DAY 5 - PERIPHERALS ETC.

Hey everyone. Today was one of those cathartic days. After the killer day yesterday we enjoyed our lazy 66km sojourn from Walcha to Armidale.

There's not as much to tell you about the ride today as it was so short so I'll also try to fill you in on some peripherals as well.

Now you may recall me saying yesterday that we were going to sleep in and leave at about 10am. At dinner the boys were saying that they'd sleep in and enjoy a lazy morning. All except for Sammy, who had said he'd hit the road at 7am because he's a morning person. It's seems to me that Sam may not just be a morning person, he may in fact be an early morning, mid-morning, mid-day, early afternoon, mid-afternoon, late afternoon, early evening, late evening and all through the night person. I'm wondering if he actually sleeps at all. If you look at the times he posts stuff on Facebook you'll see what I mean. Perhaps he's like a bear - just goes to bed for the winter and then stays awake the rest of the year?

Anyway I had some work to do after dinner and despite the punishing day seemed to have gained my second wind. Must have been that sensational Chinese Banquet. With that extra burst of energy I decided to do a bit of work then start blogging, consoling myself with the fact that I didn't need to wake until 8am.

By the time I turned out the light it was just after 2am but I figured 6 hours sleep would do me. In fact I've been riding on about 5 hours each night since we left anyway - must be the adrenaline. Problem was though, things didn't go to plan. I had a pretty restless sleep from muscle pain and the fact that my toes were still 'tingling numb' from yesterday's cold and tossed and turned much of the night. (That led to my morning Tweet "My toes are still numb - I wish they weren't. My quads and calves are most definitely not numb. I wish they were.) Just before 6am I could hear some of the boys right outside my window and by 6.30am it seemed that the whole neighbourhood was awake. I tried to sleep after that without success, meaning that I finished with about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of decent sleep. I estimate that means that since Sunday morning I've ridden 635 km on 18-19 hours of sleep. No wonder I'm feeling whacked tonight.

I finally mustered the energy to get myself out of bed about 7am and began the daily process of ride preparation.  Now for those not familiar with long distance road cycling or fortunate enough not to be married to someone who is you'll have no idea what I mean. So I'll spell it out for you.

1. Psyche yourself to get your weary backside out of bed. (20 min)
2. Prepare your clothes and lay them all out on the bed (10 min)
3. Hot shower and stretch (15 min)
4. Apply Dencorub to stiff muscles (4 min)
5. Apply Butt Cream (1 min)
6. Get dressed (5 min)
7. Take it all off again because you realised you forgot one article of clothing that is supposed to be underneath the other four layers you're wearing. (5 min)
8. Repeat Step 6 (5 min)
9. Repeat Step 7 because you forgot something else (5 min)
10. Repeat Step 6 (5 min)
11. Pack your food for the ride into the pockets of your jersey (2 min)
12. Mix Staminade powder into drink bottles and place on bike. (5 min)
13. Brush teeth (3 min)
14. Pack suitcase and day bag (5 min)

Before you know it 1 1/2 hours is gone. And so after deciding to rise at 7am I emerged from my cave at 8.30am only to be greeted by Tezz (mark that, Tezz) saying, "Hey haven't you had your breakfast yet? Everyone's already had their breakfast and we're leaving in 15 minutes." Thanks very much! Who changed those plans I have no idea. Anyway I raced over to the cafe across the road where we had a tab only to be told that they had packed it all away and so had to settle for a bacon and egg roll freshly cooked. (Another 15 min)

I was stressed eating it coz I figured the boys would be waiting for me. But when I got back some of them didn't even have their jerseys on. Thanks very much again! Pick on Rohan morning was it?!

By the time everyone else (except Tezz) was ready to go it was 9.10am. By the time Tezz was ready to go it was 9.20am. I think he had to do his hair or something. Has to look just right under that helmet. ;)

So we headed off at about 9.20am and made good time along relatively flat terrain (compared to yesterday anyway) although it did rise and fall quite regularly. We rode really well as a pack for about 30km averaging well over 25kph (Colin and Sam had left earlier) until we hit one of only two real hills for the day. The mountain goats shot through leaving you know who to fend for ourselves once again. That's right, Pastors Arne and Rohan. By the time we got to the top of the rise the rest of them were close to a kilometre in front. From then until Uralla Arne and I worked hard to shave back a few seconds. Oh yeah, forgot to mention about Antoni. (Arne calls him the Mikac Steam Train - his surname is Mikac) I think that he was clearly concerned that with no walls to get up today that I'd have no reason to call him a JERK and he'd suffer withdrawals from my love so he invented a reason all of his own. At about the 20 km mark he 'feigned' a puncture. We all offered to stop and wait because we were riding as a pack but his reply was, "No, no don't worry about me. I'll just change it myself and catch you all up later. Besides Mark and Rob are in the support van and they'll stay with me." So on we rode leaving the steam train to fend for himself. I kid you not by the time we reached the 35 km point Ant caught us up. He slowed down temporarily (not sure if it was out of concern for us or just to gloat) but when I told him the boys were about 500m in front he shot though again.  I heard that for most of the way after changing his tyre he was averaging 50kph while in pursuit! JERK! ;)

We arrived in Uralla at about 11.15 quite pleased with ourselves that 2/3 of today's ride was behind us. Upon seeing the statue of the famous bushranger Captain Thunderbolt some of the boys (Flax and Arne, both of whom we should expect more 'pastor like' behaviour from couldn't resist behaving like bushrangers by breaking the law and mounting Thunderbolt's trusty steed.

