Wattsy's Hell Ride Adventure.

6.30am Saturday, the alarm goes off and I scratch myself, roll over and hit the snooze. 6.39am, alarm goes off and I reluctantly drag myself out of my nice warm bed. This is so much more difficult given that it p*ssed down all night. I get up and get into the riding gear, slowly getting enthusiastic as it's looking clear outside, with not a hint of rain/wind.

I get on the bike and start riding towards the Black Rock clock tower and notice that it's a bit colder than it looked from inside the house. The toes and fingers are a little colder than I'd like. I pass a m/bike cooper going the other way on Bluff Rd. I think to myself, "that's unusual for a bike cop to work this early, but whatever...***** it's cold".

I arrive at the clock tower at 6.55am and am amazed to see a hundred or so riders already there just hanging around. I look around at the bikes and am blown away at the quality of bikes...oh, and very few 'fat old bast@rds' like myself. I think, "you'd have to combine half the fields body fat content just to make up mine." I look for Hitchy, cause he said he's be here. I can't find him so mumble stuff like, "sheila, all talk and no action, probably only rides a mountain bike anyway etc etc.." At 6.58am I hear, "this'd have to be Wattsy", from my right side and turn around to meet Hitchy. First thing I notice is his awesome bike, and then the size of his thighs. We shake hands and I mention how cold it is. Hitchy politely mentions that it's not so bad now, but was really cold at Sunbury when he woke up this morning at 4.00am. I nodded and acknowledged this calmly but was thinking, "*****, has this guy ridden from Sunbury already?!" A quick calculation puts his round trip at 160km's+ for the day...Fark, what am I doing here? Hitchy then points out the bike cop and tells me it's now common for the ride.

7.00am and the first riders take off. We all follow at a leisurely 35kph. I'm riding with Hitchy and we chat for a little while but with riders going everywhere, talking stops and we concentrate on the surrounds. I'm smiling at this stage cause I'm so impressed with myself for just being here. Now, at this point I should note that I've ridden nearly every Sunday for the last 9 months or so in the Brumby's group which has between 50 and 100 riders depending on the weather, so I'm not intimidated by riding in a pack. This pack, however, is different. I was intimidated cause there were guys going everywhere and didn't seem to follow a pattern. The 'pack' as a whole was more aggressive than I had expected, maybe the reason why we had a police bike and highway patrol car for an escort.

Anyhow back to the ride...so we're rolling along Beach Rd, and I notice that the speed was slowly rising. By Ricketts Point, the pack was travelling at 42kph. Now, my smile was still there cause this wasn't excessive at this stage, but I was thinking, surely these guys will sort themselves out soon and and the pace will settle down...WRONG! By the time we got to the Parkdale Flats, the pack was riding at 50kph...FARK. I just kept remembering what Ed wrote last week...stick with the front guys to stay out of trouble. Easier said than done Ed. I couldn't believe how quickly the other riders would ride around me and take my spot. Damn, I wasn't expecting this...Wattsy was no longer smiling, rather he was grimacing.

We arrive at Mordialloc and 200 odd riders bustle to get around the round about first. CRAP, a group of 50-75 riders get around and some cars stop the rest of us. I finally get around after what felt like 5 minutes, but was more like 10 seconds. I look up and the main bunch had already gone through the next set of lights and they were all out of the seat and pumping hard. I jump onto a group of riders who are all out of the seat and sprinting to catch up, we run the red light cause we know to stop means we have no chance. For the next 10 K's we ride at 48 - 50 kph in a vain effort to catch the front group. My hr was 190 - 200 for most of this time. By Patterson River I knew I was beaten and dropped off the back of the chasing pack and then slowed to a 'leisurely' speed of 35kph.

I ride to Frankston by myself and decide that I would go on to Mornington and then cruise on home. I ended up doing this and rode a lazy 90 km's for the day. By the time I got home, I had justified in my head the days events. It was my first Hell Ride, and while I enjoyed the experience, I need a few more months of hard training before I can keep up with these bad boys...A man has to know his limitations!

It was a pleasure meeting Hitcy, albeit for such a short time.

Summed up quite nicely....hit all the salient points.
-farken cold
-farken fast
-farken lonely when dropped

G'day Wattsy,

actually...it sounds like you did really well for a 'hell ride ' newbie!. A couple of points...you shouldn't be intimidated by bikes or riders.....especially given that you ride beach rd all the time...the 'pose' bike capital of the universe!.....you need to 'impose' your pressence on the bunch too...if you give them an inch, they'll dance on your head!....suck wheel when you need to...make 'em suffer when you don't!.......so you up for it again/....It's on my program for 18/9......it'd be good to catch up....we'll have a brew after at kennedy's,

cheers,

Hitchy

I thought I saw a big guy on a charcoal Trek last night doing some recovery miles.

Wearing something orange?

You're on...Funny how the mind works. It's only 2 days later and the pain's forgotten.

