Brendan, Peter and John welcome me to the summit
Although this ride has become a club tradition on each Grand Final Day, I am never too sure whether to love it or loathe it. After all, how could any sane person give up a Saturday morning sleep in to confront over 1100 metres of vertical climb ? Perhaps the best answer I can come up with is that it feels SO GOOD when you have completed it.
When I arrived at Launching Place at 8.15 am I was still a little early and so headed off for a quiet solo ride up to Milgrove. I had a forlorn hope that maybe it would help to get my legs warmed up before the main event. Unfortunately I had little hope that a 30 min ride would somehow immediately bestow on me a pair of hill climbing legs and a svelte hill climber's body.
After my initial leg warming ride I pulled into the car park to find a peloton had formed in my absence. It was good to see that our new probationary member Brendan had turned up for the ride. Having already completed two rides he only needs another two qualifying rides to gain full membership and be eligible to wear the yellow jersey. After today's effort he would be only 1 ride away from becoming our 15th member.
Along with Johnny Come Lately and Little John, there also was Peter and Mal (a guest rider from the Southern Vets). We had a couple of late withdrawals - Ross and Duncan (supposedly due to illness, but more than likely due to lack of fortitude) and the (now common) non-appearance of Bob. Since Richard is currently back in South Africa I guess he also had a valid excuse for not turning up.
At 9.00 am sharp we set off across the highway, over the bridge and up Don Rd. For those who have not yet tackled this ride, the climb starts almost immediately and does not really let up until you reach the top over 27 km and 1100 vertical metres later. The hill climbing specialists quickly had a field day, leaving those of more ample proportions (Little John and me) labouring in the rear. My previous best time to the summit was 3 hours and my main objective of today's ride was to try to cut a few minutes off this mark.
With an overcast sky and still, cool air the weather was being very kind to us. I quickly realised that the mountain had not gotten any smaller since last year and I was soon down to my lowest gear and regretting that I did not have a bike with a triple chain ring. The first section of the ride takes us to the turnoff at Panton Gap and takes about 1 hour at an average speed of about 12 kph.
At the turn off, Don Rd joins the bitumen road from Healesville. A short distance along this road there is an impressive boom gate which prevents cars from travelling any further at this time of the year. We gathered at the gate trying to catch our breaths and ready ourselves for the most challenging part of the ride.
This next section really grinds on and on and I find that the only way I can face it is to break it down into smaller sections (like aiming for the next bend, the big black tree, the exposed rock, etc). I was soon dropped by Peter, Mal, Brendan and John but was able to take time to enjoy the peace and beauty of the surrounding forest. Without the threat of overtaking cars it really feels like another world.
About 8 km past the boom gate there is a false crest which gives a false sense of relief for about 2 km before the climb starts again in earnest. It was at this point I passed Mal who had stopped for a breather and to put on some warmer clothes. As I neared the summit I was a little disappointed to see that there was NO SNOW remaining. At the T intersection we joined up with the main tourist road from Warburton. I also remembered that the last km to the top is the hardest of them all.
It really is hard to muster the energy for this final section to the summit. I suspect that mentally you feel as if the battle has already been won, but the final bitumen road contains some of the steepest gradients in the entire climb. By the final few hundred metres I resorted to zigzagging back and forth across the road in an attempt to reduce the slope. Eventually after several agonising minutes of gut wrenching effort I pulled into the small car park near the lookout tower and joined Peter, Brendan and John who had already arrived a few minutes before me.
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Brendan, Peter and John welcome me to the summit |
The fastest climbers had made the summit in about 2 hrs 15 mins but I was very pleased to make it in 2 hrs 35 mins, thus shaving 25 mins off my previous best time. At least I was able to feel that I had not gone backwards over the last 12 months.
I think the biggest cheer was reserved for John Dawson who manfully reached the top in 3 hrs 10 mins. This was an incredible personal achievement for John who has only seriously come back to riding in the past 6 months or so. I really think that times are a secondary factor when completing a physical challenge like this. The most important thing is for each rider to confront and overcome their own personal demons and prove to themselves what they can actually achieve.
We waited at the top for Mal, but when he failed to appear after 25 mins we assumed he must have taken the shorter route back to Warburton. Just as we were about to leave John Ruigrok's brake lever snapped off. This left him with the somewhat daunting prospect of having to ride the entire precipitous descent down to Warburton with only his front brake! As I recalled my smoking brake blocks from my previous descent I was glad that I still had two operating brakes.
In spite of the incident with John's brake, it was a relief that none of us suffered any punctures and all safely made it down to the coffee shop. Not so pleasing was the fact that they had again "run out of mugs". I looked around to see that there were only about 3 others at the shop - so where had all the mugs gone to ? And why don't they just buy some more ?
Just out of Warburton we stopped to chat with an enterprising young man who was trying to sell some miniature motor bikes on the side of the trail. "I import them from China", he explained. "They even come with a 30 day limited warranty". Not bad for a $499 motor bike I guess.
At 2 pm we were back at our cars trying to decide whether we should have a go at a second lap of the circuit. Of course, common sense prevailed and we all drove home to watch the footy on TV. Only one more training ride to complete before the Big Ride......