We visited  'The Galloping Gourmet' at Uralla for a prolonged and relaxed morning tea. With just 24 km to go we were feeling pretty good despite the cold. We set off again at about 12.45 en route to Armidale. But for no apparent reason my legs just didn't seem to do what I told them to do. It was not that they were in pain, it simply seemed that there was no fuel in my body to turn them over. So once again the boys raced off and left Arne and myself alone. We decided to tail the Support Van and trailer for the next 15km and that was great. The legs started to regain energy to ride and all the while we were able to average about 25kph and avoid the strong headwind. The only disadvantage is that there's no way to see what's coming and Arne collected a massive rock which blew out his front tyre. Fortunately he had a spare wheel in the trailer and we were back on the road in under 5 min. We pressed on to Armidale. Accidentally taking the first entrance into town instead of the second meant that we had to descend into the valley where the main part of town is and then head back up the other side again. Not what we needed. On our journey into town we came across Tezz and Flax who had clearly taken our entrance as well and then became completely lost. Tezz had no idea where he was going and led the Flax man on a wild goose chase up and down the hilly streets of Armidale. Needless to say Flax was pretty whacked when we found them and he joined Arne and myself in the climb to the hotel. Tez couldn't sit still of course and shot through determined to beat us all. We arrived about 1.55pm with plenty of time to relax for the afternoon, or in my case do some work.

The Ex-Servo's courtesy bus (paid for by generous Armidale poker machine users) picked us up at 5.30pm and we headed off for a big night on the town. The food was great, the company was pretty good too and we were back in hotel by 8pm. (We're such party animals us C3 Cyclists) It's now 10.00pm and I imagine that they've all gone to sleep because it's very quiet outside. That just leaves yours truly awake to once again update you with the day's events.

We head off about 7.30 in the morning for a mid length ride of 131km to Dorrigo. If all goes well and we don't stop too long for lunch we should be there by 4.30ish. There's some tough riding to do in the first hald of the day with one climb of close to 4 km and another two which look like they're actually one combined climb of about 9km. Good news is that the arvo will see us coming downhill in a hurry.

Anyway I'm about ready for bed. Apologies of today's blog has not lived up to the standards of humour and detail that you've become accustomed to but I'm just too tired. Not much to speak of in road kill today either. We saw a blue tongue lizard that had recently been severed in half but I was with the pack at time and didn't want to stop for a pic. Wish I had now though coz I remember thinking how cool it looked with fresh red guts hanging out of both halves. I much prefer the fresh stuff myself to the dried out carcasses that we see most of the time. Other than that I recall a dead magpie, maybe one or two roos and not much else.

Hey gotta tell you one thing funny and maybe redeem my lack of humour thus far. I had my all time 'Lost in translation' moment with Sebastian tonight. For those that don't know Sebastian he speaks with a strong South American Hispanic accent. Well my bum, and most of the other guys for that matter is reeeealy tender by now, particularly after riding so far in the rain yesterday. We use a product called Aussie Butt Cream, donated to us by OCF. Ordinarily, as long as your backside and genitalia are pain free it works well. Problem is though that it's laced with tea tree oil and I probably don't need to tell you how that can feel when applied to to the aforementioned regions of the anatomy once they become chafed. Well tonight I was very chafed but faced with no option I attempted to generously apply a dose of the cream. After enduring about two minutes of agony that I could only describe as feeling like I'd sat down naked on a pile of hot coals and no sign of it letting up I was forced back into the shower to wash it all off. Jill suggested I go buy some Amolin so I went in search of the van key to head into town. Turns out Sebastian had a tube of the same stuff only it comes from South America and has a Spanish name.  Anyway I'm getting to the good bit, wait for it. So Sebastian hears me saying 'chafed' and thinks I'm saying 'shaved'. So he asks me. "Where you shaved?" I think he says, "Where you chafed?" so I say, "Oh all over the whole area! Right round my bum, up the front etc etc. So he looks as me in surprise and says, "Noooooo, Pastor Roheen, when you ride you not supposed to shave your legs all the way to up there!" Hahahahahaha! Once Firtko and myself figured out what he was saying we just about wet ourselves with laughter. Probably just as well I didn't because that would no doubt have further exacerbated my condition.  Just got off the phone to Jill and told her the story. After she finally stopped laughing, and had told it to her sister who's she's staying with (which took about 5 minutes) she suggested that it could be because he's South American and so he must have thought I'd had a Brazilian or something... ;) Not just beautiful but quick witted is my wife. Love you honey. (That's me trying to be as romantic as James and Vicki. ;) xx

Anyway I'm off to bed in at attempt to get at least seven hours sleep tonight. I'll talk to you some more from Dorrigo tomorrow evening. Enjoy your Friday whatever you're doing.

Here's some more footage from Arne's video camera...
It seems that some of the videos on my blog are not playing on iPhones (and perhaps other mobile devices). They are working if you view them on a computer though. I could fix it by uploading them all to my YouTube Channel first but that sounds like too much hard work right now.

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