage if you ask me. Much like the superman from last year Pastor Fred Peacock. Now Pastor Fred is yet to don his baggy oversized lycra Long Johns and get his bike out of the trailer but tells me that he's enjoying the journey alongside Mark in the van. I think we'll see him on the bike at some point before the week is out though. He told us today that he clearly doesn't have a thing for men because he's been staring at our backsides for 3 days now and is most definitely not turned on by them. I take offence at that because I've been living under the obviously false assumption that I have sexy bum. Well that's what Jill's been telling me for many years now anyway...


Now back to the last 60km. We weren't helped by the fact that while the cycling machines were still in sight the boys in the support crew who were clearly getting bored hollered out the window for us to stop. I was certain that something had falled off my bike on the bumpy road, but nope. They merely saw and echinda cross the road in front of them and wanted to stop out of curiouslity. When I asked them to tow us back up the the pack they just laughed at me and told us to get back on our bikes. So much for a support crew, unsupportive crew I'd say.

From the sunshine and nice breeze we experienced at lunch time things turned decidedly worse as the afternoon went on. The temperature dropped considerably, a few drops of rain started to drizzle down from the heavens and then when Arne and myself were about 35-40km from our destination that drizzle turned into a torrential downpour. I'm talking 'aquaplane your car' torrential. And this was accompanied by a really strong wind that alternated from head wind to cross wind. Man I so hate wind when cycling - takes the enjoyment factor right out of it.  We console ourselves with the news that those uncaring men that abandoned us earlier did not escape the rain and may indeed have gotten a bigger dose. Tezza tells me that he endured hail stones as well but knowing Tezz who knows what to believe. ;) With all that rain and exhaustion I think I could honestly say that the last 50km today was most probably the longest 50km I've ever ridden. Not the hardest by any means but it certainly had the illusion of being the longest. It just seemed to take for ever. Our average speed was way down and all I could think about for the last 40km was digging into a massive bowl of fried rice. I think maybe my body was trying to tell me I need carbs.

Well I didn't get rice tonight but I certainly got carbs. We were treated to a smorgasbord of breads and pastas for dinner. Yummo. And we're taking the left overs with us tomorrow. The boys are gonna buy some bread and we're gonna have pasta sandwiches for lunch at Carson's Lookout at the top of Thunderbolt Way. I realise that may not sound too appealing to you folks back home but by the time we're up those hills I reckon we'll be hanging for those cold penne pasta sandwiches.


Well it's after midnight and breaky is once again at 6.30am for a 7ish departure. I'm guessing that it could be close to a dozen hours from the time we leave until I arrive in Walcha. Joy, oh joy! Talk to you from there. Enjoy your day.

What about me? It isn't fair, I don't have enough... (you know the rest...)


Thank you to all those who've sponsored already. I know there's more out there who have been meaning to but haven't gotten around to it yet. To sponsor us just click HERE

To learn more about OCF just click HERE

Oh yeah, the roadkill report. Nothing much to report I'm afraid. A couple of dead maggies, a couple of squashed flat lizards and then there was the two turtles and that echidna who managed to escaped being run over by the support van.

No comments:

Post a Comment