So Hitchy, how many K's did you ride for the day?

g'day,

I only actually rode from Pt. melb. 20km warm up to black rock, 65km of suffering, 20 km warm down back to pt. melb....so around about 100.......did 150 yesterday out around bacchus marsh & melton way. Sorry we didn't get to have a yack more on saturday....the boys were in a weird mood & i needed to concentrate (i think it was the coppers actually...by the end of the ride i was on my 3rd 'last warning' from Mr. plod!).......you'll do Ok, I reckon...if you 'held on' as long as that for your first shot...you just need to ride 'smarter' & you get to the bottom of Olivers easy.....then pick 'em up on the way back...don't let 'em bluff you though...thats the secret, (getting pushed off wheels,etc)....good one wattsy...look forward to the next one...hopefully its a bit warmer!

cheers,

Hitchy

Don't worry about the STIs, I've found some good ones at Bicycle Recycle.

Cool, eBay, here we come...

Oh yeah, and "Evil" O'Sullivan, who I don't think never trained but could blow most away

Sh1t......is that bloke still going????


Next you'll tell me you saw Marcel Lema and Stephen Fairless down there.....

Nah, this was a gazillion years ago



Apparently, when Marcel was in Europe, he used to sit in his hotel room spinning the front wheel by hand to get his odometer up, then wondered why he didn't "make it".

lol.....I've heard that story too. And the one about the day Patrick Jonker went a bit berko and refused to train and sat under a tree reading a book instead.

BTW....Marcel does look like he was born to ride a bike. Very classy......on one of those old KG96 grey Look carbon lugged frames the ONCE boys used in about 1991, if I remember rightly.

Haven't seen Marcel for years. His poor mate "Jeansy" looked like he WAS NOT born to ride. No matter what he did, his legs looked like they had NO condition. (hope that's not you )
Poor guy; and his dad was one of the guys running the show at Carnegie

Nup....I'm not Jeansy, but I certainly know who he is!!

Hey, Hitchyoheey, you ever do the Thursday night SBR ride through the hills of Heidleberg and Doncaster, etc? I think I've asked you before.

They start at SBR, and go through the Yarra Boulevard at about 7pm, then out toward East Kew and Nth Balwyn

Poor guy, he had calves like a chick

Hah!!! LOL!!!

Did you ever meet Ray Forbes? Exact opposite.....trained once a month, but was ripped up like Sean Yates after a Tour de France....

G'day,

nuh...never done it....how hard is it?...numbers?....distance?...Thursdays are normally a 'lighter' session for me...coupla hours at 75-80% at most....my hard days are early in the week & the weekends usually.Do you do it?........plus I'm terrified of 'suburban' traffic at night...probably a 'Sunbury' thing!

cheers,

Hitchy

The total ride is about 65km, but the "hard" part is only about 30km, which is from the bottom of Princess St., Kew, out, around and back to Chandler Highway, although they don't fire up 'til they cross the Eastern Freeway.

There's about 6 climbs within the 30km, varying in length, and a sprint at the end, so it's kinda like doing 6 intervals, and they stop 4 times to wait for the stragglers. The sprint at the end usually only involves about half a dozen guys because most have been dropped back at the top on the hill near Ivanhoe Station.

I do it most weeks in the warmer months but I don't like doing it in winter because of the stopping and starting. The traffic's pretty good once you get past Balwyn, but it obviously feels a lot safer during daylight saving time.

I've never seen more than 40 guys doing it (sometimes as low as 20), probably because the Beach Road Boys get exposed on the hills. I get a bit nervous on the fast, flat rides, so I like this one due to the fact that the "fangin'" bits are obviously done up hill at less that 30kmh.

Surely the weather would result in your routine ocassionally losing its "rigidity"

g'day,

sounds interesting...I might give it a go & hook up with you, once daylight saving starts. My program is pretty rigid at the moment, with only 5 weeks to 'warnie'. Normally, (early in a program0 I have a lot more latitude, but not at the moment. 'warnie' is the 'A' race on my program for this 1/2 year...after that I'm free to do whatever i want till Xmas. The coaching nazi even has me down for 3 hrs recovery ride the day after 'warnie'!.....given that (if i make it!), I have every intention of being the drunkest man in Australia that nite...he's got more chance of flying to the moon!...lol

cheers,

Hitchy

Reminds me of an answer Eddy Merckx gave to: "What do you do the day after Paris-Roubaix?"

Answer: "150km on smooth roads."


Of course.

.........& therein lies the difference between me & Eddie......committment!.......If he was rideing 150km the day after Roubaix, he shoulda been, (committed ....that is!)......LOL

personally I'da been booking in to see the dentist to get my fillings put back in!

cheers,

Hitchy

Wasn't me although I should have, cause the thighs are still tight today. Yesterday was spent with the family in central victoria. (Maryborough) We stayed at a B&B and had THE largest breakfast I can renmember for a long time...

I think I'll be out tonight for a 30k recovery ride though.


Clearly you like pain.

Didn't see any TREKS, but I didn't get out 'til 7:30pm

Ever tried getting straight off your bike late on a Saturday afternoon, skipping dinner (sorry, "tea"), then going straight to the pub and skulling two or three beers? Oooo baby, talk about value for money