The simple facts for the 3 Peaks Challenge ride – 232 km, nearly 4000m of climbing – finish within 13 hours. Three mountains peaks in the alpine region of Victoria on 10th March.
The ride started out at Falls Creek and due to a route change was being talked about in terms of being much easier. For me it was 70km longer than I’d ridden in one go, and 1500m more vertical metres than my biggest climbing day. A personal challenge to finish in one piece, which is what the whole ride is about: an epic personal achievement.
A 30km descent from the gun down from Falls Creek to Mount Beauty, a short valley and the first easy climb for the day which was 7 km and 500m ascent up Tawonga Gap, then a nice descent to the base of Mount Buffalo, back down after a 24 km and 1000m ascent, with lunch provided after about 100km. The ride then wound its way through the Ovens and then Happy Valleys, back for about another 100km ready to hit the last 30 km climb back up to Falls Creek Village. Drink and food stops littered the route, except on the last critical 30km uphill section.
Sounds a breeze, right?
It was immediately apparent that in all my uphill training efforts I’d forgotten to practice my descending skills. In the half dark of flashing red lights the swarm of cyclists drop into hairpins and flowing mountain sweepers at speeds that make me feel sluggish. I watched in amazement when everyone attacked the first slight rise like the Poggio….calm down dudes there is 210 km to go bro.
So feeling fresh and hydrated up to the gills I confidently tackle the first climb up Tawonga Gap, and even catch up with a few Perth people. The first small peak has the slow effect of opening the curtain on a world so not like the Perth hills; this is way longer than any climb in Perth…..Ok now I’m warmed up.
A quick descent of about 15 km drops through some lovely temporate forest. The valley ominously headed towards a block of granite cliffs which signal the base of the Mount Buffalo climb. I started the lesser slopes with a larger figure in a raleigh kit who chats quite a while about wishing he wasn’t 95kg and training camps in the mountains. All I can hope is that 16,000 repeats of Welshpool Road will be enough.
This climb isn’t so steep but suddenly I hit a bad patch, see mr raleigh head up the road, then feel better again and go past him, and so on. The weird part is that although the climb is only 5 % it just keeps on going till my legs well and truly start to burn. Not feeling so great now mr smarty pants…mentally a different game. Cresting at the top the first few nasty downhill corners are strewn with gravel, and I see the first casualty in the ditch with a paramedic. Gravel on a hair pin at 60 plus km/h is not a good combo. The old man inside my head reminds me to get my focus back but there are still guys and girls going past me.
So down the lovely 24 km of Mount Buffalo to lunch; feeling a bit peaky after 100 km. Hit the fluids and food, bananas seem to go down very easily in comparison to Mr Cadel’s winners bars, which glue my jaws together for about half an hour, and then bring on a coughing fit when some chunk of raisin sits at the back of my nose. Lunch stop comes to a sudden end as I try to ramp it up to catch on with a big group for the flat section.
Now I focus on fluids…the valley has heated up to about 38 degrees and the sun is burning away. This is when it starts getting a bit tougher, a valley without a breeze, and 100 km of ever increasing heat. I feel frisky on a 4.6 km hill, but then I feel awful once I burn my 170 km matches. My garmin indicates that at the end of the next 30 km I had spent 3.5 hours in 39 degrees average heat.
Need coke, must have coke.. and a killer python. Sugar was not the remedy, and to sink the boot in Matthew Seale whisks past me looking ultra strong as I knock off the head of the python.
200km ridden. Heat horrid. 30km climb to go. 2 hours left to go on this final mountain. 7 hours already in the saddle.
And then the climb started. Gentle with a few rollers to start with, but burning up. 10 km into it and I do the unthinkable and stop to drink and gather some strength from a gel. A cheery rider climbs past with words that may have been english. The hardest 20 km was still to go, at about 6% and 36 degrees. The first of the human wreckage started appearing, with riders crumpled in the shade. Everyone’s kits were salted. A huddle of riders had found a spring in a road cutting, and about 10 of them were recovering in the cold water. I had to get off again. At some point I had to laugh at the fact that the cheery rider had his head in his hands off to the side of the road. My bidons were empty and I had gotten about 20km into the climb, to the point where I stood under a roadside spring like a shower.
The last 10 km also ramps up to more than 7%. Riders in front of me weaved like drunks on their bikes and a few fall off right in front of me. Cramps are starting to make the pedal strokes jerky rectangular motions of legs that once belonged to me. My toes are starting to feel every one of the 45,000 pedal strokes.
The outskirts of Falls Creek emerge with the steepest 4 km to go, but as a last little joke the organisers make you climb a further 100m past the finish line before you turnaround and cross the line.
Silently.
Sorry sponsors I didn’t do up my zip, there was no Sagan salute. This was a personal challenge that pushed me to the edge, and possibly a little bit further.
The SPR crew all did amazingly well, although I know that everyone had a moment of truth on the last climb to Falls. I managed 9hr 19m in about 150th place out of the 1500 odd people that started. Ben Madsen managed 8hr 7 m to be 16th overall, an amazing effort. Tom Barratt managed 8h 49m, and Matthew Seale 8h 56m, super strong rides. All awesome rides by great guys.
If you see us wearing our Sub-10 hour Finishers Jersey, maybe check your diaries to see what you are doing on 9 March 2014. I know it sounds mad, but I’m already tempted to do the whole thing again.
Cheers, Nick Churchill
